pretty, funny, happy, real

{pretty}

Flowers for Mary, large and small

The late-summer perennials have come in to save my garden from looking entirely neglected. I ahve a bit of a love-hate relationship with both of these. The gladiolus are lovely, almost exotic-looking and will keep blooming through the season if you cut them. They do need a bit of maintenance to keep them looking nice in the vase, though. On the upside, they tend to droop in the garden once they're in full bloom and need to be cut, so I don't feel like I have to sacrifice beauty outside for beauty in the house. The Resurrection Lilies (aka Naked Ladies, due to the complete lack of leaves), are quite striking, but they due have a strong odor that gets them banished from the dining room table. The clovers are all over the yard, smell heavenly, and have me resolved to make the next house a place where we can just sow wildflowers and forget the grass entirely.

{happy}

My last batch of fermented pickles (a few years ago now) was an abject, slimy failure. Armed with a couple of new recipes, we tried again, and these are coming along quite nicely. The ones in jars are a salt brine, and were ready to be moved to the fridge today. The bigger container (actually a trifle dish with a heavy glass pickle plate for weight) are the "No-fail" half sours (there's some vinegar in the brine to keep the less-desirable molds away), and I think those will be better suited to those with less adventurous tastes around here. The one disappointment is that the skins are rather tough, but overall, I'm still quite pleased.

{funny}

Peanut's camera face:

Is this what we look like to him?

 Also, Bean's declaration this morning that "That tea has eyes!" (Actually, it was this iced coffee).

It looks far more awake than I was at this point.

{real}

You may recall my saying that we finally had enough shelves for our books? Guess what I found in the garage this week:

I had been presuming these bags were full of old notes and course packets and such, but no, they're almost entirely real books. I knew it was too good to last.

What I Wore Sunday: Bad Camera Edition

So, this is what happens when you fail to check your pictures on a real computer, even though you're about to send your camera back on a warranty claim.

Your normal-looking picture turns out to be out of focus, while the ones that did focus have bad lighting, an awkward angle, and look like you're wearing a very irreverent hat.

Aaaanyway:
Sweater: Sears, forever ago.
Dress: Evan Picone (a gift)
Shoes: Seychelles

This was our first Mass back at the home parish with just our family in quite a while, which might explain the D- behavior from Bean. He tried to redeem himself after the closing hymn ("Oh, thanks for going to church!" "Did you like praying?"), but it was too late: no orange juice was purchased during the quick grocery run afterwards (even though DH might have been sadder about it than The Bean).

The day ended on a nicer note, though, as we just so happened to have some rib-eyes in the freezer, purchased in an Aldi sale before vacation, and there was fresh corn on the cob from Saturday's farmers market. I even mixed up some lemon-dill butter to go with it.

We've been praying Compline as a family lately (by candlelight, which is key to keeping the three-year-old with us for the whole 10 minutes), and he finished the day by showing us that he now knows the whole, "Protect us, Lord..." antiphon.

I'll take it.

Find the other "What I Wore Sunday" posts at Fine Linen and Purple.

Seven Quick Gardening Takes

My garden exists to make you feel better about your garden.

1) Don't these look pretty? I took this on Tuesday, um, when I brought them home from the greenhouse.

25% off, and 25% rootbound.

2) I think it's safe to say that I care more about the bee's opinion of my lawn than the homeowner's association.  

But seriously, it smells awesome.

3) I think my plants are trying to contact the mothership. Possibly in hopes of escaping from my garden.

Bean's just excited that the hen and chicks likes building towers, too.

4) Role reversal:

Clover is a good first food, right?

5) The most exciting thing I found in the vegetable garden after coming back from Fourth of July week was this weed:

My trusty Audubon Field Guide says it's known as a piemaker, because the pods have crimped edges like a pie crust.

6) I can say that the front garden looks better than before the daffodils were ready to be pulled up. No one actually needed to use that sidewalk, right?

"Crop circle" gardening is very in this year.

7) But hey, at least I can take solace in my mad nature photography skills, right?

ProTip: It may take several minutes of waiting, but letting the fly land is crucial for the shot.

See more quick takes at Jen's!

Seven Quick "Something Other Than" Takes

In honor of being back at Jen's for the linkup, I thought I'd go with a theme for this post. See if you can guess it (it'll be tough!):

1) Something Other Than Baby Clothes

After finishing off wave #1 of baby presents (before wave #2 of babies starts showing up, even!), I needed to shift sewing gears a bit. The Bean loooves the space jammies his grandma gave him for Christmas, to the point of asking for them even when it is definitely not fleece whether. So, when I saw this fabric on the JoAnn clearance rack, I had to pounce. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the white topstitching or not, but it all came together to look very mid-century retro, I think. Space Kiddo to the rescue!

Okay, I don't even know where he got that pose on the right. The rest? That's more like it.

Something Other Than Summer

What I'm wishing for this week. I kid, but DH found a house centipede (a creature from the ninth circle of hell if ever there was one) in the house, and I found ants inside a sealed container of graham crackers, all in one week. So... I'm glad to live somewhere that I can count on there being a hard freeze eventually.

Something Other Than Beer

While it is summer, though, we like to have plenty of refreshing adult beverages on hand. This seems to be the summer of beer for us, as we've had more around than we ever have just for the two of us (four cases, at once!). I was ready to change it up, though, and we had lots of egg whites on hand after making pistachio gelato, so it was time to break out the gin fizzes. Makes me want to reread "Love in the Ruins".

Something Other Than Bulbs

The summer perennials are finally taking the place of the remains of the daffodils, with the campanula going gangbusters. Bean loves the flowers that look like bells, but these lilies are my favorite. They always remind me of holy card pictures of St. Joseph.

Something Other Than Radishes

We actually got some peas this year. Only a couple plants germinated, but they went nuts and we've gotten some good eating out of them (sauteed with asparagus and garnished with mint, for one). There are also some cherry tomatoes coming in. Unfortunately, I didn't decipher Bean's exclamations of "The tomatoes are planting!" quickly enough, and he got several off the plant and "planted" before I stopped him. Oh well, there'll be more, right?

This isn't what I wanted for you, little tomatoes!

Something Other Than Boxes

...for my books! The other night I went on a stress-fuelled whine/rant to my husband (which he kindly listened to), including certain state-of-the-house issues. A few minutes afterwards, he hands me his phone and asks, "Was this what you were looking for?" Ethan Allen, $100. The only thing I've ever found on Craigslist are people who thing rusty (but not actually antique) tricycles are worth $40. Twenty-four hours later, we were filling it with games and all the books that were boxed up or double-layered on the other shelves. I'm sending him to do all the Craigslist searches from now on. The shelves were just exactly enough space, too (or so I thought until I found one last set of books from Christmas still in the box. C'est la vie.)

Bean's books are now next to the TV. I took a picture because they will never look this good again.

and, oh yeah, "Something Other Than God"

I wasn't planning to read this, because, well, conversion stories are okay and all but I read Surprised by Truth in high school and figured I'd pretty much heard it all at that point. After Mom handed me her copy and said she hadn't be able to put it down, though, I finally decided to give it a go, and subsequently neglected all housework for the next 36 hours while I couldn't put it down. It reads like a novel, and the fast pace makes it a great beach (or wherever summer takes you) read. So, yeah, tolle et lege, y'all.

See the rest of the quick takes at Jen's!

Tiny clothes!

Since the last of these shipped out a couple of days ago, I thought I'd share what's been on my sewing machine and knitting needles for a while now:

Top to bottom: Burda 9505 (OOP), modified to be a onesie, with my take on the My Little Man Sweater Vest; McCall 4865 (sleeveless, with a 9"x45" rectangle for the skirt), with my version of Petit Artichaut; The same dress with a cropped version of Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater (with a little crochet trim on the cap sleeves); and a little raglan sweater I came up with myself.

Seven "Better Late Than Never" Takes

Linking up with other quick takes here.

Most of these are actually from last week, but last week was just more interesting. Unless you are really into potty training sagas, that is. (We're all just trying not to get high off the carpet cleaner fumes here...) So, without further ado...

Teeth!

What are these things in my mouth?!?

I don't want to attract the evil eye of the teething gods, so I'll just say that the first one was a total surprise, and the second one (showing up the next day) was only slightly less so.

Surprise Irises

I always thought that irises looked different from tulips going into the ground, but I suddenly have four iris plants in the same row as the tulips we planted last winter, so I have no other explanation than that someone at the cheap Aldi bulb-sorting facility got lazy. Hey, I'll take it.

Tulipomania*

I should probably be attending to my current, rather pathetic-looking garden, but we took a trip up to Holland, MI over Memorial Day weekend, and there were still enough tulips in bloom to get me thinking about next spring. I took home an order form from the tulip farm there, and got totally lost in pictures of all the different varieties. It's hard to believe they're all the same type of flower. I started a Pinterest board, so you can tell this is totally a serious enterprise and not an exercise in time-wasting.

The Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference

The conference is the family business (in a non-money-making sort of way), so I've been there to work since I was a kid, but, with a three-year-old in the house, this was the first time I was interested as an attendee as well. I went to a very relevant talk on discipline by Ginny Seuffert (and her fantastic Yonkers accent), caught part of Catholic Icing's talk on preschoolers, and brought home a good used copy of Noah's Ark by Peter Spier (it was on my mind after Kathryn mentioned it), and The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane (review coming, but the short version is: it's perfect, go buy it). We also tried to bring home a Holy Heroes CD, but it got left in Minnesota, so we'll have to wait for that until Grandma mails it.

Popsicles

One of Bean's aunts saw these and thought of us, so now we're on the hunt for good recipes. I have my eye on Peach Bellini pops, but I should probably start with something for the kiddo. If you have any favorite recipes, I'd love to hear about them!

Baby birds!

Some robins are nesting in a juniper topiary in our front yard, where there is juuuust enough space between the branches to catch a glimpse. Bean is quite enamored, and keeps asking if their eyes are open, and giving ideas of what they might like to eat.

*Yep, it's a real word.

Father's Day Gift Ideas

Over at the Church Ladies'.