Sewing is going to the Dorybird sewing blog

Hey everybody! Just a quick announcement: I'll be posting new SEWING PROJECTS back on my Dorybird sewing blog! Why? Because I want to! :D

I still have lots of sewing backlog from 2022-2023 to post over there, but I'll do it as I'm able, so it will be a fun occasional surprise of yesteryear for you. You can always click the year tag in the right sidebar to see everything I've made that year.

I just posted a shirt I finished today, and if you've been clever and awesome and wonderful enough to sign up for my newsletter (again, blue box in the sidebar on either blog, just do it!!), you should have gotten that post in your email along with the one from this blog.

This Creative Path Blog will continue to be the home for all the other creative things I'm up to! Yay!

2024 Garden 4: Peas, lettuce, fruits!

Well well well! We've had a lot of rain and both warm and freezing weather, and my little crops are coming along!

Look look! I think these are lettuce starts! (Or was that arugula? I forget what I put where, oops.) My carrot seeds don't seem to be doing anything (yet?).

I removed the (very low) netting from the snap peas, and put the cages back for them to grow up. It seems to me that critters and birds like to eat the pea seeds, but once they sprout, they leave them alone. Maybe? I'm still glad to grow everything in my (mostly) protected new garden area this year!

Pretty! My existing raspberries have leafed out (and some transplanted ones in the new garden) -- last year's canes -- and in the background is my lovely peach tree! We've gotten peaches in the past, but they don't ever get to the edible stage before something happens to them. Hopefully this year?!

I'm tending some Seascape strawberries that I successfully dug up (to make way for a new type, Mara de Bois!). Some are in a pot on the deck, some are in pots in the front yard, some are around the edge of the upcoming tomato bed, some are packed up to give away. Yeah, I don't have that much of a plan, but I'm keeping everything alive! :)

2024 Garden 3: Black Raspberry Bed (and More)!

This week has been both a) school break week, which means a vacation from routine, and b) super nice weather!!! Which means: GARDENING! I've done a lot of yard tasks while enjoying the sunshine and it is finally starting to feel like Spring. :D

I've had a very chill week, including lots of relaxed outside time with Kelly while our kids hung out together. Yay! Sometimes school break has felt like it drags on, but this year it's rolling along quite nicely. I had a few ideas and goals of things to do this week, and while I've done some of those (baking, volunteering, yoga), most days the weather has drawn me out into the yard instead. Since it's back to clouds and cold outside today, I'm going to do a little sewing. Which, yes, was on my list. ;)

Anyway, the garden! I've been meaning to rethink a bed in the front yard and prepare it for THORNLESS black raspberries when they arrive in the mail next month. SO, yesterday, I worked hard on it!

See below for key

I initially created this bed out of my empty lawn (woot!) not long after we moved in. It used to house a giant azalea that I then moved, mostly because voles got under it :( and it wasn't thriving. After that, last summer I had a raised bed of snap peas in it (yes, within the bed, perpendicular to the raised bed in the photo), and while those did okay, it was an annoying configuration for harvest. Too many perennials in the way! Plus it was pretty shaded.

When I impulse-bought the black raspberries a few months ago, I decided to try them in this area, but the whole bed needed a redesign. So I think I have it now! Check out the photo and follow along:

1. This is parsley that has come back from last summer! I kinda wish the cilantro had come back, but I'm not that picky; I'll just put in more.

2. Some rogue strawberries that I put in way before I had plans for "actual strawberry production". They sometimes fruit, sometimes get eaten by critters; I don't really care and I'm leaving them. I can always propagate them and move elsewhere!

3. OK, the middle area is where I plan to move my RHUBARB in the fall, and add a couple more rhubarb plants soon if possible. I have one rhubarb planted in shade (oh well, my mistake) and it's very meager, so even though THIS bed gets partially shaded, it's less shade than where the rhubarb is now.

4. Little narcissus daffodils! And some coral bells. Just some general perennials that I can always move if I feel like it.

5. A lovely peony lives here! It had come with the house and I plopped it in when I first made the bed. Keeping it!

6. This rock (and the white rectangle paver) are my step-stones to make future raspberry picking easier.

7. I was going to make the raised bed wider, but then remembered/discovered that a really nice, variegated, pastel cool tone blue-green fern lives here!! (I say "discovered" because I knew it was in that general area, but when I set up the empty raised bed boards weeks ago, it wasn't coming up yet. Yesterday, all the fronds were coming up inside the raised bed!) So I'm keeping the raised bed out of the fern zone.

8. You will laugh at me, but in the fall, I had a big pile of nice compost-y dirt here, left over from where the raised bed had been. While gardening, I pulled out a start of some shrub -- and not really having a place to plant it, I stuck it in this dirt. Well, it's growing! I'm not even sure what it is, but clearly I thought it was worth saving, so I'll see what it is when it leafs out, and deal with it then.

9. These are some volunteer "wild Rhode Island onions", some chive type thing that's everywhere.

10. This pot is holding up some of the raised bed for now. It's an old dead houseplant fern.

11. The black raspberry bed! It was going to be the full width of the boards, but then I remembered that the row really doesn't have to be that wide. And then I had the fern pop up (see #7). So I narrowed it (in a hopefully temporary way since it looks pretty dumb, ha ha!) and actually that was good because I didn't have a lot of the excess compost-y dirt. What I had, fit nicely in this bed! At some point I'll adjust the boards and make it look better. I've just been moving and re-using this same compressed plastic raised bed for yeeeeears now! It makes my crazy projects quick and easy. :)

April happenings

This has been a busy month so far! We just got back from a random trip to Texas with A's family to see the total solar eclipse. Was the 4 minutes of total eclipse cool? Yes! Was it overhyped? Also yes! Was the trip worth it? . . . not really! I'm still in recovery mode and adjusting back to regular life -- yoga helped immensely this morning!!

First, to relax and soothe everyone, here is my cat. He's been super cuddly since we got back.

2024 Backyard Garden 2: pea shoots!

Here is a look at the pea shoots starting to come up! When they're all up and get a bit taller, I'll take off the netting and put in the tomato cages for them to grow up. I initially planted them around the cages and then removed them.

I think I saw some of the arugula and lettuce sprouts coming up, too, although those might have just been weeds. I'll let you know!

2024 Backyard Garden 1: planting seeds

Hi! Welcome to my gardening series, where I'm going to document the progress in my new backyard veggie beds!

I made these "no dig" beds last year with lots of CARDBOARD to kill the grass and several cubic yards of compost on top, mulched over the winter with fall leaves. I took this photo a few weeks ago, before I had cleared some of those leaves away. I still need to figure out my paths between beds a little better. I don't have enough brick to go around all the beds, and I don't really want to buy more. Anybody know of any free brick or pavers in town? You can drop them off at my house, heh heh!

Those two beds in the back, mulched with pine shavings, are strawberries!

Anyway, here is my plan:

Cookies, books, turkeys . . .

Good morning!

One of my favorite places to go on Tuesdays!

I've been busy lately! E was in the middle school production of Mean Girls (Jr) -- a lead role, Janis! -- so there was a lot of energy expenditure around that, both with her and with me. I went to all 4 performances because that's what I like to do. :) She was AWESOME!!

I've begun some initial gardening, which I'll describe in the next post!

I've been fiddling around testing recipes to try and recreate Osmania biscuits! They're a shortbread cookie that I really enjoy, and I buy a box or two every time I'm at the Indian grocery. (They're made by Karachi Bakery and apparently are a Hyderabad specialty!) I figured I could make them myself, so I've been trying!

Multi Muffins, or Lemon Power Muffins Recipe: high fiber, high protein!!

Using a crazy-creative, innovative muffin recipe I found on the internet (here) as a starting point, I made up a really fun, healthy muffin recipe full of fiber and protein!! Yeah!!! I call them Multi Muffins, or Lemon Power Muffins. (Note: Karen's other muffin recipes look equally crazy-creative and innovative, so I'll be back to try more!)

They're very lemony, not too sweet unless you add the lemon glaze (included in recipe), and they're the BEST for a mid-morning or after-school snack. My recipe makes two dozen muffins, because what is the point of making only one dozen muffins for a family of four?? Can anyone relate? They will be all gone in mere hours. SO, these should last a bit longer than that.

Let's get to it. I wrote it out, so it's a picture! Easy!

Homemade Seven Stars Granola copycat recipe!

I was given this bag of yummy Seven Stars Bakery granola (happens to be vegan, though I don't really care), and I knew I could make it myself! I have a go-to granola recipe that a friend gave me from New York Times a few years ago, and it's easy to adapt.

Without further ado, here is my recipe!

I've been busy! New Dorybird website updates and offerings!

(This is my cozy afternoon recently)

Hi there! It's been a little while, because I've been working on a little of this, and a little of that. The big thing I did was to update my website! So if you click on over to Dorybird.com, you'll find A LOT of new photos, info (my art process! And more!), and . . .

I made two "envelope" style pouches with hang tags and snaps!

I mentioned that I made some pennants as a birthday gift, and as I looked at the folded and tied flags, I decided to also whip up a little pouch to put them in, as wrapping paper!

Ta-da!

Then as I was assembling all kinds of fabric combos and trying to choose, I decided to also make a bag as another birthday gift (for K's daughter) and also two new bags for the Dorybird shop! :D

the lighting is exceptionally weird in this photo

More pics this way>>>

Making Reversible Rainbow Bunting/Pennants/Festive Flags!

I made a fun birthday gift for Kelly! Rainbow party pennants! I found this tutorial online, which links to a pattern piece. The pattern is neat because you can make a front and a back of a flag from one 10" layer cake square. When I saw this, a) I knew I wanted the flags smaller; and b) I knew I wanted to have the split side split between different prints.

More fantastic rainbows after the jump!

Cake!!!! and stuff

First of all, thanks to my newsletter readers who answered my poll about my art! I've only gotten 12 responses so far, so if you haven't filled out the poll yet, go ahead and submit it! I'm getting some interesting answers and I'd love to have a larger sample. Maybe I'll send out these types of polls every so often. :)

I have no idea who said what in this poll, and I guess it would have been smart of me to somehow set it up so I know whose answers are whose. (Probably by making you enter your email address, I'm guessing?) Well, I wanted a very low barrier for participation so I made it as simple as possible. Like I said, I'd never made one before! I kind of like not knowing who said what, actually; it's sort of a mysterious feeling of support from everyone. :)

Isn't this a beautiful gift bag?!

C. picked out these birthday bouquets at the grocery store, to combine into her "fireworks"! I don't really like fake-colored flowers, but these sure look AWESOME!! The pink ones also have glitter!

You've gotta click to see all the cakes!!!>>>

I made a Koalabird plush doll!

For C's birthday, I made her a koalabird plush doll! I had made her one before -- her koalabird toy Cheerful, 2 years ago -- and now Cheerful has a friend! Newsletter subscribers may remember the photos of Cheerful I shared awhile back, but I will have to take more of both stuffed animal friends together. :)

Isn't he sweet??

C. named him Blizzard. :) Appropriate because we were in the midst of a fair amount of snow last week!

More process after the jump!>>

Birthday Month in full swing!!

Since January is birthday month, this week I've been prepping and enjoying all kinds of goodies!

Look at these nice bouquets at the grocery store! I was too frazzled by my list at the time to actually make another decision, but I may go back and buy one. :)

Who doesn't like birthday sushi?? E's special request!

My latest creation after the jump!>>

I made an Alolan Vulpix Pokemon plush!

Finally I can share the Alolan Vulpix Pokemon plush stuffed animal I made for E! This project was a birthday surprise, so I wasn't taking any process photos. But I did make it, I promise! :) She loves it and at first didn't even realize it was handmade!

More photos this way>>>>

January Beginnings!

 This is the last "life news" post in this series as I get back on track for blogging in the new year! (Be sure to read Part One and Part Two and see my hand drawn Pokemon art cards!)

Here is my sleepy, smooshy cat.

More stories this way!

I drew my friends as Pokemon cards!

(Be sure to expand this post to see everybody!!) Pokemon is popular in our house -- my older daughter is a Pokemon EXPERT (seriously), and little sister is not far behind. At this point, I think I'm probably one of the most well-informed moms in town, since I've learned a lot through osmosis. And I admit, Pokemon can be SUPER CUTE, which means by now I like them, too. :)

Anyway, Back in December, I got the wacky idea to make Pokemon cards of some of my friends, and give them out as a fun little gift. The real cards all have "attacks" on them, which I thought would be a handy way to include some character traits that I appreciate about each person!

Here are Kelly and Doug! I made Kelly into a sort-of "rainbow rare" because she's a super unique person! (The silver metallic dots are shiny!)  Plus she's fairy type -- they stopped making fairy type, so it's getting harder to find those! Basically she's a one-of-a-kind friend. Awwww!

Doug is electric type because he's very TECHIE. I love drawing the stereotypical "nerd environment" full of wires and black boxes, so I had fun with that. Although, later his family was quick to tell me that he actually has all those wires neatly corralled and contained. It's Doug! I should have realized that! Ha ha!

I'll walk you through my process for these cards, AND you get to see a bunch more cards, after the jump!

December, Part Two!

(Did you read Part One? Go back to the previous post!)

More life updates! It's been a busy couple months!

I made these cookies (World Peace Cookies) for a cookie exchange. They're really good -- a chocolate shortbread with chocolate chunks! Pro tip: sprinkle kosher salt on top of each one when they come out of the oven. YUM!

We had a FEAST at the December book club. Seafood cioppino* with optional lobster and shrimp (that would be a giant YES to that option!!), stuffies, yummy salad, bread with roasted garlic, then desserts . . . I had seconds of every single item.

On Christmas Eve . . .

Happy New Year -- But First, Here's December!

Hi, everybody! Well, it happened again -- I have a bit of a backlog here on the blog! But that's okay! Today I'm writing a few posts with some recaps of December, and January so far. :)

We had a good end to 2023, with Christmas and New Year's and other assorted fun! Let's go!

I'm not really into doing my own elaborate Christmas displays, but I LOVE other people's!! These adorable critters were on display at my neighbors' party -- along with thousands of other treasures! 

As always, much more after the jump!