What Have I Been Doing While I Wasn't Blogging

Well, The first week of high school is over and the second week began today. I was moody but I'm going to be okay.

get smart alack kid back in school... check.

I think it is always catching me by surprise that back to school comes the same couple of weeks that canning gets into full swing.

make pickles the old fashioned way...soaked in brine at room temp for 3 weeks...
work still in progress... pungently so.

On top of that Back To School time makes me want to get organized ( Is it that several hours of uninterrupted thought?), and it reminds me with a stinging swat that I probably won't get all the holiday gifts done before October. Harumph.
It usually makes me think of all the practical stuff that I need to do, like really build a reasonable emergency kit, catch up on my paperwork and get shots for all the pets. I expect this year will be like the past years... I'll get shots for the pets and just worry about the rest of it.

visit the ranch in inappropriate attire... check.
(The boots, aquired at the thrift store the day before, were indeed, made for walking.
the minidress-Amy Butler- not so much...)

I did make a binder to keep all the recipes and gardening tips and crafts projects I have gleaned recently. I hope it works out. Sometimes these organizational tools work out and sometimes I find them years later and think, "I only vaguely remember doing this. It made a huge mess though, and took forever. And all these articles and stuff look awful now. Yipes!"

pick garden b-day flowers for best neighbor ever... Check.

And now for one of the crafty projects that happened in the whirlwind "Last Week Of Summer/First Week of School" Blog Break:

Happy Trailers to you- Til we meet again

The old travel trailer in my back yard got facepaint. A Jacob and Betty collaboration.



It needs a whole face lift , but we could only perk it up a little.

Now we have to tackle the inside. Yes another crazy WIP to last a lifetime. Or maybe, if we get it all buttoned up and cleaned out...The Future Craft Cave. One Never Knows.

shiny thrift fabric... oooh ahhhh.

I do Know I could use the room, because the fabric fairy won't stop dropping off yardage. I am a lucky girl. Must Sew More!

Lace Jelly Fish ...Would you like a tutorial?

I made these litte snippets for a really lovely project that is being made by a very creative person that I discovered because she left me a comment. I think I failed to reach out to her earlier, but from the moment i followed her profile to her beautiful blog...I not only was fascinated by her project, I actually wanted to be her.

Shelley Noble is making a movie. A beautiful looking, intensely rich picture poem and it is going to move. Like it is alive. It's called Halfland and and it has captured my imagination entirely.

Happily, Shelley was looking for contributors for her underwater scene.. So in a very small way I did get to play at being her. The detailed puppeteer without strings.

I'll be mailing these to her as soon as I get back from careening across states with my wild teenage artist. We will be leaving guerrilla art souvenirs and sampling as many kinds of pies as we can find. Documenting our progress in polaroid and fisheye lomo along the way.


But should these be a tutorial? Does everyone need some fancy tiny jelly fish and a few less doilies?

What's Happenin' Wednesday: How to fill some days off blogging.

So what do I do when not updating the world at large with my generalized craftiness?

1) Make 24 jars of ridiculously delicious organic strawberry jam. Flavor some with lime, flavor some with basil, flavor some with mint. Make labels and wrap for Christmas presents. But keep many many jars for personal consumption as well. Need the recipe?


2) Do some new landscaping. Lots and Lots of it, actually. Hardscaping is, in fact, rather hard.
3)Pull Weeds... A Lot. 100 gallons of them.
4) Keep the clothes off the bedroom floor for 8 consecutive days. And make the bed before noon.
5) Try your hand at some weak attempts at spring cleaning. Don't surrender the hope, but make only a little headway.
6) Do Mystical Artichoke Experiments; force an artichoke to bloom with no water after being cut and drying out for 3 weeks, simply by moving it to the cookbook area.


7) Embroider more sign language samplers.


8) Finish some cool jewelry.
9) Enjoy the first days of summer by torturing your sweet kid by doing "summer home schooling".
10) Make ginger lemon cookies with same kid for father's day present.
11) Ruin your husband's birthday cake. Total flop.
12) Plant drought tolerant flowers. ( I'm cheating here... I think this actually falls under the landscape listing.)
13) Make really yummy dinners from the Farm Share veggie box.
Pasta with tofu sausage, spinach, pine nuts and dried cranberries.
Grilled pineapple, shrimp and tofu salad with mint over spicy peanut noodles.
Heavenly omelette's with asparagus, scallions and smoked salmon with goat cheese and spring potatoes and carrots roasted with oregano and lemon,
and eat well but don't photograph a single one.
14) Clean off the deck. (Including putting the Christmas Tree stand away. OMG!)
15) Take 6 boxes of stuff to Goodwill.
16) Bring 3 bags of stuff back.


17) Go to the spa with a group of lady friends.
18) While you are there, drink too much before dinner and swipe a bike-surrey thing with your sister as accomplice.
19) Put it back where you found it, after a joy ride around the parking lot, because you're rowdy- not evil.
20) Get completely addicted to "Lost" on dvd.
21)Craft here and there in an attempt to decrease the stash and finally update the poor languishing etsy shop.

22)Finally finish the limoncello and decide to try a different recipe next time.
23) Feel a little guilty for not keeping up with the blog.

PS: To the sweet people who asked about the lace necklaces: They will be in my Etsy shop. Monday is my goal date.

Last Week In Craft

Howdy.. Here's a recap of the last week in crafty goodness here at Chez Betty.


( clockwise from upper left)
1)Pug from Mame Wanko for my niece, 2) two cool vintage books from the Pay and Take sale when I went to visit mom and grandma and drop the boy off for camp, 3) the silkscreen WIP potentially for the handprinted fabric swap, 4) the sweet fruits of my olallieberry jam making obession.. (Thanks Michelle, for my first lesson.) 5) J's hair bleached out in preparation of the summertime blue, 6) a love critter print from the lovely Vanessa Valencia of A Fanciful Twist.

Beyond this there were two projects for the Lark patchwork book, and a skirt for the lovely folks at P&B textiles..but those will be for them to reveal.

So much for a lazy summer.

More tomorrow!