Author Archives: Patti_is_knittinginflashes

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About Patti_is_knittinginflashes

Living and crafting between the hot flashes

Things I ponder

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The electricity went out in our area around 4:15 this morning thus knocking out my alarm clock.  It eventually came back on but I didn’t wake up until 6:15 a.m.  I need to be out of the house by 6:30.  Needless to say I was late for work.

In my haste to get ready and not be too late, I forgot to pack something for breakfast that I planned to eat once I got to work.  I usually have cereal bars or something like that stashed away in my desk but I ate the last one yesterday morning.

What to do?  So I ventured to the vending machines to see what deliciousness was available.  We have been in this building for three and a half years and this was the first time I actually bought anything from the vending machines.  A 76 gram carbohydrate and 420 calorie cinnamon roll was calling me.

So when you eat a cinnamon roll, do you just dig in and eat it or do you uncurl it while you eat?  Just one of the many things I ponder.

 

Ruby’s nest

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At the end of May we discovered a hummingbird nest right above our deck.  It belongs to a Ruby-throated hummingbird so we named her Ruby.  Not too original, I suppose.

We didn’t see a lot of activity with the nest until a few days ago when I snapped these pictures.

Two babies.  Do you see their tiny beaks?

I don’t know how much longer they will be around as they appear almost adult-size to me, though I’m no hummingbird expert.

We had a terrific line of storms come through Friday night with a lot of downed trees and power outages in our area.  Ruby is still here.

God Bless America

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Tank top part 2

On Saturday morning the twins and I decorated another tank top.  With America’s birthday just around the corner I thought we would do a patriotic themed tank top.

Materials we used:

Tank tops, cardboard, painters tape, textile medium, acrylic paint, Stained by Sharpie markers, old toothbrushes, tongue depressor (not shown), alphabet stamps and star stamps.

I inserted the large piece of cardboard inside the tank top so the ink/paint would not bleed through to the back.  Using the Stained Sharpie marker as the ink, I stamped God Bless America near the front neckline of the tank top.

I taped the edges and made stripes using the painter’s tape to keep the white parts white.  I also taped off the area for the stars.

We tried to splatter the paint on the tank tops but the technique just wasn’t fast enough for 3-year olds.  So they took matters into their own hands and “painted” with the tooth brushes.

When they were finished we stamped the stars using the Stained Sharpie as the ink.  And added some detail to the back.

It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but I just had to go with the flow and make changes as we went.

You still have time to make something for just as fabulous for your July 4th celebrations!

In a jam

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Free time has been practically non-existent this week with the twins at our house.  I took a personal day from work yesterday so we went on the Great Strawberry Hunt to get strawberries for jam.

Our Spring came early this year as did the flowers and early summer fruits like strawberries.  It took some time to find fresh local berries but we were finally successful.

We used the recipe from the Sure-Jell box for freezer jam.  First the quart of berries were cleaned.  Then the twins used potato mashers to “kill” the berries and sample them as well.  They took turns adding the four cups of sugar and stirring it in.  I “cooked” the Sure-Jell (pectin) with 3/4 cup of water on the stove.  I poured the hot solution over the sugary berries and they stirred it.  And stirred it.  And stirred it.

Here’s the only photo from the Jam Session with them stirring everything together:

They really like licking the spoons and bowl when we were finished.  In fact they wanted to drink the jam.  Don’t worry Mom, they didn’t.

This recipe was just the right amount to do with children.  We made 5 1/2 jars of freezer jam.  I have enough berries to make another batch.  Maybe tonight.  Or not.