Elflog update & real small art

The New Shelf is still going strong. I posted on the post a small collage, which was gone in a day, which I liked, though no one comment on finding it on the Real Small Art blog. Oh well. I've started to write on stones again and put them out. The wire "writer" made a sweet little flower and wrapped it around the stone I made which says "art matters." I'd drawn a tiny flower on the stone, too. There's a chick on a stick, made out of metal, which i think is a garden ornament. The ribbon, the shell, the art postcard remain, real flowers get added, as well as small items. These pix were taken last Saturday. Since then a small plastic dish with beads in it has been added. It remains a very festive shelf and pole!

Market day

Thursday we had some great veggies. Doesn't that shopping basket look so colorful?

yum! berry tarte!

Last night we had a family pot-luck, which was a really fun thing on such a hot evening, our house was cool and the use of the outdoor grill minimal, some veggie burgers and some non-veggie hotdogs. Interesting food appeared! A refreshing dessert from Phyllis' Ethiopian adventure, a delish quiche from Sara, the fave peanut noodles from Noah and much more... but the really, really big treat of the evening was the blackberry (organic from our berry CSA) tarte made by none other than CHUCK!! The recipe he used was Clothilde's Tarte aux Myrtilles. The picture I took is, what else, blurry, but notice how Chuck's tarte looks just like hers. Why am I making so much of this? Well, Chuck doesn't cook or really know his way around kitchen appliances, but he's doing it. Enjoy!

Purses for Change & Three Cups of Tea

Here are a few of my new change purses, which I'm now calling Purses for Change. If you check my shop, Fritzi, you'll see that I'm donating part of each sale of these to the Three Cups of Tea foundation. If you haven't read that book, I recommend it highly. Here's a photo of Greg Mortenson and some of the children who are benefiting from the schools built by the CAI foundation.
I had a basket full of these for sale at a fundraiser (for Obama) bake sale and sold all but one of the 15! Yay. People seemed to like that they were made from fabric that was "recycled" meaning remnants, cut-offs, sample swatches, etc. would have been tossed in the landfill fabric, which made me feel good and that I'm on the right track with them. I do not want to buy any fabric, missing out on cute current images, but I want to "recycle." I'll stick to this even if sales on Etsy are slooow.

More knitting action

A couple days ago, a light tapping at my door, signaled the arrival of Adrianna, my young neighbor. She was carrying a small tray of lovely carrot muffins, and her knitting. She sat and knitted for awhile after I checked to see if she'd missed any stitches. We talked a bit, she'd told me she'd been in a triathlon. She swam, biked and ran! Wow!

Cake, yum!

This is the completed chocolate and beet cake. The slice is blurry, don't try to adjust your eyes, but I thought is still showed how the cake turned out. It was VERY good. 8 people ate it in celebration of Chuck's birthday, and all agreed that it was quite yummy. The recipe is on my Vox blog.
I'm thinking that this is the original red velvet cake. Does anyone have any ideas about that?

Market day

While working at the farmers' market, I get my coffee from Alan and his wife, who have a stand across the way. They sell coffee and their own coffee beans, Koralee Coffee. She had on a wonderful hat today and allowed me to take a photo of her in it. Really quite lovely, as were the squash blossoms we had for a special order. They were perfect and beautifully yellow. We had lots of beets and I was so excited by that because I'd wanted to try the chocolate & beet cake recipe that I'd recently downloaded. I'm steaming beets right now so I can prepare the cake later this afternoon. The Armenian cucumber looked a bit like a snake, all it needed were some googly eyes glued on. Shelia said "never name your cucumber or you won't want to cut it up." That made me laugh. The onions added more magenta to our table as did some cabbage which I never got a photo of, oh well, next week. For the recipe for the cake, check my VOX blog, where I'll post it.

Knit news

My young neighbor stopped by for some knitting help. She learned to knit in school, which I think is quite fabulous. She bought her yarn at a yard sale. Not only does she knit at age 7, but she is a prudent shopper!

Greener insect repellents

I'm trying out some alternatives to DEET since it's toxic. An article by the editors of E Magazine offered this information: Cutter Advanced brand uses picaridin, long used in other parts of the world to repel mosquitoes. Oil of lemon eucalyptus is the only plant active ingredient approved by the CDC and is in OFF! Botanicals. Other choices mentioned by the National Coalition against Misuse of Pesticides include Natrapel (which uses citronella and seems good, except for a small percentage of a lauryl.) PANNA , a nonprofit organization, likes Herbal Armor, Buzz Away and Green Ban, as well as Bite Blocker. I was able to find Buzz Away, which has a soy bean base. I got the Off Botanicals and the Natrapel easily at my local major drugstore, and the Cutter Advance and the Buzz Away, which comes as a towlette and a liquid) at my local supermarket. So these seem to be easy enough to find. I'll try them and see which are most effective. Since we're having a gathering with our neighbors and friends on the fifth of July, and will be outside, we'll have ample opportunity to see what works. I'll ask people to try them out, get some group input, maybe.

Elflog update.

We went for a walk with Smitty tonight about 9:30 p.m. We stopped by the shelf and lucky I had my 'phone with me so I could snap these images. I'm taking this very personally! Like does someone know it's my birthday tomorrow? Maybe! They decorated the shelf for me, for my day! (I'm SO ego-centric! It's all about me tomorrow!)