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If finally stopped raining so that we could check on the birds. The Chickadees still have not hatched but the Bluebirds are growing!
And the Tree Swallows are building on Bluebird Box #2
I hope that you are enjoying the bird photos because there isn't going to be much fiber content for a couple of weeks. I've got lots going on at work through mid-May. The birds will have to keep everyone entertained for a while!
but you will have to work for it!
A couple of my Internet friends do charity quilting and I offered to send them some fabric for their projects. I packed it up into these two boxes. I'm not favoring one over the other. The large box is going to the person who coordinates several projects and the smaller one to a person that does all of the sewing herself. So please don't think that one is being cheated!
Are you ready for the challenge?
My article about making these metallic painted fabrics will appear in the next issue of Fibre&Stitch. To celebrate I wanted to give away some of the samples that I made for the article. Here's how you can win these 4 fat quarters. Post a comment with your guess of the amount of fabric in both boxes combined. The person who comes closest to the correct number will win the metallic fabrics. If more than one person is a winner then one final winner will be randomly selected as the winner.
Here's some information to help you guess the amount of fabric.
I'll select the winner Sunday morning when I post my stash report for the week. It's going to be a GOOD stash report!
I knew it would not be a good week for a stash report because I went to the LQS yesterday. They had just gotten in these fabrics (Shiki from In The Beginning) and you know how difficult it is to find good light value fabrics. I HAD to get them - all 6.25 yards in fat quarters. The problem is that they had another fabric in that I am aching to buy. She has the Timeless Treasures Taxi collection. BLACK AND YELLOW! Really, how often is there a graphic black and yellow fabric? I don't want fat quarters - I want YARDAGE of this stuff.
I think I need to find someone to donate a lot of older fabric to. I've only used 1 yard this week - making samples for my machine quilting class at Quilting Adventures.
I don't feel so bad though - I did better than Judy! But she went to Paducah - how was she supposed to behave herself after all?
We went out to check on all of our families this morning. As we approached the first Bluebird box we eyed the male in a nearby tree bringing in a worm to feed.
The babies are growing fast.
Meanwhile, it appears that the Tree Swallows are building in Bluebird Box 2. We usually have one Tree Swallow family each year but the Chickadees built in their box this year. I hope they stay in the new box.
The Chickadees are still incubating. We think they will probably hatch this week.
I love it when I get to quilt something and someone else has to bind it! This is a little quilt that Becky B. made to be a charity quilt from our Guild. I wanted to practice ruler work and SID so I did it on this one. The wine glass quilting in the center is done with a 5" circle template. The two borders are quilted with a string of half hearts. I thought he white border looked a little skimpy so I went over it again to make a half-heart ribbon. It's quilted with Superior So Fine! thread in color 401. 
I really do love doing ruler work on the longarm! The more tedious the better. For me it seems to be therapeutic and relaxing. Go figure!
Earlier today I went to the Laura Cater-Woods class. This class was a sampler of various mixed media techniques. I found out that I "need" Liquitex Black lava, Flakes and Beads and some watercolor pencils and Neocolor crayons. If you have never taken a class with Laura you need to keep your eye out for an opportunity. She's an excellent teacher. I noticed that she was very attentive to make sure that she talked to everyone in the class individually and she was very open to the students sharing information and experience with other techniques and tools. Don't miss an opportunity to be in one of her classes.
What is it about going away for a week that throws off you routine for 2 weeks? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my vacations - especially ones like my trip to MQX - but it seems to take me at least 2 weeks to get back into a productive routine. I looked at my weekend list for last weekend and discovered that it's still good!
Well, that was easy!
I actually made some progress on every item. The baby quilt is loaded and it's about half quilted. I will certainly have that done this weekend unless something intervenes - like more nasty menopause symptoms. Have I ever said that menopause sucks? It does - in every way. I've decided that we come back in subsequent lives as women until we make it through menopause without causing physical harm to another person. If we make it through then we get to come back as male - otherwise, we have to be female again. All I can say is that I must have actually murdered someone in my previous life and I am being properly punished in this one.
But, I digress - which happens - you totally lose focus during menopause. Anyway, the baby quilt is loaded and I am going to a Laura Cater-Woods class tomorrow. I signed up for 3 classes but I have too much going on at work to take Monday off and I have way too many things that I need to do here to be in class all weekend.
I received my Snails Trail quilt back from MQX yesterday. This was the first time I've entered a big quilt into national show. I knew it wasn't a winner but I wanted to see what kind of feedback I would get. I also wanted to start paying back the favor to all of you who enter quilts into shows for me to see. Often my favorite quilts aren't the winning quilts. Anyway, the feedback I received was much more positive than I expected and I got excellent scores on my binding and piecing. It was good to get an unbiased assessment of my skills. The things that I though I was good at were confirmed, as were the things that I thought I needed to work on.
If you've been afraid to enter a quilt - don't be! Think of it as getting private tutoring and use the feedback as a development tool. If I show mine, will you show yours?
Kim, thanks for bringing dinner and ending my crappy day on a good note! Now the weekend can start off on the right foot.
I checked on the new baby Bluebirds today.
Remember how the yard looked in March when i started these photos? Look what a difference some rain and sun makes!
We have babies!! The Bluebirds in Box 1 have hatched.
We also too the opportunity to check on the Chickadee Box that we could not get to Sunday.
She left while Chris was taking photos so we could see that she laid 6 eggs.
But our morning started off with this:
Our rent-a-dogs apparently had a little fun and chased these two raccoons up the dogwood tree. They were stuck there for a couple of hours.
There was about a 15 minute break in the rain today so we were able to get a few photos. If you need location reference for any of these boxes you can find it in this post.
Mama Bluebird was keeping her 5 eggs warm in Bluebird Box 1. You can see that she is wet in this photo.
Bluebird box 2 is still empty but Chris saw Bluebirds and Tree Swallows shopping it this week.
The Chickadee in Bluebird Box 3 has laid 7 eggs.
We couldn't check the Chickadee Box because the ground was too wet for the ladder but earlier this week Chris noticed yet another Chickadee building a nest in a box that we had abandoned. We'll call this Bluebird Box 4. If you look at the photo of the first Wood Duck box, Bluebird box 4 is about 20 yards to the left. Chris checked it today and got a photo of the mama on the nest and another of the 4 eggs.
Mom emailed me a week ago and said that she has a Chickadee nest in her bluebird box too! That's 4 Chickadee nest this year and we have never had Chickadees nesting before. Weird.
The Wren box and the 2 Wood Duck boxes are still empty.
Home from MQX and time to tally the damage. I think I did great! I only bought 8.5 yards. Aside from the convention I also went to 2 quilt shops; one in Massachusetts and Keepsake Quilting. I made it out of Keepsake with NOTHING!
We will not talk about the thread though. I bought lots and lots of thread but you can't beat getting Superior threads at wholesale. I don't have a wholesale license so these shows are the only times that I buy thread. They keep coming out with fantastic colors.
Judy recently set a specific stash reduction goal for the year. I laughed at her until she talked me into doing the same. I suppose she needs someone to be there with her on December 31 when the goal isn't met! Her goal is to have a net reduction of 150 yards. Ha! Not a chance that I'll set such a lofty goal. I'm going to set mine at 100 yards. Remember I'm just doing this for moral support. It will be a miracle if I actually do it.
I don't have any fiber p
hotos so I'll share a couple of photos that I took out in the yard last week. I was hoping to have updates from the bird boxes today but it's raining. If we get a break in the rain we will do a quick photo inventory.
In other news.....it's great to be home! I love going to quilt shows but I always really love coming home to my own environmental bubble and my bed. While I was away this week I used some of my time to re-think some of the things I am working on. As I work on preparing my list each week and always have more to do than time to do it in. I needed to reprioritize.
I decided that I have 3 primary goals:
I also want to have time for:
What have I been spending my time on lately? I have been doing some community service quilting but I haven't worked on any of my quilts for a few months. I have been working on 2 classes for the LQS and an article for F&S but they took a lot longer to develop than they should because I didn't have time to devote to them. I still haven't quilted my Mom's Stack and Whack (which would feed into primary goal #1) and I haven't worked on my color theory posts since October.
What else? I spent a lot of hours on the MQResource triptych challenge in January and February, I took the Monoprinting class in March and didn't have time to get through all of the lessons and I've been spending about 20 hours or more each month on the Take It Further Challenge. I also an signed up for 3 days of classes with Laura Cater-Woods at the end of this month.
Some things are going to have to give. Going forward, if I take any classes I will only take those that will support one of my goals or that will focus on technique/skill development rather than just starting yet another project. Aside from the 2 postcard swaps that I belong to, I am not going to participate in any more exchanges or challenges and I am going to drop the Take It Further Challenge. I enjoy the challenge and developing ideas for the challenge but I am spending way too much of my time on those projects.
I really hate to give up on things but you can't do everything and I don't need to get frustrated over a hobby! With that, here's my current list:
What are your tips for setting and managing your priorities?
Today is the last day of my vacation and it was a great way to end the week. I didn't go to the convention center today because Summerset emailed me yesterday and told me that she got the day off. So I bagged my plans to go back to the show for a few hours and spend the rest of the day working on a speech for my boss. Instead I started up teh Yaris and headed off to Concord to meet Summerset for a day of shopping. It was much better than speech writing! (Be sure to check Summerset's blog and see her on the runway last night at the MQX fashion show. She won first place in her category!
We started the day at her favorite bead store, Bead It!. What an awesome store. They have a very wide variety of beads and there's a lot going on in the shop. The owners are very energetic and offer some of the best bead classes that I have ever seen. I can't share a photo of what I bought there because it's for a gift. I didn't buy anything for my own bead stash. After a very nice Mexican lunch, I easily talked her into
going to Keepsake Quilting. I've never been to the store although, like everyone else, I get the catalog. We were so close that I knew that I should take the opportunity to visit this famous house of fabric. There's really only one word to describe it - overwhelming! It's a perfectly merchandised store. It's bright, clean and very organized and there's soooooo much fabric! Guess what I bought?
NOTHING!! Do you see that Judy? I bought NO FABRIC! Frankly, I rarely buy fabric in places like that. One, it's simply overwhelming. There are so many fantastic fabrics that it's impossible to find just one or two "got to have"s. And, two, given that their fabric is probably
the most expensive fabric in any quilt store it's hard to pay premium prices for fabric just because it needs me. There was a lovely yarn shop right next door and I did find some yarns on sale for half price. I only buy yarn on sale because I use so little of it. At half price it's more economical to buy a skein than to buy those 3-yard embellishment packs.
On the way to Keepsake we were talking about shoes and I mentioned that I like
Skechers because I can put my old-lady orthotics in them.Bonus! There's a Skechers outlet in her town so on our last stop I got 2 new pairs of shoes. We thought these were going to be perfect quilt show shoes with the buttons and appliques.
Well, the fun is over but I leave with new friends and strengthened relationships with old friends. It's been a great week and was just the break I needed from work. It's too bad that I have to go back to work because I an energized with about 15 more ideas of things that I want to make. That's OK, at least I have ideas and I'm looking forward to coming back next year.
Tomorrow I head home and I'll be back on the blog Sunday with an update on all of the nesting bird activities at home. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with the thing that made the biggest impression on me today and is now my primary fun fact about New Hampshire. I was very surprised to see that New Hampshire seems to promote gambling, drinking and driving all at the same time. Here's a rest stop that I passed on the way to meet Summerset. It's the most multi-functional rest stop I've ever seen - bathrooms, liquor and lottery tickets all in one stop. Hmmm......
Today was "walk the show day". No classes and no commitments. I started my day that the QOV booth. Jackie remembered me from last year so now I am "binding girl" forever! I was in the booth when some guy was there taking pictures and talking to Jackie for an article. I realized at some point that I was in one of the pictures - I was leaning over the table trimming binding so basically my butt will be the background if that photo is published. Isn't that nice? That's why I had to have my own photo taken.
Next up I met Carole. She was shopping for a longarm and I was happy to "help"! We spent the day looking at the quilts, test driving longarms and SHOPPING! We went through the entire show - twice. Carole and I have emailed quite a bit but this is the first time that we've met. We talked and laughed and had a great time. And we shopped....
I picked up some fabrics - 3 batiks and 2 silk
bits - and 3 new ruler templates for the longarm. I hope I can remember all of the things that the lady in the booth demonstrated that I can do with these rulers! There were some other rulers that I was interested in but the demonstration was lasting way too long and we got tired of waiting! I can order those later if I need them. 
Then I found these note cards. Aren't the just perfect for me? Quilts and birds! I don't have a clue what that bird on the right is but we've seen all of the others at our house. And what's this?
Hmmm, it looks like more thread. How could that be? Carole really needed to look around in the Superior booth so I had to support her - right?
I ended the day having dinner with several people from the MQResource list and went to the Fashion Show with Aileen Sansone, who I met here last year. Aileen won a judges choice award from Anita Shackleford for her Coxcomb quilt.
Tomorrow I'm heading north a bit to meet up with Summerset to visit some of her favorite shopping venues. I saw her at the MQX Fashion Show tonight. Be sure to check her blog tomorrow morning for photos of her at the show!
Another great day in New Hampshire! The weather was absolutely perfect today and the biggest problem here today is that there seems to be some sort of controversy over the snowfall measurements in New Hampshire this winter. Apparently it possible that they had record snowfall this year but the official recorder was out of town during one snowfall and the backup recorder didn't do his job. It was on the local TV news and the local radio news this morning and I don't know how they will resolve this big mystery of the missing snowfall record! It sure beat hearing about the presidential race.
I had my second class with Jessica Schick today and yes, I wore my respirator all afternoon. You can laugh if you want! No one laughed directly at me in class but you can sure bet that people talked about it later. 
I always have to wear the respirator when working with the acrylic paints. In this class we drew and painted feathers. I didn't get very far with my painting but I am pleased with the results so far on this piece. Your screen is right, I am painting mine black. (Sorry, Anne, it's not yours - I'll keep this one if it ever gets finished!) When I started I figured that I would toss this out as a practice piece but I think I will finish it.
After class I met up with Suzanne. We had dinner and did a quick tour of the show and caught up with several other bloggers and members of MQRersource. 
Here's a picture of Suzanne with one of her quilts and a picture of me with my little quilt. This is the first time that I've had a quilt in a national show. There are a lot of amazing quilts in the show this year. I'll get around tomorrow to get a better look at all of them. I'll also be meeting up with Carole and help her shop for a longarm. It will be fun to help spend someone else's money for a change!
Here's the last photo of the day - there are happy people everywhere! Here are Gretchen, Michelle (2L) and Suzanne - all from the MQResource list.
On to tomorrow.......
What a terrific day! Summerset met me at my hotel at 8:00 and we arrived at Sue's around 9:30. It took a little longer than expected but we missed a few turns because we were talking and not paying attention to the road signs.
The day was full of talking and shopping. Can it get any better than that?
Our first stop was Franklin Mill Store. What a great place! It's in a large old mill building and they carry quilting cottons, evening fabrics, lots of trims and ribbons, yarns, decorator fabrics, stationery.....all kids of fun things! I found two fabrics to use in QOV quilts and a fantastic Japanese fabric printed with little chickens. This and the natural colored trim will go into new placemats for my kitchen. I also picked up a really interesting skein of green yarn and a beach themed ribbon to use in postcards.
After lunch we went to Tatnuck Bead Company and Necessities for Needle. 
Both are in Westborough. I picked up the blue paint palettes in the bead shop and everything else in the yarn shop. I should have put a quarter or something in the photo because these are all large beads. The wood flowers are about 2" in diameter. The polka dot ones are Virginia Tech colors.
It was a fantastic day - thanks Sue and Summerset!
It's a miracle! My flight from Richmond to Boston yesterday was on time and uneventful. Not only that, we were treated to nice scenery - a college baseball team. Then I picked up my luxury rental car - except that I got the 4-door version. Yes, it did take me 15 minutes to figure out that it did not have cruise control or mirror adjustment controls. It's actually a cute little car but it was not designed for people over 40. The speedometer and other displays are in the CENTER of the dash instead of the normal position right in front of the driver. They did not test drive this car with people wearing progressive lenses! LOL! I can't see the speed I'm going without turning my head.
If you've never been to New Hampshire you should visit sometime. The people here are really nice - everywhere!
The MQX show hasn't started yet but classes began today. I am only taking 2 classes and both are with Jessica Schick. I enjoy her energy and you can count on the quality of her classes. If she is teaching something you know that she has fully explored the subject. Today's class was on dye painting. I've done the immersion dyeing but I haven't done any dye painting. I learned a lot which is a good thing because my samples don't really look like I learned anything valuable. Here's what they are supposed to look like.
I got half of the first one done in class and got the painting done on all 4 this afternoon. You know how I get when I'm on a mission. I didn't want to have to bring the supplies home with me. I had enough fixer to finish these 2:
My flowers aren't so bad but the backgrounds are horrid. Here are the last 2, painted but not washed out.
They will lighten up quite a bit when they are washed - but they probably won't lighten up enough. It doesn't matter, it was a great class. Maybe I'll make placemats with these and then I could work on spaghetti and cranberry juice stains to improve them.
Tomorrow is a big day. Summerset and I are going to spend the day with Sue B. Wednesday is my second class with Jessica. We will be painting with Setacolor paints so I will get to freak the whole class out by wearing my respirator all day. I should make lots of friends that day.
Vacation rocks.
Here's the last check of the birds until next Sunday. If you are interested, you can see where these boxes are located on our property here.
Today we were able to get a photo of the mama Chickadee on her nest in Bluebird Box #3.
All together now, say "Awwwww!"
Another Chickadee family is underway in the Chickadee Box on the South side of the house. You can barely see the first egg.
We have the first Chickadee egg!
The question now is whether this is a Black-Capped Chickadee nest or a Carolina Chickadee nest. They look a lot alike but I leaning toward the Carolina. I don't really care I'm just happy to have our first Chickadee nest since we've had the nest boxes out.
I think my sewing room is missing me this week. Between the bad allergy day, getting ready for vacation and the new project, work has taken center stage this week. I haven't even been in my sewing room this week except for 10 minutes here and there. Let's review last week's list:
So what's on the new list?
I think I can accomplish this list successfully but on the topic of lists...
I'm pretty good a keeping and following the lists. Aside from my weekend to-do list, I have lists of projects with due dates that are not active, lists of WIPs and lists of things that I want to do but haven't even started. Occasionally Often, though, I get an idea or urge to do something not on any list. I suppose it's like the shiny new object that you see in the store, you don't need but you have to buy. Like the Zentangle kit that one of you fine bloggers just had to mention this week and I just HAD TO HAVE. It happened with projects this week too. Here's a partial list of project that I need and want to work on in the near future:
and on and on and on. Usually I can compare the new idea to what's on the list and determine that the new project isn't any more worthy or interesting than something already planned or underway. Not this week though because I'm having an overwhelming urge to make another QOV.
Wanda's next QOV tops should be here soon and I want to include one of my own in the mix again. So, last night instead of working on anything that I should be working on, I was pulling out fabrics for a QOV for a pattern from this book.
Now, I'm not saying that it's bad to start a new project but I've only been keeping my lists for a few months and they really are helping me become more productive with my limited time. At the same time I have loads of WIPS and current projects. In the end, I bargained with myself. I have 2 reversible baby quilts in various stages of completion. I've decided that I will complete those first and then allow myself to start a new QOV.
At least I will be down 2 WIPs and both of those quilts will go to some local charity like Project Linus. I pulled the first one out last night.
Some day soon I will post about how I organize my projects in my sewing room so that I can easily switch between projects and be productive in small time increments. For now though, I've got to get back to polishing those credit cards!
I've about finished off my library of books on CD and tape. I was in Radio Shack with a friend yesterday and thought this was cute. Now I have 3 books and a few podcasts loaded up and ready for my trip to MQX. Isn't it cute? I know, it's not an Ipod. I just don't see any reason to pay more for something that I will drop and break.
Just to show how brain dead I was today, it took me hours to figure out how to load a podcast: download - copy - paste - done.
The mama Bluebird finally left the nest long enough for Chris to get this photo yesterday and confirm that we have 5 eggs! Now to wait for them to hatch. The two Chickadee nests are still unoccupied and Chris saw a Tufted Titmouse checking out the Wren box. I hope they are all full this Spring.
I'm sorry there hasn't been much in the way of fiber content lately. I have a new project (THAT I DID NOT WANT) at work and my Spring allergies are starting up. If you have been reading Gayle's posts about the spoon theory you will understand what I mean when I say that today was a 3-spoon day. I apparently got a teeny piece of cheese in my Mexican dinner last night and had a terrific allergic reaction. At 5pm, I am just now coming out of the fog and I had so much work to do today! Unfortunately, I will not be sewing after dinner tonight.....tomorrow will be much better!
April
Sharon has posted the Take It Further Challenge for April. The topic is "How do you see change?" and the color palette is
I don't know how I would create something that portrayed my reaction to "change". In some ways I don't like change. I have to control my environment because of my allergies. So I don't like change from that perspective. However, in general I really thrive on change. I like that my job changes every day with new projects. I like moving although that will not happen since Chris hates moving. I like watching the changing seasons. Change is good!
I'm going to work with the color palette and I've been pondering exactly what to do for a few days. I finally decided that I needed to change my quilt design process. I usually design in my head. I want to design more using software. So in April I will use this color palette to select a set of fabrics in Electric Quilt and design some virtual quilts to improve my EQ skills and develop better design habits.
March
For the March challenge (paying attention to details) I decided to go back to my February piece and fix it. I've been pondering just how to do that and finally decided to use foil to better define the light source and reflection. I'm going to be working on it a little at a time and will post it when it's done.
Say awwwww!
I don't know how many eggs she finally laid but she's done. Isn't she pretty? The other boxes are unchanged.
Yes, I bought fabric! My friend, Neely, is having a baby and she picked the Monkey'n Around fabric. The nursery is going to be the mint green color in this collection. I had planned to design the quilt and then order exactly what I needed - until I realized that this line is dwindling in availability and then Fat Quarter Shop put the bundle and yardage on sale. The prints in yardage were limited to I bought the bundle and two yardage pieces. The green because she wants that as her primary color and the stripe to use for the binding.
The fabric out this week includes 4.5 yards for the baby quilt that I finished earlier this week and 2.5 yards of fabric that I gave to Kim. Technically the fabric I gave to Kim can be counted out of TWO stashes. It's fabric that my Aunt Edna Mae gave me from her stash! It still had the price tag on it - 55 cents per yard! I guess she purchased it in the 60's or 70's. It's a small print floral that I found in my stash recently and knew that it was just the kind of print that Kim likes for her summer skirts. She made the skirt yesterday! She said that she loves the skirt so much that we are going to get tired of seeing it. See, no fabric every really goes bad.
This week IN: 10.5
This week OUT: 7
YTD IN: 45 yards
YTD out: 68.5 yards
This is all going to go totally pear-shaped at MQX. Just wait and see.
I got Anne's baby quilt quilted this evening and it turned out pretty cute. She made this quilt with leftover blocks from quilts that she made for her nephew's for Christmas. I used Superior Rainbows thread in Neons in the needle and lime Superior Highlights in the bobbin. I made sure that I tided the tread off really well so that it would not unravel when it's over-loved.
I quilted double wavy lines from corner to corner crossing at alternating block corners. In the block intersections without wavy lines I quilted a 3" circle. I've been wanting to use my rulers again so this was a good warm-up session.
The backing is Minkee so you can see the quilting better in this photo. I didn't want the quilting to be dense so that the quilt would stay soft and cuddly. I hope Anne likes it!
What do you do with a lovely wood box that once held a bottle of liquid gold? 
That was my question as I was cleaning out a cabinet last night. I hate to toss a nice wood box away. After studying it I decided that it might make a nice soap mold! I was right, it's perfect because it has a hinged lid to protect the soap under the blankets during the curing process. I lined it with freezer paper. This box is larger than my normal mold (it holds 48 ounces) so I had to make a larger recipe. Most of my recipes are made with 32 ounces of fats. This one is made with 36 and has an additional 13.5 ounces of water added. It fills the mold perfectly.
My original Jojoba Mango made a nice lathery bar but it was a bit too soft. It dissolved very quickly. Last night I modified the recipe to make the bar harder but also try to maintain good conditioning properties. Only time will tell if it worked.
***Updated May 17: Another good soap but I'm going to add stearic acid to the next batch and reduce the palm oil. The lye ratio will have to be recalculated.
Ruth, tell your husband not to worry, there are more of these boxes that are full!
Do you remember when I painted paper a couple of weeks ago? Here's what I did with them. I cut them into 2 1/4" x 10" strips and then printed the name of the soaps on colored paper and cut them into 5/8" strips. A little wrapping and a little glue and I have fancy soaps for my friends!
On to the recipe:
Jojoba Mango Soap
2 oz. Jojoba Oil
5 oz. Mango Butter
7 oz. Coconut Oil
14 oz. Palm Oil
7 oz. Palm Kernel Oil
1 oz. Castor Oil
5.15 oz. Lye
13.7 oz Distilled Water
What did I accomplish this week?
The new list:
Mrs. bluebird is busy. We usually get 4 or 5 eggs so the nest may be full by Sunday.
The Chickadees seem to have finished their nest in the 3rd Bluebird box. It's hard to tell from this photo but there is a very well defined cup ready for the eggs.
Chris took this photo Thursday morning before he left on his golf trip. This one is on a tree on the South side of the house. We'll have another update Monday.
I am having some horrendous allergy stuff going on this week so I am very grateful to my Secret Stitcher for my surprise that arrived in the mail today! It could not have been better timed. A great magazine, some new samples and a stack of beautiful blue batik fabrics. It made my day!
Tonight I decided to make some lotion. I have only one lotion recipe so I decided to make a new one using Borage Oil and Sweet Almond Oil. I should not try to make new things when my head feels like it's full of cotton balls. I wasted an incredible amount of supplies because I read a speck on the scale as a decimal point.....I'm going to bed now that I've placed an order for more lotion supplies.
I hope to bring the fiber posts back to you this weekend - along with more bird nest photos.
It's an exciting day here in Montpelier!
We have the first Bluebird egg
and someone has been very busy the past 2 days in Bluebird Box 3. We think it's a Chickadee nest. We've never had a Chickadee nest before!
We also have a nest being built in the Chickadee Box but we couldn't get a photo tonight. I should have one tomorrow. If you want to see where these boxes are located, check this post.
I suppose that she decided that the feather was "too much". It seems to be done and ready for some eggs.
Today also brought another visit from the Great Blue Heron. These photos were taken from my back porch - about 70 yards away from the Heron.
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