The other day while out playing at a lake with friends, we got to see a dragonfly up close. It stuck around for a while, even being able to hold it. I find them amazing. So delicate, ancient looking.
Nature’s beauty. I’m glad we could enjoy it.
Last week, had some cloudy days, with few rain drops, but muggy. We stayed home all week, and tended the garden, did some cleaning, lots of laundry, went to the swimming pool every day. Last week…
… Lucas lost a tooth.
… went to a very fun birthday celebration. We’ve gone for few years, and it’s all weekend, by a lake, sleeping in a tent, playing in the water, having a fire, playing and catching up with friends. So much fun.
… with all this playing in the sun by the water, we all got some sunburn. A little pain the last few days, but I’m hoping it will end up being some much needed vitamin D.
… and must say, we had the best baked goods (as always) made by our friend’s grandma at the lake. Oh… so much great food.
… had a friend for a sleep over and watched another movie on a big screen on the wall in our backyard. It is so much fun. I think we should do this every summer and maybe a couple more before the cooler evenings start.
… we went to see Epic, the movie, with friends and we all liked it very much.
… Mark had a meeting with a coworker and started getting ready for starting back at work, and missed seeing Epic.
… made 9 lbs of cucumbers in a crock to try fermented pickles.
… made 1 lb of green beans in a crock also to try them fermented and pickled. We’ll see how they turn out. Last year I left them too long in the crocks and ended up in the compost. Not a pretty sight. This time, I’m keeping a closer look. I’m skimming the top and have tried them already. It’s looking good.
… watched Siena and Lucas make lots of paracord bracelets. They are having so much fun, I love it!
… went to play at a lake with friends. And got to spend a little time with their grandma, a very special sweet lady. I’m so glad we got to see her and visit for some. She’s beautiful.
… discovered Laura Gibson’s CD. It has accompanied me few evenings while working and canning in the kitchen.
… picked from our garden:
… canned:
… I almost saw the bean plants grow in front of my eyes… seriously! They are growing like crazy!
… our house looked like this most days. Played and made.
… we decided to redo Lucas’s room. Goodbye to the bunk bed, hello normal bed. Now, we are working on freshing it up, and making it special for this very special little guy of ours. We decided to paint the room this week. Exciting!
… cleaned out the kids closets and drawers and saw how much they’ve grown in the summer, while most of their clothes are too small to wear again.
… had some special friends over for dinner and had many reasons to celebrate with them.
Also,
… last week, this week, and every week … realized that I’m in love with these two kids of ours.
I’ve made an apple-blackberry jelly for a couple of years now. With two apple trees, and blackberries growing everywhere, I feel like we have everything we need for this delicious treat.
I found the recipe on the River Cottage Preserves Handbook a couple of summers ago, when the book came out (in 2010.)
It has been a great hit in our house. I think it is my personal favorite jam/jelly. We have plenty of apples and blackberries, and they both ripen at about the same time for us. They are meant to be together in this delicious jelly.
In the past I’ve strained the apples and berries after cooking it, in a cheesecloth, hanging from the knobs in the kitchen. Like this.
I usually leave it hanging to drain overnight. But as you can imagine, even with all my planning and foreseeing, when someone needs a glass of milk or water before bedtime, it’s a little tricky to get the glass out of the cupboard. The hanging bag, with the delicious (and staining) juice ends up being moved too far out of the container where it’s suppose to drain all that great (sticky and staining) juice.
So this year I decided to splurge in two jelly strainers.
I still needed to hang it from the knobs, because I tripled the recipe. But at least it wasn’t like an obstacle course.
And now the jars filled with this delicious jelly are kept away safely for the later consumption. Oh. So. Very. Good.
For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to have a quote on a wall in our house. I thought maybe in the art studio, maybe in our bedroom or bathroom. But after I painted the kitchen last summer, I’ve been thinking.
I’ve looked on Pinterest for ideas on how to put a quote on a wall. For ideas on how to space it, the font to use, the colors… so many ideas out there.
We decided that the kitchen was a good place for a quote, and everyone liked the words I had picked. Words by Mary Oliver, that have spoken to me. I like her poetry, and I like this poem too.
So I went ahead and wrote one of my favorite lines from one of Mary Oliver’s poems.
I first wrote it lightly with pencil.
Then I wrote it with a thick marker. Because our walls are bumpy, I don’t think the Sharpie showed very well.
So I went over the marker with black acrylic paint and a brush. Now, I’m not sure if it’s too dark, too sharp. I’m almost thinking it needs a little white wash on top or something to make it a little more settle.
But now I don’t know if I should. Because when Siena walked in after I had painted it, she was excited and said “oh Mamá, now our kitchen looks like one from a magazine! Like you paid someone to write that on the wall…”
So with those words coming out of my daughter, and these words now written in our walls, I leave you with the same question we’ve talked about in our family. From The Summer Day by Mary Oliver.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
I am loved by mosquitoes. No matter what I put or smear on, I get bit. Siena does too, so we share some of the bites.
So, I searched for a recipe (we’ve never made repellent before) and I found some great information on the post by Andrea over at Frugally Sustainable. And I decided to give this recipe from Mountain Rose Herbs a try.
It wasn’t that difficult. I just had to order some of the supplies.
It’s worked alright so far, I think. We’ll keep trying it this summer.
UPDATE 8/20/2013: Thanks to Erin from Mountain Rose I’m able to share with you the recipe for this awesome bug repellent, with their permission. I need to add, that we’ve tried the repellent for a couple of weeks, and last weekend being by the lake with lots of mosquitoes, I’d say, the repellent worked great, and it smells good as most people say.
We bought all the supplies at Mountain Rose, and I need to say that the catnip hydrosol comes in a glass spray bottle that we used for the repellent. It was perfect. No need to buy another container. So, here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
20 drops organic Cedarwood essential oil
20 drops organic Lavender essential oil
10 drops organic Lemongrass essential oil
10 drops organic Lemon essential oil
Directions
Slowly drip each essential oil into the hydrosol, counting with care as you go. Mix all ingredients in the bottle by shaking vigorously. Shake well before each use and reapply as often as needed.
You should try it and see what you think.
Salmonberries and huckleberries.
Inchworm.
A lot of beauty and fun.
This past week, we did a little bit of everything.
:: We got together with our friends and watched a movie outside. It is so much fun we are hoping to do it again before the weather gets too cold.
:: We’ve been picking apples from the tree and off the ground by the buckets every day.
:: We are seeing this most days. Apples and popcorn.
:: I had popcorn and lemonade for dinner when I had two days to myself when everyone else was camping.
:: Siena and Lucas have been drawing.
:: We went homeschool supplies shopping. Who doesn’t love new pens and markets and notebooks. Right? We are getting ready!
:: I am working on four placemats, like the ones I made in the spring.
:: I am starting a new quilt. Decided on the pattern. Found the fabrics I’d like to use. And started cutting the fabric. I’m excited to get it started.
:: We’ve all been playing Tetris. This is my high score! (I don’t want to forget such an important moment.)
:: They’ve been playing (still) with these drift woods we’ve collected for a couple of years. They’ve been having so much fun rearranging them and making them be different things. I love listening to their play.
:: We ate a delicious apple pie from our friends and neighbors. Isn’t it nice to receive a warm pie dish, with a delicious dessert made by someone who cares about you? Thank you, our dear friends!
:: We got inspired by Maya’s Post at Maya*Made and made hot rocks too.
:: Did some screen printing (yesterday’s post.)
:: We’ve been preserving lots of foods and the plants are just starting to produce. I know we still need to can tomatoes, tomato sauce, and pickles. And I also want to try some fermenting and some new canning recipes. I’m excited.
:: We picked:
:: We canned:
:: We made 2 quarts of plantain infused oil.
:: We received an email with pictures from my oldest nephew and his girlfriend back in Chile, while they were traveling in Machu Picchu. They look so very cute together. I’d love to go there some day.
Hope you’ve been having fun too. Thanks for coming to visit in this little space of ours.
Two years ago today, we were arriving in a home we would spend 5 months in. In a new place, in a new country with unimaginable adventures and stories ahead of us. I can still remember that feeling, the thoughts that crossed my mind, when the school bus stopped to drop us off in front of our new home. Excitement and nervousness to the unknown.
We were starting our biggest adventure yet, as a family. We were in India to work and live and learn for 5 months, in a completely new country, where none of us had ever been before.
Of course, we had read books, heard stories, watched videos, and read about India, in so many ways, throughout our lives. But we had never had this opportunity before. And this was perfect for us.
We thought it was, so we went ahead and decided to accept this scholarship and Mark become an exchange teacher.
I remember, as we were applying for this exchange, we were not sure if it was the right time for us to do it. We all talked about it, and we shared with Lucas and Siena what it would mean to take this adventure.
Not an easy decision, for any of us. We were scared, we were excited, we were nervous, happy but also sad to leave what and who we knew here at home.
Five months seemed like a very long time for Lucas, 5 at the moment. Siena was also nervous, about leaving all of her friends for such a long time. Mark and I shared the same worries, and excitement. But we kept going back at the idea if this was the right time to take our family to India. So different from what we knew. Even having traveled a little with the kids, and having gone to Chile a few times with them before. Still, this trip was different. Very different. India was a complete unknown to all of us.
But as hard as the decision was, we talked through it. We weighed the pros and cons of going. Of staying. We read more stories, watched more videos and looked things online, with the kids. By ourselves. Together. Individually.
Our good friends had pictures of their last trip to India, and they shared them with us. We wanted Siena and Lucas to have an idea of what we were talking about and to help us make the decision with their whole selves, their hearts too. We were all on this together.
We were going to be there for them, but we knew, as things go when one is not in our comfortable zone, we were also going to be there in the unknown and unexpected, with them. Living this adventure together. We needed to have each other’s back. We knew we’d need to be there when one of us needed each other. We needed to go on this adventure together, on the same page. Ready to have this adventure, with open hearts, and open minds. And we did.
Before leaving we picked berries, just how we did this year, and every other year, for that matter. We had gone camping.
Mark went to his orientation in Washington, DC before leaving to India, and brought with him, the family we were doing the exchange with. They stayed with us for few days, and we lived through them, their first days in a new country.
We tried to help them learn and get adjusted as the first days rolled. We tried to understand and talk to Lucas and Siena, so they could see what adjusting to something new, so big in one’s life, could be like. And we tried to help them go through the hardships of settling in to a new place. We left them settled and ready for their own adventure.
At the same time, we were beginning ours.
We were leaving the comfort of our home, all the things we knew. And we said goodbye to our friend who drove us to the airport that Sunday morning, two years ago.
We started this adventure together, as a family, that Sunday morning. With an open mind, our summer clothes, some toys, my knitting, few books, malaria pills, mosquito nets, physics books, and a couple of peanut butter jars, all packed in 5 suitcases, and ready for whatever was planned for us.
Even as we saw the exchange family live their first days in a new country, we didn’t really understand until it was our turn. To India we went.
After so much planning and thinking and getting ready, all of sudden, we were in Delhi. Oh my. We then understood how our new friends from India were feeling cold in our Portland summer days of 80 degree weather. We were overly hot, at 108 degrees and 100% humidity.
And well, as we learned with the passing of days, not only the weather was different, but everything else too, of course. Starting with the foods, the homes, the beds, the animals, the colors, the buildings and cars, the driving, the fruits, the time zone, the landscape, the language, the trains and the getting around, the people, the schedule, the talking and the accent, the birds, the snakes, the news, the radio, the walks.
We were on the other side of the world (really!) and we saw amazing things.
We learned so much. About India, the culture, the country, but also about ourselves. I’ve written about that lots, especially when we were there. And we’ve have talked about it among us, a lot too. We continue to do.
India comes up in our lives today, still, every single day. In many different ways, that it amazes us, and we love it as we remember our days there, two years ago. It keeps our adventure alive still after all this time.
Even today, after two years of having left on this adventure, we keep remembering our days in India, and we keep telling stories. This was one of the main reasons we had decided to apply and accept this exchange, to live in a different culture. We wanted to learn new things. We wanted to meet new people. We wanted to see new things and new places. We wanted to be in a new place. We wanted to have stories.
And now as we sit and live our days in the comfort of our home, back in our routines and our lives at home, we miss India. I miss a lot from our days there.
I hope we can go back there some day. We have lots of friends we’d like to see again. As I look at our pictures, I see how much Siena and Lucas have changed. I can only imagine how much these friends have changed too. We hope some day we get to catch up again. Make new memories, new stories.
Through a link from a friend, I found this video about India. If you have 3 minutes, you should watch it. It will take you there. A day in India.
I’ve been making t-shirts and printing on fabrics for a while now, but it has been the freezer paper t-shirt making, that made me jump to screen printing.
Cutting out the image on freezer paper with x-acto knife for every t-shirt, takes time. But really what I wanted to do was print letters. Lots of words. So I read, watched and re-read lots of posts and books. I’m telling you, lots of information out there. Until I finally I decided to go for it.
I’ve thought about trying screen printing for a long time. But this was the right time. So I made my first screen printing for Siena’s birthday present. We’ve been thinking of what would be a cool swim t-shirt and we made the perfect one for her.
“I just can’t go slow.” –Siena (TM)
A quote, a sentence, stories, we’ve said and heard and talked about since she was just few months old. Perfect for her little beautiful person now. Perfect for a swim t-shirt (and sleeping shirt and undies… because once you print one, you just can’t stop either!)
And since I loved making her birthday presents, I’m looking for new ideas to print. And so I made a few more this past week.
Bees. Perfect too! I watched this video to get me started. It’s of great help and it’s funny.
I’ve only done this twice, but I’d like to keep a record of what I’ve done and what I’ve learned so far. And for those wanting to start something, I’d recommend reading and doing online search. There’s lots of information out there. And it’s not that hard. I think I’m learning as I go, and mostly, I’m having lots of fun.
I’m not sure I’m qualified to write a tutorial on screen printing, but mostly I’d like to share what I’ve done. Here’s an almost step-by-step almost-tutorial of how I made my screen printed t-shirts and kitchen towels.
1- After looking and deciding the art to use, you need to make a photocopy on a transparency. I make two, because it never seems dark enough. When you put them both together, then it makes it really dark black. That seems to work for me.
2- I tape both transparency copies. I’ve bought the screens big enough to make two designs, so I’m careful to leave enough space between them, when I’m going to print. It works just fine if you are careful.
3- Then I put painter’s tape all around the edges, on both sides, so the ink doesn’t get on the edge. The paint seems to get under the tape anyways, so I’m not sure if it’s worth doing it. I think, next time, I’ll skip this step and see what happens.
4- I get my supplies ready. This is the part that I’m learning more about. You mix the photo emulsion with the sensitizer (a one time thing for the jar.) You need to keep it in the dark, cooler place so you can use it for later on another screen.
5- You spread the photo emulsion on the screen. In an even coat, not too thick. I did it on one side only the last time, because I think I had a little too much anyways, because it had spread to the other side. I don’t have a photo of this part because is light sensitive, though I think it’s suppose to be more so, once is dry. But still. I didn’t get a photo. Let it dry.
6- Then you put your drawing/art/words on top of the screen, that has the photo emulsion already dry. If you are using words, like in my case, make sure you put them backwards, looking on it from the top of the screen.
Depending on the size of the screen, and I think the details of the drawing, you need to put a light source to let “the magic work.” I used a 150W light from the top, for 65 minutes. Last time, for Siena’s swimmer and her quote, I left it for 45 minutes. This time wasn’t long enough, because after I washed the emulsion off, not much was showing up. So I had to do it all over again.
7- Once you are done with the light, you wash the screen off, with warm water. Slowly, slowly, your drawing will start to appear, more clear as you wash the emulsion off.
8- You get your t-shirts ready (or fabric.) I make sure they are ironed, with no creases. I put a piece of cardboard underneath, in case the paint goes through.
9- Then I put the screen with the drawing I want on the right spot.
11- I put a thin strip of paint on top. I hold the screen tight as I use the print making squeegee, going doing over the drawing. I go twice, making sure the whole design has been covered evenly.
12- Then, carefully lift the screen off from the t-shirt (or whatever you are painting) and see the magic appear. It is wonderful to see your t-shirt printed with what you’ve been working on. I love it!
And because you’v already done the hard part (making the screen), now you can go all the way and print everything you want with your new design.
I had made this kitchen towel last year, with the bee ribbon on the bottom, but now I added another bee to it. It looks cute, I think.
And yes… we have lots of bees around the house now (besides the two hives.) I do need to caution you, it is very addictive. Now I’m looking for anything that doesn’t have any designs, and printing my three designs I have so far.
These are some of the sites I checked, in case you are looking for some.
I’d say, go for it! It is so much fun. Just know, you won’t be able to stop.
Zucchinis. It almost seems it should be zucchinies. It’s already hard enough to spell. Who comes up with these words? In (Chilean) Spanish it’s called ‘zapallito italiano’ (Italian gourd.) Not sure the Italian relation there. In England ‘courgette’.
Anyways. It is the season. Its season. And I know, as I’m typing this post, the zucchinis outside are growing even bigger. And I’m sure we’ve missed some too, from the picking yesterday.
We missed a couple last week, and they turned into a 4 pound trophy, heavy enough to be carried by the littler hands at home.
So, while the kids and Mark had gone camping I thought I’ll welcome them home (besides their clean bed and a warm shower) with a cake. I don’t usually make cakes, but the two large zucchinis on the counter motivated me to look for a yummy recipe.
I knew Amanda, from SouleMama would have made something. She’s good like that, you know? So, I searched her blog and found a chocolate zucchini cake she said she made few times that summer.
Oh my goodness. It is so good! I will make it again.
And not only did I make a cake that day, I also made this zucchini bread from Smitten Kitchen. Two loaves, and finished the first zucchini on our counter.
More to come from the garden, I know, shared with friends and neighbors, and I’m thinking I might freeze some zucchini breads for in-the-moment summer yummyness (not a word? the computer doesn’t know… I won’t pay attention to the red wiggles under the word.) Yes, total yummyness.
Naturally Fun Days 