The House of Endleses Fun

My niece is coming over to hang out at the House of Endless Fun today!  The Weekly Round-Up will be postponed, but should be more interesting and much cuter, if I remember my camera, that is.....

Have a great weekend, everyone!

A Year in Provence

A Year in Provence

by Peter Mayle

A lovely, leisurely book about a couple who bought a 200-year old farmhouse in Provence, Peter Mayle's best-seller was a treat.  It's exactly what it sounds like: a month-by-month reflection on the joys and foods of this lovely region in France, with occasional remarks on culture, language, dogs, neighbors, grape-growing, and plumbing.  The writing is skillful, the characters engaging, and the flashes of humor delightful. 

I read it slowly and didn't want it to end.

Highly recommended, particularly for lovers of words, armchair travelers, and gourmands.

August Budget

We've been able to put a significant amount of $ away in savings for the past few months.  I'm grateful for that.  Of course, if we buy the pick-up truck I want, a lot of that will go poof.... but it is better to have it when you need it.  (Which brings me to the question of whether the truck is a need or a want....)

Amazon revenue from August was $15.80. (We won't get it until the beginning of November, though.)  Thanks very much to everyone who purchased items through the Amazon portal on the right!  Every little bit helps!

The Paper It's Printed On...

Here is a tidbit about the company that still supplies the paper for all United States banknotes, plus currency paper for 22 other countries.

"Two hundred years ago, Zenas Crane set up the company's first, one-vat mill on the banks of the Housatonic River, across the state from his native Boston, in Dalton Massachusetts.  In doing so, he was following the lead of four generation of Cranes, who have been making paper since the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Zenas Crane's father had sold paper to engraver/silversmith Paul Revere in 1775 for the first true American banknotes to be issued in the colonies."

~ From Paperie: The Art of Writing and Wrappingwith Paper, a fun coffee-table book from folks at Kate's Paperie with Bo Niles.  Even if the book does mention their business more than once, it's lavishly illustrated with pictures and artful photographs and exhaustively research by people whom I don't hesitate to call obsessed, p. 59.

Connect Two Strips of Fabric without Sewing

This purse upcycled from T-shirt strips requires connecting strips of fabric without sewing.  (Well, I guess you could sew them if you wanted to....)  One of my loyal readers (Hi Chrissy!) said that part wasn't clear, so I made a video.  Click here to see the original post.

This technique does leave little bumps that look like knots, but I like to think of them as texture.  :)   It would also be good to know if you ever had to escape from a tower using a rope made of braided bedsheets.  Just saying!

Giveaway Goodies Arrived!

Here is my stash from CraftGossip.com.

1.Fiskars Duck Edition Scissors
Two pairs of scissors from Fiskars that are designed to cut duct tape.  They repel stickiness. One is for cutting long strips and the other for details, for those who do artwork with duct tape.  I had no idea such scissors existed, but I do know what it is like to try to get sticky stuff off of scissors, so I am looking forward to trying them out.

2. Book Art Studio Handbook by Stacie Dolin and Amy Lapidow
This book is for the serious book maker.  It’s very practical with lots of step-by-step instructions and photos.  I’m going to see if I can adapt some of the techniques to upcycling.

3.How to Make 100 Ribbon Embellishments: Trims, Rosettes, Sculptures, and Baubles for Fashion, Decor, and Crafts by Elaine Schmidt
  This book has everything from trim and embellishments for clothes to bows for packages and dainty ribbon sculptures.  There are even some necklaces.  I’m hoping to make cloth gift bags to sell at some craft fairs this fall, so I’m excited to see if I can come up with some fancy rosettes to decorate them with.

To Stef at CraftGossip.com—muchas gracious!

Garden Update

The basil harvest is going well.  I think we have enough frozen to last an entire year….  I am planning a tutorial on freezing it soon.

We're trying to leave potatoes in the ground and harvest them as we eat them.  Not sure how well that is going to work, but this whole garden thing is one big learning experience!

Tomatoes now have to be harvested every two days.  We are getting blanching and freezing down to a system.

Canning apparently decreases the nutritional value the most out of all the preserving methods, but then, it doesn't require refrigerator space.  The plan right now is to freeze until we have a bunch of fresh and frozen, and then do one big blast of canning.  (You can can previously frozen tomatoes.)  We'll try to keep as much frozen as we are going to have room for.  As for nutritional value, if we didn't can, we'd be buying canned tomatoes from the store anyway.

We'll keep you posted!