Now and then there are so many loose ends knocking about that they need to be wrapped up together.
First off, Project FeederWatch is ending April 3 (it starts up again in November). We've been entering our online data. I had chosen to fill one feeder with safflower seed, because apparently gray squirrels aren't big fans. After a couple of weeks went by, I started to wonder if birds don't like it either, but since then we've been rewarded with cardinals, titmice, chickadees, and carolina wrens gobbling the seeds. The kids love watching the birds from the window and identifying them on the beautiful FeederWatch chart.
A sparrow of some kind, possibly a pine siskin, nibbling some seeds in our window feeder. I had no idea the birds in our neighborhood were so diverse!
Changing the subject entirely, I never did talk about how the Orangette book signing at Ceiba went. It was wonderful! The signing was in a private room and because I had my (already devoured) book with me, I went in and directly stood in line to have it signed. Molly was so kind, she remembered my e-mails (touching, because I'm sure she's flooded with them), and she graciously signed my book. I then stepped away from the table and met a lovely young woman named Jessica (hi, if you ever come visit here!) and we chatted about Orangette and food and blogging and ate (too many) scrumptious flautas handed around on trays. The pièce de résistance was a plate of Aunt Bills and Jimmy's Pink Cookies. I kid you not! Jessica and I split one of each so as not to be greedy.
After a bit, Molly was introduced to the room at large by her brother (one of Ceiba's owners) and Molly took the floor. She spoke about how her blog came about, a story of course quite familiar to Orangette fans and much touched upon in her book. She talked about her father (her brother mentioned him too) and the importance of food to their family. She was so genuine and allow me to say, she can give a speech every bit as eloquently as she can write. Then she read the first chapter of her book, which was a delightful experience in itself and made me read as much as I could from her book all over again on the metro ride home.
Jumping from Orangette to sewing might not make much sense, but this post has no cohesion anyway, so here goes! If anyone was wondering, I did finish all the doll dresses. Here's a photo of the first set (I whisked the second set away before commemorating the moment):
I wish I had been patient and ordered fabric I loved--live and learn!
Next up? I've been working on a couple of kid crafts and my kids are beside themselves for me to finish them. I'm experimenting with some things I've never done (hence the title of this blog), so don't hold your breath.
First up, the seasonal felt tree that's been in The Craft Jar almost 2 weeks.
Because I'm not much of a free-hand artist, I took a clip art oak tree silhouette, scanned it, enlarged it, divided it into quarters in Paint (on anyone's PC), printed off the quarters, taped them back together to make a large tree, then traced the tree onto freezer paper. Then I traced the pattern with chalk onto brown felt. I did some "pruning" when I cut the felt because there were too many branches (which might still be the case). I may figure out a way to upload a pattern to the blog.
Last, I'm working on some kites for the kids. They are a little young (5 and 3) but I want to involve them as much as possible. We bought some rip-stop nylon (available online or at JoAnn's fabric). We shall see where this goes.
