It’s that time of year again when the outdoor projects begin to come to an end. The good news is that I have plenty of other interests to keep me busy indoors.

I’ve been canning when the weather permits. I hate water bath canning on a humid day. And before anyone asks…I do reuse my canning lids. I inspect them thoroughly and get rid of any that I have even the slightest question about…actually I do save them for dry goods storage so they don’t hit the recycle bin immediately. Anyway…I remove the rings from my canned goods after they cool…that way if there ever is an issue I could see the lid pop from spoilage.  I’m not an expert and I’m not telling you that you should do it my way…I just knew if I didn’t explain myself I would get questions and lectures.

My harvests are dwindling which is fine. We still get our CSA box for a few more weeks.

My teeny tiny carrots make me smile. I’ve never had much luck growing carrots.

But this year I think I will get a lot more teeny tiny carrots since I didn’t thin them out. The tall palm frond looking plants in the garden are ginger. I had some ginger root sprouting in the cupboard so I decided to experiment. I think I’ll leave one to overwinter but dig up the rest for use this fall. I’m not expecting success with overwintering but you don’t know until you try.

Speaking of trying…I’m trying something new with my shed garden. I once again amended the soil with some of our compost…then have been placing the spent plants back on the soil. They have been partially covered with soil from a container that broke. I am looking to do more of a no dig system in this garden. Time will tell.

As it happens ever end of summer, my urge to sew comes in hot. I’m not sure what it is but it isn’t a want…its a need. So weird.

Last winter I made 40 or so of these crazy scrappy blocks. I decided that 30 of them with white sashing would make a lovely throw blanket.

It’s coming along quite nicely. I just have the sashing around the entire outside edge to do.

Yesterday I worked on creating a scrappy binding. I love adding that to my scrappy quilts. When I commit to scrappiness…its a full commit.

Today I had the first of my half day work meeting days leading up to the start of school in a week. It was great to see everyone…old friends and new colleagues alike.

Today I realized that I have a problem…I am a collector of plants. I never realized it until today. I’ve always had a few house plants but never to the extent that I have now.

I counted 24 as I walked through the house snapping photos. I’m kind of in shock now that I’ve actually counted them.

And now that I look to my left here on the deck I see a fern and my rosemary that overwinter indoors as well.

Yep it is a problem…but a lovely one at that.

Marvin is enjoying some supervised outdoor time with me as I blog this evening. Earlier today he was trying his best to catch a grasshopper. No luck.

I haven’t gotten much crafting done. We’ve had a plumbing issue that has interrupted my craft space and I was too lazy to haul my stuff out and craft elsewhere.

Each and every morning I head out to the garden to check on my plants. Gardening brings me so much joy. Going from seed to harvest is a gift.

This season I did not start my own seeds instead I purchased starts through a coworker. I have learned that sometimes you can’t do it all and there is no shame in that.

The beans are finally starting to produce. I’m hoping to harvest enough to can some spicy beans again this year. If not, I still have a stash of jars from last season.

My neighbor once again allowed me to cut her daylilies before the deer had them for a midnight snack. Aren’t they gorgeous?!?

During my time of forced relaxation, I played around with a bag of scraps I purchased quite some time ago from the thrift store. It was a great challenge to pull together cards from a limited palette.

Using only what I had in front of me gave me the opportunity to combine colors and patterns that I typically would not have tried. I simply love the results! This entire pile it ready to go complete with sentiments.

And a whole other giant pile of cards ready for the right words or time.

I’m still working on my journals….really slowly. I’m spending as much time outdoors or with Mini-me, so crafting definitely takes a back seat. Mini-me leaves for college in about a month. It goes so fast.

I did it again. I went nearly a month without posting. Well folks, I’m going to make up for it with a photo heavy post.

Since I’m not sure where to start I’m just going to jump in with some fun fabric projects I’ve been working on.

The first of which are these microwave bowl holders. I love these things! I use mine a couple times a week. I love that I can throw them in the washing machine when they get messy.

While I had the machine out I did more piecing with my scraps.

I also finally got around to making my mixer cover with the fun fabric I bought over the summer. I can’t believe I waited so long! I love the way it looks.

Now shall we talk about the elephant in the room…or perhaps the golden goose in the gym?

Yup…that’s right. I turned 50 at the beginning of the month. There was lots of advertising at school.

And yes there was cake!

This was really cute. One of my students wrote this on the white board. I love that its spelled wrong. :)

That same student wrote me a little note a week or so before hand.

Enough about other peoples children…let me update you on mine.

Before the end of semester, Mini-me had a project for class that was a pop-up art show in the gallery. They were tasked to use washi tape and washi tape only to create a temporary art installation on the gallery wall. Pretty cool huh. She is back home for the summer after enduring a massive storm which knocked out power and cell phone service for the last day of finals. She took her Latin final in the dark.

J graduated from college with his Chemical Engineering degree this month as well. This is a bit of ChemE humor that went over my head but I’m using it for my drink reference anyway. He is back home as well. The house went from quiet to crowded very quickly.

I think this is the only journal I have played in all month. I’ve been doing a bit more organizing however I stalled out until I am done with work…I really want to sort through stuff with Mini-me since she is using more things in her art as well. I don’t want to get rid of something she will end up wanting shortly.

This was earned longer ago than I had thought until I see the date staring me in the face. It still blows my mind though that I’ve walked that much.

Mr. G and I also celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary in April. He still knows how to make me laugh with his shenanigans with his follow-up to my reminder note to run the dishwasher in the morning.

Speaking of laughter…this gave me a good chuckle. So much so that I had to snap a picture of it at our local coffee shop.