East Garden

Before

During

After

Now I just need to rake the garden and plant oats, a green manure, and then till it up again in about three weeks.  This garden will have cucumbers, two types of picklers, cabbages, brussel sprouts, mustard greens and kale.

Samples

Cynthia Wenslow asked on her blog if anyone else made samples, and my anwser is YES!  Consider it a hold over from art school where we were expected to make sketches and color swatches of EVERYTHING before we even made something.  But to anwser Cynthia's question... with the cost of supplies exploding I'm making more samples than I ever have in the past.  Above is a color sample of pink on black to see if it was possible, the anwser is YES with opaque pink paint on top of black fabric.

'Cause Cute Matters!

I bought this at Clare's, at the mall, today.  It's a new coin purse for me and is rather largish, it has a place to hold my license, etc. so it could in fact be used as a mini purse :-)  I liked a LOT of the floral fabric bags, scarves, and headbands they had there but decided that I could make my own and for way less than what they were wanting... which was something like 75% less than what Younkers was asking for almost identical items.

Anyway, I'm off to check my fabric and pattern stashes as I have some skirts and new bags planned for my spring/summer wardrobe!

Garden Stakes

I needed garden stakes so John cut up some of the "shorts" that were littering his shop floor and made some really cute stakes for me, 9 inches long.   Given more time I could have put the plant names on the stakes in a prettier font, I scribbled the plant names on with a sharpie :-)

North Garden In Progress

Last years garden growth.

Raked and shredded with the shredder. I will plant peas in this garden this coming week, and later this spring tomatoes and yellow wax beans.

And now mostly occupying one of the compost bins.  The super wet vegetation is on top we won't shred this due to it being super hard on the shredder.



Salad Garden Planted

Filled with salad fixin's and various herbs for my summer menu.

Three kinds of lettuce to start with, spinach, chard, kale, anise, basil, purple basil, parsley, fennel, dill, and cilantro.  I have more lettuce and  herbs to plant, the other herbs go into another herb garden that's in serious need of raking first.

Raised Beds and Hoop Houses

This raised bed is waiting for it's hoops still, first I need to turn the soil and then plant it with lettuce, chard, and other salad nummies.

Tomorrow I'll add the mesh and then the plastic to the hoops.  The mesh is for later in the season to keep the critters out, the mesh I use is a half inch square plastic netting.

The boards are covering my leek trenches.

New Bits and Pieces in Progress

Studio Update

Not much going on in the dye studio these days, it's still too blustery to do any serious dyeing out of doors so I'm keeping myself busy writing up new tutorials for natural dyeing, and starting this weekend I'll be skirting fleeces. In the mean time I have lowered the price of my eBooks from $19.95 to $14.95.

Spring Colors

Am entertaining some ideas!

Cows 1 0001

Zumwalt Station Farm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dFVkkN0_lM

Vineyards in Iowa

John and I went out earlish - for me anyway - this morning to take photos of a vineyard in progress.  Vineyards used to be a mainstay here in Iowa, just like potatoes and mangel beets, but alas sometime in the 60's they went the way of the dodo bird.  Ten years ago, however, the vineyard made a comeback here!  The mark they leave upon the prairiescape is unique, in comparison to corn and soy beans, and thusly my Prairie Harvest series will be including vineyards as part of the imagery!

Mini Canvas'

3x5 inch gessoed canvas with an alcohol transferred image.

Second coat of gesso, this time over the image transfer.  Once the gesso is dry I'll paint an image to go with the carrot.

More Antlers

Now that Deer Slayer is on it's way to it's new owner I am off and running with my next project.

The next project involves a gourd, pine needles, and antlers.

Deer Slayer Finished.

Spring Time Rocks!

Will post some pictures tomorrow, but was actually able to spend some time outside today in the gardens, mostly picking up debris, limbs, and the like.  Tomorrow it's supposed to be 62F here and if it's not too windy I will be uncovering the front gardens.  Still lots to do, leaves and branches to be shredded, horse manure needs to be fetched for the compost bins, pots to be cleaned, seeds to be started, but I sure do LOVE spring time!

Silk and Sustainability

Organizing My Time

Making a new directive for myself, no more internet after 7pm!  My evenings will now be spent creating.  Ok ok I've decided that it's ok to watch Paula and Kerri on Ustream twice a week in the evenings! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/journalartista

Fabric is the Poetry of Life

Waits for spring and days that yeild blue skies and green fields instead of snow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9-pDSYPrio

Pasties or Hot Pockets

I used the left over veggie and chicken mixture, and pie crust, to make two hot pockets tonight or if your Welsh then pasties.  This is my first attempt EVER at making hot pockets.  It took about 30 minutes for them to bake, the bottoms are not burnt though the sides are rather brown.

Home Made Chicken Pot Pie

Made chicken pot pie for John tonight, he was in heaven!

1 pint chicken - dark meat
1 pound frozen mixed veggies thawed
4 medium sized potatoes peeled and cubed
celery salt
salt
black pepper ground
garlic powder

Mix the meat and veggies in a sauce pan if the meat isn't juicey add about a half cup of water.  Heat to a boil and boil about three minutes, put a lid on the pan to keep the steam in.  Season, to taste, with the spices a pinch of each will do.

If the mixture is super runny add a bit of corn or potato starch to a couple of tablespoons of water stir until well blended and then add to the veggie meat mix.  Heat until it thickens.

To make the crust brown I coat it with some milk before baking using a pastry brush.

Put into your prepared pie crust cover the mixture with a pie crust round, crimp the sides.  Bake at 375F for about 45 minutes or until bubbling.

DVD Availabilty

My DVD's are now available through my website, I have closed my Etsy.com stores.  The DVD is now condensed to two DVD's both sides are burned which helps to reduce shipping costs! http://www.kbaxterpackwood.com/e-Books.htm

Last Nights Desk Party

Journal pages, late last night.

Garden Journal Pages

Pepper and His Kill

Pepper caught a mouse tonight, John came and took away from him as it was freshly dead and I really don't want any late night gifts brought to me while sleeping!   He was laying beside my chair playing, I thought with Thomas, but when I looked down there he was with a mouse!

Wet Studio Clean Up

Moved some of the paints to the corner shelves, these are fabric paints, so that I could have better access to my mixed media supplies.

I moved my mixed media bins to the shelves, who knew that having them more accessible would mean I'd actually use them!  The crates hold various types of papers and constructed cloth for using in mixed media projects.

Another view, that's Deer Slayer on the table. I need to have John create a rack so that I can put the computer up next to the ceiling, won't go under the table too much stuff there already.  Luckily the Gateway was is a rack server style unit and is meant to be flat not verticle!

Brushes, tons of them everywhere!  This weeks adventure includes a trip to the dollar store in hopes of procurring a couple of those cutlery baskets, I will use them for my paint brushes.

Vintage Rayon Seam Binding

Winter Cloth Year Three

These two pieces of cloth have been outside for three winters now, will wash and do something with them this spring.

Snowy Garden

Soon, soon the snow will be melted, the ground thawed and I'll be able to retrieve last years remaining root crops!  The plans for this garden, this summer, are sugar snap peas and then eventually tomatoes and yellow wax beans.

Ice Jam on the Skunk River

Ice Jam on the Skunk River, I managed to get down the rivers edge and was able to get some really cool photos of the ice that was bunched up. Very inspiring for future stitching projects.

Skunk River Ice

Soon

Soon there will be green grass where the snow once lived.

Weathered Tag

I found this tag in the driveway and attached it to the trellis on the porch, it's been weathering nicely.

Melting

The snow is slowly receeding soon I will be able to work in my garden again!

Late Night Desk Party

I'm contemplating the fuzz in this weeks schedule and releasing a little steam at my desk in the mean time by working in my Garden Journal!

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Plotting and Planning

Plotting and Planning.  John signed off on my moving my studio into the Living Room, and even possibly the Dining room some months ago and I had been dragging my feet... BUT NOW I'm hearing that the rain Iowa has recieved in the last three years will now become common place and I really don't want to have to move my wet studio up from the basement every year... it's very tiring and is extremely stressful.  So, I am thinking of moving those elements upstairs and moving my design studio from the second story down to the living room and this part of my life can now exist in one room, instead of spread out here and there.  Pictures coming and soon.

30/30 Mark Making with Nature Package!

Mark Making with Nature the Package $30.00 (Special Offer)

In this package you will receive ALL THREE BOOKS in one digital PDF download. These three books include Mark Making with Nature, Compost Dyeing and Other Fermentation Dyeing Techniques AND Rust and Clay Dyeing.