Cabin Fever crafting- snow dyeing fabrics

Heat Miser and Freeze Miser battled it out in Southtown this week giving Birmingham and much of the South a snow and ice event. The Boys, as Mother Nature calls them, forgot to inform those in charge of the weather forecasting in the Birmingham area. Those boys always did have a tendency to pull pranks. (Image on the left is the snow just getting started)

So, with two to three inches of snow blanketing the area, and being very, very fortunate not to have spent the night in the car in sub-freezing temps as so many did in Birmingham, I decided this was my rare chance to snow dye fabrics, instead of my usual ice dyeing- with ice from the freezer.

The day started out with an understanding of a dusting in central Alabama, so we all proceeded to work and school as usual. And when the snow started, it was pretty and the assumed dusting was underway. Then we were a city of hills disabled by tiny snow pellets that regular tires cannot grip. I just made it into the melee before the majority of the battlers got in the fight to get home- or to get to children. Two miles and an hour and a half was getting of light.

Image on the right was taken from my car after sitting in "traffic", which really means cars on a major interstate going 1-2 mph for about an hour. Note that I had three bars of gas and three bars of energy in the batteries, I drive a prius. That school bus had been blocking the lanes and attempting to get up the hill for 20-30 minutes. I didn't know at the time that there was school kids on it headed home from a field trip until I posted the pic on facebook and a mom of one of the kids on board commented. However, my 3-4 miles in just over an hour was fast compared to most people.

Once I got home and calmed down from a most harrowing experience, I looked at all the snow and the art show looming in two weeks. Then, I got to work! Soaking the silk and rayon in the soda ash liquid arranging it into the dye boxes and heading out to the back yard with a big spoon to scoop up snow.

box of fabric covered in snow                                  sprinkling the dye                              boxes read for time to do its work.

first image shows too much white fabric, at least for me. So, image two, I added tiny ice cubes to add more water and draw more dye into the fabric. Third image shows the completed dye process with no white fabric.

Snow + fiber reactive dyes + plant based fibers = love color!

I did four boxes of scarves for my art show next weekend, above are some of the silk scarves.

Now off to finish my knitting, I need to make a "zombie apocalypse" kit, as my friend calls it,  in preparation for the next weather event and in case I have to walk miles to get home, as so many has to this weekend. New water repellent cowl and mittens to cover my gloves. Hopefully, I will never need them.

New in the shop- elephant and tiger go head to head

I'm not a football fan... even though I live in Alabama. However, over the past couple of weeks I have stumbled upon a handsome brass elephant and an equally brass tiger. So for football season, here is my homage to football in the state of Alabama. Please click on the link to take you to the listing on the item on line!


Handsome tiger.


Handsome elephant.

Etsy team: Brooks Barrow- stone carving

One of the great things about etsy, beside the ability to run your own online and international business, and all that entails, is things like "teams". I am on a few teams, one of the most active is the Alabama Accents. We are currently promoting each other businesses each day in March.

Today, we are celebrating Brooks Barrow! He creates fantastic carved stone pieces that can be found in private collections, as well as museums. You can click HERE to find his shop.

Here is a collection things I love from Brooks Barrow- it's all about the carved stone!

Etsy Team: Lucky Clover Boutique

One of the great things about etsy, beside the ability to run your own online and international business and all that entails, is things like "teams". I am on a few teams, one of the most active is the Alabama Accents. We are currently promoting each other businesses each day.

Today, we are celebrating www.luckycloverboutique.etsy.com! Erin creates great tutus and bows with a collection of pretty jewelry that is on sale. You can click HERE to find her shop.

Her tutu's range from seasonal to whimsical. Here are some of her fun seasonal tutu's!

HOLA- veggie box first of February

HOLA- handmade, organic, local, artisan

Today's HOLA is this week's veggie box from Moore's Farm via Freshfully!

Last week's box yielded some great meals and I am hoping for the same this week.

Here's my box!

From to top reading clockwise-
Apples, who knows what kind, but the pie last week was delish. These apples really cook down.
Cabbage, slaw, cooked... I love cabbage!
Spinach, I think this will be salad
Lettuce, also salad
Sweet Potatoes- I'm roasting them with a butternut squash - plenty to freeze leftovers
Bell Pepper- salad, western omelet, slaw - these are a staple!
Swiss Chard- I will cook these and we will see. The only other time I cook them was some super old ones from my garden and they were tough.

I'm sad to see that there was no pecans like week, those were great! Maybe next week!

The first yard bouquet

Every year I get excited about the first yard bouquet for my desk. Being in Alabama, it will usually include hydrangeas and gardenias. Though my hydrangeas bloom first, it seems it is never worthy enough to create a bouquet until you have something that is scented. Once the gardenias bloom, the bouquets are ON!

One of the thing I love about hydrangeas is the  bigger they grow and the deeper the roots spread in the soil, the more contact they have with minerals that can change their color. Each year you can have a variety of color and they can change from year to year. Adding soil amendments can change the color, but I like the surprise of finding out what I will be getting each year.
Growing flowers for cutting gardens are beneficial on many ways. They provide you with an opportunity of enhance or alter your indoor environment with the addition of color. Additionally, the flower provide food for bees, hummingbirds and if they make berries, food for birds in the winter. Cutting gardens are a win/win for the indoor and outdoor environment!


"Yard" bouquests in your work space, like this one on my desk, provides for a place
for you eyes to rest when thinking. Allowing your eyes to rest on something from
nature "resets" you brain faster than resting on something man-made!

Germinating- waiting

Day two of my germinating experiment, and I am surprised at the amount of heat the CFL's can put out. For the past two mornings I have needed to give the box of seed germination containers a hit on the heating pad for about 10-15 minutes to get the soil up to temp, around 71-75 degrees and the lamps seem to take care of maintaining it. I did give it a second hit this morning since it wasn't getting hot fast enough. My home thermostat, during the day, stay around 68 degrees on the top floor, which is not where the future seedlings are. So, I think they would stay too cool without the heating pad and lights. I've made many a moldy mess of germinating in the past from cold windowsills.
I found some more seedlings coming up in the spinach patch yesterday as I was covering them up with pine straw due to the possible snow.  Snow in Birmingham three days after Spring begins... I tell you! Not that I saw any snow, but it was very cold. So I'm hoping my seedlings stayed warm enough. I don't want to disturb the straw or the umbrella on the lettuce, so I can retain any heat this cloudy day can inpart. Tomorrow, they can strip their winter clothes, hopefully for good.

inspired by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover

I have dabbled in gardening, off and on, for most of my life. As I child, my sister and I helped, and I say this without air quotes because I think we were a help more than a hinderance, with my grandmother and great grandmothers garden. As a young teen, I decided to turn a garbage can that was ready to make it's final pick-up into a composter. As a adult, I have made small gardens or gardens in large flower pots. This is the year that I will be truely inspired to change the word garden from a noun to a verb in all caps. Not just some tomatoes in a pot, an herb bed and some space saving cukes, but an honest feed the family type of garden. I'll be recording my journey here,  beginning today.
I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about a year ago. Well, I don't really "read" books, I listen to them on my ipod. And, I decided to revisit this book as I am planning my garden for some organic food living. I had fogotten how much I like this book. I enjoy books that you learn from, an though this is a great story, it's full of good information, especially if you don't know much about where food comes from.
My garden will be as organic as my wallet allows. I still have some old fertilizer that I will be using, if the plants look a little peeky, because I hate to waste things by throwing them out. I'd rather use them up. And, I will be using seeds that I realized after I bought them that some of them could be from a Monsanto seed mill. But, as I'm not a waster, I'll still be using them.
I hope yu enjoy my journey, and maybeyou will be inspired too!