Twenty years I’ve waited …

.. to hear that POP!  What pop?  The pop of the lids on the canning jars as they seal!

Remember when I told you about Mabel, the dear, sweet woman who lived next door to us when I was growing up?  The woman who was my step-in grandmother when I was growing up (since my real grandmothers lived states away).  The woman who taught me to garden, made me my first quilt, let me play with ceramics, and cooked lovely scrumptiously delicious apple turnovers?

Well, Mabel also inspired me to make jelly and to can things.  Mabel made the absolute best Mayhaw jelly and pickled okra ever.  Although inspired, however, I’ve never actually had the courage to do anything about that inspiration until tonight.  I was convinced it was too hard.

But as of an hour ago tonight, there are three jars of okra pickling and one jar of cucumber slices. SWEET!  And as they cool from the processing, the lids go POP! I’m so excited about this I can barely sit still!!

Walk down memory lane

I’m working on gathering up fourteen years of kitty pictures so I can make some sort of a collagey-thing about kitty. He managed, in many of his photos, to give me this look of long-suffering “you are boring me with this flash in my face please go away ah! I’m blind” look. Which is probably what he thought. I even have pictures of him with his paw over his face.

Looking through old photos is always a lovely walk down memory lane. At this point, college seems like quiiiiite a while ago. I’d kinda forgotten how pathetic my housekeeping skills once were - my first apartment was TRASHED. After that, it was really either learn to keep house better or just throw it all away. Do you know I once had an entire room filled with broken down empty boxes? Lovely!

I also ran across some of my memorabilia. This particular shadow box has one of my little collections of things I love. I do love the collections people have, the things they treasure over the years scattered around their house. It says something if people have these collections or not, too.

The book is Seventy Lessons in Spelling, a little teaching book from my paternal grandmother’s childhood. There’s a little purple book I made as a resolution one year. The bell and the cup were my grandmother’s also, which she left me. The buddha … well, that’s because I like laughing Buddha. The tile is from my Aunt Becky’s trip to Spain - I’m quite fond of Spanish repeating designs - it’s the Arabic influence. The mermaid is The Little Mermaid of the folk story. My brother gave me that and the book after he took a trip to Denmark.

What you can’t see on top is the wooden cutout of the church in Iowa where my family has belonged. It’s sitting next to an icon I bought near a small and beautiful church in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Ah, memory

I Need A Garage

I found out earlier today that it’s been flooding in Iowa - in fact, right down the road from where I have family in Black Hawk County. I don’t read the news, or watch the news, so I was completely unaware there was a disaster area in progress (Aunt B, I talked to mom, she says you’re fine, good to know!!!). I was looking at the news and seeing a lot of places I know that were under water. Very disturbing. I hope the water dies down and gets back under control.

Black-bellied whistling ducks in Jennifer’s back yard.

So yeah, I really need a garage, but all I’ve got is a parking lot, so I’m down here at my mother-in-law’s house borrowing hers. There’s decoupaging going on. I wish I could show you my hands right now. They are covered in primer, Mod Podge and polyurethane varnish. Yum! When it’s done, I will have some cool furniture, but at the moment it’s all sticky and drying in the garage. I have to say, though, that I am lucky to have a handy husband, or I would pprobably be wearing my decoupage project. This is not neat, and requires 4 hands.

Grapefruit in progress.

Jennifer, my mother-in-law, attracts wild animals like the rest of us attract mosquitos and flies. Did I ever mention the parrot that landed in her back yard? The raccoons and deer she used to take in? The squirrel that was sleeping in her bird feeder? The pregnant cat on her front step? I think I posted a picture of some ducks that have been hanging out every night here, I saw them this evening.

There’s some crazy plants around here. Jennifer’s grapefruit and tangelo trees have started to go nuts. This is the subtropics, after all, and citrusy things do really well. Then again, all her plants do really well. Her neighbor also has the green thumb I’ve always wished I had. She has a serious talent for placing flowers.

Hope you and yours are having a restful weekend. We’re having fun with animals. Jennifer has two dogs (a pug and a Lhasa Apso) that our dog usually “herds” when she’s here, as she’s younger and more energetic. However, this time we brought little kitten, who’s giving everyone a run for their money (including me). See you tomorrow! I’m off to apply more acrylic to my decoupage. And hopefully, I’ll try to avoid fumes, and all that nonsense.