The First Week of August

I have been pretty lethargic about sewing the last few days.  I have done a bit of hand sewing but not much else.

As I was wondering through my garden Tuesday evening I noticed I had a couple of green beans.  I started picking and realized I had about 2 lbs.  I figured it was time to call the local farm stand and see if they had any string beans.  They did!  Wednesday morning I loaded up the boys (including DH) and off we went to the farm stand to pick up a bushel of green beans, 3 big bags of corn, and a bag of onions.  Next stop the butcher shop for bacon ends, then home.

The boys helped me locate jars in the basement, we brought them up and threw them in the dishwasher to get clean and sanitized, and I started washing and snapping beans.

I have a deep basin sink, with a small shallow sink next to it.  I will say I despise this sink, it is hard to wash dishes by hand because your only option is to run the hot water constantly, the shallow sink is too small and shallow to use it to rinse unless you want water all over the place.  This is the whole bushel plus the 2 lbs that I had picked the night before.  DH went out and picked another 2 lbs before I started blanching the beans to can. 

Dh and I run 2 pressure canners and we canned 21 quarts of beans.  Have I told you how much I love my new stove with the extra large burners, and the high BTU burners?   I can beans like my great grandmother canned-- with bacon and some onion.

Next week I will do another bushel.

I finally finished my buffet which I have been working on for the past year.  I sanded off a layer of avocado paint, green, yellow, and white paint, and still did not get all the way to bare wood in very many places.  There are lots of neat details in this piece in the woodwork. 

I used Valspar chalk paint I think the color was called corset ribbon, I then sealed it with a Minwax satin poly after distressing it a bit. This is an old piece, the drawers are all dovetailed.  I bought mercury glass looking knobs on the doors, and iron looking handles on the drawer.  I left the other drawer out, put in a board, painted it black inside, cut a hole with a hole saw and fed the cables, and cords through the back.  That drawer area is a perfect fit for the cable box, the Blu ray, the modem, and wireless router.  DVDs and Blu ray movies can fit in the drawer and the door sides.  I told DH now we need a bigger TV. 

I did manage to finish my Navajo block for July's RSC----OK I didn't finish it until it was August but it is finished.  

I worked on quilting a charity quilt.  I think I am about 1/2 way done.   Just simple straight line quilting about 1 inch apart.  The quilt is a diagonal set so it is not even 1 inch quilting all the way across. 

I was notified a few days ago that I won a giveaway for the Island Batik Week on the Aurifil blog.  I won the Claudia Pfeil "Surf Squirt" day.  A large bundle of her yummy Surf Squirt line of batiks.

I am also supposed to receive a box of 12 large spools of Aurifil thread that were chosen especially for her line.  Aren't these yummy!  38 fat quarters of Island Batik goodness, and 12 large spools of Aurifil.  Life can't get even sweeter.