How did this happen?

How did we go from this:

to this:

so quickly?

Somehow my son, Andrew, as turned into an adult. My calendar shows that it has been 21 years but honestly, it hasn't felt like much more than 21 weeks.

They have been among the most wonderful years of my life - although I have to admit that those years have also included some of the most frustrating moments of my life. Those few moments have been completely worth it. Andrew is a kind, smart, funny, polite, responsible young man.

I'm proud of you, son.

Love,
Mom

In a Pickle

"So few people eat okra (more radishes are grown in this country) that it never even makes it onto the lists of Top 10 hated foods." - Mississippi native and author Julia Reed

Now, that's an unpopular vegetable. Okra really needs a good public relations firm to give it an image makeover. Most people cook it until it has the texture of mucus. This is the wrong way to cook it. My father has always grown okra in his vegetable garden and it tends to be very prolific. So, we have eaten it all sorts of ways. It's really quite delicious when very small pods are lightly steamed, just until they are tender. You can add some hollandaise sauce if you want to be fancy, but just a little butter is good, too. And, fried okra is food fit for the gods.

But, even most okra-haters like pickled okra. It stays crisp and green and has a little bite from hot peppers. My mother made jars of okra pickles every year and my father has suggested that I try to make some with his current crop. I've always resisted before, but I decided that this was the Year of Pickled Okra.

I bought the jars and other pickling supplies and wished I had paid attention when my mother was making her okra pickles. I went on a hunt for dill seed - found at Richard's Foodporium - and a hunt for recipes and method. The methods varied widely from no processing after adding the vinegar to boiling in a water bath for two hours. I decided to go with five minutes. My husband grew the little peppers.

(Please forgive the photography; I took this in my kitchen where the lighting wasn't very good.)

Making pickles makes for a messy kitchen, by the way.

But, after much boiling of things, I ended up with this:

They are really quite beautiful. The red peppers contrast nicely with the green okra pods.

Best of all, the little circle in the middle of the lids popped down with a very satisfying "ping." That means that the jar sealed. I am so proud of my domesticity.

I have to wait about two weeks for the vinegar and various seasonings to do their thing and then we will have an okra pickle tasting. I'll keep you posted...





The "Daily Bird" project has hatched!

So far, so good. As I said in my first post, I am planning to make a fabric bird daily for a year. Every.Single.Day. Three hundred and sixty-five birds. As of June 17, I have not missed a day. (Well, to be honest, I haven't made today's yet because I've been figuring out how to make a Flickr mosaic. But I will. I promise!)

In case you missed it in the parenthetical phrase above, I have also learned how to make one of those cool photo mosaics you see all over blogland! It was much easier than I thought it would be, particularly if you use the secret weapon found at BigHugeLabs.com. Go here if you want to try it.

So, without further ado...my photo mosaic of my daily birds....

1. june 1, 2. june 2, 3. june 3, 4. june 4, 5. june 5, 6. june 6, 7. june 7, 8. june 8, 9. june 9, 10. june 10, 11. june 11, 12. june 12, 13. june 13, 14. june 14, 15. june 15, 16. june 16

If you want the details, you can click on the dates at the bottom to go to the larger picture and read that bird's description.

I'd love your comments. I think I have set my blog so that you don't have to register to comment but let me know if you have a problem.

I'll be back soon - I promise!

I haven't posted in quite a while because things got too hectic all of a sudden. The main event is that our sweet black lab, Tally, is quite ill. She apparently ate something wrapped in a paper towel because we found the remains of the paper towel.

She has been in the vet's care since last Friday morning, including the weekend critical care hospital in Sarasota. She came back to Bradenton this morning but we had to take her back to the Sarasota hospital so that she could be monitored through the night. She had exploratory surgery on Saturday, but no obstruction - just lots of inflammation of her intestines. She is still not well and we are very worried.

It's funny how much time worry can take out of a day. I have kept busy of course, but really haven't been able to concentrate for interesting blog posts, photographs, etc.

I have continued my bird project, though. Today's bird was black with a big red heart, with lots of healing thoughts for Tally as I made it. I will photograph and post the pictures before the end of the week, I promise.

In the meantime, please send good thoughts and prayers for my sweet dog. Thank you.

The Redemption of "Bless Your Heart"


I am starting a grassroots campaign to restore the good name of the good Southern phrase "bless your heart." Somewhere along the line, someone (ahem...Yankee) decided that "bless your heart" was really a veiled insult. That anything could be said, no matter how ugly, if it was followed by "bless your/his/her heart." I think it started as a joke but has begun to be accepted as gospel.

This is not true. An insult is an insult, no matter how many hearts are blessed in the making. And, generally speaking, Southerners do not offer gratuitous insults, especially veiled ones. If we are going to put you down in some way, you are going to know it and you will probably deserve it. We may use some colorful analogies. For instance, in my father's hometown of Hartford, Alabama, people who marched to their own drums were described as "crazy as old Bill Calhoun." No, I don't know who he was and I'm not sure anyone does, but he was the benchmark for crazy and no hearts were blessed in the describing.

In fact, blessing someone's heart is a lovely thing to do. The phrase may be used as an expression of gratitude as in "You are so sweet to bring me some banana bread, bless your heart!" Or sympathy, i.e. "Did you hear that his mother passed away? Bless his heart, they were always so close." Or even relief such as "Bless your heart! I didn't know what I was going to do stuck out here with this flat tire and no spare!" Let me add that these phrases are frequently spoken to strangers who have brought banana bread, sadly spoken of a mutual friend's death or stopped to change a tire. That's how we roll in the South.

In none of these examples is "bless your heart" meant to be snarky or sarcastic. In all of them, it is used for emphasis to show how much the gesture means. I have always used - and will continue to use - "bless your heart" in its original, sweet meaning. I hope that everyone will join with me in restoring its good name and intention.

The world has plenty of snark and sarcasm these days. What we really need are more blessings - of everything, but especially hearts.

Thrifty Thursday

That sounds like it's going to be a weekly feature but don't count on it. But, I do love me some alliteration and boy, did I score some bargains yesterday! I went to the warehouse sale of Sarasota accessories company, Kristine. I love sales like this - picking through bins of new merchandise that is practically free. Like the Dollar Tree, but better stuff.

I don't know how much all of this originally cost, but look what I got for $42:

I found several pairs of earrings for a dollar that I will probably deconstruct for the beads. I also got two little patent leather purse/wallets. One is bright yellow and one is bright pink. They have a detachable shoulder strap and a pocket on the outside to hold my cell phone and lipstick.

See - they hold all sorts of cards and cash. Can you read the price on the inside label? It says $24.99. Do you see the green sticker on the outside of the pink one? The one with the "2." Yep, I paid two dollars each for these.

I found some things that I am going to use for crafting supplies.

I bought two of these pearl bracelets with the fabric flowers. They are actually pretty cute worn as bracelets, but I can also take them apart and have lots of pearls and two cute flower embellishments. They also cost $2 each. I'm not sure what the yellow fabric squares are for, but the print was really cute. They are about 12 inches square and double-sided. At a dollar each, I thought they were a bargain. When I got home and opened the package, there were two in each!

But I think this is my favorite find:



These are rhinestone cuff bracelets. They are about three inches wide and the rhinestone part is a little over five inches long. They are definitely too "bling-y" for me to ever wear in public, but the bracelets are made from individual strips of rhinestones. You can sort of see this in the silver one on the top. I already cut one up to decorate yesterday's daily bird and I am in love with the possibilities. I got two silver ones, one gold one and one copper one. And they cost...wait for it...two dollars each!

It was a happy day.

Fresh Start!

I recently read a blog* that compared blogging to dating. It's more spontaneous with less commitment than a web site. You have more freedom, more experimentation.

So, I have broken it off with my old blog (Flamingos and Hedgehogs, found here) and started a new one. F & H and I had simply grown apart. Sure, I could have tried to change it - or myself - to make it work, but I just didn't see any future for us.

So, I'm happy to introduce you to "fresh made by susan." As you can see from the picture above, we've been together for a while now, and even participated in the "Made Here" craft show together. I've already made business cards and things seem to be working out. So, it seems like time to take things public.

The little bird in the photo - that's part of the fresh start. I've decided to make a little fabric bird like the one pictured every day for a year. Yes, I realize I will end up with three hundred and sixty-five stuffed birds. I have some thoughts about what I am going to do with them, but that's still evolving in my brain.

Because I am most comfortable with some structure, I have two rules for this project. Rule One: I must make a bird every day. Rule Two: I must document the inspiration and the materials used. I hope to also photograph each bird as I make it, I may not achieve that and that's okay. And, I may not feel particularly inspired some days, but that's okay too. Refer to Rule One.

This blog will include the photos of the daily birds on a semi-regular basis. But, the most fun about having a blog is that I can write about whatever I want to so I am sure I will wander down other posting roads.

I'm excited about this fresh start - and Fresh Made - and am glad you have joined me.

Susan

* I can't remember where I read this analogy but it's a great one and the author totally deserves credit. If I figure it out, I promise to tell everyone who the author is.