Ask and ye shall receive...

Baby Cuke
Originally uploaded by gshower7

Glorious, beautiful sunshine, low humidity, and not too hot. Thank you, Mom, for moving the weather system through, FINALLY, and leaving us with a few good days before you start dumping water on us again.

Good things in the mail today include:
- My new authorization card (so I can play at Pennsic),
- My stereo-sound copy of GuitarHero III (so I can play after Pennsic), and
- My school loan bill (so I can pay it now, and be able to live after Pennsic without fear of bill collectors showing up at my door to break my thumbs... ok, maybe not really in the category of "good things", but a 2-item list is dumb.)

Spent an hour and a half ironing fabric last night, 3 chemises are done, 3 quick gowns to finish, and then I am done sewing, I think. Might make another skirt, maybe. Possibly a second fencing shirt... maybe... Yay for sweatshop! I work well with a looming deadline if it's something I want to do.

(what? me? one track mind? nah...)

Success Post!

Hoya carnosa 2
Originally uploaded by gshower7

A good day, overall... vacuumed, cleaned dishes, got dishes dirty, cleaned more dishes, did laundry, cut/sewed garb, got stuff done! Yay! The Hoya plant in my sewing room is still blooming, 2 1/2 months after it started, with no signs of slowing down. All the flower spurs are on at least round 3 of blossoms, and there are more buds on the way on the ones that aren't blooming at the moment. I am impressed and happy.

Made lemon-balm sun tea (with a leaky sun tea-maker... that's what you get for $3.88 at Wal-Mart in the off season, though... I'll find some caulking...), which is really about like water with lemon slice, though not quite so tangy. It is, however, absolutely wonderful with a few tsp of the lavender syrup I made last week. Finally figuring out what to do with these herbs I keep growing is incredibly satisfying. Tasty, too.

Despite all efforts to the contrary, I have also successfully created Lemon-Mint Sekanjabin. What a comedy of errors. Nearly dropped the pot lid on my foot to begin with, the sugar/water syrup boiled over, making a mess of the stovetop and pot, the lemon balm had slugs and bugs (which were swiftly removed in the initial rinse BEFORE putting into the syrup mix. Fear not, those that will be potentially consuming said beverage), and I came very close to slicing my hand whilst cutting open the lemons. That would have been exceedingly pleasant. Everything perked and steeped and filtered out just like it was supposed to when it was done, though. I then took that opportunity to slip and pour fully a third of the finished syrup all over my hand and the bottle, and subsequently down the drain. nrrggghhhh... I really, really need to find a bigger funnel. At least it was over the sink, so I didn't have to clean up sticky, sugary mess over everything...