Freudian Self portraits

This is my pretentious super ego conte drawing self portrait. It offends me a little.
This is a drawing in conte crayon of my ego.
This too sexy for myspace drawing is of my Id.

Singer 500a, make me some money

I now have two children under the age of two! This makes life very crazy and tiring. I have also started taking classes again. This leaves me with no time or energy for working. So money is getting low. I have a few websites but usually, I make about 10 cents a day, which is sucky pay. Last weekend, I decided to make up some bumper stickers to sell on the websites. I made this Sew what? bumper sticker to go along with my www.singer500a.info site. I think its a really nice looking design, hopefully you do too. You can click on the link to the right to order one for yourself or for all of your sewing friends. It would completely make my day to see someone driving down the street with one of my bumper stickers.

Granny Square Bag

I started this bag a few months ago , maybe when I was 8 months pregnant. It is finally done and the baby is two months old. It really wasn't difficult, but I haven't had much time to myself. A friend of mine taught me how to do granny squares, I went home and started one. It grew and grew, I let it go for many rounds. Then I decided to make it into a shopping bag. I made another large granny square for the other side. I made a border of 3 rows of hdc around the squares. My friend's grandmother went insane and they put her in a home. In the home she crochets small rectangles, she thinks they are full sized blankets that she gives to my friend to donate to needy families. My friend gives them to me, to find a purpose for them. I used a few to make the bottom and sides of the granny square bag. The handles took me a few hours to do today, now it is all done. I still have a trash bag filled with tiny blankets and probably have more coming to me. If you have any ideas for them, let me know.

Dried Herbs

I haven't had time or energy for crochet but my garden is using its own time and energy to produce the herbs I planted last year. My dill spread like crazy, even into my neighbor's yards and gardens. I have been making dilled potatoes and pickles with the dill. My horehound also spread like crazy, I haven't really found a use for that yet but I know it is good for colds and sore throats, so I am drying that also. The echinechea came up really well with plenty of flowers, I'm drying some of that for the fall and winter to protect myself against colds. My marshmallow spread too, it is so invasive, I tried to get rid of most of it. Marshmallow has a really intense tap root system, that is nearly impossible to destroy. But if you have the time, you can boil the roots until you get a thick liquid, then whip that liquid up with sugar and make homemade marshmallows, hence the name. I am drying a bit for tea, it's also good for sore throats. I am also drying some mint, I am using mint this weekend to make mint flavored Shisa for my hookah (see my other blog smokingthehookah.blogspot.com for more on that). My chamomile is doing really well. I pick the flowers daily and lay them on a wicker plate to dry on top of my refrigerator. Chamomile has such a nice green apple scent, I love it. I tried making tea with it last year but it was so bitter. This year, I am making a sleep pillow for my sister, for Christmas.

To dry the herbs:

• cut a few stems and wash them thoroughly
• shake them off and let them dry a bit
• remove leaves from the bottom portion (so it can be wrapped without getting moldy)
• wrap the bundle with a robber band. this works better than tying it with string because as the herb dries, it gets smaller. The rubber band will tighten as it gets smaller, string will not.
• hang the herbs in a cool airy spot where they will not get direct sunlight.
• once the leaves are crispy and crumbly, they are ready to be brought down, crumbled and stored in air tight containers.
• dried herbs are good for one year