Late May Day, Forgetfulness, and Aprons.

Sheesh. I think the planets are aligned against me being a frequent and timely blogger. I swear, I start these things every day, but there's always something 'conspiring' against me, pulling me away to do more important work (reading..sewing...taking care of my pack of wild monkeys child). I will say, though, that my one (quite distracting) vice is now no more, as I've finished the Twilight series. Although I hate to end a good series, I have to say I'm a bit thankful- as I wasn't getting anything done. Now I can focus again.
We are now into the lovely (and scorching hot) month of May. I hope everyone on the Mainland is having fun with the weather, and appreciating the blooms popping up around you. we don't have many new blooms- as everything is in pretty much constant bloom here, but I did notice that some of the herbs have gotten flowers. Typically you should pinch the flowers off herbs, and I did... after snapping a few pics. It's a shame to pull them off, as they are so delicate and sweet, but if it's between flowers and food- well, I think you guys know where I stand on food.
Our May Day was spent at Home Depot, picking out new flowers for our window boxes. I'm so thankful that Hubby loves going garden-shopping as much as (if not more than!) I do- we could spend hours in the flower aisles. We came away with some happy garden mums- I'm not sure why, but I always disliked the mums back home- they came out in force around Thanksgiving- in burnt orange hues- maybe just because they graced every single Maryland front porch, I was snobby about them. But these yellow and purple ones spoke to me, and I'm loving what they add to our front porch. I also think these would make lovely wedding centerpieces....hint hint to someone getting married soon. Always looking out for you.

In addition to replanting my boxes, Hubby did all of the grass-related yard work. I haven't been feeling fabulous lately (have you ever sucked on a mouthful of pennies? yea..uh....neither have I. But, HAD I experienced something as totally weird and gross as that, I could imagine the flavor being similar to the taste in my mouth almost constantly. Ugh.) Usually yard work is my 'chore', which I actually like, as it gets me outside and in the sun. But, what with my icky tummy, it's been- well, neglected. So DH went out and did it all- edging, weeding, planting, and brick laying included. Woohoo, I'm lucky. ;)

I went to make him a Thank-You treat. We had gone to Costco and were woo-ed by the some ungodly pounds of strawberries. I thought, hmm, strawberry muffins? I had some bran, so planned on an oat-bran muffin, assembled all my ingredients, and got to work. Except...uh, no eggs. Sigh. I looked online for an egg-less muffin, found one, and got to work. Except...uh, no actual flour. Jeez. So I just looked in the pantry to see what I DID have. EEEK, not much. I had some silken-tofu, so I thought- strawberry cheesecake, but alas, no ingredients for crust. Turns out the ONLY THING I could make was a smoothie. Poor DH. This is sooo un Mary Jane. However, I do, at least, make a darn good smoothie:

about half a cup of peanut butter
roughly half a box of silken tofu
a few handfuls of sliced strawberries
a pour of soy milk
a pour of juice- I used apple
a scoop or two of flax meal
a dollop of honey

As you can tell, this is a very precise recipe. It sure is yummy, though. (As just an aside, I did run out to get eggs that evening- so he has muffins waiting for him when he came home. Stud-muffins. Har har.)

To compliment my mad kitchen skizzeels, I've been sewing/planning to sew some aprons lately. These two were made as gifts:

I didn't have a pattern to use, and just kinda winged it, but I think they turned out pretty well. I quilted one:
...and added ruffles to the other.

It was my first time doing ruffles, and well, I've practiced a lot since I finished this one. Oh well. Now I know.

And I found these beauties (cloth napkins) while thrift shopping: I went looking for pillowcases, which is just never really a fruitful hunt here. But these are fun, and about fifty cents each- I think they'll make adorable little aprons.

I especially like this one: It's so hideously 80's. I'm not going to keep it, so if anyone loves it as much as me, lemme know and it's yours.


We've also begun a Very Big Project here in our house. I wanna keep it secret until completed for the WOW factor...but here's a hint:
The person who guesses the room involved correctly first gets a homemade change/makeup/small-loose-items bag. I believe the blog is now set up so that anyone can comment (no account required) so don't be shy people!