Dragonfly: March 1996-August 2011

Today was a very sad day. Due to her eye cancer, we had to put down my beloved cow Dragonfly (a.k.a. Drags, a.k.a Draggie Babes), who is pretty much the love of my life. I raised her up from a newborn baby and she's been my best friend for 15 years. To some people it's just a cow, but to me, she's an absolute family member, and that's what I feel like I've lost.

Dragonfly always loved her special treats, whether it was apples, rotten tomatoes, corn husks, or pumpkins. She loved being brushed, especially under the neck. And she had a trademark misshapen right ear from where her brother had once taken a bite out of it to see if it was tasty.

In honor of my darling, I put together a little slideshow of some of my favorites images of my Draggie Babes. I originally had it set to Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful," but the music didn't carry over when I posted it. I guess it doesn't really matter, because she'll always be beautiful to me. Even the vet, who probably sees a hundred cows a day, once remarked what a pretty cow she was. So this is for you Drags, you are so beautiful to me. I love you.

Dragonfly

Dried Flower Teapot

I made this little teapot flowerpot as a special request for someone at the farm market. She gave me the teapot and asked me if I could do some kind of dried flower arrangement in it.

To make this project you will need:
An empty teapot
Floral foam
Dried flowers (I used two kinds statis, strawflowers, coxcomb and goldenrod, but dried yarrow would also be a nice addition if you have any)
A piece of brightly colored ribbon
Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Begin by putting the floral foam in the bottom of the pot (I glued my foam to the bottom of the pot so it wouldn't move around). Start by sticking a spring of goldenrod right in the center. This will be the base that everything else gets worked around.

Continue adding statis, strawflowers, and coxcomb to all sides of the goldenrod, sticking them firmly into the floral foam. Make sure the goldenrod remains taller than the rest of the arrangement. Keep adding flowers until the entire teapot is filled, then add a 3 or 4 springs of whispy, white statis (it looks similar to dried baby's breath), so that the stems stick of out of arrangement.

Take a thick piece of statis and coat the stem in hot glue. Slide it into the spout and hold it for a moment so the glue secures it to the inside of the teapot spout. Lastly, form a nice bow out of the ribbon and hot glue it onto the handle of the teapot.

Market Day

I made a new record this weekend, cramming 27 flower bouquets into one tiny car, and I still had room to drive!

The Stand is Open!

Ok, the corn is finally ripe so the stand is now officially open. As it's so dry (the pumpkins are actually turning orange already because they're so stressed from lack of water) and since everything is so late because it's so dry, we're only stocking the stand Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this year. And as always, it's usually not stocked much before 11:00 AM, but after that it's open till dark. Enjoy!

Olive Oil Soap

Well, I'm getting closer. This was my second try at a batch if oilve oil soap, and while it didn't exactly work out, I think I'm getting closer. I used a bar of olive oil soap once and it was one of the nicest I've ever used, and recently several people at the market have asked me if I do oilve oil soap. So, I've been working on trying to make some. I have a recipe, but I think I'm going to have to alter it. I can't seem to get it to trace following the recipe, so I'll think I'll change the recipe before I wreck another batch.

The difficult part is that I'm used to using lard in the soapmaking, whereas the olive oil recipe is a castile (no animal products). That and I use my own homemade lye, so it's a bit more unpredictable than storebought. I think I'm going to get myself some palm oil to add to the olive oil, that might help a bit. (And I only use certified, sustainably grown palm oil). A batch or two more, and I just might have some bars to take to market.

Downtown Art Show

It was the street arts festival in Canandaigua today, so after the market I parked my car (under the pavillion where I already was because I knew there wouldn't be another parking space for miles), and headed out to the sidewalks. I try to hit it every year. There're always some old favorites, as well as some new ones. I really liked the woman making shampoo bars. It was so interesting, I might have to try it myself. I already know how to make soap from scratch, so I can't imagine shampoo bars would be that different, just a change in a few ingredients.

I collected a lot of cards, I always do at this thing. Some are for inspiration, and some are for people I might want to look up later. And as always, I stopped by the tie-dye guy and the batik woman. I do a little tiedying and batiking myself, but it's time-consuming, so it's always nice to walk into a tent and see walls of it.

Of course the highlight of the sidewalk trip: Fried Dough!

Squirrel Deterrent

It happens every year, the nuts on Gramma's trees and the fruit in our are little orchard are growing beautifully. They get just about ripe, and suddenly BAM! they're gone. Where have they gone, they're taken by the squirrels of course. Between ourselves and Gramma, we've tried almost every deterring technique known to man, save one: Plastic Bags. Believe it or not, this simple solution works better than all the rest.

Just tie a few plastic bags to the trees with fruit or nut and allow them to blow in the wind. The presence of the bags (and probably the noise as well) does wonders to keep the squirrels away, which means we'll actually be able to enjoy the fruit of the trees we worked so hard to take care of. And so as not to deprive the squirrels of everything, we have a bunch of butternut and walnut trees in our yard that they're welcome to.

Simple Pleasures Project, Day 23

Well, I'm 23 days into The Simple Pleasures Project, and I'm loving it. It's amazing the way it really makes one realize just how many of the little things we take for granted. Fortunately, I now have the time to notice and enjoy those little things, things like sharing a hug with my best friend.



Dragonfly (the cow) and me.

Making a Fairy Part 2: The Dress

For the fairy dress, I had a fair bit of white satin leftover from a wedding gown I'd done last year, so I made the fairy dress out of that. I double-layered it on the body part of the dress so it wouldn't be see through, and fortunately satin is still light enough to wear to a summer Ren Fest.

For the gold trim on the pointed sleeves and the collar I found a polyester fabric that worked great. The dress has a zippered back. The costume was finished off with a pair of pointed ears, like the elf's. Glittery makeup, a flute, and a greenery wreath for the head also make excellent fairy embellishments.