don't call me becky dot com

balloon festival

Every year, Howell, MI hosts the Michigan Challenge Balloon Festival. Every year I have intentions of attending. Every year, I manage to miss out on the fun...But, not this year! My mom, sister, Jon and I made it to the last evening of festivities on Sunday and sat around for two hours waiting for the wind to die down enough for the balloons to launch. We were beginning to worry that they would not take off the ground, but at around 8:30, they gave the okay for a few balloons to launch. All in all, we saw about 10 balloons take off.

Ever since parachute day in gym class in elementary school, I've always wanted to take a balloon ride. One day, I will take a ride in a hot air balloon...one day!

In exciting news, this is a joint post with Jon. Check out his site for the balloon video that he made. And you can see the rest of the photos in this flickr set.

kitchen things

Jon and I made this little tart yesterday morning. We were looking for different ways to cook asparagus and this came up on a google search.

Asparagus Tart (recipe from epicurious.com). We didn't have half and half, so we used skim milk. And we didn't have turmeric (or we couldn't find it in our jumbled mess of a spice cupboard...ugh!), so we skipped it.

The tart came out delicious and we would definitely make it again. Asparagus is so yummy!

I sent this little tea towel across the pond to my friend, Jodi, who's living and working in Brussels right now for six months. We were bummed that we couldn't make it over to visit Jodi, so I had to send the next best thing...a tea towel, of course! Jodi's a budding classical guitarist and she's got an awesome collection of unique tea towels and kitchen accessories, so I thought this would be the perfect, compact gift to send. The pattern is from the sublime stitching book.

summer afternoons

We had a busy morning today. We headed down to Eastern Market with my aunt and uncle to stock up on some fresh fruits and vegetables...

But, wait a minute, that's not fruit! Well, my aunt introduced us to this place called Rocky's that is stocked with all different kinds of candy and bulk foods. I scored a bag of these crunchy gummy worms. Sour gummy worms are probably my most favorite candy, so I was glad to find this candy with a twist.

After, we had tamales in Mexican town, went grocery shopping at the Honey Bee, a great Mexican grocery store, and ended up at Slow's Barbecue for some smoked applewood chicken sandwiches with spicy mustard (yummy!).

We bought tons of strawberries so that I could make strawberry freezer jam...

While I was "slaving" away in the kitchen making jam, I spotted my three roommates enjoying an afternoon nap (not fair!).

 

...we bought four times as many strawberries as we needed, so I ended up making two batches of jam (12 jars) and then freezing the rest for cereal toppings and smoothie ingredients. Freezer jam doesn't involve any sterilization or boiling or checking jar seals. All you have to do is mix crushed fruit, sugar and pectin together and pour into jars. After letting the jars sit for 24 hours, you move the jars to the fridge and use as needed. The jars of jam are supposed to last for up to a year. Hopefully, this jam will taste delicious!

update

It's been a while since I've posted...it gets a little hard to get back into the swing of blogging, but here goes...
 

We've been enjoying our gardens. The peonies were in bloom a few weeks ago and we managed to have a vase full of flowers inside for a few days (ants and all!)

Our veggies seem to be doubling in size each day! We've been enjoying lots of great salads with our lettuce crop. We planted 12 plants this year instead of 4 like last year and we're racing to keep up with the supply.

We saw a fabulous movie last weekend, thanks to my long lost friend, Courtney, from high school telling me that I should get out to see it. It's called The Fall and I guess it could be considered similar to The Princess Bride, but with nicer scenery and a more complex plot line (a young girl is sick in a hospital and she befriends a man who tells her a fantasy story).
 

A few weeks ago, we made it out to see the Orchid Ensemble at the Detroit Festival of the Arts. This was by far my favorite musical group featuring the erhu! If they're ever in your neighborhood and you enjoy music from the Silk Road, you should try to see them.

I have had a bit of time to do some crafting. I finished this dress literally minutes before we brought it over to its new owner, little baby Claire. This dress was a lot more fun to make than Jon's sweater. Mainly because it took only a little over one ball of yarn and a whole lot less time! I think I see lots more baby garments in my future (especially if my friends keep getting pregnant so often : ) I did run out of pink at the end, and after searching for a second ball at four different stores to no avail, I realized that it is probably a discontinued color. So, I improvised and added the brown for an accent color on the bottom and as a crocheted edge on the top.

 

Pattern: Little Sister's Dress

Needles: Size 5
Gauge: my gauge was bigger than recommended, so I made the 0-3 month size in hopes that it would fit more like a 3-6 month size. Claire is a tiny baby, so she should be able to wear this in the fall
Yarn: Bernat Satin MaiTai (pink) and Mocha (brown)
 

summer afternoons

there's nothing nicer on a hot afternoon than a long nap under a cool fan (other than ice cream, that is)!

charm square quilt top

About a month ago, I sorted, ironed and folded all of my scrap fabric. Along the way, I cut out 5x5 squares to make this quilt. The border is 3" wide when cut and 2.5" after sewing.

This fabric has been staring me in the face for the past three week and I finally got around to making the quilt top last night. I've been admiring these patchwork charm square quilts forever, so I'm glad that I got to jump on the bandwagon!

photo meme

This meme has been going around the blog world these past few days (thanks Amy and Dallas). I wanted to try too!

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

painting: before & after

I spent the past two evenings painting and fixing up our guest bedroom. I'm getting the room ready for the new quilt that I'll be making from the blocks from the virtual quilting bee, Common Threads, that I'm participating in.

Ever since we first painted this room, I've never really been happy with the color. I've been plotting a color change for quite a while and finally painted the room last night. The old color was Buxton Blue and the new is Sierra Hills (both from Benjamin Moore).

Here's the after picture with our temporary duvet. We normally use this in our bedroom for the winter, so this will work in the guest room for now.

I pulled together a few of our favorite photos from our Japan trip and made a photo collage above the bed. I'm glad to have some pictures hanging up in our house that remind us of our trip!

Next up, I've got to make curtains for the window, a runner for the dresser, and, of course, the new quilt for the bed.

back to school

This whole school thing is seriously infringing on my free time! I've had to move my sewing machine and quilting project off my desk to make room for books instead. I'm trying to write my first research paper and I'm definitely a little rusty in the paper writing department here!

Luckily I have my little buddy to keep me company. He looks like he belongs on my desk, doesn't he? I guess he's my living paperweight for now. If only he could talk and help me write my paper, eh?

Couscous tossed salad

My friend, Laura, shared this recipe with me last month at a church potluck. I've made it at least three times since then. It is so simple and easy to make and it's absolutely delicious!

Dressing:
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Juice of Two Lemons
Salt & Pepper
Chopped mint (8-12 leaves)

Salad:
Lettuce
Sliced Radishes
Sliced Cucumbers
Feta Cheese
Cous Cous (about 1 cup)

Mix the dressing and then toss it with the salad.