I Had Babies!

Well not really babies and I didn't really have them. But I did have a hand in a very beautiful event.

About a month ago we noticed Swallowtail butterflies laying eggs on our parsley. A few days later we found little bitty caterpillars. Then they started to eat and grow....


































At one point we had 27 caterpillars! We had to by 6 more parsley plants to keep them fed. But then the birds discovered them even though they were very close to the house and we put up stakes with bags tied to the top. We lost quite a few to the birds, some died naturally but finally 3 went into chrysllis stage.

I walked out this morning and they were completely out of the cocoons. They are very docile and crawled right up my arm. The Husband got a few pics of me holding them. I can't tell you how excited I was to hold them. I had to go to work but The Husband watched them completely dry out, get their bearings and take flight.

It was amazing being a part of this, seeing the eggs getting laid, providing them food and shelter.........sometimes nature benefits with the help of man.

Fly free, Moe, Larry and Curly......fly free......

Almost Done

New Look 6598

I am almost finished with this blouse. I made a muslin of it several months ago and it fit nicely so I thought I would try it with the short sleeves in a little nicer cotton fabric. I made it just a tich longer (5/8") but other than that nothing out of the ordinary. The sleeves are snug but I still have full range of motion. It may work better with a cotton with a little stretch to it. I have the buttonholes and back hem to finish and possibly top-stitching all around the facing to keep it in place. I plan to finish it on Monday but had my camera out so thought I'd put up a preview.


I don't think the fabric photographs well because of the tiny print on it, it is red with a tiny black/white print. Doesn't look like much on the hanger but it is a nice classically simple blouse.
Fast and easy.

Chrome Toes



I am sure most of you don't really want to see my feet, but I just thought this polish was so cool. The Husband said my toes looked like something from an alien cyborg...sigh...he is so romantic!

Late Summer Harvest


These are banana peppers. They are normally yellow when ripe, but when I brought them in the house and left them for a few days on the counter they turned these gorgeous shades of orange. They are quite tastey.

What I Wore.........................

I love to look at some of the daily fashion blogs with Ephemera and What I Wore Today as my favs, because these ladies have what I don't.... a sense of style.

But just for fun I thought I would do a play on their blogs with my own fashion post of:

What I Wore When I Cut the Grass!

Here's the outfit particulars:

Souvenir tank top - 8 years old
Blue Jean shorts - 8years old
Crew socks - 6 mos old
Canvas Keds - 10 years old
Trusty TroyBilt Mower - 5years old

Close up of the Shoes:

Okay, these are authentic Keds. Preeetty BAD!

But under those, are these!


I don't like to wear polish on my fingers, but I do like to paint my toes! I love this electric blue color.

So this is my fashion post for today. Hope you enjoyed!

More Backyard Creatures

If you have stopped by here before you know that I love most of the little creatures that live in my yard. When I cut the grass I am very careful to watch out for said creatures lest I mow over them. While I was doing 'poop patrol' before mowing (yeah, you want to make sure all that STUFF is out of the way!) I found a hatching of green tree frogs near our retaining wall. They grass was alive with little green hopping dots like this little guy:

Honestly no bigger than the tip of my little finger. They were everywhere along the south wall, so I left a 3 foot uncut swatch for them. I hope a few make it but they need to watch out for this guy:

The rather large Southern Toad. He looks well fed!

Catching Up!

The computer was down yesterday for installation of a new fan so today I'm catching up.

Meet Claude!This was the little caterpillar that started to pupate on the basil just as Claudette rolled into town last week. I could not find him the next day and thought he was a goner but Tuesday I was sitting out and looked over at the basil and there he was in all his glory right next to the empty cocoon.

I'm pretty sure he's a he because there is more yellow than blue on the top of the wings. He is the only one that made it from the original six caterpillars.

I watched Claude take his first flight from the basil plant to the middle of the grassy yard where he sat for about a half hour, then he took off over the house. I hope he makes it to where ever he's heading!


Hot Tamales!

The Husband was inspired watching Top Chef Master and decided to make something from Rick Bayless' book "Mexico One Plate at a Time". The Husband LOVES tamales! Me, eh, I could take em' or leave em'.

Well that was before I had these! They were fantastic.


Spreading the massa. I took over for The Husband after I snapped this pic, so I could say I helped.


The pork filling. This was made the day before so all the flavors would meld together.

Tamales all wrapped and ready for steaming. We both could not believe how delicious these were. The Husband made some red beans from the same book and served the tamales with a chile sauce that had just the right amount of heat and flavor. We froze enough for another 2 meals! Economical and yummy!

I have some sewing updates, but I will save those for tomorrow!

Caterpillar Update

I am down to one caterpillar and a Tropical Storm moving in.

I know one caterpillar died, I saw it but not sure if birds got the others or they moved off to find a place to pupate. I hope the latter.

We have a Tropical Depression (possible Storm by the time it gets here) moving into the area later this afternoon and evening. The Husband has a trip and is trying to get out early to miss most of the heavy rains. Me and the kids will hunker down and take it like true Floridians. I should be able to finish up my brother's quilt tonight.

Late next week we have Tropical Storm Ana moving into the Gulf and she could strengthen to a hurricane. We'll just wait and see.

Caterpillars in my Garden

I have a few pots with tomatoes, peppers and some herbs. It has not been a good year for the tomatoes, as the birds got most of them and then they got stripped by bugs. The peppers did better, but The Husband eats most of those. The herbs have done okay until today when I found one pot of parsley GONE and this in its' place:


There are six of them. They are the caterpillar of the Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly. I learned a lot about them today, especially that they eat fennel, parsley (flat or curly, they're not that picky) carrot greens and rue (whatever that is).

I have another large pot of parsley that I am going to sacrifice to them and have moved everyone to the far end of the yard near a small crape myrtle where they can build their cocoons or chrysalis'. Two of them are quite large and maybe ready to pupate. I am going to try and keep them supplied with fresh food and hopefully they will turn in to these:

The Female version or
The Male version.

I'm hoping for some ladies as I think they are prettier with the blue, but I'll be thrilled with any and all.

Skirting the Issue

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the finished skirts. Since there is really nothing special about them and it is still too stinkin' hot out to play dress-up, I just took pictures of them on the hangers. When I actually wear them I will take better pictures.

Butterick 3717

I made the capri's from this pattern and they came out really nice. I really like every piece offered on this pattern and hope to make the jacket too.



This is just a muslin, unlined, made from a quilting cotton but is very wearable. The color is way off in this picture, it is blue-grey with navy, lavender and white accents. It looks nice with a plain white tee.


This picture shows the finishing on the vent and is much more true to color. As with the capri's this pattern worked up easy and is a nice simple style. It has a very narrow waistband and front and back darts. A good TNT pattern that fits well. A real keeper!


Butterick 5036


This is the first time I have made B5036. I made it from a taupe-brown non-stretch twill. I bought this fabric from Fabric.com and it was a little heavier than I expected. I thought a more casual jean-style skirt would work and this pattern fit the bill with the fly-front zipper. Like the previous skirt, it has a narrow waistband but only back darts and no vent. It fits good, but not as well as B3717. It has a little too much room in the hip area (how often do we get to say that!) and needs to be tapered a little more on the next go around. But I like it and will make it again.

The center front and back seams are flat-felled. This was my first attempt and I was a little off as you can see on the inside seam below. To make sure it didn't fray, I put another row of top stitching down, just a smidgen away from the first row.

You can see the double top stitching above on the outside of the seam but still looks nice and it should hold the seam well on the inside.

I've finished the side seams and hem with bias, which is a first for me. I like the way it came out and it was pretty easy to do. I used a warm grey quilting cotton for the bias because it matched the inside of the fabric better than a taupe (although it looks off in these pictures).



From the Garden


Almost ready...............





Althea (Rose of Sharon)

I Need A List!!!

Last night I started working on my, hopefully, wearable muslin for the skirt from Butterick 3717 and I can't believe how many things I have already messed up or not done.

I cut a size 14 because that is what I cut the capris. I was going to add a 1/2 inch at the side seams before cutting it out, but I forgot. I got all the darts in okay, then the partial back seam (it has a kick vent) and pinned in the zipper and the side seams to fit it. A little snug at 5/8's seams, but without the extra 1/2 inch allowance I was going to add, I could only do 1/2 inch seams.

So I started to sew the side seams, now mind you when I pin basted it the pins were on the outside, which means so was the seam I was sewing! Luckily, I got about 2 inches done before I figured out something wasn't right. As I was tearing out the side seam another lightbulb went on....... I hadn't sewn the zipper, it was still just pinned in, have to sew that in before the side seams.

So I put the zipper in, and realized I forgot to finish the back seam before I put it in. I don't have a serger so just zigzag or turn the allowance under 1/4 inch. I was able to finish the seam without taking the zipper out.

Then I did sew the side seams (inside this time) and got one side of the waistband on, when I realized I once again, forgot to finish the side seams. I won't have to take the whole waistband off (it hasn't been folded over and stitched down), just take out the seams at the sides so I can finish the side seams all the way up.

So yes, I need a list to check off when I'm making something. I realize this is just a muslin but I get frustrated when I forget things like this. Must be old age..............

To make me feel better I look at these in my front yard:




I love Gerger Daisies!