A Two Blanket Rug

In the winter, someone asked me if I would weave a blanket for her daughter from two old wool blankets. Some friends dropped the blankets off here and I finally got around to tackling it. The edges of one of the blankets was threadbare so it did not felt as much as I had hoped. 

Even so I am very pleased with the result, very excited actually. Processing and cutting a blanket is a tad easier than processing and cutting a dozen or two sweaters.

cutting, or scissoring as I like to call it

two blankets, one pale green, the other, yellow, beige and green

the finished rug, I have left the blanket tags on, but will remove them for the customer. I want her daughter to see what the rug was made from

whole rug

27 1/2" x 48"

lengthwise view

close up

felted wool blanket rug

Blue Eyed Grass

One of our favourite wild summer plants is blue eyes grass. It is not a true grass but a member of the iris family. Last summer Mark planted some in a pot, and overwintered them in the garden. They are blooming now!! Such gorgeous little flowers.

blue eyed grass, on our back step

blue eyed grass, sisyrinchium

Crispy Potato Salad

Last week I made this salad for part of our dinner. It is from Issue 43 of the Donna Hay magazine. I will give the recipe as it is in the magazine, though I didn't have all the ingredients and substituted. I used greens from the garden instead of just spinach, and I didn't have lemon so I made my own dressing with an avocado, garlic, white wine vinegar and olive oil. It was delicious and I will make it again.

Crispy Potato Salad

1 kg potatoes, thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp celery salt

100 g baby spinach

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

Creamy Lemon Dressing

2 tbsp. sour cream

2 tbsp whole egg mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). To make the creamy lemon dressing, place the sour cream, mayonnaise and lemon juice in a non metallic bowl and stir to combine, and set aside.

Place the potato, oil and celery salt in a baking dish, toss to coat. Roast for 20 - 30 minutes or until golden and crisp. Cool and place in a bowl with the spinach and Parmesan and toss to combine. Spoon the dressing over to serve.

Serves 4.

I used a 400° F oven and it took quite a bit longer to roast the potatoes to a golden crisp.

Yummy! Enjoy! 

Wild Strawberries

Yum, the wild strawberries are ripening! We took the dogs out and munched on some delicious berries.

wild strawberries

In the Blink of an Eye

Mark and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary today!!!

Those thirty years flew by, in the blink of an eye!

 Yay us!

bleeding hearts

New Handwoven Recycled T-Shirt Rug

I dug into my stash of t-shirts this past week and started cutting, prepping to weave a rug. It took 22 t-shirts to weave this beautiful rug, in various shades of red, white and blue.

red, white and blue t-shirt rug

In My Backyard