We made a melon ball fruit salad, which leaves a good amount of melon still stuck to the rinds. We took the emptied melon halves out to the chickens.
The hens were immediately interested, and when I went back the next day, the rinds were completely cleaned out.
I was surprised to see a large splash of purple outside, and even more surprised that it was a couple of passion flowers blooming from a vine I thought was dead.
While guiding the questing vines in a direction I wanted them to go, I also saw a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar.
Passion vines are host plants for butterflies, and my vines don’t usually grow faster than they are eaten.
I sent my Dad four reed coasters for Father’s Day. He sent back data on preferences for hot and cold drinks.
Dad reports that his favorite coasters for hot drinks are ranked left to right, and for cold drinks, right to left. The shades of orange coaster on the right made with several plies of hemp string absorbs the most condensation, so is best for cold drinks with condensation.
In January of 2015 I was examining the construction techniques of Irish crochet, a type of free form lace that has a rich texture.
Padding in crochet is carrying a thicker cord, or multiple cords, along inside the crocheted stitches. The padding cord also gives more control of the shape of the crochet because it can be pulled tighter and lock in curves.
This week I found out that sparkle paper works in my button maker. Nice. I designed an “All Star” graphic in Cricut Design Space and cut it out with the electronic cutter.
The vinyl doesn’t stick well to the sparkle paper, at all, so positioning the decal was tricky, but not impossible.
Including the mylar cover was a must, both to keep the decal in place, and prevent glitter from shedding.
I quite like the finished button, it has flash and glitter, without shedding flash and glitter. Leaving trails of glitter is on my “very rude” list.
Critters and Craft 