I will blog again...

...some day. Things have been busy, as usual, and I have pictures and stories piling up. I've been sick for over a week (and now I have an ear infection too) and I know I haven't been resting as much as I should be. Fighting with this darn computer to post a few pictures isn't very relaxing or restful, so it will have to wait a little longer.

I hope all you readers out there are having a lovely transition into fall!

Finally, those stairs

I've been meaning to post about these stairs for ages. Once again, here are the stairs before:



After looking at different paint colors we decided to go with a reddish-brown color. Just before starting, we decided we really had better prime it first. Jeremy picked up some primer and the woman at the store tinted it as dark as she could. It turned out to be a brownish-grey color. We kind of liked it.

Then it was all dry and I started painting the final coat:



And that is as far as we got with that color. One a half steps! We both looked at it and agreed it was much too dark and we liked the primer color way better! So Jeremy went back to the store and got the stair paint with as close a match as they could to the primer color.

Ta-da!



In some way, the color doesn't even matter. It's just nice to finally have the stairs in good shape and in one color! And I guess it's nice to have the drywall patches done and the trim up too.

I didn't get before pictures of the desk, but there wasn't a whole lot to show. Jeremy has been constructing the table top for a couple days. The main piece is some plywood and then he cut a groove in the edge and notch on the rounded pieces, then fit it all together and glued it.





It's pretty fantastically beautiful. Once it dries a bit more he'll attach it to the knee wall, the supports, and a leg we've got for it. Then we'll practically be done!

Finished quilt

I liked the black and white thing, but it was a bit stark. I found the perfect (I think) fabric to go with it and I rather like how it turned out.







The machine quilting went pretty well. I did it all in a couple hours one night. Amazing. I think I mailed the quilt off to my friends one week after buying the fabric at the store. Incredible. I don't think I've ever quilted anything that fast, so I guess there is something to be said for the machine. But... I still kind of feel bad about it, like I cheated somehow.

Harvest time

For mushrooms, that is. Way back in April I told you about the winecap mushrooms Jeremy had... planted? inoculated? ...spread around on the ground on the north side of our house. We've actually harvested some before now, but we hadn't been expecting them yet so by the time Jeremy found them they were dried out and not very edible.

Yesterday I peaked around the corner and saw the tell-tale sign of bulges in the hay. I sent Jeremy out with a basket to collect what he could find.







It was a little over a pound for this basket. Jeremy cooked some up for a quiche. How do they taste? Not bad. I don't know that there is anything I can compare them too. It's hard to pick out the flavor with so many other things going on in the quiche. Perhaps we'll try them again in something with fewer ingredients.

I'm not sure how successful this mushroom experiment was, and that's only because we didn't keep an eye on them much at all. We didn't bother to water them (just let the rain do it's thing) and we didn't do anything to protect them from cats or squirrels (both of which have been in there digging and chewing on 'shrooms). I'm sure we'll do better next year, if we decide to grow them again.