The Pixie Garden Quilt has a new block!
Butterfly 1
How is your project doing? Sue from Wisconsin passed along photos from another of her BOM group.
Jane’s blocks
This time it’s Jane who shows us her progress. Jane’s bright colors contrast nicely with the black prints. Won’t it be lovely? Thanks so much for sharing, Jane!
Did you know that we make veggie garden row markers? We have some for every garden:
Beans
Beets
Broccoli
Buttercup Squash
Butternut Squash
Cabbage
Carrot
Cauliflower
Corn
Cucumber
Green Pepper
Lettuce
Onion
Peas
Potato
Pumpkin
Radish
Summer Squash
Tomato
Zucchini
Drum roll please – now revealing our new veggie row markers for 2013 -
Garden Row Markers from Jeanne Rae Crafts
I’m pretty pleased with the new veggies on the block: Eggplant, Yellow Beans and Hot Pepper. What do you think? 
Oops, missed Wednesday again! Not because we weren’t working – I blame the IRS (even though filing taxes wouldn’t be so bad if I kept up with all the bookkeeping…). So here’s some of what’s been happening in Bill’s shop -
Drop Leaf Table, black ash
Bill tells me these tables are the best he’s ever made. Probably both tables will come to me next for a bit of decorative painting.
Drop Leaf Table, cherry
I think this cherry table is just drop-dead gorgeous! We’ll be exhibiting these first at the Vermont Maple Festival in St. Albans, VT, April 26-28. Stop by to see all of our hard work!
POPovers are! We just love them for a slightly guilty Sunday morning breakfast. Easy to make (though take awhile to bake) and taste so eggy wonderful all slathered with butter. I usually use an electric mixer to combine all of the ingredients but this time I combined it in a bowl with a pouring spout and used an immersion blender (it was just too convenient). Didn’t this batch POP! I’m happy to share the recipe with you here.
POPovers!
It gets a bit busy around here this time of year, what with painting and doing taxes and trying to get in a bit of quilting. Finally finished the quilt for my nephew’s baby. This is Star of My Heart for sweet baby Maeve.
Star of My Heart for Maeve
What have I been painting? Veggies! These markers just need to have sticks attached. I must say that it is cheery working with these little guys!
Garden Row Markers from Jeanne Rae Crafts
It’s a chubby bee!
Pixie Garden BOM Block 4
They are all done! If you find your birds are in need of housing, check out our birdhouse page. If you don’t see what you want there, feel free to email or call us (information is at the bottom of this page).
Sampling of new birdhouses
Flower birdhouses from Wildflower Wood
Every one of our birdhouses will weather extremely well because they are:
Best of all, they are the only thing “blooming” in my garden right now!
Now moving on to a bazillion garden markers. Well, maybe a couple hundred.
Unfinished garden markers
Summer squash, yellow and green beans, pumpkins, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, green peppers, here I go. New this year: chili peppers and eggplant.
Ahhh, spring – it’ll be here before you know it!
We had to travel to the big city of Burlington (VT) this week to pick up Bill’s planer which was in for repairs. Just 2 hours southwest of us and it’s a different world. They have virtually no snow and people were actually raking lawns. We, on the other hand, still have a lot of snow. But so do the mountains, plenty for spring and Easter weekend skiing, which is good for all of Vermont. We were treated to this view on our way home, about a half hour or so from Burlington.
Mount Mansfield from Fairfax, VT
Even during the change of seasons, I love Vermont!
It’s almost April, almost time for a new block in the Pixie Garden Block of the Month. Sue, who previously shared all of her “empty” blocks plus Block #1, is moving right along with Block #2.
Sue’s Block #2
She’s still wondering if she wants to embellish with buttons or embroidery. In either case, I love it just the way it is now! Thanks again for sharing, Sue.
So how’s your BOM coming along?
Bill has been all excited about finishing his next unique project, so much so that he took these pictures himself.
Nice little table
At first glance, it’s just a nice little table. Check out the side view, taking special note of the wooden pins.
Side view of the table. Take note of the wood pins.
But remove those pins…
Pull out 2 pins…and you have yourself a handy dandy table bench!
And you have yourself a bench! Open up the top of the bench…
The seat of the bench opens up
And you have storage! How handy is that? This unique piece of furniture is called a settle table bench with storage. The wood is ash and will have a golden oak stain. Stay tuned to see how stunning this unusual piece turns out.
Oh my! This is the fifth Wednesday in a row that I’m posting birdhouses. I promise this will be the last!
More birdhouses!
This time it’s chalets, barns, and yet-to-be-named shape. I also should mention that each birdhouse is made from cedar, has a clean-out and ventilation, finished with exterior paint, and exterior varnish over the painting. They are fully functional birdhouses meant to go outdoors.
I’m having fun painting these little flower vignettes, with a different butterfly for each different flower. So far, the flowers are purple coneflower, ox-eye daisy, and black-eyed susan; the butterflies are spring azure, yellow sulphur, American copper and red admiral. Most people don’t really care exactly what they are but I just like to know.
Next week, it will be on to garden markers, and oh, so many pieces of furniture. Here’s to a productive week!
I’ve been reading other blogs lately that tell of adventures in planting gardens (as far back as January) and picking big bouquets of daffodils just this week. If today is any indication, we will have to wait a bit before that happens here in the Northeast Kingdom.
Poor little bird house!
Spring in Vermont is, at best, a fickle thing. Funny, this seems much more like winter…
Mr. Moose Snowstick says 14″ on the ground (we already had 6″ before the storm).
You might be able to see the little sunk in hole around the stick. Hard to tell exactly how much snow we’ve got. If anybody cares.
Welcome spring! Another 3″-7″ expected tonight.
But you have to admit, it is pretty!
On any given day, chances are good that Bill is designing some new piece of furniture. This coffee table is the first radically new design for 2013. I’m loving it, he not so much.
Arches coffee table, maple and pine
We would love to hear your thoughts, too.
Happy St. Paddy’s Day from Betsy and her favorite leprechaun
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We were so lucky to have been invited to my son Bill and DIL Deb’s for a traditional meal, one of my all-time favorites – corned beef and cabbage with carrots and little red potatoes. I brought homemade cloverleaf rolls, banana cream pie and first time ever, Irish soda bread. Actually, the cloverleaf rolls were made with my old standby Dinner Roll recipe and the pie was Cheater Banana Cream (some might call it “almost homemade” but to me it’s cheater) both of which my family loves. The Irish Soda Bread was thanks to Mavis Butterfield at One Hundred Dollars a Month. Served with honey butter – equal parts honey and softened butter – it is so yummy, definitely a keeper!
Here’s hoping that your St. Patrick’s Day was as rewarding as mine!
First coat of varnish…
Varnishing!
…on 34 pieces of furniture as well as table tops and drawer fronts!
Table tops, cabinets, drawer fronts
But I’m still up to my eyeballs in birdhouses and little bird feeders.
Birdhouses
Over 70 done so far, with another 2 dozen to go. In between times, I’m painting ornaments, also. Next week (though I hope sooner) it’s on to garden row markers. The challenge will be to finish before all those pieces of furniture come a knockin’!
