heylucy

preparations

Preparations are underway for the arrival of the beehive (in case you missed it, that mysterious implement a couple posts ago was a smoker, to use on bees when you inspect the hive). I've been re-reading all the bee-related books I've collected over the past couple years and I think I'm ready. The beekeeper arrives with my hive on Saturday morning. I found him via craigslist, and sent him an email asking if I could buy a hive from him. He's re-queened a nice hive of very calm bees just for me.  I might need to get this hive and make the bees move eventually. How cute would that be once it's painted white and the copper top has developed a nice patina? I am also weighing my options and trying to select a hive tool. I could go with the standard, economical, and utilitarian model, or I can get the cheery yellow, flashy Italian model for twice the price, which looks like the Ferrari of hive tools. It's a dilemma.

In other minor, daily news, chicks are being fed, watered, held and smooched morning and evening, and games of fetch are played with the adorable dogs. Lest you think it's all cute fuzzy chicks and teddy-bear like dog noses around here, this is the state of the living room as of this morning.

I have strategically not captured the carpet close up. I suppose I should be happy that the surest sign of Spring-the prolific shedding of dog hair-is apparent in clumps and handfuls everywhere I go. I really should get that vacuum out tonight-there was that whole vacuum more often goal I set at the beginning of the year. But that will cut into my chick cuddling time. Also my Buffy the Vampire Slayer watching time. Also, I still need to hem my curtains and slipcover my chair. I just thought I'd keep it real here at chez Lucy. That morning light sure is pretty though, don't you think?

On the last visit to my mother-in-law I brought home not only a mandolin, but also another quilt top. This one was made by her mother when she was expecting. My mother-in-law has always said that her mother was never very good at sewing or needlework of any kind, and I have to say, I kind of agree. I may have to take this one apart and re-assemble it, but I love the big yellow pinwheel shapes, and all the sweet fabric prints.

I'm all over the place tonight, but one more thing, because I need your opinion: You may have noticed that I switched my comments to the new Typepad system. About the same time I made that switch I finally figured out how to connect my heylucy.net email to my gmail account. I think this is all good stuff, but it's taking me awhile to adjust to this new workflow (sorry for the technical term, but I do have this job, you know, where I sometimes have to use that office-speak). Before all these changes I would get comments in my email, which was web-based. Unfortunately, the company I use has a really crappy webmail service and I would have to load the messages every time I logged in. That would often take a good 5 minutes because their spam filter was completely useless and so my inbox would be full of 90% spam and 10% actual mail. Half the time the whole thing would just lock up and I couldn't even get to my email. So that is much better, now that it just goes straight to gmail. This is kind of boring, sorry about that. I never know if anyone cares about these long explanations, but I do have a point, so please bare with me!

Previously, when I would get a comment, I could just reply to the email notification I got. I really like responding to comments as much as possible, because I think this is really a conversation, not just me talking at you. Now, however, when I reply to a comment email, the reply is posted directly under the comment for everyone to read. I mostly like this, but I would like it if the reply was also sent as an email to the person who left the comment. I will have to investigate to see if that's possible, because otherwise you have to keep coming back here to see replies to your comments and I don't think anyone has the time to do that very often. The whole point to this uninteresting and long-winded explanation is that I want to know your opinion! Do you like the comments like this, or did you prefer the old way? As a reward for sharing your thoughts I give you another cute chick photo:

portrait photography

Some weekend photos:

The chicks are five or six days old. They're doing fine, but the dogs are about to come undone, especially Bear who sniffs them worriedly and yet can't stop drooling.

One of the Maggies. I think I will print and frame this one for her namesake.

This was the view to the left as I was trying to take photos of the chicks.

thank you notes

I have some thank you's to share. First of all, I mentioned in passing that I won a pair of earrings from Pamela Susan, but I wanted to show you how pretty they are. She had a little contest to find a good name for them and was inspired by my suggestion of Rain to call them Falling Rain. It's a good thing it was a rainy day that day! Pictures are from her website:

You can even get yourself a pair right here. I love the simplicity of them and have worn them often since they arrived.

Another thank you to lovely blog reader Maili, who sent me the sweetest little glass flowers for my birthday. I think my nutcracker doll (who is not yet named, poor thing) has taken quite a liking to them, don't they look sweet together? Thank you Maili!

Things may be a little quiet here for awhile, I think I may have some posts that are more photos than words. I am busy, busy, busy right now. First with the arrival of these little peepers.

There are two Rhode Island Reds, two Araucanas, and two Barred Rocks, all of which we already have in our little flock and are really nice breeds. I also ordered a couple Cuckoo Maran hens, which I haven't had before, but they are back ordered and so may not arrive for another week. They are a French breed, known for laying the very darkest brown eggs, so I'm quite excited to add them to the flock.

And something else is coming next Saturday, can you guess from this picture of one of the tools I will be needing?

a better weekend

I have stuff to post about, but I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight, for once in my life. I just really liked the picture above that I took of my laundry drying in the sun this weekend, so I had to pop in and quickly post it. It was perfectly beautiful, and it's always a good weekend when you can get a nice tan while doing your chores, isn't it? Bear was also quite pleased with the laundry on the line, and spent quite awhile under there, checking it all out. And yes, Mr. HeyLucy has snowmen on his pajamas.

the winners

Oops, sorry to disappear before announcing the winners of birthday week, I had one long weekend, and not in the fun, "Oh Boy I have a nice long weekend to enjoy" sort of way. If I told you all about it I would just sound like a whiny baby, so I won't say anything other that taxes were done and seven hours were spent in a car to visit a mother-in-law. And I'm all tired out from it still.

On to the fun stuff! You are going to have to trust me when I say that I randomly drew names for each of the birthday week giveaways, there was absolutely no peeking! And here are the results (I've already sent e-mails to get your addresses):

Cary Judd Autographed CD-Sarah!
Shot Cotton Scarf-Cara!
MAC Sequin Lipstick-Megan!
Orange T-Shirt-Marcella!
Notebooks-Melissa! (who will soon have a blog, right?)
Terrarium Kit-Amy!

That was so much fun, and I wish I could send everyone a present. Thanks so much for humoring me and playing along. I hope you read all the comments too, there were some delicious breakfast ideas and great beauty recommendations. I'm still shoe shopping (well, not so much STILL, more like haven't had time), and I will be trying out some new weekend breakfasts.

It wasn't all doom and gloom around here, after all, the taxes are DONE and the seven hours in a car with Mr. HeyLucy was full of nice conversation and garden planning. We also discovered that we share the same disdain for people who leave messes in public bathrooms. After eleven years it's nice to know there are still things to learn about each other. I also inherited my father-in-law's mandolin and I am going to learn to play it, because what's one more hobby, really? Besides, I need to contribute more than strumming a g-chord on the guitar (that's the only one I can play) to the family jam sessions when we all get together.

birthday week, day six, random things

My final birthday giveaway plan has worked out, so you'll have to read all the way to the end to find out what it is! I'll draw the first three birthday week winners tomorrow night, and then the last three on Friday, so you'll have a little time to enter this one (as well as the last two). That way I can try and get everything shipped on Saturday.

Saturday mornings are all about breakfast around here. I love my yogurt and fruit breakfasts during the week, but Saturday is for something hot and hearty. I was feeling a little adventurous this past weekend and decided to try a little scrambled goose egg. I should have included a fork or something for reference, but that is one big yolk.

While beating it, it seemed heavier somehow and creamier, it's hard to describe, but it was quite good. I had it on top of my favorite potato hash (of which I make many variations-this one had lots of onion and some leftover pot roast). It was delicious, but that was a lot of egg.

A little story about something I learned this weekend:

The worst part about having chickens is cleaning out the chicken coop. Once I start raking all the shavings and poop up it gets quite dusty in there and I have to take frequent breaks to get some fresh air. It's not stinky, just dusty. I recently had the brilliant idea to get a dust mask to make the whole task easier and probably much healthier. I tend to do these dirty chores first thing Saturday morning before showering or anything, which is logical, right? But I also went out there with my dust mask just after finishing breakfast, but before brushing my teeth. And here is what I learned: do not ever wear a dust mask when you have nasty onion and cheese breath. Boy was that stinky. Now you know.

Lest you think I'm a complete idiot with poor hygiene habits I noticed today while at the bank that I have a real talent for pulling up nice and close to the drive up ATM. I laugh at the people who pull up and then have to open their door to do their banking (only in the most affectionate way, not mean-spirited). I love discovering hidden talents.

Have you seen the cover of Better Homes & Gardens April issue? It not a magazine that I usually buy, but I was completely charmed by this image:

So I've blatantly copied them and made my own version (it was pretty darn easy, so don't be too impressed. I also may have gone a little overboard with the little chick and the mushroom):

 

The pale pink violas are in a goose egg, and I used the ceramic egg carton my friend gave me for Christmas.

And now for the final birthday week giveaway! I wanted to find some more moss to share, but it's been dry lately, and while on my Sunday afternoon walk I only found little dried up bits of moss. The good news is that the dogs were very well behaved and didn't knock me over this time.

I wasn't about to give up, however, so I went to a favorite nursery on my lunch hour, and found a couple fun little mossy plants. The tag says one is baby tears, so maybe it will grow taller, but for now it's quite compact and flat, and the other is a creeping thyme, which I think is pretty hardy, so I hope it can take the high humidity of a terrarium. So I put together a little terrarium kit. You'll have to provide your own jar, but I'll send everything else! I think it will be so fun. There will even be three little mushrooms, because you know how I feel about mushroom-less terrariums.

Let's talk about breakfast for this giveaway. What's your favorite weekend breakfast? Do you cook? Or go out? We used to live in Mission Beach and The Mission was my absolute favorite breakfast spot. I loved the zen breakfast or the roast beef hash. I don't usually care for really sweet breakfasts, but their french toast-made from thick slices of cinnamon bread-was also always tempting.

I love violas, in large part because that was my grandma's name.

musical

I'm ready for bed, but I had to post this before I drift off. You can listen to Cary's whole album and download a live album for free! Enjoy!

birthday week, day five: books and grocery lists

Let's just drag birthday week out as long as possible, shall we? I didn't get home until nearly 9:00 on Friday night, after running all sorts of errands, and I was still so pooped on Saturday that I took a three hour nap. That may have had something to do with the fact that I also cleaned out the chicken coop, and swept off another big section of driveway. Enough with the excuses, however, I have another giveaway to tell you about.

I felt the need to make something with paper today, so I made a little set of pamphlet-style notebooks, and experimented with an accordion book. The accordion book is a little wonky, but I like how it looks standing up like this, and the pages are my favorite printmaking paper. I know I've talked about my old red book for sketching and ideas and quotes, but I also usually have a little notebook in my purse for to-do lists and grocery lists, and other sorts of temporary scribblings. So I hope you will find these handy, and very usable. They all have Amy Butler cardstock covers, and two of the notebooks have brown paper pages and for the third I used ledger paper. 

Speaking of Friday night errands and grocery lists, lately I'm all about visiting ethnic grocery stores. This week I did the bulk of my shopping at 99 Ranch, a local Asian grocery store. It's gigantic, and they have all sorts of interesting things, including a deli with my new current obsession, banh mi (Vietnamese/French-style sandwiches). I also got ingredients for my gyoza and vegetables for a couple stir-fry dinners this week. Last week I visited a Mexican grocery store and made a big batch of Chile Verde. Their produce was so cheap (tomatoes for 59 cents a pound!), and I even treated myself to a carnitas taco from the taco counter at the front of the store that was one of the best I've ever had, and only $1.50. Of course I can't forget my favorite ethnic grocery store, Mitsuwa Market, home of all sorts of wonderful Japanese deliciousness. Between these three, Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy, I almost never have to go to a regular grocery store, and I definitely spend less. So today's giveaway question is: Where do you do most of your grocery shopping? Any hidden gems to share? 

I'm also really excited to show you this book (Quilts, Baby!), which arrived this week:

 

I think the official release date is May 5, but Amazon says it's shipping in 1-3 weeks. I have two patterns in here, but even if I didn't, I would still want to buy it, there's a whole lot of cuteness inside. Here are my patterns, a bubbles quilt, and one with little crosses:

 

 

And here are some of my favorites by other quilters:

 

I think I'm going to use this pattern for the bird baby quilt I'm making, and will use the bird print instead of solid yellow for the big rectangles. And holy moly is this one adorable:

 

I love this one so much, those little cats climbing the stairs just kill me:

Okay, thanks for looking at all those pictures of books. There might be one more giveaway tomorrow, I'm working on something and I'm not sure if it's going to pan out, fingers crossed!

birthday week, day four

This is fun! It's a little stressful making enough time to blog every day, but now I have a whole list of fun beauty products to try, so it's definitely worth it. I think I need to get some dirt and spackle, just because of the names, not to mention the Be Fine Food skin care line, which all sounds completely delicious.

Flower photos seem to becoming a habit for me, but I did say I was obsessed. I brought home the Lily of the Valley that has been on my desk since Monday so I could be sure and get some good pictures. I wish I could capture the scent for you, it's so wonderful.

I love how they curl up like little fairy bells.

On to a completely different subject, not related in any way to anything else here tonight, I made a fun discovery this weekend. Our house was built in 1939 and a previous owner had a welding shop on the property. We have found all sorts of odd metal bits here and there, including a few horse shoes. I decided to clean one up to hang over my studio door, and as I was scrubbing off the dirt and rust I made a very fun discovery. It was once painted the nicest shade of blue!

Also, it was made for an enormous horse. I don't know why, but it's just so appealing to me. I expect to have enormously good luck now.

All right, on to the giveaway. I thought it would be quite appropriate to share a gussied up t-shirt for one of my presents. I hope you like orange!

I still have to actually stitch the appliques in place, but that will happen before I send it to the lucky winner. It's a lightweight cotton knit, very nice for layering, and a size medium. The long sleeves make it nice for these chilly Spring days.

I think this time I'm going to ask for help spending a shiny little Nordstrom gift card. I'm thinking shoes, probably in the sandal family, for Summer. I have some black sandals that I like (click the link to see them), but they are very casual, and don't go with everything, so I think I could use either a dressier pair of black sandals, or sandals that I could wear with black that aren't necessarily black. Or maybe some fun, Summery black flats, preferably in the $100 range. Help me out please! 

And don't forget, you can still enter any of the previous posts still too, so scroll down so you don't miss anything!          

birthday week, day three and a few questions, answered

How come I didn't know about this Shannon Lamden fabric? I'm so glad I asked about fabric, I'm getting some good links, thanks you guys!

This picture has nothing to do with anything, I took it several years ago with my old point & shoot Olympus, but I still like it. Actually, it does have something to do with today's post, since these are Spring flowers (see the first question below).

Now seems like as good a time as any to do a little meme that I was tagged with recently. Both Robin (check out her terrific terrarium, and read about how resourceful she was finding the plants for it. I love that she has a little terrarium resident, too!) and Alice (look at her beautiful photos! I'm a little envious that she gets to live in Oxford. I spent a rainy Fall day there once and loved it so much) tagged me, and these are some fun questions, so here you go:

1. Cut and paste the questions into a new blog post and respond to the questions.
2. Replace one question you dislike with a question of your own invention - and say which one you added.
3. Tag other untagged folks.

What is your current obsession?
Spring flowers. There are wildflowers blooming along the freeway as I drive to work, and of course you know all about the daffodils and grape hyacinth. I also have birthday flowers all over my desk. There are a big bunch of baby pink and white roses (courtesy of Mr. HeyLucy), sunflowers from a friend, my annual Lily-of-the-Valley from Trader Joe's, and a bunch of blooming forsythia branches I bought last week.

What are you wearing right now?
black & cream striped jeans, long sleeved pink t-shirt, 3/4 sleeve black sweater, black ballet flats, new earrings that I won from Pamela Susan (more on those later)!

Who was the last person you hugged?
It was either Mr. HeyLucy or Winston. I guess Winston is not exactly a human, but they both get hugs every day.

If you were a tree, what tree would you be?
A cherry tree. or maybe a fig tree.

What’s for dinner?
Mr. HeyLucy put a giant pot roast in the crock pot this morning, so I guess that's what we'll be eating.

What was the last thing you bought?
Jamie at Home (I had a birthday gift card for Barnes & Noble)

What are you listening to right now?
My Pandora station is playing Rocco Deluca & The Burden. I do not know them, I haven't decided to give them a thumbs up or thumbs down.

What is your favourite weather?
Sunny and 70 degrees, although I do appreciate a nice rainy day. I hate windy days, they make me cranky

What’s on your beside table?
Lamp, an orchid, photo booth picture of my grandmother, a bird-shaped dish holding earrings and stitch markers, a pretty handkerchief, a vase full of daffodils and a tiny box with some new earrings  and dust.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?
A little village in England. It would have to have a thatched roof. I hope the locals wouldn't mind me moving in.

What would you like to get rid of?
30 lbs around my middle

Favourite vacation spot?
All my vacations are usually spent visiting family. I would love to go back to Italy someday

Name the things you can’t live without.
My laptop, sewing machine and knitting needles. And also Mr. HeyLucy and all the animals, of course.

What would you like to have in your hands right now?
A big stack of money would be nice, but if that's a little much to ask, then I would be happy with my knitting needles

What is your favourite tea flavour?
Peppermint, but I'm also loving Yogi Tea's Classic India Spice right now too.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
I would probably want to visit my parents in China, to see how they're doing and meet some of their students.

What is your favourite snack?
Chips and Salsa, no question, unless I want something sweet, then it's definitely cookies and milk.

I'm going to add this question for today's giveaway:
What is your favorite, can't-do-without beauty product?
I'm not a big 'product' girl, but I love my MAC Sequin Lipstick. I've been wearing it for at least 12 years. I experiment with other colors, and I have a nice pink right now, called Hot Gossip, but I always go back to my Sequin. It's neutral but with a little sparkle, and it blends with whatever else I'm wearing. I also love the lack of scent in MAC products. I like wearing perfume and certain smelly lotions, but I'm very particular about the scents, and I hate make up that smells. Here's a swatch from the MAC site, which is looking a little pinker than it really is on my monitor, it's definitely got a bit of a brownish undertone:

Sequin

Plum-pink with pink shimmer (Frost)

So that's today's giveaway, your very own tube of Sequin Lipstick, it's one of my favorite things! Just share your favorite beauty product in the comments, it's always good to get opinions on these things. Oh, and I'm terrible about tagging people, so the first three commentors with blogs, consider yourself tagged!