Pickin' Little

I am a fruit nut.  A fruit loop.  A fruit cup?
I love fruit.  Whenever I go downtown to visit my friend Sara at her store I like to stop by Putnam Market to see if they have fruit in their salad buffet.  If they do it's the best day ever.  If they don't (and they usually don't) I spiral into a deep, dark depression from which there is no return.  Actually, then I just buy a Flake bar and I'm fine. 


Christina and I went berry picking yesterday.  This was our second outing after the mind-blowing strawberry picking we did earlier in the summer at Hand Melon Farm in Schuylerville, NY.  They had rows upon rows of strawberries.  There were many different varieties with exotic names like "Honeoye" and  "Cavendish".  We ended up gorging ourselves and coming away with more berries than we knew what to do with. 

Shortcakes too!

Yesterday we headed south of Saratoga to Malta Ridge Farms, formerly Bowman Orchards North.  It's a cute little stand which seems to be in the middle of the country even though it's just a few miles away from town. 

 

It was a perfect Saratoga summer day--75 degrees and sunny--a precious thing, especially this summer.  The summer of RAIN.

As we headed out with our bags it seemed as though we had come at an in-between time for the blueberries.  The ripe ones seemed to have all been picked and the unripe ones were, well, unripe. 

 

Unripe, but beautiful.

We were getting a little bummed out. (I, fruit freak, was starting to panic a little.)  Then we walked down a row and saw where all the berries had gone.  This guy had them!!

 

He had been picking for the last couple hours for the owners who were going to make pies and breads out of them.  He was so sweet and told us where we could find some ripe ones.  I asked to take his picture and he agreed if I promised to tell my husband that he was just someone who worked at the farm.  He seemed very concerned about this.  

So we managed to pick enough for our needs.  Christina ended up with about 1/2 lb.  I grossed over 1 lb.  That's about on par.  She complained that I picked way faster than her.  I told her it was on account of my freakishly small hands.  That, and I'm a glutton.  But who can blame me at $2 per pound! 

Various types of bees were out picking their own as well.

As we left we sized up the apples ripening for fall.  So gorgeous!

 

If you have the chance to go berry picking, you must, MUST.  It's the best way to spend a summer hour and you get loads of yummy fruit for nearly 1/4 the price of anywhere else.  My hard earned wages:

yesssssss!

And fall bearing raspberries...

 you're next.

byeeee

Can Haz Expluhnayshun?

For the 1% of you out there who don't know what a "nom" is I will explain.  It comes from the website I Can Haz Cheezburger, a place where people take pictures of cats and then add dialogue to them in the form of very large, very misspelled words.  It doesn't make a ton of sense but it really took off.  Here is the original post that inspired a nation (hey, it takes all kinds).  Here is the first post that used the word "nom":

 

This is what cat people do in their spare time, I guess.  It is a batsh*t crazy world we live in, isn't it?  

Byeeee!

Best lolcat ever.

Onesies, Twosies, Threesies (Embroidered)

Hello blogoreaders!
For my first few (or possibly more) posts I would like to put up some of the projects that I accomplished this summer.  Usually I am too mired in Nutcrackers to be very productive during the school year but in the summer I manage to get quite a few things accomplished.


I think putting up projects after the fact is probably what I'll have to do anyway.  Usually these things are gifts for friends.  It's possible that some of said friends might be reading this blog.  Therefore, if I want any gift to be a surprise I will have to blog about it after the fact.  S'ok.  I'm cool with that.

My dear friend, Ruth, decided to leave our "we're not into having children" club (which is now down to its last surviving member) and procreate.  I was very proud of how she handled the whole birthing/diaper thing as she was the one who always told me the worst horror stories about babies and giving birth.  I'll spare the details for the faint of heart.  Anyway, she and her husband had a beautiful baby girl a few months ago.  She is half asian (like yours truly) so of course she is adorable.  I have nicknamed her "BABs" since those are her initals.  Not sure if Mum and Dad approve of this moniker but tough doodoo.  ♥BABs♥ :)

My friends and I decided to do a collaborative gift for the new one.  We each got onesies and decorated them however we wanted.  I chose to embroider mine and I think they came out rather cute.  I used the characters from Aranzi Aronzo.  It is a Japanese company that I discovered a few years ago that makes the cutest stationery, t-shirts, tableware...  they make just about everything.  They now offer books (in English!) that you can buy with all kinds of little projects to make and sew.  I simply photocopied the characters I liked from the "Cute Stuff" book:

Then I traced the outline of the character to make it bolder and easier to see when transferring.

Since the onesies are so thin it was easy to trace the image onto the fabric using a disappearing ink pen (available at fabric stores).

After the image was traced on then it was just a matter of doing a basic straight embroidery stitch around the outline and a couple french knots for eyeballs.

*Important note on disappearing ink pens*

Disappearing ink pens contain disappearing ink (gasp!).  I'm only pointing out the obvious because if you trace all your wonderful drawings and then go out for lunch or watch the America's Next Top Model Marathon on Oxygen you may come back to find that everything you've done has somehow, magically, disappeared.  Do I speak from experience?  Maybe.  I'd say you've got about 2 hours until the universe implodes.  You've been warned.


Here's how they turned out!

  

  

They are really easy to make and so cute!  

By the way, Ruth started a blog about her new life as a mother and other topics which is what inspired me to start mine.  You can check out her blog "So Boring It Hurts" here. 

Until next time,

Byeeeee!

  

B is for BABs... hehe.

Here Goes Nothing

Coucou mes amis!  (That means hi y'all!)
My name is Julie. You may recognize me from such blogs as this one where I documented a trip to Italy with my mother or this one where my husband and I blogged about our trip to Argentina.
This new exciting blogtube is going to cover the little things I do to keep myself occupied and feel productive. Robiño (el husbando) came up with the name "Crafts and Noms". I think it's perfect. I like to make things out of yarn, fabric and occasionally hot glue. I enjoy cooking things like cakes and lasagna. I also like ordering pizza which we usually do on Wednesdays. And I run a ballet school so tutus might become a topic of discussion as they tend to take over my life at times (evil, evil tutus!). Oh, yes, and of course the dogs. Dogs will definitely be making appearances on this blog because, well, dogs are awesome. See? Here's one!









Pip the dog



 I'll probably throw in some random things too because this blog is going to be a catch-all for whatever the heck I want to put in it. I need a place I can put pictures of my little projects and have a record of everything.

Cause this time around, it's about ME! (I didn't really mean that, it just sounded good.)