Usually every November a large contingent of sailors head up-river for a multi-day raft-up…aka an Up-the-river cruise. This weekend the winds were so light, noone was interested in motoring for 6 hours to get up river. So, plans changed. Instead, we rafted up in a cove about 5 miles from our marina. It was a really lovely night, though. Temps got down into the 40’s but we were toasty down below. We baked pizza in the oven on Nirvana, and it turned out quite tasty.
We had 6 boats stay overnight. This shot was taken this morning by Robert from the dinghy, after Eric and Micheline left on Karma. We’re on the left on Nirvana, then Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Robert on Voodoo, Tony & Sharon (and Aussie) on Wind Thief, and Gray & Debbie on Sacre Bleu. This morning the winds finally picked up. We had a really nice sail back to our cove.
It’s Sunday, and I have 7 more days of vacation!!!
Over 2 years ago I posted a picture of the catboat wind thingie that monte made me (here’s the original post). It had sails made out of ripstop nylon which I had sewn and installed on each little boat. It worked great, and I LOVED it. As the wind blew, the boats started turning and the sails tacked and jibed as they went around.
Then last summer, I posted a picture of it after it had been attacked by squirrels (here’s that post). One of them went nutso in the heat of the summer and ripped up the sails. And just like that my catboat wind thingie was out of service.
Til today! Monte made new sails out of copper sheets, and fastened them to the mast with copper bands and replaced the string mainsheets with little pieces of metal chain.
It’ll take a stiffer breeze to make it go round, but it’s back! I love the new, improved version.
I was inspired to make this wreath by a do-it-yourself project that I ran across on pinterest (original link here) and pinned it in my “DIY: wannado’s” board a month or so ago. I immediately knew that I was going to try to make one – not just because I loved the way it looked, but because I have been hoarding corks for 10-15 years (much to monte’s bemusement) just waiting for a project I could use them in. The hot-pad-trivet-made-out-of-corks projects I usually run across just didn’t do it for me.
I love wreaths, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, I knew I’d better get started if I wanted to finish it before the holidays. I love how it turned out. Here’s how I did it.
What you’ll need: straw wreath body, straight pins, glue and lots of corks.
I bought an 18″ diameter straw wreath body (from Michael’s) a box of 1 1/4″ dressmaker pins (longer is better) and some craft glue (from Joanne’s). Then I dug out and dusted off several bags/boxes labeled “corks” from the garage and started sorting. I didn’t keep track of exactly how many I used, but I’m pretty sure it’s on the order of about 400-500 corks. I can’t help but do a little math here…. if i estimate that on average I spent $12 a bottle… that means this wreath cost in the neighborhood of about $5000. (heheheh… sigh) Anyway, as I was sorting, I tossed corks that weren’t 100% solid cork. Many were made up of lots of little pieces of cork molded in the shape of a cork. I also wanted to mix up the red wine (stained) & white wine corks and mix in a champagne cork every now and then. So I picked out bunches of them as I went along.
Sort your corks.
Stick a pin into each cork – get a good bite but leave as much of the pin hanging out as you can.
Stick a pin in the end of each cork.
Then put a line of glue on the pin.
Apply glue to the pin to help it bond with the straw wreath form.
Then stick the cork into position by pushing the head end of the pin into the straw wreath form. I inserted them all at an angle, where one row laid on top of the last one. Sometimes the pins went into a gap between the straw and didn’t stick well. So try to make sure you poke the pin through some of the straw when you push them in. Between the pins and the glue, the corks were surprisingly stable in the wreath when finished.
Push the head end of the pin into the wreath form at an angle.
I must admit that it was a little daunting getting started, but after the first row or two, it really was easy and went a lot quicker than I expected. Here is a close up of how the layering turned out. Some of the corks had years printed on the end or a unique logo, which added a nice touch to the detail.
Mix ’em up.
I hastily added the ribbon as an afterthought, to dress it up for the holidays. I know the ribbon looks a bit hokey, but I wanted to hang it up on the door to take a picture, so I was in a hurry. But you get the idea. After Christmas I’ll remove the ribbon and hang it on a wall in the house dining room or kitchen.
I was absentmindedly sorting coins that were weighing down my wallet today. I lined up, on edge, the nickels, pennies, dimes, quarters…. then I noticed one of the dimes was all silver. It is not often that I find a silver coin in my pocket anymore. When I was a kid it happened much more frequently. I guess more of them were in circulation (way) back then.
Anyway, when I zoomed in to take this macro shot I noticed initials “JS” under Roosevelt’s head. Google tells me those are the initials of the guy that designed the front and back of the coin, John Sinnock. He was Chief Engraver for the United States Mint, and also designed the Franklin half-dollar. You really can learn something new every day! You just have to take the time to look around 🙂
More numis-trivia: this dime is 90% silver, is worth about $2 today, and is one of 85 million minted in 1959. There you have it.
Today the US celebrates Veteran’s Day. My flag is flying out front. And my mind is especially on the veterans in my family. My father, my father-in-law, 2 of my uncles, a brother-in-law, my cousin and his son – who just enlisted in the Air Force. It’s an amazing thing, to give part, or all, of your life in service of your country. It wasn’t even yet my dad’s country when he enlisted shortly after immigrating to the States from Ireland.
To all US Veterans and their families: I thank you.
The cedar elms are the first trees to lose their leaves this year, in our yard. The red oak and post oak are starting to get some color. I’m hoping the chinese pistache turns vivid yellow again this year. It’s only done that once in the 6 years we’ve lived here. A girl can hope.
Grapefruit juice + vodka = delicious Fall cocktail.
We’re back home from the lake. We had a great time last night visiting with our raftup buddies. Tonight we’re enjoying fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice with a little vodka over ice. I guess Fall is officially here!
Between October and May the Texas Rio Grande valley produces luscious, red, sweet, juicy grapefruit for all the world to enjoy. Go get some!
Check out this link for recipe ideas for Texas Ruby Red grapefruit.
Happy Halloween! Each year in this house we get fewer trick-or-treaters. So I buy less candy every year. Apparently still too much. This year we only had 2 doorbell rings… a total of 6 kids. 😦
We raced the beer can today. Correction – not really raced. Mostly crept along at 2-4 knots. The wind was supposed to be out of the north 10-15 today, but it sure was not.
That’s ok though, we had a nice visit with Joe, who joined us on Nirvana. Robert and Tony (owns a 323 Beneteau on A-dock) won on Voodoo. Ken and Jay came in second on Spike. Kurt, Wally & Kevin came in 3rd. We came in 4th. Followed by the Wiz on Allegro.
It was nice out, really. A little chilly, but at one point I was in a t-shirt, working the lines.
Afterwards, we sat on Voodoo and chatted til after sunset. After climbing the hill back up to the parking lot we noticed the hot air balloons over at Lakeway City Park’s Great Goblin Glow Halloween festival. We’ve seen them from the marina the last few years. I can never get a good shot of them, though.
Yay, Friday! Julie and I treated ourselves to a pedicure after work / class. Then Indian for dinner with Monte. Then back home for a movie on pay per view…Moonrise Kingdom. Enjoyed it!
We shared a bottle of bubbly, and made this cute little bistro chair out of the cage on the champagne bottle. I saw this online a while back which gave me the idea (and also shows you how to make one, if you want to try it yourself). We ought to have a couple dozen made by New Year’s Day. 🙂
Monte whipped up a batch of his pizza doughs this afternoon. Instead of our usual thin, thin crust in the oven on the pizza stone, he wanted to give it a try on the grill this time. We’ve tried grilled pizza before… once we put a pizza stone on top of the grate in a Weber charcoal grill and tried, unsuccessfully, to cook a loaded pizza dough on top. After that experiment, we ended up with 3 or 4 inedible pizzas that were black on the bottom and raw on top. And, the pizza stone eventually broke in 2 from the heat.
This time, he had something else in mind. We have a charcoal hibachi grill out back as well. This time he put one of our cast iron grill plates on the hibachi, and put the pizza dough on top of that. After turning it the dough once, he put sauce and cheese on top while the other side was grilling. It only took a few minutes per side – and it turned out great.
I went outside this afternoon between meetings and was greeted by a bevy of butterflies flitting around the lantana. I snapped this shot quickly. Bear with me, as it’s a bit fuzzy. I had to zoom in and tweak it a bit. My online butterfly identification guide tells me it’s a female Monarch butterfly. You go, girl!
I’ve mastered the gas oven on the boat. This morning I fired it up and baked blueberry scones for breakfast. We are definitely not roughing it with fresh baked scones and jam. 🙂
(Disclaimer, I’m not a complete Betty-Crocker, though, I use Sticky Fingers scone mix. Just add water. Delicious!)
Sheila365 