We’re well into September, and the canning season is coming to a close. Also known as the season of fruit guilt. In fact I’m feeling guilty right now thinking about the plums that are overripening on our tree at this very moment, that I am not making into sauce, chutney, butter, jam or any other form of fruit preserve. In fact, I think I can hear them. From mid-August to now, the plum and blackberry bounty in our yard alone is out of control. I had to stop canning when I ran out of jars. Pictured above are the very economical apple and blackberry jelly, made entirely with fruit from our yard, and the extravagant peach jam, made with $5 worth of Okanagan peaches. I made about 9 one-cup jars of each.

It was a big leap for me to actually make peach jam. My thought process: 1. Our trees are full of fruit-guilt-inducing plums. 2. I’ve made plum jam and its just okay. 3. Peach jam is yummier than plum jam. 4. Therefore, I will make peach-plum jam.

Luckily, Gary is much more clear-thinking. He was able to go straight from “Peaches are yummier than plums” to “Make peach jam”. I had to admit the superiority of this logic. Plus peach jam is like sunshine in a jar, and we can use that through the long, grey, wet winter ahead.

Today was a gorgeous summer-like day, which was perfect since I was standing outside all day next to this wall at the annual SPCA fundraiser. This year I volunteered to help with the event, and my job was to put together two displays. One was the “community wall”, a place for people at the festival to share photos of their animals. Kind of like a real-life wall filtered through the idea of a facebook wall and spit back out again as a three-dimensional display, with real photos and messages and ribbons.

The other part was this display of photos from a wildlife photography contest run by the wildlife rehabilitation centre where I have volunteered. Everyone attending the event had a chance to vote for their favourite photo — which they could do by placing their tokens in the paper bags strung underneath the photos. This turned into a lot of work — building the panels, making the signs, mounting the photos, making labels and so on. I’m pretty relieved its over. I think this is technically my first 3D display design. I had to cut a few corners in production to keep the cost and amount of labor reasonable, but the bones of it are good and can be re-used for other things.

Classes started this week. I’m excited to get to work. Just glad to have today behind me so I can look forward to the good things ahead. Hey — I was just about to complain that now would be the perfect time to relax and watch the women’s US Open finals — and they are NOT on! But that was before I noticed that “Pretty in Pink” is just starting. Hello, sofa and knitting! Oh my god, that’s Ellen Tigh from Battlestar Galactica as a mean popular girl!

A couple of weeks ago I finally sent out a little care package to two of my nieces. They had summer birthdays and it just took me forever to get these sent out. It’s not the doing of the thing, so much as the idea, that takes me so long to work out. Some pieces of pretty paper from my collection, some card stock made into blank cards, some envelopes to fit, and a fabric sleeve to hold them all. That’s all — simple enough, it seems in retrospect. I like birthdays, and I like presents, but I would like to split them up so that birthdays are just a time to remember and say hello, I love you, and gifts can be given randomly on no particular schedule. Anyway, the best part about these card kits was the email from my sister (their mom) who sent me photos of the two girls crafting with the kits, dressed only in their birthday suits, shortly after the mail arrived. It was a great scene — like someone had called an emergency craft drill.

I had my first day of school today! I was nervous, going back to classrooms and the campus atmosphere. But I’m excited. I poked around the visual arts building, went to two classes, and explored the library. We had the first meeting of the Photo/Video class today. I’ll be shooting and developing film for the first time in ages. This will require some discipline, because — as you may recall — on film you can’t see what you’ve taken, and you can’t just delete them off the roll and take more if you don’t like them.

So far, I still feel like this is all manageable. I have one more class to start next Monday, as well as an online course that I can start work on tomorrow. Four classes in total, and three days a week at the museum. Plus two weeks of travel at the end of October, going on the road with a travelling exhibit. I think it’s juuust going to work.

It might be May. But my head is still in April. A few things we’ve been up to:

• We hit the Mighty Metchosin Yard Sale this weekend. My one find is pictured above. Really it was the little label that got me. This is part of my new organizing kick. Once I clean it up, it will go up on the hall shelf to help hold the mess that’s piled up there.
• I’ve been sewing curtains for the trailer. With any luck they will be done in time for a little trip this weekend, when they can be photographed fully deployed.
• Made a “crazy cake.” This is a recipe from our family cookbook of which I’ve always been highly skeptical (Auntie Mary, this is your recipe). But I promised to make a dessert for a last-minute dinner get together with our neighbors, and decided to try it, since it promised to be quick and not require me to go shopping. This cake goes by many names: I’ve heard cakepan cake (because you mix it all up in the pan) and goofy cake. You may know it by another name. The dry ingredients get mixed up in the pan, then you make three holes in the dry mix, add oil to one, white vinegar and vanilla in the other two. Pour water over everything and mix it all up, and bake it for 30 minutes. No eggs whatsoever. Crazy! But it actually makes quite a yummy chocolate cake, and you can’t beat it for ease of preparation. I’m a convert.

• Finished this little project, made with one of my thrift store frames.
• Working on some drawings.
• The brochures I made for Wild ARC are going to be printed at last. They got a grant to cover printing costs (or rather, we are printing as many as the grant will allow). So I’m finding a printer and getting those ready to go.
• The garden should be starting to produce soon. We’ve had a few bits of lettuce and spinach and a couple of radishes. Arugula is coming in.

Oh, and lots of other things. Some big, some small. Planning a trip to see my family at the end of the month. And keeping up with news of my nephew who is still in the NICU back in Boston. My sister-in-law is posting messages to us all using an interesting online social community website. Something to know about if you ever have a family situation where you need to keep your family and friends informed and allow them to help out with meals, transportation, or other things that are sometimes needed when there’s an illness or other crisis. Its a private online community, and is set up through this site. Just a good thing to know about.

First of all, thanks, knitting gurus, for the magic loop tips. It’s nice to have experienced knitters around to lend some insight. For the time being I’ve switched over to bamboo dpns, but it sounds like its time for me to invest in the good needles. Anyway, I like the dpns, so I’m happily knitting away on those for now.

Second of all, I had a great time on Salt Spring Island on Saturday, but I forgot my camera! There are some pictures over at Mary’s journal (although I was only on Saltspring for Saturday . . . so I only met the first group of sheep and the fab four alpacas). I drove over with Wendy and Carolyn, and met up with the other bitchybees members who were there for the whole weekend. We hit the Saltspring Saturday market, which was huge and full of treats for the senses. There were samples of pepper preserves, dark cocoa-rich fudge, some beautiful corrugated baked treats called Canele de Bordeaux, artisan cheeses, curry spice mixes, chai, and on and on. At the fibre fest, there were beautiful yarns and amazing spinners and lots of ideas percolating. I was interested in the local aspect, and had planned on picking up some yarns from the Salt Spring flocks. However, the idea evaporated at the Indigo Moon stall, and I pretty much blew my wad there and had to call it a day as far as buying was concerned. Before catching the ferry back, we got to go to an alpaca farm and feed the sheep and alpacas with handfuls of oats from the big bucket. It was lots of fun and a great way to wrap up the day on Saltspring.

So, I have no pictures of the Saltspring sheep, but I do have a few shots of the Metchosin Sheepdog Trial on Sunday (above and top, courtesy of Gary). Sheep and dogs? Oh yes. We were there. It was a real Metchosin-y good time. There was a concession set up by the community house with some yummy homemade muffins, snacks, and your choice of veggie or lamb burger (depending, as the sign said, whether you were cheering for the dogs or the sheep).

There were sheepdogs everywhere. These ones were up near the sheep pen at the top of the course. Their job was to get the “herd” in place for the start of the trial. Then they would retreat out of sight and the contestant dog and his/her handler would start working. They had to herd the sheep through a set course, in between designated gates, and then pen them.

In crafty news, I did a bit of work on my silkscreen card designs today. Here’s my work table.

It should be easier to design these on the computer, where I could mix and match and size and crop elements freely, but I think I like working by hand, at least for the inspiration stage. Later I can clean up the designs digitally. I’m working with some Dover clip art, some found and vintage ephemera, and a big pile of holiday cards from the Salvation Army. This Season’s Greetings with the snowflakes is the most stylish greeting of the lot, so I’ll definitely use that somewhere. I figure at the rate I work, holiday cards is probably about right.

Starting new projects can be a slow and clumsy process. These are accordian books I made over the weekend, while working on an idea for a photo album/CD sleeve. Let’s say — just hypothetically — that a person was to take a whole mess of pictures at a family get-together and wanted to share the photos on a CD. But suppose said person wanted to send something a little more cosy and friendly than just a CD in a plastic sleeve. The idea is to create a little mini-photo album with a CD pocket in the back. These are still in process.

This one is just a regular accordian-fold book without the CD sleeve. Just something I wanted to work on, using some bits and pieces from my stash and some pages from a book I picked up on the “free” table at the library. Kind of a 3-D collage project.

I also worked on my card designs for the screenprinting project. I’m trying to work up at least a few print designs before I mix up my photo emulsion. I don’t want to have to throw away any expired emulsion, so the key will be to have a bunch of projects lined up and ready to go. Its slow going, though. Its hard to stay motivated when you’re working through some ideas that just aren’t really coming together. I just try to make incremental progress.

Meanwhile, in the garden, the peas are almost ready to eat. They are very active, twining their tendrils around the netting that has so far kept birds and bunnies out of our garden, climbing slowly but steadily. I guess that should inspire me, but instead I keep thinking I’m being outpaced by a vegetable.

Okay, people. I’m back home for a while, and I’m ready to make stuff. Let’s buckle down here! I really need to get cracking.

I have a free day today, which has been derailed a bit so far by assorted events, including a dumptruck that flipped on its side in the construction site next door and had to be righted with a crane. While tipping over it “enhanced” our rock garden with half its load of large rocks and gravel. I’m assuming someone will remove them (although, honestly, I have my eye on one or two of the big ones). No one is hurt, and no fuel seems to have spilled, so no major harm done.

In theory, July should be one of the best chunks of time I will have for a while in which to get projects done. The agenda includes:

Set up home screenprinting workshop. My local art supply place had a great sale a few weeks ago and I went ahead and picked up screen emulsion supplies, a squeegee, and some ink. I’m now reading up on plans for my exposure box and press.

Design screenprinting projects. What do I want to make? I’m going to be printing on paper, and I think I found a good local supplier for recycled paper. I’ll start off with some cards, but I’d also like to try making some decorative paper for books, and some packaging: like a CD gift mailer that would be pre-printed and then constructed afterwards. Also I want to design some collateral for the “Tweet” projects, that I do eventually want to put up for sale.

More journals and mini-books. I picked up some good library books for inspiration, and I’m playing around with some prototypes (including for the CD packaging — maybe that will make more sense when I have a picture to show).

There are a lot more little projects too: I’m craving a sewing project, and I need to branch out with my knitting too. Maybe conquer my fear of sweaters. Not to mention the gardening. I’m aiming to do more brief project-related updates here, rather than just the lengthier posts I seem to have drifted into. After all, am I here to talk about overturned dumptrucks? I don’t think so. I’m here to make things.