Strawberry Salad

Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

One of our summer volunteers makes a salad similar to this every summer for our staff meals.  It is so refreshing and delicious so I tried to duplicate it.  I used a premade dressing and a salad mix to make it easy and fast.  I used the roasted almonds available in small snack bags at Walmart for $1 each.  I think it is pretty close to her salad.  I threw in some blueberries I had on hand too and it tasted great.

Ingredients
Garden salad mix
Fresh strawberries, chopped
Red onion, chopped
Almonds, roasted and lightly salted
Creamy poppyseed dressing

Optional additions
Blueberries
Cooked chicken
Grapes
Orange sections
whatever else your tastebuds may enjoy

Strawberries

The Lord provided 10 pounds of strawberries this past week.  After I cleaned and sorted them I had about 9 pounds that I cut up and put in the freezer.  I plan to use them this fall to make strawberry jam. Yum!

Ziggy's Haircut

I gave Ziggy his semi-annual haircut on Saturday.  This was the third time I have given him a haircut myself.

Before

He usually does a good job of staying pretty still and letting me cut his hair with the electric clippers.  This time he was a bit reluctant to let me clip his leg and paws.  I checked and there were no injuries or sores.  I finally had to turn off the clippers and hold them against his paw.  Once he was willing to let the clippers stay against his paw he let me turn them on and clip the hair.  Not sure what made him reluctant this time but we got the job done.  We had quite a pile of fur after we were done.

After (He always looks skinner and a bit funny after a hair cut.)

Ziggy is a "designer dog", a mix of Yorkie and Bichon.  I bought him from a breeder in Kentucky and picked him up at the airport when he was a tiny 9 week old puppy.  His hair grows more than it sheds so he gets a haircut in the spring and one in the late summer.  His coat is soft and has curl from the bichon and he gets the brown with flecks of black from the yorkie.  He has the temperment of the bichon - calm, friendly and not a yappy barker.  He loves people and gets excited when he sees friends. He is my buddy!

Bungaline Pads

At camp we have an activity that we call "Bungaline".  It is a modified trampoline with a harness system that allows the jumper to jump higher and do flips.  Well, there are pads that go on certain parts of the supports for extra protection and our pads were getting worn out.  They had a vinyl or leather like material on the outside and a thin padding on the inside. As you can see below the padding was disintegrating. 

I re-made the pads with outdoor material on both sides of the padding to protect it from the weather.  I found material that has polyester on the outside and pvc lining on the inside to make it more weather resistant.  I also used a thicker pad for more cushioning.  All together I made 8 new pads for the different supports and cross beams.  I think these are a huge improvement over what we had.  You can see the comparison below.

An added bonus is that the new material matches the color of the metal supports on the bungaline.

Purple Peony

One of my favorite photos from this past summer was of this purple peony bush here at camp.  I love all the delicate petals and colors in each bloom.  This photo also caught several stages of the bloom with yellow yarrow (I think) in the background.

Scrap Quilt Baby Afghan and Froggie Bath Sponge

I recently completed this afghan for a friend's baby shower.  I used up some of the remnants of yarn that I had left over from other projects and tried to give it a scrap quilt look with a random placement of the different colors.  I crocheted each square then joined them together.  Since I didn’t know if my friend was expecting a boy or a girl I used both girl and boy colors to try and make it somewhat gender neutral.  I used the Flower Motif pattern from “The Best of Terry Kimbrough Baby Afghans” printed by Leisure Arts.  I followed her pattern except I didn’t add the border.

I also made this froggie bath sponge for the baby shower.  I came across the pattern in ‘Crochet Today’s’ March/April 2011 issue.  It was very easy to make and works very well.  I used the Moon and Stars yarn for both the body and the head.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog where I hope to share the projects I am working on and other neat ideas I find.  I enjoy a variety of creative outlets.  When I am not busy with my full-time job you can usually find me working on one project or another.  I am not exceptionally skilled in any particular craft but I enjoy dabbling in crochet, cross stitch, photography, gardening, quilting, sewing, embroidery, scrapbooking, card making, origami and a little bit of this and a little bit of that. 

I work in Southern Wisconsin as the secretary/office manager for a Christian Camp.  We are open year-round with weekend retreats in the fall through spring and week-long camps in the summer and into the fall.  It is a blessing to minister to all those who come to our camp and to see the Lord work in hearts and souls.  As an added bonus, I get to live on the campground year-round and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation – the multitude of stars at night, the delicate intricacies of the blooming flowers and the wonderful variety of the changing seasons.