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Friday, September 7, 2012

Dyeing To Have A Good Time and a Recipe


All the shirts hanging out to dry

Yesterday on my way home from work I stopped into Hobby Lobby to pick up a tie-dye kit. The kit came with an instructional DVD, it was very useful and we learnt several ways to tie-dye. I washed the shirts and shortly after Amber and the boys arrived and the craziness began. Amber watched the DVD and then we were off to tie-dye. What fun!!  We had planned to have the boys help, but the dye is rather permanent and they ended up being spectators.  After tie-dye and clean up it was time for a snack.  The boys wanted warm milk and a Hob Nob biscuit so they were quickly taken care of.  Dave had brought in a watermelon and canteloupe from the garden and wanted me to cut them up.  Soon we had mountains of fresh sweet melon to munch on, grandson Patrick is a melon head fanatic, he stood on the kitchen chair with his fist clenched around large chunks of watermelon, watermelon in his mouth and juice running down his chin and tummy, he then said, "Grandma I LOVE watermelon", imagine that, I would never have guessed :) 
This afternoon I came home and rinsed out all of the tie-dye shirts and removed the rubber bands to reveal the designs. We are very pleased with the results and plan to make more colorful shirts!!!

Here are some pictures:


The boy who loves watermelon!!
Charlie's "bullseye"
Patrick's shirt, and soon to be born baby Alivia's shirt. Both done with the pleated effect.
Henry's "swirl"



And, now for a recipe!


A delicious pot of vegetable soup I made on Wednesday evening.


 Vegetable Soup

3 large carrots
2 medium onions
1 stalk of celery
half a small cabbage sliced
4 smallish potatoes diced
A handful of spinach
1 quart of vegetable broth
A pinch of basil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put a little olive oil in the pan, add the onions, celery and carrots, cook a bit, add everything else, add one quart of vegetable broth, cook until veggies are tender.

I like to add a large spoonful of plain yogurt to my bowl of soup, it makes the broth kind of creamy and adds a nice tangyness, Another way I enjoy it is to add a little mint sauce (basically mint chopped up in a vinegar/sugar mix) it too adds a nice tangyness to my bowl of soup.

Anyway, no guilt eating this soup, healthy, low cal, and extremely tasty.

ENJOY


7 comments:

Michelle-ozark crafter said...

Love the tie die and what a happy boy! The soup looks so good!

Bean said...

Hi Michelle,
Tie die was a lot of fun.
Bean

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

The shirts all look great! The pleated effect is amazing.
And mmm, vegetable soup...if only it would cool off...

Bean said...

Hi Barb,

I think you folks in the east will be cooling off in a day or two. Here in Indiana we had a front push through Friday night and today we had a high of only 68, so pleasant after the rather humid mid 80's we have had for several weeks.

The pleated effect is very easy, simply fold pleat up the fabric, like making a paper fan, and then rubber band at intervals.

Bean

Rebecca said...

The colors are so bright! Was clean up difficult????

Soup was definitely on my mind yesterday! I'm going to try the yogurt hint. I, too, like a "nice tangyness" to my bowls of soup - sometimes add straight vinegar to my chili, etc.....

kat said...

what delightful results, I particularly like the swirly whirl, and watermelon fresh from the garden is definitely a step up from Courgette - even monster ones. Have you come across Monty Don's Fork to Fork?

Bean said...

Hi Rebecca,
Yes the colors are bright, you can tone them done by adding more water. Clean up was easy as we put an old plastic drop cloth on the kitchen table, the dye is applied using squirt bottles. I didn't wear the gloves when I rinsed the shirts and my hands a blue tint to them for a bit.

Hi Kat,
Fresh watermelon is amazing. I do not know what this Monty Don's Fork to Fork is that you speak of :) I will go do a google search and I am sure all will be revealed.
BY the way your runner beans looked fab, my dad simply loves them but unfortunately they will not grow in Indiana, I think it gets too hot.

Bean