Blackberry picking!

The hubs and I went blackberry picking yesterday! It was really fun, and I was pretty excited about it, like the true nerd I am. Although, I have to tell you, those blackberry vines are COVERED in thorns! It's not just the vines though. It's the leaves, and the base of the berries, and the vines. And if you go picking on a windy day like we did, Look Out! Both of us got hit in the face with a flailing vine. Fortunately, for our up and coming modeling careers, there were no visible wounds left behind.

The other caution I have for you is about the spiders. Now, I am not a fan of spiders. I usually point at them, shriek, then run away. And the spiders were all over the place out there! The first patch of blackberries we got to in the park had long grass leading up to it. When I stepped up on the already somewhat smushed grass, a herd of spiders scurried away from my feet! Is that what you call a group of spiders? Gaggle, pod, swarm? There ya go, a swarm of them ran away!

Anyway, after a while, we got the hang of it. And we got used to getting stuck by the thorns. Our surprised yelps of pain went mostly ignored by each other as we filled up our bags. I think we brought in about 15 cups! Can you imagine the cost of that many blackberries at the grocery store?

We made blackberry cobbler (which we ate before dinner, like grown ups) and froze the rest. I think we have smoothies in our future! Which will be great for the sea monkey, apparently they're loaded with anti-oxidants. (I'm no nutritionist.)

The cobbler recipe was adapted from this recipe from allrecipes.com. We also used this recipe for whipped cream from the same awesome food website.

I think my next post will be about the amazing Bell and Howell 8mm camera we found at our local Goodwill for 7 bucks. I love thrift stores.

Hello world

Hello, hello hello, (spoken with my fake British accent) and welcome to Annie craft will do! Wow, day one and so much to look forward to. Lots and lots of ideas brewing around in my scattered brain these days. First of all, I'm kinda forgetful anyway. Then throw in a pregnancy and I literally feel like I've been handicapped.

I'm so excited to share my way through these projects I have planned! My big long term project is making a quilt for the sea monkey (aka: baby on the way). Status of the long term project: collecting fabric from family and friends (this may take a while, so we'll check in with this intermittently).

I couldn't sleep this morning because I was thinking of crafts! Isn't that crazy? I got home from work last night around 1 am. I need to be getting ready for work in about 20 minutes. But I actually woke up before my alarm went off with craft ideas buzzing around my head. This kind of thing is becoming more frequent. I need to get these ideas out or my sleeping hours may start to get shorter and shorter. Of course that could happen as I take on more projects, but that will be fun!

I recently acquired a two drawer filing cabinet. It's that standard ugly brownish officey color. If I had to pick something that the color of it brings to mind it would be the DMV.  I was just planning on sticking it in the closet so I wouldn't have to look at it while it's being useful. But it occurred to me this morning (pre-alarm) that I could give it a minor transformation and it wouldn't be too awful to have out. It will be the anchor in a little mail/bill station. The hubs will appreciate this since we recently had a "where should we put our bills" conversation. Gotta love all the little details of a new place without all the stuff you need.

Then we can pay our bills and file them immediately! See? Crafting can help organize your life. This will also save our table from the bottomless abyss of a catchall it's become for everything that enters our apartment.

Transformation photos and a walk through soon to come!