indigo pears

Beautiful zinnias have been the best thing from the garden this hot summer!

A friend gave me seeds for the green zinnia variety. That new color certainly "cools" down the bouquet!
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For months, I have been reading about making mozzarella and ricotta. I have collected the supplies, citric acid, milk, thermometer, rennet, pans and all....finally Saturday I was ready!

It was my first try, and a long story.....I ended up with some curds, and finally.....

.....RICOTTA!

A lot of ricotta (and at least 3 quarts of whey).[ I agonized over a great way to use that whey (hate to waste anything! And decided since using it in baking wouldn't happen until the weather cools and I didn't have room to store it in the freezer or fridge....that probably using it for a bathtub treat would do...I did read that drinking it could make your skin glow and remove redness! so many possiblilties!]

This beautiful ricotta (below) was used with an eggplant to make Rachel Ray's Eggplant Lasagna.

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Another thing I have been wanting to do was to piece a "Russian Sunflower" block. In honor of our drive across Kansas this summer. [And because my friend Lizzie found a entire wonderful scrappy quilt top of this pattern in a flea market recently!]

It is an old Kansas City Star pattern and I found it in a book called, The Sister Blocks" by Edie McGinnis.
My block......

Lizzie's quilt top....

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One more topic.....where had the shine in my hair gone to???? Even with gentle natural hair color products, there were days when I felt like I now had straw on my head!

Thankfully, I found this wonderful product which makes it glow! A spritz or two on dry hair and wow!

And this one, which Good Housekeeping loved in their recent tests......it makes the hair stronger, softer and shinier!!!! ...... I feel much better now!!!!