Long time no see

It's been years since I looked at this blog, much less posted.  Life has a way of getting in the way of our passions.

Since my last post, my son has been posted in Minnesota with the Air Force Reserves, my oldest daughter was married, my middle daughter started public school in the 11th grade and my youngest daughter has made tremendous progress as a dancer. 

In less fantastic news, I am in need of a knee replacement, due to osteoarthritis and can no longer garden.  We removed my vegetable garden this year and replaced it with a small ornamental bed.

I am still crocheting, knitting socks, quilting, homeschooling my youngest, officiating at swim meets, costuming for theater and spinning yarn.  Added to the list of hobbies is making custom dance costumes.

As a peek at some of my recent work, here is a photo of a charity quilt I made for Grace Quilters last spring.  I am in the process of whittling down my fabric stash by making charity quilts, as well as ornaments that I can sell at craft bazaars this winter.

 

 

Hopefully, I'll be back once in awhile to share more of my fiber arts adventures.  But don't hold your breath.  Life is just too unpredictable.

Fall gardening checklist

Various shovels & hand tools - CHECK
Wheelbarrow - CHECK
Overgrown garden beds in front - CHECK
Naked, empty NEW garden beds in back - CHECK
Big box of hundreds of new bulbs to be planted - CHECK
Ibuprofen, acetominiphen & ice packs in freezer for my aching arms, legs and back - CHECK

Guess who is spending the weekend working on fall gardening projects...

Knitting Post - FINALLY

When Airman finished Air Force Basic Training, we received a packing list for civilian clothes he wanted.  Top of the list was a stocking cap.  Of course, I was not satisfied with sending 2 of his ready made hats.  I just had to knit him a new hat. 

So when an email from Patons came with this free pattern, I was inspired to use some of my sock yarn stash to whip out a light weight, breathable stocking cap, suitable for the hot weather in San Antonio, Texas.

Not only was this a quick, easy knit, but I fell in love with the mitered square shaping of the crown. Believe it or not, that was a new technique for me.  All in all, this pattern was the perfect inspiration to get me back in the mood to knit.  Lots of mindless knitting in the round with a little challenge at the very end.  (excuse the poor photo - the hat was in the mail before I realized what a bad picture I had taken)

Of course, with Airman being so far away, I had to use Peeps to model the new hat.  She wasn't too happy to be interrupted during school but she helped me out anyway.  Of course, she didn't put down her pencil or stop working the whole time. 

My Peeps is so happy to be back to work on homeschool.  I am blessed!

A long and eventful summer

I've been sooooo busy this summer. I was working 2 part-time jobs, both resulting in long hours on my feet and one requiring lots of scooping. Yes, I was back at the ice cream shop this summer. Needless to say, there has been little gardening, no knitting and lots of time spent trying to catch up on housework. Hence, nothing to blog about.

However the biggest news of the summer is ... my son is now an Airman First Class. We travelled down to his graduation from basic training this month. We couldn't be more proud. Not only did he make it, but he graduated as an honor graduate. He was in the top 10% of his class of over 600 trainees. Now he is in tech school to become a loadmaster. He won't be home for months yet but we are e-mailing, calling and skyping on a somewhat regular basis. Those were all things forbidden during the 8.5 weeks of basic training. I never knew I could miss someone as much as I missed my son this summer.

Anyway, here he is:

My son! My Airman! My Hero!

Too busy to write - wish you were here.

Preparations for Airman's graduation are in full swing around here. Too busy to say much but lots of photographic evidence of my garden progress.




This little fella was just hanging out in a pot of Hens & Chicks I have awaiting transplantation into my perennial beds. Frankly, I don't see the attraction of this particular napping spot. Seems a bit too uncomfortable, doesn't it?

One beautiful day sandwiched between days & days of RAIN

Well, at least one day this week was sunny and somewhat warm. It is has been such a gloomy, wet, depressing spring that the only thing that has kept me up and moving was my dreams of a stellar garden this year.

So, of course, I took advantage of this one lovely day to get some work done for the garden.

First, I transplanted all the seedlings into bigger and better homes. The pansies all went into their outside pots and they are in the process of being hardened off this week. I also transplanted tomatoes, zinnias, marigolds, basil, lavender, Queen Anne's Lace and a few pepper plants that survived (some nibbling creature has been eating the leaves off all my pepper plants - grrr) into bigger pots so their root balls can get a little bigger before transplanting them into the garden next month.

I then got to try out my new soil cube tool. I actually won this little gadget recently in a drawing at Highly Uncivilized. Since I so rarely win anything, it was a real joy when they contacted me. And now that I've actually tried it out, I am THRILLED that I won. It is one of those little gadgets that you look at and say, "Cool!" but then don't buy because you are just not quite sure if it is worth the investment.

Well, this thing totally is worth it. It was produced by Deeply Rooted Organics. Look at the nice, orderly blocks I turned out in a quick hurry this afternoon. The beauty of using soil blocks is the roots will air-prune themselves, meaning, when they reach the outside of the block, they send a message back to the stem to put out more roots. The result is a compact, healthy root system that will not suffer from root shock when you transplant them. Plus, there is no plastic pots to wash, store or throw away. So wonderfully green and organic, it makes me swoon.

It even came with a specially made pair of tweezers to move the blocks when it is time to transplant them. And it works, too. I had a few blocks that needed to be shifted around and it held the blocks together nicely as I lifted them into a better position.

I planted more tomatoes and peppers, so I can stagger harvests this year, as well as some sweet alyssum and sweet peas. For kicks, I started a few radish seeds as well. I plan on direct sowing most of them but thought it might be fun to experiment a little. I have room under my grow light for at least 3 more trays, so I'll be blocking up some more soil and starting more seeds soon. I just need to mix up more of the special soil mixture they recommend.

Might as well keep starting seedlings while it rains this weekend.

Come on, Sun. We miss you. Come back soon! And stay awhile next time, please!!!

Progress!

Well, I've tried to post this a couple of times and Blogger hasn't been too eager to let me. I don't know, maybe it is discrimination against worms. Or maybe it hates my amateur photography. Needless to say, it has been a while since I could get things to work. Perhaps this time it will work (fingers crossed).

We arrived home from our spring break trip to a delightful little surprise on my doorstep - WORMS! Yes, the worms I ordered back in December finally arrived. I had purchased a black file box to house my worms quite awhile ago. I drilled 30+ holes all over it and filled it with damp newspaper shreds, coir and my new babies.

They seem to be adjusting to their new home quite well, although when I open the top to feed them, quite a few of them try to wriggle out. I keep reminding them that they will starve to death outside their new box but I guess you cannot reason with red wigglers.

It will be a few months until I can harvest the castings to use in my garden but I am having fun with my vermiculture experiment anyway.

In garden news, the trellis I made are installed and the garden beds are all weeded and ready for planting. I'll get some photos taken and up soon. The clouds have rolled in and the rain that is in the forecast for the next two days appears to be looming. So, I'll wait for a little sun before snapping progress photos for your enlightenment.

In knitting news, the baby blanket is almost finished. I need to knit 5 more inches or so, then I can bind off. THEN, I promise to take a photo of it and post it. Maybe I should just spend a day taking pictures of all the knitting I've finished in the past 5 months and get everything updated. Well, only if we can get some sun. It's been way too gloomy this month for successful photography anyway.

Disclaimer: All these excuses are merely a smokescreen. Truth: I have been too lazy to get the camera out.

Well, off to take Bubbles to swim practice. Ta-ta!