A quick weekend project

I turned the 9 crochet hearts I made from that ball of cotton yarn into a Spring garland and hung it in the kitchen. I just hope my cats will not take an interest in those things dangling above the sink.

The free pattern for the granny hearts can be found here: My Rose Valley

Scented Yarn. Seriously?

I grabbed a ball of cotton yarn at the store today because the colors looked so cheerful and spring like. I started crocheting hearts with it for a garland when I noticed a strange scent, strange as in not normally present in my house. A bit soapy but not bad. I sniffed the yarn thinking it might have come in contact with soap somewhere along the way when I noticed the little sign on the label that said 'scents'. I did not even know that this particular brand had scented yarn, I know the other one does. Oh well, I guess my spring heart garland will act as an air freshener as well. But is scented yarn really necessary?

Done!

I finished the last of my March projects, the wall hanging for April.

I managed to work on all the things I planned to, the small ones are all finished, the kitchen curtains will take a little longer, I ran out of crochet thread and have to wait a little to get more of it. And I switched from knitting a shawl to knitting a scarf because I thought the yarn was not a good fit for the shawl. Considering everything else that went on, I am happy with what I have achieved.

Cat TV

I hung our brand new bird feeder outside our bedroom window this morning. Now we have to wait for the birds to discover it.

Feline Friday

A new knitting project

I decided that the yarn I have is not right for the shawl I wanted to knit so I am knitting a lace scarf instead. The pattern is 'Brooke's Column of Leaves Scarf' and it can be found here.

Catching up

All done with the small projects for March. I finished 'The Thief', a really cute cross stitch pattern and made it into a small pillow ornament.

And I used one of the hearts from the 'Redwork Garden' pattern to make my heart for March. It is stuffed and I am still searching for the perfect ribbon to attach to it (or maybe I just leave it as it is).

Too late for the party

My little black cat missed this year's St. Patrick's Day Shenanigans due to inclement weather. But he is ready for next year.

Christmas Ornament

Well, the weather fits, it was snowing this morning.

I have finally finished the ornament for '1 Christmas Item Per Month'.

The weather and power problems at the beginning of the month sure took the wind out of my sails but I am trying to catch up this week before March is over. I will not be able to finish all my projects but at least a few of them.

Knitting

In between garden work and spring cleaning the only crafty thing I did was a little knitting. Another square for the grey and blue blanket and two little washcloths.

Sunday

Yep, we garden in the rain. With all the crazy weather we had recently I feel that I am running out of time and I wanted some of the stuff done before all the weeds get a growth spurt. So today we hauled home another load of garden supplies and covered the rose bush area with pine needles and I built my future sunflower bed. I plan to put big sunflowers in the middle and a dwarf variety into the holes of the bricks in the front and maybe some calendula in the holes in the sides. It was raining on and off today but we got it done. We also bought shiny new bird feeders. Since our yard is now practically cat free I want to have the birds coming back and also provide some entertainment for the cats. I have a busy week ahead of me and hope I will get a lot of the stuff on my to-do list done.

Saturday

It was finally warm and dry enough to go out and do some much needed garden work. Here are some before and after photos of the areas we worked at. It was mostly cleanup and preparing for the next steps.

My herb garden, all cleaned out and with some new soil. The rosemary seems to have died but a nice lady at the garden center told me to just cut it back but not remove it. I also bought a new plant to encourage the old one to come back to life, I will plant it after the rain and snow that is forecast for the next few days. New herb seedlings will be started tomorrow.

Two of my three strawberry plants survived the Winter. I cleaned out their bed and put down fresh straw. I think I will buy another one to keep them company.

The area between the lilac bush and the forsythias always has way too many weeds growing. I put down heavy landscaping fabric and fresh soil and plan to plant shade loving wildflowers there.

The area around the rose bush and in front of the shed. I plan to cover the rose bush area with pine needles and put in some spring bulbs this Fall. And I want to construct a planting trough for sunflowers in front of the shed. I wanted to have sunflowers there ever since we moved into the house.

I am quite sure that tomorrow morning I will regret schlepping a 60 lbs sack of soil across the garden but for now I am happy with what we achieved today (there is always Bengay to make things better).

Feline Friday

Finally Sunshine!

March 18, 2014

Springcleaning

Well folks,  I don't know about you but there is one thing I need for springcleaning and that is SPRING or at least a hint of it. Instead we got that:

Yep, more ice. It was raining all day yesterday with temperatures below freezing, it even snowed a bit. This week was supposed to be our big springcleaning/garden preparing week. We went to the home improvement store on Saturday (in lovely weather, sunny and breezy) and loaded up the car with soil and other garden paraphernalia and cleaning things. We decided to take it easy on Sunday to rest up for the week ahead. And then on Monday we got up to that mess. It is amazing how de-motivating bad weather can be. This morning everything is covered in ice again and I hope it will stop soon before we are going back to what happened last weekend.

We managed to clean out the bottom cabinets of the kitchen, purge the contents and replace the shelf liner, then we ran out of steam. We will see if we can find a bit of motivation today to at least get the top cabinets done.

And to end on a more positive note, here are my latest stitching projects, yet to be turned into finished items.

Happy St. Patrick's Day