Cross Stitch

These are the two cross stitch projects I am working on. The stitching part is done, now I want to frame them with the fabrics that inspired the whole project and quilt a little bit to make small wall hangings out of them.

Knitting

Hurray! I was able to convince my camera to let me take a few pictures this morning. The light was not very good but I think you can see what it is.

This is a very small shawl that will work well as a neck-kerchief next Winter. The pattern is 'Cassiope' and it is so small because I used lace yarn (Patons Lace in Dove Grey) for it. Maybe I'll try it again with a thicker yarn sometimes.

And this is my current knitting project, a scarf called 'Summer Spleen'. I am using lace yarn again, this time with sequins (Patons Lace Sequin in Peridot).

What's Up?

Well, not much really. I am having problems with my camera and not being able to take photos has sort of taken the fun out of blogging for me.

I finished a knitting project and started a new one, I am working on some hand stitching projects and a quilted wall hanging. I can't show pictures of either one of them which makes me mad. I have also pulled out my "Dear Jane" quilt in progress and plan to work on that a bit more. I should really make it my goal to finish it.

The weather around here is crazy, hot and humid during the day followed by the daily thunderstorm. Rainy days are bad for doing laundry so I am creating quite a back log in my hamper. Luckily I used to hoard towels and kitchen towels back in the day so we are not going to run out of either any time soon. ;)

The cats are doing fine, just trying to keep cool like the rest of us. I find keeping the bedroom dark and the fan going makes it bearable and the cats agree with me by spending a lot of time in there. Summer - the time when the house appears to be littered with dead cats.

Despite the heat I am still baking bread at least once a week, sometimes twice and I am trying to bake my way through a book with yummy muffin recipes. I have 'summerized' our weekly menu, our bed and the sleeping places of the cats.

The weeds in the garden are doing very well and the grass grows at least an inch after every rain. Yesterday I discovered that there is now kudzu growing in one corner of the garden. Lovely, I hope we can get rid of it before it takes over everything. I am planning a completely new and different garden for next year. It has to be easier to maintain and not quite as work intensive. We are getting rid of the beds and we will switch to containers and downsize the whole operation.

Photo-less blogging is not much fun, keep your fingers crossed that all my camera wants are some regular batteries instead of the re-chargeable ones.

My Boy Jack

Out of the five kittens Jackie is the one who hangs with me most of the time. He sleeps nearby or gets into whatever it is I am doing. And not to forget, he loves playing fetch with his little felt mousie and I am the one tossing it for him. Hard to believe that he was once the runt of the litter. I keep asking him if he has a license to carry such a cute face. ;-)

Blossoms and Blooms

This is what our azaleas looked like before the cold spell and the heavy rains wiped them out.

The first roses that opened also got hit by the weather but the ones that came afterwards are doing well and the snowballs are gone now too.

 

The small red azalea in the back yard was doing fine, the blossoms on the white one turned brown before they even opened, it seems to be very sensitive to colder temperatures.

My herb garden is the only thing growing in the garden this year. We can not afford the total makeover it needs, thanks to some rather expensive dental work that was needed, but we aim for next spring to do it. We will remove the beds because the wood is all rotten and switch to some form of container garden to keep the weeds out.

Knitting

Despite living in an allergy induced haze I was able to knit two new shawls. The first one is called "Walk for Shetland" and I would advise to use the charts rather then the written pattern if you want to knit it.

The other one is "Murcia", it is a very easy pattern and knits up quickly. They are both knit with the same yarn, I keep forgetting how much yarn is on these skeins and always buy too much.

Rainy Day

Yesterday was cold and rainy and after three days of heavy spring cleaning I decided to take the day off. I baked oatmeal cookies while the furry family members did what cats do best, snooze. I was in the middle of mixing the cookie dough when one of the beaters broke. Turns out my mixer is a British brand and if I want replacement beaters I have to pay almost as much for them as I would pay to get a new hand mixer here. I also got 'bitten' by the cheese grater and now have a cut on one of my 'knitting fingers', not good. I wanted to start a new project today. I guess I will just have to try and see. I hope the weekend weather will be better so we can get back to digging in the garden. I feel bad because I have nothing planted yet apart from peas but when it rained ice pellets yesterday I was kind of glad that nothing is growing yet. Crazy weather and the Winter just does not want to leave this year.

Knitting Again

After a little break from knitting I am getting back into it. I knitted new dishcloths for the Create-Along. I am going to add new colors to my kitchen this year and I think red and purple look great with yellow.

Adventure BOM 1 - 3

I am having a hard time getting decent pictures of these, either the color is all wrong or the texture of the background fabric shows too much. This is the best I could do with some help of my photo software. They are really fun to stitch.

Warm and Happy

2013 Create-Along "Home Sweet Home"

I finished the rest of the projects for the first quarter of the create-along, things for the living/dining room.

I made another sofa cushion and two sets of place mats. The hexi flowers are at least 20 years old and made from Austrian dirndl fabrics. They were one of my earliest projects and I never put them together into a big quilt as originally intended. The place mats with the hearts were planned for February but did not get finished in time.

I am looking forward to get started on the next quarter where we will be making things for the kitchen. I already have some projects lined up.

Monday

It seems that blogging is not exactly on top of my to-do list these days. Between house and garden and cats and all the other projects it gets left behind.

It looks and feels like Spring has finally sprung around here. The temperatures are into the 60s during the day and the nights are no longer chilly. I spent some time in the garden last week, pulling weeds and trying to dig the beds but the soil was still too wet. I bought some new strawberry plants on the weekend and hope to get them planted this week. The part of the garden closer to the house seems to be drier then the part closer to the shed where the ground is still very muddy. I also gathered all the branches that fell from our trees during the high winds we had recently.

The cats are happy that it is finally warm enough for them to be in the porch and I am looking forward to some undisturbed sewing time this week.

At the beginning of the year I was looking for some BOMs, preferably with stitchery in them and could not find any. Now there are several and all very cute, you can find the links to them in my left sidebar. Anyone want to join me in one or two of them?
I have not done any knitting in a while. I don't seem to find anything that grabs my attention and I don't really have money for buying yarn at the moment. But with so many sewing and quilting and stitching projects I am not likely to get bored anytime soon. 

Spring cleaning is under way, on the weekend we deep cleaned the pantry. It is never as bad as I think it is. Next up is the kitchen.

I wish you all a good week and leave you with this 'can you spot the kitty?' picture. ;-)

I am back!

Did you miss me?

I have been sidelined by a whole bunch of nasty stuff, but yesterday I decided that I had had enough and I need to pick myself up, ignore all the crap and get my life back on track. I have a dozen projects, both old and new, I want to work on and I want to give my house and garden a proper spring cleaning.

The cats are all healthy and happy and today we even have sunshine for a change. We had lots of rain and then some more and my garden is rather squishy. I hope I will be able to get some work done out there soon.

This is the cake I baked for Valentine's Day and MamaCat and her new best friend.

Have a great day everyone, see you soon.

Weekend

My weekend contained a trip to the farmer's market, a little sewing, a little knitting, lots of yummy food and unfortunately a lot of back pain as well.

Happy Imbolc/St. Brigid's Day/Candlemas/Groundhog Day

Whatever you observe or celebrate this weekend eat, drink and be merry.

We will have an Irish themed lunch in honor of St. Brigid on Saturday and if the groundhog predicts 6 more weeks of Winter it will be groundhog stew on Sunday. Nah, just kidding, it will actually be Charleston Shrimp and Grits. I think there are not enough holidays in the US calendar and life is too short to miss an occasion for feasting and merry making therefore we decided to celebrate all kinds of holidays this year. And so this weekend we celebrate than the return of light and the beginning of the agricultural year. And don't forget to do a rain dance for Saturday. ;-)

I made an Imbolc candle and a St. Brigid's Cross.