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.

Sleepy Kitty

Game Night

What you can't see are the four other cats that came up during the game and just swatted the tokens off the board. :-)

Cross Stitch Patterns for Sale

I am letting go of some cross stitch patterns I will never have enough time to do. If you are interested hop on over here and have a look.

Weekend Food

Pavlova for 'Australia Day'

Chocolate Cake (just because)

Shortbread for 'Burns Night'

Rustic Pizza with Caramelized Onions for Saturday Lunch

We did not eat it all this weekend, there is plenty left of everything,

Create Along 2013

I finished my first project for the first quarter of the 2013-Create-Along that Liz is hosting this year. My plan for this project is to use what I have. My first project is a new crochet cushion for the sofa, made from the yarn that was left over from the ripple blanket.

Weekend

The snow melted off the hard surfaces and the roads were mostly dry by Friday evening. We did our usual grocery shopping and on Saturday morning we drove to the farmer's market. It is rather empty now but our favorite farmer is there all year long and the inside shops are open too. The weather was bright and sunny all weekend long and most of the snow is now gone. My poor garden is once again a muddy swamp.

The weekend was nice and relaxing with knitting, reading and doing some stuff around the house. The kitties had torn off the rather flimsy fabric that covered the bottom of the sofa so Del replaced it with cardboard and a lot of help of course. 

The furry ones enjoyed the sunshine on the porch, bird watching and snuggling on the bed.

I got my seed order finalized and a lot of tea was consumed.

And there was food. Sunday lunch was meatballs with onion gravy and mashed potatoes with peas.

I hope your weekend was a good one, we have one more day to enjoy, Del is off today. Have a great week everyone!

I am dreaming of a white ....

Hey wait, that's not for another 11 months, so what is all that stuff then?

Pictures from my Weekend

Tuna pizza for Saturday lunch.

Getting the projects for the 'Home Sweet Home Create-Along' ready.

With help of course.

New Socks

I had to buy an extra ball of yarn for 5 rows on my cardigan, so most of the yarn was left over and since it is thin enough for socks I am now the happy owner of a pair of lime green socks.

First finished project of 2013

I finished my Leaf Yoke Cardigan last night. It is still unblocked and buttonless but the search for the 'perfect' buttons is on.

New Year's Day

The weather was grey and wet.

The best way to deal with this kind of weather.

Our favorite pie.

Hello 2013

Happy New Year!

A new year is like a blank notebook, ready to be filled with thoughts, dreams, joys and sorrows, adventures and projects. I love notebooks and I am ready to get working on this one. I don't make resolutions, they only last about a month anyway. Instead I have started an organizing binder for the household and other things. I think that even a small household like ours can profit from a bit of organization. If the not so fun things are well organized I have more time for the things I enjoy doing.

There are only a few things I really want to do this year:

• Bring the garden back to life.
• Make a quilt commemorating all my cats, past and present.
• Read more.
• Get back into quilting without giving up knitting completely.
• Paint the bathroom blue and the kitchen yellow.

Other than that I want to live in the moment, find joy and beauty in my every day life and keep my mind open for new projects, dreams and adventures.

Here is to a good year for all of us!