Crafting Progress

Here's an update:

Knit Ballet Wrap Cardigan: Back and both fronts DONE! So, maybe 60% done. Sleeves, tie and assembly to go.

First pair of knit socks: DONE! I made them for monkey-girl.









Paton's Bohemian Vest (oh, so soft!): Cast on plus 2 rows. Now, before I get in trouble for starting yet another project while I have so many on the 'in progress' list, I have a reasonable explanation. This is my 'take with me' project. It requires little thought, so it is great for doing while I wait for stuff (kids' music/dance classes, doctor offices, etc). Most of my other on-going projects are a little too large or complicated to just pick up and do whenever with limited time and space. (I'm using 11110 Indigo Indulgence.)

Everything else....ah whatever, it's spring, I have to play outside whenever it isn't raining!

Spring!

I love spring.

(Yes, I know, I love fall too....get over it.)

My lilacs are just starting to bloom and it's definitely a good year for lilacs. They're covered.

The one in the backyard gets completely neglected by me (poor thing). I prune it only so we can walk past and to give flower bunches to friends. But look at the flowers on it! (Sorry for the bad picture, it was early in the morning and the lighting isn't as good as it could be.)

The one in the front yard gets more attention because, well, everyone sees it and I don't like my gutters full of leaves.

I also have lilies coming up! (You can just see some of them under the lilac in the front yard.) I've never grown lilies before! My sister-in-law gave me lily bulbs for my birthday in March, and I didn't procrastinate (much) before I planted them, so now they're coming up! I'm very excited.

I also have bought a couple of trays of bedding plants for my planters on the deck and for the garden beds. I know I'll need more, but I want to know what I want/need before I buy too much of anything (like normal).

AND I dug all the weeds out of the 'rose garden' that was here when we moved here almost 10 years ago and I'm going to put in a bunch of freesia bulbs and other pretty things. (Yeah, it didn't happen last weekend as planned.)

Oof! Long post, I'd better stop before I break something! :)

All shiny and new!

Look at that! Look. At. It. It's a beautiful thing!
It's a fence, you say.
But look! It's standing up! All together! Not falling over and apart!

Our neighbour with whom we share just those 2 pieces of fence got it redone last week. The fence around their entire yard had completely disintegrated over the last couple of years (except for the section along our other neighbour who has a big dog). And they had come around last summer/fall to find out if all the neighbours who share the fence (I think 5 of us because of the layout) would pay 1/2 of the shared parts. We've been letting it just fall apart over the last 6 months or so because we knew it was going to get done.

Now, the rest of our fence looks bad.....

Why are fences so expensive?

Betta Betta Bo-betta...

So, here's the latest saga of the Betta fish....

Too much algae.

Turns out I was feeding him too much (and I know not to feed fish too much!) He needs 3 freeze-dried red grubs per feeding...it would be nice if the fish food manufacturers would put that on the label...course they wouldn't sell as much fish food then.

Once I get the water tested I'm going to get a small algae eating fish (I don't remember the name right now) and maybe a couple of other little fish that do well with Bettas. Once everything gets established, I'll post a picture.

It's Friday, it's Friday!

And the weather is going to be lovely this weekend! I'm going to plant the rest of my spring bulbs (freesias, I LOVE freesias, and some anemones), some bedding plants I already picked up and some seeds because it's just cool to watch plants grow from next to nothing. :)

I'm also going to a "Creative Loop" seminar at our church tomorrow morning where I'm going to a workshop on vocal harmonies. I'm pretty excited about this as I love to sing harmony, but I think I have a mental block on how to do it. (I understand the technical aspects and can harmonize to hymns, but can't seem to figure it out 'on-the-fly' with modern songs.)

Right now, I'm smelling a lovely pork roast cooking away in my oven. YUM! I'll have to finish this off and hurry up and make the apple sauce and mashed potatoes. That's a rule, you know. If you make a pork roast, you must make apple sauce and mashed potatoes and gravy. :)

My favorite salsa

1 medium-large tomato (or 2-3 Roma tomatoes)
1 sweet pepper (red, orange, yellow or green)
2-3 green onions
1 handful cilantro (or to taste)
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-3 Tbsp lemon juice
cayenne to taste

Cut up the tomato and pepper in 1/4 inch dice. Slice the green onions and roughly chop the cilantro. Combine all together in a bowl. Add the salt, black pepper, lemon juice and cayenne and stir well. Serve with tortilla chips.

If you're making this ahead of time, leave the salt out until just before serving, it tends to pull all the water out of the tomatoes and makes a lot more juice.

When I make this, I don't measure. I just sprinkle on the salt and cayenne and drizzle with lemon juice. Then I adjust to taste. Once in a while (if I have very not-sweet peppers) I will add a pinch or two of sugar.

If you want, add a hot pepper as well. (I don't anymore because my body has issues with day-old jalepenos.)

My son will eat this with a spoon (he's 3 1/2) it's so good!

I'm a Blog-Mom!!!!!

I can't believe it! I only have about 3 people that read my blog on a regular basis, and I have blog-offspring!

Mylifeonablog is my friend LM's blog that she just started! I can't wait to see what she writes!

Go on over and give her a warm welcome!

I heart Winners (the store)

Or maybe, I should just stay away from them before I spend all our money.

Today I went to Winners to find a birthday gift for a little girl in Monkey-girl's class. I've always found good things at the store nearest me whether kids clothes or toys for good prices. My store has rearranged a bit, and now (and I don't know how they did this) there is even more good stuff in there!

I easily found a present for the birthday girl and a couple of must-buys for my monkeys, though they'll have to wait to play with them (probably just until Easter). And I saw some really cute green summer shoes, and some other ones and a couple of cute tops I'd like to try on. AND they now have their Petite sizes very clearly marked in their own section!!!!! I'm short and can NOT buy 'normal' sizes...this is a really big deal for me. :)

Luckily for our bank account, I can't clothes shop with the monkeys in tow, and it's the start of a long weekend.


sniff

Kids and mud

Why must kids muck in the mud?

Okay, I was a child once, I remember playing in mud as a kid. I remember making mud pies; mixing stuff together to make 'cake', etc. But I NEVER smeared mud on my friends and had it smeared on me. Never. Yucky. Besides, I had long hair and the thought of getting mud in my hair was . . . (shudder).

TKHubband feels quite the same way about mud.

How then, did we get a child who was easily coerced by her dear friend C (a boy) to have a 'mud war'? Yes, Monkey-girl, not Monkey-boy was the one smearing mud and being smeared with mud. There was more mud on C than on her...which means she was doing much more smearing, but still....

...the water ran black when I washed her hair.