For you who are watching the health series, tonight is #3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKCn_-LAChQ
Monthly Archives: March 2014
Tomato transplants and a walk
DH and I did our walk in a different park today. The scenery is lovely and there are some small waterfalls along the way. It used to belong to the railroad, but now is converted to a walking and bike trail.
After walking, Starbucks called our name and we met two daughters and 2 grandsons there. This is the middle daughter, Jen, with her two sons, Spencer on the left and Bret. Both boys were happy to get a chance to pose for this blog.
Then back home to work on the yard and in the greenhouse. By the way spring really is here, the yellow jackets are back. They are a sure indication.
The tomato seeds that I started two weeks ago are up now and needed transplanting. I transplanted 5 different kind into small pots which will be shared. I really appreciate being able to work inside a greenhouse where the wind and rain don’t reach.
Tomorrow, I will move the volunteer tomatoes. I had thought there weren’t any, but this week they surprised me.
I don’t know what type they are as I had several types planted in this area, but they are NOT the tiny ones that volunteered and we transplanted last year. And because of location I know they are not Romas. So they will be a surprise when they have tomatoes. They could possibly be purples, which would be wonderful.
Sherbet socks
We scored a new record for rain in the month of March.
photo courtesy of daughter Kati
Perhaps you’d like to see the steps to a sock, starting with the heel flap, which I make about 2″, using half the stitches.
The first photo is the front, the second is how the back of the flap looks.
Then the heel is turned.
Next the stitches are picked up on one side of the heel. I used an extra needle to pick these up as it is easier for me. This is the most difficult part of knitting socks and is not difficult.
Then I knit across to the other side and pick up those stitches the same way with an extra needle.
When I knit across the front, I knit in the pattern. The stockinette stitch feels better under the foot. I have now knit the entire sock circle and am working on the ankle area. Because I knit a 7″ leg, when I fold the sock at the heel, I am half done and can easily see how far to go to finish.
Lemonade is here.
Since our computers are all different, I’m not sure how this will show on your computer, but I thought perhaps you’d like to see how really gray our skies can be. This was at noon today. It was so gray, it looked more like near dark. It made for a great sewing day after shopping chores were done.
Remember the jeans that ended up getting cut off because the pattern caused me grief and I abandoned that idea?
I opened the side seam a bit more. As you can see, it needs enough room to open flat under the machine.
Here is the lemonade from that lemon. They are now long shorts, well just over the knee and will be wonderful for gardening. I love it when something good happens unexpectedly. I just have to do the final hemming.
And there is a pair for the doll as well, which will go to a child.
As some of you have been reading, there is a neighborhood about an hour plus from here which slid down the hill. About half the people who lived there are missing, some found dead, etc. Everything they had is gone. I’m hoping there is a girl there who will find comfort in this doll and some clothes. If not, then there is always a need at Christmas. I’ll be doing a lot more of this type sewing and if you aren’t already doing things to put aside for someone else, I’d encourage you to start. Skill level doesn’t matter, caring enough to do something does. If you don’t enjoy making clothes, how about doll blankets, quilts, etc. Or how about putting an extra toy in with your purchases from time to time. Little by little, we don’t see the money go, but it makes a huge difference to the recipient.
Pants for AG doll
Last night I read in Guideposts that “Failure is never a person, it’s only an event”. As long as we try something, whether it works as planned or not and we learn something from it, we have not failed. Edison found a lot of ways that a light bulb would not work before he found one that did. That was my working principle today.
I pulled the tights pattern out of the envelope instead of the pant pattern, without realizing that it contained both. I then proceeded to embroider the fabric that I cut off my jeans last week. First side went really well, on the second side, I forgot to reverse the pattern. No big deal for a doll.
I have a several worn pair of jeans here with which to play and try out various ideas. So I cut out another pair and managed to embroider them upside down – still no big deal, because this pattern looks good upside down as well and it’s for a doll.
I finally got them like I want them and now have extra for the dolls I’ll be gifting at Christmas, which means now I need to make some tops to go with these.
And they fit because these are the super stretchy jeans. I have not sewn up the other pairs yet. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to get my pants, that this fabric was cut from, embroidered.
I am happy that I persevered and made various mistakes here before I start mine. I know what mistakes can be made if I get in a hurry and don’t double check. And on the positive side, I have doll pants made ahead for Christmas.
Many times things go just as I plan, but other times, I need to remember, that the plan failed, not me. I shall continue to learn.
March Socks
The mudslide near Darrington, WA was about 1 1/2 hours from here. It was where my grandparents lived much of the time they were raising their younger children. Many people are still missing and our prayer is that they were not there and since Darrington lost power for days, perhaps they just haven’t been able to report their whereabouts. Our prayers are with those who have lost loved ones in this ordeal.
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Here is where you get to see my cooking mistakes as well as wonderful successes. At lunch I failed to bake the wraps to crisp state BEFORE putting pizza toppings on them. So we ate them folded over with a fork. They still tasted good. Tonight I crisped them (about 8 minutes in the oven) before putting the tostada toppings on and they were even better.
The past week has had it’s share of trauma and depression so I needed something really cheery with which to work. This yarn somehow found it’s way into my yarn bin a few years ago. I think it has been there for so long, because I didn’t really think I would wear these colors. I don’t even remember buying the yarn.
However, because of happy colors, I pulled it out. It is just so much fun to knit these sherbet colors, that I’m having trouble putting them down. They look so much prettier knit than in the ball. These socks are cheery and I will definitely be wearing them. I am using a Christine Pike pattern which you can find by double clicking the red.
It’s a fairly easy pattern, so if you already knit socks you might want to give these a try.
A Friend and fencing
Yeah the fence man came and started electrifying the fence. This is great as the dogs will have more freedom and we will know where they are. Assuming they don’t get out of the small paddock, the rest of the fence will be worked on next week.
Mary, my friend, came over today and we worked some unfinished projects together. It’s fun every once in awhile to be able to do things together. She is so funny, she calls herself the “finisher” It seems that whenever she comes, I have several unfinished projects and she just takes over and gets them done. Everyone needs a friend like Mary. We finished a second doll dress, she mended a coat, and she put a zipper in the sweatshirt instead of the buttons I was going to put in as the buttonholer was refusing to work correctly.
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Big and little accomplishments
First if you are at all interested in health, I want to recommend this series of free videos by Dr. Youngberg. This is a series of 12 he is recording and making available. Tonight’s lecture is on exercise and diet and how it will optimize your health and turn on good genes and off bad genes. It is available for the week. We enjoyed the first lecture and encourage you to upload and listen to them.
Today has been a day of cleaning up little projects and working a new big project. At least that is what I wrote at the start of my day. I was going to do some major yard work, plant a number of starts in little pots, and a couple other little jobs. Some jobs have a way of taking more time than they should. So the day really went like this:
Small job (hahaha) Clean wheels on one chair. Take all the threads out of wheels which hadn’t been done for about 15 months.
There is a bit of accumulation here. Have you ever had to do this? Here I am removing bunches of threads and lint.
Finally done with one wheel and here is the pile of lint from ONE WHEEL.
This job is taking way to long so after three wheels I hemmed this pair of jeans and this really was a small job.
Back to the wheels, all done (after 3 hours), cleaned and oiled.
And here is how much thread and whatever a chair with 5 wheels can hold.
Now off to remove 3 Barbary plants, moss, and weeds. This was the expected big task and DH dug them out for me and then cleaned my trimming mess when I was done. It took about the same amount of time as the one chair! The Barbary are the red plants and just full of thorns.
And you can see in this photo the ground cover is also out of control.
It does seem that I get a larger mess before getting done. What about you?
And now this area is cleaned, I just have to get a few plants to replace what we’ve removed . I’d also like to take out those yellow-green plants in the upper right back. They are a bush dogwood that I need to keep trimming. They sprawl much more than I like.
As a break while working on this project, I did some walking on the back deck. Look at these funny chickens, who started following me (hoping for food). As soon as I turned to look at them, they got this “who me” pose.
(small job) I also got these steps worked on. They are under the cedar tree and when the cedar sheds, it makes the steps very slippery. They are now cleaned up
And this is the raspberry patch. In the past, I have always trimmed them back every year. I was talked into leaving them, without trimming. With the looks of these, I think I’ll go back to trimming.
And that is how the day really went. Please tell me you have days like this as well. I have lots of them.
Never bored
A friend came over today took all the bunnies to a new home. I’ll miss them, but there are many things here to keep me from being bored. One of those things is all the wool they left behind. And all the wool from the other animals. There will be more in two weeks as it will be shearing time again. Beau here is looking pretty, but he left behind a shopping bag of wool to be spun. And he may yet give me another bag. His coat was heavy this winter.
The Geek Squad are definitely my friends. I have a contract with them to fix anything that happens to any of my computer equipment. And I love that they can do it remotely! This evening they “fixed” my printer and computer so now I can upload photos again – Yeah!
So here are the photos from the walk yesterday. Although it is difficult to tell these rocks were nearly straight down to the river. Steep and I’ll bet slippery, but I love the colors. Wouldn’t they would make a wonderful quilt. And in case you are still in a part of the country where spring hasn’t sprung, here is for you
And for those of you who are wondering – yes I’m still doing the 12,000 steps a day, with some days being easier than others. Must go finish today’s steps
Long walk today
It was just beautiful and after making pizza from scratch with several different toppings, DH, DD, DSIL and I went to the river to walk. However, since my photos won’t upload, we will discuss this plant from yesterday. It smells like licorice and has an unpleasant taste, so whatever it is, it will be pulled.
And isn’t this a cute little starter greenhouse, Zach, our son-in-law, is going to use. It is just paper cups in a zipper bag like sheets come in. I’m thinking this is a very clever way to get a few plants started. It’s really inexpensive as well.
