Counting small successes

Here are some pics of my square foot gardens. I followed the book directions pretty closely, except that I couldn't get vermiculite in anything larger than an itty bitty bag, so I had to substitute perlite. I know, how disappointing but it was that, or forget about the whole thing! I think it's turned out rather well. Except for the pesky earwigs, ewww gross, why oh why are there so many earwigs, and why do they want to eat all our food!?!?!

Here is some lettuce, spinach, panseys (just cuz I like them), and carrots. I have a few extra squares open now because we've harvested the radishes, and I moved the two big tomato plants to separate planters....I've got to get around to planting those extra squares, it would probably only take me 5 minutes..ha!

The cucumbers and sugar snap peas are climbing...
Close up of the sugar snap peas, they are just starting to appear since I got them in a little late.
Some beafsteak tomatoes, these plants I started from seed, so I'm super hopeful for them.

More lettuce, this grand rapids variety has done really well, much better than the iceburg which seems more delicate in the July heat
The start of the green peppers, I've got a lot of little beginnings on the red bell peppers too, these plants were purchased, I tried to start from seed but had no luck.
Some tomato blooms, I'm soon to be overrun by tomatoes I think...I'm ok with that :-)
The first of the cucumbers to be harvested, these are a pickling variety, I picked up the plant for 49 cents, along with an english cucumber plant because I was worried that the ones I started from seed wouldn't survive, turns out, they all did..ha! I don't even know how to make pickles :-)
The first english cucumber, hopefully there will be more where this one came from.

Yes, more cucumber blossoms, I can't begin to tell you how many cucumber blossoms there are!
The first roma tomatoes, and there are lots of them, all green still, but lots of them...these are the ones for sauce, but I'm not sure which type I'm supposed to use for salsa...anybody know?
Here's a view from the back deck, two large roma tomato plants in huge planters, then two square foot garden boxes, complete with supports and chicken wire cages to keep the squirrels out. I have more of a squirrel problem than a bunny problem so far...pesky black squirrels, they've not found their way around the chicken wire thankfully, and we have far less a this house than at the last place.Well, that's my garden tour. :-) I've got a few house pics for you too...but I thought I had better save those for another post :-D

Thank you Jen!

So, when we picked up the mail yesterday there was a key in the mailbox, a key for a different larger parcel box mail box. Imagine my excitement. I love getting mail (good mail...no..no more bills!). We're still getting used to having one of those big mailbox units at the end of the street with everyones little box in it. Anyways, enough ramble!

Inside the box was a birthday and new house gift from Jen, my knitting buddy and literary advisor ;-) She picked two books for me (I've loved all the suggestions so far), along with a letter telling a bit about where she came across them and why she liked them. This is so cool!
And look what else she included! How cute is this bag, I love it, and I have nothing (NOTHING) that is anything like this, and I have really noticed it lately and started searching for just such a thing....spooky almost isn't it...heheheeh now I'm just silly
Just look at the inside fabric, and how similar it is to the new wall colour I painted in the office. The fabric is a bit richer, and a bit more blue... but it's pretty close.
Here is a shot of it done up, I love (love a lot) the bright swirly fabric, what a great gift! Thank you sooo much Jen, you rock! :-D
On a smaller note, I went for a walk with H after dinner tonight, the local multi-use path system runs just behind our house so it's wonderful. Look what I found on the way back. I have never ever seen one that I can remember in my entire life, but here is it, a four leaf clover. I wasn't even looking really, I just sort of glanced through for a few seconds and it caught my eye.
I thought this extremely special, but then a few minutes later, my hubby found a 6 leaf clover..now who's ever heard of that, and what sort of mutating pesticide are they using around here :-)
For the record I still think my four leaf clover is more special, because clearly the six leaf clover is just two that somehow got stuck together at birth :P

We've moved!

Well, we're finally moved...I've found my camera...but not the batteries..oh well.

We've painted one room, the one that was really REALLY bad, it's now a nice extremely bright..or dark...depending on the sunshine teal colour. H actually really likes it. (I'm a little surprised actually...pleasantly surprised...I just kept saying all the time...it's just paint, so if you don't like it we can just paint over it.... phew...no painting over..the bright happy teal is staying!)

I'm actually not that adventurous with colour, the bedrooms are one thing, but the rest of the house will be more neutral...cuz am a colour scaredy cat!

Well, it turns out I can't write much more...hubby wants help putting the new lawn mower together, I told him that if he pulled my car out of the garage (YES, WE HAVE A GARAGE!!!!) then I would meet him in there and help him wrestle it out of the box :-)

...but...between unpacking and setting up..I should actually be able to say hi online, since we now (as of yesterday) have internet and television hooked up ...woo hooo... (I'm far move excited about the internet than I am about the television :-)

Oh yeah, and I actually knit like about 2 rows yesterday...first knitting I've done in I think WEEKS now...uggg..I miss knitting...and I totally broke my one knit at a time thing...so I feel completely unproductive.....so...no more NEW knits until these 3..or maybe 4 projects are done...then ..back to only one or two (max) things at a time :-D let's see how long it holds this time....

I'll be back soon!

:-D

I've been tagged too!

For the first time...by cinnamongirl over at Happy Handwork! Thanks for inviting me to play!

The Rules:
Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

I was packing up my apartment back home to move to university here in London. I was terrified. I'd never been far from "home" and I already lived on my own so when I left, there was no bedroom waiting for me to come back to. Boy am I glad that I did it. Life now is a dream, I wouldn't relive those years though...not for a million dollars!

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Take pants to get hemmed for conference in Philadelphia. (done, picking them up Tuesday...phew!)

Clean the house. (kitchen sort of half done)

Get hair cut and highlighted. (done, gotta look good for the conference :-)

Put the air conditioner in the window upstairs with my husband. (done, can't pack when it's 90 degrees in here!)

Pack the house for our move...(soooo NOT DONE!)


3. Snacks I enjoy:

Pretty much anything chocolate. I love dark chocolate, I love mint chocolate, I love chocolate with peanut butter...but not with any sort of tree nuts..because I'm allergic...(peanuts good...tree nuts bad). I currently have a standing order for hickory sticks and diet doctor pepper, and I eat waaaay too much microwave popcorn. Right now though..I've been good...snacking on carrots and celery :-)

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Hmmm, yes, tithe first, then pay off our new house. Put money in some sort of a growing investment. Give money to our brother/sister in law to build their house. Pay off my sisters house. Set up education funds for our nieces, and any future little ones. Give our church money to buy our own building/land so we would have our very own place (we rent a highschool on Sundays currently, and so we set-up and then pack-up every Sunday. Oh, and I'd have WAY more yarn :-) and my very own spinning wheel.

5. Places I have lived:

Brockville, Ontario, City of the Thousand Islands, I grew up in the country, but always close to Brockvegas as we occasionally called it. Move into the "big city" when I was about 15 and then had my own apartment there on the water when I was 17 until I moved to London when I was 19 to go to school. I also stayed in Wolfville Nova Scotia for a summer in 2004, just hanging around scuba diving. Moved to Guelph during the week when I was working on my Masters a couple of years ago...but I quit shortly after we got married and it was just to hard to live apart. Awwww shucks...love prevails... Sooooo, pretty much that's it.

I will tag, Stringativity, Learning to be Thankful, So Much Yarn, So Little Time, Wool Windings, Rapture of the Deep, (if you check that one out..you will notice that there are no posts...it's ok...it's my husband...I'm trying to get him to actually post some of his writing :-)

Oh, and sorry for the repeat tagging of two of you...errr..ummm, I tried to avoid it, but three of the other blogs I read have recently said they're not going to blog anymore :-(

This was fun, I hope you guys play along, I'd love to read your answers!

Debbie

Sheesh! About time for a post I think!

...but really...I'm supposed to be packing!

Knit night is on Monday...I'm quite excited...there will be some new people!!!

And I'm about 1/2 - 3/4 done my brown top... oh...and I went shopping today to buy new clothes for Philadelphia...and for work. I think I pretty much ended up with a new wardrobe...(lot's of sales...I scored!) I pretty much loathe shopping...so I tend to wait until I'm wearing rags and then go buy a whole bunch of stuff. It would be so much better if I just bought a piece here and there...but I just never...ever..go shopping unless I have to...sheesh..I've actually started getting even the groceries delivered! (which is fantastic by the way!)

Anyways...I'm still here....I'll post something soon...honest! :-D

Oh guess what...I gave a friend a pair of needles and a ball of dishcloth cotton for her birthday..and I think she's hooked! We just went to Michaels on Friday at lunch and bought her a whole bunch of yarn (well...she bought..but I enabled) for the Moderne log cabin blanket from Mason-Dixon knitting....she's coming to her first knit night on Monday.

Well..that's my update...sorry for the lack of pictures....I've really only packed 1 1/2 boxes for the move...eeeeeeeek

Grandma Telford's slippers

Update:  Now available for free download on Ravelry here

Well, here is the pattern written up for my grandma's slippers. I'm posting it because someone asked, I've had it scribbled on paper for quite some time. Grandma taught me how to make these when I was about 6 years old, but she had been making these her whole life. I don't know where it came from, but I had never seen it anywhere else before (probably because no one can remember how to sew the things together! :-) Anyways, if anyone recognizes them, and knows of an original pattern source (again, my grandmother made these her whole life, so it would have to be a pretty old source :-) let me know. Again, this is written up from my memory of what she taught me...in about 1984. Thanks, Debbie

P.S. I couldn't find any other way to post this, if it's unreadable, and you want the pattern, send me a comment and I can email you the pdf that I made....I just don't know how to post a pdf on blogger :-)









PDF pattern link

DROPS 95-9 Casted on

Jane's shawl...and a pink baby bib

Wow! Can you believe it?!?! The shawl is done!Last night at small group I gave it to Jane. She was surprised that I made her something with it....but I think she liked it. Everybody liked the beads.
When it was all done, I really liked it myself, it's extremely soft and cozy.
So, then on Wednesday night, I whipped up this little baby bib for a couple of friends who just told us that they're expecting. We are soooooo very delighted and happy for them! This week I guessed that they're having a girl..so I went with hot pink :-D it's fun to guess!
Annnnd I actually casted on last weekend...but just this evening I was finishing the first row as I was waiting for hubby after work...so really..I started this today...and here's my progress. It's the DROPS 95-9 short sleeved top.
I'm doing my double decreases differently as described by Tracy Mine is a little different...I want to make it longer...and my gauge is finer, due to the yarn I'm using...and there are more changes...so...I'm sort of using the pattern as more of a guideline and using my gauge and measurements for sizing etc.

I'm still not sure if I should have gone down a needle size for this silk...but whatever...I'm enjoying the ride, and it will be a trial and error learning experience :-D

Oh ya, I have no idea why my pictures turned sideways...usually when I want them to do that I can't figure out how for the life of me to get them that way...today I want them normal...and they flip vertically! Go figure.

Knit night lives!

Monday April 28th we got together for another night of knitting and eating and lot's of talking. It was wonderful! We had one more person this time, my friend who hasn't knit in a few years was persuaded to cast on a dishcloth to come and socialize.Anita was helping me pick the "right white" for my new house. Yep we bought a house! The closing date is my birthday, June 18th. It's 5 years old, and in really great shape but desperately needs a paint job, it was clearly cheap builders paint, the kind that marks if you even look at it funny, and it's very worn looking. So, the first thing we're doing is getting the carpets steam cleaned upstairs (mainfloor is hardwood and tile..yeah), and painting the whole place.
It's very open concept so I think I want a fairly neutral colour for the main floor as it will carry all the way from the front door through the entire main floor and all through the upstairs hallways, there isn't really a good place to stop and change the colour...unless you wanted to just paint an accent wall...but for now...I need the right neutral!
So...a few days after buying the house....I was walking over to the cafeteria at work and there was a little art show set up....I saw a couple of things and declared them new house art! (shown above with Anita) it's mostly cool colours, but with lots of warm ones in the background ....soooo I'm trying to pull something out...Well..there's my ramble :-D

The boys had their own playdate, they dropped their wonderful ladies off at my house and went off to do whatever it is that they do....hey...do you think they're knitting in secret???

Knit Night!!!

So, the first ever knit night was oh so much fun. We ate munchies, although I think I might be the one who ate the most and knit the least, talked a LOT, and did some knitting.We started small because I had no idea how this would turn out. I figured if people enjoy themselves and want to get together again...GREAT! and then we can invite more people!I think we may have even converted my sister in law to knitting...I've been trying to two years or so now (that's who's lap I'm sitting on...I don't normally sit on just anyone for photo ops :-) She's working on a modern log cabin blanket from Mason Dixon. I bought some dishcloth cotton and needles for teaching people to night. That's my new go to teaching project since the scarf requires too much commitment for my liking, and I think you learn more doing the dishcloth where you start with 4 stitches and increase doing yo's up to about 43 then decrease doing k2tog yo k2tog till you're back down to 4. People seem to feel like they can do a lot more after this dishcloth pattern than they do after learning a plain garter stitch scarf...but...anyway.
Sarah didn't think her first knitting attempt dishcloth was even enough. She was chatty (which is why we love her) and always seemed to forget the yo on the same side. Soooo when she said she wanted to rip it out and start over, I made her take a picture with it first....can't lose your first knit right! Then, we ripped it and helped her cast on again with take home yarn for homework...hmmmm I've got to call that Sarah and see how she's doing...hmmmm come to think of it she hasn't answered my emails....hmmmm :-P

Next knit night will be soon!

Debbie's mini disclaimer hehe: Knit night was actually Monday April 7th....but I haven't posted because I was waiting to make sure that everyone was OK with having their pictures posted online. I haven't heard back from everyone so there are some photos missing...I didn't want to leave people out...but I really didn't want to post people online without permission.

Spring is in the air!

I started some plants from seed a few weeks ago..hmmmm March 20th. Some onions, some lettuce (don't ask me what I was thinking there) some tomatoes and some peppers. Here's what my tray looks like now.
The tomatoes are really the only thing that I'm paying any attention to....for obvious reasons :-)I planted two types of tomato plants Earlianna and Beefsteak. The Earlianna plants are the ones here and they look much nicer than the Beefsteak ones at this point. I only ended up with three of the Beefsteak type germinating, while all the Earlianna did very well (so far) and also, the Beefsteak ones have gotten taller and a little more spindly.
These just popped up this morning! I had lost all hope for the peppers, but must say I'm still pleased, since I only paid $14.22 for all my seed starting mix, little potting tray and all the seeds (I got more seeds than just these...I got all the regular garden seeds too..except for a few that I couldn't find like sugar snap peas). Anyways, I figured that the peppers just weren't good seeds and wouldn't germinate, but when I moved the tray under the skylight this morning I noticed that this one little cell had 2 pepper seedlings in it. Maybe I'll be able to grow a pepper plant after all. I'm still doing better than I expected. I really expected this seed starting business to be just a fun attempt, and that I'd end up buying the tomato and pepper plants. We'll see, maybe some of these will survive long enough to make it out to the garden!

I love my third!

My third skein of handspun.

This is the one I've made straight from the beginning. Well, almost from the beginning. I got it AFTER the sheep. I got it in the form of dirty fleece from a bag which I washed, and carded and spun. And now here is it. These pictures are from right after spinning last week. Before I "set the twist"

Here is it sitting with it's buddies, my first and second skeins, you can see how they compare. I've not being trying for any particular weight, I'm just trying to spin something...so whatever I get is what I get. This new one has turned out to be a very fine weight. I'm guessing somewhere around fingerling weight...but that's just my guess as I hold it up to other yarns in my basket of stash...maybe dk weight?It's now hanging from the pot rack in my kitchen with a soup can slung in the loop to weight it down to set the twist...I forgot to do that last week...oops...I hope that doesn't mess things up.I'm off again this week to spin a little bit more, I couldn't finish all that I had last week. So we'll see how this week goes.

Celebrate Spring!

Guess what!

There's a contest happening! Which really excites me, because I've always read about contests, and knit alongs and swaps, and all manner of such things about...oh...a year or so after they have happened. So, imagine my excitement! Thank you Cinnamongirl! I finally feel like one of the cool kids LOLOL!

Anyways you can read about the whole thing over on Cinnamongirl's blog site Happy Handwork. The grand prize is two skeins Malabrigo worsted weight yarn in the colour way velvet grapes. What a great prize! It looks fabulous...it seems I'm the only one who hasn't knit with this yarn yet. To be quite honest. I've never seen it up close. I don't know if it's carried in any of the local yarn shops here. I've certainly never stumbled across it.

Here is a little paragraph from her blog site...but really...check it our yourself :-D

So here are the rules. You can only enter one time. If you mention my contest on your blog with a link you will receive an extra 3 entries! If one of your friends enters because of your input you will get one extra entry. And lastly, just for fun, make sure to mention in your post one of your favorite flowers.

You'll have to visit her to find out all the rest of the info...like deadlines etc. etc....I'm tricky aren't I... :-) Not really, I know.

And...by the way...my favourite flower...always the daisy. The plain daisy (I think it's the shasta daisy?) The one I would sometimes find just growing wild by the side of the road when I was a child. Not all the fancy ones of today, I have nothing against those, but they're just another flower to me. My favourite is the old fashioned daisy.

I wanted a wedding bouquet full of daisies. We were is Cuba. Apparently there are no daisies in Cuba hahahah...so I got something resembling purple daisies in amongst some peach roses...still beautiful and satified my need for daisies in my bouquet. A close runner up is the brown eyed susan.

Here is the mohair shawl, I've not been doing much knitting, only a row here and a row there, so no real sit down and knit sessions. That's what I really need, a few good sit down and knit sessions.

It snowed yesterday , and we're supposed to get more coming in the next few weeks. It's not spring for us yet. I'm still thinking of my garden though. Here's a few pics of hubby playing with icicles in the back yard....heheeh, actually, he's shoveling snow away from the foundation of the house and knocking down the montrous 7 foot icicles that seemed to grow almost overnight. But...it sure does look like he had fun doesn't it. No, I wasn't much help. Yes, I did stay inside. Yes, I was in fact so lazy that I actually took these pictures right through the screen in the kitchen window. BUT. Yes, I did make him a nice hot chocolate when he was all done :-D And I cooked him dinner....he considered us even...so ...I do too :-)

Wow...It's March!

Ok, so apparently time is slipping away from me faster than I realized it. I can't believe it's almost the middle of March already. I was doing so well there for a while. I haven't done much knitting lately, just a row here and a row there.We were completely snowed in on Saturday so I didn't get to go spinning. :-( I did get all my carding finished though, so this Saturday hopefully I will get this big bag of batt all spun yeah! Here is a pic of the former coat of a lovely sheep named "Petunia"

And here is what still sits in my front yard, from Saturdays snowfall. It's Tuesday now and it's warmed up considerably if that gives you any indication of just what kind of snowfall I'm talking about here :-) It was a doozy.... we actually couldn't see the neighbours car at all...ha! I only wish I had taken pictures day of....the snowbanks were taller than I am!So, I've decided to plant a garden....obviously not right now (see above picture) but...I think I'll somewhat follow the square foot method, I was looking gardening things up online and stumbled across it on a forum, so I checked out the website, and it looks like the right method for me. Anyways, I got the book out of the library, but of course the new one is on hold, and I'm #3 out of 4 holds....so..I got the old one....I imagine the basic concepts are the same. I'm concentration on this tonight because my best friend finished her last day of work today and I'm super super sad about that. I'm very happy for her, she is a totally fabulous person I just love her, but I'm going to miss her soooo sooo much it just makes me sick. So, now I'm going to go read about gardening, maybe knit, maybe look at knitting online, maybe look at seeds online...who knows...gardening, knitting, seeds...yarn, hot chocolate...hmmmmm