Officially Spring - Gardening Yet?

So its officially spring, does that mean I can start planting yet???

Apparently not, I got another alert this morning that there is another frost warning in effect. One of the Brownie Leaders had some new irises, that she put in last week, hope they survive the 2 frosts we've had.... I hope it's over soon!

I've got some seedlings started, and should probably get some seeds out in the pots. Novice gardener this year, I'm trying to get a salad out of my pots out back.... assuming Señor Deadmeat doesn't rear his ugly head again - my children have been warned the squirrel is not our friend. We have tomatoes, he bites them and discards them!

Dh has given me the okay to get a top hat blueberry bush when we get back from the beach. Can't wait, I've put it in my email folder to email me when we get back and if I put it in here I might remember as well! :)

I think this year will be my year of serious novice experimentation with dirt and veggies! :)

Wish me luck! :)

Project Spectrum

I found something that appealed to me in a simplistic way today. "The idea of Project Spectrum is simply a celebration of the colors around us, and taking the time to notice them."

I'm pleased to say that I have already done my project for March for it. I don't use much red, but funny I found lots of red in the things happening yesterday. This is one of the grocery bags I've been sewing though this one isn't for me... The red fabric was just too fun to work and play with, it very pretty. It has an Asian flare - the black is actually silhouettes of possibly Asian woment. The fabric shopping bags are based on a "T" store shopping bag and I followed the directions here. The grocery bags are deliciously simple to make and in under 2 weeks of use have drastically cut down on our plastic grocery bag consumption, which is a bonus!




It strikes me as a little odd that my 2 yr old little girl is madly in love with the image of Spiderman, but hey they're only young once... she has no clue who or what Spiderman is as she's never seen the "real deal" on tv or in the movies.... but this just fits with the perfection of RED this month! :) Complete outfit here. Spidey Shoes, and Spidey Jammies. And for the record... the spiders themselves are really Charlotte (from Charlotte's Web - the story) or so she tells me! *GRIN* I don't know who the man is beyond creepy! :)

I'm Here, I think!

Our internet is finally straightened out. I think!!

I'm still having issues with email, but until I can put a finger on the problem, I'll have to let the dust settle a little.

Flaky at Best *sigh*

I've been internet-less since Thursday at 1:30 pm - that's when I received my last email, and my last page hit. Our ISP didn't give a darn. After at least 5 calls to them in 3 days, with the latter calls being rapid dial sheer frustration, dh got us back up... and the sad thing is ISP wouldn't couldn't tell us what was up other than there was an outage in our area and we were the first to report it (ya right - dh reported it Friday evening, and I don't believe that I'm the only internet addled idiot with this ISP suffering withdrawl! .... sadly this ISP is the one months ago that was saying on TV - "Your problem is our problem" and "You'll have a team of specialist behind you to get you and keep you running." YA right.

Your best fluffy flaky pastry recipe is probably less flaky than our ISP. GRRRR

Oh well, gave me time to clean, sew and knit. I probably would have baked too but I had a hankering for things I don't have recipes stored for and would have had to SURF then net for *sigh.* If mum can't come unplugged how can you expect the kids to?

Completed:


7 shopping bags








2/3 preemie outfits

all when I wasn't being yelled at by a recovering 2 yr old flu victim.

Yes, Mission control, We have the FLU

The panting a wheezing stopped when she stopped getting mad because she wasn't in my arms. Ya know a mom has to make lunch, a potty and all those things, and its kinda hard with a 2 yr old in your arms... but anyway... we waited til this morning to visit the Ped, and yes she has the FLU. We were offered Tami-Flu because it has been underway for less than 48 hours. Sadly if I can't even get her to take Tylenol, the Tami-Flu won't be of much use to us. Hopefully M & I don't get a re-occurance which is common with this Year's strain, and most of all hopefully dh won't get it PERIOD.

So here we sit at home catching up on our sleep and being lazy and trying to keep her temps below 102!! While poor little S recovers - oh well off to teach M and then knit some!

Visit - the "Plague Flu"

Afternoon all, your bad blogger popping in for duty today.

Things have been quietly busy here. M's been taking classes which are now over, I've been knitting for a friend's new preemie baby, sewing shopping bags for my new Green motto, contemplating produce bags for said motto, getting our Brownies (Girl Scouts) ready for Thinking Day (Feb 22) with the girl scouts, plus trying to keep everyone well for our visit to see H. Its been just one thing after another, but finally things have slowed down. * come to a screeching halt.*

We visited with baby H - who is no longer a baby - and here (left) is the picture to prove it! LOL! She's grown so much. She's an amazing little girl. And doing very well. Our visit was fabulous! H signs more than 100 signs, is about to start K work, getting more physically mobile... all positive changes. I'm glad that we can keep in touch, it warms my heart every time we see her.

Poor little S though. We were home less than 2 hours when she spiked a temp - to guess about 100, and is now up to 102. She has all the symptoms of the flu plague M and I had in January, which sucks. 2 more minutes and I can call the ped... in under 12 hours in has navigated its way to the upper chest, and she is already panting, hacking and wheezing, not a good sign for bronchial family! :(

Late Night Visitor - Signs of Spring

Spring must be around the corner.

At 11:00pm this evening we had a nosy visitor hanging out on our window. Needless to say I called down our resident 6.5 yr old herpetologist. She doesn't even get close enough to see it and says it is a Spring Peeper because it is spring-like here and that is when they come out. Dh hadn't heard that and he suggested the same. Well of course, being late I sent M back to bed and told her I'd find out what I could about it, and promptly went on a hunt for a flashlight. Dang it if the kid isn't right. The markings are perfect... it is darker than the one pictured on the right here... dark brown... but it is the cutest little thing. I swear M ain't sleeping tonight! She's a herpetologist in the making, I tell ya. (image borrowed from Wiki)

Dh on the other hand is a pickle head. He dragged us out to 2 stores this afternoon, in search of pickling cucumbers.... he finally found them and brought home 5 lbs. Equivalent of 2 full Jars of pickles (Ya know the humongous ones in the gallon pickle jars.) I've informed him he needs - a few moderate sized pots and a couple trellis' to go with them... and a couple packages of pickling cucumber seeds for spring. His contribution to our starter veggie garden. I told him that if he grew his own cukes they would taste so much better than the store bought ones and he'd feel so much better about feeding them to the kids! LOL! He didn't buy it but told me to go ahead! LOL! So guess we'll be adding some pickling cukes to the garden attempt this year! :)

The Neighbors.... Chapter 2.

ETA: Dh has asked me put in this little disclaimer. If you are a co-worker of my dh and he has tried to successfully talk you into buying the house.... don't listen to a word you read here *GRIN* they're wonderful neighbors, really! I just love to make up stories! he he!

I assume, I'd be one of those neighbors you'd like to have. I don't meddle, I don't go out of my way to snoop... I don't complain when you block my driveway monthly, bi-monthly or whenever you have a party. There aren't people coming and going at all times of the day or night - in fact we rarely have visitors. I keep to myself, I respect your privacy, and I respect your property. If I have a beef, I will let it stew for a while and eventually come up with a way to politely ask you for your help to solve the problem.

I have 2 rules. If you come to my house - you and anyone who chooses to enter my house with you cannot be rude in my house or you will be asked to leave.... it is my house and I make the rules. You don't snoop through my stuff, in fact the master bedroom is off limits and the door closed when people come over. Its the kind or rules I expect you'll find in most houses (of course if I'm wrong someone tell me... please!)

Dh has informed me this evening that the neighbor, whose friend backed into our car, is mad at us. Are they mad because they backed into our car and friend's insurance is paying up? Or are they mad because I hit a sensitive spot with their 6 yr old granddaughter when she was rude in my house and I asked her to leave, except that her mom arrived at the door right after I asked that! So she left with tears - for which I'm sorry but she broke rule number 1, which I believe is a rule in most people's houses.

I feel like I'm back in highschool with one difference, these people don't matter to me, they aren't crucial to how I see myself - and while yes I care, because that is my nature, I don't care if that makes sense! :)

Be Mine Twinkie!

Months ago after reading the Vegan Lunch Box blog I bought a real live Hostess Twinkie pan from a local store... can't see green cheese but my mouth would water, as my mum would say! LOL! Well I made the Vegan version of the twinkies and they were good. So I decided to branch out and try something different this time. So for Valentine's day tomorrow we'll be having homemade strawberry Twinkies with the cream fill or jam inside - the jury is still out at the moment on the filling! LOL!

M wants to celebrate Lillian's 1st birthday tomorrow since she is the first frog she bought, and of course she got her for Valentine's Day last year! So I suspect we'll be having a little party for Lillian tomorrow. Complete with Twinkie cakes (or cupcakes from the left over batter!) I need to dig out the streamers from the basement, M has been begging for them for almost a month now and I just keep forgetting! We're also gonna try to make some WW Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge, but that will have to wait til tomorrow. I will try to take pics if they last long enough! :)

Should be an interesting day here! :) Now I just have to find something yummy to feed my hubby and we'll be all set. The first Valentine's day that we actually celebrate in style!

Driveway, Identity, and Neighbors.

Just a little rant - so you've been forewarned!

You know much of this weekend I've been struggling with "Who I am." Which is odd. I'm comfortable with myself for the most part but there are just days when I question myself, whether there is something wrong with me socially etc. Where did this start?

A few weeks ago I had read a magazine article about a woman finding some long lost friends on the internet via facebook. They touched base, they met up and conversed... and one of the questions that was asked was...

"Do you think your teenage self would like who you are today?"

Now for me I can't say. I was never really all the flighty, I was never really all that self absorbed, I think as a teen I was a pretty responsible kid and pretty darn trustworthy too with a decent head on my shoulders! I haven't really changed all that much. I wasn't a party-er... and I'm still not, though I do get out much more than I used to! Oddly I am doing what I wanted to do when I was a teen, and that is be a stay at home mom. So ya I'm doing okay by my teenage self's views for the most part.

But venture a little further and I'm finding myself socially in conflict with neighbors. I'm not gossipy, I'm not a "keepin' up with the Joneses" person, and I say I don't care what other people think of me, but I think I really do. I think my aim in life is to not have people hate me or think I'm a weirdo but I think my outward approach is such that I do come across as very different. I'm not out to inconvenience people and I'm not trying to tick people off but apparently my need for a new driveway is causing the neighbors no end of grief. No offense people but TUFF.

For brief moment on Friday, I worried that somehow my neighbor could sue us for her friend backing into my husband's car. I think there is some shady business going on and they might try to get something out of us or prevent us from claiming the insurance - or maybe they're covering their rear end just in case but there is something a muck. The neighbor, Real Estate agent or not, was busily out there taking pictures of the damage, taking pictures of his house in relation to where dh's car was parked etc. He generally doesn't take pictures of his house even on bright sunny days. So I spent a fair amount of time being ticked off with them, and ticked for dh that his 17 yr old car got damaged in such a careless and stupid way!

Add this to a few quiet insults I've been getting from a so-called "friend" and it amounted to an OMG what have I done wrong kinda day. What the heck is wrong with me?! Turns out I'm caring too much and far to sensitive. So I'm working on it.... along with my secret Christmas stuff I'm working on it!

Gosh I'm So MAD

Its 8:30, been up since 7:30 getting the driveway done. It has to be concrete. Live in the circle of a cul-de-sac. Where to put the cars... on the opposite side of the street. The truck arrived this morning to dig out the old concrete. He is parked paralell to the street perpendicular to the end of the street. Neighbor's friend backed into the little toy car. Neighbor says she couldn't have backed out of her own driveway - in a sense, she looked to me like it was my fault.... thing is there was at least 4 feet between friend's car, and the truck as opposed to the 2 inches between the toy car and her bumper. Now I understand that accidents happen, but I can't believe my neighbor blames my car for her friend hitting... how stupid!

Re-Committing

I'm re-committing to cloth diapering. This summer our county and most of our state experienced a pretty widespread serious drought, so I kind of abandoned the notion of cloth diapering in an effort to be a little more environmental friendly and water conscious, at the same time I was getting frustrated with our diapering system because dd would sit in our lap and pee and the wool just wasn't holding it nor was the diaper so puddles were getting frustrating. The drought is still on and the county is still taking measures to reduce the water consumption around the county, but I figure that drought may be a short term thing where the diapers that are filling the landfill will be a long long term thing. Its kind of I'm the devil if I do and the devil if I don't no matter which way I play this deck of cards. So I'm going back to cloth and saving my washes until we have a very full load (2-3 days). As my dh says in the grand scheme of water usage us cloth diapering won't amount to much depletion of the water supply. So I'm re-evaluating my Stash and working up some more wool pants for the little one.

Which leads to these pictures. This is a pattern I got from the Dragonfly Faery (listed in my sidebar!) I don't know if she is selling the pattern or where, but I was a tester on it, and totally love the style. These are hip hugger pants but you can tailor it to your preferences. I don't like the drawstring in longie pants because it always comes undone, so I did a slightly tighter vertical style cuff that needs stretching to fit at the waist (which is perfect) and then added some stitches to fit at the waist. It was done in Paton's Merino in a Brown and pink, burgundy, brown combo! And no we generally don't potty train until closer to 2 1/2 - 3... though she is starting to express an interest! So I'm out testing new diapers and picking up some fillers for my stash!

These are one of my favourite style pants though! For some reason I just don't have the patience to knit them! LOL!

Composting, Gardening more to the Hobbies

So my goal for the year was plain and simple..... SIMPLIFY!
What do I do?? Add some more hobbies to my life! But these are good hobbies really! :) Gardening will benefit the family... we'll eat fresher food, we'll spend more time outside sweltering in the summer heat, it'll be fun, digging in the dirt is theraputic, getting dirty is fun!!

The first thing I did was got a compost bin (and a book to go with it!) Its been years since I thought about composting, but I figure its good for the environment, its good for our garden and a good place to start a decent biological lesson for the kids! M is going to make a homemade see through compost bin out of soda/pop bottles so we can all learn what is going on in our big black bin outside (and so I can learn through osmosis! since I have no clue what the heck will actually be happening the big black bin outside!!) So there we'll all benefit! Then on giving back to the environment we'll be using soil that is made from the waste that we would have dumped in the landfill. I mean dh and I dump a ton of grass and garden clippings in the garbage every summer when mowing season is here, and this way we can put it back to good use. Anyway I'm excited and so are the girls they can't wait to help put the bin together and start collecting daddy's cooking scraps.

In the mean time we're opting for a slightly larger garden entrance this year. Last year we attempted to grow, grew 3 tomatoes and 3 pepper plants that did horribly, I'm hoping this year to add some herbs, and other veggies that might be fun! We have a decent sized lot but none of it is ideal for growing food as it doesn't get enough light or is on too much of a hill, so we're limited to what can be grown in containers and the limited skill of our growers (me and the kids! LOL!)

I can't wait to get started. Feel free to join us in our adventures and if you have ideas to share we're all ears! :)

Sewing - A New Bag

A Bag for my friend. Based on a bag I had hanging in my closet I tried to get this as close to it as possible...

I'm Back! :)

Back with a new resolution.....Here's a layout of M learning to spool knit and having a blast! :)

Font is Rockwell, Flower from Ribbit Kisses by Rebecca Gold, Amanda Rockwell and ??? at Elemental Scraps

The oldest and I are recovering slowly from the Flu (cough, congestion thing) the little one hasn't shown symptoms of it but is periodically warm yet full of energy!

Ewww the Flu

And no not the stomach bug....
Curling up in my blanket going back to my delusional fevered state *sigh*!

Pnu - Tires *GROAN*

Dh had a flat.

The girls and I spent the day learning the art of pumping tires... 9 of them to be precise!

Did I mention it is cold out there for June? I'm a suck! LOL! Grew up in the great Northern wilds of Canada and here I can't even tolerate a simple GA cold snap! *SIGH!* Whatever will I do?

Today's Layout!

Vintage Winter by Danielle Engebretson (at digitalfreebies.com)
Fonts are Bradley's Hand and Monotype Corsiva

Walk in the woods made us all cold as an Artic cold pressures hits our area! This is what she thought of it! A true Southern' Bell! LOL!

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year! :)

Cliche - 2007 went by so fast.

I generally don't do New Years Resolutions anymore instead I make a list of things I'd like to accomplish and slowly work my way through them see sidebar for my progress! LOL!

As always get fit and lose weight is at the top of that list but with Christmas just passed I've got my hooks (& needles) on the notion of doing a handmade Christmas... hey family if you're reading put your order in now LOL there is no telling what I might come up with ! *GRIN*

With that I was well I'm hoping to burn through some of my stash so I can upgrade. 20 yr old yarn isn't fun to work with anymore! (have I said that before??)

Well my first project that I can share is a Swiffer type mop cover. I'm tired of the funky smell of the cloths I buy, I'm tired of trashing them after one use and want to go back to the multi-use concept and yes despite the drought my city is facing I'm going back to cloth diapers too. *Sniff* Single use products don't sit with me anymore. So if these work out I'll be set.

The yarn in the pic to the left here is a 100% cotton, worsted weight. The blue thing for those that don't loom is a knifty knitter loom. The idea for this cloth came from a brief glance I had of someone who had knit and buttoned a cotton cloth onto their swiffer. The pattern for this cloth came from Canadian Crafter. Here is another Sheep of a Different Color and one hakucho more for good measure!

Also on my list of things to do is crochet some shopping bags out of my stack of grocery bags that I have here. So things are moving along! :)

Peasant Top

12/16 - Yes it is the dead of winter, and probably the coldest day of the season so far! And here I am at home thinking about this darling peasant top that I just found a Tutorial for and managed to make in under 2 hrs. (first one is always the slowest right?) The ideas are brimming and I could use up a few things in my stash... I might also be able to play with it some and change this simple summery top into something long and wintery! :)

Here is the Tutorial
Just Tutes Peasant Top

I may just have to try the Patchwork Circle Skirt too! :) And dd will have a cute summer outfit! :)

DD doesn't look thrilled with her top does she?? LOL!