Sister visits

My older sister is coming for a short visit this weekend. We always get lots of yummy takeout, she tries to 'organize' me, and we stay up late and giggle as sisters do. This time I get to try on bridesmaid dresses for her wedding in October. Not sure if this will be fun or not, but at least we have lots of other things planned for aafterwards, like a trip to Ikea. Yay! So all this week I've been trying to clean the place up - take the recycling out to the bins, put all the boxes of cat litter in one place, put my clothes IN the dresser and not next to the dresser, and yes, CLEAN. Tonight I need to scrub the bathroom down (it's time anyway) and attack the stove (which has been looking quite nasty for over a month). When you live alone you just sort of ignore a lot of things.

I also have dirt and gardening supplies all over my tiny kitchen, and that's got to at least be consolidated by Friday night when she arrives.

I can't wait!!!

From dirt to skirts

I went shopping with a friend yesterday for all manner of things - garden and housewars and clothes and yarn. The last one was a bit of a falter in terms of my shopping list. We went to Michael's to get supplies for her new craft project, and I wanted to get two more skeins of Naturally Caron Spa, an acrylic/bamboo blend, for a lovely scarf I'm making. Well, Michael's didn't have that yarn but they did have some yarn priced at $.99 a skein, and I sort of fell into the bin and cleaned out most of their remaining stock. 6 skeins of black and 6 skeins of raspberry/maroon in patons Lacette, and 4 skeins of Patons Stretch Socks in Licorice. Maybe they're not carrying Patons anymore? I've been wanting to get some laceweight yarns and also some sock yarn for this pattern I found on Ravelry, and I think I did well even though I hadn't planned on buying it.

I'm trying very hard to make lists for shopping, make estimates of how much I think things will cost, and stick to that.

Also shopped at Ikea and Home Depot, and bought 3 skirts. Two of the skirts were ones my friend bought and didn't want, but they are perfect for me. I seem to be fitting smaller sizes lately, but when I check the scale I haven't lost any weight. Maybe I'm finally starting to see my body differently and buy clothes that actually FIT my body, not just float over it. Hmm.

I'm trying to be productive today, I really am. It's a Saturday morning and what am I doing? Going to have some bloodwork done that I was supposed to do before my physical in March. I've been either sick, busy, or forgotten until now, since I have to fast the night before and I tend to be a night owl. Just routine checkup stuff, like cholesterol. Then it's off to COmcast to return the cable box and modem. I switched to RCN two weeks ago and I've gotten 3 prerecorded phone messages about returning my box. Sheeh! I'm going already!

On the craft front, I've now cast on three times for the Lace Ribbon Scarf, and I thnk I've got it. The first time was when I was still working on the baby gifts, and I wanted to have a new project to carry around. Part of the cast on got stretched out, and it still bothered me 4 rows in so I ripped it out last night. Cast on again, went along merrily, and realized that my cast on was waaay too tight. RIP. Now I have 8 rows, can see the pattern emerging, and the yarn is even getting soft. Amazing! I'm using Plymouth Yarn's Sockotta, which I bought a year ago for socks, I think. Now that I've started this scarf I have found a sock pattern I want to try this year, but it needs a self-patterning yarn that makes a clearer stripe pattern so the stitches will show up better. Broadripple by Rob Matyska

I thought that I would spend this entire week cross stitching, since I felt I needed a break from knitting after cranking out baby gifts one after the other. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed making them. I would think about the parent(s) and baby to be and try put my love into the piece. It all turned out beautifully and is posted on my Ravelry, and I've put the finished pictues below. I did end up working on a hibernating cross stich, the 18th Century Band Sampler (or Long Dog Mystery Sampler). I really like the colors in this piece, and someday I'll get this one finished and framed. I'll post a picture this weekend.

Busy as a Bee

I went on a trip to Rochester over Mother's Day weekend for a slew of events - graduation, baby shower, friend visits, family visits, and Mother's Day. One of the lovely things I did on Monther's Day was go to the Public Market with my mom for breakfast and plant shopping. We had some great empanadas made by Juan and Maria and then went looking for plants. During May the Rochester Public Market is open Sundays just for plant sales. Although it was cold, we stayed long enough for mom to pick up some irish moss, ostritch ferns, and some interesting begonias I can't remember the names of. Mom also bought some wildflower seeds, and I picked up some seeds for sage, spinach, and kale. I'm pretty sure all the vegetable seeds I've purchased are for dwarf varieties, so I shouldn't have a 2-foot wide kale plant appearing on my fire escape.

Tuesday night I split up some of the basil seedlings and planted sage seeds - only six this time - in a larger pot. I think my intiial round of seed planting was over zealous. I wasn't expecting anything to grow from my seeds, so in each egg carton cup I put at least 6 seeds. Whoops. No wonder my seedlings aren't getting any bigger. They probably don't have any room.

Growing Time

---Written April 20, 2009---

I've been thinking about growing a fire escape garden for the past few weeks, but for much longer than that I've been fixated on having more house plants and growing some herbs, and maybe even vegetables of my own.

On Sunday I finally started this project. A while ago (last summer?) I purchased a cute herb growing kit that came with an aluminum tub and seeds for thyme, lavendar, and oregano. A very fragrant mix. This kit has been sitting on top of my fridge since I bought it, and on Sunday I finally pulled it out and put everything together.

I made some quickie plant markers by cutting up a milk jug. I'd like to make some different markers that are a nicer shape, and decorate them with Sharpie markers with the Latin names written out. I'm sure Martha Stewart has some materials on her site - she always does.