Things I have learned this year ...

 Probably the biggest lesson I've learned so far this year is that Mother Nature can be really mean. ... and unpredictable.

Seriously ... 

Here we are, at the end of April, and there's still snow on the ground.  Granted, not as much as there was a couple weeks ago, but still. 

All the plans I had for gardening for this time of year were based on last year, when grass was starting to grow and the snow was gone.  

I've slowed down on the seed starting because I am out of room in the house.  

I recorded a garden vlog at the end of last week and uploaded it yesterday.  

You'll see how big everything is.  All my plants are *so* ready to go into the garden. 

If only Mother Nature would cooperate. 

As I'm writing this blog post, I'm about five weeks away from my last anticipated frost date. There are so many different flowers I want to try starting.  I need to get going if I want to see them bloom this year. 

This past weekend I planted some flower seeds, and some more broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. The weather was supposed to be sunny and nice. 

Well, they got the sunny part, part-right. 

I was making soil blocks while standing in snow and the wind was blowing just enough to make the whole experience miserable. 

I had hauled out all my plants, thinking I was doing them a kindness. 

I don't think my tomato plants have forgiven me. 

My hollyhocks are *so* ready to be in the ground.  Why did I start them so early? Craziness! 

I'd say the only thing that really liked the weather was my lettuce plants. 

Now I should tell you what flowers I planted. ... I'm trying to recall them all.  I planted a few different types of marigolds and zinnias. Coleus, on of my favorite plants ... Dahlias ... Without getting up and going to look ... I can't name them all off the top of my head.  So much for my notes taking this year.  

Another thing I've learned this year is that you really shouldn't plan your projects. 

I have so many things I wanted to make/create/craft this year.  Things have gone so much more slower than I anticipated.

A few weeks ago I noticed my eyesight has really gone downhill and now I have an appointment to see an eye doctor in early June.  Why so long? There is an optometrist shortage in my area. 

With my near vision in the tank, cross stitch and knitting has come to a standstill.  I'm going to attempt to continue work on my crochet blanket, and pull the spinning wheel back out, dust her off and get to some spinning up some wool. I've already tried cutting up fabric for quilting, but it's hard to see the ruler marks.  Too blurry.  Blurry vision sucks. Specially when you are a crafter. 

If there are any typos in this blog post, now you know why.  Please forgive them. 

Until next time ...

Works in Progress #5 for 2023

Let me start first by telling you about the Easter weekend the really nice weather we had. 

We had nice weather! Ha!

The sun came out, the temperatures rose, and the snow started melting.  

Easter dinner was lovely.  We made a roast and a few sides.  

it was cooked in one of my cast iron skillets. 

I watched the first few episodes of "The Chosen."  Now I know why some people are so smitten with it.  It's a very interesting series, and I was bouncing back and forth watching it in the living room and in the kitchen.

My hubby and I spent a lot of time outside. Not that we could do much, other than sit in the sun.  So much snow still!

We also decided it was a good weekend to rewatch the original Star Wars movies that came out way back when.  He's been listening to some audio books and was curious to see how the movies would be,  now that he had some backstories.  We enjoyed them a lot more than we thought we would.  

While we were watching the movies I worked on some stitching of the cross stitch and knitting kind. 

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

I finished the first sock!  And look at that healthy start on the second one! I don't have much more to say about it, other than "wee!"

Then my cross stitch ... 

Project Name: Month to Month - February

Started: Jan. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchinghousewives

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart.

Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss

Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

I got some work done on the barn.  It went slower than I would have liked. I was doing the details on the flowers and then had to keep recounting the stitches for the barn front. 

Progress from last time. 

As the weather warms up, the more energy I feel I have to do things, rather than being a lump. (Like I ever am a lump)

Speaking of the warming weather -- I'm so happy for it! The main downside is all the busted branches that are appearing as the snow goes away. 

Weekend weather calls for rain. As long as the weather is decent I will probably be outside, doing clean up. And probably catching up on the seed starting that I need to do. 

A few days ago I made a second garden vlog.  I'm tweaking things just a bit. I'm starting to feel a tiny bit more comfortable talking. Can you tell?  

Technically, could my little cornish cross chicks be considered a Work in Progress?  I think so.  On Saturday, or Sunday, I took this little video of them. 

This past weekend I took the time to organize my youtube videos into playlists. It's a lot more tidy over there.  Now if you want to watch Furby listening to music, you won't have to scroll through them all. 

Speaking of Furby, she is loving this weather, too!

I brought her outside with me while I was playing over by the garden. 

She was having a blast. Scratching in the soil, room to stretch her legs.  Best of all -- sun! 

Works in Progress Wednesday #4 for 2023

 Back in January I was so full of piss and vinegar, and it included plans of doing a WIP post once a week.  

January I had vacation time and thought "Oh, I can do this, and this, and this, and it won't be hard at all. 

I was so young and idealistic! 

March feels like a wash. With all the snow moving that was going on I did not feel like doing much crafting in the evenings. 

Things are starting to slightly pick back up, however. 

First on the WIP parish is my crochet blanket

Project Name: Inspired by Joy

Started: Dec. 26, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: The Crochet Crowd

Yarn:

Color A - Red Heart - White

Color B - Caron One Pound - Rose 

Color C - Caron Jumbo - Rosewood

Colors: white and rose colors with hints of green.

Required Amount: I purchased two skeins of each color

Needle/Hook Size: 5.5 mm /  I/9

Gauge: beats me ; pattern calls for 13 dc x 6 rows = 4″ [10 cm]

Made For: Myself, maybe

Dye Lots: Will find that out later.

Crochet ... why do you hate my wrists so?  The last part of part 4 was rough.  I had double-crochet shells and there is so much wrist twisting.  Is there a way to make shells where I'm not constantly twisting my wrists? Or is this a thing for everyone?

I am very pleased to say that I am done with part 4. 63 rows down, eight more rows to go! 

When I started the section with the shells I discovered I was making more shells than what the row called for. It was about halfway through when the ruffling became noticeable, and I decided it was going to become a design element. No WAY was I going to rip it back.

Next is my vanilla socks.

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

I haven't touched my sock in ages. In fact, I forgot what project bag it was in. It took me a while to track it down. 

The project is now back in rotation. Maybe this one sock will be done by the end of the month? 

Cross stitch fun is next!

Project Name: Month to Month - February

Started: Jan. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchinghousewives

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart.

Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss

Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

I started out *so* strong with this chart.  Then I lost steam with all that dark text.  It didn't help that I wasn't going to finish by the end of February.  I think the next Month to Month chart I'll do is the August one. 

Last thing is my snowflake

Project Name: #723 Snowflake

Started: Jan. 1, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Tiny Cross Stitches

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart. Aida has silver threads running through it. 

DMC floss in called for colors

747 ; 964 ; 995 ; 996 ; 3756 ; 3761 ; 3843 ; 3846 ; B5200

Colors: blues

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. Maybe. I haven't decided yet if I want to give this away. 

I have made a lot of progress on my snowflake.  Then it hit me that this is *way* hard and I didn't have the headspace for it.  I will love how it will look finished.  Whenever I get it finished.  So ... no progress on it since my last WIP post. 

Weekend catch up

 Back on Friday I did a thing.  I made a delightfully awkward video of myself showing off my seedlings!

I loaded the video up on Saturday.  If you've viewed it already -- Thank you! 

This entire weekend had mostly nice weather.  Thank goodness! 

I'm looking at things in my Facebook memories over the last several years and see that it's not unusual to have snow on the ground at this time of year.  I think I'm in denial about it.  However, the area I live in usually doesn't have feet and feet of snow on the ground at this time of year.

The snow is starting to recede.  It makes my little heart happy to see patches of shingles on our roof. We've had a few snow flurry storms over the weekend and today. Not enough to stick around. 

Anywho ... enough about the snow, right? 

Saturday I had a lovely and leisurely morning.  In the afternoon we ran to town and took care of errands. 

I was cruising around Menard's and spotted their bags of onion sets, asparagus, and strawberry roots. 

Yup, you guessed it, I came home with a 10 pack of strawberry roots. I'm going to give those a try. 

Sunday I spent the morning up potting seedlings and my tomato plants.  

I used a pair of embroidery scissors for thinning, and a small pampered chef spatula for cutting the soil blocks apart.  You know, the appropriate tools for the job.  (I'm so funny)

Last week my husband picked up a second 4 shelf greenhouse for me and these plants are in there for now, until I can start having stuff outside. 

Sunday afternoon we went to a local feed store and picked up some BABIES! 

I'm mamma to 10 more cornish cross birds and 5 barred rock chicks. 

As you can hear, my Furby June was NOT happy at this invasion of *her* home. 

She caterwauled for most of four hours. 

My husband said Furby was doing her best to let us know what a horrible mistake we made. 

When I was looking at my Facebook Records I saw that *today* is the one-year anniversary of when we brought chicks home last year, and Furby was just as miffed last year. Hilarious!

I moved Furby's tote over by my husband, since she now seems to be a daddy's girl.  She still wasn't happy and continued to vocalize.

In a last ditch effort, my husband put on a song we know Furby likes. 

It did the trick. 

In the evenings this weekend I worked on my blanket. I was mindful of how fast I was crocheting and how long I was working on the blanket.  Sunday I was happily crocheting on it, thinking how I was almost done with the section I was on, and would be done with working a seven double-crochet shell.  

How disappointed I was when I realized I wasn't as far along as I thought.  I still have a whole side to go! 

After I finish this row I will have ten rows left! I haven't read ahead on the pattern so I don't know what the last bit includes. 

This weekend I discovered a new-to-me Youtube channel, and I LOVE it! It's called Sprout. It's all gardening shows. 

I also found Gardener's World on my Britbox subscription. 

Yeah, I might be a wee bit obsessed.  I'm a bit burned out on the few regular Youtube channels I've been watchings, and seeing all these beautiful gardens is hitting the spot!