The Purple Sweater

I finished the ties on the sweater this morning and I LOVE IT! I just hope that it will fit my niece - perhaps tomorrow I will whip together a couple little dresses to go with it... purple of course.

Garden in Spring

I just went out and took a few pictures of my garden and you can see the 4 raised beds to the left that I cleaned up/out yesterday well you can see 3 out of 4 anyway. Here are the 4 all cleaned up...

We used rolled roofing between the beds to keep the weeds from becoming a problem. We need some more to put down between the beds we added last year but it's not a financial priority so I will just have to keep after the weeds better by hand. The green you see in the beds toward the top of the photo are of Scott's garlic. Most of it is hard neck garlic and thats what we really like to use the most as the flavor is SO MUCH better than the soft necked garlic you get at the grocery store. Scott has found a couple sites that sell gourmet hard neck garlic and we plan to order some for next year.  Here is a close-up of some of the hard neck garlic...

I still have a lot of work to do out there but it will have to wait until Friday when I am off from work again. Scott and I are trying to decided where to plant some tomatoes where they would get a bit of shade as our garden gets FULL sun constantly and our harvests haven't been too great the past couple of years. I've even toyed with the idea of putting a frame over every other row with lattice across the top to create some dappled shade for our poor plants. And I need to amend the beds with more organic matter or clay so that they will hold water a little better.  It's all a work in progress and I love the smell of the earth when it's fertile ... most of my raised beds don't have that REAL Earthy smell yet.... COMPOST! I've got to find more organic matter that comes from yards that aren't chemical happy.... no fertilizers, bug killers, weed killers and the like. People don't understand that all those chemicals kill beneficial plants and bugs too. We will never control Nature; we must learn to PARTNER with her. 

Gardening and Crocheting

Today I went through our seed basket and found all the seeds that are listed on the Clemson Extensions planting guide for vegetables that can be planted at this time of year. There really is quite a lot we can plant now and I found... spinach, mustard greens, turnips, collards, peas (really pushing my luck as these should have been planted earlier); onions, radishes, broccoli, mesculen salad mix, and beets. I will also start tomatoes indoors to plant out later. Once I pulled these seeds I got busy on cleaning up some of our raised beds. I got four cleaned up and looking good; two all ready have garlic growing in them but I have two others now ready for planting. I'm hoping to get some seeds in the ground tomorrow before I have to be to work.

Today I also made a bit of progress on the sweater I am making for my niece, Abby. Only 6 more rows to add to the skirt section and then add some ties. Oh and I'm also supposed to add a couple more daisy's to the front. I sure hope that this will fit her. It's really cute! I don't know if I'm off work on Sunday or not but I'm hoping we will be able to go to her party on Sunday. I'll find out tomorrow. If I can't make it to the party I will mail this to her; hopefully in time for her party.

Time to call it a night... I hope everyone has a good nights sleep.

A Sweet for my Sweetie!

Pie before top crust put into position

Had a bit of trouble getting a top on but it will still taste delicious.

I just slid a blackberry pie into the oven for our dinner tonight. How fitting is it that the blackberries were picked together last Summer and the heart shaped pie plate was bought on a trip to the mountains... TOGETHER!

HE LOVES ME STILL!

I came in from work this evening to find this awaiting for me on my desk...

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Sweater Progress

I've made a little progress on Abby's sweater for her birthday. I have to get it finished by Wednesday so that I can mail it to her before her party on the 20th. I had added the green stem strip but didn't like how it looked so I pulled it out and will try again tomorrow when there is daylight. For now the little flowers will have to wait for their stems and centers. The centers are supposed to be done in French knots but I can't get the bright yellow bamboo yarn anywhere around here so I am thinking of using some bright yellow beads for the centers instead. I think Abby would like them better anyway. I'll check my "bead stash" in the morning.

The yellow yarn that I got for the centers is just too pale so I will have to use it for baby booties. It's a super soft bamboo that will make some absolutely lovely booties; it's Bernat Bamboo - Natural Blends in corn/mais.

I finally talked Scott into going to the Doctor; he has a sinus infection  and will be on an antibiotic for the next 2 weeks. I knew it was getting serious because he just wasn't getting any better and then last night he was pitching a fever and was just feeling horrible so I told him he WAS GOING to the Dr today!

On the way home it was warm enough outside to have the windows cracked and we could hear a tap tap tap from one of my tires and it wasn't going away like a stone so Scott checked the tires and I have a led headed nail in one of my tires. He said that he will try to fix it in the morning before I have to leave for work. If he can't get it fixed I will have to drive our old truck that has special issues all it's own - ignition sticks and the shift indicator is all off now so you have to count the positions to get it into drive. OH WELL! Life's NEVER boring around here.

It's Time for "ON MY MIND"

Well today at work I came across some really awesome stitchery kits that have been marked way down and I had to resist buying any because - well we are broke and are just making bills and groceries. But thats ok because it made me go on to the next thought... do I REALLY need anymore to do? What do you think? Here is what came to my mind while looking at those Clearance Stitchery kits; this drawer...

I decided to pull them out and show just why I should NOT buy anything more in this area. Here they are all lined up on my cutting table...

Did you notice the distinct "cat" theme? Here are some close ups...

Definitely time to "just say no"!
Stitchery kits - I'M GOOD ON! CHECK!
"On My Mind" is a weekly feature that anyone can participate in; guidelines are at Rhonda's blog...Down to Earth