When Life Hands you Grapevine

by Kelly

One of the things I like about this garden is the sheer photogenic quality of it. No matter where I look, there is something interesting or unique. The best part is, I think a lot of this is accidental. It doesn't have that overly orchestrated feel of a garden that was plotted out on paper before planting.

Did I mention we have grapevines? Well grapevines have to be pruned every year. The end result of that is better grapes...and a ton of grapevine, perfect for baskets, wreaths and other crafty purposes.

What you see here, piled up on the picnic table, is only a small fraction of the amount I have available.

I need to add a little to those wreaths, but I kind of got distracted by some other possibilities:

via Makeitandloveit

via FabyouBliss

And the best part is, I have SO MUCH grapevine that it doesn't matter if I make some mistakes along the way. 

Flower Pictures and Craft Links

by Kelly

 

Sorry for the delay in posting - we were experiencing technical difficulties.
As in the pictures wouldn't go into Blogger for some reason. And yeah, I could have done a text only post, but what fun would that be? I love playing with our camera.

Thinking of spring but don't have flowers yet? Check out the amazing pop-up cards I stumbled across on Extreme Cards and Papercrafting.

Window box cards

Make a pop-up card for someone. Or just for yourself! Don't worry, it might look intimidating, but she offers free lessons and how-to's on her blog.

For butterfly pop-ups, check here and here.

If anyone can identify the bush in that picture above, please let me know in the comments. This grows out by my mom's house, and I want one for my garden. The flowers don't have any scent, and grow in small clusters. The leaves are oval and alternate, and red berries show up in the fall. I thought it might be a chokeberry, but the stamens on the bush above are yellow, not red. Maybe it's a cultivar? But the flowers of the chokeberry aren't shaped quite right either...

Speaking of flowers you can't identify, check out these that my husband surprised me with:

I love them! And he even took the trouble to arrange them in a perfect rainbow. That's my guy - a perfectionist artist even when he's putting flowers in a vase. I usually just cut the stems and shove them in the water. If I'm feeling especially inspired, I'll make sure all the tall ones are in the center.

Anyway, I'm off to do some lawn-mowing, weeding and other gardening type stuff. Yay for spring!

Spring Flowers

by Kelly

I'm going to resume work on the failed sweater project that I put aside for a while. Hopefully it will be done in time for next winter.

Meanwhile, I took a walk in my borrowed garden and thought I'd share some pictures.

Spring has sprung. For some reason, that last picture reminds me of canned Del Monte fruit cocktail - you know the kind with pears, peaches, and one lonely pink cherry floating in the mix. I remember once when I was a kid, we got a can with two cherries in it, and we thought that whoever was in charge of doling out cherries at the Del Monte factory had slipped up and probably lost their job because of it.

Recently Completed Projects Update

I have been a busy bee lately and not all due to the fun times of working on crochet projects.  However, I have finally managed to squeeze out some time to post pictures of the projects that I've completed.

The first two are baby blankets for my sisters-in-law.  Both of them became pregnant around the same time and delivered just a month apart.  So I had to whip something up.

This one is one of my favorites.  My sister-in-law obviously had a girl and she loves dragonflies.  She is such a girly-girl that I thought to spring for the fur trim to make it look that much more special.  I think it turned out great and I actually had a lot of fun working with the fur for the first time.  I might try it again on a scarf or hat next time.

The next is for my other sister-in-law who had her second boy.  She's more simple and classic so I thought this pattern would look great for her with a little bit of shine to make it special.

Now the only problem is trying to find the time and money to mail these off to Australia.  :P

This next blanket is another baby blanket and it's the semi-finished result of my first attempt at the Jacquar practice of inserting color into a pattern. I say semi-finished because the downside of this effect is that you have all these strings in the back.  I weaved the ends in but there's still dragged strings from the work itself.  So I added about a half an inch of sc to the edge of the blanked and I'm going to try to sew some fabric around the border so that the back is covered.  Since the only time I've ever attempted to use a sewing machine was in high school home ec class when I had to make a flour baby out of a t-shirt and a sack of flour then I decided to wait until my mom came to visit next week before attempting to finish this one.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  :)

My last project was actually a commissioned project.  One of my mom friends is about to deliver and she was asking around about whether anyone would be able to make a hat she saw on Etsy but for cheaper.  I told her I could do it and would do it for $5 less than the listing price.  Below is what I came up with.  And the great thing about this is that one of her friends saw it and asked that I make her a girl version with a flower as well.  So I'm currently working on this one and will provide pictures....eventually.  :)

I hope you enjoyed the peek into my life as the crochet guru.  :)

Not Quite May Flowers

by Kelly

Any day now, I'm expecting the above cherry tree to break out into beautiful, fragrant white flowers. While I'm waiting, I've been poking about in this borrowed garden of mine, looking for treasure. I've found any number of surprising things, and also some flowers:

Spring Beauty Wildflower?

Muscari / Grape Hyacinth

I really enjoy wandering about in the yard in the spring, dreaming of what summer can bring. It reminds me of when I was a very little girl, walking in 'the woods', (which was actually a vacant lot nearby where a house had burned down twenty years before) and picking a huge bouquet of violets. Helpful tip - violets only last about two days in a glass of water.

There are any number of plants that may be flowers that I can't identify yet. And of course, there is the unique and beautiful (if hardly rare) Taraxacum officianale, bursting forth with tiny sun yellow flowers:

Taraxacum officinale

Poor, much maligned dandelion. I don't think that all the poison and mowing in the world will ever eliminate you completely.

Single orchids that only bloom once in their lives (despite much pampering) sell for $30.00 a shot, while you bloom year round in the very worst conditions.

Maybe you try too hard?

Flooding

by Kelly

I think it's fair to say that the drought is over. This is what spring is supposed to be around here - tons of rain, which leads to foggy mornings and what the weathermen always refer to as 'localized flooding'.  The annual crop of soggy basement carpeting and furniture has just appeared on the curbs. Oh, and nearly freezing temperatures. Yes, Illinois is glorious in the spring.

Looks like I planted my flower seeds at just the right time. The packages did say "water frequently in the first two weeks". Hey, no problem...I'll get right on that.

So in honor of the localized flooding, I'm starting one more baby blanket for Dawn's charity drive, this one in all the lovely shades of blue that I have on hand in my scrap basket:

Sorry for the gloomy picture, but it is raining here again. That's okay, though - I love rainy days curled up in front of a warm Internet connection. Maybe I'll do a quick search for new crochet and knitting projects to try...that will only take a few minutes....

Signs of Spring

by Kelly

Spring is finally here, and I can't wait to get started.

I have also finished one scrap busting baby blanket, in the colors of early spring:

I used this great free pattern for the blanket itself, then I just added a single crochet border around the whole thing, did another row of triple crochet, and finished it off with a simple shell stitch.

It turned out pretty well, although my initial reservation when I started this project still stands - the rows of yellow alternating with white are not the best color combination for this pattern, since the blanket looks like it's made of sweet corn. So if you do decide to make a blanket with this pattern, you might want to consider choosing other colors. Just saying.