A Little Nostalgia

I've designed a couple small quilted wall hangings based on Celtic knot designs and want to do more. For some reason, the idea of creating a complex image from a single continuous line just fascinates me. I was flipping through my design inspiration files and ran across some photos that reminded me a lot of Spirograph designs. Remember Spirograph? I had one when I was a kid and loved drawing with it. I started checking Toys 'R' Us, Amazon.com and a couple other toy sites and realized they don't make the original Spirograph anymore. So, off to eBay and the start of a small-scale obsessive attempt to buy one for a reasonable price. After being beaten out at the last possible second on four different auctions, I finally won one. It's complete with all the original pieces - even the colored ballpoint pens and the little pushpins that hold the wheels in place. I can't wait to play with it!

Seed Starting, Round 2

We have a second crop of sprouts AND I figured out a cheap light system. I found several tutorials online for how to build an adjustable system with fluorescent shop lights suspended from chain, but I didn't need anything that big and I didn't want to invest in a huge set of lights, lumber, chain and various other bits and pieces to build a set. My seed flat is 22" long. I found two 24" under cabinet lights at Walmart that already had grow bulbs in them, and used a cheap 24" wire shelf to make an overhead holder for them. For now, the bulbs are hanging from long metal ties about 1-1/2" above the plants. As the plants get taller, I can shorten the ties. And when they outgrow that, I'll just have to prop up the ends of the shelf on something. Took me 5 minutes to assemble and cost less than $20, and it will be easy to store for next year. Works for me!

Starting Again, from Seed

Sorry, bad pun. We're giving the seed starting another try. The Little
Guy was not interested in helping, having indulged his need to dig in the dirt and play with peat disks on the first attempt. I was able to salvage the seed starting mix from the peat disks from the first round and just crumbled them up into peat pots for this batch. I definitely like working with peat pots better than the peat disks. The disks were awkward to place seeds in, especially the really tiny seeds, and nearly everything that sprouted ended up with a tap root poking out the side of the disk mesh. At least I learned something new in the first attempt!

This time, I tried all the same herbs plus calendula, violas, zinnias (which I'm hoping will deter the deer from my garden), cherry tomatoes and green peppers. I think I'm going to wait on the lettuce and start it directly in the garden boxes we used last year. Oh, and I have poppies to plant directly in the garden when the time is right.

We cleaned out the garden area last fall and pulled out boatloads of peppermint to make room for a true herb garden. Right now it's empty and sad looking. I can't wait to see it full of herbs and veggies this summer!

Coloring Easter Eggs

We did color traditional Easter eggs but, of course, I can't find those photos. So here's the paper version, made to decorate Easter treat bags for my niece and nephew. Every once in a while, a little coloring book action is good for the soul.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Easter

Here in our little corner of the world, Easter weather is a tricky thing. Some years it's balmy and mild with lots of blooming things, and other years it looks like...this. Good thing the Easter Bunny has a fur coat!

First Attempt At Seed Starting...

...was officially a failure. While the Miracle Grow made for some nice, healthy leaves, every one of the little buggers is growing horizontally due to too little direct light. Yanked 'em all out, recycled the seed starting mix and will have to try again. I still don't have grow lights but don't need to get the seeds started just yet, so I have time to figure something out.

First Signs of Spring

I attended a lecture on seed starting a few weeks ago and, in spite of the overwhelming amount of information about which seeds need to be soaked, which ones like to be covered, which ones don't like to be covered, what soil temperature is best, the dangers of overwatering and underwatering, and the dire predictions of failure without the right lights, I decided to give it a try. Last weekend the Little Guy and I planted lettuce, sage, parsley, cilantro, forget-me-nots and morning glories in peat discs, which are now taking up one entire end of my craft table. As of today, everything has sprouted except the morning glories. I've been using a desk lamp with a CFL bulb for a grow light, and I think I made the fatal light-too-far-from-the-seedlings mistake. All the sprouts are reeeeaaalllllly tall and floppy. Sigh. Oh well. I gave them a dose of Miracle Gro hoping that will toughen them up, and if not, we'll give it another try. Seeds are cheap and I think we started everything too early anyway, considering our last frost date here is late May.

Two Visits from the Tooth Fairy in Two Days

After weeks of bugging the Little Guy to keep wiggling his loose tooth so it would come out, he finally lost the first one yesterday. It was so loose it was leaning sideways and it just popped out without any drama at all. (Very few things happen without any drama with this child!) Since it was painless AND it got him a dollar from the Tooth Fairy, he yanked out its wiggly neighbor at kindergarten today and came home with his little bitty tooth in a ziploc bag.

Tonight when I put him to bed he stuck it in his tooth fairy pillow. He told me he was talking about the tooth fairy with his friends at kindergarten. They decided 1) tooth fairies are girls, 2) they're veeeery tiny, and 3) you don't want to mess with them, 'cause they may be little but they're really strong from lugging around bags full of teeth and gold dollar coins. Now I can't get the image of a mosquito-sized body builder in a tutu and wings lurching through the air with a sack full of loot out of my head!

It's done, it's done!

The "Mother and Child" necklace is finished with just a few days to spare. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, plus I tried a few new ideas on the straps and fringe that will carry over well to another project. Yay!





And the tooth fairy pillow is being called into action for the first time this evening. The Boy lost his first tooth! Big doin's at our house the past few days. :o)

Patches II

I've been beading away on the "Mother and Child" necklace for the past few weeks but completely forgot to take any photos, so...no posts. I'll make up for that soon!

In the meantime, I ran across this post on Darling Petunia's blog a while back and just fell in love with Patches. I bookmarked it with the intention of trying to recreate the pattern when I had a free day to sew and no projects planned. Well, the Big Guy is out of town and I took a few days off work to enjoy the peace and quiet of an empty house while the Little Guy is at school, and (of course!) to enjoy a little crafting with no interruptions. When I was going through my inspiration file looking for something to work on, I ran across the post and decided to give Patches a try. I printed out the photo of Patches for reference, pulled out my quilt scraps, did a few calculations, and started cutting.

Here's the end result:



I'm very happy with how he turned out. My cutting/accurate seam allowance/piecing skills need some honing and this was great practice. He has a few wonky seams where the legs and tail meet the body, but overall this is easily the best pieced project I've completed so far.

I love him, and so does the Little Guy. Patches II goes back and forth between hanging out in my sewing room as my crafting mascot by day and sleeping with the Little Guy at night.