Checking In with Finished Objects Friday

Since it is Friday and after 9 AM with nothing to show for the day yet except for having finished off refrigerator left overs for breakfast, I'll post on Finished Objects Friday at Tami's.  (I had the last of a batch of gazpacho and some chicken salad.)  Go on over there to see what others are doing.

This pattern by Tin Can Knits, published by Handmade in the UK, is VIVID, a blanket pattern.

It is written for three weights of yarn.  I used a sport weight and a sock weight yarn and made these as samples.

These samples will be used for coasters during the summer.  When cool weather rolls round again, it might be time to go ahead and knit up 20 squares in various colors and make a blanket from the squares.  It is a fun pattern and a square can be knit in a few hours.

And from the garden, our first bloom from our newly planted Rose of Sharon bush and hollyhocks:

 

 

Happy Friday!

Morning Tea and a Game for Boys

What fun to share time with friends on a beautiful almost-summer morning.  Gal friends gathered in our back yard today for cold drinks and cucumber sandwiches and good conversation.

The little finger bites of vegetables and bread and butter were quite good; the picture above shows it made 24, less one previously consumed for quality assurance purposes.  Here is the recipe used for the cucumber sandwiches:

And I should have made a double batch.  Next time.

One momma brought her boys after swimming class to join us. Are they not just darling?  And smart, to boot!

The boys were offered 10 cents each for every "face" they could find in the garden.  The husband and I made a game of it last night while sitting outside and we found 39 faces in the garden. The boys came up with 40!

 Here are a few of the faces found in the garden:

Thanks, friends, for a fun time!

Hello, June

We've been saying hello to spring. Sprucing up. Painting. Gardening.

(in process, but now painted)

The master bathroom has been painted white the entire time we have lived here, so it was only appropriate to welcome in spring with a bit of a face lift and a few new accessories for the necessary room.  The picture above is a "before" one of the east window.  Indulgent Mocha from Behr over builders' white paint is now its cover.  A new clock on another bathroom wall to let us know how long it takes to brush teeth.

And I whipped up a new valence for that east window.  Seems it always gets hot in mid morning from that direct sun, so perhaps this fabric will shield some of that sun while taking showers.

Gardening!  Our wildflower garden planted last spring is doing nicely, thank you.  But the bluebells did not make it over the winter.  It was just too darned cold for their survival.  But the penstemon did VERY well.

Welcome to my garden with purple and yellow columbines...

 

 

honeysuckle that opened up this morning with a heavenly smell...

and welcome also to the prayer garden in the back that is filling in nicely with ground cover, iris, chives, mums and natural tall grasses, along with a few other bulbs.

 

And then it was time to whip up a few new dishcloths (the eLoomanator and Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth held with triple strands of cotton yarn to make a couple of fiesta potholders.

 



 

 

Sadly, my husband the chef said that three strands of cotton was not enough thickness to keep his hands from a burn.  So these fiesta cloths might have to go into the facecloth pile in the closet. Sigh.  

 

For lunch, my favorite chicken salad recipe found here by Emeril.  It uses fresh tarragon, of which there is an abundance in the herb area.   I use more than Emeril says, and we seem to never have an apple on hand, but it is good enough even without the apple.   Next time a picture; this time I forgot to snap a picture of the herbs, and the salad is not yet made.

 

How are you welcoming June?

Musicians of Bremen & Knitting

Do you recall the Grimm Brothers' fairytale of  "The Musicians of Bremen"?  Need a refresher on the story?  Go here to read yourself a little bedtime story if you are so inclined.

Found this novelty and placed it in the bath to give visitors a laugh, or else wonder what in the world this was doing on top of the toilet!

 

According to most renditions of the Musicians of Bremen story, there was a cock, a hound, a cat and a donkey.  So a bit of literary license was taken by the crafter who put together the animals doing service as the musicians.  You could say there were several morals to the story, but I'll go with the one that speaks of not letting your imagination get away with the facts of the situation.

 



These alstroemeria are beauties that last two weeks if you regularly change their water.  The hub brought them home from the grocery store the other day.  He did a good job!

This ground cover is coming up in the back right now.  Aren't the little blue flowers pretty?  And grape hyacinths too!

 One of our first daffodils:

 

 

And finally, I finished that cowl called Leafy Wreath Cowl (pattern found here on Ravelry).

 

Looks like I was asking the husband a question, or scolding him.  Anyway, here is a close up of the cowl:

It hides a multitude of sins on that double chin!  It was a bit of a challenge knitting this up (cables and lace), but it feels soft on the skin and is warm to boot.  Yarn is by Quince & Co.  Details here.

Easter Terrarium

Do you want to get your hands into dirt, but your evening temperatures are still too cool to allow seedlings to germinate?  That was my thought.  So I looked into planting indoors with small terrarium plants that could be tended indoors.  At our local nursery I found green Irish moss and a wee little plant called "goldfish" because when it blooms, it supposedly looks like a goldfish.  Go figure.

source

The above picture shows a bloom from the goldfish plant and below is a close-up of its foliage:

 

I so hope I can keep it alive until it at least blooms!  Armed with irish moss, also available at nurseries, I planted a terrarium using some other ferns, other dried moss, two small plants culled from existing house plants, along with various glass stones and two crosses symbolizing the Easter season.

 

Thinking I should add some mushrooms, I got out my Fimo clay (after two years, it was still easy to work with) and made some little 'rooms with a toothpick inside each for ease in sticking them into the terrarium dirt.

Looking at Sara Midda's mushrooms as examples, here was the process.

Forming the mushroom shapes with white clay:

Baking the figures in rice to ensure the tops would not be mashed.

Painting the figures to resemble mushrooms.

A wedding present from 1990 was used as a topper for the terrarium.  Yes, it is a glass cake cover and a very heavy one at that.  There will be no mushroom escape from this device!  A 9 inch cake pan was the base of the terrarium, painted green with acrylic paint.  Then I found a mirror with a turquoise frame, about 10 inches round.  That is the holder and base of the entire terrarium.

Here it is uncovered.

It was lots of fun to make.

To read more about how to consruct the layers of a terrarium, this post from March 2008 describes the process in detail.  Who knows, I might make a few more!