Geraniums: New Plants from Cuttings

Last spring, I wrote about attempting to keep geraniums alive over the winter. Not only did the three plants survive the winter in a pot watered only occasionally, they even blossomed in our non-heated garage. Here is a picture that I took yesterday of the straggly plants fresh out of the garage, a bit chilly but still green.

Now it was time to cut down this pot of geraniums and try to start growing new plants from the year-old stock.

Concise information about geranium propagation was found at Martha Stewart to-the-rescue.

A quick trip to the local gardening supply house would supply the potting medium and growth root stimulator. I still needed some pots for starting the propagation process, and knew there were a few that could be scrounged from prior gardening projects.

I came across a handy article about recycling tin cans for mini container gardening at Craft Stylish. The picture below is courtesy of the same website.

Opting for the packaged container of 2 inch peat moss flats (but alas, not incorporating the clever idea shown at Craft Stylish), here are the 18 geranium starts begun over Easter weekend:

These 18 new starts from the three "winterized" geraniums were transplanted using tips from Martha Stewart to-the-rescue.

Time, sun and water and a little luck should help in making even more viable plants that can be used on the patio this summer. And there will be sixfold the amount of new plants from the three geraniums kept over the winter.

Hallelujah Chorus

Good Friday Artwork

Good Friday, a most holy day in the Christian spiritual year, has been depicted in artwork over the centuries. Each work shows some form of Jesus' love, sacrifice, or death before resurrection.

This first work, a print of an original woodcut made by Sister Mary Grace Thul, (Caterina Benincasa Dominican Monastery, Dominican Nuns) shows Jesus washing a disciple's feet the night of the Last Supper. A print can be purchased at this site.

This stained glass picture came from Church Year. It shows the grief of Mary while placing Jesus' body in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

Frederick Buechner talks about the symbol of Easter being the empty tomb. Please listen to Buechner speaking his 3 minute essay at 30 Good Minutes.

Windmill Ministries says:

The gospels mention that after the crucifixion Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. On Easter morning that tomb was found empty. Finding an empty tomb by itself does not prove a resurrection, however it is an essential confirmation that the resurrection really happened.

This stained glass artwork was found at The Road Least Taken.

Good Friday is the Friday within Holy Week, and is traditionally a time of fasting and penance, commemorating the anniversary of Christ's crucifixion and death. For Christians, Good Friday commemorates not just a historical event, but the sacrificial death of Christ, which with the resurrection, comprises the heart of the Christian faith.

Have a blessed Good Friday.

Mud Time: Robert Frost

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

- Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time, 1926

This is just the middle portion of Frost's poem that can be read in its completion here. It seems appropriate for this first week of a cool and wet Colorado April.

Frost's entire work of Two Tramps in Mud Time can be downloaded for your listening pleasure here.

Daffodils, crocuses and grape hyacinths are coming up in our garden patch. It snowed in the mountains just 45 minutes from our town over the past two days, but spring really is in the air.

Easter Craft - Edible Decorations

Do you need a new Easter project for the kids, or perhaps one to put in Easter baskets? How about one to use as a dining decoration? Try this edible treat for an easy, sweet craft that can be served several ways.

Start by making Rice Krispie Treats, modified with using chow mein noodles instead of cereal. The recipe can then be used to make little bird nests, a perennial spring time favorite and especially appropriate for Easter.

Use the standard marshmallow recipe, but substitute the cereal with chow mein noodles, and create a unique, sweet treat that looks like a small bird nest. Add a few jellybeans or chocolate eggs, and even the birds might go for it!

This idea came from Kendra, who has an insane amount of cool crafting ideas at this website.

From The Old Stand-By Rice Krispies Treat Recipe:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 package (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies®

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated.
3. Using buttered spatula or wax paper, evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool. Cut into 2 inch squares.

To make the bird nests, substitute chow mein noodles for the cereal, and carefully mash the sticky ingredients into large muffin tins. Use a greased piece of waxed paper for forming nests, and make a depression into the chow mein noodle mixture while in the muffin cup so the eggs can be placed there.

While the mixture is still malleable, you can form it into the desired shape. Don't worry about breaking up the noodles; remember that birds must tweak their long twigs into workable pieces to finish up their habitats.

Here is a picture of the finished product before complete drying time elapsed.

The marshmallows in the mixture looked a bit too white at this point, so you could use some Wilton's Color Mist Spray in brown and spray all over the entire confectionery nests. (The white does get darker as time elapses, and the nests looked more realistic later in the day.)

Lauren Whitney, local morning television anchor at Grand Junction's KKCO TV (see her blog page here), will talk about this project on air April 9, 2009 during the 6 AM News.

Have fun making these edible treats!

Easter Craft eBook Source

While blog hopping this morning, a thoroughly referenced eBook (FREE!) crossed my computer screen. It was too good not to share, and was found at this website hosted by Jamie.

This is a great resource for Easter Craft Ideas, including:

* 130 Pages of Craft Ideas for Easter
* 12 Easter Egg Decorating Projects
* 20 Easter Table Ideas: Centerpieces, Napkin Rings & More
* 10 Easter Chick Craft Projects
* 20 Easter Bunny Craft Projects
* 10 Easter Recipes

These Easter Craft Ideas can be found at Easter Craft eBook.

Another craft will follow for a spring dining table centerpiece next week. (But first, I have to get busy and work on a few.)

Beading Knitting Markers and Copper Wire

While taking a break from closet reorganization, I started another lace shawl (The Beginner's Triangle from the book A Gathering of Lace.) The shawl is made from a brownish golden DK weight wool. It was the dickens to start, but thanks to knitting friends with savvy, it is off and running.

The only minor glitch in knitting the project is that it requires many, many marker rings for clear delineation of repeat designs.

And I had only a few (maybe 15) rings on hand that I had made last year. The photo below shows those rings already in place in another project.

If you are interested in making some of these markers, hop back to the post a year ago (using jump rings and directions for making them explained there) .

So now it was time for more markers and a new technique. The finished markers were made with beads and 20 gauge copper wire, shown below.

Supplies: a small roll of 20 gauge copper wire from any craft store, beads, crimper beads, wire cutters, a round nose pair of jewelry pliers

Directions: I doubled up on the wire, making the strands stronger, then twisted the wires together, added beads, and closed up the ends with crimper beads. This is an easy, quick project (several pink ribbon markers are going to knitting friends). Be sure to crimp the wire together closely so that the ends will not nick into the yarn fiber while knitting.

If you make some of these beading markers with wire, please show me your designs (or just email me) and give hints on improving them.

Organizing a Closet (aka Just Throw it Away)

Yep, my husband overstepped his bounds. He irreverently referred to my obsessive admirable habit of trying to organize my clothes closet, and even went so far as to tell the world about it. Honestly!

The chore of cleaning out my closet is an ongoing battle. The DH has a ridiculous and completely unnecessary house rule of "whatever item comes into the place, an item of the same size/category must go out of the house". Example: if he buys a new fishing rod, the old one is discarded. In his orderly mind, this is a way to keep clutter and unnecessary paraphernalia under control. This may be an admirable rule, but it is also a trial for me since I am more of a hoarder collector. After all, you just never know when that old wool sweater could be used for a felting craft project.

Yesterday, I had several empty shoe boxes, a couple pairs of shoes and a few articles of clothing separated out from the closet. These items were innocently placed in the adjacent bathroom ready for the next step of closet organization: sorting into piles of "throw away" or "give away", or "take to the resell shop". (Granted, the stuff had been there all day.) In steps DH with a snarky question about how long this pile would make its home on the bathtub rim. I told him this minor delay in organization was just part of the process of "staging" in the closet cleaning process.

And THEN he had the nerve to ridicule my staging process on his blog. Read it at Cleaning Closets on Living the Grand Life and see if YOU think it's funny. (It really is.)

(from 2009 Engagement Calendar by Anne Taintor)

"Staging" in the process of reorganization is a perfectly legitimate, although slow, method of getting rid of junk. In My Humble Opinion.

Maybe I SHOULD just throw everything away ... and start over.

Cooking in An Economic Depression

Looking for information about cooking in "hard times", you might find this 91 year old woman's recipe and remembrances thought provoking. Take a listen to her YouTube presentation on cooking a potato, adding a can of peas and then adding pasta to make a filling dinner for a family of four. Now that is saving a dollar!

Then there is this post from a fellow from Texas who said:

Never been to a DollarStore ? I have, and not just because I've been down on my luck financially. Dollar stores often are just where you need to go when your regular stores are closed or out of stock on a standard household item.They offer one-stop shopping, convenience and basic value in a crunch.

His post talks about buying food at a DollarStore, among other things, and is worth a read.

Another site you might like to visit is this: Menus for Moms Cooking in Hard Economic Times. This article puts things into a realistic perspective.

Blog Material: Blog Hunt

I saw this on Jane's daughter's website and decided to copy the idea. The concept is to share good writing in the blogosphere.

So after considerable thought and intense snooping, my listing of blogs meeting the criteria is below. Be sure to stop by each one and see for yourself what incredible writing there is to be read in cyberspace.

In My Humble Opionion (Peggy Hill's favorite saying on King of the Hill), links to a blogger who:

has an online shop: Sweet William

has flawless taste: Keep it classy

has admirable qualities: Too Jazzed To Sleep and Throws like a Girl (both inspirational)

has awesome links to other blogs: Tip Junkie

is an artist: dianes mixed art

is intriguing: michelle perkett

is a daily read: country pleasures

is an old favorite: cast-on

is creative: a year from oak cottage

is a designer: sew liberated

is wildly prolific: daily danny

features fabulous layouts: grimitives

features loveliness: cates back porch

features fantasticness: Indie Collective

lives far away: Craft n Cook (India!)

lives pretty close: living the grand life (in the next room)

takes fantastic photographs: robin's woods

tells great stories: Gaston Studio

crafts up a storm: knitted gems

writes about life: a second cup

gives fabulous recipes: the pioneer woman

gives fabulous tips: tip junkie

makes me want to be her best friend: Heather at Craftlit

makes me believe in the goodness of people: Proverbs 31 Living

makes me laugh: What I Should Have Said

Check out these blogs; play along, and feel free to copy this neat idea for your blog.

Tea Party in Grand Junction - Wear Tea Bag Protest Jewelry

Are you gearing up for the April 15, 2009 Tea Party to be held in Lincoln Park at UPDATE: NOON at the the southwest corner of Lincoln Park near the intersectioln of 12th Street and Gunnison 1:30 pm? (See Dennis White's comment below)

From the local Grand Junction Sentinel:

The theme is similar to the Boston Tea Party, in which colonial Americans protested British taxes on tea by dressing as Indians and dumping tea overboard from ships anchored in Boston Harbor. The events have sprung up in the wake of the economic stimulus package and President Obama’s budget proposal.

You can dress up and attend your local Tea Party with a pair of newly minted GENUINE TEA PARTY EARRINGS like these beauties below.

Make your own protest earrings: buy a package of silver wires, open a tea bag from your kitchen cabinet and remove the outer packaging, tie the paper string onto the earwire, perhaps add your personalized slogan to the outside of the teabag.

You will surely want to wear a pair of these bold symbols of your conviction that you want to be heard and that you protest the slogan of CHANGE CHAINS WE CAN BELIEVE IN to your local Tea Party held next month. Make a few extra and hand them out. Sporting these aromatic earrings will show your protest over the national stimulus package that will cost you hard-earned dollars.

Maybe the national press will get hold of this idea to bring extra attention to the several trillion dollar stimulus package.