Great and Painful

We rode our bikes for 22 miles today. My whole body is sore. That is all I have to say at this time. *smile*

Family Pics

My beautiful mother.





My dad trying to curl his tongue like my sister.






My sister Echo.






Her daughter (my niece) Justice.







My sister Rhoni with our niece Justice.






Over all, it was wonderful to be back and see everyone. Too much plane riding for such a short amount of time, but it was worth it. Oh yes, one more picture . . .



Is that not just the most adorable man? He doesn't like getting his picture taken. *smile*

Updates

I will be trying to update things as I can, but as I have said, through August 8th I am going to be quite busy. When things slow down a bit I would love to do as this blogger does and do a swatch a week type of thing. I use to do something similar to this when I started knitting just to learn new things, but I think this would be beneficial now for multiple reasons.

I have been working on my spinning since my previous post where I explained that I hadn't been doing the Tour De Fleece like I should have been.

My how your garden grows

Well, the weather got really warm right as we left to Washington State and my garden grew like crazy while I was gone. There were a couple close calls with things because I didn't have anyone to come over and water them while I was gone, but all is good. Here are some progress pictures.
If the pictures look dirty, it is really some natural pesticide.

Unfortunately, this is the only bloom I actually got a picture of. The first two blooms happened when we were in Washington State and another three happened while I was busy last week at art camp. This was the last of those three. I was able to save my first bloom and dry it out though. It still smells lovely, even dried out.


Here is my Cilantro, it had all started to bloom by the time I came back so these will end up being used for coriander and not cilantro and maybe I will try another batch before summer is up for cilantro. Pretty blooms though.


My cucumber plants are growing like crazy. Not sure if they are enjoying the heat completely though, because none of their flowers have started to fruit yet.


I have two lovely jalapenos growing. I will probably pick them soon. Yum!


And here is my cherry pepper. It isn't red yet though, so I don't think it is ready to be picked, but I need to do some research about them and when to pick them.




Overall, I am completely jazzed that my garden is doing so well. What I didn't take picture of, but is worth noting. I have about 6 strawberry flowers starting to fruit and another 4 or so that are blooming. My cactus are growing wonderfully. And I have my first official bloom on my chamomile. All is good in this garden.

Oh yes, while transplanting some of them into larger containers the other day, I also found out that my garden is well loved by the moths in this area.

The finished doll

Here she is all finished!



















All in all, I love making her, but crochet is a little tough on my wrists. However, it's a good thing it was crochet, because she was playing with it like crazy when we were out there, hopefully the doll can survive her. *smile*

Explanation

I know I said I would come back and have lots to talk about and many pictures, but . . . life has been very busy since I came back. Monday through Friday I teach at art camp from 8am to 1pm and then I usually have to go to work at the candy/ice cream store until about 10:30 or 11pm. I haven't been getting much sleep and have had little time to do anything. I will try to post on one of my days off here, probably Monday.

Unfortunately, I have to admit a bit of defeat when it comes to the Tour De Fleece. I have only been able to get about 4-6 hours of sleep, much less have time to spin. I know I can spin for even ten minutes, but in all honesty . . . I missed every day this week except today because I was just so tired by the time I got home on those days. I am still going to try to finish the yarn, but it's looking doubtful that it will be done in time.

Finally

Well, I forgot to blog yesterday. I started my spinning for Tour de Fleece and was finishing up my mother's mosaic book and completely forgot about you guys, sorry.

So, here are the pictures I promised.

I made her little shorts, a tank top, and a belt.


Close up on the shorts and belt, I made one of those belts with the loops as I use to love the one I had when I was young. They are crocheted and made to be a little bell-bottom like.


The tank top is knitting and has a little lace detail at the top and closes with ties that tie behind the neck.





I think it is a cute outfit. I started on an orange raglan sweater, but that won't be finished in time. I just have to put on her eyes, which are already made, just not embroidered on and her lips.

Tomorrow is a long day and then we leave for Washington State very early Tuesday morning. I will be gone for four days, I will have pictures and lots to talk about when I return!

Mistaken

Well, no pictures today. My somewhat inebriated neighbors are shooting off some fireworks and in all honesty, I am somewhat concerned with being hit with one of them. I live in a densely populated area and the chance that they may hurt someone, including themselves, is not that unlikely. So, unfortunately, I am not willing to risk bodily harm to get pictures today. I will definitely have some tomorrow.

Clothing

I have some wonderful little things to show you tomorrow. I can't do it today since I had to work during daylight time, but tomorrow I will get out of work when it is still light out for a few more hours. I will take some pics. I made some little clothing for the Justice doll. I think they are cute! Plus, it's fun to make in a way, because I mean she's a doll, she doesn't care if the shorts don't hug her butt just right or if they give her a wedgie!

Until tomorrow!

Spinning

I haven't been doing as much spinning since I have been working on projects to get done before I visit my family so I joined the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry and here. You spin every day that they cycle. My challenge to myself it to finish the yarn for the gloves I started. I need to finish the fall colored roving and spin up some un-dyed roving to ply with it. Looks like I will be bringing my spinning to Washington State with me.

Garden of Delight

This is just two of the five or six little rose buds on my plant. I am so excited. I can't wait for them to bloom. I plan to dry them out and keep them.





My own little tree. This happened by accident. One of those little flyers was in another bucket and started sprouting so I gave it it's own home.





My first bean, well one that looked almost ready to pick, picked it, but it wasn't quite ready. I am not sure how big they should be. If you want it to continually sprout then they need to be picked regularly.








Here is my first mutant bean, the bean diverged after a small amount. Interesting nature.





My cucumber plants are really starting to cling to everything! So adorable!








And the happy family all together.








My indoor plants are growing well too!





That's all for now.

Realistic Goals

Well, two things are somewhat coming to an end. I will not be making my mother's shawl with the frog pattern I was trying to construct. I just cannot get it to look the vision in my head. It will take some more scribbling and swatching, which is just not something I am prepared at this time for. So I have chosen some stitch patterns out of a few books and I will work with that.

Also, the dress I began for Justice's doll, still didn't have enough orange to do that even using the white, so . . . back to the drawing board. Blah.

On a sad note, I am unsure as to whether or not I will finish baby Gerrin's blanket. Evidently, Gerrin's mom was not a good mom and when she gave birth they found cocaine in her system. The baby was taken by child services the next day and has been there since. My boyfriend's brother is going through the motions of trying to get custody of Gerrin, but he doesn't have the best track record. So who knows if it'll happen or when. It makes me sad. I would love to run to Ohio and rescue the baby. We shall see what happens. Part of me says that I should finish the blanket because my boyfriend's brother does get to see him a couple times a week and maybe he could take it to him, but I don't know. The whole situation really bothers me.