Crochet deadline; plants doing well!!!

A new project; a new deadline has been underway for the past week.  A customer (via Etsy) requested a 90x95 afghan in the same colorway of another afghan I have for sale in the shop.  He's willing to wait the 6-8 weeks I've requested to complete it;  this will most definitely be the largest afghan I've made.  Each row is taking about 20 minutes to complete, increasing the length by 1/2", so... approx 60-65 hours will be needed to finish off the project.  Guess who's going to busy? ;)

Just prior to having the newest customer, I had been making progress on the Mystery Crochet-Along;  I had been worried up until the last clue -- I'm really liking how my colors are playing together!

And of COURSE, the plants are growing, growing, growing!  Yesterday morning, Cass and I had the task of transplanting many of the tomatoes, peppers and broccoli;  some herbs too.  For the first few minutes, I was really feeling overwhelmed!  I've never jumped the gun like this before.  I've never planted so MANY tomatoes before.  I was running out of transplanting containers.

Growth after transplanting last week (Week #4)

Current growth (Week #5).  The tomatoes look AMAZING!  I just hope I can keep them alive for another (*whiper*) ......... two months!  There is NO WAY tomatoes can go in the ground in our area before mid-end May.  *gulp*

Lesson learned. :)

Time to find some (LOTS) of 5-gallon pails...

Spring weather has hit!  Last weekend, we found ourselves enjoying the first 40 degree day since last Fall!  The girls couldn't wait to pull out their bikes and enjoy.

Since then, this past week, we actually hit temps of 60!  Hallelujah!  Most of the snow is now melted;  even snowbanks have mostly melted away :)

Paul decided to finally burn up the pile of rubble we've been growing for the past few years.  Bonfire time! 

*sigh*  I can only hope that our Spring is truly underway similar to 2012.  We had a stretch of weather just like this;  our first picnic on March 16 even.   Every week, we were all wondering...."Is this the week the temps will drop back down?  Is this the week we get a Spring snow storm?"
But, it never happened!  We had green grass in April;  by May we were ready to mow AND plant the garden still with a little nervousness.  The rule of thumb up here:  "never plant before Memorial weekend".

I was done with harvesting the whole garden in August that year;  I'd love for another year like that!!!

Did you enjoy PI day yesterday?  

Spring has Sprung! Garden 2014 underway!

I truly can't remember the last Memorial Weekend that consisted of THREE absolutely picture perfect days!  Friday evening was Graduation for our Class of 2014, however I ended up bowing out of the festivities;  (and yes... the guilt was almost getting the better of me!)

Instead, the girls and I tilled up and planted four rows worth of sweet corn.  I am not certain of the length of the rows -- 100 feet maybe? 

I also looked over my strawberry patch I had spent some time with last weekend.  It really sprouted at the end of the summer last year with loads and loads of daughter-runner plants.

The patch has been increased 3-fold!  Next year, I'm hoping these new rows will be growing nicely with some fresh runners so that in two years, we'll be able to have a substantial harvest.

The first lawn haircut happened on Saturday...

And the girls picked some 'flowers' for a graduation party Saturday afternoon.  Hannah is a neighbor about a mile down the road, so we ended up walking, enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather!

Paul worked all day Saturday, and spent much of the morning on Sunday tilling up gardens for friends. But by early afternoon, he was home to start helping me set fencing and trellis for our own garden.  I don't mind planting most of it, but setting fencing and trellis isn't an easy task for me.  I need m'man! :)

The upper garden is back on rotation for potatoes, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peppers and carrots, in addition to a few other small odds-n-ends (radishes, mixed salad lettuces, ...)

And y'all should be so proud of me!!!!!  I've LIMITED myself this year with the beans AND tomatoes!!!!  If all of the beans germinate, there will be about 50-55 plants (pole-beans on a trellis). Pa-lenty, right??

And as the picture shows, I have 17 tomato plants in the ground, safely protected by our infamous milk jug greenhouses.  The next couple of weeks are still touch-n-go, whether we'll get some low over-night temperatures.  The tomatoes are still quite small, too.

Potatoes, on the other hand, are back on full load with.... about 80 Lasoda Red and 56 Yukon Gold plants.  Hearty hearty hearty plants.  

Ummmm....ruh-roh folks!   More tomatoes are waiting !!!..... ;)

Both of these varieties are new to me this year.  These few stragglers will have a chance to grow some more before (possibly) finding a home in garden spot... somewhere!  15 more tomato plants.... you truly can never have too many tomatoes!

The lower garden is only partially planted.  Nine long rows of corn (100' each?), and a long row of peas.  The rest of the space is still being planned out by Paul once he arrives home from work tonight.  We have a variety of melons, squash, pumpkins, and other vine-y spreading plants.  Plus, I'm sure he's going to plant his broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages too.

We've increased the amount of berry bushes and fruit trees... I can't even keep track of what Paul is bringing home anymore.  Cherry trees, grape vines, a multitude of different arrangements of berry bushes.  All edible.  I can't wait to see this place in another 5-6 years!!!!

The goats enjoyed the fresh cut grass clippings on Saturday -- Candace tried her darndest to get Starz to sit still for a picture.  

And since these lil' gals enjoy all of our berry bushes too -- they simply need to stay penned up for much of the time.  They are allowed out on good behavior as long as they are monitored the ENTIRE time!  They ate away most of my deck flowers on Sunday!

Shadow man has also been enjoying some additional attention lately.  He ran away for the fourth time (usually about once a year around this time), but this time there was no call from any of our neighbors.  He went missing last Thursday.  Last Sunday evening, I was scrolling through FaceBook, and a friend happened to share the status of our local Humane Society.  And there was his lovely ol' picture!!!!  FB truly does have its purposes, right???

After school on Monday, we picked him up, and continued driving right to the local Vet to schedule a lil' surgery.  We're hoping his running tendencies will subside considering the myth (fact?) that males typically calm down after being neutered.  Surgery planned during the first week of summer vacation, June 13.

He wintered VERY well, so we've been out walking and running with him once (and sometimes even twice) a day.  He's seven, so he still has lots of life to go. 

My quilting endeavors have definitely been quiet, however I did get a pantograph done for my MIL's hand-embroidered quilt, meant for a friend of the family.  My crochet hook has been quite silent as well lately, but here-n-there I'm working on a lazy-wave afghan using some rich, earth-toned, fall, manly colors.

Despite having a late start to the track season, our Middle School girls team ended on a high note, bringing home the Conference Champions plaque on Thursday.  They put up 120.5 points, while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place tallied up 79, 77.5, and 77 respectively.  It was quite the defeat, and they were super pumped!  Cassie came away with three 2nd place ribbons (Long Jump (13'0.5"), 400M (1:07) and the 100M.

So, with Memorial weekend behind us, and Spring FINALLY underway... many yards are strewn with dandelions.  Cassie borrowed my camera on a walk this AM and snapped a few lovely 'springy' pictures.  

I have come to appreciate dandelions a bit more, now that Paul has taken up Bee-keeping as a new past-time.  He's had them for a couple of weeks now, and I'll be certain to do some blogging on his new adventure!

Leaving you with a few of those pics from Cassie.....

Two more weeks (and a half-day Monday 5/9) -- and then..... time to de-stress and decompress.  My amazing coworker and friend who teaches HS math has decided to move his family back closer to his alma-mater, and is therefore leaving us at the end of the school year.  With much thought, I decided to request a transfer back to teaching solely HS math in his place, so... that transition will be hanging over my head as I head back in three months.  My first 6 years were in the HS (my past 10 in the MS).  I'm ready for the new transition back to the older ages :)  The HS hallway is filled with amazing staff!  I'm truly looking forward to it.

Alrighty--- 4 days, then 5 more days, and then half-of-a-day Monday.   I got this! :D

Happy Monday everyone.  I've missed all of you :)

The first picnic of 2012

I know I may sound like so many others that are living in the northern part of the USA right now....but gosh-dernit! This weather is GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The mornings are still a bit chilly (40s), so the day usually starts with pants, winter jacket, hat, gloves.....but by the end of the day: near 80s today! Another record breaking day! Tshirts and shorts! HOWEVER, poor dear Candace here....I think we need to go shoe shopping for her this weekend!. She's outgrown her tennis shoes since the beginning of winter, and only has her boots.

She's not the only one hitting some serious growth spurts! Cassie "graduated" another pair of her pants this morning that she hasn't worn all that much lately. Rightfully so! There was some full-blown "highwaters" action going on :0)

AND



THE BEST BEST BEST NEWS


I
LEFT
ALL (almost)
OF MY SCHOOLWORK AT SCHOOL this weekend!!!!!!!!!!

It will be a ME weekend!
Quilting for most certainty......
reading for some certainty.....
laundry for necessity

and with temps being forecasted in the 70s for both Saturday and Sunday....RUNNING will most likely be on my schedule too.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

This weather is SUCH a tease!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

70's.....

in Wisconsin !!!!!!

in MARCH !!!!!!!!


H-E-A-V-E-N!!!!!

Also, HAPPY PI DAY everyone!

Spring IS in the air...

Two days in a row of Spring Softball (and Baseball pictured in the background here). Nothing like having mounds of snow left while the fields are slowly worked back into playable condition. ;0) So for those of you southern belles out there....the northern states are embarking on some Spring...FINALLY!

Our girl's softball team (many of the girls also in Volleyball) have started their season with two opening wins. Yah Lady Lakers! The boys had a scrimmage tonight...

It's SO nice to have Spring slowly making its way into the air! Classroom windows have been opened for the past two days.....SOOOOO nice!

Now....just to wait for the first "lawn-mowing" smell.... ;0)


(({{of course, it isn't safe to say we're done with snow YET! Last year....May 7th was our last day of snow. Although....we had some frost into June.}}))

Gloomy morning

It's 7:30 am and I just rolled out of bed. The girls actually didn't wake until 7:15. And, I kid you not, ALL of them woke up within 2 minutes of eachother. Candance was the first, then Caitlyn, and Cassie came bounding down the stairs a minute later. Ummm.....actually, she didn't "bound" down the stairs on her butt.......she actually "slides" down the stairs. Gosh, I remember doing that when I was younger too!

The weather is mighty gloomy out right now. Dreary, cloudy and 48 degress right now. BRRRRRR! (That's 7 degrees C for my non-US readers). Ooooooooooo......Which brings me to a slight tangent......

Being a math teacher, I simply need to state that American's are foolish!!!! What "idiot" way back when decided to use the foot, inch, mile and fahrenheit scale???? MOST of the rest of the world uses the Metric system. Which is a "DUH" system because everything is base 10 related which makes it so easy! But of course, my students don't think it's easy because they've been growing up using the "Standard Units" system........ummmmmmm...."STANDARD!?" Who decided that was the name of the "US" units....???? It sure isn't Standard when you consider the rest of the world!

Okay. There. I have now made my point known.

I have a feeling we won't be heading outside for a couple of hours until the weather decides to get a little friendlier, so I'm going to make up some French-toast for breakfast and then try to get downstairs for an hour of sewing.

Progress on OC and Stars-n-Stripes

I've had a full day.....
and believe it or not, it started at 5:55 am (sorta). #2 (Caitlyn) came marching down the stairs. You have GOT to be kidding me! We usually have to drag her out of bed at 6:30 during the week.....*sigh*
So, breakfast was made a little early...
We went grocery shopping at 8:00am, back at 9:15, unpacked by 9:45 (yeah.....LOTS of groceries!). Then DH had to head to Rice Lake (town about 30 minutes away) to get a few specialty items (oil for tractor so we can till the garden up and plant it tomorrow; and my contacts came in at the Shopko optical.
So, while he was gone, I actually CLEANED!!!!! But I limited myself to an hour so that I could get some quitling done. So, my bathroom is clean, all the dished were washed up, and a couple loads of laundry got done.
(not that this has anything to do with this blog, but when I was out looking for a "cleaning toilet" image, I came across this graphic. I giggled, so I thought I'd share it here too.....)




By 11:00, I headed down to the basement to start OC#4. I pulled out my colors that have been set aside for a month. The dark brown/black and the light brown/gray colors are my two colors for this part. However....I wasn't "feeling" those drab colors today....Nope, Nope, Nope.

So.....I gawked, peered, dug, and sifted through the stash.....

Ta-da! The green you see pictured is what I "felt!" I was able to cut all the triangles and get all of the green/black squares pieced before DH returned. But then, I had to play "mom" for a bit because Cassie was invited to a bowling-birthday party today at 1:00. DH husband actually took her and hung out with the birthday girl's dad while I stayed home with the younger two. I plopped a movie in the Portable DVD player downstairs, so I was actually able to continue sewing. Yeah! I finished up 10 of the 30 blocks and laid them out before deciding to put it aside around 3:00. I'll tell ya this though----I have a feeling this is going to be a larger quilt than CC. Those 9 blocks pictured take up a good size! 9.5" blocks......

It was time to get back to Grandpa's Stars and Stripes. After cutting up yet MORE 1.5" whites, I started piecing some sashing. Putzy, putzy, putzy. It's this method: "place the 1.5" blue square on the 5.5" white strip, sew the diagonal, trim off access." On BOTH sides of the 5.5" strip. Then, sew two of the strips together. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I'm kind of tired of such SMALL pieces!!!

But, lo-n-behold. Throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening, I've been able to complete ALL the white sashings. I'm actually amazed I haven't run out of material! I mean, those white PJ's weren't all that big, even with the shorts. I have the solid burgandy colored pants yet that haven't been used at all. I will most likely use these as a border, so this will end up being an excellent sized quilt for Dad.



Here is one fullly completed section that shows how the sashing creates the blue stars.


I won't get a lot of quilting time tomorrow because we plan to plant the garden and do some other yard work. Spring has FINALLY sprouted here in Wisconsin, but I'm a bit nervous about planting yet. It's still unseasonably cold---many nights are still in the 30's!!!

Lovely, rainy Spring Morning

I woke up at 7:15, refreshed :0) I'm waiting for the coffee to finish brewing, so thought I would check emails, and I'm feeling compelled to put a post up showing this morning's weather. Spring is finally here! The weather is gloomy and raining and chilly today. What a perfect day to just sew, sew, sew.

If you note in the picture, we only have a WEE bit of snow left. Paul (DH) created a GI-NORMOUS snow hill for the girls back in December with our first huge storm, and there still is a bit left. Pictured is also the girls' play area----perfect spot! We can view most of our yard by viewing thru the main kitchen/dining area windows.

So, I'm off----with the HOPES of showing some fine quality pictures of the day's results later this evening. Happy Sewing Saturday everyone :0)