Things are growing!

Spring is bursting out all over.  The sad looking peach tree, that hopefully won't have peach leaf curl this year after the therapy from the fall, even has buds on it.

Arugula, onions, radishes and kohlrabi are pushing through the ground in the veggie patch.  I have about 4 asparagus spears.  Maybe in 2 or 3 years I'll be able to actually eat some of them instead of letting them feed the roots.

In the grow op, I've added more soil to my tomato plants. The ground cherries and tomatillos, newly added to my seed starting repitoire, are growing.  Neither are looking particularly hearty but I'll keep my fingers crossed.  I've never actually eaten tomatillos or ground cherries but was intrigued by an article about them last year.  Since I don't think I've seen either in the grocery store around here, they just beg to be planted.

Until I started gardening, my favourite season was fall.  The leaves turning beautiful colours, the cooler air, school supplies.  But once I started gardening, it was game over for fall and spring became my favourite season.  The hope of all of those yummy dinners to come with fresh-from-the-vine produce.  The impatience to see if the work we did to get the perennial beds just right has actually worked this time.  This last is the reason gardening keeps drawing me back.  Of course we didn't get it right and it is back outside to try again.

Daydreaming when I should be doing 1000 other things

I'm sitting here at the computer to check out the weather next week and should be getting up to pack for my latest bonspiel adventure.  But instead I'm staring at bags that I have made that are hanging from hooks on the wall and wondering why I like crafting so much.  It might be because my job is very far removed from being a creative outlet.  It could be because I like pretty things and feel that sense of enjoyment in looking at something pretty that I made myself.  It could be because I generally don't like doing nothing at all (even when day dreaming I'm thinking that I should do a blog post and get a little more regular with this again).  It is most likely a combination of the above.  People who don't craft think I'm strange but I know there are a lot of us out there forging ahead.

I planted several different seeds this weekend ... peas, carrots, parsnips, beets, arugula, kohlrabi, radishes, onions, potatoes (the last two technically not seeds).  Several veggies planted a few weeks ago are doing well in the grow-op in the basement.  Tomatoes that I planted last weekend are starting to sprout.  A couple of varieties haven't quite made an appearance yet but I expect to see the slow pokes over the next couple of days.  I love the planting season and all of the hope of summer veggies yet to taste!

Well, back to those 1000 other things.  Happy Easter!  Since I'm not a fan of turkey, it is going to be beer can chicken for dinner tonight.  Not your traditional Easter fare but one of my favourites.

Technically not a big project

But my second project of the month is still on the needles so I'm counting this Alhambra scarf, completed a few days ago as success.  It was time consuming with the little pattern repeats so I'm counting it.  Since it was my resolution, I can change the rules.

And, not only did I complete it, I wore it to work today.  Not really obvious here is the length - about 28 inches long.  Just long enough to wrap around and tie once.  It would have looked very nice with a pin holding it together but who has time to figure out if one owns a pin when running out the door, 5 minutes later when one is supposed to.  I'll have to look around for some sort of pin.  Hard to know whether I have such an item.

And, question for the day.  Why is it when you have a night to yourself, put on your pjs at 7pm, heat up mac and cheese and pour a glass of wine that someone always comes to the door to sell something?  Fortunately, I saw the visitors but they didn't see me so I was able to slip into the kitchen and hide.  I am absolutely not answering the door in my pjs unless it is the cops.  And even then, I would still run upstairs and put on a bra!

Despite steady project completion ...

 ... I really don't feel like I'm making a dent on the craft room.  But just keep putting one foot in front of the other and it will get better, shelf space will be discovered, clutter will be reduced.

I finished this quilt top several months ago and as with many, it sat on the shelf waiting to be quilted.  Now it is done, done, done!  And I love it.  I especially love the little flowers in each of the squares - close-up below.  These resemble the doodles I am constantly doing on powerpoint presentations in endless meetings so I now feel like the doodles are actually serving a creative purpose.

Crafting has been a bit slow in March mainly due to curling.  Curling has been going very well lately.  My teams are doing really well in league play and I am going to another event in a few weeks after qualifying last weekend.  The nice thing about these out-of-club events - the travel time helps me get some knitting done.  And sock knitting is the perfect between-game past time.

Still not finishing much

I have a couple of projects on the go that had minimal progress this week.  Need to make up for that this weekend.  I am being inspired by other things so am still looking confident that I'll see completion by the end of the month.  Sources of inspiration this morning (not all craft related):

1.  Denise Schmidt has a new book which looks lovely.
2.  I ran out of thread on the quilt that I am finishing so had to go to Quilter's Garden Patch, the local quilt shop the other day.  I impressed myself by only buying one black and white print to balance my stash of black and white prints which will be transformed into a quilt eventually.  I did have a few other fat quarters in my hand but, with great self control, put them back on the shelf.  But I did buy the 7" Crazy Curves Template from Elisa's Backporch Design.  I feel that this will kickstart my stash clearing.
3.  101 Cookbooks has a very nice looking chocolate bundt cake today.  The links on the site also led me to an olive oil banana bread and black bread both of which sound really good.
4.  I received Lettuce Knit's email newsletter in my inbox yesterday which is inspiring me to keep knitting, reduce the stash, so I can buy more.

Now all I have to do is stop playing an incredibly addictive Moonlight Mahjong (if you have a Mac, it is at the Ap store waiting to invade your life) and get working.

Surfing

Looking through the latest Vogue Knitting magazine, I was directed to the first website below and then just started poking around the internet.  Some of my new and not so new finds this afternoon:

1.  Quince & Co. has some lovely patterns.  I'm particularly smitten with Castle, Solstice, Belfast Hoodie and Tundra.  As I work through my stash, I must remember to go back to this site to see if anything in inventory has compatible gauge.
2.  Less about the website and more about the podcast - Spilled Milk.  I really like listening to Matthew and Molly waffle on about food.  Molly's blog Orangette is another I frequently visit.
3.  Every time I see Josee Savaria at an art show, I want to buy something.  Each time I find it impossible to decide which of her pieces I like best and haven't really wanted to part with the cash (or been able to figure out where I would have some wall space to hang one for that matter).  I did buy some cards which will greet no one but are on hand for inspiration.  I particularly like the Paysages Marines series.

Yesterday's dinner went well.  Except my niece's dislike of any salad dressing but Caesar.  Since I didn't have any, she had some cherry tomatoes instead.  So pretty much a success, I would say.

The Lull Between Projects

With my focus on large project completion, I find myself without as much crafty subject matter to write about.  But great news on the blue sweater front, it fits!!!!  And I like it!!!!  I should know by now NEVER to try something with cables on until after it has been blocked.  The extreme form-fitting nature of pre-blocked cables discourages me, I wash and block and am happy.  Note to self ... STOP trying it on pre-block.  I used to block before I sewed the pieces together, maybe I'll go back to that approach on the next cable project.

We're having picky eaters, in the form of my teenaged niece and nephew, over for dinner tonight.  One is off chicken, the other off pork.  They like pasta but one doesn't like sauce.  One requested steak so we're good there.  And I'm making homemade macaroni and cheese and a salad.  Hopefully the other will find something in the selection to please.  Fortunately, I can always count on them eating my chocolate chip cookies.  And, as their aunt, a little slacking on the nutritional value for one meal can be excused.  It is in the aunt's rulebook, written at the dawn of time.