Life Update!!

 We are now in 2022, and lord, things have changed in my own life and in society and around the world. I completed my Bachelor of Business Administration in late April last year. I began my Master's program in June of last year. Unfortunately, I got really sick in November and could not get back into the groove of taking classes any longer. So I am currently unenrolled in my Master's program. I thought I would feel guilty and regret this decision, but I am actually feeling great about it.

I have not started back to crocheting on any basis. I have collected more yarn, of course but just haven't committed to a project. 

I am currently moving into the vegetable garden project. I have never grown any type of vegetable in my whole existence. I have watched my mom grow beautiful vegetable gardens as a kid and helped her maintain them. But I have not actually attempted to grow vegetables by myself. 

I am trying to learn more about my area for growing vegetables. Due to the long winters and short warm months, we have a very short growing window. I purchased a small portable greenhouse and did begin some seeds inside the early part of March. I can say that attempt failed, and I have a significant learning curve to conquer.

Disregard the dead plant in my greenhouse. It was a plant that was on my back porch from the previous year. I tried to keep the geranium thriving throughout winter, but I could not. We had a few old bricks from our front yard flower beds that I had removed and replaced with a different border. They make for a lovely rustic floor, plus also help retain heat from the day sun to counteract our cold nights. The area next to the greenhouse against the dog fence will end up being my raised container garden once the seedlings are ready to transplant. We still have to build a fence in order to keep the dogs out. 

This is a pic of where I got my bricks from. There were quite a bit of those bricks around all the front yard flower beds. I love the way the beds look now.

This Mother's Day, I worked on planting a lot of seeds and placing them in my greenhouse. I have a few seeds sprouting. The ones that are really flourishing are the radishes that my daughter planted. She pretty much dumped the whole package of seeds into one container. I will have to divide very soon so I can actually have great radishes this harvest season.

I also am working on learning how to regrow produce scraps. I had a lot of organic celery that I bought at the grocery store for my daily celery juicing regiment. I started them off in small mason jars filled with water. I just recently transplanted them into their own container. We shall see how it turns out.

I am also turning my daughter's old cat cage into a vegetable cage for herbs and shade-loving vegetable plants such as lettuces. I am still working on comprising an herb collection. Trying to figure out which ones I will utilize the most so I am not wasting any plants. The wooden slats are from an old flower trellis we had made years ago from an old futon bed frame. The trellis has finally become worthless and too unstable, so we tore it down and I created another shelf inside the cage. It has been working out great when I place my tray of planted lettuce seeds on it during the day to absorb morning sunlight and enjoy the shade during the day.

For now, we are chugging along. We have a lot of projects around the old homestead to complete this season as well as remodeling the inside of our 5th wheel camper. Our future plans are to become full-time RVers, so I am going to enjoy the gardens as much as I can these next couple of years.

Linen Stitch Afghan Update

Hi everyone! Just a quick update on my linen stitch afghan. It is cruising along lovely. I really do enjoy the calming affect this afghan has on me. I don't have to constantly count, so it's such a stress reducing repetitive stitch.

Our weather has been so bipolar these past couple of months. One day we are in the high 60s and the next low 30s. Welcome to Spring in the Wasatch Mountains!! But we are having some lovely signs of Spring.

And with Spring I needed a renewed look in my family room. There had been this wonderful frame sale at Michael's Craft Store and I finally decided to frame all of our Ski Resort Trail Maps that we have collected throughout the years. Needless to say it was a daunting task when each trail map was odd sizes, but we did it and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

These are just of Colorado and California and we still have a few more resorts to hit up in these states. Pretty much my whole family room is covered in trail maps. And we are missing a few from some of the East Coast slopes. I guess we will just have to revisit them!! I also will need to commission my father-in-law for another shot glass display. He did such an awesome job on these!

Enjoy the rest of your week! They are calling for rain and snow in our area this week. Although I am ready for biking season we do need as much rain and snow as we can get so our water table will be good during Summer.

March Musings

Saturday Crocheting while sipping on sweet tea and snacking on pretzels and almonds.

Thrift Store Shopping...collected a couple of pictures for my kitchen.

The beginning of a new project. A linen stitch afghan.

And the biggest thing to happen during the month of March...my son coming home from Air Force Tech School for a visit before heading to Colorado Springs for his assigned base. 

I hope everyone else had a great March with the beginning of Spring and the sense of renewal. I am enjoying the longer daylight and the warmer weather. Sprouts of Spring have begun in my area and I feel as if the fog of dark days are finally lifting.

Echo Spring Petal Scarf - WIP

Happy Wednesday everyone!! I am working on a new scarf but with an old pattern. I did the Spring Petals Scarf  before using the Lion Brand Ozark Forest Tweed yarn in this post. I decided to re-visit this pattern and use a lighter weight yarn. I chose the gorgeous Redheart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in the Echo colorway. Its variegated colors are beautiful with the mixture of green, grey, pink, and purple. They remind me of Spring so I went with a Spring-like pattern!

This pattern is a very simple pattern but can be a bugger starting the first row and not thinking you did something wrong. Once you get about 5 rows in, it begins to fill out better.

I do love how this yarn self-stripes.

 

 

Check out other fabulous WIPs over at Tami's Amis.