Don’t mess with the gnomes…

… they have a very large guardian creature.

I’ve been on vacation this week, so I took advantage of the free time to take a day and finish Paisley’s Christmas quilt.

And for such a simple pattern, it is a stunner. Since Paisley is several years older than her sister, I wanted to make it a little bigger than Rowan’s. But I goofed up. I knew I’d made Rowan’s one row longer than the original. And for some reason, I was thinking the original used 20 flowers. So then Rowan’s had 24. And to make Paisley’s one row longer, I’d need 28.  But the original actually used 16, Rowan’s 20… so Paisley’s ended up being TWO rows longer!

Which means it ended up about 52″ x 85″. Oh well, Paisley is a tall girl, she won’t mind the extra length!

The quilt was made from Boundless’ Petal Noir line, bought during a Craftsy/Bluprint Black Friday sale. When I finally got around to completing the top, I was able to snag border, binding and backing fabric from the same line on clearance.

So the whole quilt has the “scrappy but coordinated” feel.  Since Paisley is no longer a little girl, I wanted her quilt to be a little more sophisticated than her sister’s. I think I managed it.

And that’s another Christmas present off the list! Woohoo!

With Ethan’s socks off the needles, I needed something new on. I needed a change from socks, but I didn’t want anything big and complicated either, so I decided to tackle the pile of dishcloths I wanted to make for Dave’s Grandma for Christmas.

I’ve long admired the round dishcloths I’ve seen several of you make so I hunted Ravelry for a pattern and came up with the Almost Lost pattern.

The pattern could have been written a little bit better, but it was easy enough to figure out. It was even easier to memorize. Both of these were knit in Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (colours are Psychedelic and Candy Sprinkles).

I’ve mentioned before that cotton is not my favourite thing to knit with, but the small size of these meant it wasn’t too terrible.

Once they were complete, I dived into making couple more.

This time with Red Heart Scrubby (colours are Tropical and Capri). It’s a yarn I’ve wanted to try for a while. And while I’m glad I did, it’s not something I’ll knit with often. It’s like knitting with an eyelash yarn, but a very sratchy, stiff one. Not fun. But I think they will make excellent scrubby cloths!

I’ll probably add a few more cloths to the pile before Christmas, but for now I’m moving on to something else. Stay tuned

Saturday, Mom and I loaded up Dory and headed north to Owen Sound.

Miss Rowan had a birthday last month and I hadn’t had a chance to give her her birthday present yet. It was a beautiful day, so we packed our swimsuits, and joined her for a dip in her backyard pool.

Miss Paisley was working, but we did get to see her before we left.

There was also a visit with Bella

And though it looks like she was in cat jail, she was happily sunning herself in her catio.

Miss Rowan had puppy-sitting duties that day, so we also go to visit with Titus

… the chihuahua who lives next door. I have never actually been a fan of chihuahuas, but if I could have snuck this guy home in my purse, I would have. He’s just the sweetest little thing.

As always, it was a fun visit that was over too quickly. But there’s plans in the works for an August trip to Sauble Beach – a playground from my youth. I can’t wait!

Happy Canada Day to my fellow canucks!

The year is half gone and after my little spending spree the other week, I realized I haven’t really stuck to my resolution to get my spending under control. Financially, I’m in better shape than I have been in the past, but I could be a heck of a lot better. Right after that spree,  I had to do some emergency work on Dory. It was only because of Dave’s free labour and a small family loan that I was able to manage it. I really need an emergency fund and to do that, I really need to curb my  spending.

So… I redid my budget, and I can be debt-free by October. But only if I stop spending willy nilly and commit to paying off those credit cards. So I set myself some rules – well really one rule: If you don’t need it  – don’t buy it! This applies to:

• Clothes: Honestly this one won’t be hard to accomplish. My drawers and closets are over-flowing with clothes. I have more than 30 Old Navy Fit and Flare dresses – not to mention about a dozen other styles. What I really need are new/bigger dressers, but they can wait until the cards are paid.
• Shoes: Again, another one that’s not hard to stick to.  It’s actually been months since I’ve even looked at new shoes. Now that I work from home, I don’t really have anywhere to wear all the fabulous shoes I have!
• Candles – with or without jewelry: This one hurts a little. You know I loved Charmed Aroma, and they came out with the prettiest little shell candle that would make a lovely planter after the candle is gone. But no. I don’t need any more candles (I really only burn them in winter and still have several unburnt ones left) and the last thing I need is more jewelry. Much like my clothes, I’m swimming in trinkets. I bought a huge jewelry armoire, and it was still not big enough to hold it all. Both of my dressers are covered in boxes and earring stands.
• Plants: Household or garden. Since most of the nearby garden centres are closing up for the season, this won’t be too hard. What will be hard is not grabbing a new house fern or two on grocery day. But the house does look like a jungle come fall when all the house plants come in from their summer in the back yard so I definitely don’t need more.
• Yarn: This one is not terrible, I have a pretty good stash and still have a bunch of undyed yarn in the basement I can customize in a pinch! I should be able to stick to it pretty easy.
• Fabric: This is going to be the hard one. Like any new hobby, the desire to “buy all the things” hits hard. But, I already have a sizeable stash, with plenty of fabric to keep me piecing for quite a while. I just have to stay strong.

Now… that said, there are some… caveats. I said “If I don’t need it…” If I do need it, I can get it. However, we all know how flexible that word “need” can be. So I’ve set some boundaries around that. To purchase, I must truly need it. For example:

•  My last pair of underwear is full of holes. I can buy new underwear.
• My only pair of running shoes lost a sole. I can buy new running shoes. However, if one of my pair of high heels breaks… no dice… I have eleventy billion pairs of heels. Even if it’s my favourite only green pair. Something else in my collection will work.
• I absolutely need it to complete a crafting project.  Like my Time to Sew squares… I currently need some cream sashing fabric that is close to the background fabric in the blocks. Nothing in my stash is close, so I can purchase that fabric, and only that fabric. This will also apply to backing fabric and batting, but only for tops that I currently have completed or in progress. No “for future use”.

When I told Mom my plan and my rules, she said she’d join me. While she doesn’t have a problem with clothes, shoes and plants like I do, we all know she loves to buy sewing gadgets, rulers, stencils and fabric like it’s going out of style.

She also suggested we mark each day we stick to our plan on the calendar with a BIG X, that was we have a visual of our progress and how well we are doing. We are both terrible online shoppers, so I think having this visual right by the computer will help us both immensely!

And while I said I’ll be debt-free by October (if all goes to plan), I think I’ll try to stick to the plan to the end of 2019! By then I might even have a nice little emergency fund squirreled away.

If you’d like to join us, feel free. I think it’s going to liberating to see that credit card balance say ‘0″.

 

 

Sorry for two garden posts in a row, but it’s a long, lazy weekend here (Canada Day is tomorrow), so I’m sure you won’t mind.

If you’ve been around the blog for any period of time, you’ll know first and foremost, I love my roses. At the old townhouse, I had crazy wild shrub roses that I had to wrangle and hack back every year (planted by some long-previous tenant). They were beautiful, but they took up the whole front and I had no room for anything else. When we moved  here five years ago, I was thrilled to have a clean slate to work with. One of the first things I did was buy some roses.

White roses are my absolute favourite and White Lightning was the very first rose I bought. Sadly, that first plant only last one year, so I was thrilled to bits to find it at the centre again this year. It’s in a different spot, where hopefully it will fare better. So far the blooms are beautiful. I wish you could  smell through the computer, because this one is amazing!

Next is Apollo. She was bought two years ago at a clearance sale. I didn’t have a car at the time, but I managed to bring her and another rose, as well as some large day lilies back home on the bus in my garden cart. It was quite the adventure that makes me doubly glad I have Dory now! As you can see, she’s a creamy yellow that’s just so soft and sweet. Sadly, her scent isn’t strong, but she makes up for it with beautiful blooms.

Scentimental was bought last year to replace Tournament of Roses (which had been bought with the 1st White Lightning, but died last year). I’ll admit, I was swayed by the pictures on the tag, showing scads of beautiful striped blooms. Sadly, this has not been the case for me so far. The first year, I only got two or three blooms and they were small and faded quickly (they seemed to only last a day.). This year, they are a bit bigger, but they still bloom and fade so quick. And despite the name, they don’t seem to have much smell. This one has been a bit of a disappointment, but I’ll keep nurturing it as long as it wants to grow.

Also added last year, was Ebb Tide. I’d been coveting it for a few years because of pictures of it’s dark purple blooms.  I had already bought my roses for the year (Scentimental and Home and Family) when I spied it at the Garden Centre near Mom’s. I had to have it. This year it’s doing well. The blooms start as a dark burgundy, and as they open, they take on more of a rich purple.  You may recall that about this time last year, the blooms on it turned bright pink. Well, I’ve been doing some research since then, and it appears as the weather gets hotter, the colour changes on this one. We’ve had such a cool spring that so far they are still nice and dark. But the heat and humidity has rolled in, so we’ll have to wait and see if they change.

And here’s a new one for this year – Honey Perfume! I wasn’t really planning on buying any roses this year. But then I saw White Lightning, and right beside it was this beauty. I was intrigued by the name ( I love roses with strong scents). And just look at that colour – they describe it as apricot, and it really is a gorgeous golden peachy orange. The scent isn’t quite as strong as White Lightning, but it is lovely. I really hope this one does well!

This dark beauty is Navy Lady. I bought it on clearance several years back, because of it’s colour and history. It’s my only shrub rose (the rest being Hybrid Tea, Floribunda or Grandiflora roses). It’s doing amazing this year and will soon be covered in dark red blooms.

And you all know my amazing Chicago Peace rose. It’s probably my most successful, and now oldest surviving rose. I chopped her right back this year so she’s a little slow to bloom, but the buds are there. She’s a Hybrid Tea and the blooms are HUGE on this one. Her colours range from bright pink to coral to soft yellow and all shades in between. Each bloom is a unique blend. She also blooms right through to October. She’s a bit of a show off and I love her!

Crimson Glory was bought at Walmart of all places, though she’s done fairly well. She was slow to start the first few years, not usually getting blooms until late summer. Though this year, she’s blooming right along with the other and looking fine. She’s just a nice, simple red tea rose. Nothing complicated!

There’s still to roses yet to bloom – Blue Girl, which is usually the first, and Home and Family, the white one I bought last year (because I couldn’t find White Lightning). They both have buds though, so it won’t be long.

You may remember back at the start of the month, I showed you the sunflowers I’d started.

Well they were getting to the point where I had to do something about them.

The original plan was to dig a new garden the entire length of the outside of the backyard fence (we’re an end unit and there’s a big chunk of green space between us and the block of townhouses beside us.) I was going to fill it with tomatoes and sunflowers and maybe a couple other veg. It was not to be this year, but I thought I  could at least dig one section of fence and put my sunflowers in.

I didn’t have enough beach rocks to outline an entire section, but I made it as big as I could.

And  that may look like a lot of sunflowers in a very small patch, but if you’ve ever started sunflowers from seed, you’ll know they are absolute squirrel magnets. I fully expect to lose at least half, if not more, to the furry fiends.

Here it is a week later. As you can see, the right side is already looking sparse. But I’ve got my fingers crossed they will leave me a few of each type. (There are a range of sizes and colours, I’m so excited!)

Elsewhere in the garden…

You may have noticed that I didn’t buy any snap dragons this year. That’s because my main garden centre doesn’t sell them, and I didn’t get over to the one that does. Snapdragons are annuals here in the Great White North, so they don’t normally come back… but by some miracle, this one did! I’m guessing it’s because it was in the shelter of the Chicago Peace rose. Regardless, I am happy – especially since it’s such wonderful, fiery colour!

The Delphinium are starting to bloom. Above are my purple and pale pink varieties, but I also have a brilliant blue which blooms a little slower. I had a solid white one, but it looks like I lost it over winter.

The lilies are just starting to bloom and first past the post is this gorgeous blushing trumpet lily. The lilies have really spread this year so I should have quite a show in a week or two.

A couple last-minute newbies were added this week as well. I actually stopped in at the centre’s clearance only to see if they had a Lavender plant left. Neighbour Krista lost hers this year, so I wanted to surprise her with a new one. Luckily they did, but these also followed me home. Top is a Heuchera (also known as Coral Bells or Foamy bells) in Honey Rose. I’ve wanted one for a very long time. They do well in shade and add a great bit of colour right to the end of fall. It’s in the front garden, and will help add some much needed fall colour.

Below on the left is a Sagifraxa (also known as London Pride), It’s a sedum-like plant that does well in part shade. Beside is a Sedum called Czar’s Gold. I had one last year, but it died over winter. Both are filling in spaces in the front garden. That area was filled with Hens and Chicks, but the darn squirrels keep digging them up and running off with them!

And finally, I leave you with the gnomes, who have taken up residence in their summer home in the tree garden. Honestly, next year, I think all that sedum is going to over-grow their summer home, but they can enjoy the space for now!

When I hung my suet and hummingbird feeders, I also got a little seed feeder that sticks to the glass of the back door. I was hoping I could entice the finches a little closer for better pictures.

It seems my plan is a success. Well… except for one big, fat, fluffy flaw…

Here’s another project that didn’t linger long enough in the project box to be cataloged in a post.

Last year when they had a big sale, I bought a pile of really cheap charm packs from Craftsy. This was one of them.

A cute collection of farm themed prints. Now the quilters out there know that just one charm pack (42 five in squares) won’t get you very far. But after making Sprite’s Garden, I was intrgued by the possibility of the nine patch star.

By adding a few more squares from stash fabric (the fried eggs, hearts on white, and strawberry prints), as well as the mottled green for the star points, I was able to get six of the nine patch blocks.

Add some ladybug sashing, a couple strawberry cornerstones and another fried egg border…

And you’ve got a nice lap-sized quilt top.

I have to say… when I bought that fried egg fabric (a remnant from the clearance bin) I had no idea what I’d use it for. I’d completely forgot about the charm pack and the fact that it had chickens on it.

I’ve got a nice chunk of plaid for the back, so I hope to quilt this one soon. The green from the star points will be the binding, making this a 100% stash quilt.

There’s only one problem I can see with it…

Every single chicken on the quilt is a rooster… so where did all the eggs come from???

And here we have another pair, done and dusted, and ready for the Christmas box.

Ethan’s feet aren’t quite man-sized yet, but they are close. His Mom said right now they have the same size feet, so for his pair I did 68 stitches around (instead of 64 as I’d do for his Mom), and knit them half and in longer before decreasing for the toe. This way there’s a little leeway for him to grow.

Like his brother’s pair, these are knit in Lion Brand Sockease. It’s not the softest (reminds me of Kroy and Regia) but I’m betting they will soften with washing and wear well.

Now that these are on, and knitting monogamy is still working for me, I’m going to continue on with my Christmas projects. Only maybe not socks this time… I’m feeling the need for something different.