My Christmas gift from Dave this year was a gift card for my favourite nursery in this area. And I couldn’t wait to go spend it.

In spring, summer and fall, they have a whole host of annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs, but this time of year, it’s just the house plants. But that’s just fine because they have an amazing selection of house plants.

This time around, I came home with just three.

The one on the left is a Cebu Blue Pothos, and the one on the right is a Heart Leaf Philodendron. Both are trailing, viney plants – which are my favourite. I do have to put some more hooks in the ceiling now though…

And I decided on a Lucky Jade for my Lucky Cat. I had a Jade before – Sam’s mom gave me a beautiful 60 year old Jade. Sadly, kitten Burton used the trunk as a scratching post and I didn’t notice until it was too late. I had some cuttings from it, but they died off last year, as I had them in a bad spot that didn’t get enough light.

I think it was a good choice!

But the nursery doesn’t just sell plants… it has a HUGE garden/home décor section. I’ve been wanting a Green Man for my garden for a while now…

This isn’t a Green Man, it’s Bacchus (Greek God of a good time), but it’s a similar idea. I figure when I finally find my Green Man, he can hang out with Bacchus.

Another thing I’ve wanted is a tricycle planter. Most I see are vintage bamboo and they are CRAZY prices.

This one is metal, and has a lovely verdigris finish which isn’t showing up in the pictures. I’m just debating on whether it will go outside in the Spring or stay in the house.

And last… all the Christmas stuff was on Sale, including all the Christmas Gnomes….

But this one was Green and Brown, making him (at least to me) a year-round gnome! He now lives in my Monstera and I think he looks right at home!

Spring is a long way off, but my indoor plants are doing their best to keep my cheer up.

Two of my violets are blooming

This is one of the Home Depot rescues. This is the second time it’s bloomed this year.

This pretty purple one is much older. I moved several of my older violets to the front window, and these are very happy there. This one will have blooming friends soon.

And this funky Aloe is blooming again.

Every winter it sends up this super long bloom spike. And shortly after, out come these pretty bell shaped blooms.

That’s all that’s in flower now… but Dave gave me a gift certificate to my favourite local nursery for Christmas, so maybe I’ll have to take a trip down there and see what THEY have in bloom!

You may now take a moment to bask in Burton’s magnificence…

The second half of the Blockhead Sew Along started yesterday. But before it did, I wanted to clear out the first half – at least the sewing of it.

I took a couple afternoons before the new year to put the top together.

Naturally, the boys were right in the thick of it. Here’s a look at it sans helpers

In keeping with the theme of the blocks, I kept the layout simple. Just sashing and bold corner stones (rid with a micro-dot). Then I added a pretty red floral border.

This one was a lot of fun to make. I challenged myself to make each block with only two fabrics (a light and a dark) and the background. And at times, it was VERY tricky. But I managed it. And seeing all the blocks together, it was well worth it.

I have this gorgeous red bias plaid for the backing, and more of the floral for binding. I probably won’t get to Mom’s until February to quilt it, but I’m happy to have it off the to-sew pile for now!

One of my traditions is, after all the hustle and bustle of Christmas is out of the way, to start a little knitting project that’s just for me.

That’s usually because I’ve spent the months before Christmas working on gift projects. While there wasn’t as much gift knitting in 2023, I still felt I deserved to knit myself a little treat.

A little pair of anklets from a leftover ball of Felici. The colour is Punch Bug, and I originally used it to make Miss Pee a pair of fingerless gloves.

I’m using some black Stroll for heels and toes so I don’t have to break up the striping sequence. Interestingly… the stripes match up just perfect between the socks – and that’s not something I made happen. I don’t mind mis-matched stripes, but it’s fun that these ones matched all on their own.

I’ve just started down the gusset of the second sock, and since these are for me, the foot isn’t very long. I hope to have an FO post for you next week.

You will recall, that back in October, I gifted best friend Samantha and her husband with a quilt for their 25th wedding anniversary.

That quilt was made with a lot of snowballing (sewing squares on corners and cutting away the excess). The cutoff pieces were too big to throw away, so as I was working, I sewed all the cut off bits together and tossed them in a tub, to be used up at a later date.

That later date came after Christmas. I set to work trimming them up all up for HSTs.

The result was a nice-sized pile of 2.5″ HSTs.

Then it was simply a matter of sewing those HSTs together….

I took a couple afternoons, sewing a few rows together each time. And before long…

…I had a nice little top, perfect for a cat! Or in this case, a dog…

As this one will be quilted for Sam’s beagle, Calibre. (Sorry Burton!)

2023 is behind us now.

I won’t say I accomplished everything I wanted to, but it was a good, busy year:

• One of my goals was to get the windows put in… and we did! That took the majority of our reno money for the year. And the unexpected insulation and drying up of the basement too the rest (and then some)
• When it came to the gardens, I knocked both my planned projects (creating the veg beds and my woodland garden) off my list. I also added the arbor, the garden down the other side of the walk, the garden down the side of the driveway walk, a garden down the far side of the front, and a small garden on the outside of the fence.
• I didn’t get the inside of the sun porch painted, so that’s one of my first projects for the spring.

Moving on to this new year, there are several things I’d like to accomplish:

• With the windows done, we are finally able to move on to updating the rest of the rooms in the house. Two of the easiest are my office, and Dave’s spare room (right beside my office), so we are going to tackle them. Other than moving a door and taking down part of a wall to expand my office into the current hall space, the rooms really just need new drywall and floors. In theory, we should have both done by the end of the summer.
• Dave’s garage is in desperate need new garage doors. It needed it when we bought the place, and they haven’t gotten any better.
• It’s a smaller project, but I’d like to give my front and side doors a refresh. They are nice heavy steel doors, and they are in good shape. They just need a facelift. They are currently red, and I’d like to paint them our signature green to match the rest of the white/green theme of our house.
• And as mentioned above, I need to get the inside of the sunporch painted. It could use a new floor to, but that can wait if it has to.
• For the gardens, I’m going to try to behave this year. I expanded them quite a bit last year. They will probably expand a little more (I have all those clearance plants in one of the raised beds still) but I’m not going to go too crazy. I think the focus will be on moving things around, and tweaking here and there as opposed to adding ALL THE PLANTS.
• For knitting, I am still a little sad about my dismal showing in 2023. So… the new plan is at least one project a month. That will give me 12 by the end of the year, and I think that’s a respectable, doable goal.
• For quilting… I bought A LOT of fabric in 2023!!!! So 2024 is the year to try to put a dent in that stash. As noted in my wrap up post – I have three more quilts to make for Burton, and I want to bang out a pile of baby quilts! I also have several gift quilts planned, so it’s going to be a busy quilty year!

After a quick tally, I’d learned that I completed 24 quilted projects this year. That’s up two from last year. And that surprises me because it really feels like I was fighting to find time in the studio this year.

The four above are my favorite of the year.

Of the 24 projects, only three were baby quilts.

That’s something I’ll have to change in 2024. I’ve got stacks of kids fabrics in the studio and I really need to get using it.

Six of the 24 of them were even smaller – quilts for Burton’s chaise

We have just three months left to make (May, June and September) and he’ll have a full year of quilts!)

And four were small house projects including my brother cat butt pillow, the gnome placemats, a wall hanging and my chicken bench cover.

So… definitely not a bad year quilting. And I’m looking forward to doing more of it in 2024!

When I did my tally for knit projects in 2022 – I thought it was really low at just 17 (mostly small) projects. But in 2023… it appears I knit just FIVE projects….

Two pairs of mens’ socks, two pairs of ladies’ anklets, and my Dad’s sweater. That’s it. And I can’t even claim that the sweater took up most of my time, because at least half of it was knit in 2022!!!!

No – the sad truth is that I just didn’t pick up the needles very often. Something I plan to change in 2024! I’ve still got a lot of yarn to use!

2023 was a wonderful year for the garden, even if only because it was the first year here that the garden really started to feel like mine – to start to grow into the vision I had for it when we first bought the house.

It began with plants I’ve always wanted, but never had…

Winter Aconite and Hellebores

And spring came on with a feast of daffodils

Followed by a rainbow of tulips…

With a wealth of other spring bulbs (hyacinths, crocuses, and alliums throughout)

Clematis, a plant I always struggled to grow, flourished this summer

Irises filled the time between spring and summer

The Lupins stood tall and proud as summer began

I’m really hoping to add some more colours in 2024.

The roses had a tough time with with the aphids and the sawfly larvae, but they still managed to bring much beauty

I was blown away by how quickly the climbing roses (the pair on the bottom) grew and bloomed). The arbour is going to be absolutely covered next year.

My Lily collection grew in number and continued to delight

As did my daylily collection

The foxglove flourished…

And with the way it reseeded – we’re set to be exploding with fox glove next year.

And as summer gave way to fall…

… the flowers of Autumn took their time to shine.

And now the garden sleeps… and we wait. Another year, bigger and better is just waiting to burst forth.