… Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

I don’t know how you feel – but to me, this has been one of the crappiest Aprils I’ve ever experienced. The weather seemed colder than normal, drearier than normal,and it was just kind of a downer month.

It’s probably just because I’m so itching to be out in the yard. Still things are starting to develop…

These are my Turkestan Tulips. I’m quite pleased to see them. They were one of the first bulbs I planted at the townhouse. When I bought them, I thought they were regular tulips. It wasn’t until they first grew that I realized the were different. They are smaller and skinnier than regular tulips, but they are so dainty and pretty. I wasn’t sure I’d gotten the bulbs when I dug things up from the gardens and brought them here, so I was very happy to see them bloom!

I was able to bring lots of my daffodils and they are just starting to show off. I have a few different kinds.

Another bulb I was worried about was my pink grape hyacinths. They are one of my favourites and I hope they really thrive here.

And speaking of Grape Hyacinths, remember how I said the catio was full of them..

This is what the catio looks like now. I included the picture of Burton so you can get an idea of how big they are. Dave thought it was all crab grass (he’s not well-versed in vegetation). Unfortunately, I’m not seeing any flowers on them yet.

There’s a few blooming outside the catio by my irises though. I’m wondering if the ones in the catio are just too dense. I believe some bulbs need to be divided periodically to really do well. I’ll probably leave them another week of so to see if they bloom. Then, I’ve really got to get working on the catio landscaping, so they’ve got to come out!

Another thing that’s just every where is this Purple Deadnettle

It’s in the mint family, and if you know anything about mint, generally ,it spreads like crazy. It’s is a nice bit of pretty colour, especially when nothing else is blooming, so I’ll probably try to keep some of it.

And last.. did you know Maple trees bloom?

I confess, I did not. That is until I looked out my office window and saw my Norway Maple with all these small yellow flowers. I looked it up and yes… Maples bloom – in different colours, depending on the variety! How neat is that?

As you know, when I’m in my sewing studio, Burton is never far behind. More often than not, he chills in the basket I’ve been using to prop the door open (because of uneven floors, it swings closed on its own).

The basket was never meant to be a permanent solution. It was just handy one day, and I’ve continued to use it that way, much to Burton’s approval.

But the other day, I was in the dollar store and I found the cutest (and cheapest) little doorstop.

I mean… could you resist a tartan Scotty Dog? (Especailly at $3!!!)

I think it’s clear Burton thinks I should have….

I am happy to report that Mom is home from the hospital. She still has to take it easy for quite a while (which will be REALLY hard for her), but at least she’s a little more comfortable and enjoying much better food!

With her home, I can FINALLY reveal a little present I made for her. I’d been working on it quietly in the background, and while she was in surgery, I was quilting it up on her long arm.

It was orginally just supposed to be a small lap quilt – just something to bring a little extra comfort in recovery. But I kind of got carried away and made too many cats. The end result was a LARGE lap quilt. It ended up being about 56″ x 84″… oops!!!!

It was made from a fun fat quarter bundle that I bought in secret back in January (when we first found out she’d need surgery). Mom is a big lover or purple and burgundy, but she already has several prints in those colours. I incorporated them of course, but I wanted something a little different and the pink and peach turned out to be just the thing. (And she just loved them.

The back is a beautiful burgundy print that the picture does not do justice to. It’s got a subtle flower pattern a little like a batik. I bought it online and didn’t realize there was a pattern at all – I just thought it was a mottled blender. I wish you could see it in real life.

To add a little pizzaz, I tried to ad some “cat heads” to my loops.

They looked a lot better in my imagination than they do on the quilt – but you get the general idea! Lol.

And since I did the finishing at Mom’s I naturally had help from her crew.

I had to make my own binding and sew it on (usually Mom does this for me), but I had Tibbi to keep a close eye on me!

I’m happy to say that while gone for the weekend, I was able to keep up with my walks, thanks to two large fools who MUST GO FOR A WALK EVERY DAY!

This is the only picture I have because Chevy and Jem are ON THE MOVE and it’s hard to take a picture with your phone at that pace.

The first day, Dad and I went together -him walking Jem (you can just see her off to the left), and me walking Chevy. Part of the walk takes us through a very lovely and very old cemetery. Dad says some of the gravestones are as old as the 1700s. The dogs didn’t give me time to explore, but it was a nice place to walk none-the-less.

The next day, I took both of them (at the same time) solo. Normally I’d be concerned about my ability to control two large dogs (Jem is a Lab and Chevy, Lab/Shepherd and an absolute giant), but these two are perfect walkers.

It almost makes me want to get a dog of my own…

But, I think someone else would something to say about that!

There’s no Tiny Needle Tuesday today. As I said yesterday, I was at Mom and Dad’s all weekend, and I didn’t take my cross stitching with me as I knew I’d be to busy for it.

I do, however, have a finished quilt to show you

The baby quilt I made for my expecting coworker is complete! I love the simple, bright primary colours and all the fun animals.

It’s actually kind of two quilts in one, because I had some crazy fun fabric for the back.

It was a clearance bin find from a few years ago, and the colours and theme were just perfect for this one.

It’s a good size baby quilt – 42″ x 46″ – so baby should be able to make use of it well into toddler-hood.

Now I just have to finish my knits, and I can get this all off to Mama-to-be.

I had another long-weekend this weekend. Mom had to have some pretty intense surgery on Friday, so I came down so Dad could hang about the hospital without worrying about the dogs. I’m happy to say the surgery, while long, went really well. She’ll probably be in the hospital for a week, and have to take it easy for a while as she heals, but she’s got us for support.

I, of course, took advantage of the time to do a little quilting, and such and I’ll share more throughout the week, but today I want to share how I finished off the weekend.

You may remember my little adventure to a place called Grasshopper Imports a couple years ago. It was 2018, and I’ve always meant to go back. They are only open for the spring/summer. I didn’t have any money in 2019. 2020 was of course COVID lockdowns, and last year we were far too busy with house buying/moving. But Krista and I promised each other, 2022 would be the year we would go back.

Then a couple weeks ago, I saw and announcement on Facebook – after 30 years in business, they were closing for good! They would only be open for a couple more weeks to sell off the remaining stock. We were so upset.

So, as soon as I found out I’d be down for the weekend, I asked her if she wanted to make some time to hit the place up one last time. Yesterday we did. Sadly, by the time we got there, there wasn’t much left. Mostly some plain pots – certainly none of the whimsical planters and statuary they are known for.

I did manage to find these cute little hooks:

The ants will go on the side of the shed, so I can have a few tools handy. The lady bug will probably go somewhere in the catio.

We took one last selfie with the famous wall

and headed down the road to Terra to console ourselves. If we couldn’t buy fun planters, we’d buy plants!!!!

From left to right: Earth Star, Dragon Fingers, Lifesaver cactus, Panda plant, miniature inch-plants, some sort of spiky aloe, and an unknown brown spiky succulent.

I really only planned to get the Lifesaver cactus. It doesn’t look like much right now, but one day, if I treat it right, it will have flowers like this!!!

How cool is that???

As for the other plants… I do have a Panda plant, but it’s more of a blue-green, not that pretty copper brown. The Dragon Fingers were on clearance, and you know I can’t resist a clearance plant!

The mini inch plant was OBVIOUSLY meant for my fancy pigeon planter.

The Earth Star… I mean, just look at it…could you leave that behind???

The tiny spiky aloe was just the right size for this tiny Burton planter I had.

And the unknown succulent was ideal for this mug Krista gave me. The mug was too cute to tuck away in a cupboard. I think a planter is a much better use for it!

So while our last blast as Grasshopper turned out to be a bit of a bust, we ended up alright in the end!

Several weeks have gone by and I am happy to report, my indoor seed experiment is going quite nicely

Some of the seeds are definitely doing better than others, but almost everything sprouted.

The black-eyed susans, shasta daisies, blanket flower and lupins are the most robust. There’s still no signs of life from the seeds I’d brought from the townhouse gardens. Of the store boughts seeds, only the Astilbe didn’t sprout. Though they may still do so – I’ve read that they can take a little longer than other seeds.

Patience is definitely the key when starting from seed!

And patience pays off elsewhere too. The snow melted and things warmed up and…

I have a DAFFODIL!!!!! If you look closely, you’ll notice the Lupin leaves in behind it. It’s not in the bulb box. At first, I thought it was a leftover present from the previous owners (in addition to the grape hyacinths taking over the catio, there are a few tulips popping up around the foundation of the house), but on further contemplation, I think this one came from the town house. It’s likely the bulb was tucked in with the Lupin roots. Since I pulled everything up with as much dirt as possible, I wouldn’t have noticed it. It’s most likely one of my mini-daffies that I planted a couple years ago. Regardless – it’s a very welcome sight!

Easter Sunday, I didn’t sleep in, but got up early, and piled Dave into the truck and headed out. We had a destination!

When I’d bought the rattan lounger, the lady I bought it from told me about Brickyard Antiques. In addition to the store front in Petrolia, she also has a booth in this place. It was only half an hour from our house, so I thought it would be a fun Easter Sunday outing.

And boy was it.

The place was even bigger than it looked from the outside, with booth after booth of weird and wonderful stuff. There were all the usual knick knacks and glassware and things you find at places like this but also…

Random signs… who decided to hang on to something like that?

Then there were some original works of art…

…Bob Ross a la Lucasfilm? I’m not really sure.

And they really do have a Barbie Doll for everything

Not just Campbell’s soup… but Alphabet Soup specifically. I wonder if there’s a Chicken Noodle version?

What really caught my eye were these two items:

My Grandfather had a Texaco gas station for many, many years, so Dad and I are always on the look-out for Texaco memorabilia. We usually find signs and old cans/boxes. These two pieces were pretty exciting. Sadly, at $240 for the truck, and $120 for the hat, they were out of my budget so they are still at the market.

I did find a nice little reproduction sign which he doesn’t have in his collection already. It was in the budget, so it came home with me

My real prize, however was these:

In case you’re not familiar, these are Blow-Mold Christmas decorations. I believe they were quite popular through the ’50-70s. Apparently some were made right up to 2017, though I’ve never seen any modern ones. Dad has a small collection, and he puts them out proudly every Christmas.

Like many “vintage” items, they’ve gotten pricier and pricier as the years have gone by. These three, however, were a pretty good deal so I snapped them up. I’m going to tuck them (and the sign) away until Father’s Day.

Dave didn’t come home empty handed either…

He found an old tube amp to tinker with. It doesn’t look like much to me, but he was pretty darn excited about it so it must be special somehow!

Inside…

Or outside…

He’s just a belly-up kind of cat…

Not a quilt block…

But a cardigan block… well… blocking…

Little Pearl is off the needles and on the blocking board. And I’m quite pleased with it. I think the yarn makes it a nice, gender-neutral, autumn-themed cardigan any new Mom would be thrilled with.

Now, I’m doing something different with this one. I didn’t put button holes in the band. Ages ago, Mom got a kit to add snaps to bags etc, and it came with about eleventy billion different coloured snap sets. So I thought, why not put snaps on a cardigan?

I’m headed there this weekend to give it a whirl! I hope it works out as well as I think it will!