Flower power...

A new-to-me thing I did last week was attend a flower arranging workshop led by a friend who in her past was a floral arranger for various events, and who has a pretty extensive knowledge of flowers. 

I had some reservations about going though...  reservations of the most selfish kind. I'm a practical person at heart and while I've experienced the benefit of being the recipient of flowers when healing from surgery, historically I'd rather cook someone a meal than spend money on flowers. Not because I see more virtue in a meal, but because that is more in my wheelhouse.  My comfort zone, I suppose.  

Also, the instructions for the workshop unfolded into our buying our own flowers, bring them, along with a vase and some cutting tools.  Suddenly, this started to feel more like work than fun.  But I had said yes, and I didn't want to back out.  

Honestly, the only reason I said yes in the first place is because I wanted to spend time with the friend who invited me, and I knew several of other ladies who'd be there, and looked forward to catching up with them.  I kept those thoughts front and center as I repeatedly told myself to "just keep saying yes".

So... the afternoon before the workshop I stopped at Walmart and Kroger to purchase some bundles of flowers and greenery.  As I picked out flowers, I considered what might look nice with orange tiger lilies from my backyard.  

While I know from experience bouquets in vases can be expensive, because I'm not a flower shopper, I had no idea how (relatively) inexpensive bundles of cut flowers are. I'd walked by the flower display in every visit to Kroger's produce section for the last 20-some years.  But I'd never stopped to see how much the various bundles of cut flowers cost.  Small bundles were $5-8 dollars, and larger bundles were right around $12.00.  Between Walmart and Kroger, I bought three small bundles (one was greenery), and including tax I spent right around $17.00.  I can tell you now, I bought too much.

The next morning, when we all gathered and put our purchases on the tables, it was clear there was far more than our small group could use.  It was eye-opening seeing one gal's treasure of roses she'd bought on clearance for less than $5.00 a bunch. I didn't see anything like that when I was shopping, but I also didn't pay much attention to the roses.  Granted, being clearance-priced meant they might wilt quicker than "non-clearanced" flowers, but I was seriously impressed with her bargain.

I shared my cut-that-morning tiger lilies (that, to my slight dismay, have been the quickest wilting flowers of all), and the rose-toting gals shared their roses.  Another lady had brought greenery cut from her yard, and after some basic instruction, we all set to work making a variety of bouquets.

I don't know when I've had so much fun with three friends, and three complete strangers.  They were so friendly and welcoming.  After lunch and a birthday cake for one of the gals, hugs were given all around as we said our good-byes.  I have no idea if I'll ever find myself again in that grouping, but for a little while, at least, I feel like I potentially made three new friends.

Once home, I could tell my tiger lilies were a tad to tall, but I don't care.  I love it because I had so much fun making it. 

So... my lessons learned are:  

Say yes to genuine invitations that have even a modicum of appeal. 

Invite others into my circles if I'm confident they'll be welcomed.  I may have a whole nother post on this topic.

Flowers appear to be more affordable than I think.   Now that my enthusiasm has cooled a bit, I don't know that I will make flower buying a habit, necessarily, but I do expect I'll now be checking the flower section and every once in a while bring home a bundle - most likely with the thought of including various cuttings (flowers and greenery) from my yard. 

What I already knew:  

Flowers are wonderful expressions of love and care for someone going through anything difficult who may also be feeling isolated. Even the simplest bouquet that I received when healing from surgery felt like a hug while they lasted.  I took pictures and posted them here at the time so I can still enjoy them.

And this thought is just a bonus...  If someone gives you flowers, take a picture of the arrangement - if for no other reason than to enjoy it after the blooms have faded.  I, personally, use these as pictures for these friends who are in my phone's contact list.  Each of my sisters and friends has a picture by her name of a sweet bouquet they gave me when I was going through a time of healing.

I think I'm a flower girl now.

A short stitchy post...

 'Twas a busy week the last seven days - and mostly with good things.  But I'm relieved to see a number of unscheduled days for the week coming up.  With a week full of temps above 90, I have in mind to stay inside for much of it reading, stitching, and generally catching up on homemaking things... We'll see if it actually pans out that way.

Sometime in the past week or so I gave into temptation before I was finished with the first Celtic knot I had started, and began stitching another one.  

You can see (above) the shading I talked about in an earlier post.  I'm undecided at the moment on what floss color I'll use as an outline (or if I'll do any outline).  The instructions suggest using a metallic gold thread - which I have in my stash, but it is lighter than lightest cotton gold floss I'm using above.  I tend to think outlining in the darkest floss I'm using would look best.  

These knots are taking quite a bit longer than I thought they would, but maybe that's just because other things have needed doing.  I'm hoping I'll finish in time to include them in this year's round-up of my Year of Projects - which I think is next week.  

Next, I have this idea to start a sampler of embroidery stitches. Not a sampler to frame, necessarily, but a piece of cloth where I sample new-to-me embroidery stitches.  Sarah Homfray is an advocate of doing this.  I've been bingeing on this gal's videos lately.  If you have any interest in embroidery, I recommend her channel.

The garden's in!

I'd mentioned some weeks back that I wanted to enlarge the garden, but it's been too wet this spring to till.  So this week I decided to break down a bunch of boxes and just put those down to kill weeds, and be content with embiggening the garden by just a few feet: 

Covered with shredded pine mulch and straw left over from last autumn, it doesn't look too bad:

While the cardboard-covered areas can't be planted this season, my hope is while that cardboard is killing grass, it will also provide space for some vining things to spread out.  I don't know if I really have enough space on the left side of the garden above, but I've planted a hill of regular pumpkins, a hill of mini pumpkins, and a hill of watermelon.  We'll see what comes of that.  If it grows out onto the grass, Greg said he'll deal with it.  I hope we don't regret this in August.

In the middle of the garden, are some sunflowers, and in the next row over - zucchini and summer squash.  And then two rows on the far right side are green beans, and cucumbers.  There's also a small patch of dill, that, with any luck, will be ready to harvest when the cucumbers are ready to pick and turn into pickles.  Since I'm the only one here who likes dill pickles, what was canned in 2022 lasted nearly two years.  Hopefully I'll have a good crop and can put up a couple years  worth again this summer.

Yesterday, two different cherry tomato plants were purchased to grow in containers closer to the house, but there is no plan to grow garden tomatoes this year.  I still have canned tomatoes and spaghetti sauce from last year in the pantry.  

It was exciting to see the hardneck garlic planted last autumn producing scapes this spring:

The scapes were cut off and are currently in the fridge finding their way into chicken salad, egg salad, and anything else I'd normally put onions or garlic into.  

I find these scapes have a taste that is something between a mild onion and garlic, so they are great chopped up and used in a variety of ways.  

And, once again, the walking onions are doing their thing:

Just as the garden is starting to look like something, the strawberries are coming to an end.  There wasn't as great a strawberry harvest (after thinning them last autumn), but it was the perfect amount for us to eat and have a little to share.  Strawberry muffins were a hit with several friends and new neighbors this spring.

I may have been slow to pick cherries this spring, as when I finally did, there were only enough to make one cherry cobbler a couple of weeks ago.  Ah well...  I'm glad for whatever the birds got to enjoy.  Less work for me!

All the rain we've had has livened up a Japanese Maple that we contemplated cutting down last year, it looked so raggedy:

And this is our fourth spring here, and I don't recall ever seeing this spiraea produce such pretty blooms:

It's such a scruffy thing at times.  So glad we didn't cut it down either!

I hope you're enjoying spring, wherever you are.  

Celtic cross stitch...

I don't know how many posts this spring I've mentioned rain in, but another week has come and gone and we've gotten several more dousings.  A week or so ago, I finally did complete my garden planting (or, at least, I've decided I'm finished for now), so all the rain is very welcome from this point on.

With so much rain and resulting mosquitos, I've come inside earlier most evenings than I might otherwise, and I've found more opportunity to do some handcrafts. Wanting to stitch up a quick project to replace the May pillow that was in my mini-pillow display from last week, I went looking through some books for something that might fit the bill.

I was torn between some floral patterns in another book, and the Celtic knots in the book below that eldest son gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago:

Probably because I thought they'd be quicker makes, the knots won out and I've picked out two to stitch up on this very open-weaved linen fabric:  

I'm here to report that stitching an outline first does not make for quick stitching.  Perhaps especially on an image like this, one can't fudge when filling in later if a mistake has been made in the outline.  The need to do this perfectly meant almost as much time counting, recounting, and often recounting stitches again, as it took to actually stitch the outline.  It was exhausting, and like a kid with a new coloring book, I was so glad to be able to start filling in the design.

For the first knot design, I decided to stitch a dark-ish olive-colored outline, and fill in the two solid pieces with different shades and tints of the same olive color.

Only about half-way finished with this one, I'm really itching to stitch the second knot pattern I've picked out, as it has shading markings and will look more dimensional.  When I started the above knot (which did not have shaded markings in the pattern), I thought to self, "You can add the shading as you go. It's pretty obvious, afterall."  Well, shading with needle and floss turned out to be a huge headache without having plotted out ahead of time where to place the shading stitches.  I know... even looking at the picture above, it's pretty obvious where shading would go, but trying to place those stitches as I stitched (without a reference) was just too challenging for my brain.  So I gave up on that and started over.  At this point, I realize I should have stitched up the shaded pattern first, and I might have been more motivated to plot out the shading on this one before I started it.

But it's okay...  I've been watching Sarah Homfrey on YouTube and she mentions often, to keep stitching instead of ripping out and starting over.  One only learns and improves their stitches by making more stitches and moving forward.  (That's probably a paraphrase of what Sarah says exactly, but it's close.)  Of course, the over-thinker in me wants to argue that point.  I prefer to rip out and do over most mistakes I make no matter the craft, and I know I learn things in that process.  But I've decided to listen to Sarah and just keep stitching away with this.  We'll soon see how it turns out.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to resist other embroidery projects that Sarah's videos inspire me to want to jump into.  The urge to start another new thing is sooo strong.  

Yarny projects update...

I can't believe it's June already!  And I can't believe that in a little over one month, the Year of Projects (YOP) group on Ravelry will start another year. 

Because the group started in July (of 2011), it has kept that tradition of starting mid-year, and I love it.  I find it refreshing to start something new mid-year.  And it's fun to look back when I create a "round-up" post, and it's exciting to imagine what I might end up making during the next twelve months. That said, some members choose to YOP on a calendar year schedule - and I would imagine they feel the same things I feel.  They just feel it in December and January instead of June and July. 😄

A few years ago (in 2022), I think because my hands were hurting and I was looking forward to hand surgery later that year, I decided to just step away from the Year of Projects group - not realizing at the time time I'd be gone for at least two years.  Then in 2024 (after healing from yet another surgery, and cancer treatment), I wondered if it was worth it to come back at all.  I missed the camaraderie of the group, but because handcrafts had gotten pushed to the back burner during moving, and then health issues), I was a little afraid I'd regret putting pressure on myself to post every week.  I waffled right up to the last minute, but I finally decided to just re-join and if I fizzled, I fizzled. I knew there was no judgement in the YOP group.  There was only encouragement. I am nowhere near the participant I was in my earlier YOP years, but I am so glad I decided to take the chance this past year and jump back in.

Even though I don’t post every week, just knowing that the weekly YOP thread will be created, and fellow YOPpers will be posting about their crafts, has (a number of times) prodded me to pick up my languishing handcrafts and do something creative. That alone, has made it a net plus for me. All the encouragement fellow YOPpers offer each other is sweet icing on the cake.

I write all that in case anyone reading this wonders about these Year of Project posts that show up here every few weeks or so.  If you want to know more about the Year of Projects' group and get a feel for how the group members encourage each other, you'll need a free Ravelry account.  With that account, you can peruse all sorts of groups, and join them without any commitment.  You can join the YOP group and lurk for as long as you want as you consider whether or not it's a good fit for you.  If you want to join in on the fun, you'll just need a blog where you'd like to share your crafty progress, and can link to.  If YOPing sounds interesting at all, I hope you'll check it out.

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Projects I've been working on in recent weeks:

A couple of knitted beanies to kick-start a collection of donatable items that will be distributed come autumn/winter.  Rockport Double Brimmed Beanie

While these look okay (enough) in the photograph, I'd love to know if there are any special tricks seasoned knitters have learned for making neat decreasing at the crown.  It seems like my stitches get looser and looser and the decreasing ribs at the crown go a little wonky.  I think my first hats knitted years ago look much better. Is it just my aging hands that make keeping consistent tension more difficult?

One day a week or so ago more crocheted hexagons got made:

When I picked this back up, I decided this is a most excellent project to have in the background, ready to pick up and crochet however many I want whenever the motivation strikes.  Or when I felt no serious motivation to work on anything, just making one hexagon resulted in six more being made before I decide to move on...

And since April I've been knitting dishcloths again. They are great to knit when my hands want to be busy, my mind needs a distraction, and I'm too tired to do much physically - often at the end of a day (or right before bedtime).   Since I now only use two patterns or knit simple garter or stockinette stitch cloths, I've concluded my creativity with these is going to be in photographing them.  This is just fraction of what I've knit since April:

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And lastly... I found (and bought) a fun metal dish at a resale shop last week.  For all I know, this was originally purchased at Hobby Lobby (or someplace home store), but  thinking it might make a nice container for different kinds of displays or table centerpieces I brought it home to play with.

I auditioned it with some of my embroidery threads.

 And came up with this for the table behind our couch:

I'm living with it for a while to decide what I think of it.  Though I realize today I need to change out the May pillow...

I can't believe it's June already!