A couple of small projects...

While I have been crocheting and knitting some simple things in the background, there's nothing in that regard that seems worthy of a post. Instead, I thought I'd share of couple of projects I've finished recently to show I haven't been doing nothing.

Since moving into this house in the fall of 2021, I have wanted to replace the laundry room curtains.  Now hold on.  Lest you are thinking, "Laundry room curtains are worthy of a post and photos?!?"  I assure you...  to me, they are.

Truly, the curtains left behind by the previous owners were so sad, replacing them was among my earliest thoughts. But there were more important things to do, or I was too lazy, so that didn't happen until...

Three and a half years later (i.e. a few weeks ago), I stumbled upon some linen (might be a blend) fabric at Hobby Lobby, and I thought it would be good for the job.  I wish I had taken a before picture so you could appreciate the improvement, but I am happier, and (in this room, especially) that is truly all that matters.  

I decided since the door curtain never needs to be pulled back, I would make that one a single panel.  So much easier and quicker than the two panels for the window.

This window gets opened on comfortable days, so two panels was a must.  They weren't difficult at all, just a bit more time consuming to make sure they matched in the middle.

While now I want to paint the walls (or at least the doors to match the walls), these little cafe curtains that have been on my to-do list for several years make me feel like I've accomplished something every time I go into this room.  The laundry room holds a pantry, and is the pathway to the garage and sunroom, so we are in and out of this room many times in a day.  Such a simple thing, but it lifts my mood when I see crisp, fresh curtains hanging there.

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And this next project, I can't get a decent picture of hanging where it is, but I finally got doilies in a shadow box frame:

The picture above has the frame hanging on a wall that is painted in a (I call it pepto bismol terra cotta) color that inspired me to make a collection of doilies in the colors I did.  To be honest, it looks better in the photo, than I think it does in real life - I think because of the lighting, and how the wall color comes through in a photo.  

Trying to get a better lit picture, I moved the frame to the other side of the room and leaned the frame against a lighter (beige-ish) wall:

While I've manipulated the brightness a bit in my photo editing app, just to get these pictures to show some detail, I think I like the whole thing on the lighter wall the best.  But I've driven nails in the terra cotta wall, and I have nothing else to hang there presently, so there it stays until I either come up with something else to hang there, or I patch the holes and touch up the wall up with the same paint - which I'm hoping we have in the garage.  Nevermind that whatever paint is in the garage is at least 3 1/2 years old. 🙄  Coming up with something else to hang on the pepto bismol terra cotta wall may be the easier solution.

So...  I'm open to hearing opinions.  Which wall color do you think works best with this combination of doily colors?  Let me know if you want to drop by and see what this wall color really looks like.  And the second question is...  am I ridiculously late to the "doilies in a frame" party?

Spring garden update...

Sitting in our home office this morning I noticed movement far out in the back yard.  

Swapping out my computer glasses for my regular glasses, I could see it was two rabbits chasing each other in and out of the garden.  I am reminded that a couple of days ago, I found half of my green bean seedlings were nibbled off.  I imagine now they are finishing off the rest. Yesterday I planted new seeds to replace the chewed off seedlings, and as soon as it's dry enough, I'll replant more, if needed.  And then spread some bone meal to try to deter the voracious bunnies.

Spring has been beautiful here - rainy and lush.  Some hot days in the mix, but mostly, it's been pleasant.  The only problem I'm encountering is because of so much rain, I can't finish getting my garden put in.  Greg reminds me it's still early, but somehow I feel behind.  Ah well, I don't control the weather, and even though it's 60 degrees outside today, and perfect for planting, the heavy rain last night has undoubtedly saturated the ground again.  A commitment tomorrow means Thursday afternoon/evening and Friday are my best opportunities to plant more seeds before it rains again.  Hopefully, the soil will dry out enough to plant, but still be soft enough to easily remove weeds that are proliferating out there. 

Meanwhile, I've given over the asparagus patch to fern for the rest of the spring and summer.  It was a pitiful harvest, but I'm going to try some suggestions I've found online and in comments some of you have left to see if this patch can produce some healthier looking spears next year. I do wonder if it's just growing old...

Strawberry picking started this week.  It seems early, but I'm excited that the patch is producing nicely after thinning it out last autumn.  

Some of the strawberries get taken out daily by critters, but I still pick enough that for the previous two springs, and again this spring, I've decided I preferred sharing over netting the plants - and unnetting, and re-netting every other day or so until the plants finish producing.

The sour cherries are starting to ripen, and itty bitty peaches are appearing, so it's time to get serious about clearing out the frozen fruit again.  In spite of giving away fresh strawberries, eating them to our hearts' content, and baking for others, there is still plenty to freeze.  Add sour cherries and peaches, and we can never seem to manage to use up all the frozen fruit I freeze before the next fruit season is upon us.  That said, I haven't bought frozen fruit for a few years now, so there is that!  Even though I am not a big fruit eater, thinking we'll possibly live long enough to have to move from here someday, I imagine I will miss the easy, and essentially free, fruit.

While I wait for the garden soil to dry out, I'm making plans for what else to plant.

I'm not going to buy and transplant so many tomato plants this year, or even peppers, but green beans, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash are on the docket, and I'm imaging growing some fun pumpkins and a few flowers again.  Maybe even watermelon.  Though, I'm not sure the garden is big enough for more than one or two vining plants (that need ground space).  And while last autumn I told myself I wanted to till up some more earth to enlarge the garden, I'm not so sure about that at this point.  For now, it's pleasant to imagine summer's harvest, knowing I'll accept whatever limitations (or even failures) present themselves.  Whatever grows that we can eat and share - it's all good.

To close, the irises have faded since the weekend, and I'm so glad I snapped some pictures:

Busting through the stash...

I'm happy to finally be joining my fellow YOPers again with a yarny post.  This past week, I finished the Granny Goes Large blanket I started in late February.  It was a super easy make.  But as it grew larger, it did start to become a bit of a drag with each round increasing the whole thing in length and width by about 2 inches.  At some point, I realized it was just too big and cumbersome, so I ripped back probably 8 to 10 rounds.  But at that point, knowing I wanted to finish it off with a bright color, I thought I should strategize the colors leading up to the border so the bold finish would look intentional.  And that meant I needed to re-crochet some rounds.  At this point I truly just wanted to be done already. 

But I took a deep breath, held steady, and stuck with it.

I'm not sure it needed so much thought, but you know...  it's what I do.  

And I was so happy when I finally finished it.  Happy to be done, for sure.  But also happy with how it turned out.

My inspiration for the bright green border came from a fellow Raveler.  I wish I was clever or brave enough to have thought of it myself.  But when I saw another blanket finished similarly (with a bit different shade), I knew that bright green was the color I was going to make my border in.

Finishing with such a fun color was a nice reward after pushing through all my frogging and re-crocheting.

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With that project finished, for some irrational reason I felt the urge to start another many-colored, hundreds-of-ends-to-weave-in project.  Lucy's Hexagon blanket at Attic 24 fit the bill.  And before I knew it, I had made four hexagons, joined them, and just like that...  another blanket was begun.

This project will likely take me a much longer time to finish than my large granny square blanket did.  I picture myself making hexagons as the spirit leads, and some day, some year, I'll have enough joined that it will be a whole blanket.  

Wish me well!

The promise of produce...

Almost two weeks since my last post, rain has prevented me from doing much outside - which has been fine by me.  But now that the temperatures look more consistently warm, and the rains seems to be drying up a bit, there is no more putting off outdoor work.  I'm not ready for it, but feeling thankful all the same.

It's good exercise.  My muscles are both telling me how out of shape they still are, and at the same time showing me they are stronger than they were a year ago.  For example, I am able to (fairly) easily get up and down from a kneeling position, which, while it may not be the prettiest of pictures, it sure feels good to recognize I'm more limber than I was last spring.  Remembering the scenario last year, where I was weak (though determined) in the spring, and undeniably stronger by summer and autumn, I'm looking forward to seeing how much stronger I may be come summer and fall this time around.  

Yesterday, I cleaned up the straw mulch I had laid last autumn to protect the strawberry plants from harsh winter weather.  

While I uncovered the plants, I decided to leave some straw under and around the plants this year to see if that improves weed control throughout the summer. 

I originally thought I'd dig up one of three sections in this strawberry bed and replace old plants with new, so I left that section uncovered all winter. I expected to see brown crispy plants destroyed by winter's freezes, but it appears that most of the plants survived not being covered at all.  That said, a large number of weeds also survived and sprang up in that section compared to the mulched sections.  I wish I'd taken a picture before I started working on it - you would have been impressed by the number and size of the dandelion plants I pulled and bagged.  So... going forward, regardless of any future plans I may think I have for the strawberry beds, I will aim to cover it all up with straw mulch to lesson the weed clean-up in the spring.

The bottom posts of the border are all rotting, and they've gotten out of kilter.  Greg bought some more posts yesterday for us to try to neaten things up.  And that front section (that I intended to let die off and replant) it needs some work still, but that's for another day.

The asparagus bed has me feeling a little hesitant about what to do.  We covered it with shredded leaves last autumn, and this spring the shoots seem slower to appear.  But we do have some: 

While these shoots give me hope there will soon be asparagus on the dinner plate, I want very much to rid the bed of weeds that will soon overtake it:  

The problem is, I can't see where most of the asparagus will shoot up, and I'm afraid of walking all over the bed, digging weeds, out of fear that I'll destroy some perfectly good asparagus shoots trying to make their way through all that leaf mulch.  

Every autumn since moving here I've put the asparagus bed to rest for the winter, hoping I haven't ruined the patch, and every spring the shoots appear (though last spring's were skinnier and not quite as prolific).  My hope with the thick leaf mulch is that the asparagus plants will receive nourishment and will produce better than last year.  At the moment, I'm a little concerned they might be smothered.  I'm thinking another week will either relieve my mind or confirm my fears.

Moving around the yard, I see we'll likely have a bumper crop of sour cherries.

And the Red Bud tree is gorgeous again.

I hope April is beautiful where you are!

Spring...

 

I didn't keep close track of online weather maps this week, but I'm thinking most of the Midwest saw spring storms on Wednesday.  High temperatures here made for instability in the weather when the winds finally blew in the rain. Tornadoes were sighted all around the Indianapolis area, and south of us, but on our little spot on the map we woke up yesterday morning to a freshly washed landscape and hardly any tree debris on the ground.

Bradford Pear blossoms

While the forecast predicts a welcomed cool down though most of next week, it is undeniably spring here.  White-blossomed Bradford Pear (which is, I'm sad to say, an invasive at this point) now dot the landscape along the highways.  Sprinkled amongst them are redbud trees, and all kinds of other trees just beginning to leaf out.  

Everything here is growing fast! Sedum, daylilies, irises, clematis, daffodils, forsythia, garlic, onions...  

Sedum, last week🠝 and today🠟

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Daylilies a week ago🠝 and today🠟

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Iris growth a week ago🠝

Irises today🠟

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This Clematis will soon be looking gorgeous.

Forsythia's bloom is about finished, though.

As are the daffodils, I suspect.

Garlic planted in the fall is looking good!

And walking onions planted from the 

bulbils of last year's onions are thriving.

And it looks like we'll have peaches again this year!

Once this rain is over (early next week) I plan to uncover the strawberry plants and take stock of that situation.  I am eager to see if my thinning them out last autumn will have an impact on their production and strawberry size in a couple of months.

I'm not quite ready to throw myself into spring's outdoor work, but hopefully that's just inertia tugging at me to be lazy.  I still have time to think about it. With all the rain we've had, it will take a while for the soil to dry enough to work it, anyway.

Meanwhile, with more consistently warmer temps, I've set myself up again in the sunroom to stitch on my never-ending cross stitch sampler.  It's a great front-row seat for the annual spring show accompanied by birdsong.