Garden Updates 7-14-10

I'm always happy when I find unexpected visitors in my garden. Today a lumpy bumpy fellow jumped out while I was pulling out the two banes of my existence, prickers and dandilions. Bufo Americanus or the 'American Toad'. I just LOVE these little guys as they eat all sorts of unwanted bugs that eat my plants or suck my blood!

In the center is both types of weeds. Left with darker leaves is dandylions and right with lighter leaves is pricker bush.

I've been trying to get this pricker out of the ground for a few days now. Luckily it rained yesterday and it pulled out nice and clean!

Pretty in Pink Geraniums;)

One lone Marigold flower next to the sedum.

Yesterday I played in the color pots and should have shop updates in a few days.

Tour de Fleece Project #5

Rainy, rainy day in Central Kentucky today. I have been a tad under inspired as of late so have decided to spin some merino top into graduated rainbow colors. Once I have two bobbins full, I plan to ply both together for a big ol' rainbow surprise;) I figure that will give me a good kick start into spinning more alpaca!

Sunday Bloopers

Well, in all honesty they really aren't bloopers. I just thought the title sounded cute;) Sunday was a day of semi-organization and gardening.

Our neighbors are re-landscaping their yard and this pretty much consists of ripping out every single flower. I got some day lilies and iris's which are now planted along the back fence. The blooms have promptly died off, but that's OK they should be gorgeous next year;) Our tomato plants are officially taller than me and full of green tomatoes with the exception of the black cherry tomato which produces 3-6 little cherries faithfully every week. I'm sure it would produce way more except I decided to plant it in a pot as the tomato bed was running out of room. Planted another little red cherry from some seeds that bill sprouted a few weeks ago. Not to worried about it being late in the season as cherries grow like weeds!

I also created flowers of a different sort using a polyester satin. I'm sure you know that when heat is applied to polyester it melts and normally not in a pretty way. That is the main reason why I avoid wearing polyester. But, when the melt is controlled in a well ventilated area, you can make the prettiest of poppies.

Finally, I organized my spin-ins basket. It is full of tulle, ribbons, beads, flowers, flower petals, fabric strips, fun fur, eyelash yarn, pom-poms and a few other fun bits that escape my mind right now. Had to re-organize because I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and got way more fun stuff than a girl actually needs. You can see examples of what I do with fun stuff in my previous posts about the Tour de Fleece Projects 2 & 3.

Happy Birthday Mr Bill

OK, so it is not quite Bill's birthday yet.... I thought it would be a great idea to surprise Bill this year with something he would never in a million years guess he was getting. See, Bill has a rather large collection of RC airplanes that he loves to fly and I thought why not let him fly the real mcCoy for a change.

That and I thought he needed a little something special this year as Bill has a tumor on his pituitary gland which is located right between the eyes and brain. We have known about the tumor since this spring when he hurt his neck and had an MRI which showed an enlarged pituitary gland. On the second MRI they measured it to see the size and the third MRI showed that it had grown a bit since late April. We are very lucky that the tumor was found prior to actual symptoms appearing (think Andre the giant symptoms), vision loss or raging hormones. Surgery is scheduled for August.

Anyhow, enough of the drama and on w/ the pictures.

Prior to boarding the plane.

Contact...

Checking instruments.

Video of the plane taking off....

Getting off the plane...

Goofing off.

Happy Bill.

Tour de Fleece Project #4

Here is project # 4 in the Tour de Fleece.....

Hand dyed and Kentucky grown BFL cross locks which were corespun. After dying the locks, I then slightly picked each one open and spun them as is. The result is a sinfully scrumptious bite of heaven that is face squishy goodness.

Clockwise from top left: Finished yarn, yarn on bobbin, dyed fleece & picked fleece.

Happy Birthday Granny!

Today was my little Granny's 89th birthday! Mom & Dad are out of town, but we still managed a little celebration;) We had a delicious lunch at Cracker Barrel which ended in a happy birthday song and cake.

Granny really, REALLY likes her cake!

Next to Granny is one of her oldest friends Jean who read Granny's cards to her.

Happy Birthday Granny!!!

Tour de Fleece Project #3

I am very much so enjoying the challenge and opportunity the Tour de Fleece gives me to be creative every day

Project #3 for Tour de Fleece on Ravelry......

Corespun Merino, Sari Silk, Firestar, eyelash, Handmade Flowers, Tulle, Fabric and a few other fun bits;) Spun thick and thin with fabulously sparkly slubs and a multitude of ribbon flowers.

Yards: 50

Weight: 82 grams 2.89 ounces

Tour de Fleece Project #2

Corespun Merino, firestar, glitz, hemp, sari silk, silk noil and mohair with fun bits of tulle, fabric, flowers, and eyelash yarn.

Yardage: 82

Weight: 82 grams / 2.9 ounces

Worsted to Aran weight yarn that was spun thick and thin with fun slubs. Plus with the add ins I don't think WPI would be accurate;)

The Kitties....

Just realized that I have not posted about the Kitty Cats as of late. Here they are in all their furry fineness.

Miss Kitty on the back deck.

Little Kitty supervising my knitting. He doesn't even remotely look like the cute little fur ball we picked up on the side of the road two years ago does he;) Or the little lost kitty he was last winter after being chased away by a dog.

Miss Kitty speaks.

Tour de Fleece

Well, I've finished my first skein for the Tour de Fleece. I have to be honest here I'm not really watching the race on the telly....lol But it is great to have a bit of encouragement handy to get my idle fingers in the groove of some mighty fine spinning time.

Fiber is Merino, Alpaca and Silk Top which was spun thick and thin with the thick sections only in certain sections of the black. This top was originally listing the shop under the colorway 'White Stripe' named after the band of the same name. Anyhow, I had it for a while and thought I might as well spin it up to show folks what they are missing out on;)

After spinning the single, I wound it off on the ball winder and plied it back on itself while leaving coils and hives in my wake. Total yardage 160.

The fiber.

The Singles.

The almost finished yarn.

Off the bobbin and ready to wash.

2010 Garden

Did not have much time for gardening this year except to put out a few of our favorites!

Tomatoes for this year are Stripey, German Johnson, Brandywine and mystery tomato seeds that sprouted from last year. They were put out mid-May and are already 5' tall;)

Peppers have only been in the ground about 4 weeks, but so far so good!

A little visitor we always enjoy seeing.

A larger visitor is welcome too!

Put out blueberries this year as well. There probably will not be a huge yield this year, but next years little bush crop will probably be much better!

Happy Belated Independence Day!

It just would not be the 4th of July around here if we were not down at Herrington Lake ! This year though we changed it up and kept it to just the two of us on the boat. Previous years, we would invite folks but it always got a little out of hand. We decided this year to not have the added head ache of trying to keep boisterous company in control. Thus, not having to worry about water patrol and just enjoy the thundering booms and echos of the show.

It is not the best video as it was shot from the boat during the last few minutes of the show, but it gives you a good idea of how much fun it was.

A few shots of us earlier in the day cruising the Lake.

The front of the boat heading down the lake.

Bill Driving.

Me Driving.

Visiting friends down the lake a bit;)