A very productive weekend, and 5 new squares!

So, it's been a few days since I posted, and last time I mentioned that my husband has started reading my blog.  I also mentioned that I needed a bigger garden.  Put those two sentences together, and you will know what my husband did this weekend!  I think I'm on to something...a high tech, low nag way of getting things done!  Let's here it for progress!!

Anyway, here is a picture of our garden as it existed Saturday morning:

It was my present last year, after the baby was born.  You can see the remains of our winter garden:  some chard, some cabbage, leeks, and herbs.  We also had lettuces and broccoli.

On Saturday, Don more than doubled the size.  Here is a picture of the extension:

As you can see, there is no dirt in it yet.  It rained all day Sunday, and it is raining again today.  The hope is to fill it with dirt next Saturday, while there is a break in the weather.  Until then, my seedlings are still living in our downstairs shower!

Now, for the next 5 squares in the 40 squares project.  For square 25, I had originally planned just a simple cottage type house.  However, Don was teasing me about how tiny that house looked for our size family.  I took him up on the challenge, and this is the result:

This is my rendition, in DMC floss, of our house, bought 3 years ago.

Here is the picture I took of our actual house, so I had something to work from:

All things considered, I don't think I'm too far off!

Square 26:

This is a time card.  The circle/slash (is that redundant???) signifies that I don't fill these out any more.  Thus, this square represents my stay-at-home mom-ness.  (I've had to explain that several times!)

Square 27:

This is our garden, as it was last year.  I asked the 3 little girls what I should put in this square, and they decided on eggplant, tomatoes, and broccoli.  So, here they are.

Square 28:

Cooking, another thing I like to do!

Square 29:

Between our garden, and the orchards we are surrounded by, I spend a lot of time canning and preserving.  (We have LOTS of jelly in our garage!)  I decided to try stitching in script for a change, and am VERY happy with how it came out.

Originally, I sketched pictures in each of the boxes to follow.  Now, my squares are 100% freehand, so I've a little more room to improvise.  That, and the needle is feeling more familiar in my hand now.  Only eleven more squares to go, and then I'm done.  I think I'm going to do a border around the whole thing, to unify it a little bit more.  I'm also going to type a sheet for the back of the frame, describing the significance of each square, as well as the origin of the project. 

I am going to a baby shower for one of the pastors of our church and his wife this Saturday.  True to form, I hadn't started knitting their baby gifts yet, as of 2 days ago.  Also true to form, as soon as the kids saw me sit down with my knitting, they wanted a project to do.  So, I went out to the "craft room" (garage) and dug around until I found this:

I can remember playing with this as a kid, only mine was plastic, and this one is metal. 

Over the years, my mom and I have found 4 of them at various thrift stores.  I don't know how old it is, but one of the looms came in the original box, with all of the accessories, including the instruction book.  Look at the girls in this picture:

How fun is that?

Anyway, I thought it might be a little beyond the girls, but decided to give it a try.

Abby and Emma did fairly well with it, and only needed a little help.

"Come on, Mom, let me work on my project, please!"

"Katie's" project, abandoned on the couch. (She needed quite a bit of help.)

Emma and Katie's finished potholders, and Abby's work in progress.  (She restarted hers 3 times, or she'd be done too.)

They really enjoyed it, but now I have to try to find more of the loops, as I think we are almost out.  Hopefully I can find a source online.  Coming soon, more squares, pics of the baby gifts, and, hopefully, a progress shot of the sampler.  Until then, take care!