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!

40 Squares, part 4

Here are my most recent completed squares.  I last posted an update on April 1st, and I did take the 3rd and 4th off from stitching, so these are from the 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 7th.  And yes, I have done other things with my life besides!

I'm going to list them slightly out of order, but will explain why at the end, when I show you the progress shot.  I have 24 squares done so far, so I'm over halfway done!  Not bad for 11 days of stitching.  I still hope to fit in another 1 or 2 before bed tonight.

Here is square 14:

This commemorates our first date, which happened, quite accidentally, to be on Valentine's Day.  It's a funny story, and I'd tell it, but my husband has started reading this blog! (I was getting bored with plain ol' satin stitch, but haven't found a good substitute for large filled areas.  I was playing around, and came up with this woven effect.  It's not perfectly rendered, but overall, I like it.  And my blanket stitch border is better left unmentioned, but it is at least a change of pace!)

Square 15:

Our wedding date....

Square 16:

...which took place overlooking the golf course at Redhill Country Club.  (I was so nervous stitching the grass!  I used the Turkey Work stitch, and 5 strands of floss, which I haven't tried in YEARS.  But, I'm quite happy with how it came out.)

Square 20:

Marking our honeymoon, which the older girls went on with us.  I'm not crazy with how the ears came out, but I am really pleased with the lettering.

Square 21:

A pink and white baby carriage, in honor of each of my 5 pregnancies, which gave me 6 daughters.  This carriage is slightly larger than it should be, but at various times, I've pushed umbrella strollers, single strollers, a double stroller, and even a triple stroller for a while.  This represents each of them.  (Again, slight variation on satin stitch: overlaid with a lattice type stitching.)

Square 17:

This is Brianna, my oldest girl.  She likes to get dressed up to go out.  Notice her earrings, bracelet, necklace, and sparkly shoes....the girl likes her "bling".

Square 22:

This is Brittany, my second daughter.  She's in her favorite outfit:  jeans with ripped knees, a red tank top, red and white tennis shoes, and her ever present belt.  Her eyes are hazel, and I've given her one of my favorite hairstyles, which is when she leaves it curly and wears a headband.  Look closely:  do you see the cell phone?

Square 18:

Abigail (Abby), one of my twins.  Her favorite color is purple, and she is wearing her favorite hairstyle, which is a "bunny town".  I don't know why it is called that, it is just her word for that messy, ponytail/bun thing that is so easy to do.  Her hands are raised, because frequently, when she is asked a question, her first response is, "I don't know."

Square 23:

Meet Emma, the other twin, aka "the pink baby".  Pink is her favorite color, and she likes "beautiful hair" (she told me that's how she wanted it today, while she watched me stitch!), which usually means an "Alice" (think Disney's Alice in Wonderland...headband.  Yeah, took me a while to get the connection too.)  Her hands are in front of her, just waiting to be able to help with something.

Square 19:

This is Katie.  Her favorite color is blue, her favorite hairstyle is braids, and since she is going to marry Goofy, she's quite happy to be next to the Disneyland square.  Her hand is raised because one of her most common phrases is "Pick me!  Oh, pick me!", even when she doesn't have a clue what she is volunteering for!

Square 24:

And, finally, Madison.  Her sisters told me that her favorite color is orange, and they told me that since she is one, she is walking now.  She tried, but after a few toddles, she sat down.  Now, she's raising her hands in the air to be picked up.  Her eyes are blue, and her hair is the only style it will go in right now:  the classic sprig-on-the-top-of-the-head, ala Pebbles Flintstone.

Why did I show them to you all out of order?  When I sketched my squares, I put the girls' squares right in the middle of the fabric, and arranged everything else around them, as my world revolves around them.  Here is the progress shot, so you can see how they all fit together:

I am so enjoying this project!  I never thought I'd like it as much as I am.  Well, time to get back to the rest of the family.  Talk to you soon.

Easter, kids, and seedlings

I hope you all had a great Easter!  Ours was busy, but fun.  We had my mom and stepdad come out Saturday evening for dinner and egg decorating:

I boiled a total of 6 dozen eggs, but 1 1/2 dozen cracked in the pot, so they were deviled for the next day's dinner.  Brittany wanted to try marbling the eggs, using vegetable oil.  I think they are some of the prettiest my family's ever done!

Mom and Dick spent the night, and the next day, we went to church together.  Here are the 4 little girls in their Easter dresses:

And here are all six together:

After church, we had our egg hunt, since the Easter Bunny visited while we were gone.  Here is what Maddie found:

She had been playing with the toilet paper tube, originally. Sigh.

Next came breakfast, which Brianna has claimed, since she was really little, is her favorite part of all holidays:

The 3 littler girls, of course, made Easter crafts:

We used these for place favors on the breakfast table, with some candy.

My mom taught Brittany how to play a card game, called Spite and Malice, which they played almost all day.  Maddie came to watch:

(Notice Brittany multi-tasking.  She was listening to music on her laptop, while texting, and playing!)

and shows great promise as a future casino worker:

Today, I finally cut and packaged the loofah soaps I made at our last MOPS meeting.  It proved to be easier to push out of the molds than I thought, but cutting them was quite slippery.

And here they are, ready to give as gifts.  I will definitely be making more of these!

When I looked up from something I was doing, I noticed Emma and Abby, playing on the couch.

Emma is using her sleep mask as a face mask.  Abby is wearing sunglasses like they had her wear at the dentist's office.  That is a play telephone that Emma is using on Abby's mouth.

My taking the picture got their attention.  I guess the dental visit a few weeks ago had a big impact.  I love the imaginations they have at this age!

Finally, as I sat down to write this, I remembered the seedlings that my dad brought to me on Easter.  He and my stepmom joined us for a potluck dinner....thank goodness it was potluck, as I was beat!  Unfortunately, by that time of the day, I didn't think to grab the camera AT ALL!  Sorry, Dad!)  I put them in the shower in our downstairs bathroom, as it was really windy and rainy here on Sunday.  I will be putting them in the ground by this weekend, if the weather holds.  Here they are:

Forty-two plants of future goodness:  various tomatoes, some eggplants, cucumbers, chili peppers, bell peppers, pumpkins, watermelons, and squash.  Bring on summer!  (But, I think I'll have to ask Don to build a bigger garden!)

Have a great day, talk to you soon!

40 Squares, part 3, and Spring is springing!

OK, so I didn't think I would have any new squares to show you today, owing to the fact that I had 2 pairs of baby slippers to knit last night.  Here is one of the pairs:

The other pair was exactly the same.  Cute, and easy to knit, but I'm ready for a break from them, especially in hot pink!

I finished them around 11:00 pm, and wasn't ready for bed yet, so I reworked squares 2 and 9.  Do you ever look at something and no that there is something missing, but you can't quite put your finger on it?  That was the case for me and square 2:

Oh yeah!  Dad wears glasses!  That's better.

Square 9 was in desparate need of some outlining around the silver bits:

That helps a little, but I'm still not convinced entirely that I like it.

Next, I tackled square 11.  I wanted to put in the logo of the company I spent nearly 17 years with, so I searched and searched until I found one, as said company has altered their logo slightly since I quit.  Talk about a disaster!  I attempted the darn thing 3 times.  After the third time, I thought, "Hmmm, maybe outlining it will smooth the edges some."  After outlining, I thought, "I'm getting really tired.  I should go to bed (it was 1:30 am), maybe it will look better in the morning.  It didn't.  It looked like this:

That is what the logo is supposed to look like, right next to the stitching.  Yeah, not even close.

After 20 minutes ripping out stitches, and roughly an hour trying to come up with a workable pattern, and another hour or so doing the actual stitching, I achieved this:

Still not exactly right, but a whole lot closer.  At least it's recognizable.

As for new squares today, I have two to show you:

This is Don, my wonderful husband, who is tolerating this project quite admirably.  He's not a golfer, but I think he and I both wish he had the opportunity to play more often.  So far, this was my most fun square.

The next square is when Don and I met, working for the company represented above:

Yes, the faces are a little scary, and will probably be redone.  I should probably explain that Don claims that the first words I ever spoke to him were "Give me what I want, when I want it, and we'll get along just fine."  I maintain that this is untrue.  They weren't the first words I ever spoke to him.  Anyway, that is the reason why my hands are on my hips: as a nod to his recollection.

My sister asked me to show her a shot of all the squares put together, and here it is:

All in all, not bad for approximately 4 days of effort.  I was hoping to get 2 more squares done tonight, but I think, after I hit "publish post", I'm going to call it a day.

In other news today, we had a MOPS gathering, and it was craft day.  I don't have any pictures yet of the craft, as I've left them out in my car, but we made loofah soap.  They provided pieces of PVC pipe and pieces of loofah sponge.  After wrapping the end of the pipe in plastic wrap and securing it with rubber bands, we sprayed nonstick cooking spray in the mold.  We placed the loofah inside, and then poured in melted glycerin soap.  The idea was to take it home and let it set completely, then push it out of the mold and slice it into pieces.  Moisturizing soap with built in exfoliation!  I'm hoping to find some "alone" time tomorrow to finish.

And now, some signs that spring is trying to show itself.  We had gorgeous weather here last week, but it is rainy and chilly again, and they are predicting rait this weekend.  But, I took a few minutes to go out in my yard for some fresh air, and these are the pics I snapped:

A miniature rose, peeking through the greenery.

A promise of blueberries this season...not enough for anything but a taste, but at least it shows the bush is growing.

And some flowers that although rarely tended, and which will be gone in summer's heat, at least stopped to visit for Easter.

Which I hope will be wonderful for you and your families.