Reading Material

I love books.  I received several books for my birthday and Christmas in December, mostly knitting, at least one gardening.  I have a friend who's recently moved her office and cleaned out some books and gave them to me, and my in-laws are moving.  They are cleaning stuff out and giving us books.  While BFJ snoozed on the couch the other night, I stacked the books up on the mantel.  Actually, I still had half a box to go when I quit.  Here's what I've been given in the last three months: 

And in case you've always wondered, here's the top of my bedside table: 

Oops, I didn't draw an arrow to the one I'm reading, that would be The First Circle by Solzhenitsyn.  I also usually have a Bible and a glass of water on this table, too.  I love having a bunch of different books to look at before bed, especially if I'm not in the middle of a gripping story.  And I have a stack of quilting and knitting magazines and seed catalogs on the floor by my bed.  We also have two bookshelf cases full of books downstairs.  Maybe three!  I'm very glad our boys like to read, too.  There's just nothing like a good book, is there? 

What is your all-time favorite book or series?   

Throwback

If you knew how old my kids are, you'd probably think it's sad that my kids have never been rollerskating before.  Luckily someone invited us to a rollerskating birthday party this morning, and BFJ and I found that Skate City has not changed in twenty years.  I think some of the laces on these skates may be that old, too! 

  We were amazed how well The Bruise did, here he is out in the middle by himself. 

I haven't meant to be so neglectful of my blog.  I like to blog, and I love reading your comments.  However, everyone in my house has been sick at least two separate times in the past two weeks.  It has not been fun.  Also, I spent two hours last night listening to a "half-hour long" presentation on what is apparently the world's best vacuum.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed that, though, and what else is Friday night for but fun family time.  At ten o'clock, I finally had to step out and put the kids to bed.  The Bruise went down crying between sobs, "...but I didn't get to see the last tool on the Blue Max." 

Pencil and Paper and Things Like That

I already posted today but I wanted to tell you about something.  I recently stumbled upon Geninne's Art Blog and was reminded how fun it is to draw.  I especially like that she shows how to carve your own stamps, and also tells all about her tools and why she likes them.  I've always wondered what a linoleum cutter looks like.  Her bird drawings are beautiful as well. 

I dug up some of my old pencil line drawings from my one college art class:   

I think we should have a weekly family-sit-and-draw-and-color time, as everyone in our house is very artistic.  This morning I went downtown and was inspired to stop at Meininger's.  (The website is not as much fun as the store.)  I bought a birthday gift there, and a just-because gift for a little comic book artist I know, and I bought myself a really sharp Xacto, which I always think I need!  I was tempted to buy a linoleum cutter and a carving block, and there were so many lovely shades of Prismacolors, but I decided to see what I've got at home first.     

March is Here

Nineteen days until Spring!  We checked our seeds yesterday and they all had sprouts so hurray! that will save me a little money on the gardening project.  Here are the marigolds: 

Unfortunately, there was also a lot of mold growing in the little seed checking packets so I threw them all away.  The only ones that didn't have any sprouts were the nasturtiums but I suspect they needed a little more time; their seed coat is a lot harder than most of the ones we were trying. 

It is nice and sunny here today, and should be for a couple of days.  I wish it weren't soggy and muddy out, I am just in the mood to go out and do some garden prep work.  And we have a lot this year.  Yesterday, the boys and I went to a couple of our local garden center / nurseries to see what's going on.  There was not a lot to look at but it was nice to see they are getting things started in their greenhouses.  We saw this interesting plant, or perhaps I should say tree; I have no idea what it is but don't you think Dr. Seuss would have liked it? 

Signs of Spring

According to my calendar the First Day of Spring is a mere twenty four days off; that's only three and a half weeks. There are already signs that it is creeping in.  For example, in my mailbox:

   

And from the roof, a welcome sound, Northern Flickers drumming.  Since they do no damage but make this happy little sound, I don't mind.  They don't even drill in our trees but I think they do nest.  They're awfully hard to catch with the camera! 

In the backyard yesterday, I plotted out in the snow where I'm going to put my garden this year, and it was approved by the big chief.  In fact, he said I should bring it out a bit, so I did.  Then, my neighbor stopped by today and said, "Wow, that's going to be nice and big!"  So now all I have left to do is decide what to plant, order some seeds, till the ground, put up a fence, mark out the beds, haul in some soil, start the seeds, water and nurture them, gradually harden them off, plant them outside, water them, and watch them grow.  Next thing you know, it's a table full of food.  Piece o' cake! 

Any recommendations of what we should plant?  At the dinner table the other night we had two votes for corn and a vote for watermelon.  We had no luck with watermelon last year, so I don't know about that.  I really enjoyed the peas last year, and I'm definitely planning on some Honeybunch tomatoes.  (I thought surely I posted about them from my garden last year but I didn't find anything good so you'll just have to go check out the Burpee page which doesn't do them justice.)  I haven't ever started tomatoes from seed.  It would be a lot cheaper and it seems like it can't be too hard; the last couple of years I've had tons of tomato volunteers.  Anyone know?   

I enjoyed this post on little cucumbers and I am going to consider them.  We are moving the garden to a completely different spot this year so I hope I'll have better luck with cucumbers than I have in the past.  Actually I have already started gardening, just a simple little step: seed checking.  It's only been three days, though, so I don't know how they're doing.  I assume and hope lots of them will be viable.  I bought more seeds last year than I needed, and it would be nice to not have to toss them out and buy more!  

I hope you are getting happy things in the mail like I am; bye-bye February!      

February

It's been a busy two weeks since I last posted.  To begin with, one of my boys had a homework assignment to make a box for Valentines.  Silly me, I got this great idea that we should make it extra special, Mod Podge it up.  And, we should all make Valentines!  It took me so long to talk them into it that once I realized we didn't have time for all this, I had a very difficult time talking them out of it.  Then I volunteered at the school parties, after which everyone in the house had a four day weekend. 

We enjoyed watching the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.  It has been awhile since we have sat down and watched something this long in its entirety.  Although I kept hearing that the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony would be hard to top, I personally felt the people of Vancouver did an outstanding job.  I was surprised to discover that this blog I frequent is written from somewhere nearby, and I have enjoyed reading a little more personal perspective on The Games than just what Bob Costas can tell me every night.  As you might know, I'm a hometown girl and I usually root for the home team but not always; we were rooting for Ohno, Celski, Vonn and White.  I'm looking forward to the ice dancing tonight; I'm not sure if there's a US team with hopes of a medal.  For some reason, I thought ice dancing might have been removed from The Games but I'm glad they have not been.

I've also had five days of "real" work:  knitting for someone else, babysitting, and attending a long monthly meeting.  And last but not least, I've had a miserable cold for several days.  So you see, I really did not have anything to say that would be of much excitement.  I have been enjoying reading others' blogs, but haven't gotten to them as often, and haven't had a lot of time to sit and ponder a comment; it is nice to see the positive things going on out there, though. 

I have finally managed to finish the book for my knitters' book group, The Help.  It was a great book.  Not only well written with and interesting voices, but mystery, suspense, intrigue, social issues, and a little bit of romance.  If I had to describe the topic in one word it would be desegregation.  Our next book is Knitting the Threads of Time which I confess I have not yet picked up. Hopefully I will have time to get this in before the next meeting.

I am looking forward to March:  St. Patrick's Day, a birthday and Spring!  We're almost there.  I hope you are all keeping warm and cheery! 

Photo Shoot

Don't you think depth-of-field is magical?

Last winter, right after I learned how to knit, I didn't know what I didn't know.  I made my sister a hat, and it was too small.  Then I made her another hat, and it was just right.  Then I made myself a hat which I wore and wore and wore.  And still wear, although I can never get a great picture of it.  It didn't occur to me to write up a pattern right away, but luckily I took notes.  

 

This winter, my sister told me that she'd lost the hat-that-was-just-right, and asked if I'd make her another hat.  Would I!  I made her a hat in exchange for her modeling time.  Sometimes I'm so cold I wonder if I'll ever be warm again, but then I just put on my hat and I'm warm.  Or at least, my ears are warm!  So my new hat pattern is called Glacier.

Here are a few pictures of my sister in her hat from the photo shoot I mentioned earlier. 

 

Pattern:  Glacier (rav link)
Yarn:  Manos de Uruguay Wools Clasica in Powder

Needles:  US8, Addis of course!

And she modeled the cowl I made for myself, also.  Aren't sisters great!

Pattern:  Burberry-Inspired Cowl Neck Scarf by Julianne Smith

Yarn:  Berrock Pure Merino in color 8520