Another garden wishlist...

I've never thought of myself as a fountain person, but I really love this fountain.  It's more of a reflective pool with the littlest spigot to keep the water fresh.  The plants around it are gorgeous, too.

It reminds me of the fountain at the Botanical Gardens in Milwaukee.

Garden Project To-Do

Beautiful cement leaves for birds...

Not My Garden...

I feel like I need a place to keep my "Garden Inspiration" pictures.
So, not my garden, but I like parts of these!

Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle:

I like the bench set into the woods, along the path.

Multi-feeder!

Everett Arboretum:

Love these coiled supports.

Gorgeous patio

Bridge over running rocks

ID'ed as  Lychnis chalcedonica, Maltese cross by Kate.

Love the mosses set with the rocks.

A birdhouse collection!

Another beautiful plant

Just an update...

I've been moderately busy... nothing out of the ordinary, just day-to-day life.

Last Thursday I did take the girls and we went down to the Seattle Asian Art Museum to see the "Garden and Cosmos" exhibit. It was beautiful and interesting and inspiring... everything that I love in art. The girls, hmm, not so interested. It is a large exhibit and while they did behave well they were more interested in the handsets to walk around and listen to the docent recording. Yes, that is educational, but it doesn't mean that they looked at the paintings for very long.

Victoria is doing a report on Mongolia for our homeschool World Geography Fair. It was originally supposed to be tonight but due to the snow is postponed until next month. She picked Mongolia, by the way. :)

Friday in the afternoon I drove down to Maple Valley to meet up with Denise, the wonder organizer, and pick up a van full of rubber stamps and craft stuff to list on eBay. I'm about 30% through. There's a lot of stamps!

I did get out on Sunday and plant more bulbs. I had two bags of fall bulbs that I put in the back yard. My plan last fall was to rip out the old weed block, remulch, split my hostas from the front yard and put some in the back, and add some evergreens along the fence. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to any of that - my yard was lucky it got any bulbs in the ground at all. So Sunday I went out and ripped out the old weed block, shoveled the mulch smooth again, and planted those last fall bulbs. I also had some new bulbs I bought at Costco on Saturday - giant canna lilies that went in the front yard so we'll see how those look. Should be fun!

Snow, again...

I am really disliking snow the older I get.

Last night I picked up the Royal Santa again. I am working on the present box at the top of the design. Another stitcher e-mailed me this link to the Nutcracker Santa and he is just wonderful. So now I don't know which one I want more, the Nutcracker or the Wreath Santa. I would be thrilled with either.

Of course, I'm not getting either. For about the same price, a little less actually, Brad and I are getting new interior doors for the house. Yay! What great Valentine's presents for each other! :) We're buying white 6 panel doors and getting them milled so the bevel and the cutouts for the hardware will all be completed. I am truly excited. Of course, I'll have to paint them and Brad will hang them but it's still great.

Madeline and Travis were playing hide and go seek yesterday. We have a small house and there are not many places to hide, especially when your sibling counts to ten as fast as they can and are running after you before you've had a chance to climb onto the washer [again]. Victoria, dear Victoria, slammed her door on her brothers hand this time. Brad took the door off the hinges and it will stay off until the new ones come. Her new handle will lock so she can read in peace without the smaller ones coming in to bother her. It's just going to be a button lock - she does need some quiet time without people underfoot and if that means a lock it's fine. I'd rather she was in her room hiding out reading than in the only other rooms that lock, the bathrooms.

This snow is going to kill my new bulbs.

When we first moved in the pine trees were big, but not THAT big. They've all really grown. Some of my full-sun areas are now part shade. I'm planning on expanding out the back beds again this spring as well as laying down some pavers on the side of the house. I also need to either replace the side fence or add taller posts so I can have a trellis at the top for the expanding clematis.

My parents are coming up for a quick visit over the weekend. In the meantime we have a visit to the childrens museum planned, parent homeschool meeting tonight, homeschool Valentine's party tomorrow, ballet, swimming, nothing on Thursday for the kids but I have guild that evening, and Friday we're to go ice skating with the homeschool group. Whoo! At some point in there (probably Thursday) I have a couple things for finishing and then I have to make some fabric car-headrest/DVD player covers for my dad so he can take them home with them. Very exciting.

Stitching Update...

Let's see where I am with my stitching goals...

Completed:
Start and Finish Mirabilia’s Titania, Queen of the Fairies, for my mom.
Start and finish Oriental Poppies with ANG SpaceNeedlers chapter.
Stitch all 12 of the Beau Geste Vintage Ornaments.
Make progress on Cranberry Sampler. (completed)
Keep up with the MTP program.
Stitch Twister with stitch-a-long group.
Start my Christmas Stocking.
Work on Victoria’s birthday present. (completed)

November Goals:
Finish the Lavender Gift Box.
Finish my Christmas stocking.
Work on Madeline’s birthday present.

December Goals:
Work on machine embroidery Christmas village.
Do the finishing into ornaments of all my yearly stitched ornaments.

When I look back, I've completed a lot this year. I've been stitching on the Christmas stocking the last couple of days and it's coming along. Right now I'm stitching the sky and then after that the snow. Last will be all the backstitching.

...

*Two* of the dozens of gladiolius bloomed. They're a deep purple but a very poor blooms - it was just too cold this summer for them. I'm going to be lazy and leave them in the ground and next spring I'll overplant with some more. The lawn needs one more mowing so the next sunny day I'll be out there. My hostas are still going (late, I know!) so I haven't been able to divide the front three yet.

Life in the fall...

The leaves are dropping on the grass. I hate to rake but Victoria loves it. Perhaps I'll send her out tomorrow! I'm glad I was able to get my bulbs planted on Saturday as it's been overcast and grey since then. My lovely gladioulus plants never bloomed; the summer was too wet. I didn't have to water my lawn *once* this summer.

The winter pansies and the fuschia are still going strong. I'm not sure what I will do with all the fuschia. I think most of them are hardy and will winter over but I'm sure being in pots will kill them. I think I can plant them in one of the pocket gardens and then transplant them back into pots in the spring. That will be my project on the next sunny day.

I took the girls to the children's museum yesterday with some friends. It was lovely and calm - the toddler set was there when we first arrived but they cleared out by 12:30 as the mothers take the toddlers home for naps. Today we did lessons (math, handwriting, reading) and are going to go to the post office, drop off checks for Denise the organizer (lady I ebay stuff for), then ballet and swimming. Travis gets to stay home and play with Brad. I enjoy the time at ballet and swimming as it is uninterrupted stitching time. I need to get working on my MTP so I'll be on that tomorrow.

Yesterday I finished most of the top on my star quilt. I have to add the narrow border. I'm going to try something new - on other quilts I've just sewn on the border and that was that. BUT I saw on one of the quilting shows, or maybe I read it in a quilt book, that I should MEASURE the quilt and then cut the strips and sew on the border. You apparently measure across the center of the quilt, not along the border, then pin the border on and sew. The advantage is it squares your quilt and you won't have wavy edges. We'll see if it works. I have definately gotten better in my piecing over the years. I look at some of my early pieces and whoa, they weren't the greatest. It's the same with needlework, though, you get more experienced with time.

Unfortunately, all my recent quilts just go in a bag underneath the bed as I can't afford to get them quilted, nor to I have the money for a long arm machine. And yes, I've quilted on my regular sewing machine and basically ruined a couple of tops that way. It's fine for little quilts but nothing sizeable. Someday I'll be able to buy a long arm machine. :)

Anyway, enough rambling. Time to head out!

Weekend Update...

I did get out in the garden yesterday and planted bulbs. It started with me putting away laundry in the bedroom. I happened to glance out the window at the girls and saw that my button jar was out on the playset ground. I called to Victoria to pick it up and bring it inside and that is when I realized that it was only 25% full. I asked where the buttons were and was told they were on the picnic table. How exciting! I told the girls to start picking them up.

Since it *was* a sunny day I went ahead and put on my gardening clothes (because I've learned I have to change before I go out and "just do one thing") and collected my shovel, wheelbarrow, and the bulbs. Thus, while the girls were picking buttons from the bark, grass, and playset and putting them back in the jar, I dug the back flower bed down 6", pulled the old bulbs out, divided those that needed to be divided and replanted them. I also planted 201 new bulbs in the back bed. I then planted 50 bulbs in my new-this-year full sun perennial garden, and 60 bulbs in the front yard's two beds. It should look nice in the spring! That's a total of 311 new bulbs.

In the back I'll have Negrita tulips, white double daffodils, purple and dark pink tulips, more purple crocus, some tall Alliums, and whatever I planted the year before. In the front I'll have 60 more stunning red tulips, added to the ones I had last year. :)

I also did a bit of piecing on my star quilt. The blocks and the sashing is done. Today I'll make the block strips and perhaps I'll get it pieced together. Whew! This has been, by far, the more time-consuming quilt I've ever made. Up next? Who knows! Either the silk folding quilt or the log cabin rainbow quilt.

Now, though, I have to go check the dishes and change the diapers in the wash and start dinner and read with the kids.... and and and. Someone asked me the other day how I get stuff done and I honestly don't know any more!

As a last note I received my Oriental Poppies back from Pat Van Cleve. She wrote me a great letter about things I could improve and things I did great on. Very positive! I'm glad I finished the piece in time for the critique. And now I have points for my MTP. :)

Gardening "work"...

Maybe you call it "yard work" or perhaps "lawn care" or "gardening". I like to use the gardening word or even just "diggin' in the earth". To me it evokes images of running though the tomato plants as a child, feeling the slightly scratchy plants against my bare legs, or pulling a fresh carrot out of the ground and rinsing it under the hose before eating it raw. Dad used to get so mad that we'd eat all the peas before he had a chance to get at them...

This week I managed to mow the very wet grass. I also did all the trimming work and weeded all the beds. I still have to plant the bulbs and I'll do that the next sunny day. Or Sunday if we haven't had a sunny day before then. I love spring flowers so I have to plan ahead!

Life Marches On...

I’m starting to worry that my gladioli aren’t going to bloom this year. It would be very disappointing. *Everything* was late blooming, so I won’t be surprised. Just disappointed. The hydrangeas are blooming right now and they are lovely. The Scotchmallow looked great for about a week until the monsters in the yard stripped all three plants of their blooms. My lilies were lovely…. until stripped of their blooms.
Maybe the glads have already flowered and were just stripped before I got a chance to see them.
The girls start ballet today. Madeline is really looking forward to it. Victoria, not so much. It’s mainly because she is such a chatterbox (she comes by it honestly) and she doesn’t like not being able to talk for an hour. Madeline, I think, will have no problem being silent for an hour. I bought them both new tights yesterday. Victoria’s new leotard should be there to pick up and I’m crossing my fingers that it will fit. The girls are required to wear a certain color based on age. Last year Victoria’s was white and this year it is red. Madeline’s is white. Why on earth they put the little ones in white is beyond me.
With the first of the month I am back to stitching on Twister. I finished row 1 of the border and am halfway through row 2. My Fellow level materials for the Master Teacher program came yesterday - whew! This will be a busy year. Two new designs for submission to seminar, one to submit to the chapter project book, as well as things on continuing education. I’ve learned the important thing with the MTP is to NOT procrastinate. I’ll put it in a usable checklist this week and get going.