Category Archives: Crochet & Yarnies

7-1-2016 Garden Update & Misc

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P1030246The asparagus beans have done well so far this year growing/running up the decorative corn and the twine. However, next year we plan to plant the asparagus beans in a row of their own and make a trellis for them to run on. It’s awfully crowded in the corn rows now that both are maturing and fully leafed out.
P1030402Our decorative corn stalks are getting their-ears-on. We’re hoping the deer doesn’t decide to sample the ears before they mature and we can harvest some.P1030450We’ve been getting only a few regular green beans compliments of the deer. There’s wasn’t enough for a mess to cook or freeze, so we broke them up with the asparagus beans and froze them all together. We froze 4 1/2 quarts of asparagus/green beans. I think that’s pretty good. We’re already looking forward to cooking them. 😉

P1030375My 50+ bell pepper plants are beginning to put on fruit. I figure by the end of the month we’ll be covered in colorful bell peppers. I’ll be freezing them for soups, stir fries and other tasty dishes. If most of the plants put on fruit, I’ll probably be giving oodles of them away.

00I added a much needed set of new screwdrivers to my tool collection. My husband is enjoying helping me fill my toolbox with new tools. I like having my toolbox of tools here in the house ready to use anytime day or night. I don’t know why I didn’t think to get my own set of tools decades ago.

P1030394aI made a stacked tuna salad and it was so pretty I thought I’d share a photo of it.
A stacked tuna salad is layers as follows:
crushed corn chips,
tuna salad
chopped tomatoes
shredded mix cheese
with a cherry tomato on the top

P1030279The walnut tree is loaded heavy this year. My husband had to cut some of the heavily ladened limbs off. They were hanging low over the driveway and could do damage to our vehicles when they dropped walnuts or if the wind caused them to break.
I’ve always heard that a bountiful season for the nut trees means an extra cold winter. I truly hope not…

P1020348t09017Just in case the walnut tree is predicting some bad winter weather,
I got busy and made me a new hat on my green Boye knitting loom. Hey, it never hurts to be prepared.

Happy July 1st to you all!
It’s hard to believe half of 2016 has passed already.
Have a safe and fun filled weekend!
I wish you all a wonderful July full of blogging & smiles.ec-sunny

Shades of Purple Finished Project

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IMG_99204-24-2014 I made a post “Shades of Purple“, in it I posted a photo of some purple yarn that I was planning on making a project out of.
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IMG_1319My next update on the yarn was 5-16-2014 in my post “Blackberry Winter & Misc” I posted a photo of a blanket I had started crocheting using the crazy crochet stitch. It was pretty, but I wasn’t happy with the blanket. I unraveled the yarn and balled it up and decided to wait until I found a pattern I liked.
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IMG_4510I found a pattern called corner-to-corner crochet on RedHeart.com. It’s basically the crazy crochet stitch only it’s diagonal. I absolutely love this stitch with my purple yarns and the way it worked up. It was fun to make too.IMG_4472IMG_4470Before I washed and blocked the blankets, I took a couple photos of Shelibean posing with the them. Unfortunately, his dark eyes didn’t show up in the photos, but I think he looks fairly cute anyhow.

I’m glad to finally have this project finished.

Here’s wishing you all much success in finishing projects
and many happy surprises along the way.
crochet

Random Friday Five- (updated) snow, seedlings, girlscout cookies, yarn, abreva

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IMG_93821) What a difference a day makes. The above photo was yesterday. The lower photo is today.
This area is where my garden is. I look forward to when it will be filled with growing veggies.IMG_9417
edited in 2-28-2015
My husband was looking at my blog this morning and pointed out that the top snow picture isn’t exactly the same angle as the no-snow one. So I went through my photos from the 26th and was happy to find one that’s real close to the same area as the no-snow one.
So, here it is, the same areas one day apart.
It still fascinates how fast winter snow storms come and go.IMG_9367

IMG_94192) My basil has sprouted and is growing into happy little seedlings.

IMG_90373) With the help of our Grandson, we’ve polished off 5 boxes of girlscout cookies. We certainly enjoyed them.
I buy girlscout cookies from my great-niece who lives in a small town far away from me. I send extra money to have the cookies shipped to me. I love helping her whenever I can.
My problem runs into the Girlscouts of the area I live in. It’s tough to see the little girls in the cold and/or windy weather selling cookies outside some of the local businesses. They’re so pitiful shivering and calling out to passers-by to sell cookies. I respond to their beckonings by explaining to them that I’ve already bought cookies from my niece in another town.
*Here’s what I think might make it better for the girlscouts: I wish the girlscouts would offer a badge that I could buy with their troup number on it and the year I bought cookies from them. When the other troups see it, they’ll know I support Girlscouts and I’ve done bought cookies. Then they don’t have to leave a warm spot to call out for me to buy cookies. The Girlscouts could even switch colors or something on the badges every year so it’s recognizable by sight. Do you think badges would be a good idea?

IMG_92114) I went shopping for some green yarn to make another blanket (for a surprise-gift for a special someone) My husband saw some soft pearl yarn and thought it would make a pretty blanket too. So, now I have oodles of yarn to make 2 more nice soft blankets. I hope I can get them made before next winter.

0221151133-15) During the icy bout of cold weather we had, I had a fever blister break out on my top lip. I treated it with carmex for cold sores (camphor). It tastes awful and so when I saw a commercial for abreva, the fast acting treatment, as soon as we could get out the driveway to go to the store, I bought some. Wow, that stuff worked like a charm for me. I was almost totally healed up with in 2 days. It may not work for everyone and it’s quite pricey for the tiny tube, but to me, it was worth every dime.

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend of sunshine.clnflwrsds

spflwrsln

Trying to keep from slipping up

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As fun as growing older is, the part about not healing as quickly or as sufficiently as in my youth has me trying to be safer about avoiding illness and accidents especially avoiding falling. I had never crocheted myself a pair of house-slippers because I knew that they’d have a potential for slipping during a misstep and I’d go crashing down.

I came across a video showing how to skid proof crocheted house-shoes for children. Wow! I was instantly interested because the video’s method can be used on larger shoes as well. I could finally make myself a pair of of house-slippers to wear.

I made some adaptions to fit my. I chose to make a simple pair of house-slippers just to test it out and didn’t even bother with a pattern. I put Silicone on the Soles, let them dry/cure for 24 hours and then tested them out. I really liked them. The silicone works like a charm to keep me from slipping on the linoleum.

I’m going to add here, that the linoleum got super slick after my first few days of wearing my slippers. So if you use this method, be careful and pay attention to if your floors start getting slicker.

I think this method could be used on most any knitted, loom knit, crochet, felt, fabric or even socks.
A person could have a whole wardrobe of different kinds of non slip house shoes.

Here’s a sort of tutorial photo montage of how I made
My Crocheted Slippers that don’t Slip

🙂

Reference:

Video: SILICONE SOLES, how to add non skid soles to knit and crochet slippers

Tutorial on a blog for felt house-shoes: Making Sippers Non-slip tutorial

 

spgrnbgln

 

August Wreath

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8-2014-cwotm
My August ‘Wreath of the Month 2014’ is dedicated to the new school year.

In my youth, one of my most favorite parts about a new school year was getting all those wonderful new art/office supplies.
Even today, a purchase of art or office supplies gives me a happy smile. I didn’t grow out of my enjoyment of getting new art/office supplies, perhaps I never will.

Here’s wishing all the students a wonderful school
year filled with bright smiles & happy learning.
ec-sunny

~*~
I made the wreath base out of newspaper. I crocheted the wreath base cover out of bright yellow yarn.
I sculpted all of the decorations on the wreath out of polymer clay. I made the labels, for my sculpts of colors and glue, in my PhotoImpact program and printed them off onto sticky paper.
Hopefully my August school wreath brings-to-mind thoughts of sunshine and a bright future.
~*~
spgrnbgln