All the windows in the house are open. It’s 70 degrees outside. The sun is shining.
Spring, that fickle season in Michigan, has finally decided to arrive.
My Japanese maple is budding:
My lilac tree is showing signs of life:
And the spring flowers have picked up their pretty little heads to say hello:
What a gorgeous day today!
(please ignore the debris/dead limbs in the flowerbeds…this is the first really nice day we’ve had so I haven’t had a chance to clean them all out yet).
Pennies show up in the darnedest places.
Penny in a tote:
Penny in a box:
Pennies can show up in a sink:
And…a dishwasher:
Sometimes the blanket on the couch can swallow a Penny:
Penny purrito:
Pennies are small enough to fit anywhere…really:
Hm, can’t quite fit “in” this one:
Two weekends ago, my Hubby J and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary by going to Chicago. Lucky us…NATO was in town too…
Which meant that yet again, we didn’t get to go to the Shed Aquarium. (that just means another trip in the future!).
But we did meet up with some of our really good friends and went to the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, rode the Red Line and the Purple Line, went to a couple good restaurants, and the Chicago Botanical Garden.
Pictures! (I know… That’s what you’re waiting for right?).
Taken during our stroll up and down the Mag Mile:
This was a store front on the Mag Mile:
Chicago Botanical Garden:
Did you know that a rock tied with a black string means “do not enter”? I found that out when we got to this point in the gardens:
Flowers in full bloom…in April! (not common around here).
Since I did a recap of 2011, it’s only fair (I think) to do a Goals for 2012 post as well.
For 2011, I crocheted 6 blankets that were for donation to a cancer center. Time got away from me though (my own fault) and I did not get them to the cancer center before 2011 ended, so they will be the first donation made in 2012.
Crochet Goals:
Non-crochet related goals include:
What are some of YOUR goals?
When I started this blog almost a year ago, I didn’t know what I expected from it. I knew I wanted it to be about crafts, mostly crocheting, but I didn’t have a full plan as to what was going to be said, shown, or done.
Guess what this blog has done for me? It’s made me focus more on my creative side! When my work schedule permits, I do a lot of crocheting, experiment a little more with cooking, and focus more on what can be done with color rather than just sticking with the tried and true blues. While I don’t sit down with a color wheel and try to plan out colors that way, I think I have a bit of a color wheel that pops up in my head when I’m at the store (or at my yarn stash) that helps with planning out blankets and such. I do still seem to prefer cool colors like blues and greens, but I’m starting to like the warmer reds and pinks as well now. And brights! (which I know makes my Mom happy…).
2011 Picture gallery recap time!
Wow, when I started putting the gallery together I didn’t realize how much I actually crocheted over the last year! I didn’t include photos of stuff that I painted or cooked, there were enough pictures with just crocheted items.
Have I mentioned before that I LOVE crocheting?? Can you tell?
How much did YOU get done in 2011? What’s on your plate for 2012?
Just a quick post to share a few photos of my furkids. The gray furkid is PsychoKitty, our 12 1/2 year old. The black and white is Penelope, our 2 year old. The calico/tabby is Pixie, our 9 month old.
Occasionally, the three of them get along, but it’s rare to catch even 2 of them cuddled up.
Remember this? I made this awhile ago to turn into a sign for my craft room, which I call the Wife Cave. As you know, if you’ve been following my blog, back in the spring we made the decision to move my hubby’s computer room to the main level of the house and move my craft room down to the basement where I’d have more room to spread things out and work. Shortly after that happened…our sump pump died and the basement flooded. Amazingly, the only craft items I lost were scrapbooking supplies such as paper stacks, some tracing paper, and some sketch paper. All my yarn was up on shelves or hanging from a door. Fabric was contained in plastic containers. Other craft items were up on other shelves.
It took 4 months but the repairs have finally been finished. The new carpet is in. The bathroom is complete. So we took time over the weekend to put my Wife Cave back in order, only better this time as I now have it in the half that has better lighting and more windows.
Want to see how it looks? Let me know what you think of it.
My husband and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday by going to a town called Midland in Michigan and getting a hotel room at The H. While in Midland, we stopped by the Dow Gardens. Beautiful, even though we were there at the end of one “season” of flowers and the next wasn’t quite bloomed yet. They have various glass sculptures up right now, some at crossroads of the paths, others hidden in flowerbeds. Some trees are shaped into animals in the children’s play are, although it took us a minute to figure out the one tree was shaped rather than fallen over! (the eyes stuck to it tipped us off once we came around the front of the tree…).
Today before we left, we visited the Tridge. Which is a three-way pedestrian bridge that meets at the point where two rivers combine into one.
Rather than continue rambling, I’ll instead let the pictures hopefully show their beauty. (If you click on a photo, it’ll bring up a bigger picture so you can see more detail).
I heard some yelling so I ran to the computer and saw that it was my blog screaming for attention. I’ve still been working crazy overtime, so I haven’t had much time or energy for much crocheting. I have been dabbling here and there with a couple of WIPS but nothing is getting serious attention. I did have a nap today after work, and only worked 8 hours today, so I’m feeling somewhat alive at the moment!
Since I don’t have anything new crochet-wise to share, instead I’d like to share a few photos from around the yard, some are from last year and some from this year. Last year was a year of discovery as it was our first Spring/Summer in our new house, so we had no idea what was in the many many flowerbeds around the house and yard.
The photos were taken with the cell phone, so they are not the best quality but trust me when I say, there were/are some absolutely beautiful surprises to be found throughout the whole Spring and Summer seasons as new flowers popped up weekly it seemed.
I can’t wait to get more pictures from this year’s flower seasons so I can share them too, it’s been raining like crazy the past couple days though (3 inches of rain) so I haven’t been able to get out taking pictures. Our apple trees are starting to bloom, as well as the pear trees. The crab apple tree is beautiful. The quince bush is almost full bloom.
Stayed tuned in for future flowers, plus more crochet and whatever other crafts pop up!
