A Peek at my week…

Chickens!

My new favorite garden shop- Mission Hills Nursery! Have a lovely weekend all…

And now for something completely different…

Ah, the joys of crafting.

Um… I’m in the middle of a project that is quite, well-

Overwhelming, to say the least. This is the Watercolours Quilt that I started a year and eight months ago. Seriously- what is taking me so long? Well, it’s getting finished this week. I am hand tying it, which partly explains why it’s taking so long. And also why posting has slowed down. Just in case you can’t tell just how much fabric is in there:

I have a loong ways to go, but I’ve already started picking out fabrics for my next one! Glutton for punishment? Or just plain crazy? No- just finally figuring out the right way to make a quilt (and it’s not been the way I’ve been doing it, silly me. Wish I’d read more books before I’d started this one! Or at least made it smaller…)

Do we have time for a quick list? I think so- here’s what this March has looked like so far:

• Hiking in Mission Trails Park- beautiful scenery, only a few sunburns.
• LOTS of handsewing of the quilting and finishing of garments variety.
• Our lovely pink scheme in the garden is working out just beautifully.
• Some new veggie recipes- leeks, zucchini, asparagus and champ (love! where has this been all my life?!)
• A little house shaking up as well- lots of closets turned out and reorganized, piles taken to the thrift store, new shelves built, furniture moved around. It’s been wonderful to get a new energy flow going around here…

Lovely March- Spring came early to our corner of the world. Lots of sunny days, light breezes, and a few rain-and-hail storms thrown in for good measure. I’ll be back next week with more updates from the Workshop!

The Science of Writing

Oh dear- another week has gone by without a new update from the Land of Market Day…drat. I have gotten into a bit of a writing slump, as you cans see for yourself, so I am taking the very good advice my husband gave me, and am writing about…not that. I’d like to write about Other Things at the moment (which, truth to tell, is working wonderfully- I’m sketching out another story idea in the background as I write this little missive. Yaay it worked! Block fixed, moving on…)

How is your Spring going? Ours is a tiny bit…wet, at the moment. The newest addition to the garden has been pummeled to smithereens in the latest rainfall, so I can’t really show you glorious pictures. But I can give an update- I brought home the start of this years’ New Design this week; a beautiful deep pink Ranunculus, a pretty little pixie of a pink and white Primrose (sensing anything yet?), a sweet pale pink Ivy Geranium, and a light lavender Stock. Yes- this year I am going for it with a pink, purple and chartreuse color palette (that’s if I can find anything Chartreuse!) I already freshened my stock of herbs with  new Thyme, Apple Mint, and Tarragon plants- which are living in the kitchen until it warms up a bit more (I’ve already had to trim the Thyme a bit- it loves the sunshine coming through the window in there!) I wanted a fresh and frilly little flower garden feel this spring, and it’s already looking quite lovely out there. I’ll have to get some pictures to show soon…

Next up is an update on the sewing I’ve been doing lately. Oh! It’s so nice to be able to work out a creators block, isn’t it? I’ve finally made a new pin cushion, which is something I’ve wanted to do for years now, but never seemed to get around to doing. Well, it’s done! Just a nice big round pouff with a bit of embroidery and shaping, stuffed to the brim and weighted with raw rice, with a dainty little strap. Voila! Perfection, if I do say so myself. The other thing I’ve been working on is taking patterns from existing clothing. It’s a bit tricky, complicated at times, and really hard- but totally worth it, and fun! I’m about finished with the first one, and already have the fabric for a second, and plans for a third. I love figuring out how to do things, doing research and having the time to rip out stiches if I need to. ahem. And I find it interesting how many different ways there are of explaining the same technique for applying a placket to a shirt…

One note about the blog itself- it has come to my attention that I have rather…a lot of categories. Err, they have gotten out of hand, and are making it a bit of a nuisance to find an appropriate one when I go to label my posts. grrr. Aggravating, to say the least. I’ve tried before to shorten the list, with mixed success, but I think what I ought to do is re-categorize the existing posts. Ick. Not looking forward to that, but something needs to be done…

So! No pictures, lots of words, and no story. Hmm…It’s starting to look a little like a blog around here, non? We’ll have to see what we can do to spruce things up around here, the miss and I. Although, I could just give the Faeries free reign…