Weekend Fun!

I had a great weekend. On Saturday I met up with a dear friend at the Journeys Victoria Quilter's Guild Show and Sale. It was absolute bliss to just walk around together, sans kids, and fawn over all the different fabrics and quilts. I should really save all my fabric purchasing for craft fairs and shows, the deals can be really good. Considering I still have fabric that I bought especially for Z, when I was still pregnant, waiting to be turned into a quilt, I was careful not to go overboard in my purchases. I ended up buying a panel of Halloween fabric from Satin Moon Quilt shop that will be perfect for turning into a trick-or-treat bag, and perhaps some decorative panels for the season. Z's first Halloween; I can hardly wait!

 
I also bought a jelly roll (I think that's what you call them) of Ten Little Things by Jenn Ski for Moda (from Hamels Fabric and Quilting). The colours are super cute, not too stereotypically boyish, and I think they would make the perfect bedspread for Zachary (or any other little kidlet that might be added to our family).

That was Saturday. On Sunday the weather was absolutely fantastic. Hubby and I decided to take advantage of it, and as soon as the little one went down for his morning nap, we were outside. Hubby washed the cars while I worked on planting tomato plants. We have this planter right below our living room window. Since our house faces South, the planter gets a TON of sunlight, but very little water as it's protected by the roof overhang. It's also gets protected somewhat from any late-spring frost. We're hoping the heat will help produce some great tomatoes, as long as we keep it well watered, and hopefully the dear aren't keen on coming that close to the house (I'm not banking on it).

As you can see, I need to get a couple more tomato cages. In other garden news, through the act of weeding our veggie garden, we discovered that we already had a crop of radishes for eating. Can I just say that there aren't a lot of recipes out there for radishes outside of the realm of salads? These grow great, not sure how the two of us are going to eat them all though!

By this point, little Z had woken up from his nap, and was outside with us, under the protection of a beach umbrella, watching mom and dad huff and puff in the sun!

 
Aside from that, my brother stopped by for a visit, and helped me plant two bushes/vines that I bought during the week. The top one is Star Jasmine. We planted it by the fence, and I'm really hoping that with minimal training, it'll take over the side of the fence (there's not much nice over there at the moment. The bottom image is a shrub called Golden-Leaved Mock Orange. All I know is, I like the bright green foliage, it's supposed to bloom in the summer, it can grow to 2m x 2m in size, and it only cost me $12.99 at the garden center. Score!

Anyone else get up to some fun over the weekend?

My garden, my oasis

Time to get a new post up! The weather has been great (well, at least better), so I've been out in the garden a lot more, taking advantage of the clear weather to tidy up and pull some weeds. Well, actually, a LOT of weeds. Every day I look out at my backyard through my kitchen window and see more of those blasted yellow dandelion flowers! I have half a mind to go into the dandelion greens business, because no matter how many I pull out, my yard still seems prolific!

daffodils and dandelions!

On nice evenings, I've taken to working for an hour or so, pulling out a bucket full of dandelions. Here's the size of my bucket, and here's my haul of dandelions so far. They're on a tarp because I'm going to take them to the Saanich Works, where THEY can compost them (the little buggers aren't getting into MY compost - no way!). I also have some invasive species that I've been working on controlling (without pesticides, just by hand): morning glory, ivy, holly (at least the holly is easy to see), and, most recently, violets.

my bucket and my dandelion haul... so far

violets... ugh

I recently cleared a back patch of my backyard of flowers (I don't know what they're called, but they are also prolific and self seed themselves into the lawn... I made the executive decision that they were spreading too far, so out they came!), and a couple weeks later rhubarb came up in their place! I had never had rhubarb in that particular corner (I have some in another corner) and have absolutely no idea how it got there.

cute little rhubarb plant!

Although I'm not a fan of picking weeds, it's still been really nice to get out in my garden and work away without thinking about time or other commitments; it's definitely a meditative sort of activity, though it wrecks havoc on my neck and back sometimes. I'm going to end this post with two nice pics from my garden, one of a sweet smelling hyacinth that just bloomed, and another of my favorite part of my garden - the side walk. There's something so lovely about a path down the side of a house that has flowers on either side. Even with all the weed pulling I have left to do (which is completely my own choice), I am so looking forward to the coming weeks and watching my garden come to life!

Because he loves me

I know, I know... if I've been married almost 9 years, then by now I should know for sure that my dear hubby loves me, and I do! But there's nothing like receiving a bouquet of flowers on the day of love from my hunny to help seal the deal, or at the very least make me feel special. I find myself looking at them every time I go into the kitchen, and thinking about my husband, how much I love him, and about the years we've been together so far. I love tulips; they're cost effective, and they remind me of Holland, the home of my ancestors. Plus, they come in so many beautiful colours and they signify spring.

It's been starting to feel more like spring out there. My husband asked me the other day if I thought it might still snow this winter. This is a typical topic of conversation for the people of Victoria. We don't get much snow, but we often get one or two "dumps" in a season, typically after Christmas, and usually when we least expect it (let's be honest, we rarely expect snow in Victoria). Then the whole city goes into practical lock down mode as we really don't have the infrastructure to deal with more than a couple of inches of the stuff.

But, why am I talking of snow??? It's beautifully bright and sunny out as I speak! I've managed to get out in the garden in the past few weeks, clearing away the dead and making room for all the new little shoots that are starting to pop up. On the crafting side of things, I've managed to finish this giant pink cardigan I've been knitting. I know it sounds atrocious, but it's really quite lovely, a pattern I've been meaning to knit for a number of years, and a project that I started back in June. Considering since then I've finished a school year, finished a pregnancy, and endured/enjoyed the first 6 months of my son's life, I think I've done fairly well! I'll take some pictures once I sew on the button (those who know me know that could take a while... ugh, finishing!). Since that project has been off the needles, I've been working on frogging (ripping out) a sweater I never wear to reclaim the wool.

You may recall, I held the yarn doubled for this project; that's a heck of a lot of yarn! I was hoping to hold off posting about this until I had the entire sweater frogged and the yarn re-balled.

So far, I have ripped out the entire sweater, but separating the yarn (since I had it held doubled), re-skeining, and then winding into balls has proven very labour intensive (aka huge pain in the ass). Suffice to say, I have about half of the sweater/yarn done and I already have five good sized balls! I think I should be able to get at least two sweaters out of this yarn.

For the record, I don't think it will snow again... bring on Spring!!