Huzzah! Sarah and Jen showed up for porch beers and knitting at Katie’s house last night. It was like old times. Got a bunch of knitting done, updates on the Turtleneck Tube Vest tomorrow.

Here is our new horseradish “Western Wasabi” plant (we’re on a rhizome kick):

Not sure what these flowers are, but they come back with more force every year. One of the many perennials in the front yard yet to be identified. My mother, Mary Lou, gave us the swan gourd last year. We dried it out and it looks pretty cool.



Lilly of the valley is blooming too. I don’t smell it very much yet, it should be at full force by tomorrow.

Seed Starter

Now go start some herbs.

On Saturday, we worked on the yard. Here is the backyard, pre-transformation:

The newest issue of CRAFT has an article about constructing fences. I had many sprouting potatoes, and wished to plant some. The littler garden I made wasn’t so much a raised bed to plant into, but a bed where I can mound the soil better as the potatoes grow. Here is the front view, crocheting twine to hold up the fence:

After a few hours of fence construction, I ran out of straight logs and energy. Bricks were supplemented for the other sides of the wall. Tyrone uprooted a brick pathway in the front yard because the cottonwood tree had already uprooted it halfway. It was a good re-use of bricks. It would have been fun to have a totally surrounded stick fence.

I re-planted some herbs in the corner.

BONUS TYRONE PICTURE: unthatching the lawn with his new metal rake (he broke my plastic one):

The Indiana Review has a podcast up (a podcast is like a downloadable piece of radio) of Tyrone reading his poem “Specter”.

Click on the link, and press play right underneath where it says “Bluecast” on the side.

Also, meet Frank, our new tomato plant:

My dad started a bunch of seeds in February, including tomatoes, peppers, and hedge trees (aka hedge apple trees, aka, osage orange, aka horseapples)

Thanks to Diana for correctly identifiying the mystery flower from this entry! With my allergies, I tend to stay as far away from flowers as I can, but spring doesn’t bother me that much.  Almost all of plants outside of the dome came with the dome, I didn’t plant any of them.  I transplanted some vinca minor last week, but that is about it.  I mostly just cut it all back when it dies or dries out, or as with the trumpet vine: THREATEN TO KILL IT with a big bottle of BRUSH-B-GON.

Interesting other fact: My co-worker Amy said that Roundup-based herbicide doesn’t work until it is 70 C for a good portion of the day, and there is no rain for 6 hours.  This is despite the packaging listing a 2 hour window between application and shower.  In retrospect, my experience agrees with hers, and gives me a weed-fighting vacation during the next two weeks of cold snap.

Amy also shared a GREAT tip: apply Roundup to weeds with a paintbrush instead of spraying on windy Nebraska afternoons.

Finally the great haircut controversy of 2007: bangs or no bangs?

It’s BANGS, dear Watson.

Started last night on a recyled/creweling project. (Sorry I’ve been spelling CREWELING WRONG!) Can’t show any pictures yet, but I can complain about my transfer skills. Most embroidery patterns are transferred from the pattern to the medium (linen/cotton fabric) by a reusable iron-on pattern.

I was saddened to find that the pattern I wanted to incorporate did not come as an iron-on along with the kit. It is ok, I am trying to transfer it to a bulky dark red-orange silk/wool felted blend of fabric, so it wouldn’t have shown very well anyway!

Homemade gifts are always fun for me to receive, but I have to think twice about other people. I wouldn’t dream of giving crafts to some people because they don’t realize the amount of work or planning that goes into some particular gifts. Some people just think it is cheap. The intended recipient(s) have a very keen art sense and style, so I’m hoping it works out.

No pictures of that project yet, but here are some dome landscape pictures. I don’t know what these flowers are, but they are the first to come up after the crocuses:

aaaah, periwinkle! This is the mother patch for the transplants:

Finally, the redbud trees are about to explode:

Here is the first run of vinca minor transplanted to the bald corner of our back yard:

The periwinkle is dark green. Anything else in that picture that is green is either a planter or a weed. There is no grass there. I’ve got radishes in the half-barrel planter.

The fence in the background is either going to get treated or painted later this year. Not sure if stain works on dry gray wood.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while.  Friday spent the night at Mahoney State Park, exit 426 (Nebraska I-80).   The cabins there are pretty much full-fledged houses, complete with heat, tv, and a full kitchen.

Went for a little hike Saturday, and didn’t get all of the way up the lookout tower because it was swaying pretty noticeably.

Sunday got a jump on spring lawn maintenance.   All of my pampass grass, blood grass, and zebra grass got a close hedgetrimming.  Evaluated how to deal with my rampant trumpet vines with my neighbor Barbara.  Transplanted some periwinkle from the front yard to the “bald patches” in the back yard.  I’ll have a picture or two of that later.

The one crafty thing I did: finish the “Birthday Wishes” crewel project by using the fusing to attach the linen to a birthday card.  The card is getting sent out tomorrow to a special lady with a birthday coming up!

There has been a request to post my new haircut too.  I’ll try to get this done tonight.

About 2 months ago, I started cutting up a felted sweater into a oblong purse shape. Since then many things have happened. My sewing machine needed a tune-up, I went on a plastics recycling craze, and considered 20 different embroidery ideas for this purse.

I took the sewing machine to the shop, and asked the kindly repair man for the “tune up” service, that they give for free to set up all of the machines they sell. What was wrong with it? It wasn’t sewing thick felt and jeans like I wanted it to. The man gave me the, “Well, DUH!” look. They suggested I had purchased a “toy” machine, and would have to purchase a $400 machine to get that sort of capability. I said, “just fix it”.

I came back a while later, and they had tested it on thick material (not felted sweaters, but two-ply denim and thin felt), and it had worked. I got my precious sewing machine home, and it cut through the thick felt like no other. Whipped out the rough construction for this purse:

After considering too many witty sayings, and after experimenting with the Birthday Wishes kit from woolandhoop.com, I decided to free-hand it. The pattern is a 1.5 x 3 inch rough eyeball of that design.

The handles are your-run-of-the-mill-craft-store-handles. I used embroidery floss to stitch in the handles. The purse is unlined because the sewing really turned out neat, and I like the pinked wrong-side edges. Finally for the finishing touch, the label:




Victory Garden 07 continues: The herbs are continuing to come up. Planted some lettuce and jalapeño peppers last night in planters (indoors). Called up my mother, and she says she has radishes ready to pick outside already. She also suggested just planting the lettuce directly into the ground now, or erm, tonight.

Had dinner outside for the first time last night. Tyrone made some sort of shrimp/dried red pepper/red cabbage/green pepper/ginger pasta to celebrate.

I had to resist the urge to get out my clippers and go after the tiny trees re-sprouting suckers in the yard before dinner.

Spent the rest of the night finishing up patterns to submit. One of the patterns directly relates to Colorado’s new co-state song, John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High. YIPPEE! I almost got teary when they played it on NPR this morning.

Also spent time figuring out that the Federal Universal Service Fee is NOT the same thing as the Federal Telecommunications Excise Tax. Best advice, take the standard deduction for that refund. Hopefully all of our taxes are gathered now.

Finally, I’ve been obsessed with how to make a crocheted table soaked/cast in epoxy resin as seen in USA Today (last week, second item down).