Happiness

The sun is setting, and I take a walk in our garden. We have been busy gardening, painting our garden furniture, shopping plants and... well, we've been busy! :) But busy in a good way, because we want to do all this for ourselves. We love to be in our garden, and I think both me and my husband has a special thing for our kitchen garden. All the plants of course, inviting us to make something tasty. But also cooking outdoors. Today, my husband made the "kitchen" in the left, from an old sink. There we can prepare food or work with our plants...

But I'm sad to say we have to spend much time indoors, because of the mosquitoes. An aggressive kind has invaded the area around the bird lake we live close too, making it impossible to stay outside. Some days are worse than others, but today we managed to stay outside. Lots of mosquito repellent and some candles they don't like the smell of helped a lot. This is where I spent most of the day, tired because of an upset belly. I hate all the trouble and pain it's causing me (it happens quite frequently), but the overall feeling today was happiness. I love our garden, that we put so much work into lately. I love how the furniture turned out after a much needed paint, and with new pads. I love the view from our backyard, watching the farmers bringing in the hay. I love seeing my husband so enthusiastic over his projects. Happy!

We had my parents over for a few days, spending time together. Lovely! I truly enjoy sharing my gardening enthusiasm with my mum. And I also want to share my little miracle. I don't know much about hollyhocks. But I do know that the plant I received from my husband years ago had the same color as the closest flower below. That's just one plant, that has spread along the wall of our shed. And now, I have flowers in three different colors! The two in the picture and a lighter pink. Isn't that strange? The dark pink one even has a different shape than the other two. But I'm happy, I really wanted hollyhocks in more colors than just one, and now I do!

 Oh, and not only the grown-ups are filling their days with outdoor projects. The kids have opened a flee market in our (not in use) outdoor toilet. :) And when dad made an outdoor kitchen, the son thought we should really use the waste water for something. So he made water cleansers, so that he and his sister can filter that waste and use it when they play, instead of spending clean water for playing around with. :) Environmentally educated kids these days!

I hope you all are having a lovely time, and that you are all able to enjoy your own beautiful surroundings. We are having some warm, sunny days after a pretty cold and rainy summer, so we are enjoying it all very much. Now, I'm wanted elsewhere... Take care!

Some things old and something new

Relaxing by the computer tonight, a little exhausted after some hard gardening today. Totally unplanned, but it turned out great. We only meant to remove a few trees growing where they shouldn't (in our hedge), and ended up removing a lot more than that. We have a lot of lilac hedges in our garden, and some of it is very old and starts to look untidy. So we started sawing and snipping... and just couldn't stop. You know how it is sometimes, the more you remove, the more you find that also needs to be removed. I'm glad we have some left, but I can tell you that it's a bit more windy in the backyard now! :) But it will be great when the smaller plants now will get a chance to grow up into a fuller hedge. And the rose that now has a lot more space, I hope it will expand before the lilacs reclaim the open area between them!

Anyway, the other day I realized that I have a few things that I haven't showed you. Well, in the progress of making them of course, but not as finished objects. So here's the first one, my kurbits cozy. I use this for my phone. The reason I never showed you when it was finished, is because it's not really. I just started using it anyway... I was planning to make a lining, with two pockets. One for the mobile, and one for my VISA and maybe some cash. I sometimes stuff it all in there, but they have to cope with each other without being separated. I really should put a button in there, though. Since my mobile keeps falling out when I put it in my bag. And maybe I should make something so I can hang it around my neck. But I guess I never will.

The motif is needle felted, and it's far from perfect. Only my second try, still learning! :) My daughter asked me what it was supposed to look like, so maybe I better tell you too. It's supposed to be a heart (the red thing) and flowers and leaves. I was inspired by the Swedish folk art tradition of kurbits, go google it if you don't know what it is! It's very beautiful.

The second thing up tonight is this african flower bag. I have posted it before, both when felting it and later, waiting for a lining. And it will be waiting... No lining! Just a couple of buttons on the handle, not even a button to close it with.

I needed (or at least wanted) a smaller bag for a trip, and just grabbed this one. It doesn't really need a lining since the felting closed any holes in the crochet, and it's really sturdy. I just wish the handle was a little longer. It's a very easy bag to make, especially if you skip the felting part. I saw a bag like this on Flickr, maybe I can find it for you, and maybe I can tell how I made it, if you want me to. We'll see.

Finally, something new! My second seat cover for the wooden chairs by my crafting table. I saw this as an afghan square on Ravelry and had to try it. Take a look at the original, isn't it pretty? I used old wool I had and never had any use for, so I tried to use up the colors I happened to have. Quite pleased with the result. And the square was a lot of fun to make!

I wasn't sure how to end it all, but decided to end with a simple row of sc, and then chain stitches in every stitch, for some stability in the edge. It also gave the square a robust feeling that I liked, some kind of old-fashioned country style, not really sure how to describe the feeling of it. But I like it!

So, that was chair number two. At least one more to go, and I believe my daughter wanted something for here chair too. A great opportunity to play around! :D

I think I better head for bed now, think I have some more gardening to do tomorrow. If I will be able to move at all, might be rather stiff tomorrow morning... :) But it's worth it! Anyway, I love to be strong enough to be able to work all day, removing shrubs and cutting grass (with one of those big, hand-held scissors). I know I can't take that for granted, with this "old" body of mine. So I'm a happy girl tonight!

Improvising

I thought it was about time I shared a little crochet again. Haven't been too much of that lately, and I have the feeling that most of you kind of likes crochet. Right?

This is my latest project. I'm in that mood when I love to start up new projects all the time. Just before the summer break, I was in my favorite yarn shop with my family. She had some cheap cotton yarn, and longing for something fun to make, I asked my daughter if she wanted me to make her something to wear? Of course she did! So she got to pick the colors. Two balls red, three pink and four light green. Very light, it almost looks gray compared to the stronger pink and red.

So what am I making, you wonder. Well... ehm... I don't know?! You see, I have no idea how far I will get with the yarn, and I had no great idea either. So I thought I would start making some granny squares and see where it will take me. I'm improvising, big time! :) 

I have to admit that I'm a little anxious about it all. You see, being the lazy girl that I am, I decided to join as I go. It's faster, and I use less yarn. But you know, it would be really hard to change plans in the middle of the project! So I keep joining, hoping it will turn out to something she will enjoy wearing. The plan so far is to make a tube, a little wider than Elsa around the waist. I'm hoping I have enough yarn for something like a tunic, but a sweater is fine too. When the tube is long enough (or when I'm running out of yarn) I'll decide on the rest. I'm thinking something simple, like the two tunics I have already made her (Granny square and Lady Bug). It would be lovely if I have enough yarn for a short sleeve, I think. Well, I think I'll just have to crochet and see!

Drying

I was asked how I best dry my herbs. Well, this time I used my birthday gift, this marvelous machine!

It's a food dryer, with six layers to dry stuff on. It can dry anything, I choose temperature and time and moves the different layers around after a while to get them to dry evenly. It's great! This was an expensive dryer, there are others less expensive but I don't think one can change temperature on them all.

Before I had this wonder, I used to dry things in the oven. That is not so great for herbs though, since they burn easily and shouldn't be heated to more than 35 C. You can dry them in bunches, hanging from the roof in a ventilated area away from sunlight. Or on a net, spread out. I can't do this, since we have soooo many flies around, leaving there dirt on everything. Yuck! So I am very pleased with my dryer.

But if you want to dry fruit, vegetables or something like that, you can use the oven. Put it on low temperature (50-70 C) and leave the door open, just a bit to let the moisture out. If you don't have flies, you can do as I did last year with some mushrooms - spread them out on a "mosquito window", a wooden frame with a net, and leave them there until they are dry.

Herbs

Just a quick hello before my daughter returns and claims the computer. I sat down here as they were getting the mail from the box, and obviously she was in the middle of a game...

Last week, we spent in the caravan on the west coast. Pretty good weather, some swimming and playing on the beach, and then a weekend festival, filled with music and fun. We had a great week! Oh, and I did some more crochet, that I haven't showed you yet. It will turn up here, I promise.

Today, I have been taking care of some herbs that I dried before we left. I love the idea of growing my own food, I love harvesting, and I love to put the stuff in jars and make labels. Only thing I need to get better at is actually using my herbs and vegetables! :)

Well, I think I better leave now, before somebody gets upset! See ya!

Caravan crochet :)

Blogging with the android today, which can be a challenge if you want more than one picture. Just found out that it works better to e-mail the post, but I still can't put the pictures where I want them. Or turn them around... Anyone out there  who has found the perfect blogger app? Please tell me!

I just wanted to show you this colorful creation I made for my girl last time we were out with the caravan. She and her brother wanted to buy a small Bible. The problem was that they only came in one color, and of course they didn't want them to look the same... So she asked me if I could crochet a cover for her Bible. Or... I asked her if she wanted me to... :) She said yes. "Go get some yarn and a hook. Now!" :) So I did.

I had a little bag of tiny acrylic balls of yarn in really happy colors to play with. She wanted squares and stripes. I used a piece of fabric we had in the caravan (it used to be a ribbon for some curtain) for the inside. Crochet would have been too bulky. Maybe not so classy, but I sure had fun making it!

And yes, I always bring yarn in the caravan. I tend to be really inspired here. And now, I have a box full of cotton yarn that I need to dive in to! :D

Caravan knitting

We are on a trip with our caravan again, third time this year already. We are at that place by the sea again, close to Halmstad on the west coast. Lovely weather, we've even been swimming! But it was rather cold... The summer has not been very warm this far.

I've spent a few nights knitting I started in February, but was delayed due to the pain in my hands. But today I finished it. Yay! It's a scarf/bandana in cotton for my husband. It was supposed to be finnished for his birthday in March, so he has been eagerly waiting for it to be done. I think he even is hoping for a chilly evening, since he wants to use it now! :)

I only had two skeins of multi-colored cotton, so I used some gray for the edge. Turned out fine,I think.