A little too much

Yes, I did a little too much yesterday. I should have known and stopped in time. I guess I got carried away. Today, I don't do much at all. Tired and aching. Trying to save what strength I have for tonight when we have our kid activity Royal Rangers (kind of like scouting) and for work tomorrow.
Felt the need to feel that I achieved something little, so I pinched the tops from the basil in my kitchen window and put them in the window. Not much, but at least something.
I won't be here tomorrow, too tired after work. Probably next week. So have a lovely weekend, everybody!

A sunshiny day!

 A beautiful day, today. The sun has been shining, and I was not late to take advantage of that. And I just have to stop when I pass by my wild rose. I love rose-hips. Love the color, the red against the green. Lovely! There is so much to enjoy in the nature. I had a little break, sitting down on the porch. I watched a robin jumping around this very bush, showing off his beautiful colors too. And the sparrows, taking a splashing bath in a puddle. :)

But this is what I've been up to mostly. Planting my flowers in the new flower bed. I won't show you more than this, since it looks rather messy right now. :-S They are not all very green anymore, and all the leaves falling off the trees doesn't make the impression much better... Hopefully the result will be stunning (or at least green and filled with happy flowers) next year, and I'll show it then.

I thought the weather would be rainy and dull, so I was planning to sit in my armchair, knitting all day. I made one row, before I went outside... And do you know? I have already too few project bags... :-/ How long did I manage to keep things tidy?

This project warms my heart. My girl started using her scarf, the never-ending one. :) Her friend at school liked and wanted one. "Mum, can you knit one for her?" Yesterday she gave me a note where this little girl had written what colors she wanted. :) So I just had to start knitting. I was really planning to make a hat or mittens, but I'm not that surprised I ended up doing something else.

I got a few questions about my apples in my last post. No, they are not good for much. :) They are not the kind you just pick and eat. But as jam, in a pie or as juice they are delicious! You just have to pick them when they're ready and not wait too long (which is what I did this year). Last time I harvested (it only gives fruit every other year now for some reason) I made jam and put in the freezer. Then I gave it all to my mum, since nobody here was very keen on eating it all. I might have made just a little too much... :) And, as I did this year, I cut some into pieces ready for a pie or whatever. Wish I could have saved more apples, but it hurts so bad in my shoulders when I sit peeling and cutting them. So I am happy I got at least a few bags done. You don't see this kind very often, since they get overripe so fast the stores tend to avoid them. But when people around here were more into making jam, all the women from our little village came to this house and picked those apples. Because there was no tastier jam!

Now, my friends, I'll pull myself in the hair to get upstairs and maybe knit a few rows. Think I might have used my poor muscles a little too much today...  But I love being able to! Enjoy all the things you are able to do, and don't take life and health for granted. It's a precious gift!

What to do and what to write

Hi there, remember me? I'm the one writing here, occasionally... Wow, it really goes a long time between my posts now. Too long. I can't blame it all on the fact that I'm working now, since I mostly work only one day a week... But it is a fact that I haven't been creating much lately. I think that is changing now, I do have a lot going on. And normally when I have a "down" period on crochet and knitting during the summer, I do a lot of berry picking, making jam and that kind of thing. But I haven't at all this year. All the berries I picked was my (huge) wild strawberries from the garden, and they were never more than a handful. So I guess I've had a hard time finding something to write about. House cleaning and tidying up messy storage rooms isn't very inspiring to write about... But let's not dwell in the past. I'm here now, and I hope to show up more often.

If I didn't pick berries, I did pick our apples. Unfortunately a little late, since they were all on the ground... :/ I have done some investigation on the web today and I do believe our apple-tree to be a Transparente Blanche. Makes a delicious jam, but they get ugly as soon as you touch it (very sensitive) and they rot fast. So I guess I will have to throw most of these away. But I managed to get a few bags into the freezer, for future apple pies. 

I also picked these yesterday. The nights are getting cold now, too cold for these guys anyway. I hope at least some will turn red. If they are supposed to, I think one kind is green stripy... I got a few plants from a friend and didn't think I would get any tomatoes at all, since I don't have a greenhouse and live in a windy spot. So I'm happy either way. :) I think I'll try again next year, and try to take better care of them.

Inspiring, don't you think? It is! My neighbor has called me over twice, to get flowers that she didn't have room for anymore. Three (!!!) wheelbarrows full! So we had to dig a new flowerbed. In fact, we enlarged one that was so filled with weed that we had to do something about it anyway. My husband is amazing, not very interested in gardening himself, he dug and dug and dug... Heavy clay mud in pouring rain! That's love! Yesterday I started planting. Didn't take any pictures, since it was pretty dark when I was done. I was planning to continue today, but the weather isn't really the best...

Now, I read a comment on facebook today, about knitting mittens. Mixing wool and mohair, that really got me inspired. Have to go dig through my stash and see what I can find! Hope to be back soon (and I mean it!), probably with something containing yarn... See you all!

I love needlecases

After a period of pain, work, house tending and almost no crafting at all, I'm happy to be back again. I was meaning to share the joy over my new crochet books with you, and also the circles (becoming a bag for my kid) made from patterns in one of the books. But there was either no time or I was simply too tired... Guess you'll see less of me now, when work takes some of my time.

But now, I have something to share. I've spent the last two days organizing my (almost non-existent) needle work. Namely my beloved baskets, containing my ongoing projects.

I have made myself three more needle cases. Oh, how I love making these little things! I love choosing among my felted sheets (bought in a cheap store, no quality to speak of but sooo cheap). I love going through my box with embroidery threads, leftovers from old table cloths and tapestries. 

I start with no plan at all, letting one colour give the other, and one stitch lead the way to the next. It is ever so exiting to see the finished result. And I fall in love with them.

I love filling them up with needles of all sorts from my sewing box.

And I love forcing my family to tell which one is their favorite and why. :) Even though I can't make up my own mind. I never thought I could love a needle case more than I loved my light blue one with lilies of the valley. Now it stands between the purple and the brown. But I think I am even more in love with how different they all are. But enough bragging! ;)

I also love to organize my beautiful baskets. Each one is now supposed to have a pair of scissors, pen and note pad, needle case, measuring tape and a little jar for cut ends. Not to be removed! (Yeah right, that's just a matter of time...)

I have also made project bags. My baskets used to keep a lot of yarn from old, finished or abandoned, projects. All in a mess, entangled in each other. The plan is that I from now on don't have to carry around the entire basket when I feel like switching to another needle work, I just bring the bag to the place where I want to sit. I have placed one basket in strategic places where I usually sit. So hopefully this will be less messy, and I will always have a pair of scissors and a measuring tape at hand. Not all in one place or mysteriously missing...

I have to show you this one. The other bags were made from pillow cases, a piece of a curtain and a shirt sleeve :), but this one is more precious. I found this embroidery sample among my mother-in-laws things. I thought that I could make something of it, and so I did. I just added a back and a little canal on top for the ribbon to go through. Isn't it beautiful?

So now everything is neat and organized. All I need is some inspiration to go on with my actual projects, tucked down in my pretty baskets... Maybe my kids will help me with this. My embroidery got them inspired, so they are planning to do some of their own after school. And what could be more inspiring than to sit down and create together?