Tuesday 29 June 2010

massive lettuces!


I have a little garden and in this little garden are some raised beds and in these there are huge lettuces, peas, beans and tomatoes! I am astonished how they grow as I just plonked the baby plants into grow bags and then stuck these into the 'beds' - roughly six feet long, one foot wide troughs on legs, made from bits of timber we had left over from a house move. Last year's strawberries are producing some nice new ones, but it's a race between me and the birds.

I am making a scarf out of a recycled artigiano jumper. A bit sacriligious, I know, turning massively expensive Italian yarn into a nice scarf but it gives me a thrill anyway.

Monday 28 June 2010

summer days





Yesterday I spent the afternoon with the family in the garden celebrating the Polish Grandma's 84th birthday. The boys were in deep gloom after the England massacre and the girls couldn't care less and just enjoyed the day.
I have been knitting with a myriad of different yarns, coming to grips with colour and tone, and have been delving into my old Kaffe Fassett books. These are wonderful just to ogle the colours and photography.

I am exploring the use of dried flowers in my cards, but in a non traditional way, like I made a card for the Polish Grandma's birthday which was a single stem of dried cow parsley hand stitched in place and mounted on cream coloured linen. I think the single stems work really well and are a long way from the 70's dried flower craze with flattened bunches of flowers. We'll see.

Today I am taking daughter Amy for another hospital appointment and her big brother is coming for moral support. Here is a pic of him with his other sister Rosie. Am proud of my kids and how they love a nd support each other, after all the years of squabbling and bickering...

Thursday 10 June 2010

rushing ahead


It's been a while but then it's been a very hectic couple of weeks. I am dealing with daughter Amy's illness which is rare and scary - MDS. She needs a bone marrow transplant so that brings a whole lot of other thoughts which I really am trying to process just now.

Meanwhile, my sanity is staying on course with crafting. Knitting, to be precise. I have a view of the kind of thing I want to do but it's not quite working out. Still, the process of knitting is helping calm the nerves. Apparently according to an article that my OH found, we now do way too much multi tasking and this is not good! It means, as the brain is so wired, that when we stop we get fidgetty and bored as we are constantly in some kind of hyper state. I thought it was just me!

Maybe we need to abandon multi tasking and focus on one thing at a time, which sounds comfortingly old fashioned. I may just give it a go!

My favourite flower meadow picture sold yesterday, which I am glad about, but will do another similar one.

Now I have to go to the dentist for root canal treatment. Life is such a bundle of fun!!!