No Real Topic

Today's entry is a just a random mish mosh of things. The picture below is of some towels I received in a cross stitch towel swap a few years ago. I took the picture after reading SouleMama and being reminded of her Corners of my Home project. This is the area above the kitchen sink. Is it wrong to say I'm partial to the Kitchen Closed towel? Or rather the sentiment. Still Life with Crochet---here you see 10 blocks for the Lion Brand 5 Panel Afghan. I don't have the link on this computer and I've already lost this post once, so if hop on over to Lionbrand.com you can find this pattern in the free crochet pattern section. Only four more blocks to go and then the three double crochet panels that should go fast. With any luck it might just have this in the mail to my mom by the end of next week.
Ahh...this is according the DH and myself the greatest candy invention on the face of the earth. The Cherry Cordial Kiss. These are limited edition so when I run across a bag, I buy them. We're talking taking the milk money and buying candy instead. Let's face it, one can always buy milk, but the Cherry Cordial Kiss, it's existence is short lived. Oh yeah, I'm writing Hershey's, begging to please dump the peanut butter kiss and make the Cherry Cordial kiss part of the regular line. I mean, seriously, if you want peanut butter and chocolate, that's what Reese's Cups are for. No one does peanut butter and chocolate better.
DUDE! Yes, below you see my bell pepper dude, freshly clipped from his plant host. Sure I could have centered him on the plate but then you couldn't see the cute Pistoulet chicken and who wouldn't want a little glimpse of him? Bell pepper dude is resting on my chicken bread plate. Just to give you an idea of his size.
Woot! We have some Roma babies. Twins! Discovered them this morning.
Big Boys! I have one pretty big Better Boy tomato and very close to him, to the lower left you can see a tiny Better Boy just freshly sprouted!
Holy Butterfly Bush Batman! The Budlia, it's a bloomin'! The scent is delicate, reminds me of lilacs.
Want to visit a farm? Always wonder what it would be like to dump the city living and move to a farm? Well if that sounds like you, grab a cuppa and head over to inmykitchengarden.com click on the Farmgirlfare.com link to the right and start reading. I tried the Chocolate Emergency Cake today and plan to make the Mexican Monkey Cake tonight. Sorry I don't have links to those posts but on the Farmgirlfare.com site they are in the right hand column under Recent Posts or Previous Posts. I'm also looking forward to trying her Pita recipe.

Views from the Container Garden

We've been following the life of this bell pepper, as you can see below it's a big boy now. I see him surrounded by fajita fixin's before the end of the week. His purpose is to nourish and nourish he shall. It's been a good ride dude!
Has he grown or what? As someone mentioned in the comments, he does look a bit like a gator doesn't he?
Here is the very first tomato from one of my Better Boy tomato plants. Should I be ashamed to admit that I squealed the moment I saw it? Well I did, jumped around, got all excited. I need a life.
These are the first flower clippings from my hearty rose bush. It's a cluster of three, started out as four but one was on the downhill slide so I clipped it away and brought this little cluster in the house. Yes, I crocheted the wash cloth they are sitting on. It's a pattern from crochetme.com

Slow progress is being made on House #2 on HOHRH, haven't finished block 7 on the 5 Panel Throw yet. Hope to make some progress tonight. I guess I went into craft overload this weekend and well, just haven't felt like picking up a needle or a hook. I have been planning some projects, making some supply lists--sometimes that's as much fun as stitching.

I'm trying to be more disciplined with my projects and really, really, really want to finish some things I have started around here. It's the right thing to do, maybe not the most fun thing to do but the "right" thing to do. Can't decide if I'm trying to convince y'all or myself.

I checked out some books on quilting a few days ago and have been dreaming about quilts lately. I found some great fabric at the LQS for DS#1's green Ohio Star. I still need to get it, wanted to have a good idea about how much I need so I'm sure to purchase enough.

On top of that I was telling my friend today that I want to crochet some funky, wild afghans for the living room. No dull, classy colors around here, nope. I want bright, wake up to sunshine colors. I saw a nice orange, cream, black and pale yellow afghan in progress at Like Grandma. I'm now obsessing over these colors. I also saw another one at crochetville.org, in the crochet along forum, the 200 Block crochet- a- long, using Sunburst Orange, some greens, can't remember the other colors but I liked the sound of it. I'm just in the mood for wild and funky at the moment.

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

Speaks for Itself....

Computer Savant 47 % Nerd, 69% Geek, 60% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Geek and Dork, earning you the title of: Computer Savant. People confuse you with a Nerd all of the time. You aren't some genius, like some people have said, and didn't/don't really like school all that much (and you especially hated some of the social aspects, like getting mocked). It's just that you have some passions and interests that you're extremely into/good at, and this has placed you in circles with other social outcasts, some of whom are exceptionally bright. The awesome thing about being where you are is that you get to hang out with an elite group (though you'd probably rather be alone, or with only the closest friends and family) and you can make quite a good career for yourself in your particular specialities. Common to this group are people who are highly into electronics/computers as that is where the money lies, today. Congratulations! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in any of the following: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Professional Wrestling Love & Sexuality America/Politics Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 26% on nerdiness You scored higher than 93% on geekosity You scored higher than 95% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

A Weekend Devoted to Crochet(Mostly)

This weekend I worked through my block(no pun intended) on the Homespun® Five-Panel Throw. The blocks are a bit on the wonky side but I'm hoping once they are attached to the panels, it'll straighten them right out. I'm close to having a 6th block finished but decided to go on and take a picture now since there was no way I'd get the other 7 blocks completed tonight. Oh, yeah, we dream BIG here at the Ranch. Once I conquered the problem with the block pattern I didn't think completing the afghan this weekend was unreasonable. Well imagine my surprise when it dawned on me I have a family. They need things like food, laundry, you get the picture. Utter devastation to realize that this quickie afghan would take me longer than a few days. It's ok, I'm very comfortable with not achieving my goals. Too comfortable actually. Hope my mom likes this. I'm pretty much the worst daughter in the world. My mom's birthday was last week, did I send a card? No. Did I send a present? No. From the way she describes her new furniture the colors in this afghan will be a good match, so I want to get it completed and in the mail to her ASAP. In my defense my mother is one of those people that yells at you for spending any money on her. Seriously. But she's also one of those people that thinks if you make something it probably didn't cost too much so while the yarn for this afghan cost me about $50 she'll probably think it cost oh, $20 to make so when she gets it I shouldn't get yelled at too much. The really sad part is that this afghan was supposed to be a housewarming present for her oh, 6 months or so ago. I know I'm the worst daughter in the world.

Did manage a tiny bit of cross stitching but nothing photo worthy. Just a little more work on House #2 on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. Hope to set aside the crochet tonight during the Sopranos and Big Love. Big Love is my new tv addiction. I'm horrible about keeping track of when TV shows come on, TV on DVD is a very good thing in my world, but Big Love, never miss it, sometimes watch it two or three times during the week.

I gave up on the book "gods in Alabama". Great story, wonderful characters(even though I'm in Florida, we're very close to Alabama, I know these people), I recommend it. My problem with it was that I figured it out, read ahead to prove myself right, thus ruining the whole book. So I've moved on to The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. Just got a page or two read, so far I like it.

We transplanted watermelon plants this weekend and hope they survive the shock. We also dug up a small square section of the backyard that gets a good bit of sun to start our experimental square watermelons. Check out
Crazy Aunt Purl's March archives for the whole story. We're obsessing over this around here. It's my DH's entertainment since he's skipping softball this spring.

We woke up to the sound of rain in the wee hours of Saturday morning. We haven't had rain since I don't remember when. We are like 12 inches below normal right now and in the middle of a drought. So the thunder, lightening and gullywashers of rain were very welcome. Just wish we had had a couple of days of it.

Thoughts from a Dorky Gardener

There are millions of people who grow their own produce. I've never been one of those people. My thumb is not green. At least not until this year! Below you can see my very first ever bell pepper. I am in awe of this little, green guy. What started as a bit of greenery has magically turned itself into food. WOW! This to me is a miracle. Another miracle of my flower bed is this rose bush. I paid $2 or so for this rose bush at Walmart around four years ago. It was a stick with thorns at the time. I thought I was saving it from the dumpster. It was pitiful. I brought it home, stuck it in the middle of the front flower bed, talked to it, watered it and every year it has rewarded me with beautiful blooms. This rose bush is a tribute to the heartiness of nature. It has survived Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, while other larger trees, pine, oak were taken out by the hurricane force winds(we're two and half miles inland) this dainty little rose bush stood her ground and has come back every year. This rose bush is now an official member of the family, even my boys who could careless about flowers comment on her and how pretty she is.

Would it be dorky of me to tell you that my tomato plants smell like tomatoes? I have quite a few blooms on each of my four tomato plants and they all smell nice and tomatoey. My basil plant is right by the front door and I'm pretty sure that when people come up to the door they begin craving spaghetti because the scent of the basil is so strong especially in the late afternoon when the sun is beating down on the front porch!

Random Tuesday

Unlike my last "Random" post, this one will truly be random. Last time I got interrupted, and only posted about Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.

I forgot to add this link:
Every Day with Rachael Ray Recipes - Chicken, Biscuits 'n' Gravy Casserole

I found the recipe on another blog(can't remember who's blog right now) a few weeks ago and OMG! It is the best, absolute BEST chicken casserole in the world. A few extra steps(which means you do something a little more involved than opening a can of cream of mushroom soup)but making it from scratch was so easy. I managed to impress myself and I don't do that very often in the kitchen. It will definitely be added to the meal rotation.

Very little stitching has been accomplished in recent days. Too many other things going on. I've stitched a little on House #2 on HOHRH but not really enough to take a picture of right now.

I have some sunflowers sprouting in a couple of pots I have around here, and I'm excited about that. These sunflowers are supposed to get 6 feet tall but I planted them in smallish pots and don't expect them to grow that large. If I can get a few blooms I'll be happy. I planted some cosmos seeds around three cosmos plants I bought at the store who shall not be named, I'm interested to see how these do in the front flower bed. I also have a packet of cosmos seeds in assorted colors, the ones I planted are gold, the seeds I have are in the pink family. I'm going to plant them on the other end of the flower bed near my butterfly bush. I'm thinking about getting another butterfly bush but my flower bed isn't that big and I think that two budlias might just take over the flower bed.

Our watermelon plants are getting bigger, time to transplant, but we didn't get around to it last weekend because we were busy being slugs. My bell pepper is getting huge! It'll be big enough to stuff in no time! I can't get over how excited I am about my garden. I don't know if I'm more excited about growing food or flowers. It's a tie. Truthfully, I'm in love with the idea of flowers everywhere. They serve no purpose other than to add beauty to the world. Well, I know they help out the animals and that's great and all but nothing makes me happier than seeing tons of blooms all over the place, butterflies & birds coming around to visit. I love that. I wish I knew why but those things, small as they are, just make me happy. (I know D-O-R-K that's me)

I've been trying to crochet an afghan for my mom. She moved into a new house late last year and I had intended the afghan to be a housewarming present, never got around to starting it. Then I thought it'd make a nice Christmas present, didn't get around to it. So this weekend I think this will be a breeze, no reason I couldn't start it and finish it in a few days. YEAH, RIGHT! The pattern is a freebie from Lion Brand and for some reason I can't get the square right. Once I get the pattern figured out I think it'll go pretty fast. I don't know if it's me or if the trouble is with the Lion Brand Homespun I'm using or a combination of both. I'm going to do a test block this morning with some plain old Red Heart so I can see the patten. The Homespun is great yarn to feel, to look at, but to crochet with, it's hard to see the stitches because it's lumpy. Am I making sense? Probably not but once I make a square with Red Heart I'll have a better idea about the stitches and the pattern.

Here's a link to the pattern I'm using:
Homespun® Five-Panel Throw

Looks simple enough doesn't it?

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Finally got around to taking a picture of my current WIP Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. My neighbors, who already think I'm a flake, saw me climb up on a chair to take the picture of the piece on my patio table. They hollared over the fence, "Do you need some help?" "No" answers I. "What are you doing, do you need a ladder?" "No" I say, "I'm taking a picture of my needlework and I just needed to be a little taller." Silence from the other side of the fence. "Are you still there?" I hollar back. "Yes, just trying to figure out what you're really doing and why you just won't tell us." Ah the life of a stitcher among the average clueless person. I bet they don't know what a blog is either, but we won't get into all that since I'm the neighborhood crazy.

Egg on My Face

Ok Trey and Matt have not emailed me but I read an article on AOL that Comedy Central did block out the image. OMG! I'm stunned. I sincerely believed it was part of the joke.

What I'd like to know now is if the Super Best Friends episode is shown again if they will block out the image on that episode.

Of South Park and Scarborough Country

No crafty post at the moment--but I had to, had to comment on this:

So this week South Park had a controversial episode. What's new? It was more than likely pretty offensive to a good percentage of the country and I'm sure you know who you are. OK, so they replayed it last night, I fell asleep before the end of the show on Wednesday and I'm watching it, and yes, the ending was juvenile, what do you expect, it's South Park. So the DH who can't control the clickie finger was flipping away at channels and stopped it at MSNBC. On the show Scarborough Country they are discussing this episode, like it's news or something. So let me take a moment and enlighten the pundits who were the "experts" called in to discuss this issue.

Can't you people-the so-called "experts" wrap your brain around a joke? The disclaimer that "Comedy Central" ran was part of the joke. It wasn't Comedy Central censoring the image, it was PART OF THE JOKE! Who are you people?(It's obvious you don't watch the show because the controversial image has been shown on South Park before, The Super Best Friends Episode) Now Trey, Matt, if you're reading this and I'm wrong and Comedy Central did censor you, leave me a comment and I'll correct my statement. Although there's absolutely no way anyone but Trey or Matt could convince me that wasn't part of the joke. But these "experts", the DH and I laughed so hard listening to them debate this episode like it was "news". It's not news that South Park is an equal opportunity offender. It's not news that they would take this issue and make the ending as offensive as possible, for reasons that are obvious. Come on, wake up. It's South Park, HELLO! Seriously, I was laughing harder at Scarborough Country than South Park.

Old MacDonald

E, I, E, I, O and all that stuff.......Here are a couple of lame gardening pictures because watching plants sprout up from the ground from seed amuses me beyond belief. Below is a picture of my very first sunflower sprout. This is the beginnings of a mammoth sunflower and is supposed to get 12 feet tall. It's also supposed to have edible sunflower seeds. Have to remember to tell the kids that the seeds have to be toasted before eating. Here is a mess of watermelon plants. These are going to be transplanted this weekend. A few will be set aside in an attempt to grow them square(thanks to Crazy Aunt Purl--check her March archives), the rest will be your basic run of the mill watermelons.
Below you will see the very first ever produce I've attempted to grow. It's a little, bitty, teenie-weenie bell pepper. Isn't it just the cutest thing?Can you see the next little cluster of bell pepper pots in the background just above the pepper? (Yes, D-O-R-K, that's me)
I'm container gardening because we've been treating our yard for a few years for fire ants. So I'm not planting anything edible in the ground(I really don't expect the kids to eat the sunflower seeds). Also being in a hurricane zone I can move my produce into the garage when a hurricane is headed this way. I have the beginnings of blooms on my Better Boy tomato plants but nothing worth taking a picture of at the moment. The romas look like they are beginning to bloom too. There are little pods on my jalapeno plants. I've started a wall of mammoth sunflowers on the side of my house. I planted 8 seeds over the weekend and will do some more digging this weekend to plant more seeds. The ground over there is really dry and hard and I don't have a tiller so I'm kind of tilling it myself with my trowel. Yes it's the hard way, but I'm hoping in a month or two I'm going to have a sunflower house(http://www.dashdist.com/blackbird/LooseFeathersClub.html
scroll down to Loose Feathers 2005-then scroll down a little more and you'll see Sunflower House, not Sunflower Charms, scroll down a little more) that's what I want, happy, glorious sunflowers all over the place. I started some red sunflowers in two decorative pots. Not sure how they will do. I have them on the patio table and I'm going to see if they do as well as the ones in the front of the house. I'm planning on moving my tomato plants and bell pepper plants to the back yard as soon as it's getting more hours of sun per day.

Random Monday

Managed to finish House #4 on Carriage House Samplings Houses of Hawk Run Hollow this weekend. Only five more blocks left to stitch on this piece.
Probably won't have any more progress reports on this piece for at least a week probably two. I'm going to start working on House #2 and it's kind of a busy block. In other crafty news I pulled out my hexes for my Grandmother's Flower Garden afghan and want to start making more of those. I was going to use a Red Heart Gold for the center of the flowers but I don't know if I care for it or not. This afghan is a stashbuster for me so I'm trying to make it from yarn I have around the house. I do have some bright yellow but I think it's too bright and the gold is a little dark for the center of my flowers. I plan to sew a few together today to see how it looks.

Can't Believe I Forgot....

To thank Andrea for her comment and to tell her that her Mairmaid's Song is great! I have this stitched too but your frame is fabulous. I used a putty linen instead of the sheeps straw and opted for a primitive frame, but your frame really pulls out the colors in the piece. Y'all go check out Andrea's album at City Stitcher. All of her finishes are beautiful. I hope to eventually have a finished HOHRH too.

Here is a pic of my framed Mairmaid's Song:

Where Did the Week Go?

First of all I want to thank Karen, CJ, Melissa, Sue and Amy for your comments and kind words. They are appreciated. I've been sick all week and haven't really stitched too much. So finally I made myself not go back to sleep after taking the boys to school and went over to the beach and caught the last few minutes of the sunrise.
All over the beach there are these blue jellyfish. I haven't had a chance to look up the exact name but this time of year they wash up all over our beach.
Here are three clustered together and below you will see the blue trail:

The picture above is of Momma Beach. It used to be a county beach but the county, in it's infinite wisdom, sold it to the state on the promise of the state building us a marine sanctuary. The state backed out of the deal because so many tourists would come down here in the spring and drown over on the Gulf side because they don't heed Red Flag warnings, so the state determined that a marine sanctuary would not be a good thing. But the joke ended up being on the state, after Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis they gave all the land back to the county because the state didn't want to rebuild the park they spent no less than three years building. No one can access Momma Beach at the moment without climbing the fence, that would be trespassing(people do it though), because the state park at the moment is condemned because of all the hurricane destruction and the county hasn't cleaned it up and opened the land to the public yet. Until a few years ago the gulf side of this particular section used to be a nude beach.
Above are the Pagodas. Both the tiki hut like building and the one with the green roof were completely destroyed after Ivan and were back and ready for summer when Hurricane Dennis hit last year. They've finally rebuilt and are back up and running again. The building with the green roof is the Sailor Grill, they have a bakery-great cheese pillows-a cheese danish/donut thing that is fabulous and they also have the best burgers around. A Pagoda burger is a favorite of mine. The sunsets are also gorgeous from here. It felt good to get out of the house and walk for a little while but it felt better to get back in the car, get home, take a shower and go back to sleep. Hopefully I'll have a pic of a finished House #4 tomorrow and I want to take a pic of my HOHRH as it looks up this point.

Stitchin', Knittin' & Sproutin'

Fairly productive weekend around here. Below is the progress I've made on House #4 on Carriage House Samplings Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. Next we have one full alien face on Stitch N Bitch's Alien Illusion scarf. This is the front:
Here's the back:
Wicked cool, no? And below you see the sproutin' portion of this post. Last weekend the spousal unit and I planted watermelon seeds in two cups. They sprouted yesterday:

We started four more cups of seeds on Sunday. We also put out a bell pepper plant, two Better Boy tomato plants, some basil, flat leaf Italian parsley, and I planted two lavendar plants last weekend. The parsley was supposed to have been cilantro but I wasn't paying attention and got home only to discover my mistake. Plan to get some Roma tomato plants this week and also want to start some zucchini seeds.

So I Posted The Wrong Heron Pic....

Two posts within an hour or two of each other, wow! I need to get a life.
This one is much better(ok it's still crap as far as good photos are concerned). I didn't resize it as much as the one in the last post. But what do I expect from a camera held together by duct tape? I love herons so much. I could sit and watch them for hours. North of us they nest in trees along the highway. I guess near water runoffs. Yes, I have Crossed Wing Collections Great Blue Heron in the stash. Doesn't the sound look spooky in the fog? The water was so flat, like a pond.

Small Town Saturday Morning

Here are a few random pics from around town this morning. The first three were supposed to be farther down the post but that's how it goes sometimes. For some reason I can't rearrange them. I really hate that this picture of the heron isn't any better. I'm going to see if the other one I took is better and post it later. I was so excited to see him wading in the sound.

The picture below is of a new LYS. I say new, the DH discovered it the other day when we were having lunch and it's in the same plaza as one of our favorite local restaurants, it's at the very end of the strip and we never have a reason to wander to the end of the plaza. Come to find out it's been here since August, 2005. YIKES! The ladies who own it are very nice. The yarn selection is small but they do carry Cascade 220 and had a good stock of needles of all sizes. I hope to be a very supportive customer. Hurrican Ivan hit my area in September, 2004. This is still part of the bay shoreline. It's where the walkway that used to take you all the way to the Best Western hotel now just sorta stops. As you can see it's still trashed. Breaks my heart. All these outdoor shots were taken about 7 am this morning and it was foggy and a bit misty. I was also using the old camera because I still haven't picked up any new batteries for the new camera.
This morning we saw this barge stuck on a sandbar. Not a good thing.
Thirty minutes or so later he was all straightened up and back in the channel.
Here are a couple of ducks kicking back in the sound. They were enjoying their stroll along the shoreline until DS#3 decided to run them off.
This area here used to be full of ducks, geese, turtles, fish, all kinds of wildlife. Hurricane Ivan and then Dennis in 05 took care of it. They have finally got it cleaned out. The Butterfly House is the building in the background.
Here's another view of the wildlife area.
Here's an attack goose that lives there and chased me all over the place. He kept sticking his head through the bars. I think he was hoping I'd have some bread. Next time I will. Only geese and ducks live in this little area at the moment. I hope turtles move back in soon.
This is DS#3 making good use of the new playground equipment. He loved this Batmanesque swingy-glidey thing.
For some cat cuteness, this is Pirate. He was sleeping on the desk and his little tongue was sticking out and it was too cute. Can you see the little bit of pink below his nose?