Better Late Than Never

Lizard recently melted my heart when he presented me with this lovely birthday/valentine card he colored. Coloring is one of the tools we use to minimize his Parkinson's tremors. He spent at least an hour a day for three weeks trying to finish this in time. He was a bit late, but I love it. Doesn't matter what day he finished! He put all that time into it for me! I keep it next to my work computer so it can make me smile all day.

I even got a highly creative photo of him working on his masterpiece!

I decided it was high time I finish his Christmas presents. After all, it is March. They are only three months late!!!

I cut the bandanas back in September or October, then never got a chance to finish them up. Lizard didn't mind. He wears them beneath his bicycle helmet when he rides to prevent his head from getting sunburn strips through the vents. He hasn't been on his bike since April 29. We hope he will ride again one day. For right now, the bandanas are a token of love and a symbol of hope.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Wordless Wednesday

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Snowcatcher Mountains

I neglected to take a "before" photo, so I can't really show in detail why I built a mountain range, but I built my very own mountain range with our leftover flagstone!

The builders did not amend the soil in our neighborhood before building homes. The homes are built on clay. The front and back yards of each home (unless homeowners have amended) are clay. We have replaced about 18 inches of the clay in our front yard, and last year I terraced the steepest part of our backyard and coated it with dirt, landscape fabric, rocks and/or sand to prevent our basement from flooding. Mission so far accomplished!!! We have experienced no window well leaks since the dirt for the terraces was placed!

The back of the house had about a one-foot overhang, which my father-in-law said is often done to add square footage to (and thereby raise the price of) a home. That little overhang made a great hideout for snakes and skunks and other undesirable backyard pets. My neighbors helped me fill that overhang as best we could last fall with rocks. No critters can live in there anymore.

The porch on the front of the house has been slowly separating from the ground ever since we moved here. One evening, our neighbors informed us they saw something make a mad dash into that dark gap. They couldn't tell what it was, and it may have been just a bunny, but it put us on alert that we needed to act once again.

Many of our neighbors have dealt with this problem (the porch separating from the ground) by adding a wall of bricks, either curved or rectangular, around the front section of their porches, then filling the wall-to-porch opening with soil and flowers or xeriscaping. I thinned out my irises last year and shared them with neighbors who built such garden "boxes."

Some neighbors have piled rocks across their openings. A few are like us and haven't fixed the problem yet.

I had a bit of flagstone left over from my backyard project, which actually isn't done yet, but I can't do too much more on it until the rock shop opens on weekends again or until winter is mostly over. I decided the odd shapes of the remaining flagstone would make a great mountain range across our porch gap.

One day, we will have the driveway, steps and porch re-poured or stabilized because they need it. There are many home repairs awaiting our attention. They will happen as we can finish them. For now, I'm so tickled red rock with my newest artwork!

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Snowflake Monday

I turned my blog into a cranberry shrine last week and attempted cranberry-colored dye. I thought cranberry-colored thread might inspire a snowflake.

My first cranberry dip (made from vintage red and a tiny bit of imperial purple) looks a bit like boysenberry to me. I do love it, but it wasn't the color I was trying to brew. The second dip also is lovely, but it looks like the homemade cranberry yogurt I made to get through the week. A hint of cranberry with all that plain yogurt!

The new threads definitely do inspire, but I'm not sure I've come up with the flake I could see in my head yet. All three flakes have something I love, but none of them are what I was trying to accomplish.

As a result, I've written the pattern for the white flake. I may write one of the others, or I may try again and see if I can bring to life the image I see in my head.

Here's my original inspiration. I hope to do all of Mehgann's flakes one day!

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 6.5 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Cranberry Ice Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: 6 sc in ring; sl st in starting sc. Don't pull magic circle too tight.

Round 2: Ch 6 (counts as 1 dc and ch 3), [1 dc in next sc, ch 3] 5 times; sl st in 3rd ch of starting ch 6.

Round 3: Ch 7 (counts as 1 tr and [[ch 3), 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook] 4 times (4 dc picots made), 1 tr in next dc] 6 times, omitting last tr of final repeat; sl st in 4th ch of starting ch 7.
NOTE: Pink snowflake includes an optional (ch 2, sl st in 2nd ch from hook) picot in middle of each 4 dc/picot group in each of Rounds 3-5.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 4: [Ch 7, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook, [[ch 3, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook]] 3 times (4 dc picots made), ch 4, sk over next 4 dc picots, sl st in next tr] 6 times.

Round 5: [Working up next spoke, skip next ch, 1 sc in each of next 3 ch, ch 7, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook, [[ch 3, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook]] 3 times, ch 4, sk over next 4 dc picots, 1 sc in each of next 3 ch, sk next ch] 6 times; sl st in final sl st of Round 4; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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Friday Funny

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Time for Me to Dye

A cranberry theme spontaneously blossomed on my blog this week, and I was trying to figure out something fiber-related I could add for today. I don't have any cranberry-hued quilting projects in the works, although the color family has been very tempting all week. But no more new quilt projects (except my neighbors' new baby at the end of this month) until I finish up a few more existing WIPs!!!

I did recently finish up a three-month avocado dye jar and a three-month avocado peel-dyed hank of wool yarn. Avocado peels and pits create a pigment sort of similar to the color of cranberry, at least before the entire natural dyeing process is done. I have six finished avocado peel- and avocado pit-dyed wool yarn hanks (shown above), and I'm hoping to finish six more, which I hope will be enough for a poncho design I've had in my head since about 2013. Hank #7 is almost ready to be wound into a ball; it's drying in the sun! I will begin the hank #8 three-month dip this weekend.

Natural dyeing with avocado pits and skins is a long process. I do all my natural dyeing via the sun. I use solar pigment extraction to obtain the glorious avocado dyes I use. In solar avocado pigment extraction and solar avocado dyeing, the longer you let a dye jar stew, the better the color will be. Some of my previous dye jars (not my current project) have solar-brewed for up to two years. Last year my jars got to enjoy the outdoors much longer than their predecessors because we didn't have extended overnight winter temperatures until about November. (I bring my jars inside when there's a danger of overnight freeze, then put them back out again the next day. I learned the hard way about nine years ago why you don't leave a glass jar full of dye outside -- or even in the uninsulated garage -- during an overnight freeze. So much fun to clean up!) Since November, my dye jars have been in my living room and bedroom windows, soaking up the winter sun.

The avocado pit and skin dye looks a bit like cranberry juice, right? It's amazing to watch a dye jar turn from clear to color in the sun in less than 48 hours.

Of course, the final fiber color is several shades lighter than the dye, so the finished color is not quite cranberry. But breathtaking, nevertheless. As far as I'm concerned, anyway.

I thought perhaps I could make something with some hand-dyed cranberry-hued thread. But, alas, my stash is seriously red-impaired.

Okay, so perhaps there's enough time to dye one hank of thread in the desired shade. I didn't have cranberry-hued dye, so I mixed a tiny bit of imperial purple with vintage red.

I solar-steeped for a day, then let the color set for another day. I washed the thread, and it dried all day Tuesday. Yesterday, I wound it into a ball. Looks a bit like boysenberry to me, but I love how the color crocked!

Still bent on cranberry, I hanked another 100 yards of thread and did one more dip. The second dip is always lighter than the first dip. The newest hank is not quite ready to wind into a ball yet because it's still drying. But I think it's pretty darned close!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Wordless Wednesday

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Cranberry Power

The clip below came up in our suggested videos after we watched Fleetwoood Mac singing "Hold Me" (and marveling how much the backdrop favors my youthful stomping grounds of White Sands National Monument -- Whoa!!! Now it's a national park!!!) ("Hold Me" was filmed in the Mojave Desert). I don't know how I missed out on the video below when it went viral, but we found it at the perfect time. I just re-incorporated cranberry juice back into my daily routine.

I have not been a huge fan of Ocean Spray because the plethora of tempting flavors each have too much sugar. However, what Ocean Spray did for the boarding guy has converted me. I see Ocean Spray does have a pure, unsweetened variety, and I will be purchasing that next time I grocery shop.

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No Flake Monday

I had a snowflake photo picked out to interpret in crochet for today, but, well, let's just say cranberry juice and probiotics have been incorporated back into my daily routine.

Something happens when you become a full-time caregiver. You forget to take care of yourself.

I rested all weekend, and I slept most of the day on Saturday. I can't even tell you when that last happened.

It felt so refreshing to give myself permission to chill and meet no deadlines for a couple of days. I'm hoping to be back to full strength next week. Here are a few snowflake photos to entertain you until then. And no, none of them are from our recent 17 inches. I slept right through it. No regrets.

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