Clash of the cats

Tags

cats, snow, Twiggy, winter, yard

Besides seeing family, lazing about, embroidering, antiquing, eating tasty treats, and playing games, the best part about Christmas has been watching the cats interact. There are four cats here: two orange, one black, and one grey/white (mine). My cat is 8, and the black kitty is about 6 months. Needless to say, the little baby wants to chase my cat around and it is absolutely hilarious. Here they are finally taking a break from running/hissing/growling. 

 

 

Before we left for the in-laws house, we got a lot of snow in WI! Twiggy decided she needed to go for a ride in her box sled! 

 

 

Just more photos of the snow! 

 

 

 

 

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Quilted jumps progress

Tags

18th century, fall time, quilted jumps, yard

I finally decided to line the jumps with blue kona cotton. I know most 18th century garments did not use cotton, but I had it in my stash and it was just enough for this project with a bit left over for something else. So I went with it. I really like the way the stripes lined up – yay me for cutting them properly!! 

 

The cut of the neckline on 18th century garments is very becoming; smooth, graceful, just lovely. 

 

 

 

The sides are laying a little janky because pinning it together does not exactly give the smoothest side seams. I’m hoping the little wrinkly bits dissolve when I saw it together correctly. 

 

 

 

 

I could have done a tad better matching up the stripe right down the back, but on the whole, I’m pleased with it. 

 

I started to quilt each piece. I’ve never quilted before, so I looked in Fitting and Proper and it said that on an extant garment, the rows of quilting were a quarter inch apart. I know 18th century women did not measure much, but I measured the spacing just to get a feel for it so I can eyeball it as I continue to go. However, I don’t think my actual stitches are close enough together. I’m wondering if I should rip it out and try again? I’m willing to keep trying until I’m satisfied, but I have four panels to quilt! 

I really like the overall silhouette of the garment and once I’m finished with this project, I plan to make the jacket. I have beautiful fabric for it that I purchased a few years ago and I can’t wait to use it!!

 

 

On another note, here are some fall time pics of the yard. Spring is gorgeous and I love watching the different flowers bloom all summer, but fall is extremely colorful this year, more so than last. 

 

 

As I’ve been driving to and from work watching the trees change, I decided I’d really like a red maple tree in the yard. I think it would be a nice addition and add some good color. I still really want a forsythia bush simply for its bright yellow leaves in the early spring. 

Memorial Day

Tags

cat, rain, yard

We were going to go to Chocolate Fest in Burlington, WI because it’s just down the road. I love chocolate and really wanted to ride the ferris wheel. However, it is raining. And it looks like it is going to rain all day today. The cat is hunkered down in the kitchen and she almost went out onto the porch until she heard the rain again. On top of that, yesterday she experienced her 4 worst sounds: tin foil, trash bags being opened, rain, and fireworks. So yeah. Today is not much better. Poor kitty.

I purchased new flowers to replace the asters that died. It makes me soooo mad that the cheap Walmart flowers died. Maybe it was too cold; maybe the dirt in the boxes was too moist – who knows. Menard’s was having a good sale so I got 4 osteospermum – two in the darker purple/magenta shown in the photo and two in a lighter white-ish purple. I got two impatiens – I think mine are the “celebration bright salmon” variety. The pansies have gotten really big and the catnip is also taking over. I was going to get koleus because that did well in the heat last year, but they only had king sized ones and that would look weird with my other shorter plants and there wasn’t really room for something that big.

Two more weeks of school (official classes) and then exams. It should be a blast. My kids have to write one more essay which we will somehow crank out in two weeks. We’re writing informative news articles and if they don’t get their interviews done, they won’t be able to write. *sigh* Let’s hope they actual take my warnings to heart and accomplish their work.

Flowers and man caves

Tags

cats, flowers, garden, house projects, man caves, yard

In the second spring in our home, we are settling into some spring traditions. Last year my mother-in-law helped a ton with planting several containers/boxes with me. She showed me the ropes and how to pick out flowers from the store and then how to fertilize the soil etc. Now this year, I felt comfortable accomplishing all those tasks myself.

So the asters in the boxes have not fared well. I’m not super upset about this because they cost 1.50 from Walmart. But still. I got flowers from there last year and they were fine. Are asters not hardy WI spring flowers? Hmmm. I guess not. Almost half of them have died. At least, I’m assuming they’re dead. The flowers have withered and died (so I popped them off, thinking/hoping new ones would sprout) and then the stalk turned brown. Not sure that’s a sign of life. However, the pansies are doing well and growing. Hopefully our little bout of frost Sun night (grrrr) did not hurt them too badly.

But in better flower news, the muscari have taken off and even a second flower sprouted out of each stalk! The hostas that I transplanted are all surviving too. They have filled in nicely. Lastly, the bright red tulips bloomed and so did the pink hyacinth. I love the color combo next to each other as well as the height contrast. I want more all around that rock. New goal. Then, in the shade garden all but one hosta (a bluish colored one) have come back and the bleeding hearts have shot up and bloomed and each of the two plants has two or three branches with flowers. So pretty!! Those are my husbands favorite. And yet…..he despises poppies because right now before they have grown a stem/bud/flower they look like weeds and he can’t stand them. I love them and I can’t wait to see them. I think we definitely have more than last year (haha). Because I want to keep them, I think I’m going to have a hard time convincing him to do so unless I figure out a place to transplant them to. So….now I’m wondering how do I transplant poppies? And where do I put them in my yard? They are growing int the “shade garden” which isn’t so shady when the trees don’t have many leaves.

Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, the cat caught a bird. I really enjoy the birds in my yard. And yet, I don’t feel bad letting her  catch and eat a bird. I figure it was not going to survive one way or another anyway so what does it matter. It’s only her natural instinct. After 7 years of living indoors, she finally caught and ate an animal. I’d say her life is pretty near complete!

Our third and last chair has arrived. We picked it up on Saturday. In buying furniture, I have totally followed in my mother’s path of don’t get anything white that will show the dirt. I don’t have time to clean or pay someone to clean my furniture. I brush the cat fur off and febreeze the room and we’re good to go. So my couch is a soft red color and my other two chairs are grey (not awesome for hiding white cat fur, but she knows not to go on them). Well, I still stuck to my mother’s advice and got  a dark colored chair, but this one has writing on it. I’ve ALWAYS wanted a chair with writing on it, especially since it became popular to have that rustic French writing on it. Yeah. Well mine is in Lation. hahah!!!! I was shocked my husband agreed to this fabric. When we have to pick out fabric or colors, I sometimes pick out the most ridiculous one just to see him get all grossed out by it because he’s a boy. When I pulled this fabric off the rack, he’s like “wow, that’s really fun let’s get it!”. I know my jaw dropped and the older couple near us was totally laughing and the newly weds picking out furniture together. I was like, “ummm alright” and then I had to contain myself from jumping and hugging him because we finally agreed on a pattern!! haha again! Since moving into our house summer of 2012, we have officially replaced all of our living room furniture. It feels really good and the living room has a very adult look to it! We are both very pleased. We still have all of my furniture from my first apartment (2 chairs and a couch from my grandma) and his “man bachelor” lazy boy recliner. That’s up in the computer room which has a newly obtained “man cave corner” complete with Hawaiian scented candle that I got in Maui on our honeymoon.

Spring time yard clean up

Tags

flowers, garden, house projects, new plants, yard

Last fall, I believe I wrote about how my husband and dad reroofed a section of the roof on the outbuilding that is now my crafting oasis. Well, they threw down a tarp on the grass and all of the old roofing materials plummeted to the ground. Then it sat there from the end of October to the end of April. The worms, centipedes, and snails had a nice little home all winter!!!! We finally rented a dumpster and picked it all up (I tried to save as many worms as possible much to my husband’s dismay because I wasn’t “picking up enough stuff fast enough”).

Here is the before and after:

Before

Empty dumpster

After

After

Then I was feeling ambitious so I picked up some flowers for the boxes on the deck. Last year we had coleus, zinnias, catnip, dusty miller, and something else I can’t remember in the boxes. The deck boxes are the “annual boxes” (except for the catnip) so I’ve decided to change it up each year just for the sake of variety.

Wisconsin has had a really wretched spring with way too much rain, cool temps, random snow flurries/sleet, so I’m hoping that I did not jinx the weather by putting in the new flowers already. I purchased pink, white, and purple asters and yellow pansies. The dusty miller was left from the previous owner and reseeded itself last spring so I left it, but it had a mildew on it this year and did not look like it had come back so out it came.

Pansies and Asters

Then I was even more ambitious and since my hands were already dirty, I decided to transplant hostas. We have some really nice ones around the base of the walnut tree. The clumps are humongous and definitely need to be thinned. I just hope I did it correctly and did not ruin the ones already there. Around the deck, right at the edge, no grass will grow. I have no idea why. I think someone sprayed too much weed killer and ruined everything. Who knows. But my mother-in-law suggested we put hostas around it. I think it a swell idea because they do provide wonderful coverage. I chunked off about 4 – 5 sections of hosta and plunked them in the ground. Finally, in between those, I put in muscari or blue hyacinth. I’ve never had hyacinth and I really like the name and the shape. Except, after I put it in the ground, I read online that you are supposed to plant bunches of them near each other to give it a full look. I did not so much accomplish this as I split up the bulbs. But I’m hoping the hostas will fill in nicely around them and then the blue hyacinth will poke up in between.

By the tulips on the west side of the house, I put in two pink hyacinths. Not sure if they will bloom at the same time as the red tulips, but that would look nice.

Hostas and Muscari

We still have some more landscaping projects once it gets much warmer. I have holly hocks and a bunch of other bulbs/roots that need to get in the ground pronto. Our yard gets prettier each year!!