IT'S OBVIOUS, I'VE BEEN DRAGGING MY FEET ALL WINTER

When too much time elapses between post, I never know where to begin. I've noticed although I'm not getting many comments on my last post although I'm getting a lot of visitors who never comment. Is it because my blog is getting boring? If so, I don't blame you. I'll admit, my posts have been rather boring even to myself, but I still would like a tiny comment like  "Hello Julia".🙂

I don't have lots going on, I'm still recuperating from a nasty fall on the ice while working at the farm. I fell flat on my belly, hurting my rib cage and it interferes with my sleep so I don't get much done at home but I'm on the mend slowly.

 There was a thin layer of freshly fallen snow on top of the ice. I was wearing my ice grippers and carrying a pail with 3 bottles of milk in hot water for my small calf and the tip of my ice grippers hit a small bump of ice, I lost my balance and down I came, just missing smashing my face and eyeglasses on the hard ice. I had snow all over my glasses. I got all wet from the splashing hot water and went to feed my calves. Thank goodness it wasn't cold that afternoon and that I didn't get burned either.

On a happier note, my daughter Christine and her family are back from a winter vacation and cruise. She sent me some photos of the boys enjoying Walt Disney characters.

The boys actually had green eggs and ham for breakfast.  Look at those smiles of contentement...

They really enjoyed hugging these Dr. Suesses characters, He looks so cuddly...

The cool Cat In The Hat

More cuddly characters to make friends with, Winnie The Pooh and Eeyore

It looks like they had their dream come true, meeting with their favorite Walt Disney book characters.

Now to show you what I've been playing with... For those who don't hook rugs, this may be boring but dyeing wool this way always brings some surprises.

I tried an experiment to marbleized some wool worms to hook some grass on my Rock-A-Bye-Baby challenge rug using leftover assorted green wool worms. I tied the top of the worms and braided it and tied it several places. Put it in the pot with water without pre-soaking it following directions. It asked either use Tide powder or Borax.  I didn't have Tide powder so I tried Borax.

You can see the color bleeding out of the wool

I used a candy thermometer I bought at Walmart a while back and simmered at 195 ℉ for 15 minutes and turned the wool over and simmered for another 15 minutes. Then I added about 1/2 a cup of vinegar and simmered again for about 30 minutes. Care should be taken to not boil the wool as it may felt the wool and making it too thick to hook with. I turned the heat off and let the wool sit overnight as it was a bit late. The next morning I rinsed the wool well and squeezed the water out and blotted the excess moisture with an old towel and hung them on an old fridge door that doesn't work anymore.

For some reason, one color of the wool turned out brittle and had to be thrown away but the rest was fine. I won't be using Borax again. The colors don't show well in these photos but there is a marbleized effect on  the wool worms.

More marbleizing experiment using the same method but rolling and twisting different color wool pieces on top of each other, using dark and light and a neutral color like camel and laying some extra leftover wool worms in the middle.

Now if I could just get off the computer and hook a bit on my rug I might make some progress.
Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment. I hope the weather is sunny where you are. Here it's been a beautiful springy, sunny day with a few clouds. Spring is only a little over 22 days to spring.

COUNTING THE DAYS TO SPRING

Yep, that's what I'm doing, counting the days to spring. I googled and it tells me that there are 37 days, 11 hours and so many minutes and seconds to spring 2018.

I've been rather lazy this winter and neglected my house plants and since we use wood heat in the basement and first floor, the air dries out my plants as I've neglected to care for them like I used to and the soil dried out several times or maybe more than several times... It seems that I'd rather nap than water plants but they are tough and despite the neglect, they are rewarding me with late blooms this year. It could be that they are confused with the weather extremes.

This was a Poinsettia Christine gave me at Christmas in 2016, It was huge but I lost 2 plants in that pot because I let the soil dry, bad me... but it's still put on a show the best it could.

The Christmas Cacti also were neglected but despite their hardship, they survived with a little bit of attention.


The Poinsettias and Christmas Cacti used to bloom on time for Christmas but this year they were late and are blooming now and are not in the best shape but I'll take any blooms at this gloomy time of year.  The Christmas Cacti are almost finished blooming right now. We've had snow storms and rain repeatedly and it will be a long time before the outdoor plants give blooms... Somehow seeing real blooms on my houseplants kinds of gladens the heart.

I did a bit of hooking and I finished one mitten. I have the wrong size knitting needle for the pattern but the woolen mitten fits me perfectly. Now to start the other one.

I hope that you take heart if cold winter isn't your favorite season.
Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.
Hugs, Julia

MR GROUNDHOG SAYS, "EARLY SPRING". DO YOU BELIEVE HIM?

February 2nd is Groundhog Day and Mr. Groundhog certainly didn't see his shadow today. That means we'll get an early spring...  It's been gloomy, snowy and overcast. The weather is rather mild and it's a good thing. We attended a funeral service for a dear family friend who was 99 years young. Adele would have been 100 in May but she certainly didn't look her age. She died two weeks after a fall. After her fall, she decided that maybe it was time to move to an assisted senior complex... Our large church was packed even though it was snowing heavily at the time.

 It stopped snowing for a short time and it's now snowing again...

What to do when Spring is not far away, but it's still wintering outside? I dream of tending my flower gardens of course. If everything goes as plan, I'll be retiring from dairy farming in the spring. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed. I'm not afraid to get bored as I have more hobbies than I can do even if I lived to be 100.

I've been looking at my seeds catalogs and writing down what seeds I want to buy.

 It's unbelievable how expensive the seeds have gotten since I started gardening many years ago. I only had a few gardens then and with no money to buy plants, I bought little packets of seeds. They were very cheap then.  I remember my first little makeshift greenhouse was a large picnic table turned upside down and I draped it with a large sheet of heavy plastic. I would pull back the plastic in the morning and put it back on in the evening, somewhat like a cold frame and I had great results.
 I'm hoping that I will have more time to do some weed prevention this spring but I'm only dreaming.

I started this little rug April 2017, since the backing was too small for my frame, I basted some wool strips to stretch over the frame.I'll be weeding that grass and try to hook the grass differently. THat baby is sleeping with one eye open, lol...

I've also pulled out my not so great Rock-A-Bye Baby rug and I've resumed hooking the sky. I've been using leftover wool worms for everything but the sky as it was a challenge rug but since our daughter, Nicole passed away, I kind of lost interest and just put it away for a while. It's rather smallish for me as I was using a small leftover piece of linen burlap backing that I had hanging around.

I design all my own rugs and just can't be bothered to buy a ready made pattern. Someday, I may do a portfolio of my hooked rugs, just for fun.

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments. I really appreciate it when you take the time to let me know that you came to say "Hi"
Hugs, Julia