A day in the lives

Rise and shine!

Eat breakfast

Tumble around a bit

Play ball

Listen to stories

Snuggle

Endless laundry!








Baby bunny, nappy, and blankie patterns by Fuzzy Mitten; carrot pattern by Jen Johnson.

My white orchid

No, this isn't my white orchid. It's a chickadee cracking open a sunflower seed in the lilac bush outside my kitchen window.

We're getting a nice, fresh snowfall today, and it's about time. The old snow had been looking tired and dirty lately, so this storm will spruce things up.

But this post is actually about my white orchid, a phaelenopsis.

It deserves some blog space because it has been such a good orchid.

I bought it, in full bloom, last spring. I think it came  home with me in late May, just as the kitchen remodeling project began.

I needed a little beauty in the house to offset the dust and noise of the remodeling. So the orchid came home with me, from Lowe's, and stayed in bloom from late May through August. As soon as the remodeling was finished in late June, with the kitchen's bay window in place, I set the orchid there, despite the fact that it would get some full sun each day. (Supposedly orchids should get only filtered sun.)

Apparently it liked the full sun and the view, for, as I said, it stayed in bloom from late May to late August.

I was about to cut the flower spike back to 1"-2", which should be done after the plant's flowers have died and dropped off, when I noticed a new branch coming off that spike, and it was forming buds. I decided it would be a shame to cut off those buds, so I left it alone to blossom again.

Then one day as I was watering the plant, I noticed that one of the roots crawling out of the pot was not, in fact, a root, but another flower spike! I was excited to see another spike forming so soon, but there was a problem: the spike, because I'd been assuming it was a root, had been allowed to grow perfectly horizontally rather than being trained to grow upward. I wasn't sure if it was too late to train it upward or not. I didn't want to accidentally snap off the tender spike.

I came up with a plan: Each day I would prop something additional under the spike until the spike was pointing upward. I did this carefully, holding my breath and expecting to see the spike break each time I forced it a bit more to grow in the direction it hadn't planned on.

After several days of this, the spike was headed upward, and its buds were developing nicely. Now it was time to use a hair clip to secure the spike to the bamboo trainer.

That procedure was successful, too. After a few more weeks, the white orchid was in full bloom again, with the buds off the branch of the original spike, and the new spike's buds, opening daily.

So this photo shows you what the orchid looks like today. What I love about orchids is that their blossoms stay open and healthy for many weeks.

I suspect we'll be enjoying these white blossoms into March, at least.

A neighbor who also enjoys orchids mentioned a good point to me last summer: A bouquet of fresh flowers lasts, usually, a week at most. An orchid plant's flowers last a few months. Instead of buying a mixed bouquet of cut flowers, why not buy an orchid instead?

My white orchid probably cost $12.99-15.99, at most. That's not a bad deal for some long-lasting beauty. And this orchid has certainly been giving us our money's worth.

A tale of two bowls

I'm the proud owner of two new bowls.

I received an earring bowl for Christmas.

Now that my earrings are sitting where I can see them, rather than tucked into various jewelry boxes, I'm sure I have a better chance of actually choosing a different pair now and then, rather than wearing the same pair day after day because I'm too lazy to search for a neglected pair.

The bowl is made by a Maine potter who belongs to the United Maine Craftsmen. I met him at a craft show in September and knew I needed one of his earring bowls. I passed along this information to a friend who came through for me.

He also sells his various pottery items on Etsy, so I've included his business card here, in case anyone is interested.

My second bowl is entirely different but just as useful.

It's a knitted and felted bowl.

I used the free Large Shallow Felted Bowl pattern by Deborah Gray, available on Ravelry. The only modification I made was adding 6 or 7 rows of single crochet to the top edge. I did this to give the edge more definition and also to make the bowl curve in slightly at the top.

I used two yarns held together throughout the knitting and crocheting: one skein of Noro Kureyon and one skein of Paton's Classic Wool. Both yarns are worsted weight.

The felting process took roughly 30 minutes in my top-loading washer. I checked frequently until I knew the bowl was felted to the degree I wanted.

I rinsed it by hand in cold water, then spun it in the machine to remove much of the water. I then shaped it by hand and set it on a baking rack to dry naturally.

I like the result.

I "moved into" the bowl this morning: it contains my most-used knitting essentials.

So those are my two new bowls. Unrelated but definitely useful.

December 30

With less than two days left for 2012, I guess I'd better  conclude my blog posts for the year by summarizing the past few days.

Things got a little tense for me on December 21 as I frantically tried to finish a "Pookie" as a gift for a friend's little girl. I was knitting happily when suddenly the power went out, due to a heavy wind storm. Daylight was leaving us, and I could see the handwriting on the wall, so to speak.

I resorted to knitting by candle light as best I could, using the flashlight occasionally to make sure I was following the printed directions correctly.

The doll's clothes got finished in the nick of time. That became a rather stressful issue, too, when I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong with the short-sleeved cardigan pictured here. I finished the right front with no problem; it was the left front that baffled me by having several stitches too few when I finished it. I googled the pattern and discovered other knitters had had the same problem. One knitter mentioned she'd contacted the pattern designer but never got a reply. What to do?

Finally, with a fresh start the next morning, I discovered the pattern called for decreasing at the beginning of every row of the left front, when in fact the decreases should be for the first four rows only. When I get around to posting this project on Ravelry, I'll mention the error and the solution to it.

So the doll clothes for Haley got finished in time, as did the Pookies.

Christmas morning did just what a Christmas morning is supposed to do in Maine: it snowed! I'd been a little disappointed to see we might have a brown Christmas, but Mother Nature came through for us at the last minute, and it snowed all day.

I immediately hung out one of our favorite gifts: this round-caged feeder for small birds. As you can see, the little birds love it. We've seen 12-15 birds crowding into it at a time, and they've emptied the seed silo in a day, easily.

Violet enjoyed her new clothes for Haley. She received not only the ones from me, but also some from her grandparents, so that doll will now have a hard time deciding what to wear each day.

One morning I was watching the birds at the feeder just in time to see a bird land on the arm, where this top bird is sitting, and suddenly slide down the length of it. I guess there was some unexpected ice covering the arm.

Our friends who gave us this feeder ordered it from Gardener's Supply. My sister, though, said she saw one similar to it in Home Depot or Lowe's, I've forgotten which.

Apparently the small birds love it because they feel protected from the big birds while inside the cage. We've had gold finches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, and others all crowded together in the feeder, having themselves a feeding frenzy.

Another favorite Christmas gift is my chocolate Lab slippers from LL Bean. I put them on in the morning and there they stay unless I go outdoors during the day.

We received more snow yesterday and last night. This could mean we'll get out on our cross-country skis or snowshoes soon. Last winter we didn't use them at all, because we had very little snow.

That's it for 2012. Best wishes to my blogging friends in 2013!

Advice taken!

In my last post I mentioned I had made a couple of doll outfits for our special great niece, Violet. Two of my blogging friends, Linda and Sally urged me to forget, or at least put aside for awhile, the many other things needing to be done as Christmas approaches and concentrate on making a doll's owner happy.

I was immediately reminded of the little blue sweater my mother knitted for my doll when I was sick in bed with the mumps for three weeks as a third-grader. I've never forgotten my mother's doing that for me, sitting by me on the sofa during the long days, knitting away on the doll's sweater.


So I've taken their advice.

But this current little cardigan, currently on my needles, has got to be the final item for "Haley" the doll.

Christmas cards are still waiting to be addressed; gifts are awaiting their wrapping and tags.

It'll all get done.

Meanwhile, I'm having fun.

Getting into the spirit of Christmas, sorta

I thought I was fully into the spirit of Christmas about two weeks ago when I found myself madly Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts.

Then things came to a screeching halt. I have no idea why.

I did force myself to spend about an hour yesterday putting ribbons, bows, and tags on wrapped gifts, but I soon tired of that and promised myself I'd continue the task today.

But I haven't. Yet. And it's 2:30 p.m. already, so I probably won't today.

I haven't even thought about putting up the tree.

And Christmas cards? Haven't addressed a single one, although I do have the cards and stamps on hand.

What I have been doing is knitting doll clothes. When our niece Violet visited a couple of weeks ago, I realized how much she loves clothes for her dolls. That's what she bought, a dress for Haley, when we went to the craft show. Nothing else there, and there were plenty of things there, interested her. It was an outfit for Haley that she badly needed.

Although Haley isn't an official American Girl doll, she is an 18" doll, so that's what matters. I began looking on the internet for knitting patterns for 18" dolls and hit the jackpot.

Elaine Baker's free, easy patterns for 18" dolls are just the ticket, as far as I'm concerned.

I've knitted a blue button-up vest, which was supposed to be a sweater but I ran out of yarn. (This particular pattern is not by Elaine Baker but from Classic Elite Yarns.)

Back to the Baker designs. I've completed a pale beige dress to go under the blue vest and have started a pale green dress to go with the yellow cardigan.

Today I added a little blue flower to the skirt of the beige dress so the outfit would look a bit more "coordinated." One's doll must wear coordinating outfits, for heaven's sake.

And at the same time, my little collection of animals has grown by three but decreased by one. A second Pookie, in raspberry and purple, has joined the group, and two rhinos have also found their way to my house, but one of the baby bunnies, with nappy and blankie, has gone to Virginia to live with a little girl named Phoebe. Phoebe was due December 31 but decided to arrive November 27, much to her parents' and grandparents' surprise.

But what I really need to be doing is decorating the tree, wrapping gifts, and addressing cards. Yikes.

De-Violet-izing

It's been 24 hours since our great-niece, Violet, went back home after a two-day visit with us, and I've been adjusting to what feels like an empty house.

Although Violet and I are 60 years different in ages (She turned 7 at the end of October; I turned 67 at the beginning of November), we don't let our slight age difference stop us from having fun.

This visit with her Uncle Ken and Aunt Jean included....

Making cinnamon ornaments. (Mix equal parts ground cinnamon and plain apple sauce, throw in some Elmer's glue for good measure, roll them out, apply cookie cutters, bake at 170° for 30 minutes, then finish air-drying over night. Oh, and don't forget to use a straw to place a hole in each ornament, for hanging, before letting them dry.)

Reprising our crystal-making experiment. We first made crystals (hot water, Borax, pipe cleaners) and decided then that we'd try for colored crystals when she next visited.

Violet opted for adding red food coloring to one jar, red and blue to the second one, and just blue to the third.

Patting Molly as frequently as possible. Violet loves dogs.

Adding ribbon ties to the now-dry cinnamon ornaments.

Reading. Violet loves to read; the "Good Dog," I believe it is, series is her current favorite after just completing the "Bad Kitty" series.

Declaring our colored crystal experiment a success, although the lavender one was a tad lacking in vivacity.

And helping me decorate three of our four small Christmas trees. The kitchen tree received the honor of being bedecked with my portion of the new cinnamon ornaments.

This might not sound like the two of us "girls" did all that much in 48 hours, but add to this list the following:

-We attended a local, huge crafts fair, where Violet couldn't resist buying a new dress for her doll, Haley.

-Violet started her first cross-stitch project. She made fine progress on it and took it home to finish.

-We "did lunch" together at McDonald's.

-And we browsed in several stores at the mall just before we rendezvoused with her dad so she could return home.

Violet carried home with her a shoe box containing her new crystals and her cinnamon ornament, and I...

I staggered home and collapsed on the sofa for two hours!