| Saturday Night | ||
| Rain in the evening...then rain showers likely with a chance of snow showers after midnight. Little or no snow accumulation. Lows in the mid 30s. Chance of precipitation 80 percent. | ||
| Sunday | ||
| Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain and snow showers in the morning...then a chance of showers in the afternoon. Highs around 50. Chance of precipitation 40 percent. | ||
A few months ago I planned out my garden and ordered plants/seeds. The seeds were shipped at that point, but all of the plants are shipped out when the company thinks is the appropriate time for them to be planted in your region. Imagine my surprise when on March 13th I got an email saying that my asparagus has shipped. Eek. We weren't ready. We hadn't built the bed yet where they would be planted. With rain in the forecast for the coming weekend we took the 17th off to get the bed built. Of course these things have a way of taking longer than you imagine. Luckily the rain held off for the weekend and we were able to get it finished and get the asparagus planted. The photo shows the asparagus on rows of compost. It was then filled in with more dirt/compost/llama-poop-fertilizer.
And the house is starting to look like a florist shop! I had bought a couple of bouquets on Saturday and then other people brought flowers with them. Some of them were absolutely gorgeous!
Joining us for Easter were Mom and her caregiver Iko, Dad, Liz, and Hanna, Andrew and Gentry, and friends York, Desta, and Kristin. After eating we played some badminton, and then after the "adults" had left, we played Telestrations. It was interesting since we had some repeat words this time from when we've played before. Photos of everyone are below.
So a few weeks ago I decided to make some legwarmers to wear for skaitng. I don't wear them for my Saturday group class, but I've also been taking private lessons on Sundays to prepare for my competition in two weeks. Since it's a more intense class I wear my skating dress and tights (and a sweatshirt). But since it's cold at the rink I decided I wanted some legwarmers. They took about a week and a half to finish.
The dress is what I'll be wearing for my competition. As you can see, I've added some trim to the top and bottom. The trim at the top makes it a little difficult to get in and out since it isn't stretchy, but it's not too bad. And I sewed it on with fairly big stitches, so it will be easy to change if I want different decoration at a later point in time.
It's early, so you can't say "no you're not". I asked Gentry to marry me and she said yes.
Shortly after Christmas Chris and I got this game. A few people saw it and agreed that it looked like fun, but we didn't get a chance to play until Saturday. O. M. G. I don't think I've laughed this much in years!
So in the example here, the word is kickball and by the end it's swiss cheese.
Every time I make a recipe that calls for cream cheese frosting, I fall in love. This time was no exception.
We also decided that for future holidays I should just change the color of the food coloring. So there very well could be green velvet cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day. I also think I need to get a large star tip for decorating purposes.
So here's a work in progress of my legwarmers. The color is all wrong, but I love the texture of it. Unfortunately I don't know if I'm going to have enough yarn. The pattern said two skeins, which is what I bought, so I thought I would be good. But as I'm knitting, I realized I'm nowhere near the finished length, but my yarn is quickly running out. So I check the pattern. 2 skeins, but 100g each. The yarn I bought was 50g per skein. Doh! Hopefully the store will have more of the same color. It could be challenging because this yarn has been discontinued. If they don't have it, I'll have to do something creative with mixing in different colors or trying to find the yarn elsewhere.
Saturday I went and got my dress. I had looked at dresses online and noticed how crazy expensive they were. I figured I would look locally and see what I could get and then order online if I couldn't find anything. So my coach and classmates suggested that I go to a local store in Framingham. I did, and here's my dress. Except I got it in black. I had thought about getting one in a simmery black velvet, but they didn't have a style that I liked in that color. 
And in knitting news, I'm still working on a secret project, but it is almost done. However, I've taken a break and started on some legwarmers. I figure they could be good for skating. I just started them last night, so we'll see if I can finish them by the weekend or not. If I do, chances of me getting burned out are high. Last weekend I finished up my eggplant, pictured here. The pattern book used the alternate word, aubergine, which I love. I also love the word courgette.
What's amazing to me about all of this is how much I've learned and improved in the two years that I've been skating. I remember in my second class I started crying because I was so stressed and frustrated and feeling as if I couldn't do anything. I just hope I don't suck too horribly come competition day.
Petunias
Today's post is all about knitting. As many of them have been lately. I don't really understand why I'm so much into knitting all of a sudden, but it all started right after Christmas when I saw a knitting calendar with a pattern for cookies. Then that led to the penguin hat also in the calendar. And I wanted to make something to give along with the hat, which led to the monster booties (and another secret project). And along the way there were vegetables and fingerless gloves. And my latest internet addiction- Ravelry. This led to elf slippers and the desire to order lots and lots of yarn. Yup. I have a problem.
We have company coming on Saturday which means that the rest of the week needs to be spent cleaning and getting ready for that. But all I want to do is go home and finish knitting an eggplant.
This weekend's knitting projects included these elf slippers, making cases for my double pointed needles, and starting to make a bunch of grapes.
I went with a pattern that I had for Halloween eyeballs and used that for my first grape. It turned out a bit large, so I left out an increase and a few extra rows and I think the smaller size will be fine. Then I made the stem out of some yarn leftover from Tucker. I have 7 more grapes to make for this bunch, but I think it may be part of an even larger bunch of grapes. That will have to wait to see.
Finished up my fingerless gloves over the weekend. I think I should have made them a size smaller. they seem a little baggy. However, they also fit well over bulky clothes, so maybe it was the right size. Maybe it's just a yarn without a lot of elasticity. The photo of my left hand looks a little wonky, but that's just because of my sweatshirt sleeve and my watch underneath the glove.
We also looked around the rest of the museum. Well, not all of the museum, because it's huge. And I saw this sign. Obviously it humored me, since I pulled out my camera in the ladies room.
I'm not entirely sure why, but today I seem to have the Pinewood Derby on my brain. I guess it started out when I was browsing a baking website and I started to look at their chocolate molds to find car designs. And then I started thinking about decorations so I went to Oriental Trading. And then since I was looking at all this other Derby stuff, I may as well go ahead and order the trophies.
Over the weekend we were in Target and I tried out Burt's Bees Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Creme. since it was so cold out, when we left, I put my gloves on. Now, whenever I put my gloves on, I smell honey. Love that!
Back in either late November or early December I decided that I wanted to make a gingerbread house. I figured this would be a fun activity to share with our friends. Well due to scheduling, we couldn't get together until this past Saturday. So we decorated houses and then had a re-gift Yankee Swap.
It's funny, because when we had the supplies on our counter in the kitchen it didn't look like we had all that much. So we asked people to bring some candy to share. Wow, when it all was on the table, it was apparent that we had more than enough!
To allow time for the houses to set up before decorating, Chris and I made the basic house shape in advance. And we used graham crackers since I figured it would be easier than baking enough gingerbread to make 17 houses. So we started putting them together on Friday night. And we soon discovered that two boxes of graham crackers weren't enough, so we finished them up on Saturday morning after a trip to the grocery store. And in the end, 2 people were unable to make it, which was probably a good thing as the house was pretty full with 15 people (6 of them being kids).
We started off the evening with dinner. I think in Chris' and my minds we were thinking we would start with decorating and people could eat whenever, but as it turned out, we ate and then decorated. Back at the end of December I had come across this recipe for mini ham and cheese sandwiches. I thought they sounded good, but was also somewhat skeptical. But we gave them a try, and they were delicious! A little greasy/buttery, but very good. We knew those wouldn't be enough, so we also had salad and pizza. We recently discovered the BEST pizza ever. Papa John's BBQ Chicken with Bacon. Amazing! Normally it comes with onions, but we have a number of non-onion people, so we got it without. Still very good. That pizza went quickly.
For one family, this was their first time coming to one of our game nights. They commented that they found it amusing that we essentially hosted a kids' party when we don't have kids. Hey, we like to do fun "kids" activities. :) Besides, I've found that sometimes it's better to include the kids if not having them there would mean that the parents are unable to come due to lack of babysitters, etc. So the kids come and they run around the house, play games, watch movies, etc. 
And it's not like we ignore the kids. Kristin was the first of the adults to finish decorating her house. Probably because she wasn't busy helping the kids with theirs. So when she was done she started playing with the kids. It seems their game was to all hold onto her legs as she tried to walk.
