Growing Garden

The garden is mostly planted and starting to really grow.

These are the tomatoes, my brother has planted herbs between the plants.

These rows are peppers and eggplant.

This area is melon and the string marks the corn seeds.

Here are the squash.

Here are the peas, they have grown almost half up the fence.

And finally the beets.

Easter

Sunday was of course Easter. Easter has a whole new meaning with Katie around to enjoy it. The Wednesday before easter we gathered up Grandma and Uncle and set to coloring easter eggs. We colored eggs last year but this year she had a much better concept of what she was doing and she did a great job.

Easter morning Katie discovered that the easter Bunny had left her a basket in the living room. The basket contained books, coloring books, lots of hair clips from Somewhere Out There, a jump rope, rainbow goldfish, a chocolate bunny a a few jelly beans/chocolate eggs. The Easter Bunny wanted Katie to have lots of fun stuff and not too much candy. The jump rope was a hit and mommy was jump roping all over the house to Katie's amusement, the flower shaped handles also work at microphones for Katie to sing and dance with.

Next we got dressed and headed to brunch at church. Great grandpa was there too. Katie took her goldfish and showed everyone the crazy colors.

After we ate we sat outside where Katie ran in circles for awhile.

Then she headed to the planter area and climbed on the rock she always sits on despite Mommy telling her to not mess up her dress. 

Next she tried to smell the iris which had finally bloomed. We had been watching it for a few weeks.

She then told me the rocks were eggs and tried to pick them up.

After church we came home and Katie took a nice long nap. When she woke up she ate some lunch the put her tennis shoes refreshed and ready to hunt down some eggs.

Once outside she was off and running!

After she had collected the last egg she kept telling me they were heavy but she did not want me to help her. Altogether she collected 2 1/2 dozen eggs.

Back inside the house she put them all in egg cartons.

Easter dinner was cooking most of the afternoon and soon it was time for Grandma to make some carrot and raisin salad (basically its ground up carrots and raisins with a little milk added) and Katie of course helped. She said it looked like worms coming out the the grinder, gross but and excellent observation.

Over all it was a great day and everyone had fun. I can't wait till next year!

Camera Strap

I have recently gotten a new camera and had previously seen a pattern for a camera strap cover here. It looked simple enough and I was able to complete it on a Saturday morning. First I selected six charm squares that were left over from another project. I sewed them together then trimmed off the ends to that it was the length of my strap plus one inch.

Next I ironed on fusible fleece to the back and to give it a quilted look sewed lines roughly every 1/4 inch down the length.

The ends are then folded and sewn then the seam is sewn. Next the strap is turned which turned out to be the hardest part of the project.

Finally I slid it over my camera strap and now I have a cute camera strap cover!

Grapes, Strawberries and More

The strawberry plants I put in around the roses have started showing up. I think there are four plats that have survived so far. The ones I planted in the other planter I fear are a lost cause since it rained right after they were plated and the planter flooded. These little strawberry plants are pushing through.

The roses above them are growing like crazy and are covered in buds.

This is the planter that the strawberries are not showing up. The flowers that I have planted seem to be doing well. This last weekend we planted a bunch of Cosmo seeds to help fill it in.

These are some Cosmos that we bought and planted along with some garden decorations. The gnome is a favorite of Katie's, he moves around a lot since she like to put him in different places.

In the backyard things are looking very green. The pomegranate tree is getting leaves so the pruning of last Fall must not have been too bad for it. 

The blackberry plants seem to not be doing anything, but I will give them a little while longer before I give up hope. The grapes are doing great and will soon need some form of a trellis to hold on to.

After the thaw

We have had an unusually cold storm lately that cause the weather to freeze at night and caused a little worry about the plants in the garden and delaying the transplant of seedlings to outdoors. It seems all the plants outside came through ok. Last weekend it was time to get the tomatoes and a few other plants into the ground.

Kevin has mapped out where the plants are to go. He started by marking where he needed to dig the holes then started digging.

It took awhile but after dark he was able to get some plants in the ground.

The plants that were previously planted are doing really good and growing.

When we get everything in I will post more pictures.

Katie Update

Katie has been a busy little lady. She is getting good at helping water the plants in the yard.

One thing Katie has liked to do since I got a digital photo frame is to watch the pictures. It contains pictures of her since she was born and she is fascinated by it. She also will sit at the computer and ask to watch the baby, wanting to see videos of her when she was a baby. She gets very excited about this.

I have gotten my camera back from repaire so Katie is back to taking pictures. She walks around telling everyone to "say cheese" and snaps away.

In order to convince Katie to let me cut her nails I have started to bribe her with nail polish. She wants them painted so I tell her they have to be cut to be colored. This is working surprisingly well so far. This weekend it was purple.

After a few years of growing Katie is finally tall enough to turn on the lights but not quite tall enough to turn them off. This has caused a few bulbs that have not been replaced with cfl's do burn out when I do not realize they are on.

The roses in the front yard are starting to bloom. Katie likes to pull off all the petals and give them to mommy.

And finally my mom found one of Katie's favorite foods at the store today. This girl still loves corn on the cob.

Baby Blanket

My friend and former coworker Gwendolyn is having a baby! When I was pregnant with Katie she was just three months behind me with her son Sinjin. We were just a few of the many pregnancies in a short period of time at LHQ. She announced late last year that she was pregnant with another one and after seeing her at my housewarming party I knew she was going to have a girl and started looking for a girl looking quilt and fabric. A short while later she confirmed that it was going to be a girl.

I made this quilt along with the Stacked Coin Quilt Doing each step on that one first) and used the same techniques. The pattern I selected was from the Moda Bake Shop Baby Blanket. I really liked the colors used so I went with the Aviary line, I did change the pattern of fabric used for the binding and backing. Here is part of the completed top.

And here is the completed quilt. Those are Katie's feet there on the side.

Here is a look at the completed binding along the edge.

Here is a look at the back and corner of the front.

I am really happy with how it came out.