How's the Weather?

I'm still busy unpacking and getting settled into the house, and my camera hasn't been used in quite a while (so no updates to share). I remembered that I had some old pictures that I uploaded to my computer a while back but never put up here, though. The weather here in Sonoma county has been a little confused... we're getting rain, and quite a bit of it, during the first week of June. JUNE, people - I like the rain, but I also like my garden, and the sad little plants would like some sun.

That being said, I recently pulled back out a hat that I thought was in storage for summer (ha), and it's actually one I made for our Tahoe trip way back at the beginning of the year. I used the Pretty Puffs slouchy hat pattern (on Ravelry here). Ignore the weird look on my face - I have a bad habit of making super dorky faces in front of the camera, but by myself and with the timer I apparently make sad and/or angry looking faces. But the hat looks cuter from the front than the back, so I had to show my face. All of which reminds me of this post by Moorea.

So, the hat:

Voila. It's comfy and I like the fact that I made it myself. :)

What I've Been Up To

Things have been happening around here. My sister-in-law got married this weekend and we're moving next weekend! The house needs some upgrades, so we (along with some FANTASTIC family and friends) have been painting and changing out flooring.


Kitchen:

Will be getting new granite countertops, new appliances, tile, and freshly painted cabinets.

The cabinets were all that oak color you can see in the interiors... the doors have yet to be painted but the frames are all done in a nice creamy/sandy color. "Shoji white," to be specific. :)

Living room:

All the carpet is being replaced with either a) new carpet in the living room or b) tile in the entryway/hall/dining room (all currently carpeted)

And my wall is blue!

Note to Self

When washing your new fabric, don't get so excited that you leave the navy blue in with the white...

At least I remembered to wash the red on its own.

Life of an Item

I wrote a guest post over at the Lab Rats blog - please visit! It's all about how I make my animal silhouette pillows. The newest one, featured in the post, is a bear. However, the pillow pictured had some serious issues - the fabric creased really well. Where I didn't want it to. So this is how it looks now:

A work in progress.

How Many of These Should I Have?

I planted a bunch of seeds last weekend, and today I transplanted some of them into their own little pots. I don't really know what I'm doing here, but I have baby plants so it seems to be going OK so far. The only problem is that this is just 1 of 4 types of tomatoes that I have... and all the little containers. I guess I need to buy more. When you're growing things from seeds, how many plants are you supposed to get? Can I save the seeds for next year? I think I need to figure these things out, because I don't have room for all these plants!

I love growing things. These already have a little tomato-y smell. I'm not even a big tomato fan but I <3 these little plants.

Who else out there is growing things this year?

Baby Quilt - Finished and Gifted

Well, seems like I'm developing a monthly blogging habit. I don't want to post things just to post, though - my favorite bloggers are the ones that feel the most authentic. I'm not a "writer," in that writing is not a natural skill of mine and I don't feel a pull to create written work. I do, however, like gathering my thoughts, and that's what this blog is. It's a place to focus on what I've done or what I'm doing, but when I just don't have the time, it gets pushed off my to-do list pretty quickly.

I've been trying to record more things photographically speaking, though. I'm trying for a picture a day - or, to be more accurate, a picture per day. Meaning I may take 6 pictures on a Saturday and call them the week's pictures. I'm about three pictures short right now, so I'm not doing too bad.

In other news, I finished the baby quilt a while back, actually got pictures of it, and gifted it today! It was a project that I started without a specific recipient, and I ended up giving it to a young woman at my church who's pregnant with her first baby, a little boy. Here it is, complete:

I don't know the finished size - good for cuddling, I hope. It's cotton on the front, flannel on the back.
You can see how I pieced the back if you look closely, but the pattern is busy enough that it wasn't super obvious. I hope it gets lots of love and holds up well. Let the quilting adventures continue!

A Fun History Lesson

Things have gotten a bit busy around here, as they tend to do. I just read a post on Etsy that I really liked - not really a history lesson, but a reference to history... It caught my eye because it's about needlework, which I'm liking more and more as I do it more. I like it for itself, but I also like its links to the past.

Go, look: Needlework from the Drawers of Daughters - it's much more eloquent than I am.