Spring Visitors

We had a bit of warm weather this weekend, although today we are quite chilly. Lots of activity outdoors, including a newborn Monarch butterfly. I was very surprised and happy to see that we had a hatching, and saw this one soon after he came out of the chrysalis. He had to hold on for dear life when the wind gusted, but later in the day was flying about & enjoying the milkweeds that have managed to bloom. The tail of a large lizard appears on the brick.

A pair of blue birds have expressed serious interest in the chickadees' birdhouse, instead of their own in the back yard, so the opening had to be enlarged. Naturally today none of them have appeared.

This little fella appeared on the sidewalk near the back of the house, and was relocated to the woods beyond the yard. You know what turtles usually do when you pick them up, right? weeee weeee!

The roses are starting to show off:

Just to the right of this bush is a wonderful bush with small tubular orange flowers that were visited by a pair of orange banded Sulphur butterflies, moving much too quickly to have their picture made.  The male was the most gorgeous apricot color.  This isn't my photo but this is a good model from the Florida Museum of Natural History website. Sorry it's so large. I'm not very good at blogger workings.







                                  Here's a snap of my most recent FO, a pair of socks that were a gift to a co-worker.  The 2nd sock was almost done when I realized it would probably fit the Jolly Green Giant, so frogged back to the band of the cuff and reknit.  Have no idea what that was all about, because the 2nd time through it was to gauge and matched sock #1. Details on Ravelry; yarn = Dream in Color yarn of the month awhile back and the pattern came with.

And I hope to finish this pair tonight, knitted from a discontinued KnitPicks yarn. They will go to the Afghans for Afghans non-profit group. I didn't contribute much last year so will try to step it up this year.  Amazing how quickly plain stockinette socks can be completed.

It was great to have a day off from work, to be home for the workers to demo our bathroom.  Demo meaning 'demolish' that is. Out went the drywall, the tile, the tub, etc....everything out to the dumpster! Within a couple of weeks a new walk-in shower will be installed, new tile, new vanity, new mirror. Just like HGTV haha!

Thanks for stopping by my little blog.  I am so grateful that you visited!

They're Out There!

Oh my, Mother Nature has been so busy lately, with our early February more like April weather.  Came home from work to find a newly hatched Monarch butterfly, right out of the chrysalis.  There are a few more in various spots throughout the front garden, all about ready to hatch, and at least half a dozen fat & happy Monarch caterpillars meandering about the milkweed plants.  I saw at least 30 Cedar Waxwings in the tippy top of a nearby tree; they are so handsome & we don't often see them. We're wondering if the Goldfinches will stop by on their way home; usually we are overrun with them about now. Our white azalea bush is already blooming, along with several of the African Iris and some Cosmos in orange & yellow.  I just hope we don't get a surprise frost.  This early spring reminds me of 1998 when DH & I got married on Valentine's Day!

Sorry, no pictures just now but will post some really soon! Hope you are enjoying your February, whatever the weather!

Ann Dale Progress Report

Just a quick post to show progress on Ann Dale, the wonderful sampler charted by Theresa Venette.  The fabric is 40 count Vintage Pear and the over-1 verse really slowed me down, but I love every stitch. My goal is to finish the sampler this year.

I joined Romi's 2012 Pins & Lace Club and received the first skein of yarn this week, along with an intriguing shawl pattern.

It's a lovely shade of tropical Hawaiian blue and I'm excited about casting on.




Have a great week!

Thank you Marshall Tucker.

For some dear readers this will be close to a repeat of Tues night's post...which I managed to delete after posting while fixing a typo in the title. So Margaret...you can skip this one :)

I was thanking Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynryd, Blackfoot, 38 Special, Allman Brothers for their awesome Southern blues. Because I recently rediscovered just how much I love their music...and because it's helping me hit some new goals at the gym this year.  After fighting to put in even 20 minutes on the elliptical a couple of nights I week, I can now go over an hour and close to 7 miles thanks to these guys. Love those double lead guitars, the awesome bass, the whole Southern sound. Takes me back...

I promise to post a snap of progress on Ann Dale next post.  I've been putting in a couple of hours almost daily ever since the first of the year. It's a gorgeous sampler with my favorite colors.

We had another early spring day here in North Florida - 80 degrees during the day - perfect for riding with the top down! But the pollen is dusting everything, almost a month or two early!

Hope you are finding lots of time to enjoy your favorite needle arts.

Almost Forgot!

The Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread was a finish in late summer 2011.  I neglected to post it as a 2011 finish because it was languishing at my favorite framer's shop waiting for me to pick it up for about 2 months! My only day to go when The Frame Shop is open in St. Augustine is Saturday, and seems I was booked solid every Sat. for ages!  I purchased the frame from Brenda's shop since it is the one she used for her original and I was quite pleased with it.  The olive green and barn red colors complement the piece and the room I have in mind for placing it.

Along with many other members of the Azalea Sampler Guild I hopped on the Ann Dale train.  It's already proving to be a very compelling project with a fairly easy border (although the elements are not equal in count when comparing horizontal vs. vertical so that requires focus) and a goodly number of motifs to keep one's interest!  The colors happen to match much of my house - shades of green, scarlet and cream - and are simply dazzling in the NPI, Belle Soie and Gloriana silk fibers.  This is my progress after 2 days:

This photo doesn't show the colors but the long stem is a dark green, the squiggle-y borders are garnet, and the wandering vine border is a yellow-green.  The small red bands are the start to the strawberry motif border (there are 72 strawberries....I had to count them...OCD!).


It's back to the office tomorrow, to the land of budgets and projects and financial statements....so you know what we say! "I'd rather be stitching!"  Happy 2012!