The Language of Flowers

I finished this book over the weekend. Since I don't want to give much of anything away about the plot, I'm just going to say that I enjoyed it.  A lot.  Even though I almost quit reading it halfway through.  lol.  A gardening friend recommended it so I grabbed it thinking I knew what I was getting into.  Although the story was much different than I thought it would be, it really does have so much information about the meanings of flowers.  I learned a great deal and was also quite enthralled by the story.   I recommend it for anyone who likes "makes-you-think" books.

First Quilt of the Year

Merry Christmas! No, I'm not several weeks late. I'm really, really early with my preparations. I've finished another Christmas quilt, hoping to have enough of them done by the holidays for everyone to have one.

This is the "Li'l Twister" version of the funky pinwheel quilt I made before.  Whereas the original Twister pattern uses 10 inch squares to start, this version uses 5 inch charm squares.  Here's what the charm squares looked like, all put together...

I used two Christmas fabric charm packs that I had found on sale at Quilts Etc and then added more red fabrics from my stash. I really like the addition of blue to the traditional holiday green and red.  Most of the blue fabrics have snowmen on them.  After assembling the squares, the pattern calls for bordering them with strips of another fabric.  I found one that looks like tiny snowballs...

Then, the real fun begins!

With this smaller size of ruler, this second cutting step is the weirdest combination of fun and tedium.  Fun because the pattern begins to develop in the newly cut squares.  Tedium because I had to cut around that ruler 90 times!  Whew!  I've decided that I won't be making any big quilts with tiny pinwheels.  90 cuts is my limit.  Here are the newly cut squares ready to be reassembled....

As you can see in the finished picture above, I added another white border and then a deep red one to bring the quilt up to a usable size.  I quilted it simply as there was already so much going on in the design.

Zade decided that I needed a little extra help with this quilt.  While I as pinning the quilt together for machine quilting, she appropriated the leftover backing.  lol.

So, I have finished one of the three Christmas quilts I planned for this year.  Never too early to start getting ready for Christmas!

Baby Salsa II or In The Garden - January 28

Winter has finally come to Utah, but my garden is growing pretty well all the same.  I posted about my newborn tomato plants on January 17.  They've done much growing since then.  They've developed their first set of new leaves and today, were ready to each move out of the nursery pot and into their own home.

Getting pretty crowded in there!  Only eight of the eleven plants that originally sprouted were really worthy to move on to bigger pots.  The best of the best, as it were.  After scrubbing and bleaching the four-packs that I'd saved from last year, I moved the little plants, one by one, into fresh soil in a four-pack.  That step always makes me a bit nervous as there is so much that can go wrong.  Crushing or bruising the stem can  kill a plant that tiny.  Fortunately, I think all of them made it this time.  *crosses fingers*

Here they are, getting used to their new digs, so to speak.  I will probably need to repot them into bigger pots at least once, perhaps twice, before they go out into the garden in Walls O' Water around April 1.

While I had the potting soil out, I started Genovese basil, tomatillos, and a small, ornamental grass called Lagurus ovatus.  I'm hoping to use it in the barrels and pots instead of buying the expensive, already grown versions.

I've got the heat mat plugged in so that the seeds will germinate a bit faster.  It also seems to help the growth of the little starts at this early stage.  I moved the lights up out of the way so that I could get a photo, but usually the lights hang about an inch above the little leaves.

The Uglies - Next Step

Those ugly hallway walls are now free of wallpaper and scrubbed pretty clean.  Yesterday, I moved on to the living room.

Although we hung this wallpaper about 21 years ago, I'll still liked it.  It was subtle, but fun.  And also very dated.  Here's a detail of the decimated pattern...

This paper is much higher quality than that in the hallway.  It still was in good shape in most spots, but it is harder to remove.  I'll be going through lots and lots of Piranha Wallpaper remover in the living room!

I'd sure like to get this all removed and the room painted before Ben gets home.  Not that he cares what the walls look like, lol.  I just know we'll be having more guests around then.  So, if I disappear for a while, you'll know that I'm scraping my walls.

The Scottish Prisoner

I've finished my first book of the year (see Goals blogpost.)  The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon is a story from the Lord John Grey series that is a companion to the Outlander series.  I absolutely love the stories of Jamie Fraser and Clair Beauchamp from the Outlander stories, but up until now hadn't read any of the stories from the companion series.  There could, however, be only one 'Scottish Prisoner' so I knew that this story would feature Jamie himself.

My favorite motif from the Outlander series is the relationship between Jamie and Claire.  Alas, apart from a few of Jamie's fantasies and dreams, Claire makes no appearance in this story.  However, Jamie is prominent in the story, so it was worth reading to learn more about his time apart from Claire.

The Jacobite cause is also featured prominently here, and as with all things Jacobite, the plot is very convoluted.  There were several passages that I had to re-read to make sure I understood who was involved.  It was rather like untying a very complex Celtic knot.  Satisfying when finished, but a bit frustrating during the process.

Not surprisingly, the best part of the book was the excerpt from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, the next novel in the Outlander series.  *sighs*  It should be available in 2013.

Baby Salsa

Have you ever wondered what newborn salsa looks like?  lol.  Probably something like this...

This is actually 11 newly germinated 'Rutgers' tomato plants.  After some extensive research online as to the best variety of tomato for home canning, I found that 'Rutgers' appeared on virtually every list.  And it was the only one that had such universal popularity.  So, although I rarely try to be with the 'in crowd', I'm going with the popular tomato as over 25 canners can't all be wrong.  Right?

And for the sake of full disclosure, I really did say that "no one needs ten tomato plants" back in August.  At the time, I believed it with all my heart.  That was before I tasted homemade catsup.  Now, I'm addicted.  The only way to have homemade catsup without a (expensive) visit to the farmer's market is to have about ten tomato plants in full production.  So, I'm eating my words.  With catsup on them. 

The Uglies

My upstairs hallway has a bad case of The Uglies.

Looks kind of like my walls have leprosy.

On the bright side, the vinyl face of the wallpaper came down in huge chunks.  Once that is off, my favorite wallpaper remover (Piranha brand) makes short work of the paper liner.  In addition, about half of the liner came off with the vinyl, so I'll be doing much less scraping than I had dreaded. 

Now if I can just figure out how to reach into the corners.  Being short has definite disadvantages in these situations. 

In The Garden - January 2

Even though the high temperatures this week have been record-breaking 50s, it's still much to cold to be planting outside.  However, it is the perfect time to be starting plants inside!  And I'm ready:

My seed order from Pinetree seeds arrived this week.  As always, I'm so impressed with their customer service.  My order was in my hands just three days from ordering all the way from Maine.  These are all the seeds I plan to plant this year ( I think).  Only about half of them need to be started early indoors.  And I'll be starting the first ones tomorrow now that I have the equipment cleaned up.

I scrubbed all the flats and pots with a brush and then soaked them in a bleach solution to kill any fungus that might affect the plant growth.  Yesterday, Mike and I stopped at Home Depot and bought seed starting mix and some peat pots for some of the finicky seedlings. 

Tomato seedlings take a while to get to optimum size for setting out so they're first on the list.  Then I'll be starting seeds every week or so until early summer.

2012?!?

Yep.  It's really here -  the year that even the great Mayan scholars didn't know what to do with.  This is going to be a good year for me.  At least, I'm going to work very hard to make it so.  I've set a few goals to help me. 

Spiritual Goal - 

 I've been reading the Book of Mormon, trying to get it finished in 100 days.  I really enjoyed my hundred day read when both Josh and Sam were out on their missions, thought I'd do it again to celebrate Ben's mission.  In addition, I am going to keep up with the Sunday School class lessons even though I can't usually attend. 

Physical Goal - 

Last year, I set a goal to lose 25 pounds and then maintain for the rest of the year.  Worked great!  I'm going to do that again this year.  I plan to stick to my food plan prescribed by the dietician and diabetes educator.  I also plan to exercise at least 30 minutes five days per week.  This will be the really hard part as my arthritis rarely cooperates when it comes to exercise.

Intellectual Goal - 

Read, read, read.  I plan to read as often and as much as I can.  I've gotten a bit away from reading for fun and it's time to get back to it.  I plan to finish at least one book a month, hopefully many, many more.

Creative Goal - 

I've collected fabric for several quilts.  I'd like to get a bunch of them finished this year.  In addition to my "Free Block Class" quilt, I want to finish three more Christmas quilts and three other quilts.

I'm hoping to hold myself accountable for these goals here in my blog.  Haven't decide exactly how, but you'll be hearing more about my 2012 goals for sure!