Spring is Coming - Everything is Growing!

So, it was raining like crazy here last weekend and it doesn't look a whole lot better for the upcoming one.  That is all right with me - we usually get into a drough sitiation here before half the summer is gone, so the more "cats and dogs" in spring, the better I'd say!  

I was pretty bad at stitching this past weekend as I ended up with a pretty fabulous tear duct infection in my right eye on Sunday.  It is still healing and now it just looks bad, but I don't really feel it anymore.  No wonder I was cranky on Friday!  ;-)  Anyway, when I finally started to stitch, I got about one half of one of the Richmond horse riders done before I jumped into something completely different - the Pumpkin Pocket kit by Drawn Thread.  I love it!  It is the first time I have worked with Valdani over-dyed floss.  It is beautiful and feels so soft.  I also really like the lining fabric that comes with the kit; a really pretty polka-dot on a soft orange background.  This baby will get finished up this weekend! 

 

My garden is running amok right now.  The rain and the warmer days makes all the spring bulbs grow so that it almost is a visible difference from morning to evening.  I am thrilled - I sat all of these bulbs in October last year, so I can't wait to see what'll happen...  I am also "lucky" enough to have a memory like a gold-fish, so I am extra excited a to discover what I planted... :-)  I do recall spending days on getting all of them down in the ground.  

I think that it does look like some Hyacinths here below, but we'll have to wait and see. 

Here is visual proof that I may have bought more bulbs than I probably have space for.  (At least I am hoping that these were planted by me.)  I do recall that I bought a lot of bulbs that are supposedly early, middle and late spring bloomers, but it seems to me that they are all coming up at the same time.   

I have some fun stuff going on in my indoor pots too.  This plant is a Hoya Carnosa that has been taken from a parent plant that I have.  The parent plant never bloomed, but if you look closely, you can see 3 or maybe even 4 flower clusters.  I think that maybe this plant is sitting at a better location.  Plus my parrots have not tortured the will to bloom out of this one.  Yet.  Anyway, these white flowers give off a lot of honey and the fragrance is wonderful.  I did not perceive the Hoya as an uncommon houseplant back in Sweden, but I have not really seen any here in the US.  Can they be found around here?.

It is an interesting plant in that it prefers to have the roots pretty cramped up, so it does not want to be repotted often.  After re-potted it usually refuses to grow and bloom until the pot has been packed with roots again.  The flowers sprout out from the same tiny "knots" on the vines season after season, so it is important not to damage or cut the "knots" off, or the future flowers in that location are lost.  I am so happy - this is the second time this plant is on its way to flower and there are so may more locations this time around.  I promise to post pics as soon as it starts to bloom!

And now to something completely different.  Here is something  that grew in my mail-box the other day.  This is the tomato pin-cushion from the newest Little house Needlework and Impie, Hattie & Bea collaboration.  I am holding it up so that you can see how huge it is!

Scrappy, below, is our tiny parrot model for today.  He (or she?) is showing off the needle-book that comes together with the tomato in the "Fresh from the From the Garden" set.  

About the garden set: I am very pleased with colors, craftsmanship and so on.  I can add this kit to my (unstitched) Traveling Stitcher and the Scissor Bed & Pin Pillow....

About our model: Scrappy is Henny's (model from last time) cage-mate.  He can say "Hi Scrappy" and "Come here" in a really high-pitched and squeaky voice.  He doesn't mind being held and kissed and he is pretty skinny, so he freezes easily.  One of his favorite hang-outs is on top of the microwave in the kitchen or under a blanket on DH's or my lap.  He will cozy up in a blanket cave like that for hours and his feet are all nice & toasty once he finally decides to come back out.  Henny, on the other hand, will run around under the blanket and nip at anything she can get her little beak arund.  Seriously annoying if you are trying to grab a quick nap!   Scrappy is a little sweetheart and never picks figts with the other birds.  He doesn't chew on stuff either, but he does like to help me stitch by nibbling on the linen.  Sometimes I give him a small cut of linen and he goes to town with that - chewing and pulling and nipping.  Heaven for a little piece of Scrap!

A pile of other stuff landed in the mail box too.  I ordered a bunch of stuff from three different stores at very different times, but all the packages arrive on the same day.  Since it was on Friday and I was in a dark hole that day, I didn't even have the energy to get excited, but let me tell you that I am getting there now!
The only problem is that it will be a challenge to be good and stick to the projects I need to finish before digging into all these goodies!

I ordered these French books from the fabulous on-line stitch store Violarium in Finland (product selection is great and shipping is very reasonable - check it out, if you haven't had a chance before!).  My favorite purchase is the book lying in the bottom - absolutely gorgeous projects and definitely a great motivation to learn French.  ;-)  DH and I had some fun trying to make out what the first couple of sentences mean.  They did not make sense at all...  :-b

And finally - this is a large part of the reason why I am excited about spring!  Shoes!!!!  I love shoes.  Almost all of them have very high heals and "character".  I got the pairs below from Off Broadway Shoes.  I am aware that the polka-dot and gingham shoes are *possibly* over the top, but I believe that I get away with wearing shoes like these by balancing the outfit with very strict and classic clothes (and balancing period, of course...).  Long black pants, shirts that cover shoulders and no deep cuts up front.  You have to admit that they are serious eye-candy, right!?  Love'em - can't wait to click-click-click around in them!!!  (My colleague The barbarian always says that she can "hear the clippeticlop of tiny Swedish hoofs" when I am marching down the corridors at work....)
I got these babies when P.Snickety and I went to the Off Broadway the day before her "BIG" B-day party (she says "BIG" - she turned 30.... sigh!).  She got a pair of cool pumps with zebra print and was adventurous enough to ask her husband for his opinion.  The judgment came in as "80's hooker".  No worries - she didn't care and wore them to the party.  She was very happy!
Luckily, my DH doesn't say much, since he assumes that he "just doesn't get it".  ;-) 

Well, enough aimless babble from me today.  Time to get myself into bed!

Take care and Happy Spring-Stitching to all!