Egg Dying!

Sunday I had people over for my annual egg dying event.

This year, I had the brilliant idea of using CMYK colors for the dyes. Nerdy, I know, but also AWESOME. I had one or two confused friends when I asked if they thought it was a good idea. Here are a few of the four dozen eggs we colored:

Two years ago we tried 'natural' dyes. Here is a how-to if you are interested in doing it: natural dye mini tutorial.

Vegetable Garden Plans

I didn't finish my project from Tuesday, I have been completely engrossed in my gardening preparation.

This year, as I have mentioned, I will have a lovely garden that will be fruitful and vegetableful. As per my gardening plans (above) I will be growing the following in my new vegetable garden:
    tomatoes - three varieties
    pumpkins
    watermelons
    leafy greens - spinach, lettuce, chard
    corn (surprise dad, you will get some corn!)
    marigolds around the perimeter (not shown)

I am getting down to the wire to finish preparing my little 64 square foot plot; spinach should be sown this weekend!

In addition to my gardening plans, I am working on getting my back yard in shape. It is going to take some time, but I am really looking forward to having a nice lawn instead of weeds. There are so many goat heads growing in my yard, way more than I ever remember seeing growing here before and they seem to pop up over night. I am overwhelmed by the quantity, but I need to calm down a bit and get rid of them pronto (so next year there won't be many).

Round Three Update

I started making something with some of the beige upholstery fabric:

Some of the insides:

I hope to finish it soon, Thursday, but I have already made some modifications so there maybe something completely different here for you to see on Thursday.

Under the moonlight, the serious moonlight

Finished! The reason this took so so long is because I kept pushing it to the bottom of my to do list, but it is finally done and I think it looks great! Here is a detail shot:

The moon and stars are made entirely with french knots. I used a blend of colors including some glow-in-the-dark thread! I tried taking photos of it in the dark, but it was difficult and they didn't turn out so you will just have to trust me when I say it glows and is awesome.

Another Ice Cream Cake

I made a minty ice cream cake for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.

This will probably be my last ice cream cake for a while even though my coworkers love them. I have made so many because I was collecting the ice cream containers for my tomato plants.

My tomatoes were getting so big they needed repotting. Now they fit their container and aren't so tall they are tipping over.

Birthday Cake

Today is my birthday. I am twenty seven years old. This is the huckleberry ice cream cake I made for work to celebrate the March birthdays. I really wanted to have tart honey flavored ice cream, but when I went to the grocery store they didn't have it. (They also didn't have the roasted red pepper hummus I like. There were so many containers of every other flavor, but no red pepper.) The other grocery store I went to didn't have tart honey ice cream either. It was a pretty disappointing grocery shopping day, but I did find huckleberry ice cream so it wasn't too bad.

A Whole Lotta French Knots

I am nearly finished with the last of my embroidery projects. The object is now identifiable - at least I think others might be able to guess what it is now.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Lovely Necklaces

Lately I have been looking for an 'everyday' sort of necklace. I haven't decided on one yet, but these necklaces I found on Etsy are definitely in the running.

Top Row:
Scimitar Cutlery Blade Necklace from Ball & Chain
Walnut Whale Necklace from Lost at Sea
Oh My Lovely Chair from Sisply

Middle Row:
Giselle Locket from Sea Unicorn
Compass Necklace from Lulu Bug Jewelry
Teardrop Locket from Pearl at Play

Bottom Row:
Oh So Faux 'Diamond' Necklace from Treasurefield
Triangle Necklace from Laura Lombardi Jewelry
Sweet Spring Locket from Stefeny Stanyer Designs

PS. My birthday is next Thursday, any of these necklaces would make an excellent gift.

Oregon Zoo

I spent the last few days in Portland visiting my sister and mother. On Thursday we went to the zoo! It was a pretty nice day, it didn't rain and there weren't crowds of people. Here are a few of the animals we saw:

We spent so much time at the polar bear exhibit waiting for him to swim. Just as we were about to leave, he finally got in the water and started doing the backstroke.

I made us go into the lorikeets' aviary because it reminded me of my visit to the Louisville Zoo with Danielle and Charliann. We didn't buy any of the 'nectar' here so the birds didn't want much to do with us.

This malayan sun bear is one of my new favorite animals; he has so much neck skin... too cute.

The sea lions were quite active; this one was would swim by so fast I had trouble taking his picture.