Bingo Progress

It's time for another resolution check in! Here is my progress so far:

Surprisingly I am one away from a bingo and I am planning on planting "everything" this fall, specifically the first weekend of October, when we have more plants to plant and the rainy season has hopefully started. It is however incredibly unlikely that I will get a blackout as I'll have to do one project a week for the rest of the year plus an extra. It is possible though and I'd feel very proud of myself if I actually did it so I better get to work!

My main holdups are my disinterest in knitting lately and the slight inconvenience of accessing the sewing machine currently. I did start knitting the socks again and hope to finish the first one today so that's progress. You'll find out Thursday if I did it!

Sunflowers and Hydrangea

The latest floral bouquet is two. More sunflowers are blooming so I cut some of them. I also cut some dahlias and two types of hydrangea then decided I liked just the yellow and purple together so I ended up matching the dahlias with some dusty miller again. Next year I need to grow more filler type flowers.

Garden Update

The few seedlings I started are still inside and wrapped up in their snails. I ended up buying some seed starts and never added more soil to the snails so they've not grown very much, but they are still mostly alive. I should send them to the compost bin to make space. The garden is growing quite well though, I've not been neglecting it too much.

Most of the vegetables are growing in straw and are doing quite well! We've got some tomatoes, two types of cucumbers, and some beans.

The peas are doing less well, I am blaming the heat and am going to start a few more plants with seeds I've collected from these plants so we can have a fall harvest too.

Everything else is growing in soil. There are watermelon, dahlias, potatoes that were not harvested last year that started making new plants (not pictured), and sunflowers! I threw all the sunflower seeds I collected last year into a small raised bed so they are quite dwarfed, but they are still blooming!

Dahlia Bouquet

Hello Again! The dahlias are blooming and I made another bouquet!

This bouquet is made with dahlias and dusty miller, both from my garden. It’s a simple bouquet, I thought the silvery leaves would look nice with the showy pink flowers. I should have several more weeks of dahlias for bouquets so I’ll need to try something different next time. 

Another foraged floral bouquet!

This one was made with the help of my niece. We decided the bouquet needed ten flowers (the greenery did not count towards this total) so she picked some dandelions and grape hyacinth from the yard. Then cut some coyote brush for the greenery and Japanese pieris for the remaining flowers. I think the flower clusters each counted as one, but we still went over our target of ten flowers. 

Seedlings

I’ve got some seedlings! The seed starting is going okay, tomatoes are growing and it might be a bit too cold in the basement for the peppers. I’m going to try to find my little heat mat this weekend and hope it helps the other seeds germinate because having only two pepper seedlings is sad. 

Speaking of seeds not germinating, my direct seeding outdoors has so far been a flop. The slugs could have gotten to them, but I think it’s probably just been a bit too cold. Maybe I’ll be surprised by some seedlings as it starts warming up. 

Another weekend task is to place the second raised bed. After a lot of digging, the first now sits in the slope. I think I’ll be postponing a soil purchase for these two beds and sow sunflowers directly in the ground inside one or possibly both beds. I should also look at my garden plan and figure out what other seeds need starting!

Craft Fail

I've been wanting to make a spiderweb trellis as a gift for my friend and I finally got started on it yesterday. The plan was to use some of the leftover heavy gauge wire from my row cover as the frame and weave some smaller gauge wire to make the web. It turns out it needs much more support because the frame is way too floppy. I gave up with this design basically immediately. The next try will probably use branches for the frame. Hopefully it works out.

Shorten the Daffodil

I made another foraged floral bouquet! One of the flowers even came from a neighbor’s yard (after asking permission though).

Over the weekend I noticed that the Japanese pieris in the yard was now blooming so I clipped two branches to start this bouquet. After wandering around the yard for a bit I picked a few sword fern fronds then started building my bouquet. It definitely needed a large statement flower at this point so I got up the nerve to take a daffodil from the neighbor’s yard. They happened to be outside so I got permission and don’t have to feel bad about taking their flower. 

Now that I’ve been looking at the photo of this bouquet, it would probably look better if the daffodil was shortened a little bit. I might do that, but probably won’t.

Garden Update

I’m slowly starting my garden seeds. In January I direct sowed brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, snow peas and some spinach. So far there might be one seedling that is growing. It’s very tiny and I think it looks like a brassicaceae, but it could also be a weed. I’ll find out when it gets true leaves. 

This week I did my next round of seed starting. These were sown indoors since they are tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers. I tried the snail starting method for the first time and made only a little bit of a mess. To make these soil roll ‘snails’, I took some scrap fabric added soil, folded the fabric over, and rolled it all up like a cinnamon roll. Next I watered the rolls very well and added the seeds on top. One drawback I’m realizing is that if you are doing multiple types of the same plant in the same roll it is difficult to label them. I decided to not label my seeds so hopefully I have enough of a gap between seed types that I’ll know which tomatoes are which.

Bingo Progress

Two months of the year are (mostly) gone so I’m doing a resolution check in! In hopes of getting a black out on my bingo card, I need to regularly look at what projects remain. (I had already forgot I wanted to make a photo calendar.) Here is my progress:

I’ve completed three tasks on my crafty bingo card. That’s 12.5% and we are done with only 15% of the year. The socks are still in progress which has had me feeling discouraged (knitting isn’t interesting me right now), but I am planning on marking another project from the card tonight so I’m doing alright. What project should I start next?

Foraged Bouquet

I made a bouquet this weekend! I felt a little weird about taking parts of plants from my neighbors so I just used plants from my own yard. This bouquet is made with sedge, arborvitae, and rosemary. The rosemary is blooming now and their little blue flowers are just so cute!

Maybe when things are flourishing more I'll feel okay about taking bits of my neighbor's plants. Even when I don't, I should continue making foraged bouquets. It can be my new frugal hobby!

Foraged Floral Arrangements

My neighbor's daffodils are blooming, we still have dandelions and beach daisies, and I'm thinking I need to make a foraged floral arrangement for Valentine's Day.

This is an arrangement from a few years ago when I was making foraged floral arrangements on a semi-regular basis. It has dandelions, muscari, honeyberry branches and possibly some maple flowers in the bottom right corner. None of these plants are traditionally used in floral bouquets which is why I find foraged floral bouquets so interesting. I think I'll wander around my neighborhood tonight with some pruners and a basket. Hopefully I find some interesting flowers and foliage for my bouquet. I'll share my creation next week!

Raised Garden Bed

We finished making one of the raised beds this weekend! 

The other raised bed is sitting in the garage ready to be assembled. One we finish it, we have the really hard work of digging into the rockiest soil to get them mostly level on the slope. Here are a few more progress photos.

Garden Plan

I’ve got a garden plan for 2026! It’s a series of spreadsheets and notes with dates of when and where to plant things.

After sorting everything I'll be planting by date, I realized I’m officially behind on seed starting for the cool season crops since our last frost is in March so broccolis and Brussels sprouts will be direct seeded this week (or probably weekend) along with some snow peas and spinach! But I'll have plenty of warm season crops to start over the next few months so I'll still be able to try the snail seed starting method.

Part of my garden plans include building the two raised beds I have the materials for (hopefully this weekend too) and make two additional raised beds (that I still need to purchase materials for). I also want to do some more seed organizing. I have this rainbow seed organizer I made years ago plus a shoe box full of seeds. My goal is to get the seeds I'll be planting organized by date of planting so I'll be easily able to grab the seeds I need to plant when I need to plant them. I'm also hoping that I use up most of the older seeds since I'll be really gardening this year so when I get more seeds there will be space for them!

Have you figured out your gardening plans for this year?

2026

Happy New Year!!!

Since it’s the first post of the year, I’m sharing my crafting intentions! They are a bit different this year, bingo card style instead of a list. Last year (and again this year because they are fun) I made monthly bingo cards of things to do that encourage exploring and trying new things. For these craft resolutions, I’ve got a single bingo card filled with different craft projects in five different categories. Some of these projects have been on my list of crafting intentions for years, some are new because I’ve recently purchased the supplies, and others are crafts I’ve never tried before or want to improve. A blackout is highly unlikely, but maybe I’ll surprise myself with my motivation.

The categories are:
Yarn
• Spiral Tube Socks - I am curious about this pattern.
• Moomin Pattern - I got a Moomin knitting book as a present and should knit something from it!
• Leopard Hat - My longest knitting WIP.
• Scarf for Ruby - My niece wants a new scarf. 
• New Shawl - I bought some bright pink mohair!

Sewing
• Denim Quilt - Yeah, yeah, it’s still not done… 2026 might be the year!
• Catnip Toys - I can always have more of these since the get ripped open often. 
• Culottes - I want to make a copy of some of my pants.
• Chore Jacket - I wanted to make a cape with this fabric originally, but a chore jacket is more my style.
• Ikea Fabric - I bought fabric from Ikea.

Photos
• Photo Calendar - I want to take enough photos this year that I could make a decent calendar.
• Macro Photography - A style of photography I want to get better at.
• Free Space - Every bingo card needs a free space!
• Timelapse Photo - Something new to try.
• Frame a Photo - Get at least one printed and frame it!

Gardening
• More Raised Beds - I think I need more growing space.
• Floral Bouquets - Bouquets make me happy and I’ll be growing lots of flowers.
• Plant Everything - My collection of plants still in their nursery containers will be planted!
• Snail Seed Starting - I haven’t tried it yet, but I think I’ll like this method.
• Actual Gardening Plan - I’m not going to wing it this year.

Other
• Another Floating Shelf - This has been on my list for years!
• Kinusaiga - A new craft to try.
• Laser Cutter Project - I have a laser cutter and need to practice.
• Melty Bead Project - So I use some of my supplies.
• Christmas Slug- For my Christmas light display next winter.

Each column is a different craft category and the placement is kind of random within columns. Now that the bingo card is made, I'm trying to figure out which line will be my likely first bingo. A diagonal maybe? Which is your guess?

Pumpkins!!!

It’s Halloween! The perfect time to share my pumpkin harvest! In April and May I planted most of my sizable collection of saved pumpkin seeds. Here is some of my harvest:

The pumpkins I collected the seed from were so varied in color, shape, and size. And there were so many varieties, I planted seeds collected from 20 different types of pumpkins/gourds which is why I’m surprised they mostly look the same. Plus the giant pumpkins didn’t grow at all, which was a big disappointment. I think the rest of my pumpkin seeds will go to the compost bin and I can order a few new varieties next year. I’ve had my eye on some black pumpkins for a few years so maybe it’s time to actually purchase those seeds. What pumpkin varieties are your favorite?

Sunflowers

It's been awhile! The gardening season is coming to a close and this is my first update. I planned to grow lots of flowers this year, but I planted seeds late so I mostly had dahlias and sunflowers as many of the other flowers did not grow. Here are some of the sunflowers I grew. They are a from a mixed pack of seeds and were a range of colors and mix of single and double flowers. Most of these have gone to seed and I've saved so many to grow next year!

Garden Plans

Where has the time gone? February is nearly gone and I’ve blogged only one week this year. Milly and Tilly hasn’t been a priority for me, but it does help keep me accountable with my various projects so I need to focus a bit more on this blog. 

First up, the garden! It is time to start seeds and I have a new soil blocker headed my way along with several packets of seeds. I’m quite excited about this soil blocker as it makes a small size block that can then be placed inside my slightly larger size block and the little seedlings can size up blocks as they grow! This week it should arrive and I will be making lots of soil blocks!

My three garden resolutions this year were pumpkins, cut flowers, and to build three raised beds. All of the pumpkins and some of the flowers will be sown in tiny little seed blocks this week. The new raised beds have been pushed back again… the wind during the horrible winter storm we had in January took off a large branch from one of the Douglas Firs and sent it flying through the fence. So we are replacing the fence and moving the existing raised beds that were against the fence to a new spot (where we were going to put the new garden beds) then we will build the new raised beds once the fence is finished.

The garlic and dahlias that over wintered in the existing raised beds have been moved to various pots. I think the garlic will stay in pots until it’s time to harvest and the dahlias will move to the currently build garden beds once they are in their new place. More flowers and the pumpkins will be added to those raised beds once it’s warmer and they are ready to transplant. Then whatever vegetables and probably more flowers will go into the new beds. I’ll be sharing garden updates so you can see the progress!

2024

Happy New Year!

It’s the first post of the year so I’m sharing my crafting intentions for the year ahead and also recapping my previous year’s resolutions. First, my 2023 recap: I got like 70%! (If I’m fairly lenient on what qualifies as complete and round up. These are my goals and my blog so I did pretty great!) 

Gardening is the category I did most poorly in, completing only one of my three goals (the row cover). Using my oil pastels and sharing about it gets a solid A grade. I completed 3/4 of my in-progress projects! (That quilt!!! Is 2024 the year?) And I’m saying I fixed the unreliable rss/email subscriptions because I thought I had twice and the issue is mostly out of my control.

Now on the the 2024 goals! Are some of them repeats of years past? Obviously!

My 2024 Crafty Intentions are:

In and For the Garden

• Pumpkins!!!
• Cut flowers
• Build three raised beds

Knitting

• A brioche knitting project
• Finish the leopard hat
• Knit more little men

Other Crafts

• More oil pastel drawings
• Mending clothes
• Floral bouquets
• Monthly photo challenges
• January - negative space
• February - portraits
• March - reflections
• April - frames
• May - leading lines
• June - macro
• July - shadows
• August - texture
• September - patterns
• October - silhouettes
• November - color
• December - bokeh

Pink Flowers

More dahlias have bloomed! They've been very late bloomers this year, but that's made them such a wonderful autumn treat. When I look out back towards the garden I see lots of pink! Pink from the snapdragons that are so full and continuing to bloom, and pink from these dahlias!

Then when I look out the front window, I see more pink! These chrysanthemums are so full too! This is their second year and I was worried they wouldn't survive the winter. I took cuttings of the darker color, they have rooted and are in the front planter growing. I am only counting on one to survive, but they all seem to be doing well so far. Later I took cuttings of the lighter dahlia, but they haven't rooted yet. I think the stems I took were a bit too small. I will try again with them and have lots of geranium cuttings to take. Maybe next year the front planter will be full of flowers!