A Garden Update

This year I had planned to stick with what was already growing in the garden. We are facing two serious family illnesses and one more minor one, an upcoming move, and a baby on the way. The last thing I needed was to add more nurturing and care to that list. But, oh, how those beautiful garden posts sucked me in. Everyone seeding, planting, and growing things. I had to dig my hands into the soil. I tried to keep it simple with just a few colourful flowers and some veggies that may be too late to do much at all.

It turns out that all that nurturing and watching things grow is pretty relaxing and wonderful, and this garden is a nice place to take a break in. I need to remind myself of this. A couple plants are truly not that much work and really do make a difference.

Of course there are all the old favourites growing too.

The doves that nest in our grape vines have also returned, although Lola spotted a squirrel up there yesterday so it may have eaten the eggs. Lots of other little birds have been by too.

There will be lots more garden days this summer, and maybe even some fresh veggies to enjoy.

Finishing the Blue Tulip Tree

I love the feeling of finishing a project, and this was a long time coming. It took me 5 years to find the pattern (after seeing and falling in love with it on a friend's flickr stream), and nearly another to finish it. It was a big project and I worked on it in spurts here and there, like I do with most of my projects. I often have several on the go for this very reason.

 

A couple months back I was almost to the end when I ran out of yarn in several of the colours. I momentarily panicked, thinking this is a vintage crewel kit, and while there used to be the option to order extra yarn from the company - with an order form all ready in the kit paperwork, there's no way I'd be able to get that same yarn now. I scoured etsy and ebay trying to find a match, but it would mostly be guessing and hoping that the colours were right after all. I eventually took to searching craft supply stores. Through this search I came across a company called Appleton that offeres crewel yarn in about 250 different shades. This site has a colour cards you can order to compare colours (a little pricey at $35, but it saved me from spending even more than that ordering colours I thought would match). The yarn is available on many craft supply stores.

It was easy to compare colours and I got a fairly accurate match for every colour except for the lightest green. This meant that I subbed in the medium green in a couple places.

So worth the trouble of ordering the colour chart.

An issue I did run into was the colour charts are for both the tapestry yarn and the crewel yarn. The chart yarn was the right thickness and I had assumed it was the crewel yarn since the yarn that came with my crewel kit was the same. It turns out the crewel yarn is much thinner than the tapestry yarn, and tapestry is what I needed. It didn't end up being very noticeable, so it wasn't a big deal, but lesson learned - always check the gauge.

After all of that, I finally had my yarn to finish up this piece, and it is done! I blocked it, framed it, and now just need to hang it up.

I had to block it in sections because I don't have a large enough blocking mat (the finished size of this is 24" x 36"). I am normally lazy with projects and don't block them, but I thought it would be fun to show the difference between the blocked and not yet blocked parts to show how necessary it was.

Even though I used a embroidery hoop it still puckered badly. Blocking fixed most of it. The frame is just a cheap poster frame I got for 35% off at a local craft shop. I didn't want a heavy frame or glass on it, and there were no other frames in this size. I'd been looking at thrift shops for a while, but nothing right showed up.

I'm so glad to have this finished up. Now there are just a few more works in progress to get through before our baby bird arrives!

Lulu & Lolie

I don't think I've mentioned it here on the blog, but I took on a new adventure with my friend Lucy (from my thrifting with LuluBelle posts), and opened a booth at an antique mall. Lucy talked about renting a booth a while back. We've both been collectors for a long time and love seeking out new treasures, but out collections have been getting quite large. It's time to let some of them go. Going in on it together has made it a lot more fun, and a lot less scary if we fail completely.

Construction on the Antique mall finished up a few weeks ago and we moved in. To this..

We were surprised not to see any dividers, and to find that our booth had been cut short by about two feet. We made the decision to upgrade to a bigger booth and ran over to IKEA to get some book shelves. That was an adventure in itself since we weren't able to fit to fit as many as we needed in the back of the car. Oops! After a long day's work, our shelves were constructed and we put up a peg board wall with plans to paint the next day.

A few days later we were much happier with our look (the lighting is pretty awful, so please excuse the photos)..

Towards the end of the week of our soft opening, a family friend of Lucy's (who has done the antique booth thing before) offered to help us out with a few tips on maximizing space and organizing things so they work better. Of course we took him up, and were even more pleased with this new look..

There is so much more useable space, things are organized in groups that make sense, we're actually using up all of our space, and the little displays are much more appealing. We have some more plans to add a rug since the floor isn't exactly pretty, an extra jewellery case for enamel pins and necklaces, and more.

Our grand opening was this past Saturday and it was absolutely packed! We were so happy with the result and all the support we've received from our friends both online and off. I am so excited to see how this journey of ours continues.

If you would like to know more, want more updates (including some fun tips and stories on vintage goods), or would just like to support us, you can check out our facebook page. Our name, of course, is taken from Lucy's online persona, LuluBelle, and part of my Etsy shop name, Lolie Jane Vintage.

Spring!

It has officially been Spring for around a month now, but the weather here has been slow to catch up. We've been enjoying the warmer days and the little hints that soon it will be here to stay - no more snow!

The first flowers are blooming, adding some brightness to the garden. These purple crocuses are always the first to come up.

One of our favourite garden visitors has been making daily appearances since the weather has been warmer. We're not sure who owns this cat, but he or she loves to sit on our fence and get some pets from us. He's not even afraid of Lola.

Speaking of Lola, she has been spending more and more time out of doors. She loves the snow, but prefers the warmer weather and the company of our neighbours who have been working in their gardens. She has also been enjoying the return of many neighbourhood dog friends that don't come out much in the winter.

I haven't quite decided what will be going into the garden this year (probably not much) since it will be a very busy Spring and Summer, but the warmer weather has me wanting to get some seeds started to put into the ground next month. I do want to try growing some zucchini in a planter since I haven't had luck in the ground for the past several years.

I cannot wait for more warm weather and more colour outside.

Knitting for the Bird

The knitting for Birdie has been coming along much faster than I had expected. I though I'd post what has been coming off the needles lately.

I finished up the Gift Wrap Romper by Carina Spencer. The sleeves really aren't as giant as they look here, I just took the photo at a funny angle. I loved this pattern, aside from picking up all those stitches for the band!

These Snapdragon Soakers were quick and easy knits. The pattern is free too.

Longies were knit from the Buttknits & Trade Basic Shorties and Longies pattern. Quite simple to follow, but these knit up HUGE. This is the smallest size, but they look like they will fit a baby 6 months or so. For the next pair the pattern will have to be sized down.

A sweet striped elephant sweater was followed by another, just a little bit smaller one..

I cannot wait to see Birdie in all these handknits!

On the needles right now is this adorable Whale Sweater. Once it's a little warmer and I won't want to knit much anymore, I'll break out the sewing machine for some fun baby projects.

Thrifting with LuluBelle

Lucy is so much fun to shop with! We try to schedule a thrifting date every week or two and hit up a few different shops each time. We have done a few big trips, hitting up 10 shops in just one day! We pack snacks and water, put all our stops on the GPS, and enjoy each other's company along the way.

I love exploring the aisles and searching for treasures with a friend. Even when we don't come away with much, or anything at all, we still manage to have a good time.

 

We're always on the lookout for something specific, but we tend to look at everything and take our time. Right now I have a few pieces of furniture on my "to find" list, and I've been stocking up on baby clothes for Birdie. Lucy has been on the hunt for skirts and high waisted shorts. Check out that awesome pink pair! We're both always looking for Pyrex, of course.

But you never know just what you will find that day.

And that's part of the fun.

Re-Learning How to Knit

I first learned to knit several years back, mostly from youtube videos. I started with a simple ribbed scarf, which became the "year long scarf" because it took me such a long time to finish. I was worried about knitting too loosely so instead I knit so tight that it took a lot of work to fit the needle into each loop.

With my next projects I learned that it was okay to knit more loosely and that wouldn't mean there would be holes all over my work.

Something was looking a little off though. My work wasn't sitting flat and I couldn't figure out why. I asked some more experienced knitters and their only explanation was that I was knitting "backwards". I was really disappointed when I knit up my Tea Leaves and the sleeves looked very strange. I am trying to will myself to pull out all those stitches and start again!

I kept on knitting and it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I stumbled upon a comment left on someone's blog. The same thing was happening with her knitting. It turned out we were twisting our stitches. I was knitting through the loop properly (they can become twisted if you knit into the back instead), but I was wrapping my yarn the wrong way. Yes, it really does make a difference! I finished up the project I was working on, and then tried wrapping the other way. What a change!

Do you see how the stitches lay much more flat in the bottom picture? No more funny lines between rows.

I'm so grateful for stumbling on that comment since it has made such a difference. Now I have really learned how to knit! I guess there is always something new to learn.

Speaking of knitting, check out this adorable Owlie set that my mom made for Birdie..

There is a lot of knitting going on in these parts!