Packing for Camp

Grace and I are going to summer camp tomorrow. Well, we aren't actually "going" to camp. It's a virtual camp sponsored by the Loopy Ewe. It's called Camp Loopy and considering how discombobulated I've been lately it sounds like the perfect place for me. As you can see I have packed some pretty yarn.

I've got knitting needles and a pattern ready to go.

Grace is packed too. We will both be working on shawls.

the first project assignment was to knit something that requires at least 400 yards of yarn and was created by a designer from a country other than your own.

We can start knitting on May 27th and have to be finished by June 27th if we want to be eligible to win prizes. There will be three projects  spread out over the summer and if we complete them all we earn some really lovely yarn.

The best part of it all is that we get to sleep in our own beds and there are no bugs or camp songs involved.

Hope you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. It feels like summer here.

Sally

Coming Home

We have been away for exactly one week, and arriving home last night to see this little bit of happiness was just what I needed. As some of you already know my amazing mom passed away last Thursday morning. All of my emotions are flitting around like butterflies, or mosquitoes depending on the moment. It's all still very hard to talk about, but I wanted everyone who reads this blog to know how loved and blessed I have felt all week. I can feel all of your prayers and appreciate every last one of them. Until I get my sea legs back, my blog posting may be a little sketchy. I know that you will understand.  Keep sending all of your positive thoughts and prayers my way. God knows I need them. You all are the best!
Sally

What's Your Favorite Flower?

I guess I've always known that when it comes to flowers, for me the simpler the better. My all time favorite flower is the daisy hands down. I love the name, I love the bright yellow middle. A daisy just reminds me of the sunshine. I've never had much luck growing daisies. I'm not sure why that is. I keep trying though. Maybe this year will be the year of the successful daisy bush....

Gerber daisies are nice too. Bright pretty colors, for when you need a bit of ZING!

Next in line has to be the sunflower. That's probably just obvious to you all. Right?

So bright. So sunny. So happy.

Finally, I think I would have to include the hydrangea. Especially the blue/pink ones. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will have a bumper crop this year. Our little bush is covered in buds. Last year it only produced one single flower. Too much rain? Not enough sun? who knows?

You can see that it was a very pretty bloom, but it was the only one to show up all summer.

There you have it. Sally's favorite flowers.

I hope that at least one of them is your favorite too.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day!

Sally

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I've almost got mine all planted. I still need to pick up a couple of basil plants, but other than that I think I'm going to by happy with what I have in the ground. Last year I tried that square foot gardening idea and to be perfectly honest with you I hated it. My garden was just way over crowded. I like my plants to have a little room to groove if you know what I mean. I cut back a little this year, but kept 4 tomato plants. That seemed to work for us last year, so we shall see.

Sally

A Walk on the Wild Side

The past two Saturday mornings Alan and I have been getting up early to walk at the zoo. The weather has finally cooperated enough so that we have been able to get back and check on all of our animal friends. We got lucky the first week and were able to see the youngest polar bear. She was having a great time swimming and diving. Apparently there is a "cave" under the water that she likes to hide her toys in. She would dive down bring up a toy, play with it for a minute or so and then take it back down to the cave. Pretty cool to watch.

The peacock was also working hard to impress us. This past Saturday there were fewer animals out and about. It stormed all night so I guess they were sleeping in. We did get to see the eagles sitting on their egg.

and a whole bunch of baby geese.

Speaking of "wild", but totally unrelated, what do you think of this nail polish?

Kind of bright I'd say. I decided to try something a little different. I have to wear if for two weeks. Hopefully it's going to grow on me.
Sally

Crazy Wind

So, Friday night, just as Alan and I were getting ready to watch the big Kentucky Oaks race on TV, a bit of a storm blew in. It really didn't seem like much, but all of a sudden we heard a very bad sound. You know, the kind of sound that you've never really heard before, but you just know that it can't be good. It turned out to be pretty bad.

Somehow our picnic table umbrella came out of it's stand and blew off causing the table top to shatter into a bazillion pieces. It was a giant mess and took a very long time to clean up. As soon as the last piece of glass was sucked up into the amazing Hoover vacuum we headed to the Home Depot to buy a new table. Of course, you don't just buy a new table, you buy a whole new patio set. Well, that's what we did.

Sally

Derby Day/ Cinco de Mayo

Hope you had a wonderful Derby Day/ Cinco de Mayo yesterday. I know that most of you only got to watch the actual Kentucky Derby race, but here in Louisville we got to watch horse racing on TV for 2 straight days in a row. I'm telling you that this is serious business around these parts. Friday is called Oaks Day and EVERYONE goes to the track. School is not in session, businesses are closed and there is a party going on in just about every backyard. Serious business. I'm sorry to say that my horse did not win the big race. I was pulling for Bodemeister and it was so close. I'll Have Another won by a bit more than a nose, but honestly it's just fun to watch. When there is no actual money on the line, it's all in fun.
To celebrate the day and to reminisce about our vacation just a little, we had a big pitcher full of sangria

and Chicken and Sausage Paella for dinner.

I know that Paella is not really Mexican, but they do speak Spanish in Spain and I just wanted to see if I could make it taste anything like what we ate while we were there. It turned out OK. I probably would have liked it better with some seafood thrown in, but you all know how Alan feels about that. I'll link the recipes that I used under "I Love the Taste of...." if you are interested.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Sally

My New Toy

This crazy looking gadget is called a yarn swift and I've needed (wanted) one for a long time. After two traumatically tearful ball winding experiences lately that resulted in several bad words being said and yarn being lost I decided to go ahead and order one. Yahoo! I just love the thing.

All you do is place your yarn around the swift, find the outside end attach it to your ball winder and wind away. It's actually kind of fun.

You end up with a beautiful yarn cake,

or cakes if you just can't stop. So pretty and absolutely no tears.
Sally

Happy May Day!

I can't believe it's already May. Where did April Go? I wish that I could tell you that the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day here in Louisville, but that is just not the case. Mother Nature did not get the memo "April showers bring May flowers" for what ever reason she thinks it needs to keep on raining so I had to make my own flowers.

Are these not the cutest little treats ever? I got sucked into that darn Pinterest again and found these flower treats here if you want to make some too. I have to say they were a little more fiddly than I would have liked, but they turned out to be both adorable and delicious. I'm giving these to my co-workers with little packages of flower seeds from the Dolly Mama. So cute! Who thinks up this stuff. I had a few left over flowers that I stuck on some cupcakes for Alan. You can see that all they are are pretzels, topped with a dark chocolate kiss and M&M's.

Hope your May gets off to a great start. We are in full swing Derby mode here. I sure do hope the weather improves for the big race on Saturday. Fingers crossed XXXX
Sally