Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...and it's a quick one. In our garden, the gladiolas continue to pop up. This pink and yellow one is particularly lovely: In the studio, I'm still wending my way through boxes of packed tools and stash. I finally got a delivery date for our bookcase/Murphy bed combo (next week) so I know that we can soon get rid of the POD in our driveway! It's been there since the end of September. I'm tired of parking my car on the street!

...Happy July! I'm spending part of my day photographing the fiber that I want to spin for Tour de Fleece and getting it loaded into Ravelry. TdF starts July 4th and runs through July 26th. My goal is to spin down my Yarn Wench stash, but I might throw in a Greenwood Fiberworks braid if I get tired of spinning Falkland or art yarns. One thing I haven't talked about yet is the old project that surfaced during my unpacking the studio. In 2001, a co-worker and I started a cross-stitch baby afghan. We used the Alphabet Mania Charts from Heart in Hand. We each did two or three letters at a time. The charts originally called for Weeks Dyeworks threads, but that's not the best choice for a baby afghan because the threads tend to run when washed. We switched to standard and variegated DMC colors, which are more colorfast. In addition, we weren't happy with some of the letters. We changed J from jingle bells to jack-o-lantern and K from key to to ki...

 ...very late, but at least I got it in before I had to do June's! Finished: 5/11 Emotional Support Chickens [ Ravelry ]  Books: Return to Rosewood Beach, Fiona Baker Sea Glass Serenade, Fiona Baker A Place for Daydreams, Fiona Baker A Bright Winter Season, Fiona Baker 26 Beauties, James Patterson Archangel’s Eternity, Nalini Singh Otherwise Engaged, Susan Mallery The Beach Shack Circle, Cindy Nichols Saltwater Dreams, Mia Kent Sins in the City, Elle Gray Songs of Summer, Katie Winters Practical Hexes, Kim Richardson Magical Mojo, Kim Richardson You can Tell Me, Melinda Leigh Bound by Fate, Annabel Chase Bargain with Fate, Annabel Chase Started: 5/8 Emotional Support Chickens [ Ravelry ]  WIPs: California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Illusion Cube Blanket (knitting) [ Ravelry ]   Morgana (cross stitch) My Recipes (cooking) Starwoman (cross stitch)  Website (ot...

 ...blog and run. This week, it's all from the garden. We have baby persimmons: Lantana: A gladiola And a yellow dahlia.

...yeah, it's been a minute. And there's been a lot going on. My life has been consumed by trying to shove stuff from a 480 sq. ft. room that was very stuffed into a room with 40 sq. ft. less. Ack! Each time I open a box, I have to look at each item and make a choice whether to keep it or donate it. I ran into more handspun along the way. I got another under-the-bed bin and rearranged the bins under there to fit the additional one in. Whew! The two storage benches are crammed full of my fiber stash. Thankfully there is no overflow. We discovered that our plan to add casters to my worktable was not going to work. It would make the table too tall for short me (5'2") and the bookcase bases would not support the casters without reinforcing them with more wood. Scratch that. Instead, we found an 8-Compartment Mobile Backpack Storage Cabinet from ECR4kids, a school room product provider. The cubicles are the perfect size for 11x11 bins. ...

...and there continues to be progress in the studio. We moved in some furniture and unpacked the handspun and spinning fiber.  I spend the good part of two days searching for my sewing thread. I finally found it and was able to start working on one of the quilts. Yay! In the garden, the squirrels have decimated the apricots. I was able to eat a few of them. Score 1 for the squirrels. I'm glad that I took photos of them when I did. Our garden path: We have clematis blooming: Society garlic: Calibrachoa and purslane: And lots of blackberries: