Livin' La Needle Loca

...and we're rolling towards the end of September already! The Husband has planted a lot of marigolds and mums in the backyard. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble getting decent photos of them in the morning light. However, I did get a half-way decent photo of the bicolor marigolds: He's also planted more violas. I really like this Tiger Eye viola: I'm scrambling like crazy to finish the last quilt before the end of the month. It's beginning to look like It will roll into next month. There are a lot of threads to bury!

...and it's been a productive week. First the eye candy. The pomegranates are ripening: Dahlias are blooming: And the Mexican sunflower if brightening up a corner next to the house: In my on-going quest to organize the remodeled studio in a way that maximizes the available space, I tackled the laundry area this week. I started with a combination of large Sterilite storage drawers and black zippered bins from the Container store. I already had them, so they simply got moved into the remodeled studio. I filled them with supplies that I was keeping and stacked them in the corner of the laundry area. They worked, but I was not completely happy. Any time I needed something in a zippered bin, I had to pull it out of the stack, retrieve the item, and then stack things back up. Ok, but not great.  After I went down a few research rabbit holes, I decided to buy additional Sterilite drawers to use instead of the zippered bins. I could stack th...

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

...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:

 ...and there are more flowers! The Husband bought me a few more flowers for Mother's Day. Between the new plants and the exzisting plants, we have flowers every where. New to the garden are Raspberry Lemonade nemesia: and Orange jessamine: Our primroses are going strong: and the blanket flowers are back: I also finished the Flock of Emotional Support Chickies [ Ravelry ]: Specs: Started 5/8/2026 Finished 5/11/2026 Emotional Support Chicken® Little Chickie by Annette Corsino Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Paints in Springbrook; Loops & Threads Soft & Shiny Ombres in Shimmer; Loops & Threads Soft Classic in Peach Tree Multi and Bluebird Multi; Trendsetter Yarns Tonalita in Rio

 ...it's been an uneventful week.  Our shower door arrived and the countertop guy came and took measurements for the bathroom vanity. That's about all that's happened for the studio this week. I'm itching to get in there! The garden is doing well. Here's our garden path as of this morning: < The calibrachoa are doing well: And the Love-in-the-Mist are going strong: 

 ...and things are getting closer in the studio! Things are continuing to bloom in the garden. The nasturtiums are still going strong: The nemesia is popping up: The mock orange continues to bloom: And the Blenheim apricots are beginning to get some color.

 ...that week went fast! We had a couple of fire drills that sucked up some of our time.  For the studio, we had to quickly find flooring after we determined that the contractor thought we ordered the floor and we though they did. After finding our that our first choice (floors matching the rest of the house) would take 5 weeks to come in, we found another flooring that will work. It's in the same color range that we wanted and we were able to get it by today. Whew! The second, more worrying problem was a plumbing back-up that happened yesterday. We had Service Champions replace our old furnace and install a tankless water heater in the last 3 years. As a result, we joined their MVP program, which give us some free services during the year and reduced costs on some services and appliances. They were able to come out yesterday and snake the main and run a camera to check for issues. Whew! Today, I caught up with a bunch of photo editing that I...

...and it's April! The garden is coming along. We have baby Blenheim apricots now. More Dutch irises: A couple of tulips: And a new clematis:

 ...and our garden is blooming! In the front yard we have lavender poppies and shrub roses. In the backyard, we have cluster roses and gazania. I love this time of the year! 

...Happy Spring! Our garden is blooming. We have wisteria: Buddha Hand blossoms: Daffodils: and Spanish bluebells:

 ...and there are more flowers blooming in our garden! This is our garden path right now with the nasturtiums going crazy: The amaryllis is still going strong: The Marc Chagall rose is setting more blooms:  And a Dutch iris has appeared near the kitchen: