Bag Ideas

Some ideas that I found include:

1. Lunch Bag
   This lovely bag has a drawstring top added to a square bag. Perfect for putting yarn and needles into and taking along to classes or on a trip.
   
2. Lined Drawstring Bag
   This is a basic drawstring bag which is delightful. The free tutorial is for one size only but you can buy the pattern in many sizes. And there is a free tutorial (download a pdf) to add pockets to the outside of the bag.
   
3. Make Up Bag
   This cute little bag is great for holding knitting notions. I will probably make one and put a few notions in it. I am thinking of making it a bit bigger.
   
4. Triple Zip Pouch
   One of these may appear and into it I will put some notions for her to use on a project. 

Ideas For The Sewing Room

 I did some pintrest searches and got a couple of ideas.

1. LLadybird's Sewing Room has a unique layout and isn’t what I have but she has some neat ideas for storage. The one big ideas I got from her was the cart she rolls out from under the cutting table. Ideas are floating for this one. I will have to look around.
2. Diary of a Renaissance Sewer's Studio is full of ideas. Very full where as I want the less is more idea. But……… she uses storage cubes to hold her supplies which is something I want to do. She built a great cutting/pressing table which I love but, at this time I will keep my cutting table. I love how she has a mix of red and green fabric boxes to hold items in. I will be doing that.
   
   I noticed that her room does not have a closet in it. My room does and that is where a lot of my fabric and pattern drafting items will be stored. She also has a computer area which I don’t think is going to happen in my room though I do have to house all the internet/TV modems. I want to have a TV and DVD in that room also. That will be housed in the cubes which will be 5 or 6 high. Plenty of storage.
   

Enjoying Our Yard

Ashcroft Roses

The Spousal Unit’s roses are looking awesome this year. They love the heat we have been having. This bi-coloured rose was my Mother’s Day gift 5 years ago and it is looking lovely.

The others are gorgeous also. One rose we thought had died but it came back looking different this year. Its petals are ruffled rather looking like the typical hybrid flowers it produced last year.

The yellow rose is its usual beautiful self. There is really nothing more to say about it.

We do plan on having roses in the city and will be choosing which ones we want carefully. We tried not to have two of the same colour but it happened.  

Flower Baskets

Here is how I do my hanging baskets:

• You will need hanging basket, potting soil, 3 to 4 plants per basket, starter fertilizer and slow release fertilizer. The Spousal Unit uses a trowel, I use my hands.
• I use three different colours of Supertunias in the baskets. If I can get the ones that have Vista on the marker I am happy though the others work well also. My favourite combination is white, light pink, and bubble gum pink. This year I snuck red into a couple of baskets. For our baskets (11 – 12”) I use three plants per basket.
• Use fresh potting soil each year for the hanging baskets. We put the old potting soil in the garden or flower beds. Wet the potting soil until it holds together and no water runs out (OK, I put in more water than the Spousal Unit but he is the pro here). As you put in the soil into the baskets, press it down to remove air spaces. We mix our soil in plastic tubs that Rubbermaid sells for doing dishes in.
• Fill the baskets with soil to within a couple of inches from the top.
• Prepare a solution of water and plant starter fertilizer. We use both fish fertilizer and chemical. Both work equally well. This will promote good root development in the plants.
• While in the small pots, trim your plants to take off the top flowers/buds of each plant. This forces them to become thicker (stool out). I use scissors for this job. You don’t have to do a perfect job. Snip, snip, snip and your are done.
• Dig three holes in the pot for the plants (I use my hands). Take the plants out of their little containers and play with the roots to spread them out. Don’t be afraid to mess with the roots. Put some starter fertilizer into the holes, put in the plants, and press dirt around them.
• Add some slow release fertilizer to each pot. I sprinkle 2 scoops around the soil of each pot and don’t have to do it again for 6 to 8 weeks.
• Water daily as these baskets will use a lot of water when the plants get big. Our irrigation system keeps ours wet but we water them daily until system is on.
• We keep our hanging baskets in the greenhouse for 3 to 4 weeks as I do them early. I want them to be well established prior to going out but that is a personal choice. Also I do them when we still have a good chance of frost. Other people do their baskets after the chance of frost has passed and put them out right away. Either way is fine.

When I do the tubs, I dig up the soil in them and soak the dry dirt with a solution of water and starter fertilizer. We remove part of the soil every couple of years as these tubs take a lot of soil to refill. I remove all the flowers from the plants prior to planting them. I also play with the roots to get them spread out prior to planting them and use starter fertilizer for good root growth. Use the slow release fertilizer in your tubs also. I would use the slow release fertilizer on everything but that isn’t economical. The Spousal Unit waters the tubs that aren’t watered with our system daily and uses a weak solution (half the amount recommended) of 20-20-20 fertilizer daily.

A Transformation

Reflections
I had to take a picture of the front of the house yesterday afternoon. What a transformation. We have gone from this in June 2009:

to this in July 2012 after I had taken a course in doing hanging baskets and pots and we had ripped off some of the old siding:

to this in April 2015:

The hanging baskets still need to go up and will look very similar to those I did in 2012. I do them like this every year as they are our mark in the neighbourhood.

Until tomorrow………………………….

A New Bind Off Method

Knitting
I took a few minutes during mid morning break to cast off the seed stitch swatch. I bound it off in pattern as called for. It sat while I hunted for the post by Techknitter on binding off. She shows three different ways in which to bind off the last stitch. I chose b.

 I followed her directions carefully and it was a success.

No ugly last stitch. Here is the swatch prior to blocking it.

And after blocking.

My tension is better also as it is smaller than the first sample.

As I was blocking this swatch, I thought about how much I have enjoyed improving my knitting skills.