My Garden and Progress

     I'm having a heck of a time with pics today.  This is my third attempt at them.  They just don't want to go where I want them to go.  Hmph...  Third time's a charm?  We'll see.  On Wed, my mom and I went up to the nursery to pick up our annuals.  I got some really pretty things.  Well, I think they are pretty.  Mom wasn't thrilled with my choices.  I got two different kinds of Calladium, I got four different colors of Vebena, and I got two four packs of deep purple Petunias.  I love the colors I got.  The Calladuim are both pink centers and veins and green edges, and the all flowers are lovely.  I have two big pots in front, and the Calladium are supposed to get to be about eighteen inches high to thirty inches high.  I though, for my big pots, that would be good.  We'll see how big they get!!  And the rest are in the back.  The Morning Glories have not sprouted yet, but they will soon, I'm sure.  Here are the pics.  The Verbena are the teeny tiny little flowers, and the Calladium are the big pink and green leaves.  The rest are Petunias.  Feel free to leave me a comment about what you think of my color choices!!  

  

     The Morning Glories will grow between the two Petunias 

of the long planters.  They usually take three to five days to germinate, so I should be seeing them soon.  My pot cracked though, sigh.  I grabbed it to pull it over to me, and it cracked.  I went ahead and planted in it anyways, cause I didn't have time to go up to Home Depot and get another one before they closed.  I'll get a new one sometime this summer and replace it at the end of the year, when it's too cold to grow anything.  Then the potting soil will be settled by the next spring, and ready to plant.  Here's hoping they all do really well this year!!  And that I don't forget to water them, lol.  I almost forgot Friday.  And I learned something from it.  I have a light on my balcony that leans like a drunken sailor.  I never would have thought, in a million years, that it would work, but I flipped the switch, and viola, it worked.  I was thrilled.  I didn't sit out in the summer evenings last year cause by the time it cooled off, it was dark.  Now that I know the light works, I'll have to sit out some nights this summer when it's not too hot.

     And now for progress, and an amusing story.  (You have to wait for the amusement, because I'm a B like that, lol.)  I FINALLY got to work on Time To Go this week (Witch Stitch'n'Bits).  I was thrilled.  

I'll need to take it off the Q in a few weeks again, to grid the rest of the first page.  But I got enough gridded to do the first two rows of ten by tens, so I started working on the first.  I put a LOT of stitches in it too.  Large, LARGE blocks of color, so it went super fast.  I'm working with primarily black in the first row of ten by tens.  There are a few other stitches, but it may be twenty of the first eight hundred.  Not many!!  You can see the stupid grid lines now that I finally have them in right.  Yes, I am a dork, lol.  (I also realized (again) that I really can't count.  I put in my own ten by ten grid lines on the pattern because the darned printer refused to print the graph, and was working on it, and realized...  I counted over nine, and drew my first grid line.  Then over ten, over ten, over ten.  So the first ten by ten grid is ten down by nine wide, the rest are ten by ten except for the last one, and that's ten by eleven.)  Luckily, I didn't have to frog anything because of it.  But still, how hard is it to count to ten?!?  You'd think I could do it by now.  

     And speaking of frogging, they're camped out in my living room.  And they're almost making me laugh.  (Hey, I did say ALMOST!!)  I'm having trouble with Midnight Hunting. 

 It's Dracolair Creations, and (typically) it has tons of fractional stitching in it.  So what do I keep frogging?  The regular stitches, lol.  There are several long rows with a three quarter stitch at the end.  (You can see them at the top, shading from dark blue to light.  They're right under the loopy part of the border.)  I've frogged them over and over again.  I just can't count!!!  It's been awful.  I'm so pissed off at them, I've put that part of it away for now.  Instead, I'm doing lots of little teeny fractionals, and I'm doing those just fine.  It's the whole stitches I just can't get right.  I wanted to finish the border and start on the wing for my goal this time, but if I don't get a handle on the stupid rows, that's not gonna happen.  Wish me luck.

     And then there's my ornie  (Bluebird of Christmas Happiness by M Designs).  I'm TRUCKING on that.  I got a huge amount done on it this past week.  

Several hundred stitches, at least.  I talked to Julie on the phone for several hours on Wed, and got so much accomplished.  Part of the reason it's going so fast is that it's so simple.  Hardly any color changes at all.  The bird's whole body is that turquoise color.  I didn't have to move the Q-snap like I thought I was going to, so that's a plus.  I should have just enough room for the backstitched little flourishes.  They're sort of like eight pointed asterisks.  I'm ready to start the red of his hat.  then I have the pom pom to do (on the end of his hat) and the asterisks, and I'm finished with him.  Oh, and a little bit of bsing to define his wing.  Isn't he cute?!?  Um, what am I missing...  I haven't worked on Beach Romance (Janlynn) since my last update.

     Oh, duh.  Noah's Sub.  I didn't get a whole lot done this week.  (Here's the amusing.)  My neighbor wanted to come over and talk.  For talk, read hit on me.  He asked me four or five times if I wanted to fool around with him.  He was slightly drunk.  As I'm not a homewrecker (he has a girlfriend, I think), I immediately promoted Freak to boyfriend.  (Also, I hardly know him.  No way am I gonna fool around with him when I just met him last week.  NO WAY!!)  I told him four or five times I wouldn't cheat on my boyfriend.  He explained to me that he likes women with big boobs.  (I'm a triple E, so that qualifies me.)  Which, at least he was honest about it.  But because he was trying to hug me and hold my hand (I kept pulling away from him), I didn't get much done.  Finally, he got the message and left.  I didn't go back outside to stitch, lol.  That's where he found me the first time.  (Friday, when I was out on my balcony, he invited me up anytime I want to come up.  I said thanks, but doubt I'll ever take him up on it.  He was telling me how nice his place is and how neat his TVs are.  He has three in a one bedroom apt.  Geez, one in every room but the bathroom.  I guess he was trying to impress me.  IDK, it was just weird, all the way around.)  So anyways, Noah's Sub. 

 I got some done.  Still working in that really pretty purple color.  I wanted to finish it off Thursday, but didn't even get close, as you can see.  There is a lot of it though.  As you can tell, I've gotten close enough to the next band down to work on that too.  There's a LOT of this color on the page, and I really like it.  I need to put in the other bands, and the kite tail too.  I'm probably about a third of the way done with the first page.  I still love this project.  It's coming along so well.  Hardly any frogging on it (knock on wood) and I've managed to remember that the sky is all half stitches.  So far, so good.  Hopefully, I'll get a whole lot more done on this next week.  I want to finish this color I'm on, and do the kite tail next.  Then I'm gonna work on the rest of the sky.

     Are you all still with me?  I'm impressed that you made it this far.  Congrats to you, as this is a very long winded entry.  Thanks for being here, and especially those of you that leave a comment.  I really appreciate them!!  Hope you're all having a good night!!