My seeds are planted! Making the pots was pretty fun and rather messy. I used an empty jam jar to roll quarter sheets of newspaper and then filled them with potting  mix with a spoon. I ended up with eighteen little pots: seven with seeds for the traditional tall yellow sunflowers and the remaining eleven area a slightly shorter and spikier looking version sporting deep red tones. I can't wait to see what they look like but it's going to be a while yet.

When I was all done potting I cleaned up the table and washed my hands and still had a lot of dirt under my nails. I remembered reading Erin's post about a gardener's hand scrub and quickly whipped up a jarful (the same jar I'd used for making my pots actually). I then washed my hands a second time. The scrub works so beautifully I made up a second jar to give to my sister whose been giving me all sorts of gardening direction.


ps. I may have to find a new spot to keep my collectin of pots - our kitchen table smells a lot like potting soil - it's a little weird when you're eating.

Yesterday morning my feet were cold. I went looking for a pair of socks and found the only clean ones in my mending box. I sat down with my darning egg and picked a pair to work on.


These are my Lucy socks (that was the name of the yarn). The first pair of socks I made for myself and the second pair ever. I made them when we went to Nova Scotia for our honeymoon and British Columbia for my sister's wedding so they've got some nice memories attached to them.

After a while my socks didn't have holes anymore.


After a little more reinforcing they were keeping my feet warm.


There was another pair of socks nearby that needed reinforcing. This time it's pre-darning reinforcement. Do you recognize the socks? I promise a proper post once I've got some fun pictures to share.


Eventually I stopped thinking about socks ...

... and started thinking about slippers

... and which style to make:

The square toe?


Or the round toe?


I haven't made up my mind yet, but that's okay because I haven't decided what fabric I want to use either.

Right now I need to go make some newspaper pots and plant my sunflower seeds so they'll have a chance to bloom this summer.

I meant to do some posting of stuff yesterday but once I was home from work I just didn't want to be on the computer ... so I wasn't.



It was cold, cold, cold and we had hot cocoa to warm up after work.


This is our baking stone. We use it all the time for pizza and pitas and sometimes for bread. I love the rich patina it's developing.


I was in a course all day and got to go home from work an hour early. It seemed the perfect occasion for afternoon tea. The cookie is from a tin my sister left on our doorstep on Sunday.


Okay, so this picture wasn't actually taken on Thursday but it is a good representation of why picture taking didn't happen. "Oh, I'll just sit down and read a chapter and then do something else." Why do I still believe myself when I say that?


My purse hard at work.


The pussy-willows are starting to come out. I'm so glad they emerge so early on. They are the first growing things we see and nothing else will be showing buds for ages yet.


We got Abby a new toy. It's a rubber squeaky ball with little feet and horns and sneaky eyes. It's just the right size for her mouth and, because of the feet and horns, doesn't bounce completely predictably. She loves it and carries it with her wherever she goes.