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socks and gardens, what else? :)

so the pink socks are done.  :)  This first picture is a good shot of the stitches, but a bad one of the actual color....

Here's a more accurate picture of what the color is.  I need to figure out the settings on my camera and how to get both in the same picture...  :)

The current project - I actually finished p the toe on this sock last night and have it off the needles.  I'll be casting on the mate tonight!  :)  it's hard to see the pattern, but it's a cabled one called "dragonfly"

The cutest cat ever, Mia, wants to say hi!!!  :)

And now for some more garden pictures!!!  Its so amazing how much things can change over night!!!

I noticed these growing this weekend - I'm not sure what their "official" name is, but we called them coin plants when I was a kid.  They must have come with something that I transfered from mom's garden because I didn't plant them.  I decided to leave them since I had so much fun playing with them and the "coins" when I was younger.  :)

more and more peonies keep opening up! 

Paul and his dad are going to rip this bush out for me in a few weeks.  It's so ugly and overgrown.  Whenever I cut it back, it just turns brown...so it's time to say good bye!  :-D

mmmm....irises!  These are the ones from mom's garden.  There's two colors- this light color and a darker one.  Only the light ones were open last night, but I noticed some dark ones that were opening this morning!

Strawberries!

Radishes in the planter box.  :)

Lettuce!

Spider wort! I LOVE this plant. Only a few of the buds are opening, but in a few days they all will be and it will be QUITE the sight. These open each morning and close each evening.

front yard:

back yard:

mmmm.... peonies!

We just finished up an awesome weekend with great weather!  And it just happened to be my birthday on Saturday.  :)  Mom came over Saturday and we spent all day working in my gardens after a yummy lunch prepared by my awesome husband.  mmmm burgers on the grill!!!  We got TONS of work done in the gardens and they look GREAT.  Pictures of the overall look to come - but here's some of my favorites that are currently blooming - peonies!  I love love LOVE the dark pink ones and they smell heavenly.

Oh, and our dead vole count was up to 4 Saturday morning and there haven't been any spottings since.  I'm REALLY hoping they've moved on.

While we were working in the yard, we sent Paul and John to go pick up a new couch for us!  It's so exciting to finally get past having Paul's college fouton in our living room!!!  :)  We recently upgraded our tv and tv stand also - so we're doing pretty good.  :)  I'm not sold on the color of the couch.  it's very...green...  But it's in perfect condition, has a fold out bed, is very comfortable...and only cost us $50!  Really, how can you beat that?  So we sent our guest bed home with mom and John to store until a friend of ours is ready to pick it up for her son.  The fouton and all of my crafting things went into the "guest room" (YAY!!!  now I have a craft room!!!!  my stuff all used to be in the dining room)  And we still sleeping space for the same number of guests...though maybe not as COMFORTABLE sleeping - I'd rather have a bed than a fouton any day.  But we also decided that, for as rare as stay over guests are, it's not worth having a room that we're not able to use for anything.

So here's pictures.  Our old tv stand is still here to the left - we'll be getting rid of that as soon as we figure out where to put the video games that are in it...

Here's our new couch, with the dining room in the background...

Our now-spacious dining room.

And my craft room that is in need of MUCH organization.  The fouton is against the other wall - so you'd be facing my desk when sitting on it.

We got one! WARNING: Gross picture

I talked to the MSU Extension office in Oakland County yesterday to see if there was any better way to get rid of voles than just using mouse traps like we did last year.  Unfortunately the woman I talked to told me that the traps were probably our best bet unless we want to use poison.  Poison in my vegetable garden???  I don't think so!  So Paul and I baited 5 traps with peanut butter and set them around all of the holes in the garden last night.  (when I say Paul and I - I mean Paul.  :)  After snapping my thumb in a trap last year, I'm scared to death of the things - so I just supervised.)  When I got up this morning and checked, ALL of the traps were sprung....

...And we'd only caught one.  GROSS!!!

I left this ugly little guy for Paul to deal with.  Husbands are so great!  We're going to keep resetting the traps and replacing the ones that succeed every day until we stop catching anything.  I think I'm also going to try spreading some of Mia's shed fur around out there so they think that there's predators around.  Hopefully this will work - I'm sick of them eating/killing my plants!

Cuteness, flowers, and more socks

Isn't this the cutest picture ever??  :)  Mia's supervising as I put away laundry.  She likes being involved in anything that's going on.  :)

The irises that I got from my mom's garden are finally blooming.  They're so pretty!  :)  There's another color - a lighter purple.  I wonder if any of them will bloom this year.

And here's the socks I'm currently working on.  My first project with cables!  I have no idea why I was afraid of cables for so long - they're actually very easy!!  One sock is done and I'm just starting the heel flap on the other.  They're a wool/silk blend that's super soft and cozy.  The color is more of a bright fuscia than this picture shows - I guess my cell phone doesn't take the BEST pictures ever.  :)  I'll get some better pictures with my real digital camera when I'm done with the second sock.  My next project will be another pair of socks out of the same yarn, but in a plum color.  Any suggestions for a nice worsted weight sock pattern for me to try?

Some more garden pictures

yeah, so maybe posting all of these pictures is being a bit obsessive.  I don't care.  :)  I'm attempting to document all of my plants this year - and posting pictures here helps keep me motivated to keep the gardens weeded, watered, and healthy.  I'm just really excited about growing things this year!  :)

Columbine:

Wild phlox on the other side of the fence - in the field behind our yard.

The voles are back and are terrorizing my veggie garden already  :(  any tips on getting rid of them?  The best I've found so far is regular mouse traps with peanut butter.

zucchini

my version of square foot gardening.  it's actually 2-square-foot gardening as my squares are 2x2 instead of 1x1.  :)  eh, it works.

one of my new planter boxes that my father in law built me for my birthday!  This is where I'm going to grow lettuce and other greens to keep them away from the voles & rabbits.

all of the planter boxes....

The first peony of the year!  :)

and some more about ready to come out

garden in front of the house - irises, dianthus, sedum, lilies...and some weeds.  :)

my tiger lily had babies!!  :)

front of the house

hmmm....  first year any of my irises have been YELLOW!!!  where'd this come from??

irises in front of the house

front of the house...  I just found out what the white flowers are - ornithogalum umbellatum or Star of Bethleham.  Very pretty and sweet smelling flowers.  :)

front of the house...  do you know what the pink stuff is?  It also came with the house.  it flowers most of the spring/summer.  is it creeping phlox?

side of the house.  we built this pathway.  there just used to be a garden here and nothing connecting these two decks...so we put in some cinder blocks and installed a gate.  I love it!!  :)  strawberries and roses on the right, lilies, black eyed susans, and some kind of ground cover on the left.

close up of the strawberries

closeup of the roses