The Terrarium Bug!

Yes I've caught it from my sister Kris, who's made a couple of excellent models.

Remember this jar from a thrifting adventure? Well it's finally been put to use:: And sadly, that fern is the same fern from the vessels post. It was thriving in my Boston bathroom, but, like me, it became a bit stressed after moving to four different houses/apts/cabins in as many months. It definitely hasn't received the humidity it needs, but I'm hoping we've fixed that problem with the terrarium set-up.

And do you see that moss? I know I could go outside and pick up some moss, but I thought it would be fun to order the terrarium variety pack from Moss Acres. Because really, who doesn't love to open a box o' moss?! You get a lot of moss in that little box, and next week I'll show you what else I did with it.

Garden Gnome!!!!:: How cute is that little guy? I love garden gnomes, and I sort of want one for the yard. What do you think? Is it too silly? or the right kind of fun?

Rather than walk through each step, I thought it'd be fun to put together a little terrarium diagram:: Got it? Now go out and make yourself a fun little garden. It'll stave off the end-of-winter craziness, particularly for those of us that woke up to an inch of fresh snow this morning. That was one inch too many.

Yes, we still play with yarn

It may not seem like it based upon all of the distractions at Chez Winterfoliage, but I do squeak in some knitting {and crocheting} here and there.

Currently occupying my needles::That's Aidez, a sweater that will be the perfect winter to spring transition piece. I'm making it with some unnamed wool that I picked up at Rhinebeck three years ago! As you can see, I'm also knitting it seamless, because it's the way I roll.

I'm not good at knitting colorful sweaters for myself, but the day I bought this yarn I was feeling adventurous. I brought the yarn home, took a picture, blogged about it, and then immediately put it away because I wasn't so sure about the color. I decided that my feelings about the yarn weren't getting any better with it just sitting there, and since my bright green Owl sweater was such a success, it was time to knit up this yarn and *hope* that it grows on me.

I think it's working. If nothing else, the sweater's definitely growing. I have to admit that I love all of the oatmeal Aidezes that I've seen, but I'm trying my hardest to love this purple guy. And really, it is great yarn, check out the specks of red and blue in this closeup::

What else is going on? Some secret wedding knitting::

And, of course, I'm still working on the hexagon afghan. Here's a picture on our queen-sized bed for scale::I think I'm going to increase it by another 50% for a nice, cozy afghan.

ps ~ I've listened to yesterday's song on repeat all evening. It's good.

Wednesday Soundtrack

Artists :: Billy Bragg and Wilco
Song :: California Stars

Just for fun...

The bridesmaids dresses and shoes have arrived! My sisters gave us a little fashion show with the full she-bang. We decided to go with the dress I showed you in this post. I swooned about them then ~ the color, the fabric... and the pockets. I'm still uber jealous that the bridesmaids have pockets!

This was the perfect excuse for all of the girls to buy TOMS. We've each drooled over them from afar, but never took the plunge until now. Why TOMS? Everyone liked their casual look, but we really love their charity work. The girls claim that the wedges are really comfortable, and I think they're better than heels for an outdoor wedding on grass!

And what are the post-wedding plans for these two? They're putting together their audition tape for The Price is Right.

This week, much to my delight, the garden was bursting with early bloomers! I can't say it enough, manning this yard is going to be such a fun learning experience for me. Everyday I'm discovering new facts while observing the plants, reading my pile of gardening books, and researching online.

Here's the same patch of crocuses I showed you in this post:: Did you know that crocuses open their flowers every morning and close them every night?!

The bees love them, can you spot the little guy in this photo, he almost blends in with the background::

We have a few patches of dwarf irises:: There are more varieties than I expected, and I'm still not 100% sure what we have here.

Under the pine trees there are snowdrops::

and Eranthis, or winter aconite:: It was such a fun treat to find these under the trees where I really didn't expect anything to come up! Apparently the Eranthis will self-seed and are most successful if planted in a space that will be left alone so that the new seedlings aren't disturbed. Hands down my favorite fact of the week ~ the Eranthis use thermogenesis to give off a small amount of heat. Warming the ground around them allows them to be one of the earliest blooms in your spring garden!

As the gardening bug has taken hold, I've started to explore the world of gardening blogs. A couple of my favorites are A Way to Garden and You Grow Girl. Of course, I'll add these to the sidebar along with any others I find.

Superplasticity.

A few years ago, my mom and I saw a pair of card catalogs on ebay and we couldn't walk away. In fact, if they were to be ours, we had to drive to them since shipping was out of the question.

Both card catalogs went home with my mom, because my shared Boston apartments did not leave much room for one of these big boys. My mom's card catalog was put to work immediately, the drawers were filled with everything from silverware and scissors to markers and masking tape. My card catalog was stored in the barn, until "the great barn clean-out of 2010" that I often refer to. During its time in storage, it got wet, and the finish on top was ruined. Not a big deal at all. In fact, I have such a hard time taking that leap and painting old, wooden furniture, that this was the excuse I needed! I still had a bit of blue paint left over from painting these desk legs. After removing any final bits of varnish and sanding the top of the card catalog, I got to painting. I love the results! I'm thinking that I'll take it a step farther and paint the sides of that top piece, and maybe one day I'll get adventurous enough to paint everything but the drawers. You can see in the photos that the varnish is already chipping off in other areas. Won't it look awesome?

I've yet to fill up the drawers, right now I'm just enjoying the old labels {and thinking about ways to keep these labels, while adding new functional ones}. {WOOL! could there be a better label for a knitter?}

One idea was to keep the old labels where they are and add smaller, new labels to that smaller section on the left, where the drawer numbers are now.

Plus, how great would it be if the items I put in the drawers relate to their old labels? Like silly putty in the superplasticity drawer, because I'm always looking for a place to store my silly putty.

Wednesday Soundtrack

Artist :: Florence and the Machine
Song :: Dog Days are Over