How Does Your Garden Grow?

 I have the ultimate "brown thumbs", even my dad who had a fantastic green house quit giving me plants because I'd end up killing them.  We don't have any house plants, and I dread getting one as a gift, because I know it will be dead the next time that person comes to visit, and it will probably still be sitting where I put it all brown and dead the next time they come over. Fortunately for me my husband has 2 perfect green thumbs.....our new place has a huge fenced in garden area to keep the deer and other critters out. It has raised beds that were begging to be planted. It also came with a small green house that hadn't seen anything green in a long, long time.(Looks like I had been taking care of it)  My husband has been ordering and starting seeds, tilling and planting in the raised beds, and now we are starting to see results.....

 The starts in the green house are just about ready to get put into bigger pots or the garden itself.

 I don't go here, I'm afraid everything will turn brown if I step inside the fenced in area.....

 A neighbor gave us some rhubarb starts, I'm really hoping we'll be able to eat some of this, this year.

The raspberries I can handle, I cut out the old vines without managing to kill the new.......maybe there is hope for me yet.  I can't wait to pick!

Chick, Chick, Chick

I didn't think I liked chickens. The last time I was around them I was a teenager, they chased me, they are mean, and boy are they stupid.So, of course the husband had to have chickens on the mini farm. But, in his defense he has had chickens before, so he knows what they are all about, how to take care of them, and most of all he's not afraid of them. And he built a fenced in area for them and me. Our first batch of about 19 were so pretty, and not mean at all. It worked out great, we let them out to run amuck and at dusk they go into their pen to roost for the night, how easy is that. I did not realize though that I had to keep an eye on them when they were out. Within a couple of weeks of this routine, I was home alone, the chickens were out, and I was in the house minding my own business. Frank got home from work to find dead chickens all over our 2 acres, it was devastating. Some dog had come into our yard to chase and kill chickens. Some had escaped across the street to the neighbors house, one had gotten on a branch across the creek (Frank had to put his waiters on and go rescue her), but over half of our flock had been killed. And of course we had company coming for the week-end who showed up in the middle of all this commotion and aggravation. It was absolutely heart breaking.
Now I am older (by a month), and wiser, this will not happen on my watch again, plus I have a shotgun by the back door. Now we only let them "free range" for an hour in the evenings. We have bought more and have hatched 7 in one batch and 3 in our latest batch. And guess what? I am NOT afraid of chickens, we have a ton of fresh eggs, and they are absolutely hilarious to watch because they really aren't very smart, just entertaining. I have not passed the insanity on, so the grandkids love them too!

Wrap it up!

I've been wanting to try crocheting the pineapple pattern forever, it always seemed so daunting though. And it's true, once you get the hang of it, it's really not that hard. It was actually kind of fun, since every row is different until you complete a pineapple. Now, I'm addicted to pineapples!

Here are two of my latest "pineapples":

(Sorry, Janice, got your eyes closed...) This tank top was featured on Knit and Crochet today, and it was so fun to make, I've made 2 already. It's made with a cotton yarn, but it seems kind of thick, but a thinner thread almost seems to have no shape, but I think the finished top looks great.

I've been holding onto this gray cashmere yarn for a few years now, I was planning on making me a sweater with it, but since that never happened I used it for this shawl. I found this pattern in a book that was given to me for my birthday this year.

I love how this came out and the cashmere makes it feel so nice against your skin.
That's Kodiak sneaking in the bottom there.............Both pieces have both been listed on my Esty shop. OH! And I had my first sale yesterday!!

Where am I?

I couldn't decide if I wanted to keep this blog or not, pretty obvious huh?

Today I was looking for a pattern on my computer that I thought I had saved, and then remembered my blog, surely I had posted it on my blog.................not. But what I did find was a fun trip down memory lane, and a renewed since of blogging. So here I am, back to the blog world.

I've been busy, I've been bored, I've been fired (yes, FIRED!) from my job, very humbling, and so I've been crocheting and knitting, learning to garden and learning to not be afraid of chickens. I've been baking and gaining weight, applying for jobs, and I started an Etsy shop. Yes, I took the plunge and now I feel like I need to be crafting every second my hands are free.

My Estsy shop is: http://www.etsy.com/people/MargiesWorld?ref=si_pr And I'm probably supposed to have some kind of pretty little link there, but in time, I just need time. And now I will be going back to work in the real world once again, I start May 9th. What was I saying about time..........................................

My goal will be to post on my blog at least once a week, or you'll be able to see what I am up to at my Etsy shop, but I seem to be my worst critic, I'll finish a project and then feel it is not good enough for my shop, and so my shop does not have a lot for sale at this time. I'm thinking I need to create a place in my shop for the mis-shapens, the odd balls, a clearance room so to speak.........of course it probably wouldn't look to good to have more in my clearance room then in my shop!

Birthday Afghan

I decided this year to make an afghan for each of the kids for their birthdays. I had JC look at a few patterns to get an idea of what he liked and colors. Since I like this pattern too, this is the one I selected to do. It's from an old Vanna White book I found. I used Caron Simply Soft yarn, which is washable, I thought that would be best since they have 2 kids!

I finished it with time to spare, his birthday isn't for another 2 weeks. That will give me the summer to work on Autumns for her birthday in September. She wants something with "stars", oh boy!

Mothers Day Slippers

Finished and in the mail.............snugly soft slippers for my mom for Mothers Day, she'll probably get them on Monday. They're made out of Modea Soft yarn, after I finished them I realized that I should have used another yarn with this soft stuff, just to make the finished slippers a little firmer. But these will be fine for summer. I lined the inside with some thick soft fleece I found at the thrift store. My moms feet are always cold, so these should work all the way into winter for her.

Blueberry Hand Pies

I made these the other day for a bake sale at the local yard sale. I was planning on making apple pies, but I had some thawed out blueberries that needed to be used up. I ended up making only 12 of them, and since all of them turned out looking pretty good, I didn't sample. I was thinking there would be at least 1 or 2 left to try after the sale............not. But I'm thinking since people were coming to the table asking if that was where the blueberry pies were that they were a hit. I used the Pampered Chefs round cut/out crimper tool to make these. It worked great! I will definitely be making these for the Farmers Market that starts in June.