a few things
I don't know where this week went. Zip, it's Friday. A sunny Friday, but COLD. Again.
Instead of focusing on that, I think I'll focus inside.
Want to see what's been going on this week?
Fuchsias! This plant has suddenly exploded with flowers and I am grateful I decided to bring it inside in the fall. I have two fuchsia plants in my studio dormer window. They seem to love the cool (cold), bright spot. Fuchsias root easily in water and I'm thinking I'll probably take some cuttings from this plant and use them around the garden.
I'm also looking forward to using my geranium cuttings in the garden.
This one's flowers are just beginning to open, nestled among my orchid plants in the studio. Despite the fact that the cuttings I took in the fall lived in vases of water till the end of January, they seem to be thriving. I was so unsure of what to do with my geraniums at the end of the summer (bring in the plants? bring in dormant plants? take cuttings?) and I'm glad I decided to take cuttings of some. I'll probably do it at the end of this coming summer, too. Not that I want to be thinking about the end of summer before it even begins!
I guess summer is on my mind, though. I just started work on another painting of summer flowers.
I'm looking forward to being able to run out to the garden and cut the flowers I want to paint instead of sifting through my photo library to find what I'm looking for. Ugh. That's one task I haven't tackled yet in my month of organizing. My photo library is a bit of a mess. It's entirely my fault. I have a LOT of photos. I use Lightroom to catalog and edit them, but I'm not very good at tagging the photos as I import them. If they were tagged I could search my library for, say, "sunflowers" and find photographs of sunflowers. Instead I browse through my photos by date. Going through just this past summer's photos (June-October, I know, October isn't technically summer, but I was still cutting flowers this past October) meant that I had to look through over 6,000 photos in order to find just a handful. I just need to get into the habit of tagging my photos as I import them and making sure that I delete the bad ones. Once it's a habit, it will be easier. The hard part will be going through all those old photos. The best plan I can come up with is to give myself either a set amount of time to work on this each day or a set number of photographs to handle each day, breaking up the task in more manageable chunks. Although I'm not planning on creating photo albums, I like Amanda Soule's system of handling her photographs. Tagging, rating, deleting... all those tasks are essential and I've been putting it off for too long.
Do you have a good system for dealing with all photographs you take?
On more of a fun note, I'm making progress on the sweater I've been crocheting.
I'm nearly done with the back section. The pattern is the Dusk Sweater designed by Amy O'Neill Houck and published in Interweave Crochet in Fall of 2008 and available from their website as a digital download. It's been very simple to do and pretty fast. I may make a few changes with the sleeves and I'm planning on adding some ribbing to the bottom edge of the sweater. We'll see how it goes.
One thing I tried with this sweater that I haven't before is a Russian join. Have you heard of it? I kept seeing it pop up on Pinterest, but hadn't really looked at what it was until I needed to join a new skein of yarn for this project. So I looked it up and tried it and wow! There's a good tutorial here. If you knit or crochet, I'd highly recommend giving it a try.
Last weekend I was hoping to finish sewing my new Portfolio tunic, but I ran out of time. It's been sitting on my ironing board all week waiting for my attention.
Just seeing it there makes me happy and I'm looking forward to finishing it up this weekend and then going on to my next sewing project (a dress from Simplicity 3835 like I did here using a sweet baby wale green corduroy). I enjoy getting sewing inspiration from Pinterest and although I have a bunch of sewing patterns, I'm not really fired up about most of them. It's been nice to do some searches online and read about others' experiences with different patterns. Getting to see what a pattern will look like on an actual person is really helpful, too.
Do you have a favorite sewing pattern? I'd love to find another really good one that I can use for multiple projects.
Hope you've had a good week and that your weekend is joyful and relaxing.
Instead of focusing on that, I think I'll focus inside.
Want to see what's been going on this week?
Fuchsias! This plant has suddenly exploded with flowers and I am grateful I decided to bring it inside in the fall. I have two fuchsia plants in my studio dormer window. They seem to love the cool (cold), bright spot. Fuchsias root easily in water and I'm thinking I'll probably take some cuttings from this plant and use them around the garden.
I'm also looking forward to using my geranium cuttings in the garden.
This one's flowers are just beginning to open, nestled among my orchid plants in the studio. Despite the fact that the cuttings I took in the fall lived in vases of water till the end of January, they seem to be thriving. I was so unsure of what to do with my geraniums at the end of the summer (bring in the plants? bring in dormant plants? take cuttings?) and I'm glad I decided to take cuttings of some. I'll probably do it at the end of this coming summer, too. Not that I want to be thinking about the end of summer before it even begins!
I guess summer is on my mind, though. I just started work on another painting of summer flowers.
I'm looking forward to being able to run out to the garden and cut the flowers I want to paint instead of sifting through my photo library to find what I'm looking for. Ugh. That's one task I haven't tackled yet in my month of organizing. My photo library is a bit of a mess. It's entirely my fault. I have a LOT of photos. I use Lightroom to catalog and edit them, but I'm not very good at tagging the photos as I import them. If they were tagged I could search my library for, say, "sunflowers" and find photographs of sunflowers. Instead I browse through my photos by date. Going through just this past summer's photos (June-October, I know, October isn't technically summer, but I was still cutting flowers this past October) meant that I had to look through over 6,000 photos in order to find just a handful. I just need to get into the habit of tagging my photos as I import them and making sure that I delete the bad ones. Once it's a habit, it will be easier. The hard part will be going through all those old photos. The best plan I can come up with is to give myself either a set amount of time to work on this each day or a set number of photographs to handle each day, breaking up the task in more manageable chunks. Although I'm not planning on creating photo albums, I like Amanda Soule's system of handling her photographs. Tagging, rating, deleting... all those tasks are essential and I've been putting it off for too long.
Do you have a good system for dealing with all photographs you take?
On more of a fun note, I'm making progress on the sweater I've been crocheting.
I'm nearly done with the back section. The pattern is the Dusk Sweater designed by Amy O'Neill Houck and published in Interweave Crochet in Fall of 2008 and available from their website as a digital download. It's been very simple to do and pretty fast. I may make a few changes with the sleeves and I'm planning on adding some ribbing to the bottom edge of the sweater. We'll see how it goes.
One thing I tried with this sweater that I haven't before is a Russian join. Have you heard of it? I kept seeing it pop up on Pinterest, but hadn't really looked at what it was until I needed to join a new skein of yarn for this project. So I looked it up and tried it and wow! There's a good tutorial here. If you knit or crochet, I'd highly recommend giving it a try.
Last weekend I was hoping to finish sewing my new Portfolio tunic, but I ran out of time. It's been sitting on my ironing board all week waiting for my attention.
Just seeing it there makes me happy and I'm looking forward to finishing it up this weekend and then going on to my next sewing project (a dress from Simplicity 3835 like I did here using a sweet baby wale green corduroy). I enjoy getting sewing inspiration from Pinterest and although I have a bunch of sewing patterns, I'm not really fired up about most of them. It's been nice to do some searches online and read about others' experiences with different patterns. Getting to see what a pattern will look like on an actual person is really helpful, too.
Do you have a favorite sewing pattern? I'd love to find another really good one that I can use for multiple projects.
Hope you've had a good week and that your weekend is joyful and relaxing.
I'll be trying the scout tee soon. It's all over the internet. I'm finally going to cut into some Liberty lawn I bought in London years and years ago. I think this winter requires something special for spring. :-)
ReplyDeleteLove all your indoor flowers.
Thanks, Karen. :)
DeleteI had to look up the scout tee. It looks like a great pattern and Liberty lawn sounds delicious!
Spring will require much celebrating this year I think.
I have the same problem with cataloguing my photos! I'm the worst at it and I also use Lightroom so there really is no excuse. You're inspiring me to try harder this summer when I get snap happy again. Gosh, I can't wait to start looking at real flowers again, too. This winter feels so neverending! Spring has got to get here soon, right? ;)
ReplyDeleteSo glad I'm not the only one!
DeleteAnd I have to slap my hand because I've imported photos a couple times since writing this post and haven't tagged a single one. :( I'll get the hang of it and I'm sure you will, too!
I have to agree that this seems like the longest winter ever. But spring really is coming. If nothing else these long days are wonderful.
Love that fuchsia. I've been pretty good with my photos. Recently I began making family albums and I'm so happy I did. I have fond memories of looking at photos with my family and I enjoy doing it with my kids. That sweater looks great so far. I have one I want to try just need to pick the yarn. I have heard of the Russian join but haven't tried it. I will now though since you are raving about it. I hope that warmer days are on the way for you guys. We are supposed to get snow on Monday.
ReplyDeleteFamily albums are fun. I love looking at the ones from when my brother and I were kids. I'm sure if we had kids I'd be making albums to share with them, too. I don't think our kitty and dogs really care. :)
DeleteHope the snow avoided you!
You are such a busy, inspiring and creative bee :) Your plants look soooo happy and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Aga! You are sweet. I feel so energized and inspired now that it's spring! And i guess my plants do, too!
Delete