Back Home Again

It's good to be back home again!

And due to Little Bug's TLC

we were welcomed home to plants that survived our absence.

A welcoming site that made me smile.

April and May were full of wonderful travels...

Louisiana, California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico

Good times I will never forget, but...

North, South, East, West:

Home's Best!!!

Dollar Store Garden - Day 28

The Bachelors Buttons Moving Day

 From their condominiums to their new houses.

Home ~ Sweet ~ Home

but not their final home...

Dominique

Time and thoughtfulness...

 ...create gifts from the heart that will be cherished, forever.

Over two years ago I met a wonderful woman in France via blogging.

She has been a constant and loyal blogging companion.

We've never met in person, although I feel like we have...

I hope to change that someday.

She handcrafted this beautiful bag for my crocheting projects.

Customized in the colors I love. 

Hmmmm...here's a thought: the colors are the colors of our three countries:

USA, France, Norway.

I know - not exactly the flag blue, but my favorite blue nonetheless. :-)

 We are in the midst of traveling via car and this has been my constant companion.

The heart, with a bell inside, was included in the package.

Note the colors. :-)

This heart made my heart skip a beat.

I collect hanging hearts at my kitchen window.

They are all associated with a special memory.

Did she know this or was it serendipitous?

Thank you Domi, from the bottom of my heart!!!

 P.S. Domi makes so many amazing things

 and always with a sense of humor; she can be visited here.

Owls for my Peep II

"T" was born on May 22, 2013

"T" belongs to a dear, dear friend and colleague of mine.

"T's" mother made a huge difference in my life this last year and for that I will be forever grateful.

This is for him.

See this post for a summary of directions on "how to".

Probably suited more for an intermediate crocheter.

This one did not have a border and the feet were crocheted 

to the owl instead of the stem.

And as the photos indicate -the joining stitch on the owl body 

should have been placed under the beak or at the top.

I must have been in too big of a hurry to complete it the evening he was born.

The moral of the crochet story:

Haste makes weird things come out of owl beaks. ;-)

Dollar Store Garden - Day 21

The Bachelors Buttons are still alive!

Spending a lot time outside now,

and some time inside, by the window:

This is the most boring post ever...

but just you wait to see what I have in store for these next week.

Have a wonderful beginning of the holiday weekend!!!

Mind Change

The pillow or shawl or scarf dilemma changed 

after a shopping trip with my girlfriend.

We spotted some lovely shawl like scarves that made me think that the rose project

 from this post, needed to be a scarf/shawl instead of a pillow.

(Hey, I still have the gray roses...)

So this is what became of the blue roses that were once to be a pillow:

 A shawl/scarf thing, 

or a geranium frame? hehe.

This is last years geranium...can you believe it survived?

It's one of five that survived because of the NVO.

The NVO takes good care of the plants indoors during the winter. 

I am one of many Norwegians who LOVE geraniums!

We especially like them in our windows with lace curtains.

OK, OK back to the shawl/scarf.

(The geranium did give me the idea of pairing this scarf with red though.)

Oooooo...a combo I like: 

red and blue.

 From the back.

I ran out of yarn so the point is a little petal or maybe a heart. :-)

This entire project only took one skein of yarn:

The pattern is just simply the rose from my granny rose CAL,

and joined via the petals as I went along.

So super easy!

Can he worn tied or...

draped.

Tucked inside a coat collar would be nice too,

but the coats are put away for the winter (yee-haw!!!), 

so no photo of the coat option. :-(

But I like the back the best:

I'm walking backwards when I wear this, for sure!

Have a Pretty Spring day!

Syttende Mai Dancers

 The Scandinavian Dancers!!!

That's the NVO second from left, in the back, (in my father's former bunad)

   and me third from the left, in the front, in the recently inherited bunad from my mother

and posted about in the following posts:

Here, here, here, here, here , here and here.

The NVO on the left, and our leaders Gwen and Tom in the front and Stacey and Ken in the back,

dancing for the Syttende Mai celebration in Utah.

Happy Syttende Mai!!!

Syttende Mai Colors

Gratulerer med Dagen Norge!!!
199 years!

And what better way to celebrate than something crocheted in the 

Syttende Mai Colors:

(How about that for a segue?)

Which just happens to coordinate with the master bedroom linens:

 Yup, that's what I am talking about.

So it starts with a package from Mor in Norway,

which included a Syttende Mai ribbon:

the color inspiration piece.

 And then it continues with some yummy Encore Yarn in just the right shades

 to match the existing bedroom pillows:

How about that for a match, huh?

Luck was on my side that day!

Next, the search was on for a pattern (or two).

Here are the search results:

Pattern #1 - Eight Petal Popcorn Flower Granny

Aren't they fun?

 Instructions were a little difficult to find, at least that were easy for

my crochet brain to follow, so I combined a few and these were the result.

 If you are so inclined, I believe you could root around on

the WWW and find something that could help you out.

I may post about these more in the future with additional instructions.

I really like them, they make me smile.

Then they were joined with a slip stitch here:

then for the other side,
something totally different:

Pattern #2 - Paintbrush

Then edged with one row of sc's and two rows of dc's.

 Pattern can be purchased from

The Felted Button here.

Oh, and you have got to at least click on the link

 to see the gorgeous colors she used for her pillow!

(Pattern #1 edged with one row of sc's and one row of dc's)
Later when I discovered this was too small I added another row of dc to both.

 The two patterns joined with that $1.49 IKEA pillow again.

And don't forget some buttons from the button stash.

 

These must be very old as they were only $1.70 and Made in Italy...

The completed two sided Syttende Mai Pillow:

The NVO states that if I ever go out of town he will not be putting
all those pillow back on the bed each morning...ohhhhh, the nightmares;
 I'll never be able to go out of town without him.

In any case,

Happy Independence Day Norway!
We are planning to celebrate the 200th, 
next year, with you in Norway!

Dollar Store Garden - Day 14

Thank you all for your sweet comments on the two-headed tulip post.
Seems like no one has ever experienced such an anomaly.
Quite strange...

 Along the same lines,
 here's a little progress on the 4/$1.00 package of blue flowers:

Sadly lost a few but I think most will survive.

Stay tuned for weekly updates (on Thursdays) and we'll see what happens
 to these through the season. :-)



A Two-Headed Tulip?!?!

Seems like it could not be so...

but it is!

Have you ever seen such a thing?

Can you explain it?