T For Tuesday & What a Difference a Week Makes Lots of Photos

Happy T for Tuesday everyone!!

   Please visit our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth for links to all the participants and information if you would like to join in the fun.

   A week ago today my back was at it's worse, after about 2 weeks total I can get around better finally, especially up on that ladder so I can paint. I started that today.

   We also got lots of much needed rain-a really good soak which is what we so needed-and more rain possible most of this week. So yesterday I gathered up the couple of plants I had mail ordered in and got them planted-of course there was more to it than that-lol clearing the area of weeds and raking to the side some straw and dried plant materials. Wheel barrel in from my compost pile-back held up to the day.
     I have never used that weed barrier fabric before but since a neighbor gave me a couple rolls I decided to try this around the new plants. These are plants to attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees.  I will also plant lots of seeds too to help out the pollinators

  I have not ordered in plants for many years now because of this-These are two lilac bushes-one really nice and one not so very nice-sigh I took this photo to send to the company. The roots only of the other plants I bought looked good, and the mint is pretty hardy so I think those will be ok. I had never heard of hummingbird tango mint-turns out it is a licorice mint-interesting especially if the hummingbirds like it
     
(all photos will enlarge to full size just click on them)
     
These are my two lilac plants

and here is the nicer one planted

Last week I was not sure if my two clematis both full of buds would survive the very cold night temperatures-we got down to 15 degrees f a couple nights.

    I covered them up with sheets, and one night the wind blew them half off. I really thought I lost allot of buds--nope they look good after all the rain. The one plant has allot of brown in the middle of it but the buds look healthy-yeah that means I shouldn't lose out on their beautiful spring blooms. I look forward to these every spring-this variety only blooms once in the spring and then it's over til next year.

 I have also continued this past week learning the tunisian crochet stitches.-on the bottom is the simple tunisian or afghan stitch, then the tunisian knit stitch, and on the top is the tunisian pearl stitch. My sample would be much larger but I have taken lots out. lol

     I am enjoying the learning process so far with this sampler except I did not expect my carpal tunnel on my right side to flare up again-something I got from being a telephone operator, so if I am typing on the computer too long it will aggravate-but did not expect it with the crochet. I am working on holding the hook in different ways.This tunisian does use up allot of yarn, very thick. Wondering if wool would be less thick of a fabric. My thoughts were to make a scarf with some of my handspun once I learn I few stitches.

  Those of you that followed recently on my older blog will remember me hunting down charms for Yellowstone-well of course I went over board on the charms-I was just having too much fun finding the charms.  and this was my splurge treat for myself.

   I had been waiting for getting allot of the charms soldered before I attached them to split rings and on to the bracelet-so that was done and I had fun putting that one together over the weekend.

   I also wanted to make a wolf charm bracelet. Our very long time fur family member was Nikita our wolf-she was with us for 14 years and we miss her still.  Soon after she passed a couple years ago now, I found a hand carved wolf paw print in deer antler-I always wanted to make something special to wear with it. So now it has a home on my bracelet. I have a howling sterling wolf charm coming in this week. and since Miss Calico and Nikita were such good friends I am thinking of adding a kitty charm too.

the first photo is my second Yellowstone inspired bracelet-I also included a reference back to Peggy Henderson's Yellowstone time travel books with the journal, heart, and sheet music for Heart Song the first book in the series

A few photos of my wall painting today. I have to tell you I bought this paint over 8 years ago and knew I had chosen a blue but was a little surprised with the shade when I opened up the can, did not remember it this color lol but it is going on nice.

   I do also have two stains that I will be rubbing in all over to accent some of the textures. My vision was a light blue for the outdoor summer sky and to accent the rock work which I think it will. 

   I decided to start in the more time consuming area first that way the walls will seem to go faster. I only paint with a brush so this will take me most of this week-and I have a strip up near the ceiling that also needs papered first.

This area has allot of shelving.

Over the weekend I also was contemplating on how to make bear bells for our Yellowstone trip.  I have allot of leather actually a whole trunk full and my friend gave me a roll of leather cording used in jewelry making. Saturday night I was thinking of how to make this simple and not expensive at all-but to have in case we need them in the park.  I got a brainstorm-lol   I grabbed some cotton shirting from my fabric stash, tore it in strips-then braided-added a bell braided til I got to the end. It ties up easy on the wrist or perhaps on a belt loop. the idea is to make noise so the bears know we are there.

So I guess I was pretty productive after all this past week-I did do allot over the weekend.

Here are a few photos of spring near the house and Miss Calico was talking to me while taking photos-she is over 15 years old now-amazing as she does not act that old

                                      Wild Violets 

I baked up another apple-blueberry gluten free crisp, and my beverage tonight is chamomile-lavender tea.

       

Oh and I almost forgot-(hope I am not over doing the photos) I got my finishing medal, t shirt and keepsake bib in the mail last week for my 5k Yellowstone virtual race.  I have another one coming up in April for the National Parks.

   This finishing medal is really gorgeous and heavy-