Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Five for Five Giveaway

I just signed on to be part of this enterprise over at the blog Handmade Homeschool.  It sounds like fun.  Even if I'm not in the first five over there, I thought my readers would give it a try here.  Not that I'm used to getting five comments on an entry, but we'll see...

Here’s how it works:
The first five people to leave a comment on this post will get something from me.
But in return, you have to do the same thing on your blog and make something for five other people. The details are as follows, and if you want to play, copy the following onto your blog and leave me a post:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It’ll be done this year (2010).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something strange.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.
7. Send your mailing address – after I contact you.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Chilly Weather



 a large bird party

It's been unseasonably cold for nearly two weeks now.  We've had some frost at night.  Some days the temps have climbed into the 50's and then there are days like today; the high has been 39.  The weather has caused many of the plants in The Islands to freeze and/or turn brown.  There are beautiful poinsettias that bloom around this time of year that have suffered badly.  Other tender plants have also succumbed.  We've had these cold snaps in previous years but they have not lasted as long.  We're told there will be a warming trend and we should have temps in the 60's by the end of this coming week.  I sure hope so.  Our heat pump has been working overtime to keep up.

These cold temperatures seem to have changed the behavior of some of the water birds.  For the past few days we've had a large flock of seagulls flying round and round over the canal behind our unit.  I can only presume a school of fish must have swum in and they are feasting.


 wood storks

We have many more wood storks than we usually see and quite a few brown pelicans. Initially I thought the wood storks were white pelicans which are rather rare in these parts.  When I got close enough to get some photos, I realized they were wood storks, not pelicans.


brown pelicans

And here is one of our resident great blue herons.



Sunday, January 3, 2010

More Baby Sweaters and Etsy


I finished the first project of 2010 today, a colorful baby jacket based on a pattern by fpea.  I've made this pattern before, using Lockhart wool and Cascade Ecological Wool.  This time I've used Cascade Jewel Hand Dyed and Cascade 220.  It gives the sweater a completely different look. 



I dug around in my button stash and came up with two shiny metal buttons.  I'm not sure if they're pewter but they seem to work just right with the sweater.  Here's a close up.



I've listed this for sale on my etsy site.  I donate all the proceeds from my baby sweater sales to The First Unitarian Society of Plainfield, NJ.