Weekending

Hello, Lovelies! Did you have a good weekend? I certainly hope so.

Mine was spent pursing delightful things of hearth and home. My potted narcissus on the mantle has started to flower. They are so delicate and brighten up these winter days. I love how the flowers caught the sunshine that was streaming through the window, isn’t it just so lovely?

February brings us much to mark and celebrate seasonally. In nature we start to see spring bulbs bursting from the ground, the promise of spring to come. I’ve even spotted my clematis beginning to show the first signs of life with tiny green shoots appearing. I am reminded that I must re-pot them soon to take them to our new home when we move in the spring.

We have Valentine’s day on the 14th – so I pulled my spring/Valentine crochet decorations in preparation, only to find that I seem to have lost a whole lot of the little hearts that I use to adorn some twiggy branches as a display piece. Stocks clearly needed replenishing so I found two free crochet patterns and set to whipping up some more hearts.

The first was from Attic 24 – these are larger than the ones I have made in the past. I prefer the smaller ones for my twig tree so I only made two of this size, then bulked up on a smaller hearts from a pattern I found on Ravelry.

I think this year I may use some Forsythia twigs for my Valentine twig tree. I think it will look so pretty when the bright yellow flowers begin to bloom alongside the hearts. 

Speaking of Forsythia…

It is one of my little spring seasonal rituals to bring twigs of Forsythia into the home to force. We have been very fortunate to have Forsythia in most of the houses we have lived in and when we haven’t there have always been bushes of it along the wayside. But Forsythia is one of those things that speaks of home to me. I have no idea if our new home has a Forsythia bush, I suspect not as the garden is neat but in need of nurturing. There’s not much to it other than lawn and a few shrubs. So when I saw that my local supermarket had bare-root Forsythia in stock I thanked my lucky stars and bought one. The fact that it was only £2.00 was an added bonus. 

Speaking of which – now is the time to look out for affordable plants in your local supermarkets. Aldi always brings in the most wonderful herbs in terracotta pots around this time of year but you have to be quick, they fly off the shelves. Last year I made the mistake of thinking that I would grab a few the next time I shopped but by then they were all gone!

This year I snapped up a rather healthy Rosemary plant in a terracotta pot for £2.95! It’ will definitely find a home in my new garden.

Anyhoo, I digress…my Forsythia is now potted up and ready for the spring move. I’ll allow it to establish and root in the pot then plant it out in the late spring. I’m looking forward to seeing it grow in size each year and of course for its glorious spring display for many years to come.

I sent out another lovely yarn order this weekend, the second order in a month from a lovely customer in the U.S. I never want to take my customers for granted so I thought I would pop in a little thank you gift into her order.

This sweet little Easter Bunny progress marker was made by my daughter. It is so cute and goes beautifully with my customer’s yarn choice. I hope she likes it.

I do need to dye up some more yarn for my Etsy Shop. I was going through my stock and found these adorable (and seasonally appropriate) stitch markers.

There is only one set left and sadly I don’t think that there will be another set for quite some time as my daughter is just too busy with her uni work at the moment. I have a few more stitch marker sets that I have yet to photograph and list. If we have good lighting next weekend I hope to get them up and listed.

Some Plans for the Week:

*Finish a pair of scandi knit mittens that have been on the needles forever

*Meal Planning for the month

*Make some more heart decorations (sewing, embroidery, felt)

*Work on a few blog posts

*Lunchtime date with my dear friend Jenny! Can’t wait, we get on like a house on fire and I don’t see nearly enough of her 😊

I think I’ll just stick to that small list to make it achievable. What are your plans for the week?

Blessings to you all…