52 Weeks of Happy 3/52

Once each week for a year I will post something that made me happy that week.  This will give inspiration to me to blog more.

I love spinning this Falkland fiber.

Sheep from the Falkland Islands.


I love my garden. I planted lettuce and some herbs. I also planted a branch of raspberry that I will train to go up the tomato spirals.


I love my kitties.  Above is Coraline and Charlie.
Below is Charlie.  He was sick for 10 days with a cold. But he is feeling better this week.


He is a handsome kitty. I call him my sweet Baboo.


Finally (after all the kitty love) A new fiber arrived this week.  It is from Germany.  The sheep are called Weisses Alpenschaf (WAS). It's semi-soft. I think I will like spinning it. 



I haven't been posting every week like I wanted to but at least I am blogging again.  

Happy Easter Sunday to everyone.  The Lord is Good.
Praise the Lord.
Luv ya, Carol

Red Rugosa Rose-hips with long Sepals

This is week #2 of my online class with the theme Autumn.
I love this weeks assignment. As soon as I saw the big red hips with the long skirt-like sepals I knew this was the picture I wanted to paint.


I did some color swatching. I also tested my inks for bleeding:


Then I drew in ink for 30 min.  This is how far I got. It was fun using the ink.
I used my TWSBI 540 pen and my free Noodlers pen. The ink is Noodler's The Heart of Darkness.


I worked on my center of interest first. I tend to paint the thing that catches my eye. Those rose hips really caught my eye. I have learned that if I am interested the painting will be interesting. If I am bored the painting will be boring to look at.  So that is why I will paint the thing that gets the juices flowing. I just love the long sepals on these hips too.


I wanted to get that glow that I saw in the photo and my watercolor paints didn't have that for me. So I took out my little glass yogurt jars that I got in France and put some ink, since this was an ink project after all, and diluted it with some water. I had one little jar that I let it be watery mud.


I continued to work from the center out. I did more ink work in black and then added some white ink. I would work a while and then set this painting on my mantel for the evening. Then I would just look over to it now and then. It is helpful to me to do this because I can see what my marching orders are for the next day when I will paint. I have to back up and view my work from a distance to really see what it needs.


So in the end I took the painting outside and took her photo. I tried different places in the yard, sometimes with the painting laying flat on the lawn, and sometimes sitting up on a table. It's strange how the colors change depending on the lighting of the yard. I can see it when I upload the photos.


I painted a black ink border around the painting too.
This was a fun assignment. I really enjoyed it.

A post from the Past: June 13, 2008 - Sierra

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 13, 2008 - Sierra

This is really cool.

Here is Sierra and I at our old house back in the days when my husband was alive and of course Sierra. My front yard. 

A post from the Past: September 23, 2008

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

September 23, 2008

My house was looking tired so I set out to paint the shutters a nice crisp color.  I chose a green like is becoming popular with the new shopping centers going up.
I picked Jungle Green.

So I spent this weekend painting the shutters and when I finished I liked it.  They were in the shade so all looked very juicy and clean. 
I got up the next morning, the sun was shinning on my house and OH MY GOSH!!!  The shutters looked like a neon light on a brothel.

Today I bought some olive brown paint and mixed it together with my Jungle Green.  I started on the shutters on the left.


The funny thing is, the new color looks like the old color in the shade (top right). And the new color in the shade (top left) looks like brown.
I don't care. I think the darker color looks a lot better.  
Don't mind the landscaping. I cut the roses back severely in order to get in to paint. I have removed half the rose bushes. You can see flats of Lantana there for a ground cover, lavender color.  And I bought some tall ornamental grasses in a burgandy color to put in front. They will compliment the green shutters I think.

I finished the shutters on the left. It was so hot outside so I am waiting for the sun to move before I finish the shutters on the right.
I hate the color of my house but there is nothing I can do to change it.

Boy Was I WRONG

I was so wrong about May being the month to blog. That is what I said in my last post. 

Problem is, I only made one post in May & June. Yes this is still June. But it's almost July.  

So summer is upon us here at Casa de Carol.  We seem to be pretty busy around here.  We are swimming and going places. I am knitting a lot too.  

So onward with the photos!!!

This is what I am working on right now.  It is a sock in the pattern "Sign of Four" by one of my favorite designers Knitspot aka Anne Hansen.

Yes I see the fly on the sock. I didn't see it till I uploaded the photos to my computer. Ewwww.

The garden was planted and we are already eating veggies from it. 

And we are eating blueberries here in So. Calif. I think this is a special blueberry bush.

Swimming with friends.

A celebration of my aunt and uncle for their 60th wedding anniversary.

Can you believe it? Sixty years.  They are the best couple. They love God and keep him in their relationship.

The Celebration was at Laguna Niguel Regional Park. It was a beautiful day.

Well I have a lot of knitting to show you. I will do that in a separate blog post.

Have a nice day and keep cool.

{This Moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.






DAVID AUSTIN ENGLISH ROSE named BELLE STORY
grown in my garden by me.

{This Moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

(not a single photo)

Halloween 2011 brings out the Scary Cat!!!

Peanut wanted to be a cat. I love it.  She is very thin but very tall and the costume fits although it needs a few inches of length.
She did her own make-up.  I think my little girl is growing up.



In the spring we planted a pumpkin plant. The variety was named Jack-O-Lantern.
We only got one pumpkin on this rather big sprawling vine.
I told Peanut that it was her pumpkin plant. She watched over it like a mother expecting her first baby. She waited and waited for it to get big enough to pick.


We picked it in the first week of October which I used it in my autumn sock photo, Honey Badger Socks. BTW they are finished!!!


Honey Badger don't care!!! (look on YouTube to see why)

Shhhhhhhhh!!! they are a Christmas present.

So yesterday 10/30 Peanut took her pumpkin outside to carve. She didn't want any help. See what I mean that she is growing up?  She did a very good job I must say.




Mr. Pumpkin (or is she a Miss/Mrs.?) sat in our window with a battery powered votive candle.  It was so cute.
We left for the big Hallelujah party at our church.  Peanut had a blast. She did the bounce houses and the petting zoo. She did some arts and crafts and games.  Oh and she got some candy. It was very nice family fun.
Now we are home. She is tucked into bed and sleeping like a rock.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

{This Moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

{This Moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Butterflies Watercolor Painting of Pyrgus olieus

I painted these in May of 2011.  This was part of the Imaginary Visit to the Garden.
I deviated from the lesson and did a watery background trying out a new technique that I had read about.  I like it.

''Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert
can pass through them.  Close them,
and all you can feel is a bit of grit.''

Taisen Deshimaru

Spinning Tour de Fleece, Knitting and Garden

I was so lax in blogging that I missed the month of June. So I want to blog more this month.
What have I been up to lately? Well this month is Le Tour de Fleece over on Ravelry. I am on 3 teams. Yeah.
I am spinning some Perendale Top from Crown Mountain Farms. The color is The 5th Element.  I love it.  The fiber is long and fluffy. It is so easy to spin I probably will buy more of this perendale in the future.
Here is the cute little sheep.  The fiber came from New Zealand. It was prepared in Michigan into luscious Top.

The top:

And my spinning singles:



I will be spinning every day that the Tour de France event happens. We have 2 rest days.  It goes from July 2 to July 24.


In other happenings at Casa de Carol is the garden. I got the garden planted. It is growing so fast. We already have zucchini on the bushes and blooms on the tomatoes.  We also planted; sugar baby watermelons, cucumbers, pumpkin, and several types of peppers.

Do you see the wire?  That is a hot wire to keep Bob out of my garden. He chews and digs everything.  The hot wire keeps me from having to stress over loosing my garden to a puppy.  It works very well.

I planted the garden late. We had so much rain that I was waiting for a clear day to plant.  It was only 2 weeks ago that I got the veggies in.

Yes, this is Bob the dog. He has grown so much. He looks too sweet to be half beaver.  But believe me, he can chew up anything in a split second.  My new hose is in about 10 pieces.  
Today I went out to start the BBQ and all I could smell was gas.  Bob had chewed the hose under the BBQ.  I have my BBQ directly plumbed into the gas line of the house. I'm lucky that my son Roland had put a shut off valve which I always have in the off position when I am not BBQing.  Today I had to cook indoors. My chicken and corn on the cob were good but not how we wanted it because of our "beaver" dog.  I will have to get a new hose with the metal braiding on it I think.

Bob is afraid of the pool.  He will come to the edge but he puts on the brakes if you try to get him in the water.  I did put him in once to show him how to swim to the stairs.  I was hoping that he would like the water, he is a lab. No, he told me, "mom I don't want to swim!!!".  


On the painting front. Ok, so this isn't watercolor but it is painting.  I have this table.  (imagine it standing up)

And this oak table has been with me for a long time. It was in my kitchen in Yucaipa. It was moved to the livingroom so we could eat in front of the TV.  It came to my new house after my hubby died.  I gave it to my daughter Sierra and she had it in her kitchen. When she died I got the table back.  It has been on my patio for a few years. Ok, more like 4 years.  I decided it might look awesome if I painted it an aqua blue, Tiffany blue. So I started. 
It needs a second coat. It has just been too hot. The paint wants to dry on my brush so I will wait for this heat wave to pass to finish.

Look at how good it matches my old metal chair.  That is from my old house too.  I might paint the chair to give it a fresh look.  I love the color. 


I have been knitting too.  

This is a sweater based on the EPS, aka Elizabeth Zimmermann Percentage System.  I am doing a KAL (knit along) with a Ravelry group. I have finished the body. Now we are going to work on splitting for the sleeves.


I finished my Sprossling Sweater.



Now it is too hot to wear this sweater.  Maybe I can wear it to the movies?  Except I never go to the movies. LOL


Happy 4th of July to all of you tomorrow. We will be at church for the annual event. They will have the blow up water slides for the kiddies for FREE!!! Music, Hot rod and motorcycle show. And In & Out will provide the food. Yum.
They usually end this gathering around 3 pm or so.  My sister Susan is with us on July 4th every year since '05 or '06.  She has a new job and has to work. Boo Hoo. I will miss having the swim races here at home in my pool and BBQ.  Last year Susan, Peanut and I were in Idaho with Dustin and Bambi. We sat at the park to watch the fireworks in their beautiful town. It was fun.


Happy 4th !!!!!



Does Bob need a bigger Dog House?