Here is a blurry closeup of my shawl (I wanted natural light so had to compromise on focus). I believe this yarn was a Knit Pick's that was dyed. I got it on eBay. I'm in a KAL along with most of my Christian Artisans group for the Simply Elegant Shawl by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. My friend Margaret is one of the hosts and she has wonderful hand dyed stuff at www.heritageyarns.com Later this week I will try to post some mroe info on this and catch up. We have all been SICK for days and still not feeling well enough to eat a meal. I also posted some pictures of more spring time blooms. It's in the 80s already...I think we got one week of spring before summer hit! Oh boy! Don't I just love the Sacramento summer! UGH! 

This flash photo shows the colors fairly accurately. I would love to have a sweater knit in these same colors! 

My Glamis (castle) rose. When I was in Scotland I went to Glamis Castle which was the home of the Queen Mum growing up. 

I was surprised to find that I had two Dutch Iris in bloom! 

Dutch Iris 

My pink rose 

A Visit to Debra's

A couple weeks ago during spring break, I had the chance to visit Debra who I know from my Christian Artisans list. Debra has 5 great kids and another, Andrew, on the way soon! This is Matthew, aka Matty, who is currently the youngest and quite the cute little flirt! :o) He shared his cars with me, showed me toys and I even got to see him "dance" (pics below). We had a wonderful relaxing time, mostly just talking, Debra helped me with some questions regarding spinning and she made us homemade pizza for lunch. I sure wish we lived closer...it's an hour and a half through Gold Country to get to her house. In spite of the rain it was a nice drive. I can't wait to go back and visit when Andrew is here! :o) 

Debra's beautiful teacups. She loves vintage stuff and has some nice pieces. 

A closeup of Debra's teacups. 

Here is Debra showing me how to use my drop spindle...I need to do some more practice, but it's hard to do this with the kids! :o) 

Matty entertained us with his Kim Possible dance routine! LOL 

Here are Debra's three oldest boys, back to front, Samuel, Jacob and Aaron. 

Debra...and that spot of flour on her apron...that is Andrew...he ate his pizza vicariously! LOL 

Aaron takes his pizza seriously. He made a few of his own personal pizzas. 

This is Eimi, the new teenager, holding Matty. She must be a great help for her Mom and I found her to be a very nice young lady. 

Aaron, the Pizza Master, rolling out his dough! 

Samuel and Aaron watch as Mom gets Aaron's pizza dough on the peel. 

Here is Aaron putting toppings on one of his pizzas. 

Here is Debra putting the pizza into the oven. She cooks them on a preheated pizza stone...makes it go faster and taste better! 

One of the finished pizzas! Nummy! 

I needed a change of view from my knitting chair. So, I got this new hanging basket and planted it last night with blues, purples, whites and a little pink. I expect in a few weeks the plants will really fill out because it is warming up here. It is so nice to look at that now instead of the lopside orange hanging basket that was there before! I also got a hummingbird feeder and a bird feeder because in the winter the hummingbirds would come to my ivy geranium that was in the basket before. So, now I would like to attract some more birds because it is by the window where my children can look out and see what is happening. I think they will have fun. 

This is the view as I come down my porch to go to the mailbox. All the pots you see in the front and on the stand, I planted last night. That's one of my 20+ rosebushes, which has some lovely pink blooms on the other side. Usually my tulips are all done and gone by now, but with all the rain, I don't think they are all going to bloom this year. They are in the boxes lining the walk. We have a very small space and there is no soil, only clay. On the side strip which you see where the red rocks are, I have planted rosebushes and that is the worst clay soil so they have not grown a lot in the 7 years they have been there. This year they are bigger than usual. I didn't know much about gardening when I started so I did not get the everyblooming roses on that side. However, on the front of our trailer, I have 7 very large rosebushes that grow like weeds! One of them gets 8 feet tall every year, even though I cut it down each winter. There is some actual soil where they are, so they do better. The flowers really lift my spirits. 

Columbine are one of my favorite flowers. I got a purple one and a burgandy one. I like them because they are more like wildflowers than garden flowers. Reminds me of hiking and finding beautiful flowers along the way. 

One of the lillies my neighbor lady gave me. 

I got six daisy plants because they remind me of my Aunt Grace and also because they do well in sun...which we have plenty of here in the summer.