Thursday, May 31, 2007

The Green Side of the Family

While they may do some of the work themselves, plants are almost a work of art. I nourish them with water and sunshine to produce a beautiful green sculpture of nature for all to admire. First, check out my orchid. This was originally a gift from my advisor when I got my Master's, and then all the original stems and leaves died... but luckily new ones appeared, and now there are at least 3 stems competing for the first flower! I can't wait! Next to the orchid is Arnold, James's plant, which has followed him here from California. Arnold never seems too happy, but he's still hanging in there.

This lovely I-forget-what-kind-it-is was purchased from an MIT craft fair in Lobby 10, and at the time it had lots of little pink flowers. Two years later, I have not been able to coax it to flower again. For a while it had these crazy-long stems that hung down before going up, probably trying to grow taller to get more sun. I finally snipped all those stems off and all these lovelies have regrown on my sunny windowsill! Crossing my fingers for a bloom!
In this pot lie my newly-acquired basil seeds! They sort of look like baby mouse poos. I got a packet of the seeds at the Earthfest concert in Boston last weekend - woohoo! Homegrown cooking ingredients! Although there are no sprouts yet... maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.
And this is our prized money tree! This guy has sprouted at least 5 new stems off the main stalk, each with larger, shinier leaves than the last. If only our actual financial situation reflected this guy's growth status!


We also have another little plant whose picture I didn't take, because he's ugly. Haha.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Ripple Baby Blanket!

Never one to finish a project before starting another one, I have put my crocheted socks on hold in order to start crocheting a baby blanket for my cousin Sanji's newest addition, due to arrive in 2 weeks! He and his wife don't like to find out if it's a boy or girl beforehand, so I'm stuck with white yarn again, but I'm banking on the fact that there's no possible way I will finish this blanket before their baby is born, and when that occurs I can hastily throw in some pink or blue ripples! Wee! In the meantime, I still have a lot of crocheting to do... I'm using Bernat Softee Baby yarn, with a "ridged chevron" pattern I found in my Harmony Guide to Crochet Stiches book. What a great resource that book is. It's like 100 blanket patterns listed as different stitches, so you have so many possibilities if you apply your creativity to the basics they provide. Supah.