Fabric Baskets

I've been away for a while, sorry.  It's amazing how busy the year can be.  But, I am going to spend some time crafting tonight.  I've been learning a little about fabric baskets and would like to give it a try.  I love trying new craft ideas just for a change of pace.  I've already purchased the supplies I didn't have and watched several different youtube videos so that I could learn different techniques.
I look forward to sharing with you all very soon.  Just give me an hour or two.

Cuba

My husband and I spent two weeks of the month of May in Cuba.  We took a Faculty Led Study Abroad class and trip together as part of our date night change up, called Cuban Culture and Cinema. The experience wasn't completely dreadful, but we sure ached over the poverty and hunger surrounding us.

The Planting Season

So far, since I bought my mini greenhouse, I have planted 36 cells of oregano, 25 Tiny Tim tomato seeds and 25 Mini Bells sweet pepper seeds.  Of these, 35 cells of oregano, 22 tomato and 23 pepper plants have germinated.  Where I live, there is still another 55 days until the last frost is typically expected so these shall all continue to grow in my greenhouse for another couple of months. The tomato and pepper plants will be grown in pots, not a garden, so I can keep them inside all year or eventually put them outside for some sunshine.  I have ordered more seeds, some of which have already arrived (two types of lettuce, one type of spinach) and I will plant these later on as the end of the winter/frost season approaches.  Some I will plant right into the ground come June.  

A lot of crafting with a dash of gardening!

Tonight is the first night in a long time that I don't have anything going on outside the home (knock, knock, knock on wood!) and so I hope to get down into my craft studio for a little work and some photographs.  I do have hopes of starting a bunch of oregano seedlings tonight, but that won't take up my entire evening.  

I recently acquired a mini greenhouse and I'll be using this in the future once the temps rise a little and the plants are strong enough to start getting acquainted with the great outdoors. Until then, it sits on my tiny front porch waiting for its opportunity to provide warmth to my vegetable garden wannabes.  

If you haven't figured this out, I have a lot of interests. Gardening is just one of many.  The first garden I ever grew (outside of helping my mom plant plants in a flower bed as a girl) was when I was 20 years old.  I was working as an Assistant Teacher of a private Christian Junior Academy and we were blessed to have a gardener and a librarian (an older married couple) that volunteered their time, talents, and energy at the school.  The husband promoted a healthy love for gardening; the wife, a healthy love for reading.  

Since then, I have moved many times, and in several of the places I've lived I planted flowers outdoors, or grew floors indoors.  This will be my first independent vegetable garden.  (How true is this if a friend says she'll come over to help me out??)

A lot of my inspiration comes from my wonderful sister, Nana.  Nana and I are separated by 1,500 miles.  She lives in the country and I live in a small city.  She grows plants and veggies and probably flowers.  She raises or has raised chickens, pigs, ducks, bunnies, goats, cats, and dogs.  (Did I miss anything?)  And she seems to be successful at all she tries.  All I ever seem to grow is a ton of snow!

New Toddler Dresses!

So now that I've made a couple of new toddler dresses I have to find a  few minutes to take some good pictures of them to share with you all.  It was a busier weekend than usual, I'm sure you all know what that's like, but I slept little and worked hard!  I don't recommend you do that as a general rule, especially during Daylight Savings Time weekend.  It's now Tuesday and I'm wondering how long it will take me to feel balanced out again.

At any rate, it felt great to get back in the craft saddle!  I'm looking forward to sharing my latest creations with you.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

March Madness!

It's March already, February has escaped me just as quickly as January did.  I have been extremely busy with working my day job and my weekend job.  Additionally, I am a part time student studying Cuban Culture and Film.  The class I am taking will eventually, in mid-spring, take a two week trip to Cuba to learn more of their history and modern culture.  I wouldn't have guessed that a once a week class would take up so much of my free time but it has and I'm am needing to learn how to juggle all that I have going on, whilst still finding time to craft.

This being said, I hereby promise to make at least two toddler dresses this weekend to share with you all on my blog.  I bought new body forms and haven't yet been able to utilize them.  Perhaps this weekend will be my chance.

I'm excited to see that my blog has been read by people in Venezuela, Canada, Germany, France and now the Ukraine.  I hope that everyone has enjoyed seeing some of the work I've done.

Just a little background about myself: I am the youngest daughter of Puerto Rican parents.  I often tell people my dad was a singing mechanic.  This might draw to mind John Travolta in the movie Grease, but it's only a joke on my part.  I don't know that Daddy actually sang and fixed cars at the same time, and I certainly doubt he danced on cars.

Dad was an auto mechanic by trade but he also worked as a Mariachi singer in bands that performed in Florida.  My mother was a seamstress her entire life and she learned the trade from her mother, who was also a seamstress.  I took after both parents, having worked as a seamstress in a factory, and now developing my own in-home studio, and then eventually earning my music degree and taking a position as a church organist.  Needless to say, I love the arts and enjoy sharing my time and talents with others.

But that's enough about me!!  Please feel free to share a little about yourself with me.
I hope you all have a wonderful day!  

Sorry I've been away.  I have been insanely busy with weekend getaways, business trips, funerals, many church services, a Cuban culture and film class, homework, a collegiate A Capella meeting, a sledding party, problems with vertigo, and a husband home with the flu (thanks to very generous friends of ours) and so I haven't had an opportunity to do any crafting.  But I did get a chance to buy new toddler dress forms online.  

My new dress forms came yesterday in the mail but I was too busy to get them both out of their boxes and put together.  However, tonight, amid laundry, packing, and a little crafting I shall endeavor to share photos of them with you all.

I hope that you have been crafting your hearts out!