Growing Citrus in Florida - Oranges tree, lemon tree, mango, and tangerine

Good Morning,

You may remember J and I have a mango tree, tangerine tree, and a lemon tree in our backyard. We have only live in our house for 2 years and planted the trees ourselves, so we have not had a great harvest yet. The lemon tree held up the best and is more like a bush than a tree, so J and I wanted to get a couple more citrus trees/bushes to fill the empty spaces in our garden.

This winter and last winter we had some cold spells that killed all of the plants (and they did not grow back). Now you may be thinking, it was never THAT cold here, but where I live in considered a sub tropical climate, so temperatures below freezing can be devastating to the wildlife and indigenous plants. Over half of our landscaping died last winter and the leftovers were cut down to see if they would re-grow. They did not. So yesterday, we planted a calamondin orange tree and a ponderosa lemon. We may get one or two more to add to the space too.

Ponderosa Lemon

Calamondin Orange

Lemon on the left, Orange on the right



Back of our home. Tangerine tree on front left, mango on the front right. The rest of the trees are in the garden. And there is the lanai (screen in) that I am always working on!

 Well now you know what we were up to this Sunday. I also was pricked by a thorn on the lemon tree, and possibly bit by some sort of bug too on my little (pinky?) finger. My finger stung and is now swollen right where it bends. Hopefully it does not prevent me from crocheting today. Well this morning I am off to drive up north a couple hours to see baby McKenna!!! Photos to come....
XOXO Susan

Crochet Purse with a Flower

Good Morning,
We are having a little rain here this morning and I am enjoying every minute of it. Well I guess I can't call it rain yet, more like drizzle. We are in desperate need of rain because the drought conditions cause brush fires to occur. Hopefully we will get some, even though it likely won't be as much as we need.
Anyways, last night J and I went to the Irish Festival happening this weekend in our city. The music was great, a band called the Screaming Orphans and they were great! Those of you in the UK may be familiar with them too. We had a lovely corned beef and cabbage dinner and walked around and enjoyed the festivities.
I also worked on a little project yesterday that I adapted from a pattern on raverly. I didn't really mean to adapt it but apparently, I just can't read patterns very carefully. I assumed the pattern was worked around instead of connecting the bottom at the end, so mine ended up quite wider than the ones other people made.

I made a cute little flower to embellish it. I will post the patterns soon for anyone who is interested. Now my only problem is the bag is quite flimsy, any suggestions to make it stiffer? I looked into starching but I wasn't sure if that is what I should do for a purse. I will also need to add a lining of some sort. What do you think?
XOXO Susan

Weekend Wonderfuls

Good Morning Lovelies,
The sun is peaking out from behind some clouds and I up am ready to go this Saturday morning. Yesterday I wove all of my ends in on my granny garden blanket and took some photos. I think the blanket is at least a third of the way done, maybe a little more than one third. The progress is similar to my ripple. So I guess I can say they still have a way to go before being finished. Yesterday I was reading on the raverly message board about having multiple WIPs so you do not get so sick of them you never finish. Apparently I do that too! Today I will try to make a dent into more circles for the granny garden.

My two Lucy projects that got me obsessed with crocheting: ripple and circles to squares!!

 A little collection of what I have worked on the last month. I forgot to put my granny stripe in there. I put the granny stripe into a bag to take to see baby McKenna (I can't go away without a WIP to work on!) and forgot to bring it back out. Well there you have it! I bought my first batch of yarn on Friday, January 14th and went to work on the ripple, and here I am less than 60 days later with lots of goodies!
Have a fabulous day
XOXO Susan

Vera Bradley Summer 2011 Pattern Deco Daisy

Hello Out There,
I've been working on my garden granny circle (white connect-as-you-go). I've decided weaving in the ends for each circle/square takes just as long as crocheting each circle/square. I am very happy with the way it looks, I just hope the weaved in ends stay put. I may give it as a gift, I am not sure yet, I don't know if I will be able to part with my first one. My mom has indicated she would love one - she still needs to decide where she would like to place it or use it so I know the size to make. I promise a crochet photo will come tomorrow!
Here is another sneak peak at one of the Summer 2011 Vera Bradley Pattern - Deco Daisy. I like the pattern but I am not sure if I will purchase anything in this pattern. I am a fan of red though. What do you think about this pattern?

Deco Daisy Pattern

Inside Pattern and Border

The inside the bag pattern looks great! I think many people will like the inside. It will be interesting to see how many people get this one. Where I live in Florida Vera Bradley bags are pretty popular. Our climate allows for fabric bags to be used all year round (no snow here). I suspect Viva la Vera will be the most popular but this one may be of interest to the younger crowd of ladies. I can see high schools filled with girls carrying Deco Daisy and Viva la Vera.
XOXO Susan

Vera Bradley Summer 2011 Pattern Viva la Vera

Hello Friends,
Many people have been viewing the sneak peak of the English Meadow Vera Bradley pattern I featured as my inspiration for my granny stripe, so I wanted to share the rest of the patterns. Today is Viva la Vera, which is expected to be a best seller by the Vera folks. What do you think? I like it!

Viva la Vera Pattern

Inside pattern and border

The pattern has a variety of colors and will go with a lot of things (if you are a gal who likes to coordinate). Although I really liked the past few releases of patterns, I didn't purchase any for the recent Spring ones. I originally thought I would but after seeing these ones a few months ago, I wanted to wait. There is a purple one too which I will show you next time. Remember these are not for sale yet online or in stores (unless you can get it at a sneak peak event), they should be available in Late March/Early April 2011. Enjoy!
XOXO Susan

Connect As You Go Granny Circle to Squares

Good Morning,
I hope you are having a lovely morning. The sun is shining here and although I went to bed late last night (I was crocheting) the sun shining outside has me feeling energized and ready to go. Unfortunately today I will not be driving up to Tampa to see baby McKenna. McKenna's mommy is not feeling well and has a fever :-(
So I instead of working via the internet, I will be going to my office/university today (although the rising gas prices make me want to work from home permanently). Next week I will venture up there to see the my friend and the baby.

Last night I was trying to make some progress on my granny garden blanket. The granny circles which turn into squares when you connect-as-you-go. The pattern links can be found here in my first posting about it.

This blanket is interesting because while I make it, I often feel like there are too many "holes" in the blanket for it to be very useful. But, in between connecting each circle, when I lay the blanket flat across my legs to check it out, it works! I haven't decided how long I want this one to be. The smaller version would mean I am almost half done (if I do a 10 by 10 row). I think the blanket needs to be longer than 10 by 10 based on seeing other ladies' blankets. The blanket looks much more grand when it is bigger, and all of the weaving and cutting of the different colors really takes a lot of time, so I want it to look grand once it is finished. Maybe tonight I will make another dent in it. Every time I feel like I made a lot of circles, when I lay them out there just doesn't seem to be as many. I must say, it really does look as nice as I hoped it would. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed when I wash it for the first time that my weaving in was adequate.

I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday,

XOXO Susan

New Crochet Motif Book and Flower Baby Hat

Good Morning!
Last night I had to whip up a little flower baby hat for McKenna. I can't go there without a little flower hat for her and I can't wait to put it in her little head. On my way home from work yesterday I stopped by a Borders bookstore. Borders is a book store chain that is going out of business (online bookstores and Kindles are taking over!) and picked up a crochet book for 20% off: Beyond the Square: Crochet Motifs. They had a very small collection and most of the books were for knitting, I think there were only about four crochet books. I was hoping to find Crochet Bouquet but no luck. I am pretty sure buying it in Amazon.com is much cheaper anyways (hence why they are going out of business).
I didn't get a chance to make any new motifs yet because I was wanted to make McKenna's little hat, but by the end of the week I should have something to share.

After making the Japanese flowers, I looked into other Japanese patterns, you know how I love making flowers. As many other bloggers stated, the Japanese crochet patterns are fabulous!!! I think I am going to order some Japanese crochet books and use the diagrams like many other crochets have indicated (the language is all in Japanese).
So, in the upcoming weeks I should have a plethora of crocheted flowers to share - a true crochet garden.
Cheerio!
XOXO Susan