Family Mellmann

Well, maybe not outside.  But INSIDE the house, I'm doing my best to bring in some spring color.  Between our very short growing season and the critters who like to eat my bulbs, I haven't been able to grow spring flowers since Katherine was little (last picture; little Katherine and my last spring flowers). Last year I tried layered bulb planting in large pots by the front door.  Not only did nothing bloom, when I dug in the dirt to plant summer flowers, there were no signs that I had planted a single bulb.  What a disappointment. So, last fall I decided to try my hand at forcing bulbs.  I bought some bulbs, packaged them up, and stuck them in the bottom(coldest) drawer of my refrigerator (much to the chagrin of my family...my refrigerator is already a bit short on space) where they stayed (several are still there) until early February when I put them in two test pots by the patio doors (south-facing). In a week's time I already saw little green bumps appearing...

Last fall, as I was beginning a photo-related project, I discovered that our personal cloud had fallen victim to a ransomware attack (our own fault).  From the company that manufactured our cloud system, we got some help decrypting the files (almost entirely photos) but what they gave us was a jumble of files with no rhyme or reason to the sorting and it appeared to be almost entirely thumbnail sized images (small, low resolution, and low quality).  It turned out that we actually had both full sized and thumbnail but since they were all unorganized, unsorted, and missing any kind of recognizable file name (like katherine-piano recital) I really couldn't advance on my project.  Until I could summon the will to set aside the time required to filter through all those images and try to put them back in order...the files just sat on an external hard drive. Over the summer, a "techie" skilled friend came for a visit and worked some programming magic sorting the pictures into so...

With college graduation right around the corner (mid-May) and a possible move to another part of the country (one goes where the jobs are and the cost of living is manageable) Patrick is starting to prepare for full independence and life on his own. While he may not move the day after graduation, today he started packing away some of our old dishes (we got new ones) which will serve in his first kitchen.  It was very convenient that our new dishes came in these sturdy, already labeled "GLASS", boxes with bubbles and foam packing materials.

In addition to black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, and downy woodpeckers - who all eat from the bird feeders, I have several mourning doves.  Normally, the doves, who are ground-feeders, will find a spot in the garden to rest, but it has been cold and blustery here today and it seems that these two wanted to rest on higher ground.  Maybe they're watching for my goldfinches; they seem to have flown south for the winter.

 After years of asking if Katherine wanted me to knit her anything - and getting "I can't think of anything" as an answer - she recently scolded me saying that I never made her anything.  Well, we'll forget the fact that I've asked for years and go straight to the finished product.  Her request was soft and warm not-red scarf.  Viola!

Over the summer I purchased some inexpensive shirts on Amazon that had a good cut/style for my frame.  I bought this shirt with a Paisley pattern and decided to customize a skirt to go with it.  Three repeating mandalas, using colors from the shirt, mimic the twist-and-turn pattern of the Paisley. Here are some up-close images.

Several years ago my Mom made some skirts for me.  As happens, over time the elastic in the waistband dried out and gave up.  I could throw the well-warn skirt away, replace the elastic, or "upcycle" the material.  So, viola!  A new apron. It even has my name embroidered on it. While I was sewing on this project, my embroidery machine was busy working on Project #2.  With a little Vivaldi in my headphones, I didn't hear both machines chugging away, but chug away they did. One thing I noticed while I was working is how old my sewing machine is.  Standard on most newer machines these days (including my embroidery machine) is a needle threader.  This nifty contraption is the thread line and with the flick of a lever will thread the needle. My sewing machine, on the other hand, requires a steady hand and a good eye...or a manual needle threader.  These new fangled threaders are cute, but they don't last long (which is probably why they're sold in boxe...

Last year for Christmas I received an embroidery machine.  It took me a few months to get it purchased (supply chain issues perhaps) and set up but I did finally get the job done.  I tried a few patterns from the built-in inventory on the machine and quickly decided that this was going to be FUN! I found some online sources for quality patterns and came across one that I thought Patrick might enjoy.  He cleaned out his closet and gave me four shirts that have mostly seen better days but that still have some life to live and asked if I could embroider them with my nifty pattern.  Today, I finally got the job done.  I think they turned out pretty well.  He's...flight instructing...but I can't wait to see what he think! (Katherine and I are still working on a pattern that she likes.)  

Katherine is many things but two things are more pronounced; she is a voracious reader and money burns a hole in her pocket.  Generally a night owl, she was downstairs and dressed and ready to go (complete with her winter coat on and a new hat and gloves) before 9:00 AM so that we could be at Barnes & Noble when they opened.  A Christmas gift card was itching be spent and she was ready to stock up on a new round of reading materials.  Katherine describes herself as a "purist", preferring actual books with paper and ink over digital books to be read on a device of some kind. I have tried over and over to get her to make use of the library - nearly unlimited free reading, but she has never actually met a book that she was willing to part with.  She much prefers to soak in their pages over and over and over again.  When she reads a mystery or fantasy fiction, she imagines alternative endings, twists unwritten by the author, or imagines other characters who coul...