ORANGE TREE'S

Last summer while we were eating some delicioius orange slices, Ocean asked me if the seeds would be able to grow into trees.

I thought it would be impossible for us to do, it's just not something you can do in CANADA.

But, I looked online and found a couple pages explaining how to grow them.  So, we gave it a go.

Here's what we did......

How To Grow An Orange Tree                                                                              


Step 1. Place orange seeds in a cup of water over a night

Step 2. Get a piece of paper towel, get it wet, fold it into 4's and place it inside a ziplock/sandwhich baggie

Step 3. Place seeds on top of the paper towel inside the bag (don't seal the bag)

Step 4. Place the baggie in a warm sunny spot in the house (We placed ours on a window sill)(spray with water if/when needed to keep the paper towel moist)

In a couple days, the seeds should start to open, and you'll see a little green stem or leaf poking through, let it grow until it's about 0.5 cm-1cm in length

Step 5. Fill a small pot with soil, stick your finger in to make a small hole about 1 cm deep, place the seed in the hole and gently place dirt around it..Leave a bit of the leaf sticking out

Step 6. Water frequently

During the summer days we left it outdoors.  Once it started to get cooler out, we brought it inside, where it's been ever since, I left it on a window sill in the kids room (warmest room in the house) and I water it almost daily.

A couple months ago 2 new leaves popped through. the roots are starting to pop through the bottom of the pot, so I think it's time to move it to a larger pot.

I'm not sure it' we'll ever get oranges from it?! but, either way, we're happy that we've made it this far.

some sites that ive read on this topic say that we should have fruit in 7-ish years...I don't think I'll believe it until I see it! (I always thought you needed 2 fruit trees in order to have fruit?!)

Our Orange Tree March 18th 2011

Re-potted  I think it's a much happier plant :)

Our newest addition, The Apple Seedling

PENGUIN STUFFIES

who doesn't like penguins? Well, I have a 2 year old who absolutely LOVES penguins.
I've been playing around more with my sewing machine again. and rather then sticking to my usual...skirts for the kids....pants made from pants, sun hats.....I've decided to try and make toys.
I first made an owl...if you can call it that...the kids like him..I think he's funny looking...(he needs work)

I have been looking up good penguin tuts online, but my printer is out of ink, so, basically I've *looked* at patterns and have somehow figured out how to create it on my own.

Penguin number 1 (first attempt)

Penguins 2 and 3 (Gwen and Rosie)

So, after making and perfecting (almost) my pattern...I realized that I HAVE SAFETY EYES, I completely forgot...so after the kids goto bed tonight and I get some free time to sew....I'll be making another one with safety eyes, rather then zig zagging (although I'm getting pretty good at zig zagging in circles)

Home Made Play Dough

well, it could be *more* natural I could have used organic flour, and next time we will!

First I used this recipe

Playdough Recipe

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 tbsp cream of tartar
2 cups water

put in a pot, on med heat and stir stir stir until it becomes 'dough' remove from heat and kneed.

I put about 6 strawberries(cut up fairly small) into a pot and a cup of water (maybe less) boiled it until the water was 'pink/red' (bout 5-10 minutes) then I strained them, put the juice back on the stove and reduced it (about another 10 minutes) cooled it for a few minutes and then added it slowly to the playdough (which I seperated into quarters)(PINK)

I did the same thing with blueberries to make the PURPLE

I used paprika, and coffee to make the brown/orange colours...there isn't much of a difference, and the paprika was a lot harder to mix in then the coffee was...
my future plans are to grab something GREEN and Tumeric to make YELLOW possibly some beats to make the RED darker
update...I went to the store and bought tumeric, mixed it with the ywllowy color and it came out a LOT stronger!! good choice!  someone mentioned to me using oak bark, for brown too.

in order from left to right Coffee Strawberry Blueberry Paprika

NEWBORN HAT

under construction

I wish I saved the tags from this wool...so I'm not positive on the thickness/weight.
I'll get the guage soon, and post it.
Needles: 5 mm dpn

i'm going to make another and write down all the instructions as I go along, so I can make sure all the info is correct...in other words..DONT do this pattern yet :)

Cast on 48 stitches (16 on each needle)
work 2 rows inthe round
row 3: *knit 7 purl 1* continue from *to* to end of row
Row 4-16: work the same as row 3
Row 17: knit 4, k2tog, *k6, k2tog* work from * to * until 2 stitches remain, k2
Row 18: knit 3, k2tog, *k5, k2tog* continue from * to * until 1 stitch remains, k1

Well, lets try this again

Starting fresh. 

I'll probably use this blog for most of my knitting/patterns.  So enjoy, and share with friends :)