Friday, October 31, 2008

Flowers and Memories of Hawaii

Bird of Paradise - just a simple gorgous flower with all the vibrant colors.


Hibsicus, these grew right outside our front door. They bloomed from the ground to the roof, they were absolutely gorgeous






Plumeria, we had a tree in our front yard that grew these wonderful flowers.








I lived on the island of Oahu for about a year and these are just some of the gorgeous memories that I have of the island. It was a special treat to have the plumeria and hibiscus growing right out my front door.











2ndsock Loves Daffodils


C'mon gang - the most beautiful flower is the daffodil!
You CAN'T help but smile when you see their bright yellow blooms chasing away the gloom of winter!
And I have a passion for those folks who naturalize them all over their yard or pasture - it takes your breath away.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Carly's Contest #3 Entry

Well, I love all sorts of flowers, so choosing a favorite is hard. If someone is giving me flowers, I love yellow roses or a bouquet of tulips. For years I mostly had a brown thumb but I admire others' gardens - especially Irises. However, when we bought our most recent house there were lots of flowers planted, and the only flower that grows and looks beautiful despite my lack of gardening skills are Day Lilies. I have them growing in several colors, but this is my favorite one.

It makes me sad that the flowers don't last longer, but they are beautiful when they are here!

(You can click on the picture to see the full photo. . . I can't get it formatted to fit in the blog view fully!)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Purple Sweet Peas

Looking through the various entries for this contest, I thought I could easily pick my favorite flower, but then I would go "Oh, but I love that one too!" Any flower, I think, is more than worthy of becoming a favorite. So my entry is a sentimental favorite. My family has for many years planted the simple sweet pea in our various gardens every spring. Their abundant flowering, always made them a favorite picking flower and who doesn’t love their "sweet" scent. My father, being a child of the depression, would harvest the seed pods and sow them the following year. Over time, his sweet pea patch was overtaken with purple blooms. Although it was probably a more-dominant and hardy seed, I couldn’t help but tease him that he had purple dirt. He even tried buying new seed, but purple always seemed to prevail. My father passed away a couple of years ago, and we miss him dearly. But it is always a good day when the sweet peas start to bloom... and still there are always more purple than any other color. It may even be that one day we plant only the purple seeds to pay tribute to Dad and his "purple dirt."




Second post

It did it twice, sorry! Maybe soon I'll be able to post finished socks on here!

And just because I hate it when people delete stuff before I can see it, I'll leave the picture on here until someone asks me to remove it. I can't decide if it's a cute baby or not....



What do you think about my little new baby Baby?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

Ack!

Umm, sorry about that to anyone who saw the baby picture.... it posted to the wrong blog and I'm not sure how to delete the post entirely.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Pansies







For as long as I can remember the Pansy has been my favorite flower. I love that the blooms come in many different colors and they make a perfect tiny bouquet. I also LOVE that they can be planted in the fall and then survive a mild winter to bloom again in the spring. The perfect lazy gardener's flower. :)

Saturday, October 25, 2008

My Favourite Flower


I have several favourite flowers (what's not to like about flowers).... daisies, echinacea, peonies (I LOVE peonies) and so many more but I have to say that one of my true loves is the Rugosa Rose. We have several bushes we started from seedlings and they are wonderful for so many reasons.

Living in a Canadian zone 4A these babies are hearty and thrive despite wind, snow, spells of no rain, too much rain, my son Nick's multiple attempts to mow them down with the riding lawnmower.

The flowers are delicate, beautiful, plentiful and bloom more than once. The fragance of the flowers is sublime - there is a purity to the scent of the rugosa never quite captured in any rose fragrance I have ever smelled. The bushes grow well and the leaves are a beautiful dark and shiny green so it looks wonderful even when there are no roses to behold.

Besides being hearty and aesthetically pleasing, the rugosa rose is incredibly giving. The petals can be used for jelly....and it is sooooo delicious. They can also be used for pot-pourri. After the summer, the rosehips can be harvested and used for tea that is both flavourful and full of Vitamin C, iron and antioxidants, as well as jelly, marmalade and even mead.

I sure do love my Rugosa Roses.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Roses

I love flowers, all flowers really.

But I have a very special place in my heart for roses. Not the standard florist-variety hybrid tea, but the big old gals - Chinas, Bourbons, Albas, etc. These are the Grande Dames of the flower world, in my opinion.

Each rose has such a distinct personality.

Some of them are floozies - too much scent, big garish colors and will shed all their petals if you brush up against them. Some are regal and mysterious - delicate plants that throw their scent, you must keep you distance in order to smell their lovely musky perfume.
Others are workhorses putting on a magnificent show of color all summer long.

And their names hint at their rich and mysterious pasts --

White Pearl in Red Dragon's Mouth

Cuisse de Nymphe

Chapeau de Napoleon

Tipsy Imperial Concubine


And my most recent favorite - Four Inch Heels


I dearly love these gals!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Lily

The lily is my absolute favorite flower. There are a lot of varieties of lily and I have yet to see one I don't like. Of course I had a peace lily with a beta fish until the fishy died, but the flower never bloomed. I love the smell of lilacs too

Cherry Blossoms

Imagine my surprise when I opened my sock club kit and not only did it have my favorite flower but also one of my very favorite sock yarns! That is what I call "providence"!

The Cherry Blossom Tree produces the most delicate flower yet stems from a strong and sturdy tree, in so many different varieties! There is a very long and rich history of the Cherry Blossom tree seated very deep in US history as well as Japan and has reached out across other countries. Cherry Trees embody culture, history and goodwill.

Since I was a child I have always had a fascination with this gentle flower. I have many tea pots with the flower on it. Cherry Blossom Bonsai Tree sitting next to my desk at home! I'm not quite sure where or how I became so enamored with this flower as I am from Texas and it is not usually found in that area... but it made its way into my world, I think it would be so wonderful to have a lane lined with this spectacular tree. What a site that would be? Someday...













Druanna

Sunflowers!


Sunflowers are my favorite flowers! Good thing because the squirrels and chipmunks are always planting them all around my house!:) I love all the different shades of the sunflower. You look at it and it reminds you of a big happy face! I look at them and they make me smile. My whole kitchen is done in sunflowers. I also have a wonderful son and he's my "sonflower." He brightens my day as do these flowers! This was also my best friends favorite flower so it makes it more dear to me now that she's gone...

Tulips




OOOOOOOO-aaahhhhhhhh How wonderfully beautiful! I'm talking about the blossomly awesome sock club shipment I received today. I don't know how you do it...but I love my sock club shipments.

Tulips are my favorite flowers. I have had the wonderful experience of traveling to Holland and enjoying the fields upon fields of tulips. What a sight to behold. It is my reminder that after Winter, Spring is coming and gives me a sense of being refreshed and renewed along with the rest of nature.

Tulips
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Liliales
Family: Liliaceae
Genus: Tulipa

Surprisingly, the tulip did not originate in Holland but in the Ottoman Empire and is indigenous to Turkey and other parts of Central Asia.

I love them because they are beatiful, come in so many interesting colors and varieties and almost everyone can recognize it when they see it. Classy, sassy, cool, and calming.

Bird of paradise


My favourite flower is the Bird of Paradise. It reminds me of the sun, of warm climates, of the blue ocean, of singing birds, of the heavy smell of tropical flowers, of lush vegetation, of care-free holidays.
Manon (aka musclemom)

Daisy, daisy, give me your answer true...



Daisies have always been my favourite - they are simple, familiar, clean and fresh - I find a bunch of daisies in hand to feel like a bit of sunshine, and for some reason they make me want to slow down, look around more, and give a little more appreciation to the smaller, simpler things around me.

Lilacs

My favorite flowers are lilacs. Everytime I see or smell them they bring back memories of living with my grandparents when I was young. My Mam had huge old fashioned lilac bushes scattered all over the yard and, when the wind blew, you could smell them no matter where you were in the house. Happy memories. :)

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Gladiolas


Gladiolas are my favorite flower. They remind me of my mom. She liked to have them fresh on the table and I loved to count the blooms and anticipate the blooms opening all the way up the top of the stem. I love them in every color, from the vibrant purples to the soft coral pastels like this one.

October Contest-- Favorite Flower

My favorite flower is also the hydrangea. I love them in all colors, all forms and varieties. I first took notice of them when I spent a year studying in England during college. English gardens are infamous for a reason, and hydrangea bushes abound everywhere you look! I love the fact that the flower itself tends to be big, puffy and dense, yet when you look at the individual petals, they are so sweet. And the colors range from vivid, bright blooms to subtle shaded blossoms. I have never managed to keep one alive for long. Maybe it's the Houston heat that does them in. I may have to relocate one day, just so that I can have a hydrangea garden.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Finally finished!

I'm patiently waiting for the new shipment... In the meantime, I finished up the August socks!

BeachBall.JPG

I can't wait to see what's in the October package!

My favorite flower is the Gerbera Daisy

My favorite flower is the gerbera daisy. These flowers inspire me to wear my personality on the outside, by being bold, and happy and full of laughter. The colors are vibrant and intense, the way all people should be. I don't know if it is coincidence or not, but this became my favorite flower the same time I learned to love myself for exactly who I am: Loud and vivid!

October Sock Club contest

My favorite flower is the peony (unfortunately, I don't have a picture). I just love the color and the fullness of the bloom, as well as the fragrance. I have a friend who has a fragrant old hybrid peony growing in his yard. Way back in June 1994, when I was stuck inside all day studying for the bar exam, he brought me a bouquet in a vase made from a cut-off milk carton that I put on my desk. I still can't believe how much that bouquet lifted my spirits!

October Sock Club Contest x 2



Blue Hydrangeas. One blossom can have so many different shades....bright sun means bright blue...shade means a gorgeous gray green....cold nights mean burgundy.....amazing.

October Contest

My favorite flower is the Dogwood. I am from Virginia and there are lots of them around. The first house I lived in was on Dogwood Lane. I like both the pink and the white varieties. They remind me of home.

Dogwood

I have enjoyed being in the club this year so much! I am looking forward to the 2009 club!!!

Kelly N.

October Sock Club Contest x 2



First I must say Thanks Jen - again - for a great package! It smelled so good when I opened it and I got so excited when I saw that the stitch marker looked like scarlet and grey - go bucks! I have always wanted to try yarntini - yea!! You rock!


My favorite flower is Lilly of The Valley for a few reasons. It was my Grandmother's favorite flower (her name was Lillian), and her house alway smelled of them when they were in bloom. I have some of them in my yard now that I transplanted from her garden and every spring I think of her when they bloom. I carried Lilly of The Valley in my wedding bouquet, and they are also the flower for the month of May, which is the month my daughter was born. I think for such a beautiful delicate flower, they smell sooo amazing. I also think the green/white colorway would make a lovely spring sock - maybe from the Three Irish Girls - Irish girls like green, right?
I can't imagine the sock club getting any better than this...but I already can't wait for Sock Club 2009! Thanks again, Jen.


Sunday, October 5, 2008

First pair!

I finally finished a pair of club socks! Yay! Here are my Dog Days socks.

I loved the construction with the strip! It enabled me to get a super perfect fit by adding additional stitches where I needed them so that it was snug but not too taut anywhere. I would totally make this pattern again, but I'd skip the flower lace cuff and do something simpler. I don't think you get much bang for your buck because you can't really see the pattern in the yarn.

Thanks, Kristi & Woolgirl!