Pre Birthday BBQ and Birthday Cakes

 Here are this years Birthday cakes.

 Joghurt mixed Berry Cake

 Amerikaner pastrie with sugar -lemon icing

 Chocolate-Pear Cake

 And this is the Black Forrest Cake, chocolate cake drenched in cherry schnaps and a tarrt cherry filling with lots of whipped cream, just so good .

We had hail and rain Friday night but Saturday was just perfect for our first BBQ of the year.Fun with good friends and family. AWESOME food and here are my cake`s.

Package from Germany,ready to knit

 I love these packages, it is like Christmas when I get to open and look at all the goodies.All from http://www.die-wolllust.de/shop/

awesome service and so affordable.

 Shawl pins, now I do have to start on the Shawls so I can use them.

 After looking at it for the first time I do get a little homesick,wish I could go shopping in all the stores and pick out all the things I want.But Thank`s to the internet I have some fun .

 This yarn is from Turkey,so soft .

So happy, love the yarn, awesome patterns in the magazines,ready for my next knitting adventure.

A Clownie Doll for Madison

 This Clownie doll has been well loved for the last 30 some years by Jennifer and now by her son Oliver. So when I was asked to make one for Madison I thought it was going to be easy.NOT! I actually doubled the socks before sewing the  arms and legs, the head was first embroidered and then I put another sock on the inside to double it.

This is the sock Clown doll I made for Madison. Jennifer wanted them to be similar but just a little more girlie. This was my work for today . I love the striped fabric for her and a little lace makes it a girl clown ready to play and keep close when it is bedtime.

First flowers from my garden and glass coasters

 I used my children's pictures for the new glass coasters, I can still remember when and where  they were taken and miss those wonderful days.

 My first Rose of the year.

 Sweet William is so easy to grow and this one is a perennial, so it will come back next year ,it is a wonderful cut flower and will bloom a long time.

I do cut my flowers to bring them in . This yellow rose was the first one this year to bloom, followed by Sweet William in several color ways.

It is finished

 This is the finished scarf.It took only a week to knit, a little every evening while watching TV.

All leftover yarn used in this scarf, such an easy way to have fun knitting and use what you have at home.

Arlene`s Lace and Pearls Block

 First I made this beaded dragonfly and the small seam treatment above to the left with white and pink pearl cotton and some beads.

 Here I started with a lace medallion and added the  Silk Ribbon Rose on top. A few lace flowers with Glass bead flowers and pearls completed with two bird charms.

This is the Block after Kathy,Nicki Lee and my own work , now ready to be mailed to Susan to finish the upper left corner.

My Irises are in full bloom

These irises bloom twice a year and smell so good!

I have started a new shawl and the UFO`s are still waiting to get finishhed

 I should have finished the sweater for Annie, but this new design kept calling me till I finally got up and got the needles and some leftover yarns together.

Today was a lazy day. After we had 2 tornado's touch down just a few minutes from our home last night I just did a little cleaning and  looked at some blogs. I also did some shopping online for German knitting magazines and yarn. As I did not have enough yet! So I started another quick shawl with left overs from the socks I made last year ,this design is just wonderful and I can do this while watching TV. I`m sure there will be made several more of them with all the yarn I have to choose from.

Still waiting for the storm knitting up date

 This is just on the upper part of the sweater.

 Lower part and sleeves are knitted in this easy design.

Finished! yeah I have to look how long it took me to knit this one, love the way it came out,now I have to lose some weight to fit into it,hahaha!

Before the storm

The last two years she did not bloom so I moved her.Love this color!

 This arbor was my birthday gift.

 Two climbing roses bushes will be planted to grow up on it. My sons each picked a color so I ordered a pink and a purple one.                                                                                             

FFT #21 is DONE!

 This is the whole block

 close up of my work

This was such a wonderful block to work on, I did want to finish it all by myself but it has to be mailed on to the next RR member and I`m sure she will have a great time working on it .The owner of the block wanted to stay in the color range of the fabrics and used a spring theme. I do hope she likes what I did. First I hand painted the lace, made my 3-D flowers and used the velvet leafs with it. Moved on to the beading and to finish I placed the silver charms to give it a little sparkle.And how could I not put these butterfly`s on ? The colors where just perfect and they where really begging me to go on the block.So here they are all happy to be part of this block!

Knitting Up date

 My top is finished ! The shoulders are crochet together and the Neckline is finished with a row of "Krebsmaschen" sorry I do not know what it is called in englisch.

 Now I have to knit the rest of my sleeves and hope to put it all together next weekend. BBQ season is starting for us at the end of April and my time will be spent baking for our friends.But as always I have already my next piece started a doggie sweater, it will be a gift and it will travel to Australia soon winter is coming and poor little Annie will be freezing,she is from Las Vegas and not used to cold weather.

Another UFO finished

Still working on UFO`s this year and I just finished this sweet pillow. As I was looking for something else I came across a big bag with lot`s of things,more to come as I`m working on these half finished  items to get finally done.This was a wonderful find and whoever did all the embroidery  thank you ,love it ! So it became my new pillow.