Doves don't just knit!

I haven't done much knitting lately. I've had alot of work to do, and, frankly, knitting has been stressing me out. No, I don't consider knitting relaxing! The circle cardi kind of sprang me back into knitting action, but, of course, I had alot of other things that I needed to do.

But don't think, dear reader, that I have been idle! Oh no, not so!

First, my plants needed some TLC, so, two trips to Ace Hardware and 80lb (not a hyperbole)of potting soil later, they are happier, neater, and adjusting to their new homes.

I had this lovely jade, which was my favorite plant, that I've had for three years and that was very sickly when I got it. I nursed it back to health, but recently and out of the blue, it got sick with some sort of root rot or something. So I snipped off the parts that were still ok and repotted them. Here are two of the three jade ICU pots:



I also repotted my other, healthy, 4-year-old jade into a bigger pot, and trimmed and repotted one of my two money trees. My geranium (actually, I'm not sure it IS a geranium, but I call it that; you can see it in this picture and in the jade picture above, so let me know otherwise) was way too big for its pot, so I took snippings and potted them. Altogether, one geranium made four pots...if they all root, I'll have to give them away, because I have absolutely NO MORE ROOM on my windowsills, at least none that gets sunlight.



I also decided to try my hand at growing vegetables. Our backyard is pathetically small and has bunnies, so I chose to plant my veggies indoors, on our sunny, glassed-in porch. Altogether, I planted peas, carrots, cukes, and dill, seen in the window boxes below (also note the aloe-type thing, which had gotten so big it distorted the pot it was in, and has doubled in size since being repotted):



I planted and watered the seeds gently every other day, keeping them in the bright sunshine. And yesterday I was rewarded for my cares with a baby pea sprout!



Isn't it the cutest thing ever?

Yesterday, I also potted two big pots of tomatoes, and three little pots with basil, oregano, and cilantro. Of course, I didn't label the pots, so I'll just have to wait and be surprised as to what's where. Plus, I have 14 more pots of houseplants that either got repotted or seriously worked on. Notable among them are the big palm I got from church at last year's Palm Sunday, and which has continued to grow since, so I got it the biggest pot I could find (you wondered why I needed 80lb of potting soil). Also, I got a poinsettia from church after Christmas, but that's not doing too well. See, I thought it had died for a while, until I saw new leaves coming up. But apparently it had been sitting in water, so it wasn't happy. I'm hoping its new home resuscitates it.

Finally, I've been busy pouring soaps! They're just the melt-and-pour kinds, but they have pure essential oils, so they're nice and smelly:



The lavender ones are, well, lavender. The green are peppermint, and the yellow are a lovely lemon. I also have 3 bars of peppermint-lemon scrubby soap, containing poppy seeds and ground apricot kernels, drying in the fridge, not pictured. Finally, the pinkish-orangish things are bath bombs, made completely from scratch. They're so easy, safe, and fun! Love. These are very soothing, yet invigorating, scented with tea tree and rosemary oils. I threw a half-dried nugget made out of the leftovers into my own bath last night, and it fizzed for a good minute.

My house is now all green and happy and smells so nice.