This has just been the most ridiculous mother's day knitting experience ever. After thinking I'd found the perfect pattern to switch to (Gabriella) after frogging the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan, I've again given up! I've been pretty much hating Gabriella for a while. I think alot of it was me, but some of it was the pattern too, which kind of blows me away because I know Ann Weaver is a great designer - she's done a lot and has patterns in Knitty, etc. One problem was that the only picture available just didn't show the detail enough for me to see if what I was doing (and questioning) was what she intended. Maybe had I not been so intent on following all the different charts, and just made an interpretation of the look, I'd have been happier, but I kept doing the charts and thinking "man, this just doesn't seem right." I finally decided that continuing with it just wasn't in the cards - like I wasn't really knitting love into the gift anymore! So screw it! Instead, I decided to make my mom a terrarium, because she saw mine and really liked them (and plants are always a pretty sure fired gift for my mom!)
Look how steamy it's getting already!
So I'll give her the terrarium, and a great pottery jug that she eyed at the antique barn the last time she visited, and I'll have an amusing knitting story to tell her!
With the Gabriella off my shoulders, I've been putting more time into Amelia and I'm almost finished!! whee! I'll post pictures when she's done!
Also, since this is the time of year that I get all gung ho about gardening, I've been going plant crazy! I got my raised beds planted with tomatoes, peppers, basil, carrots, wax beans, radishes, chard, and spinach! Please avert your eyes from the weeds growing up the fence - pulling weeds isn't really part of the springtime gardening fun! unfortunately, because if it was I'd be in hog heaven - I kind of have a lot of them.
Then last night I went to the Mayfair plant sale at Wegerzyn - one of our local metroparks, that I just couldn't love more! It's where I rented my community garden plot when I first moved to Dayton. Every year they have this sale as a fundraiser, and I decided to spring for a membership that would get me in for members-only-preview-night, and 10% off what I got! Plus it also gets me 10% off at North Dayton Garden Center, which is my favorite -and on top of that, the whole metropark membership thing sort of makes me feel adult, and like a good person. I don't know why. Anyway, my favorite part of this sale every year is the "Pass along plants" - it's stuff that people have divided and dug up from their own yards, so generally it's stuff that grows well around here, and it pretty darn hardy! and they're cheap! My best find is actually a house plant, which I've seen online and only once in real life - a Clivia. This is what it looks like blooming (and no - that's not mine. It's a google image pic. for one thing, I don't think my stairs have EVER been so entirely free of cat hair!)
And this is mine now. They're generally crazy expensive - like $50 or something, but this one was $10 and I got to talk to the old lady who grew it for a long time, which was great! I just loved her, and I wish I'd gotten her name.
I got a couple flats of other assorted stuff - some of which I'd never even heard of, but that's half the fun! 
Some things, like the pincushion flower, had a scientific name on the tag and the folks there tried to describe how it looked, but until I Googled it, I didn't realize what I had! I which now that I'd gotten more. duh, why couldn't they have just given me the common name? So I've been out planting some of it, and half heartedly pulling weeds to make room for them. I have to do as much as I can now, because give me a couple months (maybe less!) and it'll be 95 degrees and I won't want to step foot outside the house! it all goes to hell, and I tell myself "ok, next year I'm going to be better!" but honestly, I'm not kidding anyone. 
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