Planet Nice Crafts

There are flowers blooming, birds chirping, and quite a bit of craft time.  Each of the snowmen and the battle gnome had their wash paint completed and glaze (Woodland Scenics’ Scenic Cement ™ ) and glitter applied. Here are the final project photos, no more words required. Another project has been re-started. This purple linen top was originally sewn by me to go with the purple linen pants that were altered in Consistency! (November 12, 2021 – I can’t believe it has been that long).  The Before Photo The pants went from unused to being a wardrobe staple. I was trying to do a repeat with this top. I don’t remember the origin of the idea to try to make it into a wrap top (the bad thing about infrequent blog posts) – perhaps the voluminous material available? This New Look pattern, N6700, has been my inspiration.  The color is a challenge, its not the best for me and my pale skin but the pants have been a great neutral. Because I wanted a top that is less blah, I have used...

Hello Everyone! Three months have passed but after reviewing August's post, the conclusion is activity here at Planet Nice Crafts has been incredibly consistent. The precious free time has been dominated by garden activities. The garden will be the focus today along with bird and sewing updates.  Here is the 2021 harvest report: Watermelons: five (3 medium, 2 small) were ready late August through mid-September and they were fantastic. This was the first time growing and the plants were low maintenance because of more resistance to cucumber beetle havoc. Cucumbers: better than 2020, but could have used more! I lost the plants late August due to the beetles. Tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries, and tomatillos: very good. All did well until the bugs and cooler temperatures got them in late October. Beans: disappointing, affected by aphids and both crops (Spring and late Summer planted) died too early. Pumpkins: three (1 medium and 2 small) harvested on Halloween. Kale: too much a...

  Hello Everyone! Finally, some rain the past week which lead to a few free hours to write to you instead of setting up and watching sprinklers. I hope the summer has gone well for you so far. Funny that kids are going back to school next week but summer goes until September 21 technically. The emphasis as of late has been the garden, not just watering, but feeble attempts to contain the weeds, harvesting, cooking, and taking photos. The longest duration harvests have been kale and poppy seeds. The green beans came in with a flourish but were finished and just not looking very good, so they were extracted and a few bean seeds planted in their place. The tomatoes have started ripening, the fruits are big and tend to be very juicy and messy. The peppers look great and just started too with the tomatillo and ground cherries not quite hitting their stride yet. The cucurbits - cucumbers, watermelon, and pumpkin - are growing and doing battle with the cucumber beetles. We ...