Whale Hello There and Youtube Recommendations

Whale Hello There  . . . Yes, that’s the clever, punny name of this cross stitch piece by designer Cathy Habermann of Hands on Design. It’s from her Polar Plunge series as was the Polar Bear Peek featured in my previous post. Each piece is finished on a board from Chantelle’s 141 Design Company   On the Hands on Design site you will find finishing tutorials, and you will also find tutorials on the 141 Design Company flosstube.

A Note to Quilters: I came across a channel on Youtube yesterday morning that caught my attention. Who wouldn’t be interested as it read, “The Easiest Scrap Quilt Ever!! - the Duckworth Quilt.” It’s something I will put on my list as I hope to ramp up the amount of quilting that I do this year. In my next post,  I intend to do a summary of what I actually managed to accomplish this year in quilting, wool applique, and cross stitch. Where I really slipped was in the number of blog posts that I penned this past year as compared to

previous years. I’ll try to do better in ‘24! (That reminds me I better go predate the year on about ten checks in my checkbook . . . 2024 . . . It will take some getting used to.)

 Youtube Recommendation: As I have mentioned previously, I do watch quite a bit of Youtube, and so I thought I would add a new feature where I recommend things on Youtube worth sharing with you. First up is Garden Answer. Today’s short video featured “Potting Up Houseplants and A Fresh Flower Arrangement.” The first segment set to music shows a selection of English Roses being fashioned into a lovely arrangement which is just the ticket on these rainy, gloomy days we have been having. Her videos are always fun and interesting. I particularly like when the hostess and often her mom and sister go visiting antique shops. Give it a try; you’ll enjoy this channel.

Did you watch the Kennedy Center Honors program the other night? This is one program that I look forward to each year. You may watch previous years simply by googling The Kennedy Center Honors (plus)  a year. For example, search for Kennedy Center Honors 2006 and you may watch the program honoring: Steven Spielberg, Zubin Mehta, Smokey Robinson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and everyone’s favorite, Dolly Parton. Another way is to search Kennedy Center Honors (plus) say, Paul McCartney, and you will see his segment.

The first Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978 were: Fred Astaire, Marian Anderson,  Richard Rodgers, Arthur Rubinstein, and George Balanchine. Youtube provides a time capsule for viewing these ceremonies honoring the best in the world of entertainment. 

Let me leave this here with the wish that 2024 is a hopeful, peaceful, blessed one for us all.

Succulent Head Planter

 

Here’s the fun project that I mentioned in my last post. If you regularly follow my blog posts, you know that I watch a whole lot of Youtube. I enjoy flosstubes, quilting, music, gardening, decorating, crafting, antiquing, and many other subjects. I follow Friesian Horses - Follow the Herd, “The History Guy,” watch old episodes of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, heck, I even follow a young couple in Oklahoma who raise bison. Why? Who knows? There is always something fun and interesting to watch.

One of my new favorite Youtube channels is “Garden Answer.” Last week, the lovely young gardener on that channel showed how to create a succulent head planter, and I couldn’t resist making one, too! 

Amazon has a number of head planters: some lovely and some others somewhat strange. I paid $16.99 for this small Greek maiden head planter. This concrete planter has a drainage hole which is important. It is filled with a blend of succulent and cactus soil, and I purchased the succulents at two local big box stores.

Here’s a view from above. I believe that her planter was more tightly packed, but some of my succulents were small and will fill in the spaces as they grow.

Right now it is sitting on my kitchen counter where it simply makes me smile, but I will move it to the sunporch when things warm up a bit.

Isn’t she sweet? If you, too, wish to make one, go to ‘Garden Answer - Planting a Succulent Head Planter’ for a step by step tutorial and to get tips on how to water it.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring; let’s hope Mother Nature doesn’t have any mean surprises up her sleeve.

Have a wonderful week.