The Spice of Life

Hello!  I want to show you my early birthday present from my DIL Kristi.  I had a little spice rack that my stepfather made for me when I was first married and it wasn't quite doing the trick to hold all my spices - and Kristi loves spices too.  So, she saw this BIG spice rack and decided to surprise me with it.  She also got 40 little spice jars and then set out to clean them all, make labels for all the spices and fill the little jars... AND.. put them in the rack in alphabetical order.  TA-DAH!!!!  Isn't it wonderful?

This is what it looked like before she did all the little jars - we had spices from a lot of different companies and it wasn't cohesive.

For example, Spice Islands, McCormicks, Schilling, etc.

Here is Kristi working on labeling the jars.  :-)

And here they all in matching jars.

She hand cut out each round label, wrote out all the spice names and embellished each jar with a cute little paper flower!  How cute are these?

Smoked paprika is a new favorite spice of mine.. have you tried it?  It's amazing!  What is YOUR favorite spice?  Mine may very well be CINNAMON.

Since I finished the wedding blanket, the booties, the little girl hat, I have picked up my Hitchhiker scarf.  Friends.. this one is rather excruciating.  The yarn is THIN and it's taking FOR. EV. ER.  And it's in BIG color blocks.. so I've been doing LIME.. forever.  But I can see that it won't be too long until I get to the next color.. peach?  I WILL finish this.  Meanwhile my knitting friend Meredith has started and finished like 800 of these.  LOL!  But Buddy keeps me company and warm while I knit.. tiny threads.. 

I goofed and made one of my "points" a row too long.. but there ain't no way I'm pulling any of this bugger out and trying to put it back on a needle.  :-)

I am enjoying using the vintage faux tortoise shell knitting needles on this scarf although I may have to move the project onto the circular needles I bought for this.  I gave up using them when I started out as there was too much cable getting in my way.  

Yesterday I went out and used a pruning shear to cut a bouquet of Daphne Odora - oh my goodness these flowers are fragrant.  I remembered I had a vintage green glass cream pitcher and they look good on the table.

Isn't this a neat little glass pitcher?  

A close-up of the little Daphne buds in a cluster.  Have you ever smelled one?

My changing flower bouquets.

I stepped outside to see what was blooming.. here are two different colors of Hyacinths in one big pot.

It's chilly outside and the flowers seem to hold their scent until they warm up.

I heard a large jet in the sky and it was a huge plane, slowing down to land at the Portland International Airport just 15 or so miles away.  Yay, they're bringing me some more stuff!  LOL!  Speaking of which I have some new yarn for a new project to show you.. next time.  

We have tulips in bloom!  Can you believe it?  Aren't these pretty?

Gracie and I are meeting for a crab salad for lunch and then off to swim.  I hope your day is going well.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)