Fresh Flowers, Crochet Tins and Roasted Soup

Until this morning, I had a bunch of dead daffodils staring at me from the mantel - no worries, I didn't not photograph that.  Usually that means I haven't been grocery shopping - and yep, we were out of just about EVERYTHING... I do the bulk of my shopping at Trader Joe's and each time I'm there, I freshen the flowers around my space.

What did I get today?

Something called WAX flowers.  They are tall and have greenery that looks something like fresh rosemary.  At their tippy tops are little purple flowers.  They don't look SUPER like spring - they look like the perfect flower for a winter that just won't end and so are perfect for my house right now (yes, we had another snow day two days ago).

Each week, I also stuff some tulips (2 colors if I dare to afford them both) and some unbloomed daffodils - I like to buy them all tight and closed and watch them open day by day until they reach their full bloom.  The daffodils usually come from England or Ireland - so thanks to all my UK friends for sending your lovely yellow flowers to brighten my day.

Last week I got a few potted bulbs.  One is a light purple hyacinth which I can smell as soon as I walk in the front door.  It's trying very hard to droop over so I've tied it to a chop stick.  I also got some really tiny daffodils in a pot which haven't yet reared their pretty heads.  I put the potted plants each into a crab meat tin I had saved some months ago.  AND... earlier this week I crocheted some bright and happy little tin covers for them.  All the color on the mantle is helping to counter the drab colors and constant white blanket of snow covering any such green on the ground.

I took down the very dried roses but I thought they still looked pretty.

I hopped up and grabbed some yarn to make the tin covers after perusing the blog Color & Cream.  I love the colors she puts together - some people just have such a knack for colors and their color schemes seem to really define them and they utilize their particular colors so well - all the time.  I seem to be a scatterbrain with color - I can't decide what my scheme is.  I apparently have a bunch of different things I like in the color world.  But, putting colors together myself is not a skill I possess... I really have a defunct color building skill. Therefore, I copy color a lot.  Ah well - you can't be good in all areas, I'll have to settle for being a copy cat.  I didn't use any patterns to make the tins, just kind of dreamed them up as I went.

Tonight I'm teaching crochet class #2 of 8.  I teach one class each Wednesday night.  This class is the perfect size with 9 students.  The class is taught to beginners and intermediates alike.  Three of the students have taken my class before but 6 of them are learning to crochet for the first time.  The first session I taught of crochet there were 12 people - all beginners... a bit tough at that size.  The next time there were SEVENTEEN!!! I had panic attacks before every class.  The third time there were 6 students and that was a bit small.  I think 8-12 is a good number especially when it's folks at different skill levels.  I teach the class Montessouri style so that crocheters may progress at their own speed.  But generally, I'm teaching a pretty big group the same skills at the same time so it works.

Raw veggies, squished on tray with olive oil, salt and peper

Veggies about 30 mins later, roasted at 400F

Roasted Veggies cut small to add to soup

I head out the door for class before 6:30pm which makes dinner tight.  So... I planned to have some vegetable soup tongiht - to get full flavor in my soup I'm trying to make the soup with pre-roasted veggies.  I never use recipes - esp. not for soup - so in my usual flair - I'm winging this.  Here are the veggies I'm roasting in the over to prepare for the soup - what do you think? will it work? have you made soup this way before?  Well, I guess we will see.

Success!  It tastes GOOD! And, I tried the juice of one lemon squeezed in - man that did the trick.