A Jar Full of Happiness

Late last week, DH gave me a box of wood chips from a chunk of redheart he'd been working on. I put it in a 2-quart jar and covered the chips in alcohol. After just a few days, the liquid is a deep coppery orange. It will make a gorgeous peachy pink on silk (I've dyed with it before, and loved the results).

 

I'll leave it alone for a few weeks to extract as much color as possible from the chips, then get a hank or two of 60/2 silk into a mordant pot so they're ready to be introduced to their future color.

And it's that time of year again: the peanut cactus is blooming its little heart out in the courtyard, in a cheerful bright orange hue:

There are lots more flowers coming - the fuzzy brown balls are unopened buds.