Goodness, I can’t wait to get my computer fixed on Tuesday. I just went to pay bills online and some of the sites refuse to recognize my computer and unfortunately my contact info is from our old place, so I can’t even use their security system of having them phone me a code to access my account. Fortunately, I’m trying to pay bills ten days early for once.
Also, I’m just dying to show you pictures of things like the swank light table Chris built, and the growing stack of handwork projects I am planning but have yet to find the energy or time to do much but think about with a smile.
Amanda over at SouleMama has me all inspired to make myself some skirts for the spring and summer. I’m not much of a seamstress when it comes to garments, but I know it runs in my blood thanks to my super-talented Mom and Aunt Ginny, so I’m hopeful that with some practice, I’ll pick it up. Already my seams are more consistent just from the bibs and tote bags I made last year. I figure I need some help, though and they’re both a thousand miles away and busy with their own lives, so I went ahead and ordered Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics by Francesca DenHartog.
The impending delivery might push me to get that pile around my sewing area cleaned up, no? Well, let’s hope. I would love to make a few simple skirts and embellish them with embroidery. Speaking of embroidery, Amanda also has me wanting to spend more money on a craft I’ve barely even begun to try, never mind be productive with, so I’m just going to put the fabulous book she highlights in this post on my wish list and wait. Looks like I’ll have to anyway. I just followed her link and seems the book is sold out. That doesn’t surprise me at all, I can imagine that 90 percent of her readers saw her adorable linen smocks with embellishments made with the designs in that book and clicked over immediately to empty the supply at SuperBuzzy.
Aaaaanyhoo…it’s Saturday and the sun is shining for a few more moments here, though a big bank of clouds is moving in with rain for later and then yes, more snow for the next few days. I know I should be frustrated, but again I think another weekend I can chip away at the inside stuff, do some writing, and maybe even some reading. Meanwhile, I look out the window and see that the grass needs a trim already, even though it’s had hard freezes several times this month. None of the seed we planted two weeks ago has come up yet. I just hope it didn’t rot in the ground. If it did, we’ll plant again. I have plenty more seed.
We’ve got one payment left on my computer loan, and once that money is available we’re going to redirect it to a landscaping service to go out and cut the lawn at the old house until the thing sells. Making that decision lifted a huge grey weight off of my mind. I hate that lawn. It’s rutted and full of plantain that won’t cut, has massive patches that stay wet year round, but not wet enough to call them a small pond. We don’t own a proper tractor for cutting the grass efficiently, and have no intention of buying one. Our lawn is manageable with the push mower—it takes about one hour if one of the adults does it. If the teenager does it (and he should, it’s his job after all) it takes all day. He stops for food, water, ice cream, bathroom, reading, talking on the phone, grumbling, popsicles, food, bathroom, etcetera, etcetera every time he has to empty the mulch bag.
Speaking of the mulch bag, I have a plan for the grass clippings this summer. Besides using them for mulch around plants in the garden—because we only need so much for that and yet the grass continues to grow—I’m going to start a windrow for compost in the woods. We have about 30 garbage bags of leaves we collected from neighbors and I’m going to dump some of those out in a long row just behind the perennial garden. I’ll add a layer of grass and dump a few more bags on and shovel in some horse manure each time we mow, then turn it every now and again. Next year I should have some good compost for the garden beds.
Okay, time to get my next column for 100Hats finished, then do the grocery shopping. I’m hoping we don’t have to go anywhere else over the weekend, except maybe out for a bite to eat tonight. Unless I really feel like cooking, which at the moment, I don’t. But I do hope you have a wonderful weekend.
"Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of maturity; but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance. What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the meaning of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?"
~Hal Borland
