In Just a Few Days

In just a few days time everything can change. There has been heaps of new good news from all sides. We have been so busy around here cleaning up and preparing for the things that our summer is going to bring that I haven't had much time to take pictures lately, or sew. I have a bunch of things cut out waiting to get sewn together. I did accomplish a couple of flat sheets for my kids beds. Their papa made them a custom size twin bed to fit special in their old house bedroom that all three of them share. Since its custom its a bit tricky to find sheets for it. I have a couple of fitted sheets cut also, waiting and ready to go, but I am going to have to find the time. 

We did find some time last weekend to go to a Family Fair in our local city. It turned out to be pretty good. There were some free bouncy houses, princesses and a ton of games with great prizes. 

I have bought some garden starts and listed my chicken coop up for sale. I also have tried to start some new roses from my most beloved ones we planted here. I watched a bunch of videos online and for now just have them rooting in water. Roses are supposed to be super easy to root. Mostly I have been just admiring my garden. It has turned out so nice in the 5 years we have been here. I do love it so.  

Making May

I am still sewing and sewing and sewing. I am still loving it, although it makes a huge mess and I don't want to do any of my housework. I have also been trying to knit here and there. Right now I am on this self imposed knitting project where I am making all of my cotton yarn into washcloths. I am still kind of slow so each one takes me hours. I keep seeing people talk of them in the pattern places online and that they are a quick one hour project. I laugh a little at that. I am hoping to use all that I have up and then move on to little sweaters for the kids.

I had a wonderful Mothers Day with a brand new emergency dishwasher earlier in the week. I also made myself some chocolate covered strawberries. We were at Costco and they were selling these packs of them for what I thought was expensive for 6 berries. Then when we were walking through the produce isle I saw the giant strawberry container for half the price. In a stroke of genius I put it in the cart. I just used melted chocolate chips and dunked them right in. I picked some flowers from my garden and remembered how nice it is to grow my own to keep a constant supply of fresh flowers on the table. I spent a glorious three hours alone in a mostly clean house with no one to mess it up. The next day Hubbs caught us all on the couch and announced it was a Mothers Day picture. He got a few decent shots which surprised me knowing how tricky our camera is. Most of my pictures are terrible.

The weather here has been calm and warm and the windows are open from morning until we go to bed. I love the way the air feels in the spring, all green and warm and exciting. I keep thinking ahead to summer and all the fun things we should do. I have been feeling a huge sense of relief lately as I have been wrapping up some large projects that have been making me feel they are taking up my time. The garden is about to go in and then I am just going to read library books on the front lawn in the shade.

Purple and Pink and Green

Things are bursting in our garden. Every year I get handfuls of flower buds from my girls who pick them and bring them to me. I want to be mad because they are picking all my flowers but at the same time I know they are giving me them and are trying to be sweet. I take them and put them in vases scattered all through the house and then remind them not to pick things unless they ask first. The other day my oldest girl brought in almost all of the garlic greens that were growing and told me she wanted to make a salad. I let her but she didn't eat it too well and then had garlic breath. 

I am still sewing as much as I can. I have been finding a bunch of vintage patterns everywhere for cheap. I have been snatching them up, and now I have so many its making it hard to decide what to sew. I want to get this summer wardrobe wrapped up so I can work on winter clothes in a nice and lazy way. I have been making everything a couple sizes big so they can last for years to come. Recently I found this giant bag of notions at a thrift store and there were some vintage snaps in there. I have been using them and they are great because they require no sewing. They were the gems of the bag. Snaps are so much easier for the kids, and I have never been interested in sewing them on. So tedious. 

Lately all I can think about is pie. I don't know why. When I first got married I made pie all the time. There was something so domestic about it. I guess back then I didn't have all these kids and could make more pie. I made lemon meringue pie the other day. I didn't have any milk to make a cream pie so I went with lemon. I had to make it gluten free but it turned out great. I bought some organic cream that was on sale just for making a cream pie so perhaps today I might try again. Its a tough choice, chocolate cream or coconut cream. 

We needed to get out yesterday so we went to the Arbor Day festival at our local Arboretum. It was fun to gather all the pamphlets and talk to people about gardens and trees and such. While we were there we met Aqua Duck. My youngest thought he was great but my older girl wanted nothing to do with him. Afterwards she told me that she thought he was just a "quiet guy in a duck suit."