Signing Off

I’m signing off for about a week. Colette, Max, and I are headed off on his civics club's trip. The plans involve: educational sightseeing, staying together in a large rented house, tasty food, s’mores with our homemade marshmallows (plain and coconut), and a little rain (so the forecast says). On the way home? The three of us are stopping in New York City! A full report will follow!

A Visit

A luna moth spent the day on our deck! We were thrilled! We haven’t had one come for a visit for two years.

It was a good day for hanging out on the deck!

Fresh and Clean

This week, we've continued to make progress on the spring cleaning.  Kids rooms?  Done!  Master bedroom?  Half done.  Living Room?  Nearly done.  As you can tell, this year we've been working here and there, as time allows vs. powering through one area at a time.


One of my favorite parts of spring cleaning is washing every single shred of bedding on every bed, vacuuming the mattresses, removing the mattresses, and vacuuming under the beds.  We took advantage of the few moments of sunny weather this week to hang some of the linens over the deck railing...just soaking in that fresh, spring air!

And the best part of the day?  The sweet sleep that comes at the end of a day of hard work...and in a thoroughly cleaned bed!

Garden Dream Come True

For years and years and years, I have wanted to plant foxgloves. And this year, I finally made that dream come true. Why on earth did I wait so long? They are just stunning! And they’re especially beautiful when raindrops are resting on them.

I’m so smitten with them that I think I shall have to add one or two every year for a few years, until I have a lovely patch of them! And maybe I’ll make another dream come true by mixing in a few delphinium.

Foxgloves need some sort of companion, I’m sure. And since Jemima Puddleduck doesn’t live in New England, it will have to be delphiniums!

Working Ahead

Today it was raining. Gardening being out of the question, I decided to focus on Christmas stockings! I plan to stock a lot more stockings in the shop for this Christmas, so I have to get started early.  I decided it was time to cut out all the stockings I could and evaluate what I still need to finish each type. This is SO fun!

     

On a different (but related) topic, I’ve discovered that I can cut out small projects by flopping my cutting board out on the kitchen island. Saved myself an entire day of crawling around on the floor and cutting. My knees are thanking me tonight.

Sabbath Rest

The sky, about 5:00 this evening.

From today’s sermon:

“The greatest hindrance to the Christian life is not lack of effort,
but lack of aquaintance with its priveledges.”


-John Owen (Puritan)

So Many Shades

The backyard is so many, delicious shades of green right now…especially after a rain. Utterly lovely!

A New Old Book

Last weekend, I explored a used book store that was yet undiscovered (by me, at least). Great selection! This little gem came home with me.

It’s a book full of parlor games! We love to discover new parlor games. I love them because they allow people of all ages to play together and enjoy one another’s company. And they usually require you to do some thinking.


This one has no publication date. However, the inscription inside the front cover reads, “Hattie from Papa - April 28, ’98.”

A Retro Apron

I’ve had this fun, retro fabric in my stash for a few years now. Sometimes I just need to think about a fabric for a time before I figure out just the right thing to do with it. For this fabric, the right thing was a 1950′s apron pattern to complement the vintage style and colors of the fabric. It’s in the shop today... just in time for the coming summer.

Cookies for a Trip

We’ve made and packaged and sold about seventy of these chocolate chip cookies over a couple of Saturdays. Max’s civics club has been holding bake sale fundraisers (and a car wash, and calendar sales, and bulb sales…) as part of an effort to raise enough funds to go on a BIG field trip! Today was the last fundraiser! Philadelphia, Gettysburg, and Amish Country, here we come! We leave in a couple of weeks!

Ranunculus

I adore ranunculus! What a joy to find them in every color at Trader Joe’s today! It was impossible to limit myself to just one color, so I chose two bunches…one filled with reds and hot pinks, and another filled with yellows and peaches. SO lovely!

We’re having guests for lunch tomorrow, so I’m glad they were waiting for me today!

Saying Goodbye to Purple

It’s taken almost two years, but Colette’s finally ready to repaint her bedroom. Prior to Felicity getting married, the girls shared the attic. They had roughly divided the room in half, and Felicity had painted her half purple (“a nice purple, not a sappy purple”). And now Colette is ready to paint over the purple and paint her half of the room for the first time. It will be going from “Not Sappy Purple” to “Cabbage”.

Red, White, and Blue

It’s all red, white, and blue in the sewing room right now. Two aprons is the plan…one for me (maybe) and one for the shop. I’m really loving these vintage-style prints and colors. And the vintage apron pattern will complement them nicely!