I Finally Found It

My camera, that is. It has been MIA for the past week. I finally found it in the sewing room, of all places. That kind of gives you an idea of just how much sewing has been going on around here, now doesn't it?

That's because we are in the midst of a massive landscaping project. As I'm sure all of my neighbors will agree, our yard has been pretty pitiful since the tornado. Now that all the stumps and stubs of what used to be wonderful shade trees have been decimated by the chain saw and stump grinders, very little is left.

I can describe it in just two words.

Not Much.



There used to be a retaining wall there. It was clobbered by trees and heavy equipment, so the Landscaping Guys have busted down what was left of it and piled it in the yard. A shiny new one will go up any second now.

See the big ugly piles? See the nice front porch? See the not-so-nice view from the front porch?



This used to be our front walkway.



On the right you can see what's left of the front walkway pavers. We're going to reuse those (and about a hundred more) to rebuild the walkway.



See the nice dirt?

But now, oh, my goodness, just look at all of THIS!!!!
















All of those glorious, beautiful living things will soon live in the front yard. There are 100 daylilies, 400 asiatic jasmine, little gem magnolias, elm leaf hollies, stokesia, purple coneflowers, hundreds of daffodils, white zinnias, and about 200 things I can't identify.

We are going for an English cottage garden look, with a basic green evergreen foundation planting with hundreds of perennials for four season color. Also included are 10,000 square feet of centipede sod and a monstrous irrigation system.

It took a whole can of W-D 40 to get that wallet out of my Sweet Heart's pocket.

It's Kind Of Noisy Here Today

That's because the Tree Men have finally arrived. I don't know what happened to the "first thing Monday morning" scenario, but I'm just glad they came.

Here's either a very brave, or very stupid, Tree Man doing his thing with a huge chain saw:



Lucky me, I caught a picture of a huge hunk of tree just as it hit the ground. See?



That made a very loud "thump" sound. That is the sound of carefully laid centipede sod getting pounded to death. The children and I spent three steamy July days laying sod in the front and side yard many years ago, but the agony of that heat is still with me today. So of course, I decided to come back inside. And play with this, the haul from Joanne's yesterday:



Those are three silky/gauzy, chiffony prints, destined to become tops and blouses for the J-O-B. And also a brown/white burnout linen that will need to be underlined. You may notice that they are all browns. There is a reason for this. Over the past ten years I have taught at two different high schools, and the school colors were black/red and black/grey. Almost everything in my closet has gradually turned to black, or something that goes with black.

This year, brown will be my new black. That's my first goal for summer sewing. I'm steadily collecting fabrics and shoes and accessories in the brown/beige family. I intend to spice it up a bit with some red and dark yellows. We'll see how this develops. The force of a SWAP is compelling, let me tell you. I'm just about to succumb.

Which brings me to this purchase.



What can I say--it spoke to me. It said take me home with you, it doesn't matter that I match NOTHING you own. So I bought it. It's soft, crinkly, drapey polyester and I have two yards of it. If you have a pattern recommendation, just sing out. I need help with this one. It's turquoise with a bit of lime green and ivory.

Since I'm too frail to stand up to the heat of midday (it's currently only 95 degrees) I'm going to make a muslin of this pants pattern. It's Burda 8341. Basic two darts in front, two darts in back, fly front zipper, one button waistband.



What I'm doing here is comparing the back crotch curve to an absolutely favorite pair of jeans. Although the jeans are stretch denim, the crotch curve is not on the stretch part and it looks as though the crotch curve of the Burda pattern is identical to the jeans. At least I will have a really good jumping off point for a start.

Goal number two for summer sewing is to perfect the fit of a basic pants pattern. Then I will have a TNT to use as a basis for all future pants to come. I haven't made a pair of pants for myself in over 20 years, so this will probably be both interesting and highly comical. I just can't wait.

And just so you'll know, if you hate the Mom jeans (in my case it's Grandma jeans) with the saggy seat and the boggy bottom of the thigh, go try on a pair of these Bandolino jeans in the stretch denim. Love them, love them, love them. And when I turned them inside out I discovered they were made in Egypt. I had no idea Egyptians could sew.

Yard Work, Bobbies, and More

Hello again. Long time no blog. School over. Gardening begins. Cooking, maybe. Laundry, definitely. Bobbies, absolutely.

Here's Little Pearl in the cutest little hat (this was on her 4 week birthday--she's now 8 weeks old):




And the divine Little Ruby, wearing hers:



Someone has stolen Little Ruby's hair...she's sort of bald on top. Little Pearl, however, has been nicknamed WigHead, since she has SO much hair.

These darling little bobbies spent all day with me yesterday. Their mama returned to the J-O-B on Monday and since I have no J-O-B until the end of July, it is all-out bobbies, gardening, and sewing until then. Yes, I said sewing. As soon as I post this, I'm hitting the shower and the highway to Joanne's Fabrics. Even though I haven't been sewing I have been dreaming about it and reading everything everyone else has blogged about and I have a list of 14 new patterns I MUST buy, and I hope to come away with a carload of fabric, too.

We have a massive landscaping project underway as a result of last year's tornado. We are having damaged trees removed, a retaining wall rebuilt, a walkway relaid, and lots and lots of planting. It's a good thing this little person arrived just in time to teach Pa how to use the posthole diggers:



They are planting tomatoes. Yes, that's right, they are planting tomatoes (and squash) in Grandma's flower garden. Pa says that way he knows they'll get watered, because I water that flower bed religiously every day. It's already 96 degrees here, with a high this afternoon of 98, and nary a drop of rain until next week sometime.

One really nice thing about having a garden space is the ability to walk out the door and come in with a homegrown bouquet, like this one--gardenias and eucalyptus.



And in the She's Really, Really Stupid category, how about this one? I was spray painting some wrought iron plant stands with black spray paint late Monday evening, and the slightest little breeze was cooling me off while I worked. When I went up on the porch and flipped my sandals off, I found this had happened:



And no, that's not dirt. It's paint. I guess I'll wear socks to Joanne's.

Wish me luck.