Gardening

The pile of debris is an accumulation of branches from the cleaning session of the lilacs, both branches and leaves and the junipers which were removed from the front of the house. Looks a little naked now compared to last year. But after the last two snow storms, we were blessed with such great moisture levels that we decided it would be ideal timing to remove the overgrown foliage. The Mr. hooked a chain around the base and with the truck, was able to pull out the bushes. There was also a dead aspen that he chopped down, but left an 8 ft piece on which we will mount a birdhouse and will probably hang a few decorative houses below that. Now we need a chipper in order to make mulch and we need to decide what to plant in the bare yard. We have ordered 25 chokecherry trees and a few cranberry viburnum.
I have been packing around a piece of rhubarb that is a plant my mom had. She had a strawberry rhubarb and always made the best pies. I got a start at least 30 years ago, maybe more, from hers and everywhere I move, I have been able to dig a little piece, plant in a temporary pot and put in the ground. I planted two small pieces last fall and they poked their little heads through the ground about 3 weeks ago. I moved them to a permanent spot last week and they are thriving. Yeah!! Searching through my collection of seeds, I discovered tulip bulbs which were sprouting and allium bulbs, so they got planted (yes I know they should go in the ground in the fall, but we didn't have time last fall) so, I have my fingers crossed!! I figured I had nothing to loose. To come....I have started a stained glass light fixture for my dining room, pictures of our bathroom project, and treasures from a trip yesterday to the flea market and antique alley I explored with my friend Sal, in Ft. Collins. What fun we had.

~~"Women are meant to be LOVED, not to be understood."---Oscar Wilde

Gardening

First I have new birdhouse perches. I know you aren't supposed to put perches on our birdhouses, but the Mr. discovered these really old nails in a couple of 2X4 pieces of lumber on our property. The wood was rotten and we were cutting up construction scraps for a friend who burns wood. We were just cleaning up and normally we would leave the nails, but these are OLD!

I went to a composting seminar a couple of weeks ago and I must say, it was interesting. We have so much material here as the previous owners NEVER cleaned up anything in the way of leaves, etc. I have a line of 40 plus lilacs from which I have been raking dead leaves. We have a pile of branches and pine needles which need to be put through a chipper. A gardener's delight!! Anyway, I now have a compost bin. We will see if I learned anything. One thing that we discovered is that composting here is different from other parts of the country, mostly because of the dry climate and the long cold winters. In fact, we got 12.7 inches of fluffy white today and it is supposed to continue through noon tomorrow. So much for gardening, but the moisture is marvelous!! I have 8 little cartons of seedlings popping through the soil and planted some chokecherry seeds....don't know if they will sprout, but what the heck!! We have birds galore in our yard. Doves, woodpeckers and robins by the score. I am not kidding! I have never seen so many robins. There at least 6 rose bushes that we had to literally chop to about 10 inches and these are BIG rose bushes. They came half-way up the side of the house and were sacrificed so that we could paint last fall. Guess what...they are all budded! We were going to move them, but they are so huge that we were afraid to try this spring, so they will stay where they are.

This is the compost bin and I have been saving table scraps for months in a bucket in the garage. When I was growing up we did the same thing, but it was "slop" for the pigs. I keep calling it my slop bucket and a lot of people I knew had one. We were "green" long before it became "the thing to do". We didn't have paper towels (used rags), Kleenex (hankies were washed), lawn fertilizer (used manure from the barnyard, and sold the extra), grew all of our veggies, made clothes from flour sacks, hung our clothes on the line to dry and so on. What I would give now to have a chance to "clean out the corral", a job I hated as a kid. But I will struggle to put in a few veggies and some flowers if the snow ever stops.

``"Gardens are the result of a collaboration between art and nature."~~Penelope Hobhouse

Crafting 3

OK...finished chandelier!!!! Because of the age of the existing wiring and our inexperience with how things go together, it took us, (mainly the Mr.) a total of about 5 hours to get this sucker installed. (I don't think lunch counts does it?) But she will probably put chandelier or candelabra lights in it. The saucers are upside down so that the pattern is seen from below but it looks so cool in her cute little cottage kitchen!!! She has a collection of creamers and sugars and we discovered that she has them in the same pattern so they came off the shelf, got washed and are now on her table. We need to go searching for a cute little table and chairs for the kitchen, but we are up for the challenge. Comments?

"The kitchen is the heart of the home."

Crafting 3

I intended to post yesterday, but we had a little storm out of the south and it covered our dish which we can not access right now so my internet was down for a while. On the chandelier, you can see where we removed some of the existing pieces (which we will not be using), and the wiring exposed after we removed the old sockets. Last evening, we purchased new chandelier sockets and bulbs. The hole in the plates and cups, which were drilled with the bit were not large enough to accommodate the threaded rods, so we took them to my glass grinder and were they were very easy to grind large enough. Being anxious to see what they would look like, we sat them on the arms of the chandelier and voila!! You can see the effect we are going for. More post after tonight's session.

Crafting again

As promised, more pictures of the teacup chandelier process. The chandelier is shown with some of the china pieces, along with some other clutter we didn't remove...not professionals--us, but we were pleased in spite of the two small unexpected problems. The one chocolate pot developed a crack and half of the bottom fell out and the one teacup "popped" a larger hole than the others. Never one to admit failure, I hit the bottom of the larger piece with a brass end of a glass cutter and the remaining bottom fell out clean as a whistle. The cup will be fitted with a washer and will be just fine. Next post will follow with more complete pictures to give a better idea of the finished chandelier. Speaking of china and porcelains, the Mr. asked me if I would like to go have some fun. We have been married more than 45 years and his idea of fun is much different than mine, but I said yes and off we went, with the skinny bitch border collie mix in tow. He told me we would be spending some money, which means "shopping" to me. I now have a new piece of "china" and it is sitting in the middle of the basement in the form of a porcelain convenience. Along with that is a shower stall which graces the garage at the time, but the toilet is installed minus the water hook-up which will involve extensive plumbing of course. We always "plunge" forward with these types of projects because of the previous experience under our belts, and NEVER read instructions! That's our code of home renovation. Sooo....in spite of our rush to put it in without following directions....it works!!! Of course, you have to have a bucket of water in order to flush, and there are no walls, but we needed to see how much space it takes up in order to determine what sink fixtures to purchase and where the walls need to be. We also did not know if the existing plumbing below the floor needed to be altered and really didn't know if the existing drain worked. Eureka!!! All is well and we will have a really nice bathroom when it is finished.

Crafting

My friend Sal and I have begun the "teacup chandelier"! With the help of the Mr. and his drill press, and some past experience we had trying to drill into china, our Saturday endeavors were a huge success. The bit was a carbide spade bit which was dull to begin with and proved to work much better after a sharpening. Because so much heat is generated with the slow careful pressure, it is necessary to keep the china cool. Thus the sponge and water, making for a messy process. Each time the bit broke through the china, the popping sound nearly gave us all heart attacks. With only 5 cups and saucers, there were no extras in the event of a disaster. The pictures here show a saucer and a "chocolate pot". The pot will go in the center to cover the wiring and stabilizing used for the pot. My intention is to post the remainder of the pictures this week.
Saturday was a particularly perfect day to accomplish this step of this process as we were under the worst blizzard conditions of the year. Twelve inches of the white fluffy with blizzard force winds completely socked this city in isolation. Travelers could go no direction and drifts caused many locals to become stuck.

Today, however was a different story! My good friend, Pat, had her birthday today and I met her in Greeley and we had a wonderful day. We had coffee, did a little shopping, had lunch, did a little shopping and in general had a great gab session! The weather was beautiful and I am home now awaiting another smaller storm due in tomorrow.

Watch for more posts of the chandelier progress and Happy Birthday my friend!

~"A friend is a person with whom I may be SINCERE. Before him (her) I may think aloud."...
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have no photo to post today. This March has been very wintery and we have more or less just been huddled in where it is warm and toasty. Not much happening even. You know it is one of those cozy relaxing weeks. I am posting so you all know I am still kickin'. My sewing machines have, however gotten a little workout as I have been back to sewing some garments. I got caught up on my quilt squares for my Thimbleberries quilt club, and constructed two blouses, or tops, whatever they are officially called now. Now I am working on some pants. I cannot tell you how long it has been since I actually made something for myself and with the changes in the pattern sizing that took place in my absence from the sweat shop, along with the additional poundage added to my aging frame--it has been a challenge. Yesterday I watched a quilting program on PBS, on which a young fabric designer was featured. I was so fascinated with her approach and her knowledge of quilting at such a young age. I wish I had paid more attention as I don't know who she was. Her fabric designs all featured the same vivid colors, but the actual designs were small geometrics to very large florals. Not at all what one would expect in typical quilt construction as I know it and not what I might choose. What kept my interest was her flexibility and her enthusiasm and her ability to understand the traditional quilter. It made me realize that I have always been attracted to textiles and fibres. Perhaps that is why my daughter also has that attraction....it is in our blood. My first recollection of fibre is when my paternal grandmother taught me to crochet, even before I went to school. At first it was just a simple chain stitch, but before long I was making "granny squares". I learned to knit in the sixth grade at school when our teacher used indoor recess time (in the bitter cold days) to keep us all busy. I begged my mother to teach me to sew and when "Barbie" came out in 1958, I scrounged every scrap of fabric I could find to make her wardrobe. I continued to sew and crochet, and I learned to "tat". I took a tailoring class, at the urging of my good friend Barb. I am fascinated with ribbon embroidery and I embellish way too many things with ribbon art. I learned to do needle felting and have a stash of wool sitting someplace. Many, projects finished and unfinished were produced after I discovered cross stitch and my kitchen drawers are filled with embroidered tea towels and embroidery covers my pillowcases. When macrame was popular in the 70's I learned all of the knots and completed multiple wall hangings out of jute and twines and beads. Remember hooked rugs? Yep, I made a few of those too. I have made chenille and probably have forgotten some of the other fibers I worked with. I do love fabric and my stash is always changing. I collect some old quilt pieces as I can find them and am always finding a new way to use the old worn pieces.

"Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes!" ` Bette Midler