Dog Days

Ok, finally -- something garden UN-related.

I SEWED!

=D

Yes, very exciting news.

I lead a very dull life, sorry.

It's been about a 7 month break from my sewing machine - there just wasn't any motivation.

I stopped by a yard sale on a whim about a month or so ago (even yard sales don't seem to strike up my fancy these days) and found a bag of vintage sewing notions -- I bought them with the hopes that it will help encourage me to take the time to sew again .

That, and I am somewhat of a hoarder (I wonder where I got that particular trait from...I'm looking at you, mom!)

All for a grand total of...a dollar. Gotta love yard sales.

The other part of the story is this:

I've been looking around for something that won't be an eyesore, and even those would cost me a good $30-$40 on the cheap end of the scale.

And I'm cheap.

So, with much encouragement from my daughter (yes, really), she sat at the sewing table, doing a workbook to practice her alphabets, and I cut out the fabric.

And voila!

 

A complete "how hard can it be" wing-it project, where I ventured into using an invisible zipper for the first time.

It is essentially a pillow cover, in which i stuffed Isabel's old crib bumpers into (we are all about recycling here), hence why it looks a tad lumpy.
But it works

All for a total of $2.10
(for the zipper. I hoard fabric as well)

Because Melly is slightly dumb hyper, Buddy worked as a better model

(which then resulted in her getting jealous - again - and tried to bully him off it. Fun times)

The other side is made with cozy flannel , to suit the colder months. 

And it makes a nice contrast, in case I get sick of looking at the print.

And also because I ran out of the cotton print fabric.

Here's the interesting bit (to me, at least)

Because  I was working from my stash as much as I could, I used bias tapes that were produced about 30 years apart.

Do you notice a difference?

 

The bias tape for the top trim was made in 2008.

The one on the bottom, in 1980 (purchased from the yard sale)

I think...or perhaps it is the other way round...

Regardless, there is a slight color variation (Brite Pink vs Berry Sorbet - seems like the names got a tad fancier), but other than that, I don't notice much of a difference.

I think that is amazing.

A Little Evening Gathering..

The blue hydrangea (Endless summer variety) bush is overflowing with blooms, so I decided to help lessen its burden again in the twilight hours one evening

 

Buddy is visiting with Melly and I for a week while Isabel and her dad goes back to the Mid-West for a visit with family

 

I am finding that I much prefer the white hydrangeas these days...I hope that the 4 bushes of whites (blushing bride and endless summer varieties) that I've planted will do as well as the blue (which at 3 years, is the most mature)

  

Guess what else is also starting to bear fruit? 

Japanese eggplant tree from my little square foot gardening patch...the only one that is bearing fruit at the moment. I have decided that tomatoes plants are too much trouble for me -- I don't even particularly LIKE tomatoes. Next year, I shall have to reconsider the plan of attack. 

Vegetable gardening is a tad too time-consuming for me. I who generally like to do something once and be done with it.

 

 

My basil is doing great though...but again, much more than I know what to do with it...

I have been missing my darling dreadfully...

  

 

But it is nice to be able to actually have time in the nights to do WHATEVER I WANT. 

Catching up on movies is one - I don't remember the last time I've actually watched a grown up movie the whole way through. The dogs are good cuddlers for that.