Summer Fun

Summer doesn't officially start for a couple more weeks.  But, for us, it's already here.

Our daughter is home from college for the summer.  The weather is warm.

And, we're busy planning and doing lots of summery fun things.

A lot of what I've been doing is trying to work on projects that

 I've been needing to do or finish for a while.  I'm on a mission!

I'm having lots of fun with it.  But, there are so many things I want to do that

 I sometimes don't know where to start.  But, I'm trying to keep moving and 

not get stuck.  I'd like to cross a lot of things off of my mental to-do list

and see lots of finished and wonderful projects by the end of summer.

We recently re-planted our front flowerbed.

We planted two Madame Julia Correvon Clematis and some Society Garlic, Marigolds,

Alyssum, and Lobelia with the Baby Tears that were already growing there.

The vines and most of the flowers are doing great.

Except for the Marigolds.  Some kind of critter has eaten most of them.

I love the purple/blue color of the Lobelia.

Sometimes it seems to glow.

We finally planted something in the flowerbed at the side of the our house.

It's something we've been meaning to do for a long time.

We decided on a Star Jasmine.  It's right near where we store our trash cans.

So, the floral scent will be nice over there.

Hubby built a trellis for it.  I love how he wove the wood.

This flowerbed and trellis line up with our office/soon-to-be-guest-room window.

It should be really pretty when the vine grows up.  And, it will provide a little privacy.

I finally got around to painting our family room.

The paint color doesn't show up very well in the photo.  It's actually a lot warmer and prettier.

The color is Benjamin Moore, Everlasting.  The room looks so fresh and pretty

with it's new coat of paint.  It was just builder white (Swiss Coffee) before.

I originally blogged about the room make-over HERE.

Life just got busy and then it was winter and a bit chilly to have the windows

open for painting.  But, now it's warmer and I'm on a mission to finish projects.

Hubby still needs to install crown moulding and mount the speakers.  And, I need to sew the curtains.

We got the moulding last week.  I'm planning to look for hardware today.

I'm hoping the room will be complete by the end of the month.

I've finally worked up the courage to try and figure out how to re-cover my dress form.

I found it a few years ago at a thrift shop.  It's in good shape but the purple color

doesn't look good with most of the projects I want to photograph on it.  

So, I've been working on making a pattern...first with tissue...

Then, I used the tissue to cut out white fabric pieces.

I've pinned them on and adjusted it a bit.

Now, I need to sew the fabric together to make sure it works.

If it does, I'll use that as a pattern for the neutral fabric I have to re-cover it.

Wish me luck!

Another project that's been waiting around for way too long is a rug hooking project.

I bought it years ago on a trip to Texas.  I didn't enjoy doing it as much as I thought I would and

it's been sitting in the closet ever since.  I pulled it out the other day and I'm trying to work 

on it a bit each day.  It makes my hand hurt.  So, a little each day is better than nothing.

It'll be nice to finish it and enjoy it instead of moving it out of the way

when I need to get things out of my craft closet.  

I wound my new yarn from the Yarn Over Truck and bought the pattern for the shawl I plan to make.

So, I'm all ready to get started on that.  Yay!  I'm so excited!

But...

Last night, at knit night, one of the ladies (who also dyes yarn...Inner Yarn Zen)

showed me some yarn she'd just dyed.  It was LOVE at first sight!  It's gorgeous.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to capture it's beauty in a photo.

She asked if I'd like to test knit it for her to see how this new base yarn is to work with.

Of course, I agreed!  Eeeee!  I'm so excited to play with this beautiful yarn!

I came home and started searching for patterns and have narrowed it down.

Last weekend, my daughter hosted a party to view the film she worked on this past school year.

The film was created by a student for his masters project and it's based on the true story of a harpist. 

My daughter wrote and performed harp music for the film, acted as a hand double for playing the harp, and coached the main actress how to sit at the harp and look like she was a harpist.  We were very impressed by the film.  It was so well done that no one would guess it was made by a student.

It helps that the college has a top notch film school with great equipment, facilities, and instructors.

We are so proud of her!  And, very grateful for all the wonderful experiences she had this last year.

Besides the film, we enjoyed the company of family and some of our daughter's friends.

And, she made Sangria and a delicious tart that was gluten and dairy free.

It turned out beautiful too!

There are just so many fun things I want to do this summer!

I just wish the days were longer, that there were more days in the week and weekends,

and a few more months in the summer because I know it's going to go by very quickly.

Although, that kind of adds to the fun, I guess.  It makes it a challenge and

 a bit of a game to see how much I can squeeze into it.

I've heard several other people talk about how they're also on a mission to try and finish lots of projects.  What are you up to this summer?  Are you on a similar mission?

In my effort to post more often...here's the latest...

Since the knit group I visited at church last week I've knitted a scarf and I'm half way finished with another one. The second is a spiral scarf...sounded fun at the time but I'm having doubts about whether or not it was a good idea (if anyone will like it...it is for charity), how it will turn out, and it's not fun to knit. We'll see how it goes. I was a good girl and went to get my mamogram last week (I had plans for it a couple of months ago but life got busy...we all know how that goes) and while waiting I finished the heal flap on my second sock and I'm onto the heal turn. I have so many projects that I want to do it's hard to decide what to work on but at least I'm moving along. Here's another one...it's a rug hooking kit that I bought in Fredricksburg, Texas a couple of years ago. I had stopped working on it because I was using an embroidery hoop to hold it and after a lot of wool fabric had been hooked into place it won't fit tightly into the hoop and that made it really hard to work on. After some inspiration from a rug hooker that I recently saw...my husband made a frame for mine and I've stapled it tightly onto it in hopes that this will make it possible to work on. That's what I'm planning to try today. Here it is..... Kitty likes it....well...she likes all crafts. She's very cool! Cats rock!



As far as some of my other new year's goals...I'm doing good with better eating. We've been making smarter choices and eating lots of fruits and veggies. But, as far as exercise...I'm pretty frustrated. I was trying to walk several days a week and do some light weights but my hip is hurting so bad that it's making it almost impossible to go on walks. It bothers me from time to time but always goes away. But this time it's being very stubborn and hurting more than ever. Most of the last couple of weeks I've been hobbling around like an old woman. I hate this! Yesterday I started taking some ibuprofen to help if there's any inflamation and I took a nice hot bath. I've been avoiding sleeping on that side. It seemed like it was starting to feel better Saturday night and yesterday but I tried to go for a walk today and I had to cut it short cuz it hurt again. Argh! I may have to visit a doctor but that's usually such a waste of time cuz whenever I go in for something they usually just tell me to do what I'm doing or prescribe a bunch of scarry drugs...which I often don't take because the warnings are so strong...and I usually get better. All the advice I read says to rest, take ibuprofen, moist heat and to give it about six weeks. I sure hope it get's better soon. So does our dog Salsa...she loves to go on walks! I guess she'll have to just stick to treadmill walks for a while. She actually loves the treadmill. When she goes upstairs she always runs to it, hops on and stands there waiting for us to turn it on. So funny and cute! Here's a picture of her cute mug....