summer – Page 2

Tour de Fleece and such

July 4, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Sunday, we spent a good portion of the day cleaning the house. Literally. When I put my new furniture out I realized how awful and dirty the siding and trim was, so I grabbed a bucket and some soap and scrubbed the whole thing down.

A smarter person would have just rented a power washer… I am not smart, sometimes.

But the porch looks a thousand times better and cleaner. I bought some lanterns at Joanns that were 70% off, and I think I’m going to hang them above the table to give some nice lighting once it starts getting darker earlier.

Tour de Fleece began on the 1st, and while I missed out on spinning on Saturday I’ve been making up for it the rest of the weekend. I finished a bobbin of some teal that was in progress on Sunday, and then Monday I spent part of my morning spinning the other half on the porch. I’m working on my long draw method to get faster singles. Normally I’ve been an inchworm, pulling small amounts of fiber out of the fluff inch by inch to keep my yarn somewhat consistent. But this puts a strain on my wrists and takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. The long draw thing lets me just kind of pull my whole arm backward and let the twisting single do a lot of the work. Much faster.

I probably won’t spin every single day of the tour, but I like that it gives me a push to use my wheel more. I’ve actually considered getting rid of my wheel – I messaged the girls in my knit group to see if anyone wanted to somewhat semi-permanently borrow it. The thing had sat for almost a year without being used and I saw no end to the perpetual fight with the kid over getting time to myself to use it. Thankfully, my lovely friends talked me out of it, and (also thankfully) I’ve tried to start forcing “me” time to spin. Now if I can just get someone to force me to knit the yarn I spin up… it’s all so pretty in the skein and no pattern ever seems worthy of it. Which is silly, of course, because #1, I can always make more yarn and #2, there will always be a better pattern to come along that I’ll later wish I had made and #3, life is too short to make things and then not enjoy them. So that’s the next thing I need to start working on.

Little things

July 2, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

New porch set. Wine. Knitting. The breeze. Fresh berries to snack on right next to me.

Peach Jam

June 29, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago the Peach Truck, as it is known, was supposed to visit our town. My best friend and I agreed to buy a box and split it, and when her husband went to buy them for us we were sorely disappointed to learn the truck broke down and wouldn’t be visiting our area at all. I had everything planned out to make – pie, jam, grilled with some pork… all of those plans were over.

Today at the local farmers market was a vendor who had Georgia peaches. And even getting there right around opening time the large boxes were still sold before I got to them. So, $10 later, I came home with about 10 really large, crazy delicious peaches. 7 of them are getting turned into small batch jam (salted brown sugar and sriracha, both from “Preserving by the Pint”), the kid and I ate one, and there is just two left. Maybe I’ll grill those.

It feels really good to be in the kitchen and doing what I used to love. I’m trying lately to really make an effort to not let the kid prevent me from, well, being me. It’s so easy to say “I can’t do that anymore because he always makes it harder” but he is getting better about things. And if I don’t take time out to do the things I love then I’m going to be a batshitcrazy nightmare to be around (which I’ve totally been these last few days). Also, the tv makes an excellent babysitter when need be, and any parent who says otherwise is lying. :)

A little garden after all

May 29, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

So we put a garden out after all. I told myself multiple times that I wasn’t doing it this year. It’s too much to manage with the kid and work and everything else. And then, when it came down to it, Mother’s Day – our usual planting weekend – came and went and things felt off. It didn’t feel right not having a garden. I mentioned as much to the Mr, and with a knowing sigh he just kind of looked at me and said “I’ll get the boxes out of the garage.”

We broke up the dirt in the old spots where the boxes used to be, and then stacked the extras on top to make them deeper this year. Well, the guys did – I sat on the porch drinking a beer :) Today we visited Lowes to buy plenty of potting soil to replenish the nutrients in the soil that we’ve neglected the last two years, along with plants since we didn’t plan on a garden to get seeds started. 3 tomatoes, 2 peppers, an eggplant, kale, and zucchini. I bought some herbs from one of the local school fundraisers, which were half dead by the time I planted them, but I’m hoping they come back now that they’ve got some proper soil to grow in. We planted carrots and radishes, too, just so Declan can watch something grow from seed out there. We potted some Strawberries on Sunday, too – I don’t generally have much luck with them, but Declan LOVES to eat berries so we’re trying them yet again. Raspberries are growing, too, and I’m determined this year to actually use my HopTop for at least one small batch of something boozy.

We bought a new grill this weekend, invited the stepson and his family up (that’s the grandbaby with the big pretty eyes – still weird that I’m 32 and a grandma), and made some damn delicious chicken thighs on it. I tried to gussy up the patio a bit to make it cozy, though the birds just poop everywhere so most of the pretty things are temporary items. Tablecloth that can be washed, items that get brought inside after we’re done, etc. How on earth do people keep outdoor furniture clean?! I feel like every time I want to use the table I have to wash the whole thing down – there’s no popping outside and just hanging out back there. Maybe because our patio is covered so the dust just collects without any rain to wash it off? I don’t even know. I’m working on finding some cute things to hang up on the side of the house to decorate a bit more. Maybe a cute wood wall hanging/sign painted to look like a barn quilt square? Hmmmm…

Two.

August 7, 2016 Marie 1 Comment

In just a few hours, as we all slumber, the Little Mr turns two. I’d ask where the time has gone, but I have spent the last 3 days snuggling my sick child and know exactly where it went: it went in tears and laughs. It went in bath times and pool days. It went in messy grocery store scenes and fights to stay in seats at restaurants. It went in the bazillion times we read the same books over and over, and the happy messes we made in the kitchen making pancakes or baking cakes. It went with tantrums and snuggles. With gardens and dirt and feeding chickens in his “turtle power” boots. With “knitting” and helping decide which squares of fabric should go where on my in-progress quilt. With tearing apart my craft room but not being able to be too mad because he’s learning hands-on even though it’s a huge pain to re-fold fabric or pick up beads that were dropped (or impossible-to-find empty sewing machine bobbins).

Another year has gone by. I started my day off complaining about my cake. It wasn’t perfect like my Pinterest “inspiration” photo. It wasn’t tall enough. The icing wasn’t thick enough. The layers didn’t bake flat enough because my floors are uneven. I spent my weekend snuggling a poor, sick little one who wanted to be in my arms 24/7. I spent a sleepless night snuggling this child in bed because he wouldn’t sleep anywhere else. I wished for a drink before noon at least two out of the 3 days because the clingyness is too much for this introverted mama with a low touch quota. And then I took the photos of the party and immediately regretted it – I prefer my own eye for photos, but trying to mother and adjust the camera for photos doesn’t work and I should have just left the job to the husband and and and….

But none of that matters, because tomorrow my baby wakes up and is suddenly 2 years old and it all suddenly feels like it’s too fast. It was a year, but it wasn’t enough time. I didn’t get enough snuggles, enough fun days together, enough books to read repeatedly. It’s all much too fast. Much, much too fast.