Good Day, Sunshine...

The Beatles' song came to mind as I looked out the window this morning....sunshine, no clouds...looks like it's going to be a beautiful day.  There are lots of things on my "to do" for these four days off...outdoor cleanup, digging, planting, and indoor painting, purging, and upholstering. 

On another note, and something I'm more inclined to do...I found this online while looking for something else (isn't that always the way??)...

It's a mystery stitchery by Brenda Gervais.  If you don't have a local needlework shop, just Google "Birds of A Feather" mystery stitchery.  You'll find lots of online shops offering this project.  I've been feeling the urge to stitch lately...along with the urge to piece a quilt top.  My friend Michelle (MadRedHare) is doing a block of the month feature on her blog, and I've made two of the four blocks assigned.  She just sent out the next two blocks, so I hope to work on those sometime this weekend.  Just before the first of the year, I decided that I wanted to do an embroidery project...a square a day, just like the projects I've read about on OPB's (other people's blogs).  By the end of January, I had my cloth ready...one inch squares drawn 19 x 19 with four squares at the top for the year.  365 blocks.  By the end of February, I had stitched around the borders of maybe 1/3 of the blocks.  I pick it up in spurts, and I'm hoping that by the end of May I'll have all 365 blocks outlined.  My stitch-a-day plan hasn't worked out so far, but there's no reason (like I have concrete "rules" about much of anything?) I can't run my year from June to June. Sounds like a plan...

Better get to work!

Good Day Sunshine artwork via Deviant Art xbooshbabyx

Keep Calm...

Taking a little break from the weather forecasts today to bring up another overexposed news item, and a fond memory of mine.  I'll be watching the Royal Wedding early, early Friday morning;  coverage of the event begins at 3AM in my enchanted neighborhood.  I've tried to avoid other coverage of the upcoming event, but it's hard to avoid since all of the morning news programs have sent staff across the pond to cover the wedding.

I remember the excitement and oh so romantic stories surrounding the wedding of Charles and Diana...at the time I lived in a small courtyard apartment complex.  One of my across-the-courtyard neighbors and I would chat in the parking lot when we were coming or going...and we "bonded" on the royal wedding.  We planned a small but elegant breakfast on the morning of the wedding.  I remember getting up (or perhaps I didn't go to bed--I was "young" then) and cooking...and serving the food on my pale blue and white china.  We watched the wedding and drank mimosas. 

Two vacation days are coming up...at 6PM this afternoon/evening, I'll be officially off for the next four days.  No fancy wedding breakfast is in the works, but I'll be there...in front of the TV drinking coffee and watching the latest fairy tale come to fruition.  I hope happiness is on their agenda.

Photo: Mr. X Stitch

Life along the river...

While I worry about getting my meager "crops" out, there are definitely more serious issues at play in our area...the flood walls went up yesterday along the Ohio River in downtown Evansville.  After the standards are all in place, sheets of aluminum are inserted, providing protection from the rising waters.This photo is from the Evansville Courier Press.

This picture (taken by Johnny Kincaid and posted on the Superhits 105.3 website) is of the Casino Aztar plaza. Water is level with the plaza...and that was before the overnight storms that passed through the area.

Another photo by Johnny Kincaid...of the Dress Plaza area along the riverfront.  What you're not seeing is the seating available under the water.  Pretty scary!

On another note, when the river hits cresting stage in Newburgh, Water Street will be under water.  Maybe it's a good thing that I don't still live in that little cottage!

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Rain...flooding...gloom.   A trifecta of misery.  There was an article in the newspaper this morning calling the upcoming cresting of the rivers "catastrophic"...a word the hydrologist (!!) said she used to "get our attention."  The rain is supposed to stop by Thursday and Friday, only to start again for the weekend and beyond.  Delightful.  This farmerette needs to get her crops in the field...or barrels and other containers.

...and then there's the wedding coming up at the end of the week!  The media already has us on "royal overload" with much, much more to come.  Busy week for lots of people.

Looks like it will be a low-key week for me...three days of work followed by two days of vacation.  Sunshine, please...

Quakin' Tuesday

Stormy weather is on the way to our area today...and this morning we are having an earthquake drill at work.  If I'm folded up under my desk for two minutes, I hope that I will be able to crawl back out and "unbend".  One never knows.

I'm trying to get back into the photography habit again.  Nothing spectacular for sure, but just a record of what's going on around me. 

Manic Monday...time for a cuppa tea

Busy, busy day at work today.  I'm so glad I had the chance to play in the dirt yesterday.  I checked my plants in the front window before work this morning...and I swear the one tomato plant and my zucchini grew over an inch today.  Sure would be nice to keep them where they are...maybe make a viney curtain!  I'll probably put them in containers outside this weekend if the weather looks good.  So far, the 10-day is looking pretty nasty...and isn't there a saying that if it rains on Easter Sunday it will rain for the next 7 Sundays?

I've been slowly making my way through Mary's Mosaic Monday participants.  So many lovely pictures and mosaics.  I love blogland!  Now it's time to organize myself for tomorrow morning, and then sit back and enjoy a cup of Constant Comment. 

How I Spent My Sunday...

It's a beautiful day today...so unlike yesterday.  Yesterday I was content to just cocoon and stay under the radar...flipping through books I've brought home from the library (pretty good ones, too...The Jewelry Architect, Potted Gardens, Garden Whimsy, Home Herbal, Cooking in the Moment, DIY Projects for the Self-Sufficient Homeowner, The Kitchen Garden Cookbook, and my new favorite The One-Block Feast).  The One-Block Feast has a blog on the Sunset Magazine website and can be found here.

 I can't wait until our Farmer's Market and Locals Only Market start up for the season.  This year I'll  be doing some "farming" in the backyard, too.  I currently have quite a crop growing in my front window...parsleys, sage, rosemary, oregano, tomatoes and zucchini.  I purchased a two-part galvanized laundry sink at the antique/flea market in Owensboro a few weeks ago and that will house my herb and lettuce gardens.

My three small things for today:  (listed before the day actually started)

• Finish getting the sunporch ready for the season
• Move the galvanized "planter" from the dining room to the garden area
• Sow lettuce seeds

And as they say on TV, here's what really happened:

• Transplanted the sage, small tomato plants, Irish moss, Rabbit's foot fern, and sedum;  moved them to the sunporch.
• Planted the pelletized seed I purchased from Cook's Garden.  Soon (within 3 weeks, or so they say...) I'll have pots of lettuce looking like this:

So the galvanized planter is still residing in the dining room "warehouse", and although I spent some time sprucing the sunporch, it's far from ready for spring and summer enjoyment.  Since I ended up with a fresh new mosaic, I've joined the Little Red House link party hosted by Mary.  Visit & enjoy!

With the 10-day forecast looking mostly like warmth, storms, and clouds, I'll have plenty of time to finish painting and doing other inside things.  Carpe diem.

Projects Started...barely

This is what started it all...the settee sitting out in the snow awaiting pickup by the trashmen. I pulled it down the street, turned it end over end up my stairs, and left it in my entryway (on top of a plastic dropcloth) to dry out.  The scent wasn't overly pleasant as it dried, so I sprinkled a bit of Carpet Fresh Linen scent on it.  Two months later, it sits in my dining room...alongside a bolt of Waverly Rose Fairhaven.

A more recently started but definitely not finished project is painting the living room.  I've spackeled all nail holes and so far have just painted above the mantel...Martha Stewart Tobacco Leaf.  At this rate, it will take a month to finish the room. 

I will say that I've been much busier at work in the last month or so.  I've been promoted (yay me!!) to an Outreach & Programming position at a (very) small branch of the library.  It's still really close to my home, but it is so very different from what I'm used to.  The branch is just beautiful...it's a Carnegie library, nearly 100 years old, and it sits alongside a park in an urban residential area.  The building was remodeled a few years ago and they did a wonderful job. 

Got to get busy...lots to accomplish.  By the way...what favorite programs does your public library offer?  Let me know...

A Saturday in April...

via Flickr

 Long time, no see...I've been around, reading blogs via Google Reader mostly.  One of my new favorite things to do is play on Pinterest.  It's an amazing, visually stimulating, and get-your-creative-juices-flowing kind of place.  The photos on this post are all cool pics I've found on Pinterest...they're on my pinboard there, under Discard to Decor...also a new favorite thing for me lately. Seems I've been trash picking a lot lately...it's not that I want or need any furniture, but it kills me to see perfectly good "trash" waiting for the landfill.  So far, I've acquired a cute little French camelback settee, a headboard, and a side table...and a few other small items. My dining room is looking more like a furniture repair shop than a dining room.   

 I know that the Paris Flea Market Star is from the Connecting Threads catalog.  There's a free download here for the pattern.  I just love those pastels!

 This is a cool memo board.  A tutorial for this project is here at Shabby Garden Creations.

 I love this sunny little dining nook.  So springy...this one's from Flea Market Trixie.  You will love her style.

From Flickr via Jamaica Byles blog

 I don't know that I'd ever paint anything this big pink, but I love this picture!  Prim and farmstyle.

Rubie's Place Vintage Locker Basket tutorial

Locker baskets and burlap...it just doesn't get any better.