Tired, But Drinking Tea

I just spent one of the longest "school days" of my life substitute teaching for a fourth grade class. I took the job last second without much thought. These kids were fine one-on-one, pretty sweet actually, but as a group they gave me a run for my money - literally. You can tell a ton about a teacher by the way her student's behave when she is not there, and this teacher has definitely got her hands full. If I were her I'd probably take the Friday before a 3-day weekend off too, I'd need the rest from that group of darlings. I was glad when the bell rang to let the students out for the day, it couldn't happen soon enough. So now I'm catching my breath, marginally helping the husband prepare dinner (steak fajitas), and allowing myself to sit down for a cup of tea. Tea has become a recent habit [again] for me. There's something soothing about a warm cup of tea. I'm also trying to not talk myself about hitting a Zumba class tonight with my neighbor...even though I'm tired, I need the exercise after a day like today. So thank goodness it's Friday and thank goodness I'm not that 4th grade teacher!

Fig: Bird Watchin'

Because it's been a few weeks since I shared a gratuitous Figaro picture...
***
Happy Thursday to you!

Mom's Flower

My mom occasionally takes pictures of flowers and sends the pictures to me in emails. It makes me smile when I see one. I don't usually remember to say thank you or tell her that I like the picture. I'm not sure why, it would take less than a minute. *Thanks Mom, the iris is beautiful, it made me smile.*

Project Beginnings

Last August I saw a project on one of the blogs I like to keep up with, Soule Mama. It was actually a project from a craft book written by the author of the blog, Amanda Soule. While I haven't actually purchased any of Amanda Soule's lovely books yet, the project that Amanda featured on one day in particular on her blog has been bouncing around the creative region of my brain ever since. It is a quilt made from vintage sheets. I've actually started a quilt made from some thrifted and repurposed material, I had not mentioned it on this blog yet, but I haven't taken any good pictures of it yet. When I get a bit further I will do a little show and tell.I think reading that Soule Mama post made me think back on the funky patterned sheets I slept on when I visited my Oma's house as a child. You know, the sheets people had in the 60's and 70's with the fabulous floral prints in fun funky colors. I actually am a little regretful that I didn't think to save the sheets and textiles she'd owned when she passed away several years ago. It would have been special to turn them into something I could use in my life now.Instead, I've been inspired lately to collect these types of sheets when I am out at thrift stores. I have brought home several sheets now, of course when I bring them home they go straight through the washer with the water set to hot.
Another reason that I have wanted to carry out this quilt idea that's been floating around in my head is because for almost the last year I have been slowly collecting bits of fabric here and there, in local fabric stores and in other parts of the world. The goal is to eventually turn my collection into a king sized quilt for our master bed. I love the duvet cover that we are currently using, it is very elegant, but I want to lengthen it's life a bit by having an alternate covering. Also, it is a bit heavy in the warmer months of the year and I'd like to have something a bit more bright and fun once spring and summer roll around. So my goal is to practice some quilting skills using the thrifteds sheets I've collected, so I can feel a bit more confident about the quilting process when I begin to cut into these fabrics that mean more to me. It would be nice to have one or two thrifted quilts finished by the beginning of March so I could then start working on our master bedroom quilt in the spring...we'll see if that can happen though, it may be too much of a push. Then again, I guess I could suprise myself and finish it all with ease. We'll see!

Dreary and Dark with a Little Bloom

Today was one of those classic dark, dreary, soggy Pacific Northwest kinds of days. The weather outside didn't help that I was already feeling kind of tired, or that I had to get up early for a substitute job. There's something wrong with arriving to work when it is still dark outside...at least there was still a bit of daylight when I got home this afternoon. Enough to let Bam out of his kennel so the two of us could go visit the chickens, throw them some corn scratch and check for eggs. One piece of the "bright side" was going into my greenhouse for a moment, it's where I've been storing the corn scratch. Rain was coming down in a sprinkle and I stopped for a little while to listen to the sound of the drops on the greenhouse roof. It is a happy sound for me. I spent every moment I could out in that greenhouse during the first long grey winter and spring I spent in the Pacific Northwest. That year even locals who'd been here for decades were talking about the never ending rain and grey skies, it was a particularly gloomy winter and spring. The greenhouse was my retreat, my happy place during that time. That sound of rain drops was part of what was then a new life for me, a life that I was trying to find my place in. Today that sound made me think of how far I've come in a few short years. I feel grateful for the fact that I've gone from feeling like an outsider that doesn't belong, an "extra" in my husband's life, to feeling like a true local, someone that belongs here, someone that loves living here, someone who has made dear friends in this area.

So where are the sunshine and crisp days of last week? When I came into the house from my garden, I continued looking for the "bright side" and found a bit more of it in my kitchen window. The hyacinths bulbs that found their way from my Christmas stocking to this bulb vase have begun to bloom. I thought I remembered forcing some hyacinth bulbs about a year ago but wasn't sure until I went back through some of my first blog posts and found this one.

It's interesting to me to see how my blogging "style" has evolved over this past *almost* year. I hadn't done much pleasure writing for many years before I started this blog. Journaling had been an on-again-off-again habit a long time ago, but it never really felt completely like me - at least not enough to keep me writing for any extended period of time. So this blog has been a good way for me to grow as a writer (not than I fancy myself to truly be "a writer", just someone who likes to put down a few words on a semi-daily basis...) It has felt a bit awkward at times to try to find my writing voice, sometimes when I try to put thoughts into written words it just doesn't come out right. But, it has become easier with each post.

I mentioned a celebratory give-away back before New Year's to mark my 200th post, and even though I'm now somewhere close to the 220's, I haven't forgotton...the idea is still rolling around in my brain. I'm not promising when, but soon I'll make something happen there.

Hope your week is off to a good start, Happy Monday!

Laundry Day

There is something refreshing about laundry day. It's not that I like the chore aspect of it, I just like having lots of options. Sometimes when all of my clothes are freshly laundered I feel like I just went on a shopping spree. This time it was the colors of my tank tops all hung together that caught my eye. It was so pretty that I stopped what I was doing to get my camera.

Spring Sneak Peek

In the last day or so everytime I glance at a weather report it seems as though it is all news about the extreme snow blizzards, wind and cold happening in the midwest and on the east coast. For the last day or so we in western WA have been lucky enough to have a break from our usual winter rain and have had some pretty nice weather.

I think this tends to happen in January on the west coast. As far back as college I have memories of it being very pretty for a week or two during the month of January. In college I lived in San Luis Obispo, which is about a 15 minute drive from Pismo Beach and Avila Beach. I remember right after the winter quarter had begun I would sometimes head to the beach in January to do homework and study while sitting in the sun and enjoying the sand and sound of waves. I would even wear shorts and flip flops with a light hooded sweatshirt. Washington hasn't quite had the warmer temperatures, but it has had the sunshine. I have to remind myself on these sunny winter days to enjoy and appreciate being able to go outside. In the last few years we seem to have hit a pattern of spending a few scattered days outside in the winter when it gets pretty like this. Usually the days are spent on some kind of outside project. I always find these work days to be so refreshing. I know that there is still several more months of grey overcast skies and seemingly non-stop rain, but getting outside on the sunny days makes it more manageable. The husband and I took advantage of just such a day yesterday by spending a good chunk of time on a few outside projects. One such project was to start laying a new pathway from our driveway to Bambino's kennel. We already had the flagstones and the gravel is pretty inexpensive if bought by the yard (or half yard in this case). This area can get kind of soggy at times, so a path will be nice for keeping our shoes dry and mud free. Eventually grass will grow up through the gravel between the flagstones.Another item I was able to cross off the never ending to-do list was clearing the dead plant stocks and vines from the flower bed on the side of our house. This area is beautiful once spring hits, lots of blooms. The cosmos I planted a few years ago are actually just starting to peak out of the ground. I love those first little bits of spring!

The last project that I thought I'd tell you about was one that was entirely done by the husband. My only part in removing a large and deeply rooted stump in our vegetable garden was standing by for a bit and snapping some pictures. It was actually pretty amazing to watch him use the excavator on his tractor to dig this thing out of the ground. It was in the area near where our chickens were until just recently. I say this because another project we accomplished yesterday was moving our poultry to a new and improved area of their own in the garden. I plan to share more about this in a day or so...it deserves a post of it's own.

Well, whether it's freezing where you're at or if you're lucky enough to be getting a little bit of nice(ish) weather, I do hope your week is ending well!