Introduction

This blog was created after much encouragement by my husband, David. By profession, I am a registered nurse who works as little as possible. (I currently am supposed to be looking for a job, but am so completely uninspired, thus no job as of yet.) Since having our first child, I have worked only one day a week, and have spent the rest of my time caring for my family and devoting spare moments to numerous projects. At any moment of the day, separate projects can be found in various stages of completion. This has driven my husband nuts until last week, when he decided I should capitalize on my projects by developing a blog site to chronicle my projects. (Does he realize how badly this could backfire?)

Well, I may be project savvy, but I am illiterate with the computer. So THIS is my newest project. -- Blogging. I need silence when I do deep thinking to understand something as complex as a computer, and meaningful wordage for a blog site. And do you think that happens often with a 4-year-old and a 22-month-old? (Currently they are on the porch with David, staring through the window at me and whining. My mind is on "freeze" mode.)

The intent of this site, therefore, is for sharing my latest projects. The projects currently in progress include:

• The flowerbeds. I was a "forced labor" gardener as a child, growing up in Michigan and Maryland. (Really, it wasn't that bad; my parents just decided to grow our own vegetables, and my sister and I were the "lucky" weeders and waterers of up to four gardens at a time. Since that time, I have cultivated a black thumb, killing even cacti.) Now, though, we have a yard that is the bane of all gardeners, in my thinking. We bought the house last August, and I have been working on the inside (another HUGE project) till a few months ago, at which time we discovered just how awful our yard is. Little to no topsoil sits over rocks and clay. (We actually have a 10-foot cliff in our backyard.) Overgrown, dying boxwoods filled in the 3-foot wide, 30-foot long flowerbed area in front of our house, wrapped around the porch, and continued on along the other end of the front of our house. We hated them. So, in true hillbilly fashion, we tied ropes around each one and ripped them out with our car. Now I had to figure out what to do with the dirt. After getting a self-proclaimed degree in horticulture through books and internet study, drawing up multiple plans, visiting every nursery in the area, and uselessly whacking at the clay in the flowerbeds, I decided we needed help. So we called a local nursery and took them up on their offer for a free consultation with design plans included. That was a month ago. We still don't have the plans, and I'm afraid I'm on my own again. Since it was so hard to dig up just the flowerbeds, we decided to use them as vegetable gardens as well as flower gardens. My eventual goal, though, is for an English cottage-style garden. But right now, my tomatoes are at least 3 feet tall, and various perennials, annuals, herbs and shrubs are scattered around. I can't brag on how it looks, but figure that this year is the "research" year, with plans to rearrange the perennials around later, and start some raised gardens (due to the wretched clay) in the side yard next year.
• The house. We've recently concluded a remodeling project of our master bed/bath/closet area. Now facing me are finishing painting some unpainted furniture pieces we bought years ago that are sitting in our garage. (We decided upon moving here that we would not bring any unfinished furniture into our house this time. We hired someone else to paint our bedroom furniture. -- It looks beautiful. -- And I will be painting the hutch and the computer armoire.) Another house project is repainting the main bathroom walls. (We've repainted every room in the house since buying it except this bathroom. I just can't find the motivation to do it.) Trim throughout the house needs to be painted.
• Scrapbooks. I am chronologically over a year behind on this. Right now I have three albums in progress. Two of these are done except for the journaling.
• Sewing. Besides the regular curtain-making, pillow cover-making that I seem to do, David is convincing me to start up a "business" with making my own line of clothes/baby things. I live near an area that has at least 5 week-long consignment sales twice a year for children's clothes/equipment. The sales are awesome! The first time I did it, I sold my kids' clothes and bought new clothes and toys for them for an almost even dollar trade. I am hooked. While at the sales, I discovered beautiful hand-made clothes selling for outrageous prices. I was floored when I was told that the clothes actually sold! So David thinks I should make a few and try my hand at selling them. If they sell, I'll consider making more. My vision is along the lines of Swedish-inspired style.
• Knitting. (I forgot to mention this one.) I taught myself knitting a few years ago, and currently have at least one major project going: A Swedish dress for Emily, by Dalegarn. I love it, but it is taking me SOOO LONG to knit! Maybe it will be Emily's daughter's dress. Or maybe I'll sell it at a consignment sale for 150 dollars. (Are you kidding me? Maybe $1000 after all the hours spent on it!) My favorite find for knitting is anything felted. -- I can make something in a day, which soothes my need for seeing at least one project finished quickly.

So, here's to posting about my projects.