Cook Outs, Frosty Drinks, and Gardening!

It's finally the season for it.  After a very cold spring we are now enjoying fine weather (actually, at times, too hot, and very abruptly too).  Here's what we've been up to:

Paul manning the grill.

Our drinks: Sgroppino (Italian cocktail). Giada de Laurentiis' recipe here.

Hummingbird Garden plants, ready to be planted.

A New Tea Kettle

The old one bit the dust.  But I just love the new one!  It has one-touch controls for the different temperatures for the different types of teas.  And it will keep the water warm for a half hour.  This will make my Tea Lady gatherings much easier!

Barbara's Surprise Party

My nephew planned a special birthday surprise for my sister Barbara.  And she was surprised!  It was a lovely party.

Completely surprised!

Happy Barbara

Delicious cake for a landmark occasion

Robert Off to the Prom

Preparing To Sew

I am finally getting some time, motivation, and inspiration to sew again.  I have decided not to pressure myself, just take it as it comes.  Before I began though, I had some tidying up to do.  As you may recall, I had done an enormous organization of my sewing stash (see here and here).  Over the past year however, small things have gotten misplaced or not re-homed.  So I had my Current Projects basket filled to the brim with stuff.  I wanted very much to begin cutting out Past Patterns 108: Four Edwardian Corset Covers, which I had traced in my size, mapped embroidery for, and in general figured out the best way to proceed with this.  But I couldn't stand the bit of chaos in the basket, as well as spools of thread not put away, and other notions, purchased but not put into their boxes.  There was also mending that has been needed to be done for months.

Here's what I did:

1. Unearthed my sewing machine table from under a pile of papers that had ended up on top of it.
2. Gathered all of the corset making supplies lying here and there and put them back in the corset-making box (more on my decision to not make my own corset in an upcoming post).
3. Gathered all patterns lying about (some are new e-Bay finds), determined how many new file folders I would need to get them properly put away, realized I was all out of folders, later went to Office Depot for a new box.
4. Put all spools of thread away.  Then, in a completely disturbing fashion, proceeded to sort the thread into color families AND to put them in order of Roy G. Biv (spectrum of colors: reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, violets), plus my row of pinks, grays, browns, blacks, and whites.  
5. Put away the notions.  While I did this I got out the notions I would actually need for starting my project (tracing wheels and paper, scissors, tape measure, embroidery supplies).  
6. Mopped the area around my sewing machine.
7. Mended Kristin's pants, a kitchen towel, and then turned two pair of Tyler's school pants (that were hopelessly torn at the knees) into school shorts, just in time for warm weather!

Of course, after all of this there was no time left to actually sew, but I am pleased that all is tidy now.  It seems to clear my head.  While at Office Depot, I also realized that if I bought a bigger box, I could put all of my machine embroidery supplies, including the embroidery arm, in one easy place.  I will need to lay all out to get a good measurement for the perfect sized box.  

I hope to have some corset-cover-making photos soon.

Scenes From Springtime

Here are a few recent photos of what we have been up to this spring.

Easter Sunday: Tyler, Robert, Kristin, Paul, Celeste (Julie is missing, but was very lucky to be in Florida!)

Lilacs from our garden - they smelled heavenly!

A recent fondue supper - a favorite for our family, even Tyler!

Easter Harp

At last I have found it - my harp piece for Easter Sunday! I had my Holy Thursday and Good Friday pieces figured out, but was stumped as to what to play for Easter Sunday. I wanted it to be pretty and happy, not necessarily flashy. My teacher had given me a book to try out a couple of weeks ago. I had penciled in some notes on the ones I liked. This one got the review of "gorgeous". So while searching through stacks of music (still stacks of music, as I have not yet done my organizing of it) for something to play, (rather frantically I must admit as time is of the essence here), I came across this book again. I saw my review at the top of the page, tried it out, and remembered why I gave it that review. Perfect! Even the name is appropriate. I have one week to learn it well and get it to performance level. But it is so pretty I won't mind hearing it over and over again every day as I practice it during Holy Week.

To the harpists out there: the book is The Dawning of The Day, arrangements by Laurie Rasmussen, published by Lorelei Music (may be out of print).