You know spring is definitely in the air here. The crocuses are out, the tulips are poking up their heads, and the sun is warm. I spent the day in the garden, mostly pulling out dead things, cleaning out beds a bit, and thinking about plans.
Why is it that when I am already inundated with projects, I start thinking up new projects? I want to revive the vegetable garden this year, and it has been several years since it was allowed to go to seed. Much work will be involved in clearing out the native flora and I still have flower beds to build in the front yard that did not get done last year. Everything is piled up in the house still, I am waiting for the masons to come back and there is much work to be done.
Still I sat there in the sunshine, looking at the empty vegetable garden, contemplating the raised beds, which are by the way falling apart, and, in my normal perverse way, I started thinking that if I have to rebuild the raised beds, I might as well redesign the garden so it is more attractive and will work better. Admittedly this has been in the back of my mind for some time but before it was Waaaay back and now it has come to the forefront. Do I have time to do this? No. Can I do this and get all the spring vegetables planted? No. Can I plant some areas now, and gradually work toward them? Unlikely, but possible.
Will I actually get any of this accomplished this spring? Who knows but probably not.
I guess I am an all or nothing kind of girl.
Because it is spring I have also been thnking of sewing. I have been dreaming of sewing. I am eager to resume sewing. I have the machines back in the sewing room but I have not drilled the holes through the counter top so that I can plug them in. There are three reasons for this:
1. If I plug in the machines I will not work my way through the 3 foot pile of desk work which must be done, including the sorting of income tax stuff before the accountant comes on Friday.
2. The demolition crew has been cutting and breaking up the concrete around the pool, which is attached to the foundation of the house. I knew my house was not air-tight, but I did not anticipate the clouds of dust that fill the air and coat every surface. a dust mask is not adequate walking through the house, G’s old gas mask might work but I don’t think it functions anymore. The sewing room is blocked off, doors closed, towels at door. When I am not outside, breathing in fresh air, I am holed up in here working. I was loathe to cut holes in the counter tops and create more dust in my only dust free zone.
3. I put a shelf back on the wall above the desk to hold all the stuff I need right now but haven’t yet figured how to store. I saved the wall above the desk for last in my plan; its the area that accomodates all the things that didn’t work or fit in the original plan and I haven’t gotten to it yet. BUT to get the hole saw on the drill I need more space than currently exists beween the desk and the shelf, so I have to take everything down. Short sighted don’t you think? Of course I could just leave all the cords hanging off the front of the desk.
So I am playing with fabric and notions.
The thread collection is back in its cabinet. I think the threads look so pretty lined up in their drawers:
Notice that although I can be neurotic about keeping things neatly in drawers, I do not sort the thread by color, just by type. Those who have seen me stack the forks neatly on top of each other in the drawer might marvel at this.
I buy the Mettler serger thread once a year as no one locally carries it. My older babylock serger runs much more smoothly with Mettler and I prefer the way it looks on the seam. I am pretty efficient at rethreading the old machine (the new one is self threading), but even so I can only contort myself under that machine so many times before all the blood rushes to my head and I get a little crazed. Its pretty too; notice that it is sorted by color.
And because "three’s a charm" and I know your are all sick of thread by now, here is one of the little drawers in the cabinet which forms Matilda’s legs. Perfect for woolly nylon, which does not fit in my thread cabinet because the spools are too fat for the shallow drawers.