Such a Good Weekend!

This has been a very rewarding long weekend. The weather was beautiful. Hot, but not as muggy as it could have been.



It actually started Thursday evening. A last minute trip to the library got me books to read and this lovely flower from the librarian. I forgot what she said it was, and don't you love my vase. It's beauty was gone by morning but what a glamorous addition to my kitchen window for a while.



Ribs, burgers, and hot dogs off the grill and last night my good friend Jackie came by and brought me yellow squash from her garden and cold watermelon all cut up and ready to eat. Ohhhh it was so sweet. And fireworks (on tv..no mosquitos!)

And I kept myself quite happily entertained. I finished repotting the houseplants and they are all happily back in their places except for one. The Norfolk pine had to go up a size in pot and once it was all done, I discovered that it's too heavy for me to carry. So it's in a shady place on the patio. It's really too broad for my little house, so I'm sure it's happy spreading it's branches. This ivy was so twisted and tangled around it's support. And then I discovered that the support was actually broken off at soil level.



What to do? I rummaged around in the garage and chose an old fence picket; cut it off and put push pins in as guides and now it's much neater and it can spread out a bit in it's bigger pot.



I put supports around my baby tomato plants. They are volunteers that came up in the pot of zinnias and now have a home of their own. They are way off schedule since they didn't sprout until everyone else had big plants. But maybe by fall I'll have a tomato. And who knows what it will be since it won't be the same as the Romas of last year. A mystery!



There was more shrub trimming. I can't do it for long at a time, but each morning of this weekend, I've been out early and did a bit.

Inside, I dyed up some little pieces of an old canvas drop cloth for a project that's still sort of in the planning. I think it will need some adjustment as they shrunk a bit in the hot dye water. Once again, I didn't read until the end of the instructions on the dye packet and so once they were all in the dye water I discovered that I was supposed to have added salt. OK I did...just not how they had directed. And I'm thinking that contributed to the mottled effect. Which is just super because that's how I wanted it. I wadded up some of the pieces after they'd gotten wet and it made for some nice marks. But ye gods, it took a long time to get clear water when I rinsed them. Finally used some Synthrapol. That worked well and I think I'll try it on some yarn I dyed years ago that wants to rub off on everything. Can't use it the way it is, that's for sure.





There was lazy time spent reading while sprawled across the bed with the fan blowing on me. Note the goofy bookmark. It was an experiment to see if I could get sharp marks with a Sharpie on some more of the canvas. Uh nope. It tends to bleed out a bit. Will have to rethink another project. Maybe a paint pen?



Today is about washing the bedroom curtains and starting to sew a sundress with my new (as of December) sewing machine. I did get it threaded without much difficulty! Yay! Haven't quite managed anything other than straight stitching but it's a start. And oh my, it's so quiet!



And, of course, my new delicious yarn!

It's been such a good mix of friends and projects and getting things done and being lazy. I could really get used to this!

So, what did you do on this gift of a 3 day weekend?