In the Garden, and Repurposed Clothes

1.) The Garden 

Apparently I ascribe to the "hot mess" school of gardening. 

 There's lots of veggie plants, but there's also a lot of grass and a lot of cantaloupe plants scattered about randomly for some reason. 

It's being productive though,  and I really think it's one of my favorite places on Earth to be right now. There's just something really satisfying about being out there, harvesting food, and seeing the wildlife (buggy and otherwise...I've seen some pretty cool birds and lizards) that make it their home. 

2.) The cat 

We have a colony of cats (a momma cat and her first litter, all spayed and neutered, and a couple random strays that found us somehow) that live under our house and keep the rat population in check. 

The original mama cat, Corrie, is pretty friendly. 

Um... despite the look on her face. 

She's cuddly, I promise. 

Why you take picture, hooman? 

3.) Fruit of the Vine 

The previous owners planted a grape vine by the front porch. We've never really gotten more than a small handful of grapes from it. 

This past winter I trimmed it back. 

And hoo boy, suddenly all those parables about pruning grapevines make sense. 

We've got three or four bunches instead of the usual scant one, and they're pretty tasty. Much smaller than store bought grapes, but they're tasty, low work, and free. Not enough to make jelly or wine with, but the kids have gotten a snack or two out of them. 

4.) A Tractor Hat 

I can't help but feel that having your husband use your bed as a work area to put together a tractor bonnet is some sort of milestone. 

I don't know what sort of milestone. But...a line or goal somewhere, somehow, has been reached. 

It looks pretty good on the tractor too, and now he can work on it on sunny days without turning into a lobster. 

5.)  Repurposed rags 

Regular readers already know that I like to sew, but I also have a weird obsession with trying to make kids clothes out of clothing we already have lying around the house. That's been coming out in spades lately. 

This first project is sort of low hanging fruit in that the shirt was already made, and made kid sized. All I did was cover up some badly mended (I'm still learning, lol) holes and a couple stains with some iron on adhesive patches and fabric paint. 

The patches were made from cloth scraps given to me by my mom, iron on adhesive from my grandmother, and fabric paint from the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. 

(Did you know both Tractor Supply and Hobby Lobby have clearance sections?! Life changing information right there). 

The second one is a bit more legitimately scavenged -- a child skirt made with an old nightgown. 

The top of the gown was so threadbare that it was almost translucent, but the bottom still had some wear in it. I cut off the top, sewed a big rolled hem at the cut part, threaded elastic through it,  and ended up with a skirt little girl likes and I think will wear. 

I've also made a child skirt out of a disliked pillowcase dress in much the same way.  Turns out elastic is a pretty good addition to my sewing kit. 

6.) Green Beans

This is the first time we've ever grown enough green beans to can. 

Granted, it's only two quarts so far, but I'm still pretty excited about it. Much as I like pickles and jelly, they're fairly limited in application. I'm glad to be branching out a bit to boring ol' canned veggies. Much easier to work into meals. 

We're also hoping to can tomatoes this year. I'll keep you posted on that. 

7.) A Little Princess 

We've been listening to A Little Princess on audiobook in the car while we wait to pick up Little Boy from school. I had not realized how much that particular story had sunk into my bones until I heard it again as an adult.

To be fair, the version of the story that was so meaningful to me was the 1995 movie  directed by Alfonso Curon (the same guy who directed Children of Men, Gravity, and Roma. Children of Men is also one of my favorite movies, though it's VERY different). I can't recommend it highly enough. 

 Belief in goodness, in one's ability to be good and to maintain dignity and remember the dignity of others, even in the face of hardship and cruelty...gosh, that's needed. There's been some things going on in my life (things too personal to write about here) in my life lately that made that message one I needed to be reminded of. 

Stories are so important. I didn't realize how important they were to me, and to becoming who I am now and in living though what I've lived through until I looked back at those times. 

All this to say, I feel like my strange habit of critiquing and having very strong opinions on children's media is justified. 

And that is what's fit to print.