I'm Back

Wow. My last post was February 7th. That's just sad.  But not because I don't want to blog anymore.  I've just been incredibly BUSY.  My June wedding is fast approaching so I really have to use every ounce of free time wisely and, unfortunately, blogging has taken a seat in the way-back.

(When I was a kid, my family had a station wagon and the coveted seats were in the very back.  And they faced backwards.  You could do all kinds of screwing around back there and Dad couldn't see a thing. It was great!).

So, here's a summary of some of my business:  In the last two months I have been:

Working on carving out some of this mess here - -

 - - into some space for The Conductor to move his things into once we're married.

I planned and hosted a baby shower for my sister.  We did a "First Lady" theme since she was expecting the first girl in our family.  Princesses are SO overdone, if you ask me.

I also welcomed my new niece, Vee.

I went with The Conductor to the wedding of a good friend of his.  Isn't her dress pretty?  She wore her late mother's headpiece, too.  I'm so jealous of them - they live in a city (Grand Rapids, MI), but they get to have chickens!!!



 Isn't her tablescape pretty?  The plant in the glass vase next to the name tag was our party favor. It's an air plant which I've never heard of.  But they really do live just on air.  They don't need water or dirt.  Crazy cool!

Speaking of plants, I've started a bunch of seedlings.  I'm trying not to plant anything that will need much attention come late June since I'll be getting married and honeymooning than.  Most of what I'm starting are flowers and herbs that won't really need me or things that can stay underground for a good long time.

And I've been working like mad doing my wedding stuff.  I'm doing a lot of DIY type things but we're moving at a good clip.  We also finished one of the two classes required by our church.  The first one is a survey to see if both of us are on the same wavelength.  Except for a few "no big deal" kind of differences, we really are in focus. 

So much so, that we can predict the punchlines of each other's lame jokes. 

I'm also working feverishly on making my own dress.  Sewing it will be a breeze.  The hardest part is finalizing the design.  Essentially, anything I see, I could conceivably "do".  So, I can take the neckline from one, the bodice from another, the sleeves from that one, a sash here, a train there, a ruffle from that one, an overlay from over there....and before you know it, I'll have the tackiest dress ever.  It's been hard to edit but I think I'm there.  In the meantime, the petticoat is coming along nicely. 

And, as if I don't have enough on my plate, I had a terrifying encounter with this:

I know....I'm a gardener.  I garden barefoot where bugs are.  I pick plants that have bugs on them.  I've brought produce inside and found bugs on it. 

Bugs are a part of life. 

BUT NOT WHEN THEY'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR SEWING ROOM FLOOR. 

Yea.  This thing was just.....there....on the middle of the floor.  I have no idea where he came from.  It's still wintery here so there were no windows open or anything.  I don't bring food in there.  Where he came from and where he was going, I have no idea. 

Look at him!  As big as a bobbin.  I am not kidding when I say I spent the next three hours freaking out that he was in there because he's the kind of worm that likes to eat fabric. 

I can handle bugs of any kind in any situation - - but not near my fabric stash.  Ugh!

Anyway, I did get a few more projects done which I will hopefully post about soon.  I'm here, my dear 12 followers!  I've just been crazy busy!

Special Delivery

It's my birthday week so I've taken off work through Memorial Day.  Yippee!  One of my favorite birthdays ever was my 8th birthday.  My mom gave me the book Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  I must've read that book at least  a dozen times. 

I always thought Wilber was kind of selfish.  Charlotte the spider works like heck weaving those amazing words into her web to save his bacon-y behind and then he gets mad when she goes off for a break.  Her break was actually to have her spider babies which she had to die to do, as is often the case in nature.  And Wilber never seems to regret that he didn't thank her for saving him.  He doesn't even seem all that amazed that she had babies.  It never even occurred to him that she might want to do something for herself for a change.  That always bugged me. 

Anyway, that's not the point of this post.  The point is, I went to check my mail today and saw something odd on the side of my mailbox. 

Weird, huh? I had to take a closer look. Only because I love my mailbox. I found it on the side of the road not long after I bought my house. It was red on a grey post so I repainted the box white and the post blue.

I even hand painted my last name in ants:

And my house number in ladybugs:.

So the fact that something was clinging to the side irked me. The ladybugs and ants were for pure whimsy.  But it was kind of ironic that, upon closer inspection I found this:

Yep!  That's a whole cluster of spider babies!  I like spiders but not that many and not all at once.  Time for a good wash down.  Sorry, Charlotte.....