This and That

This has been a strange week. My poor husband was quite ill Friday and Saturday, then had a biking accident Monday (he's okay now, though still in pain). Then I spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday with whatever illness my husband had. And truly the effects lingered until this morning.

The big greenhouse at Frederik Meijer Gardens

Thursday I dropped our son off with his grandparents at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan, (and then I had to go to work in my windowless cubicle while he looked at butterflies and lush gardens full of blooming daffodils and hyacinths), and we spent the evening at the lovely English Inn in Eaton Rapids, Michigan.

The English Inn

We had a fantastic dinner, though I must have overestimated my regained health as the next morning I felt rather like I'd really overdone it (maybe the duck sausage in puff pastry and rack of lamb wasn't the smartest thing to have after having a stomach bug).

Sunset Thursday night after a terrific storm.

But through most of the week, the weather was sunny (though seriously too hot for March . . . 85? Really?) and the flowers and trees were blooming. There was  fantastic storm late afternoon Thursday, and as I ate lamb by the window of the inn the sun was brilliant ni the western sky even as the clouds emptied out upon the slate roof overhead. After dinner we took a walk by the river and considered the merits of living by a river or stream (we've agreed that this would be marvelous).

Today I worked, cleaned the house, and made BBQ chicken in the sprinkling rain for my sister and her family who were stopping by on their way to the airport in Detroit for a family trip. So that means good old Max the dog will be staying at my house for a while.

I did this to poor old Max Christmas 2010. It made
him feel special. I'm sure of it.

Poor old Max. He really can't hear anymore and he has a lot of trouble with our stairs. These two things are made especially sad when you know how much Max loves to follow me from room to room (as he does my sister at his own house). Now when I go around a corner too fast he loses track of me because he can't see or hear me. It used to bother me how he insisted on following me from room to room when I watched him because I would always be tripping over him as I turned to go back. But now I'm turning back to find him and waving my hands and stomping my feet to show him where I am. Sad to think that both he and our dog Sasha probably won't live more than a couple more years.

During my sickness and my night at the inn I've been reading Virginia Woolf's abridged diaries with great interest. Begun when she was just a year older than me and kept until her death, they are thus far a fascinating glimpse into a slice of WWI-era England (the intellectual slice) and I'm having an excellent time getting to know her better. It will be interesting to follow her through the next twenty-one years (I'm in 1920 now) to her suicide in 1941.

I'm also considering whether the time is approaching when I might prefer to keep my thoughts in that more traditional form where one doesn't have to censor oneself, nor think of her readers. Perhaps the time for blogging will come to an end. Perhaps the time for using all my free time sewing will come to an end and I will simply sew on occasion. I feel more and more the pull to use my time differently, in study of the Word, prayer, reading, and for my own serious writing. Though I can envision a place in that future for my literary blog, The Books I Should Have Read.

I'm nearly through what I think will be the last revision of my novel before looking for an agent. Just 2/3rds left to go (though that will be the more difficult portion of the manuscript as it needs the most thought). Reading the thoughts of a great writer such as Virginia Woolf inspires me to spend serious time in that pursuit. Virginia published her first novel, The Voyage Out, at the age of 33. As I am 32, I feel it more than coincidental that I picked up her diaries in January and began to read them this spring.

It will be interesting to see what the rest of the year brings into focus for me. I can't help but feel that the frantic, rushing springtime will affect many of us in strange ways.

Crab apple blossoms in Grand Rapids, MI

Read more...

Of Grass and Gardening

This is the first year since we've moved here that the back yard has not been underwater during most of March. Instead, we have lovely green grass. We still have patchiness, but we've finally started using a lawn service that will fertilize the grass and kill the weeds during the growing season. So all we should have to do with the lawn is keep it mowed and perhaps water it in July and August. It's good that there can be one thing outside that doesn't require much attention. Because now that the kitchen garden project is done and running, I must turn my attention to the shade gardens in the backyard and a couple spots in the front that need revitalization.

I have some beautyberry bushes from my mother-in-law that managed to survive the winter in their pots, and they need a permanent place in the sun. I have a couple holly bushes that haven't done anything spectacular that need removal. I have golden margeurites that need to move as they have proven to be too tall when in bloom for their current positions. I have a small lilac that needs more sun. And I've like to get a few vertically oriented evergreens for the front of the house.

Plans, plans, plans. I seem always to be scheming.

Read more...

Capital Tea

What better way to have your tea on the first official day of spring?

The very observant among you may have noticed that the name and inventory of my Etsy shop has changed. There's a story behind this. You see, there's this fantastic corner store property for sale in downtown Lansing that I absolutely adore. Occasionally I will say to my husband (when I see a cute little empty storefront) "I would love to have a little store just like that." This comment is always followed by a question: "What would you sell?"

I've answered that question various ways. Books. Vintage clothing. Fabric. Antiques. You know. Stuff I love but don't necessarily have room for or a use for in my house.

Then I had an epiphany earlier this week. Maybe its the intoxicating weather, but I suddenly knew what my store would be. Capital Tea. Get it? It's in the capital city, it's a pun on "capital T," and the English (who love their tea) use the word "capital" to describe something marvelous (or at least they do in movies). It's almost too clever by half.

It would be a little shop that sold various kinds of tea, including my own one-of-a-kind herbal blends, vintage tea cups and tea pots, and also served hot and iced tea and the special little finger foods that go with tea (like at Cotswald Cottage at Greenfield Village). Little sandwiches, scones, petit fours, muffins, homemade jams, lemon curd. I would also sell vintage and handmade linens, tea towels, tea cozies, and such. I'm amazed it took me so long to think of this. I love tea. And there are far fewer tea places than coffee places, so it would be a unique destination.

Now, I'm realistic. With no business education or experience, no capital, and not even a family history of entrepreneurship, I knew that this would never happen. Or at least, it wouldn't happen within a decade or two, or at that particular storefront. So for now I have converted my Etsy shop into an online version of my idea.

I've just started stocking it, so I still have a long way to go, but I hope you will visit it and share it with any of your friends who enjoy tea and the pretty things that go with it. My initial stock is made up of some things I've inherited, purchased, or been given that are not especially dear to me, have no definite family history, and that I have never used. (So don't kill me, Mom.) I've held back many things I refuse to part with (including the gorgeous cup in the photo up top), but my thought is that I could make this Etsy shop a legitimate supplemental income source. I plan to use some profits to reinvest in products and some I will save so that someday, if all goes well and the desire remains, I will have a little nest egg that could actually help me start a physical store (perhaps in my retirement years).

After all, a girl can dream.

Read more...

Mad Men Dress

No, I don't smoke. But you can't model a Mad Men inspired dress without a cigarette, can you?

Mine is borrowed, as is the office (needed those mini blinds and file drawers).

I put together two patterns to make this dress.

And I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the result.

Now, if only we got AMC so we could watch the new season starting March 25th.

More on this dress here.

Read more...

Lenten Rose

With spring sprung so early, we have many flowers already blooming. One of the most beautiful, yet least noticed because their heads are bowed as in prayer, are the Hellebore, or Lenten Rose.

Today I finished reading Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, which I chose to read during Lent as I had never actually read it before.

After I turned off my Kindle, I took a short walk outside to snap some pictures of scilla, daffodils, and the just-emerging rhubarb and onions. Most of the perennial flowers are pushing up their first leaves. Chives are already ready to be harvested and will grace our dinner of poached eggs and toast tonight.

But far and away the most lovely sight were the Lenten Roses, a delicate reminder of this precious gift of an early spring. What is so appropriate is that to enjoy these flowers, you really have to get on your knees and bow down low to the ground. Which, after all, is just the position we should be in during Lent.

Read more...

Bedroom Update

Long ago (August 2011) I finished my Robbing Peter to Pay Paul quilt, which I had started even longer ago (February 2010). Then I painted the green bedroom walls white. Then I got roller blinds and new sheer curtains for the window. Then I found an awesome new mid-century dresser and matching nightstands. Then we moved some pictures upstairs from the basement. Then we somehow managed to find time to hang them on the walls. And now I've finally taken photos.

So here's the bedroom before:

And here's the after:

A vast improvement, if you ask me. It feels so refreshing to be in this room. I love waking up here.

You may have noticed that there are three guitars in this room. Somehow we have seven guitars in a family that, until very recently, had only one guitar player. It reminds me of a point at which my family, when I was growing up, had five cars for three drivers. Only in America.

My guitar is the one in the last photo. We've started keeping a few handy in the bedroom because our son has gotten used to not only being sung to at night, but being serenaded on guitar. And he often requests particular songs on the electric guitar and others on acoustic. This nightly ritual is good because it makes me practice regularly.

Read more...

Early Spring Awakening

The bees have been buzzing around the crocuses.

And I reckon the daffodils will be out within a week.

Michigan has been breaking heat records, some of which have stood for 90 years.

And we've had a few tornados, which normally don't arrive until July.

Amazing.

Something tells me it's going to be a strange summer.

Read more...

A Green(ish) Cowl Neck Tank

I made this top for the Going Green challenge for The Sew Weekly (here) from some fabric I inherited from my very stylish Grandma Foote. I don't know what she paid for it, when she bought it, or what she planned to do with it, but I'm happy to have given it a life beyond being merely a folded piece of very beautiful wool blend voile. (Aside: Have I mentioned how much I am falling in love with solid colors in my sewing? They just can't be beat, despite the lovely and tempting patterns out there.)

The pattern is modified (quite a bit, I realize now) from this pattern from Rhonda's Creative Life. Rhonda has shared scads of free patterns on her blog, most simply made from rectangles, triangles, and circles. She's very creative and I encourage you to spend some time on her blog.

As this St. Patrick's Day is likely to be unbelievably warm, I just may wear this new shirt that day and see if I can't get a bit of sun on my white arms.

Read more...

The Andrew Wyeth Shirt

I love this shirt, folks. This is my art-inspired sewing project, which, given that it is a plain gray shirt, may seem strange. Doesn't seem terribly...artsy. But I had this fabric in my stash and I happen to like artist Andrew Wyeth's somber paintings. And seriously, I made it in February and February is gray. Like this...

For more about Wyeth, some samples of his artwork, and my very own re-creation of one of his best-known portraits, click here!

In the meantime, I mean it. I love this shirt. And I can totally see myself painting whilst wearing it. So there. It's my art shirt.

Read more...

Tantalizing Hints of Spring

Wow. Nearly a week since my last post, which means we're one week into March, which means March is passing by. This is a good thing. It's looked and felt like March for far too long.

Today, believe it or not, we reached 50 degrees. I took advantage of this sunny, warm, windy day to clean the windows, inside and out, of the sunroom, which has been my office for a week or so. I also dragged out the hose and cleaned the screens. I dusted shelves and cleaned woodwork and vacuumed up cobwebs. I organized my books, my planting gear and seeds, and my art supplies. I even planted out my red onion sets that I had been storing since fall. I put them in the one place where the ground had thawed enough (and congratulated myself anew on my big raised bed project from last year, which made that thawed ground possible).

Tomorrow it is supposed to get up to SIXTY-ONE DEGREES, though it will be quite windy. I'm thinking that the boy will want to take his bike out and play in the sandbox. So that's we'll plan on doing. In fact, with the exception of a cold Friday, the 10-day forecast is shaping up to be pretty balmy. Not so good for maple syrup producers (which stinks) but great for winter-weary Midwesterners.

So don't forget your sunglasses this week. Those pasty arms and legs are bound to be popping out of sleeves and shorts and you don't want your eyesight damaged by the glare.

Read more...