Spring Garden

Eighty-eight degrees today for the high temperature here today.  I feel like I did a lot of work but really I think it was just the heat.  I went to a "Moving Sale" held by a local company that handles estate sales normally.  A couple of my neighbors went with me but I was the big buyer having spent a whopping $17 total.

Take a look at my new garden bunny I purchased at the sale.  He is a solar light or will be when I get new solar batteries for him.  He looks pretty nice under the maple tree.

My other purchases were not photo worthy as I bought two hose reels like the one you see in the above photo.  But these were purchased at the sale today at $5 each--as was the bunny.  The other purchase for $2 was a yellow wooden carry box with the word "Sunflowers" on it in black. 

Mama Bluebird in my garden

I knocked on the birdhouse prior to opening it and was surprised to find the mama bird in the box.  She is sitting on 5 very pretty blue eggs. 

Lady Banks Roses in a beautiful yellow

Roses, day lilies, creeping phlox, Lady Banks Roses, and azaleas on the hill

A close-up of one of the Floribundas just starting to bloom

Hostas, yarrow and coreopsis on the short side yard

More hostas in the large side yard under the pines

Lemon balm, one of my favorite herbs, and Swedish Girl daylily in pot

Honey has been arranging for a team of master gardeners to come out and advise us on our gardens.  We think they will be coming to visit us next week some time.  Looking forward to this visit but also dreading it in a way.  We'll learn just how many mistakes we have made already I suppose.

There are other gardens not yet photographed that are veggies, strawberries, and herbs.  Maybe I'll get those on later..

Promise kept and new projects completed.

I promised on  Sew A Beginner's blog that I would wear a garment I made before the weekend was through.  So for our Sunday morning brunch downtown I wore the blue knit dress I made with a cute fuzzy cardie I bought at Salvation Army.  The dress has small flowers on it the same color as the cardie.

This is really turquoise not teal as it appears here. 

What I leanred from wearing this garment is that the neckline is too wide for me.  As I moved around this would fall off my shoulder if I was not careful.  I like this pattern so I will re-draft the neckline to make it narrower.  By the way the cardie was a bargain at $2.99!  I recently was donating some things and took a look around.  I bought a bunch of tops, jackets, etc. for $1.99, $2.99 or $3.99.  Some of these items were top name brands and new.  Yeah for me!

Projects I have completed were the new red skirt from the previous "was going to be a dress".  This was the red slinky knit that was torturing me but I won HAHA!

Red Slinky Knit Skirt

I also made a four gore skirt from a purple micro suede I purchased at Hancock's Fabrics from their bargain fabric section.  It was so soft and the skirt was easy to make.  I hemed it by hand which was a breeze.

I am thinking maybe to wear this in the fall with a pair of boots.  But who knows maybe I'll come up with a way to wear it this summer too.

This is a vintage baby pattern I found in the sewing machine cabinet of the Bernina I picked up at my mother's.  I tried it out in a really inexpensive (yep, that means cheap) cotton from Wal-Mart.  The pattern was so easy and this was the first garment I have made from cotton.  Oh my gosh, how easy is cotton to sew with?  And I did Hong Kong seams!  I did not have the 1/4 inch elastic needed to finish the little panties so that is for another day.  I think the pattern is too small for the child I had in mind but it gave me more confidence to try sewing with cotton and on baby garments again.

Still need to perfect gathering as you can see

Hong Kong Seams in top

This is the new project I started.  I selected the jacket to sew and the fabric is a knit which costs $2.00 per yard.  So no fear on messing up a really expensive fabric.  Just the usual fear I have when I select a fabric with a design.  I never can foresee how it will look and sometimes that means I work on a really ugly garment before I can see where things are going. 

So what do you think?  Will this paisley design fabric look good with this jacket pattern?  Do you have any hints on selecting fabrics to patterns that would help?

Michelle Obama Slideshow and Net-A-Porter

Just a quick post of fashion for you to check out. 

The Michelle Obama Look Book 2010 --The Cut.  You might have seen it already but I just ran across it this morning.  The photos, all 222 of them, show the First Lady and her clothes which I think are really wearable for real people.  Thank you MO!  Michelle Obama Look Book

The sheath dress is shown in many versions and I am thinking "I've got that pattern, now if only I can get the fit."  The sweater with everything is done over and over, not a bad thing I like it.  But the belt over the sweaters I can do without.  Photos 141, 162, and 173 I really liked.  Ok, I really like almost all of them.  Photo 141 was casual but bright and I like the way the designer used a border print at the top drawing attention to the face.  I admit I always thought of border prints as going at the bottom until I saw a dress on Net-A-Porter.

This is the dress that clued me in: Black and White Border Print Dress.  Isn't this a great use of a border print?  I actually own some black and white fabric that would work for that dress.  If only I were so talented to be able to sew good enough to tackle a pattern like that.  But I know some of you out there can do it.

I heard about Net-A-Porter on the CBS Sunday Morning Show.  It is a great site for some cool looking fashions.  Some of which I think I could wear, but most are too hip, too young, and way too bare for me.  I know this because the measuring tape told me so yesterday when I measured my waist for the elastic in a skirt.  (Darn!  Wasn't my bust size just slightly over that a few years ago?)