One Yard Wonders

I have already deemed this upcoming summer the "Summer of Crafts." I really enjoy making things, but get so distracted with other things going on in my life that I rarely get to do so. I saw a book at the store last night that got me really excited about sewing this summer. It's called "One Yard Wonders."



It wasn't the fact that every project can be made with one yard of fabric that made me want to get this book, but the CUTE projects it had in it. There are very detailed instructions for each project, as well as patterns for several of the projects that are pre-cut and placed in a little packet at the front of the book. I went a little crazy last night and ordered several Amy Butler and Michael Miller fabrics to start off with. My first project will be a beach towel tote. If it goes well, I'm going to make one for my sister-in-law and mother-in-law for our annual trip to Sanibel Island. I couldn't find a picture of it, but one side of the bag is a beach towel, and the other side is fabric. It has a zippered pocket inside, and part of the towel is sewed up inside the bag so that you can flip it out and put it over the top of your chair and have a towel/chair cover. Brilliant!

Also can't wait to make this adorable bird mobile...I need some friends to hurry up and have a baby so I can make it!

Can't wait to start on all these fun projects. Hurry up summer!

Finally!

This winter has been particularly hard on me for some reason. I've been counting down the days until Spring when I can finally get out in the yard and enjoy some sunshine. Gardening has kind of become a new hobby (no, wait...obsession) of mine. I can't drive around town without looking at every single plant/bush/tree I see and naming it or deciding if it's pruned properly. We've revamped a lot of things in our yard over the past few weeks, and I've really enjoyed doing it.

When we first planted things at our house almost two years ago, we didn't really know what we were doing. We planted a lot of things that don't thrive in this climate, and ended up having to dig a lot of things up. This time around, I've done some research and picked some plants that will hopefully thrive.

Our Mollie apple tree. It gets beautiful pink blooms every year, but so far no apples! There's a Gala apple next to it so they can cross breed. I doubt we'll ever get apples, but at least they look pretty.

We planted some yellow knockout roses in the front bed. I got them in the fall at a half off sale, and they survived the winter and have been doing great.

Our garden didn't work out too well since last year was so dry. Lane spent the morning tilling the bed and adding peat moss to enrich the soil. We're planting zucchini, squash, tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries (in a pot.) We're doing things on a lot smaller scale this year so that hopefully we can maintain it better.

This isn't a great photo (taken with my phone, and it was SO bright outside!) But outside our bedroom window, we've planted some pretty pink hydrangeas. They seem to like it out there. We've also planted inpatients again. Last year, that was about the only thing we didn't manage to kill. We have some hostas poking up from last year, too, but they've already gotten leaf damage from slugs or snails or grasshoppers...not really sure what!

We've also planted a japanese yew and some dwarf buford hollies in our front bed, and dug up some damaged gardenias and planted encore azaleas in their place in the other front bed. There's still more work to do, but it's looking good so far!