Simple Sewing

     I am by no means an amazing seamstress but I know my way around a few simple projects and it doesn't get much simpler than curtains.  Jack has needed new window treatments since we moved into the house but it always seems to get put off.  Finally I just couldn't take it any more and we headed out to the fabric store.  After a bit of debate over fabric choices we decided on robots on a black background (he wanted acid green zebra stripes!).  The black is working great to keep the light out of his room at night.  
      I started by washing and drying the fabric so that we didn't have shrinkage problems later.  Then the fabric got ironed out nice and neat and forgotten about for a few weeks (you can totally skip this step).  Then it got re-ironed when I 'found' it again.  Instead of using a ton of pins I ironed all the folds and then added a few pins just to make sure that things didn't get all wonky.  The seams on the sides and the bottom are 1/2 inch.  At the top there is a 1/2 inch fold under and then the pocket to run the rod through is 2 inches. 

      This is just one of those super cheap-y rods and I think it was in the room when we moved in probably with lace curtains.  The width of the fabric we bought was a perfect fit for the window but it doesn't have much spare I do wish that I had added a stripe or something at the bottom so that it was a little longer but I have no intention of ripping out all the stitches and Jack seems really happy so that is all that matters right?  Have a great weekend!

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My New Bench

      We had some friends over on the holiday weekend to get ready for our Tang Soo Do test and decided to have a nice BBQ while they were here.  The night before the practice we realized that we lacked seating for our friends.  I asked Photo Dude if it was possible to use some of the fantastic salvaged wood we had in the garage.  Now please remember that Photo Dude is an electrician NOT a carpenter by any means :)  He is an amazing husband though that will pretty much always take my crazy ideas and make them work.  So he started playing around and cutting up the pallets for me.  He even got to use his new table saw that he got for only $40 at a yard sale. 
      Photo Dude used scraps of wood to make sure that the planks were evenly spaced.  He did tell me that if he were to do this project again he would probably build the X supports and then add them to the top instead of trying to get them into the proper place last.



I love the way the bench looks, it isn't anything too finished and if it gets knocked around it won't be ruined looking.  We (okay Photo Dude not me) are also going to try and figure out how to build a table with a flip top so that it can be stored against a wall in the shed.

Love It!!!

Change of Plans

 This is what Photo Dude brought me home last night.  I took a look at it and said "what the heck is that"?!  Really like we don't have enough weeds?  He explained that one of the guys he works with brought him some strawberry plants that he had asked about back when it was still snowing out (ya' know like three weeks ago).  Photo Dude had completely forgotten about the request and we didn't have a spot planned for these babies so we had to make a change of plans for the big tubs.  The potatoes got pulled out and more dirt got added.  We picked out the six plants that looked the most likely to survive and put them into the tubs.  Some of the plants already have berries on them.  They were taken from a mature strawberry patch so we have hopes that these are going to be good growers. 

      We were gifted 12 plants total so the six that didn't make it into the tubs were placed where there box wood bushes when we moved in.  The soils isn't so good and has a bit more clay but the strawberries looked like they had been planted in clay before we got them so who knows maybe they will grow well enough that next year we can move them to a better plot. 
     Ugh.....  I just don't know what to say.  This year has been so bizarre we go from cold to hot then back again.  The rain has just not stopped for weeks on end at times, several times the lawn has gone for two weeks without being cut.  The low spot in our back yard is wet enough that we should have just planted rice.  Hopefully the next little bit will keep us dry enough to actually get the yard tilled up for the boxes.