Deal Of The Day

I purchased 10.5 yards of 90 " wide cotton/linen blend fabric to make duvet covers and shams for $1.95 a yard @ fabric.com! Sale is going on now, but the quanities are going quickly, especially the blue. They started off with over a 1000 yards a few days ago and now are under 1/2 that amount! I got blue for my blue and white room, and pink to make 2 twin duvet covers for the girls, their room is going to be pink and green. Will post the final project(s) when finished...link to fabric store is under "SHOP!" on this page, if this is of interest to you!

Hydrangea

I love Hydrangea. I have several versions in my yard, including the oakleaf pictured here. Mine has never looked this good, but I remain optimistic! It took several years to establish itself, but once it did, it started thriving and has looked better and better every year. I am going to plant another one near it, as I have been looking for shrubs in my upper border that will act as a screen from the street, at least for most of the year. Most everything else I have tried has not made it. Other things have done OK but I did not like them in that location. So I decided I would plant another of these. The continuity will be good for that fairly small space, and this species does well in a sunny-shady combo location, which is what I have.


I also have an old fashioned mop-head, "Nikko Blue" (two of them, actually) in the front of my house. It is a very common hydrangea, the one most people think of when visualizing this species. Mine started as two tiny dormant sprouts from the Michigan Bulb Co., 11 years ago. It took one good year in the dirt to establish themselves, and now they are HUGE when in season, I usually have to go in and trim them several times during the summer or they will take over the front of the house, and you can't see out the windows!


Here is what it looks like today. I desperately want to prune it's scraggly appearance, but it's too early. In this region it's best to wait until the first week of March. I read this years ago, and have had remarkable success with that method. We will likely have quite a few false spring days in the near future. The thing will do it's best to grow. And then we will get the requisite hard freeze(s) between now and April 1, which would ruin it's bloom cycle if it were pruned. Last year we had a very late hard freeze, and it did interfere but not completely wipe it out. I just did not have the proliferation of blooms that I usually do. And what blooms they are! They start out in indescribable shade of Winsor blue, and then over the summer change to a chartreuse (it's lovely) and finally fade out to a lavender. Some people hate hydrangeas, and I find that very difficult to understand, but to each their own. I'm love with them!

This is how my oakleaf looks today. I did not prune it last year, and it was fine. It's still not mature, and I have had it in the ground for at least 4 years. I may prune it this year though, I notice that the ones on campus are sheared.

I have tried several other varieties, and will continue to, but I have killed more than I have in my yard, unfortunately. It's so tempting to try the exotic new strains, but what really works best around here are the proven standbys and the native species. Summers here are TOUGH. But that is another subject for a different day.

Signs of Spring!

Why Another Blog?

I had to ask myself this same question when the idea initially occurred to me. But there are plenty of reasons, and they're all important.

First of all, blogging has been a learning experience for me in many ways. One of the things I've learned is that it makes me accountable. When I publish something, I have spoken my truth, and it helps put things in perspective. It gives me some sort of peace. I have journaled for many years, but there is something so in-your-face, not to mention public, about blogging. I have many improvements and upgrades that need to be made to the house before the girls come home. But I find it difficult to become motivated, knowing I will be doing much of the work myself. Maybe I have just become lazy about it. I am hoping that blogging about it will hold me accountable to a timetable, and also I think it's encouraging to see documentation of progress. I can often dream up a great idea, but doing the work to follow through and make it happen, that is another story.

Another reason is that I have a huge need to for creativity...as in me being creative, pretty much on a daily basis. It's not a luxury, it's a real need, and I get depressed when I deny myself. It is how I view the world. It is one of the major ways I experience true joy. Art school was no accident for me. However, there are big and small ways to enjoy creativity; I don't have to be attempting a masterpiece. It can come in the form of cooking, of finding new ways to organize things, in a clean and comfortable house. For me, fine art is about the journey, whether I am viewing it or creating it. Creative projects such as redoing the curtains or a sofa cushion, a whole room, or the upper perennial border are applied arts, and it's more about the finished results, which I like very much more than the work it takes to get there! So I am hoping that blogging about these things will force me to take the time from my busy "must do" list and pursue at least one thing of beauty on a daily basis. While I am blessed to have some creativity and flexibility in my job, it very structured in a mostly corporate way. That stuff has numbed my brain and pushed out the things in my life I really enjoy. I am hoping to hold myself accountable to what I know brings me joy. I have just about disciplined the joy right out of me, I sometimes think.

Then again, I'm not here to reinvent to wheel, and this may end up just being a good way to share ideas. On some other family blogs I read, the talk lately is about managing money, and saving on groceries and time. Sharing recipes and ideas is always a good thing for somebody. Recently I had to get on Google to try to find the best way to clean wood floors. What I had been doing was not working. I'd rather just talk to y'all and get your ideas. Google wanted me to buy all kinds of chemicals I don't need or want.

There are also times on the adoption front, when the load gets too heavy to bear. There are times when you just don't have anything you want to say about it, even though you are thinking about it all the time. At these times, you surely do not want to be writing about it either, or at least I don't. Adoption is not for the faint of heart. It takes the heart of a lion(ness) to weather the storm of international adoption. Forcing myself to think of other things and concentrate on them is an exersize for the sake of sanity. A lovely and necessary distraction.

And last of all, sometimes I just need to let off steam. If you have read my other blog, you know I occasionally go ballistic over the water conservation situation here in our drought stricken neck of the woods. Most of my fellow adoptive moms are not that interested in the topic, but they put up with my ranting anyway. I don't want to keep subjecting them to that. But I know I will continue to think about it, talk about it, and try to find solutions for my garden. I need a place to do this.

At it's best, I find blogging in itself to be an act of creativity, and so if this blog just turns into another outlet for that, then I've accomplished something!