Continued Improvements

As those of you who've been in our house may remember, this is what the curtains in the sunroom used to look like.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of old and new about half-way through the project:

And voila! After about six months of procrastination and a solid two weekends of work, we now have new curtains in the sunroom. As you can see, we've also rearranged the furniture to give us more usable space, including taking down the shelving on the back wall. Maddy's not so happy that she's lost her perch at the window, but she's always intrigued by rearranged furniture.

Maddy spent most of this project camped out on my muslin. Every time I spread it out to measure she'd come running and plop down right in the middle. She even climbed onto the sewing table and curled up on top of the fabric I was sewing at the time. This is all just to explain why many of you may find cat hair all over my new curtains :).

Read it.

We've been working

Last weekend, we got the nasty leaf-trap open guttering out of the front garden and replaced it with nice, consistently-sloped regular guttering. Our discovery of the moment: flexi-elbow joints that allow you to easily change the angle of the elbow and adjust length.

This weekend, hubby worked on the downspout at the far end of the living room above and I gardened. I did this same thing last year, but I think I got the creeping phlox in late and didn't water it enough. We'll see if I can keep these alive this summer.

I'm still trying to find plants that will survive in the near-total shade of our kitchen window box. These petunias seem to be doing okay. After three days, they've lasted longer than the pansies I put in last fall.

We also started demolition on the raised bed to the left of our driveway. The railroad ties were so rotted that I was able to get them out with virtually no problems. I found a frog and a snake as I worked! Now we have to figure out what to do with the extra dirt then get someone to help us pave over the area. Then we'll actually be able to get out of our cars when we pull all the way into the driveway!

Class time

Well, not everyone wants to learn to crochet, but eventually I'll win them all over. My beginning crochet class tonight didn't happen due to lack of interest, but that's okay. I agreed to teach so many classes because I knew that not all of them would make.

Monday was a busy yet slow day. I only had one student in beginning crochet and one student in my crochet wallet class, but it was great getting to teach them one-on-one.

To get an idea of the schedule, go to www.gourmetyarn.net and click on the class schedule. Anything crochet is me.

Next month's project class will be really popular: crocheted furry flip-flops. They're easy, good gifts, and you see them everywhere. I don't particularly care for them because when I wear them I feel like I have rodents on my feet.