Dirt

This weekend was all about dirt.  Potting soil type dirt.  Not only did some of our few houseplants need a repotting but we decided that more green in the house would be good for everyone.  It's hopeful all the greenery will do it's job of scrubbing the air and adding oxygen.  :-)

Not having any place else to do it, all the dirty work took place at the kitchen sink.  I'm hoping The Tramp will put up some glass shelves in the kitchen window.  I don't think plants balanced on the cleaning wipes or taking up valuable counter space is a long term option!

Pardon the photo quality.  Quick snaps in the evening with a cell phone isn't the best way to show off photography prowess (assuming one has some!).  This pothos was reaching for the floor.  Don't ask me how, as it was still in it's original pot and had almost no decent soil left.  All fixed now.

The Thanksgiving cactus plants love the picture window and show it by growing.  This one really needed a new pot.

Now we have a whole window full of plants.  My dad made the bench a long time ago and Mom used it with her quilting frame for years.  Now it has a new life.  :-)  That's Ivy laying between the bench and the window.

This way she can pop up to look out the window and keep and eye on things.  I have no idea what she was staring at so intently.

A much happier room.  As long as my green thumb doesn't fail me of course.  :-)

We read the reports (and watched the TED talk) that you should have lots of sansevieria in your bedroom to boost the oxygen that gets depleted at night.  With five of us breathing in there it seemed like a good idea!  The recent moving of the bookcases gave the perfect location under each window and cheers the room up too.  Well....it cheers me up anyway.  :-)

The bears and bunnies don't mind either.

 To add to the excitement it seemed time to make Ngaire's bed a new cover.  I hope The Tramp's choice of fleece cheers Ngaire up!  Hmmm.  Maisy's beds could use some stylin' too.

I was going to say.....  Because the kitchen floor was already filthy from the potting episode (almost 20 pots is very mess-making) today was a good day to make chop for Charlie.  Actually it was a good day to make chop because I had already bought the ingredients and Charlie was down to his last little baggie of chop from the batch I made over a year ago.  The fact that I make a tremendous mess in the process is besides the point.

The dogs love it though.  All the cooking, chopping and mixing means plenty of bits knocked to the floor for them to find.  Let's see.  I cooked amaranth, quinoa, wild rice mix, bulgur and 13 bean mix.  There is oatmeal, two whole cereal mixes, oat groats, peas, coconut, carrots, sweet potato, kale, corn, edamame, ginger, sugar snap peas, turnip greens, radishes and tops, broccoli rabe, various hot peppers, hot pepper flakes, chia seed, celery, hemp, parsley......and other stuff.

After his long workday The Tramp was sweet enough to help me bag it all and get it into the freezer.

Another year's worth done.  Phew.  You'd better like it Charlie!

So tomorrow I'll need to get the "dirt" off the kitchen floor.  I'm glad you can't see it!!  Of course it's supposed to be ugly weather for the next few days and 12 dog feet mean it won't be clean for very long.  Sigh.

Hi!

Recently it seems like we are running in place.  Doing lots but not getting anything done.  Standing still, kinda like these mannequins.  That's Stardust posing at the mall.  What a hoot!  :-)

T-shirt quilts are moving through after a very short lull.  Graduation season will be here before we know it.

I joined the Dear Jane club at Wish Upon a Quilt.  I bought the software years ago and it's high time I got started, don't you think?  I'm using my own fabrics.  Ten blocks are done.  I need to get a photo of the whole set.

The blue sofa broke at Christmas and we found this sweet floral number on craigslist.  Turns out we knew the seller too.  One of those "small world" moments.  It's much more in scale with the living room and much more my style.  The kids tell me it's an "old people's" sofa.  LOL  All of our books were housed in our bedroom and I have been anxious to get some of them out.  So we found bookcases on craigslist too.  :-)

So of course this meant weeding through the book collection, disassembling and moving bookshelves, and a major dusting session in the bedrooom.

We forgot we hadn't painted the wall behind the shelving!!!  Duh!

After much exercise moving everything, the living room is a much cozier place.  Next job is to get the clock functioning again.

This little Viking gives everyone plenty of exercise.  ED and I took him to the park last week and after a long session of climbing up and down the wooden stairs he took off running and we had to hustle to keep up so he didn't fall down any slopes or run through the big mud wallows left over from the snow and rain.  Whew!  He jabbers away in his own language all day long and was very cute yelling to the other kids at the playground.  He's learned to say please and thank you (and no, of course) and here he is cheesing for the camera.

This is from dinnertime.  Clearly a very tiring day.  :-)

 And!  I am possibly beginning to get the hang of my fancy camera.  Finally.