Mission (sort of) Accomplished

The patio is done!  Well, almost.  Preston swept the sand into the cracks like you're supposed to, but somehow every time it rains the sand jumps OUT of the cracks and makes piles on top of the pavers.  I don't think it's supposed to work like that.  So there's this stuff called "polymer sand" and what it does is after you sweep it into the cracks, you wet it and it hardens and it never comes out.  I think we'll have to get some of that.
But the last step was to spread out that huge pile of dirt and plant some grass seed, which we did over Memorial Day weekend, once again with Frank's help.  That's a lot of dirt to move.  The ugly table ended up in the scrap pile, and Sparky bought a nice new one.  I had all good intentions, but the new one looks really good and was relatively inexpensive AND I didn't have to sand it.










Now we can sit on the new patio and watch the grass grow.

Our resident Rock Star came home for a weekend last month, and found a few minutes for a photo op with Sparky.  The reason she has that look on her face is because she absolutely hates to have her picture taken, and I believe at the time she was making threats to my person and my camera.  But as you can see, it didn't stop me.  I'm such a brat. 

Sparky and I took a trip to her new doctor's office the other day, and on the way out I spotted this in the window of the office next door.  I couldn't resist snapping a pic, sometimes I wish I could do this!!  I have been taking some time away from the shop lately, but it wasn't by choice and it sure wasn't for pleasure...I had pneumonia, and of course I infected my poor husband who, unlike myself, required medical attention.  We're recovering, but it sure does drag on.                                              

Mint Juleps on the Patio...any minute now.

Building the forms for cement to connect the sidewalk to  the patio

Progress!  The patio pavers are all in, and Preston decided to pour a border of cement around the edge to keep them from shifting, instead of the usual plastic edging which you don't see anyway, and which gets to be very expensive by the time you go all the way around the patio.  So now all that's left is to sweep the sand into the cracks, spread the dirt back into the yard and plant some grass seed.  NEXT project: getting all the firewood out of the garden so we can plant!

Well done, mother nature!!

I don't think I posted this pic before, but here's why we have firewood in the garden.  When Sandy hit, a tree that was in our neighbor's cow pasture fell on my Little Shop of Chaos and our neighbors generously cut it up and let us keep it, since they don't use a wood stove and it was in our yard anyway. Minimal damage to the Shop, all that had to be repaired was the electrical wire going in.  The garden is to the right of the shed.
 I have been in touch with Tom the rototiller guy, and so all that's left is to clear out the wood.  I am excited to try the potato-and-tire trick, since we have an unknown number of old tires hanging around.  I've always wanted to try this, because we don't have a whole lot of garden space and a lot of that is taken up with beans, tomatoes and squash, but in years past my springs have been taken up with...other obligations...and I never seemed to have enough time to play in the dirt.  Last year was the first time in years that we had a garden at all, and it was just more wonderful than I can tell you to be able to do that.
 We are having an actual spring for the first time in...well, I can't remember the last time.  Usually we go right from freezing to sweltering but it's been just beautiful here for several weeks and a lot of people I know have already planted their gardens. All the birds and frogs and various critters are out and about.  I've lived here all my life and never knew we had dung beetles..also never knew how beautiful they are!!  I wish the colors showed up better, he (it's a he) is the most striking metallic green and copper I've ever seen. Preston found him floundering in Myah's water dish.  His feet are built for digging, not for swimming, so we rescued him.

On the sewing front, we are smack dab in the middle of prom season.  Thankfully, I was able to buckle down and work my behind off and get all the Junior prom gowns done and picked up by Wednesday night, so I took Friday off to spend with The Boy, who came home for the weekend to attend the wedding of an old friend.  I've got to stop calling him that, the old fart is going to be 30 at the end of this year.  But he'll always be The Boy to me.  Anyway, senior prom is this week and I'm always so glad when proms are over for the year.  I did finish the funky turquoise-and-mustard dress set, for better or for worse!  I think it's cool and really different.  Because I no longer have any sense of what colors go or don't go together.  It's complete anarchy in my brain. 

Yard Crashers

Prep work:  turns out the yard is not level. Who'd'a thought.

Great progress is being made in the front yard!  All the research Preston did stated that even if you do this the RIGHT way, there are only 5 steps:  Dig the hole, lay the gravel, top it with a layer of sand, lay the pavers, sweep sand into the cracks.  Done. But it's kind of like when you use the Chilton's manual to fix the car;  remove the old part, replace it with the new part.  Done.  Except they don't explain that you have to remove three other parts to GET to the old part, and there's always a bolt that will break off, and you need a special tool to get the part out, which your local auto parts store will have to special order, etc. etc....when installing the patio, there are drainage issues to consider, and leveling challenges, and whether or not to square the patio with the house or the sidewalk or the driveway (none of which are square with each other), and what kind of gravel to use, and whether or not Home Depot has enough of the pavers you picked out, always something.  But so far, and we are coming down the home stretch, it's been fun and I think it's going to look fabulous.

Preston taking a turn with the tamper-downer. 

After you get the thing all planned out and put the gravel in, you have to tamp it down.  There's a machine people can rent to do this:  these people do not have Frank.  Frank had WAY too much fun with the manual tamper-downer-thingy.  Also he has a big truck, so that made transporting the sand and gravel way cheaper.  I too have a truck, but I doubt its ability to carry 2 tons of sand without getting a hernia.

Screeding the sand

 Anyway, the weather has been stunning-right up until yesterday when it rained, but not for too long-so even though we have to do the patio in between working, we've been able to make great progress.

This part goes pretty quickly, but we ran out of daylight!

 Preston started laying the pavers last night, a back-breaking job if there ever was one.  More back-breaking, for sure, than having to carry them from over from the pallet.
Those suckers weigh 33 pounds apiece.
So I guess it's almost time to repaint the ugly green patio table!

Yuck!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!

Ah yes, a day at home with absolutely gorgeous weather and so many things to do!  Of course we never accomplish everything we want to, but what does that really matter in the long run.  It'll all get done, or it won't.  The plan today was to continue with my bureau and table projects (I finally got the long-awaited burst of inspiration for the table), measure out the space for Sparky's patio that we decided we need to construct, and then split the wood that's taking up space in the garden.  So I put on my Sunday pants, which are colorfully adorned with various shades of paint, grass stains, hair dye and motor oil, and started out.

This is the back of the bureau; as you can maybe see, it's pretty bad.  The luan on the back is beyond repair but I can replace that easily enough. The rest of it is made from thicker pine and other than a few digs that I repaired with wood putty, is in good shape. 

The table, which I've also had for a couple of years, was a real find; it's maple with a butcher block top, and while it's not expensively made, it's sturdy and it's MAPLE.  Very pretty top, and I paid a whole dollar for it.  After turning over several different ideas in my mind for what I wanted it to look like, I finally decided to paint the legs and support bracket and stain the top.  Not an original idea, but what comes after that will set it apart.

I don't know if the thing originally had wheels on it or what, but the bottoms of the legs had these metal      insets with threaded holes.  They had to go, I'll just use some of those non-scratchy felt-bottomed furniture feet  I've got stashed somewhere.

So next, we started measuring out the space for Sparky's patio.  She and my dad had talked about it, but never got around to doing it.  So Preston and I are going to tackle it, and give her a nice spot to sit outside and entertain.  Preston, who I thought had built at least one of everything in his lifetime, has never done a paver patio before, so this will be a learning experience for both of us.  It seems pretty straightforward, but then everything does until you actually try to do it.  I said I was going to do the digging myself, but on seeing what a 12x12 space actually looks like, I took Sparky's advice and called our neighbor, Captain Bobcat. True to form, he said "I'll be right up".  And sure enough, 1/2 hour later we had a large hole in the yard.

Preston says if he had a Bobcat, he'd never leave the yard.

This week, as long as the weather holds, will see a bunch of stone and sand, and oh yeah...I guess we'll have to go get pavers at some point.  Of course this means I will have to repaint that ugly-ass table.  I guess at some point my dad must have hit a sale on obnoxious green paint.

We never did get around to splitting the wood, but there's time before I need to call the rototiller dude.  That's one thing Captain Bobcat doesn't have, a rototiller.  Surprisingly enough.  But that's ok,  that's why we have Thomas Reilly, #749-5296.  I went on and on about him after he tilled our garden last year, so I'm not going to do it again; just trust me, if you live in RI and need your garden tilled, he's your guy.

Next!

 So now that I finished the chair and stool (yay!!) I finally started on the bureau I bought, what, two years ago?  I think it was two years.  I have been waiting for inspiration as to what I wanted it to look like, but it's not coming to me, or at least it's not coming to me all at once.  I have a general idea, but no specific details.  But since it's got to have a few small repairs and be primed first anyway, I was hoping a little hands-on would break the ice and maybe something specific would present itself.  So yesterday I broke out the primer and got going.  Unlike the chair and stool, which probably came from IKEA or some unfinished furniture place, the little bureau was quite obviously handmade by someone who had a need for a little bureau.  It's a sturdy little thing, but it's got some quirks that made me pause to reconsider whether I really wanted to proceed.  But ya know, those little quirks are what drew me to it in the first place so I got out the brads and wood glue and it will be just fine.  All I know for sure at this point is that I want the insides of the drawers to be green, and the outside (probably) to be white.  The rest is up in the air. And since yard sale season is almost upon us, with its promise of new projects, I'd better get to it.

I finished the pink dress!  I'm happy with the way it came out, black drawers and all.  And it's attracting quite a bit of attention at the shop, probably because of its in-your-face pinkness which is actually MUCH more intense than this pic shows.  And the next project in the clothing department has been started; it's a sundress set with the color combination of turquoise and mustard, which made Sparky go "ugh" and make the corresponding ugh face.  While I can't claim the idea, as I started with a seersucker plaid in those colors, I think it's going to work. 

Spring has brought a very welcome transformation here at the compound, where the daffodils are in full glorious bloom and everything else is waking up and showing signs of life, including me and Sparky.  We've been talking a lot about what we're going to plant this year and where to plant it, although the soil around here is terrible and a lot of things just won't tolerate it.  But we have the ugliness of many tree stumps in the front yard this year, and short of hiring a backhoe to dig them up ($$$$$) there's really not much we can do but plant some ground cover and hope we can hide them.

Any suggestions?

In For a Penny....

 ...in for a pound, isn't that what they say?  I seem to be having some sort of existential crisis regarding my latest project but in the end I decided to just go with my gut and see what results.  I'll explain:  I had this hot pink fabric left over from another order, and for some reason it screamed "baby dress" at me.  The little black swirls dictated that the dress should have black details, which was ok with me although kind of edgy for a baby. (I actually went on Etsy to see if anybody else had hot pink-and-black baby dresses, totally out of character for me.  I usually don't care.  There were a few, not many).  But then the crisis began.  Black bloomers? On a baby?  I just didn't know. Maybe a lighter shade of pink? You just CAN'T put black undies on a baby, can you?  I waited until the dress was almost done before I came to the conclusion that no other color would do, so I've committed to the pink and black.  It'll be fine.  Plus it seems like the weirdest things I come up with are the ones that find a home first.  We'll see.

Meet Pat!  In case you've never seen the Saturday Night Live sketch, Pat is a person of indeterminate gender.  Since my other dummies have names,  of course the new kid on the block had to have one.  I like Pat because s/he has no face.  When I went mannequin shopping on Ebay, I found a whole lot of child mannequins have faces that are supposed to be cute, I guess, but are just really scary and if I had to look at one every day I would have nightmares.  So I was very happy to find Pat.  Really needed a model for my stuff!

So prom and powwow seasons hit me every spring at roughly the same time, and this year is shaping up to be no exception.  While I cannot prepare for prom season, I do try to have some ready-made regalia pieces available for sale even though most of the pieces  I make are custom orders.  These foxes were something I made for a set of men's fancy last year, but they didn't really work with the rest of the colors so we went in another direction.  They were a lot of work and I was pretty proud of them since I'm not an "artist" and so if I can make something realistic that comes out this good, it's a happy accident.  So I am designing a set of men's pieces around the fox faces, and hopefully they will strike someone's fancy. 

And now, friends and neighbors, it's time to go refuel with some spaghetti and meatballs!! Not as good as Sparky's, but they'll do.

No Regrets

Forgive me a moment's motherly pride, but most mothers never get to say these words:  "My son's first album was released this month".  Ok, there'll be more than just a moment of motherly pride.  You can check it out at www.velvetgoldminerock.com if you like.

Not only was it released, but it is dedicated to my Dad.  I quote:  "This record is especially dedicated to the memory of Charles Bachelder for being the punkest Grandfather ever and showing me what it means to live with no regrets".

Papa was the poster child for thinking outside the box.  If you told him it couldn't be done, he would make it his life's mission to GET it done, just because you told him it wasn't possible.  He was forever coming up with new and better ways to do stuff in ways that were unconventional but effective.  Just because nobody had ever done it that way meant nothing to him; he saw no reason why it wouldn't work, and he would keep at it like a dog with a bone until it DID work.

I'd like to think I inherited some of that from him.  While I do procrastinate from time to time (okay, a lot of the time), I can also be singleminded and relentless when I need to be.  I certainly inherited the tendency toward the unconventional. When all the other girls in band were playing flutes and clarinets, I was hauling my electric bass onto the school bus. There are lots of female bass players now, but back then it was pretty rare.  I didn't do it to be different (well maybe a little), it just called to me.  Still does.  On a local level, it's still kind of unusual for a woman to play bass, and I admit I enjoy being a novelty.  That's the Papa in me, for sure.

When our son announced that he was moving to LA to pursue his career, because that was where he felt he needed to be, nobody was a bigger fan of the idea than my Dad.  He always was in full favor of a grand adventure.  He had lots and lots and LOTS of stories, and of course you can't have lots of stories if you stay stuck in one place forever, especially this place. He also lived by the principle that if you want to get anywhere in life, you have to put yourself out there.  Nothing good ever happened to anybody who hung back and waited. 

Papa has been gone for two years now.  I miss him a lot, but like him, I have no regrets.  There was nothing left unsaid, no unfinished business, no harsh words that can never be taken back.  I can't begin to tell you how important that is.  I only wish he could have been around for his grandson's album release.  I know he would have been so proud!