A Garden Kneeler

I used to have a little foam mat that I would grab to kneel on as I reached into my garden beds in spring when the ground is typically muddy.  Last year, the mat finally became trash; I can't even quite recall how, but I think it involved the children's play.

I would never buy such a thing now, so I made one with materials I had on hand (not going anywhere or buying anything much besides food because pandemic). I had a scrap of shower curtain, some outdoor fabric pieces, and an old life-preserver my father-in-law gave me filled with kapok. Kapok, I learned, is fluffy stuff from a tree that grows in the rainforest.

I first sewed a bag out of the shower curtain and filled it minimally with kapok.  I wanted some softness, but not a fat pillow.  Then I encased the whole thing in the striped outdoor fabric.  I meant to put a loop on one end for easier grabbing and carrying, but oh well: such is the state of my brain these days.

My rhubarb is coming out strong.  I just planted it last summer, so this is the first spring I will be able to harvest it.  I am thrilled!

I babied an expensive little clematis last year, and it appeared to die in August.  Oh, I was mad.  Now, something green and viney is coming in that space and I think it's the clematis! In this strange spring, I want all the green, growing hope I can find.

Here is Genevieve's new bunny, just a few months old, a mischievous little sweetie.  Genevieve named her Daisy Augusta Saoirse Diamond, and is entirely responsible for her.  There is so much joy in this relationship!  Daisy's poop is going be great in the garden.

I've planted spinach and snow peas in the raised bed, as well as spinach in some containers out front. I also snagged some basil and parsley seeds at the grocery store.   This is really all the room I have to start seeds in a sunny location; the rightful occupants of this windowsill are visiting other windows in the house. 

I'm relieved that my summer seeds arrived yesterday - I had gotten an email saying they would be delayed indefinitely - so I am trying to be on track with the garden and trying to continue learning. Seems like a good year to grow more of our food.

Still Here

I have plans to knit myself a robin's egg blue hat.  I'm almost done with a pair of striped socks for Phoebe. 

The superintendent came to the PTO meeting tonight, and I am now fired up about inequitable school funding and considering more ways to get involved. Mr. Thrift is not pleased, as I run intense about stuff like this and he would prefer I calm down. I might.

The oldest has a new pet, a sweet little bunny,  that she worked long and hard to prepare for, but I was still out to the Amish stores yesterday to buy pellets and see about getting hay for her to burrow in. 

I bought the most beautiful, soft fabric at the creative reuse store the other day - I think, I dare to hope, it may be cashmere; the strongest, most declarative green  - not kelly, not dark green, just a strong, rich green green.  

I overheard a standholder at market say she needed to get rubberbands for the egg cartons, and I had a bag of rubber bands down to her the very next market day because I am oversupplied.  We were both tickled.  And this is also the stand that still has local storage veggies, which I am so grateful for because buying and eating local food is my act of defiance and hope in the face of very large world problems.  

Phoebe has had a dreadful cough and of course, it is worst at night and people are sleeping poorly around here. We read the news about the coronavirus with disbelief and worry. 

I do laundry every day.  I keep up!  I keep the family in good food.  I have a sore foot that is healing very very slowly, so I can't jog as much and this is changing my mental and physical health.  I do Pilates.  I try. 

Ben has soccer games and soccer practices just about all the time (it seems).  He just absolutely loves it, so I try to work on my attitude about driving him all over creation.  We carpool, and I take my knitting along, and I enjoy my boy enjoying himself. 

I am studying sourdough bread.  I have borrowed books on the subject, and one or two blogs I read.  I made a few notes.  I make something with sourdough every week, as I have for about 10 years now, but I am tweaking and understanding it differently, and the feel of the silky strong dough is pure delight in my hands. 

I finished Phoebe's quilt.  That does really need its own blog post. I'll be back.

A Zipper Solution

Suddenly, 3 zippers at our house are snipped between the teeth, so the zipper slider flies right off the track when it gets to that spot.  Not good.  We think it may be from the bunny nibbling at the zippers when the children are snuggling her!

The one zipper is mostly decorative on Genevieve's top, another zipper is on Genevieve's hood so now she will wear a hat the rest of winter, but the other zipper is on Ben's only sweatshirt.  So I fixed it. 

I trimmed off the rest of the plastic teeth above the snip and bound the raw edge in bias tape.  I stitched extra hard to make a zipper stop, but if the zipper pull is being dragged up hard, it can still fly off.  Oh well.

 

 

 It's more functional now, and the kids have been warned to keep the bunny's teeth away from their zippers.  I'm not keen to replace coat zippers again!

A Little Rabbit Hutch

Mr. Thrift spent another Saturday stash-busting to build the bunny house for Diamond.  He designed it with a very secure back room, totally enclosed with only a hole entry for the bunny.  He was concerned about any prowling neighborhood animals, and wanted to give Diamond a place to be safe and feel safe because, apparently, rabbits can drop over dead of fright.  To wit:  when my sister and I were young, a dog escaped from a house several miles away and wound up in our backyard at 6 am, ripping the door off the rabbit hutch and terrorizing Melanie's bunny so much that it died.  My husband made a rock-solid little hutch to prevent this kind of heartbreak.

Unfortunately, Diamond poops all over the hutch, not just over the slats with the chicken wire underneath.  Silly wabbit.  My husband hung the dustpan and brush handily on the hutch, and provided a box underneath for the poop.  It goes on the compost pile then.

We're getting some hay from a friend's farm tomorrow, and then Diamond should be all set in her (his?) snug little house.

A Bunny and a (very casual) Bunting

We have a new 7-year-old in the house!  And she is the proud owner of a little brown bunny, picked up from the Amish farm as a surprise right after school.  This is a big deal.

Genevieve has pined and begged and schemed for a pet as soon as she was old enough to talk, which was pretty young. 

Finally, her father and I judged that a little outside bunny could suit everybody.  Rabbit hutches are not easy to come by for less than $200 around here, so my husband is doing some more stash-busting; I can hear the hammer banging as I type this.

Genevieve was so excited by her bunny that she ate approximately two bites of her requested chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. 

She told us the bunny is the best gift in the world, that she won't have to catch salamanders in the yard anymore - she'll save her attention only for her bunny.  I figure the salamanders owe me one.

On the birthday morning, I was suddenly seized with a bunting madness, and tore into my fabric in a kind of frenzy.  I don't know how these creative fits come on (too much Pinterest?), but I like to burn through when it's here.

I call this bunting "casual" because I finished no edges and cut out the triangles pretty fast; other people would call this sloppy in the extreme.  I was focused on a fun party vibe, so I chose chaotic colors and random bits of trim out of my stash.

(A useful side lesson:  sewing with fringe trim is tricky.) I wanted the bunting to look good from both sides, so I sewed together two triangles of the fabric that had a wrong side. 

 I strung the bunting around the dining room for the party, but had to take it out on the balcony this morning to try to get a better photo. I'll get it out for Ben's birthday in the spring; he is pleased that it makes the dining room look like a used car lot.