The Plants are Growing

Another couple of weeks and I can put the tomato plants outside. All the seedlings made it---I clipped off the extras so they are one per soil clod. I didn't do that with the Basil. I love Basil for everything from Pesto to adding to salads and pastas so I didn't clip any out. I will have to make sure they get enough water and fertilizer since they will be crowded.

I've never been able to kill Coleus, so I'm not too concerned about the crowding or lack of separation. It will add so much color to the yard even though it's very shady.

The Avacado, which really has taken off, on the front porch for the summer. It is growing by leaps and bounds and I'm looking around for several larger pots so I can repot as I need to this summer. I think this will end up being a very large houseplant.

Playing Catch-Up Around the House

My sister and I have teamed up to eliminate a few items off our "To-Do Lists". Last week we worked together to replace her Powder Room base cabinet, sink and faucet. We struggled a little with getting the old water lines out and had to cut the cabinet floor to remove it. Our battery powered drill had no power. That showed us down a bit. But after a fabulous grilled trout and fresh salad lunch, there were no leaks when we finally finished installing the new cabinet and turned on the faucets! I'm presently looking for an inexpensive small towel bar and a backsplash too. She wants to make a seaside-tropical fish-type room. It's already a gold color and the blues will only make it look prettier. We'll keep tweaking that room a little more later....



This week we conquered the hideous clutter and junk in my darkest basement room. We sorted through a rack full of paint and divided it into floor paints, exterior paints and miscellaneous tiling supplies. There was wood spread all over the place and half-done jobs on the island work table and debris on the brick floor. We installed a pull chain shop light and inserted the daylight flourescent tubes--until yesterday there was only a lone light bulb.....the darkness has been my excuse for the inexplicable method of keeping the paint and supplies organized. It's still not a McMansion-finished-basement type room, but it's bright and organized! Our lunch was at The Cafe in the Oliver House downtown ---no we weren't so dirty we couldn't go out. I had purchased a $10 certificate for The Cafe on Restaurant.com for only $1.20. With two lunches and two cappuchinos, the bill was only $12.00 with the tip. Downtown was busy because it was opening day at the Mudhens.

Teaming up to do jobs like this is the way to go.

Finally Finished With My Faux

The tile is in. Here is the picture. Pat, pat, pat. That's the sound of me patting myself on the back. Well, it was a long haul you know. Lots of dabbing & spraying and then I had to build up the base with mortar so the tile would be flush with the real ones when I glued it in. Actually, this is really a Trompe L'Oeil job.

The entire apartment is finished and ready to go. Now I can get back to some serious knitting.....oh wait.....now there's yard cleanup. The plaid washcloth I started last night is going to have to wait a bit.

When I came home from the hospital last August, my DN (Dear Neighbor) brought me a huge vegetarian pasta feast and brought DH a pasta dish with meat. The basket of food included gorgeous brown heirloom tomatoes grown by another neighbor. I saved some of the seeds and I'm hoping they make it without damping off. The tomato was chocolate brown and tasted so good---like a beefsteak but better. Here's my

tray of future Heirloom Tomatoes.

Sometimes Old Houses are Rough Work

The tile job in the bathroom at the rental is finally finished. I just have to go back to do one final cleaning, make sure the oven works, do a few little touch up things. The front yard needs to be raked and the front porch floor has peeled! Anyway, the tile job wouldn't have taken all that long, but I just can't keep at it like I used to. My back is my excuse....plus I was trying to get my sock project finished....which I did that too. Here's the sock. There are two; I could only hold one above my head at a time for the photo.

It was hard to get a nice photo of the sock with a foot in it. Next time I will do the pictures flat on a table.

I'm already thinking about my next project. I have a huge stash of yarn in my closet. I'm going through it tonight to figure out my next project. I pull out the yarn, and then search for the yarn type on Ravelry to see what everybody is making with theirs.
And yes, I will install the faux tile in the blue fireplace. It only needs the gloss clearcoat now.

Can't Faux Worth a DARN!

Here's the blue fireplace in our apartment. I cut a piece of tile from the bathroom project to fit the hole in the lower left corner. I'll draw grout lines on it and I'll spray it with a nice shiny clearcoat. But so far, it doesn't look so good. I dabbed on the basecoat and tried to mottle it so it looks like one of the tiles, but it's harder than it looks! Each tile has varigated shades of a blue to aqua to almost black on them.



Here is what I have so far. It's just the first coat. I can tell already that I will never be hired for my artistry and there are probably about four more coats in my future!












See what I mean?


In other news, I did ok at Kroger today. 53%. I bought OJ, light bulbs and a couple of plug adapters for the apartment and some frozen Ore Ida hash browns without coupons. Yes, all those items were thrown in the cart by my husband. I was not prepared for that. But the good news is I didn't have to load the car, carry it to the house or put it away by myself so it was worth it. The 53% even included free items on my cellfire card ---a free 39oz container of Maxwell House Coffee (woohoo) and a free 20 oz. Coke. The free items were from the basketball game they have going on their website.

Lasagna; Regular and Vegetarian

I made two pans of Lasagna today. One for dh and a smaller one, vegetarian style, for me. I left out the egg for mine and the beef, substituting Boca Crumbles. I need to pick up some TVP to use for substitutions. Those Boca anythings are expensive. I had plenty of help in the kitchen. Duke helped me by cleaning off spoons before I put them in the dishwasher and Bink and the Dachshunds were there for moral support. I already had a piece of mine. It was really good. Really above normal good. Duke likes vegetarian food too.

Duke got a bath last night and is wearing the nice St. Pat's Scarf that my sister put on him. He spent part of the day at his Ciocia's house visiting his brother, Princeton. It was a lot easier for me to pick up "yard debris" while he was gone yesterday.

Late Winter Yard Clean-Up

Today is sunny and almost 40 degrees, so my plan is to ready my bucket and pick up dog poop. It sounds like a good way to ruin a good day, doesn't it? I have a few Target bags which are perfect for heavy loads (pun intended) and I'll use the bag to line a plastic cat litter container so I can make the job go quickly. I know I won't get it all since there is still a lot of snow out there, but I can make a big dent. There are plenty of sticks and things around too that I can get. I'll have less to do later because believe it or not, we are only 7 weeks away from last average frost. I'll be going over to our rental house yard too, since it has to look spiffed up before I try to rent it later this month.
I may even be able to wash the windows in the garage that face my patio pit. They face south and it gets warm enough even now that I can do the inside and outside.
Yup, rather than go out there and see nothing but work, I'm going to go out there and enjoy just being out there without having to wear layers of clothes, gloves, a hat and the warm things I put in my shoes when it's really cold!