Before and After

Hostas before.

 Hostas after!


The deer have decimated our prize, turkey platter leaved  hostas. They also chewed the flowers off all the impatiens including hanging baskets! I was so disheartened and Murphy's Law of course made this happen the day before our annual wave of summer visitors begins. All that yard work.......... Anyway, we sprayed the yard with the only thing we have found to work, Liquid Fence,  and of course the company arrived a couple hours later. Now if you have used this product you know what that means. For 24 hours it has the smell of death, urine, and rotten sneakers  pervading the air. Is your stomach turning yet? We shut all the windows and stayed inside. The next day we went out playing tourist for the day in Alexandria Bay, NY, and the lovely eau de garbage was gone by the time we got back home. We were able to enjoy a lovely cookout down by the river. No sign of our four footed friends since! You wouln't come back either if you smelled this stuff!


As we prepare and enjoy our annual wave of summer visitors up here in the Adirondacks the sewing is sparce. I  did get to finish the smocking on my Sand Dollar top and am pleased. I will probably hit that up first when I get back to the machine, that and Danny's Project. 


Hope you are all enjoying your summers as much as we are up here. The weather has been fabulous as is typical for an Adirondack summer. It's hot and dry  and sunny during the day and cool to sleep at night. Gotta love it. Happy sewing..........Bunny 

It's That Time of Year

Yes, it's the time of year when my heart gets tugged to the earth. I love to garden and we had to really put some effort in this year. You may remember that our septic tank was dug up and all sorts of ruination happened to my beds and the walkway. I have spent every moment this weekend getting it all back in order and I think it looks pretty good. The bed was expanded a bit and new perennials were put in. The hydrangea survived and a few perrenials came up in the piles of dirt that were shoveled aside so I was able to move them back into their spots. right below the "Sewista" you can see a brown square which was the corner of the tank and it will need to be reseeded. DH is talking about a new system although things seem OK for now. So this may all get moved around again. Everything is small and it is still early here in the Adirondacks but there are lots of astilbes, herbs, heucheras, ligularias and even roses in this bed. Next is to clean up the bed you see on the right and my way to the front door will be lovely.

This had to be done but I have been sewing and using fabric as well. My window boxes are the black iron with the cocoa mats and I find they just drain too easily. I found a way to help this while perusing the mags in the supermarket line the other night. They suggested lining the cocoa mats with felt. Now don't have a heart attack here. I have this grey and green piece of wool double cloth that I have looked at so many times and just can never get excited about. Olive green is NOT  my color. I happen to have over three yards of this at sixty wide so didn't hesitate to cut into it. I am glad it is finally seeing some use. My window box cocoa mats are lined with wool double cloth and I am happy about it. Pick yourself up off the floor now.  FWIW, they drain much more slowly and I'm happy about that too.

I have been sewing, really, but it is pickup sewing. That's what I call what is in a ziploc along with scissors and thread in the bottom of my bag. I take it out any time I have a few minutes and am getting a lot done. I making all sorts of little smocked gems to utilize in any number of ways. More to come on that later.
I do have some "light" sewing planned for myself. I am going to make this cotton stripe into one of Sham's famous tablecloth skirts. I want to outline the square that surrounds the waist with a teen bit of flat piping to jazz it up a bit. Not sure which of these fabrics I will use yet. I will give them each an audition and go from there.

We get lots of company at our home in the summer so the pressure is on to fix things up around the house and that has become the priority right now, gardening, cleaning, painting, home dec sewing. As long as I have that ziploc with its needle, thread, and scissors in my bag though, I feel like I am sewing productively. How is your summer going?  I hope your weather is as glorious as ours has been. I have been both places and Adirondack summers beat out New England weatherwise any day....Bunny