Teacher's Pet

My mom bought me a sewing machine about 5 years ago....it is still in the box!  Embarrassing, huh?  Well, not any more.  For six weeks in May and June I took a sewing class and I finally know where the power button is on a sewing machine (and that it even has one)! Seriously, my skills were so basic that I couldn't even turn my machine on, I tried once and I failed (miserably). 

 My first class project was a pillow.  Nice and simple.  I made the pillow for my son.  Since giving it to him, he has been taking it with him everywhere.  He sleeps with it every night.  I would say project number one = success!

I have also finished my second project.  It is a set of finger puppets.  I fell in love with these little cuties when I first saw them on Capture the moment and knew that this would have to be one of my very first projects to try my new learned sewing skills on.  They were a bit harder than they looked but once I gave up on trying to make them look so perfect, they started to look....er, well..... perfect. I'll be making these little puppets over and over again.  In fact, I think I am going to add to the collection, perhaps I'll design a couple of my own because you never really can have too many finger puppets laying around the house.  I think a giraffe, or elephant, or zebra would make a cute addition to this set....we'll see.

My sewing teacher told me that I was her best student.  It's funny, how some things never change.  I seem to have a knack for being the teacher's pet, even after all these years of being out of school.  I really am not a suck up, I just truly love learning.  Sewing is one of the hardest skills I have learned in a very long time...perhaps just behind learning how to be a good mother.

Say Hello to Summer.

 Hi Everyone! Sorry, I've been gone so long, it has been a few crazy busy weeks around this household.

Speaking of crazy: our Wisconsin weather! It seems we went from winter straight into summer and forgot about that season in between. During the span of two weeks, we have seen temperatures ranging from 30 degrees to 100 degrees! I was tent camping in the 40 degree weather and stuck without air conditioning in the 100 degree weather.

My garden seems to be doing well despite the fluctuations. I've been eating herbs from the garden for a few weeks now and have even been able to share some with friends.

Oh basil, how I want to eat you! Doesn't it look so pretty?  I'm glad to see it seems to be beating the cold weather it got hit with a couple of weeks ago (I wasn't so sure for a few days).

It seems my peonies love the 100 degree weather we had yesterday.  The buds opened up yesterday and they look so beautiful.  I planted these just a year and a half ago and I'm in love with them, they are so pretty against the brick of our house.  The colors in the photo are so vibrant that the whole thing almost looks fake, you'll have to trust me that it is the real deal!

Even the flowers on my chives look beautiful (they taste delicious too) and they are growing amongst my very healthy oregano plant. 

Each year I plant flowers in pots on the front steps of our house.  This year I went easy, it is hard to take care of these with a little human in the house.  

 
I also planted a few potato vines in my second floor window boxes, I haven't had much of a success with these in the past but I thought I would give it another try again this year.  I really want to see them hang down a couple feet for real drama.

Well I hope to post again real soon a show you all the projects I've been busy with for the last few weeks.  I hope you find some time soon to say hello to summer.