Starting to come together.......

I got some great news on Thursday!! I finally heard from my friend in Libya & he and family are all ok *whew*. I've been pretty worried about them with  all that's going on over there. Friday the youngest & I had a busy day..... trips to Kroger, gas station *ouch*, Lowe's - where I scored tomato & pepper plants for 50 cents each and a new bathroom faucet, then on to hubby's work where I got some free pallets. Free pallets = free compost bin which makes me a very happy girl :) Here's pics of my new compost bin......it ain't pretty but it'll get the  job done and again with the free part lol.

Today the kiddos dug post holes for me while I was out running a couple errands. Their reward was lunch from taco bell. And my score for the day while running errands was finding myself a pair of super cute shoes *happy dance*

I do so love shoes :)

Weekend Fun

Saturday was my birthday so I requested the day off from work. Normally I work every Saturday whether it's my birthday or not but this year a local fiber festival happened to be going on & I miss it every year thanks to working every Sat so this year I decided to change that. My day started off with hubby fixing me breakfast before he headed to work & as he was leaving he said "buy yourself something pretty while you're there" Well now when the man gives you the all ok like that you don't argue right? I met up with a local knit friend & we rode together. On the way my sister called me to wish me happy birthday & tell me she luvs me *awww*
I spent the day working the raffle table with my friend..... we were peddling tickets to win a portable spinning wheel, and watching 1 of the vendors baby - man was she ever a sweet lil angel! I managed to come home with 3 skeins of hand painted yarn. I had bought 2 & told myself I was done - I am on a yarn diet this year after all. But then when David had to go show the new owner of the wheel how to pack it up & give them all the details about it I told him I'd watch his table for him and I fell right off the wagon. If only the dratted man didn't have a sign saying "we accept Visa & Mastercard" I would have been alright as I'd only brought a small amount of cash with me since I know my willpower is not the best LOL  So here is a pic of my bday yarn: the blue/green one is David's yarn

After the fiber festival I came home & spent a quiet evening with hubby & the boys. Then today we decided since it was so pretty out to go for a picnic & they were fishing while I sat beside the river knitting. I worked on my boneyard shawl for most of the day. Here's a pic of that now:

And here's the scenery down by the river:

Done Done Done.....

I've managed to check a few things off the ole' to do list this week *yay*
For starters the bathroom is painted!! Now it still needs another coat since I was going over cream with white but still it looks a million times better. I didn't take pics yet b/c I want to wait until I've done the 2nd coat but there will be pics I promise. Now a certain someone reminded me not too subtly mind you last night that I have been neglecting my blog......I bet she'll be happy to see a post here today ;)
I have finished the baby blanket as well & that I do have pics of:

Next I'll make a couple hats then I'm all done. I have some cotton that's blue, green, white variegated which should work quite nicely. And I've gotten some of my things I ordered from Gurney's so far.....the black walnut tree came last week & is in a big pot on the carport - poor thing looks like a stick in the mud LOL
Yesterday the blueberry bushes, dwarf orange tree & the flowers came. I took some pics of them this morning as well:

It's Here!!!

My wood stove was delivered this morning!!! I'm really excited - as if you couldn't tell by the first sentence lol I can't wait for hubby to get it installed & for cold weather so we can have a fire to warm up with. It's gonna be hard work getting it downstairs though - 455# :O   Here's a pic:

And as promised here are pics of 2 of my apple trees. I totally forgot to write down which tree I planted in which spot but 1 is a Gala & the other is a Golden Delicious.

Gardening Fun

I have my fencing already to fence off part of the back yard. I think this week the boys & I are going to start digging post holes so I can get the fence put up then I can start planning what I want to put in there & where. I also have to go get my wood for the garden boxes & some more soil. I have some soil from last year & I have 2 big trash cans of compost that have been "cooking" all winter. I put in an order with Gurneys earlier this week. I'm getting a walnut tree, blueberry bushes, coffee plant, sweet leaf plant, dwarf orange tree, hibiscus, lavendar, roesmary & some flowers I found on sale. Got an email this morning saying they are shipping today *happy dance*  I can't wait to get started. Now I need to sit down & figure out what seeds to order from seed savers exchange. I want to plant corn, potatoes, peas, beans, lentils, barley, cucumbers, squash, lettuce, herbs......oh the list goes on & on. Sometimes I have to just stop my thoughts & take a deep breath because I get to going so fast. :D   I'm happy to say the apple trees are now blooming like the peach trees....yay.
In other good news this is the year I get to get a wood stove!!! I'm so happy! I have wanted one for years & this year finally we can do it. We're getting a bigger model than originally planned b/c we want one that will heat the whole house. The floors upstairs are just not sturdy enough to put a wood stove on so hubby would have to build them up so we decided to get the bigger model & put it in the basement. That just means hubby will have to run the pipe up from the basement to the attic & of course box it in. But that means next winter.......barely there gas bill & lower  electric bill. *woot*  We have gas heat but even then you electricity powering the blower fan. So now all we'll have for a gas bill is what we have in summer.....just the water heater. I'd like to eventually go off the grid or at least as much as possible. I'm also working towards getting bills low enough that I can quit working. Heading towards that goal I cut the cable off last month. :O  I can be home all day and not once turn the tv on and when I do watch tv it's a few of the primetime shows on the main networks. We have a digital tv so add an antenna & voila..... suits my needs just fine. The guy at the cable company didn't seem to agree but since he's not the one paying the bills.........
Sorry there are no pics today - I'll take pics of my pretty apple trees for next time & of course there will be pics of the new plants from Gurneys :)

WIP Day

Today I have pics of 2 of my current wip's (work in progress - for those who don't knit). First up is my Boneyard Shawl - oh my this pattern is super addictive! And I love how the Wollmeise is knitting up.

Next up is the baby blanket for my coworker who is due with her second son in July. She & her hubby are big football fans & the babies room will have a snoopy sports theme so I thought this would be perfect :)

What A Day!

So we are finally getting around to some of the remodel projects I've wanted to get done for awhile now. My bathroom being the worst room..... I'm pretty sure there were some good drugs involved in the picking of the color scheme. There's really no other explanation for cream colored walls outside of the shower, seafoam green tile on the walls inside the shower, brick red linoleum on the floors & a dark brown cabinet. All mind you in a teeny tiny bathroom...... nauseous yet?? Well here are some pics to finish you off:

 

 Now the cabinet has already been removed - hubby did that for me last weekend. The pic is upside down & sideways if that makes sense but I forgot to take
pics before he removed it, halfway destroyed it & tossed it outside so....
We now have a nice white cabinet in there. And today I went & bought ceramic tile to cover that hideous linoleum with  *happy dance*
I'm proud of myself I only spent 2 hours in Lowe's wandering around adding to my wishlist :D
But I came home with backer board & screws - can't lay ceramic tile on just anything ya know. The tile, mortar, grout, trowel,etc. Also picked up an insulator for my water heater - not the most attractive thing but I bet it will save on my gas bill so who cares? Spickets for my rain barrels, a handle for my water faucet in the backyard (thanks to Bully boy eating the last one) and a roll of fencing for the backyard. I still need to figure out what posts I want to use for the fencing & get them but not bad for a days work....
Now for some pretty spring pics - remember last time I talked about my peach & pear trees? Well here you can see first hand:

 these are my peach trees
<------ the one that almost died last year
and this one ------>
is the 2nd one I bought later in the season which is why it's so much smaller. And below we have the pear tree out front.  Behind the Pear tree is 1 of the apple trees. They seem to have been hit harder by winter this year :( but they are all still alive & in fact have little leaves so I'm not too concerned yet.