Cuffs and Gardens

Summer is on the horizon.  Phil and I flip flop a bit in our normal routine in the summer.  He takes on odd jobs during the summer months, works around our home as Mr. Fix it, and spends a lot of time with the children, and is not driven by schedules and work related to do lists.  I try and balance household responsibilities with a long list of yearly chores:  a deep house clean, working in the garden to provide food for our family for the Summer and Fall, preserving food, homeschool planning for the year to come...things that are easier to do with a second person helping with the children.

I so enjoy these days of hard work, sunshine, long daylight hours, and feeling accomplished.  This switchover is just around the corner and I am anxious for it.  Anxious to get working on my to do list, anxious to have Phil home and have family time, anxious for adventure and fun, anxious for the extra relaxation even in the midst of so much to do, and anxious for the little extra time to be introverted (I can head out in the garden to work or take a walk first thing in the morning and I enjoy quiet)!  We are on the 4 week countdown.

Incidentally, this can be a challenge as well as I have never quite figured out how to keep up with household chores and meals, when I am busy doing my once a year tasks or when we are out and about.  We have hit that time now.  I want to be outside working but I still have school to teach, meals and clean up, laundry, and the added time of bath routines which become almost a daily necessity in the warmer months of the year (how do the children get so covered in dirt?).  These last couple of weeks require much stamina as Phil is very busy with end of the year testing and wrapping up the school year and overwhelmed with how much there is to do and I am trying to add extra hours worth of work into 24 hour day that already filled.  We are both tired and ready to retire for the evening by 7:00 which doesn't exactly work in a house with 5 children who get a second wind in the evening.

And then of course, my mind is always swirling with creative ideas and I want to find time to experiment with design and work on business related crafty things.

Here is my latest project:  crochet cuffs with felted or crochet embellishments and beadwork.  This is my first prototype.  One of the challenges that I am finding is how to put forth a product that uses top quality material and design but that I can make affordable.  These don't really match up LOL.  Take for instance, this cuff.  The crochet band is made of fingering yarn (which is very fine, often called sock yarn) it works up more slowly than even light (sportweight) yarn but it looks really nice because the stitches are tiny and intricate and the edging is smoother.  So, do I make the cuffs more affordable by using bigger yarn and therefore taking 45 minutes (just to build the cuff) or do I up the price for the detail of the cuff which take an hour and a half.  Do I use the cheaper (still nice and soft) cotton acrylic mix of yarn or do I use beautiful silk and wool mixes that are 3 times the cost.  Do I use vintage buttons or something I got at JoAnn's with a sale coupon?  This is probably the difference between 15 and 25 dollars (although to be sure, I haven't timed myself or added up the cost of materials).  I also am finding that I am not a detail work kind of person.  I don't want to spend an hour embroidering and and sewing in ends and doing small intricate designs.  I think it looks nice but I don't have a creative eye for that kind for small detail and tend to get bogged down by it .  My vision for the cuffs was to add lots of detail and embellishments and make them busy and crazy but I think a simple cuff with a focal point might be a better way to go cost wise (and perhaps sanity wise).  I have a few more bands worked up and a few more felted flowers and some crochet medallions and I am looking forward to craft night (every Wednesday Phil does dinner and clean up and I have a several hour chunk of time to dive into a project) so I can put them together.

What do you think?

Oh the garden, what a mess.  I spent so much time weeding but without mulching, the weeds just came back.  A little disheartening really.  I am far behind in my garden this year.  I managed to get the early spring seeds planted and a few weeding weekends but that it is.  I have some plants languishing in pots that really need to get in to the ground but I don't have a clean, weed free bed to put them in.

This was all weeded and ready to be turned into the final raised bed in the 3 tier system that we put together this year.  Luckily, most of the "weeds" are actually sunflowers and easy to pull.

Tomatoes are in.  Yesterday, after lunch, I went outside with the mission of weeding and planting the tomatoes.  They are in and fertilized YAY!  These have become a household necessity.  Not only do we feast on tomatoes throughout the season but we go through tons of homemade salsa.  If I can only can a couple of things, jam and salsa would be it!

Delicious looking strawberries just beginning to ripen.  I didn't notice the big weed next to them until I was typing this.  LOL.  

Enjoying big beautiful poppies. 

California poppies are actually weeds our garden but I do like them along the fence line and sporadically filling in the leftover spaces.

Tracy discovered this nest precariously perched in the grape arbor.  Can you see the mama's tail feather sticking out on the left?  Someday, we plan on putting lots of bird houses on the fence posts.  Yesterday, as I was weeding there was a constant sounds of baby birds tweeting coming from the bird house as the mom and dad were busy bringing them food.  Such a delight!