A Delicious Day

I love it when you wake up in the morning to the sound of birds singing and you can feel that soft, warm, gentle breeze floating through the open window, and you look outside and realize with great joy in your heart that the sun is shining brightly in a perfectly clear, blue sky, and all the grass and trees are swaying softly, all green and beautiful, and there's a scent of blossoming flowers...

Yeah. I'm pretty much in love with today.

I have been anticipating this Monday of all Monday's for quite some time. Today we officially start going crazy with preparations for my graduation party - which is this coming Saturday - and while we've been planning with a vim that is thrilling to see, and have pretty much got the displays and decor to a state near completion, we still have to do all the cooking, cleaning, arranging, and then there's the lawn...

The thing that I'm the most worried about how the yard will look. How sad is that? 

The yard is beautiful, but the grass must be mowed...

And I really want to mow it myself, but I just don't know yet how that is going to work out, because I'm going to be so busy, that if it is raining on Friday, it won't happen, and it sure isn't going to happen before then. Unless Dad does it, but we'll see what comes of the situation.

So, today we're making chicken salad. Or at least cooking the chicken...I think we're making the salad, but I'm not positive on that. And there's a lot of chicken...

I don't even like chicken all that much.

Also, I have to practice my 14 dances - my first dance recital of the year is on Thursday!!! I'm so excited. 

It's going to be a crazy week.

But you know me - I thrive on crazy :)


"Cats are a mysterious kind of folk." ~Walter Scott


"One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honour or observation." ~Walter Scott

What you don't expect when you're Mowing...

It was a deliciously sunny, hot, breezy day - not exactly perfect for mowing the lawn since it's so windy that the grass clipping kept blowing into my eyes (SO not pleasant!), but despite such minor discomforts, it was really quite enjoyable! Plus, I flatter myself that I do a really neat & somewhat pretty job on the lawn, so I took pleasure in that, too, as I rode about on the Husqvarna, clipping the green growth to an even length...

Then something highly unusual occurred.

As I angled the mower towards a part of the yard that is near the road, I glanced up to see a lovely, tall, brown horse cantering over the field across the road - directly towards me!

At first I didn't react. I was like "Oh, cool - there's a horse. Pretty..." and just kept mowing for a few seconds while this sunk it.

Then I was like "Wait! Why is there a horse?!!?!?" (by now the horse was prancing on the road, about 30 feet away from me) "Pretty sure that's not supposed to happen."

Now, I don't have a lot of experience with horses, so I was not about to attempt to catch what by now was obviously a runaway horse - especially not without knowing how tame it was.

So what do I do?

I'll tell you, I turned my mower around and sped away back up towards the house.

Yep. Mowing all the way.

I eventually thought about this sensibly, parked the mower and ran the rest of the way.

The rest of the story is fairly uneventful - I found Mom out back, trimming the grass around the house, and yelled at her "There is NOT supposed to be a HORSE on the ROAD!!!" (yeah, I think that's pretty much exactly what I said) and she looked at me, all confused, and said eloquently; "huh!??" so then I explained, she ran around the house (going around the most inefficient way possible to get inside), called Dad, then called the radio station to report that a crazy horse was walking along down the busy U.S. highway...doesn't seem exactly safe  - or it wouldn't be, except that what is normally a fatally busy highway just happens to be closed for road construction right now, so the horse was probably not really being as silly as one might think at first...

This is where my story concludes. I went back to mowing, the horse kept walking until it went over the hill and was out of sight, and the last I heard was the the highway patrol people were driving along beside it, wondering what to do, since apparently no one knows yet who the horse belongs to.

I personally think this is all quite hilarious.

Epically amusing.

Stimulating cachinnation...

Yeah, you get the idea. I'm laughing. :)

Cookie Salad and Rhubarb Wars

Today something unheard of happened in the barn-house kitchen. Are you ready for the shock?

*drumroll*

We made cookie salad.

I know, I know. Not that shocking.

For some people.

But for me? I'm pretty sure this has never happened before. (Mom doesn't really...appreciate...cookie salads. Sad for her, right?) But I do. I appreciate the wonderful concoction known to mankind as cookie salad. Therefore, it has been assembled in our kitchen and is waiting (well, sort of waiting....) to be consumed with dinner this very evening.

Yay!

Doesn't it look appetizing???

I think so, anyway.

Oooh, you wanna know what else happens on crazy Friday nights? Rhubarb duels. 

Yeah, you know that's right. 

Just...don't ask  how these things get started, okay? Thanks. :)

Looks like fun, doesn't it? 

Obviously Mom thinks so...

Until you get stabbed.

Well, that's what happened to me, anyway. Trudi lost by a fit of merriment. It was most amusing. 

"Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it." ~L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables

Craziness Continues

So, I've been silent for almost a month...not sure how that happened, but I intend to make it up to you now with an extra-exciting post about a lot of random happinesses (of course that's a word) that I have been experiencing. And yes, I like words that start with 'ex-'. :)

To start off with, I had a project that I wanted to share with you. One of my attempts at creating something without using a pattern, (other than to get the correct shape & size - I'm not that good) so here are some pictures: (note - it's not finished yet, so don't expect pictures of the final outcome just now)

These are the fabric scraps that were in the cupboard. I stared at them and pondered it overnight before I came close to deciding what to do with them...

A quick sketch of the design I came up with. Now, to accomplish...

The velvety fabric was SO stretchy that I lined each piece individually before I began the assembly.

I know the grains of the fabric are going opposite directions, but I thought it actually had a uniquely fun effect.
Oh, by the way, this is the front of what was becoming a vest. :)

The completed vest. I really liked it - alas for my impulsive scissors ...

Although this is kinda fun, too - I just need to finish it. Finding a way to attach that skirt was NOT easy. I think I ended up with elastic...there was much room for improvement in construction process, to say the least...
but this is how it's looking right now.

And this is what Bootsy thought of my endeavors...

So that was my latest sewing adventure...I wasn't sure if I was pleased with it or not, but I think I'm getting closer to being able to go back to it. I have a whole big plan for the finish...or I will eventually. ;)

~*~*~*~

Moving on - It has been crazy (more that usual) at my house this month. We're preparing for my graduation party, which is going to be the second day of June. I finally go my invitations made and sent off, and then my mother and I turned our sights to the bookshelves in our 'library'. (You can sort of see how they looked in the picture above Bootsy ^ ) Mom and I decided that we could re-organize all the books and then put some of them away in order to have shelves to make little displays about my life. I know, this is a very self-centered project, but Mom and I are having so much fun being crazy together, eating Smarties, and being artistic (we think), that it's actually more about spending time together and sharing memories than creating a display - although that is what we are, in fact, doing. 

Here's some more pictures: 

Here's how the library looked whilst we wreaked havoc...

I guess I took pictures after it had gotten somewhat organized....oh well. You can imagine the chaos, surely. :)

After we tore all the books off the shelves (the vacuum cleaner came in quite handy - there was dust) we sorted through, disposed of a few, and then bagged up the rest and piled them in a discreet corner of the house.

Now the real fun could begin. 

This was the first section we did - 'Childhood'. A lot of memories tucked in there...

I love this shelf. I don't think it's quite finished yet, but you get the idea of my fantasy-love. :)

And there be classics.

I was having some fun with angles. This is from a corner of the ballet shelf. 

This is what I did yesterday morning - cut out little paper-doll-like pictures of myself so mom could place them as her humor suggested itself.  

Don't be alarmed - the glove is not going to attack you. I don't think...

This is my 'costuming' shelf. There are pictures of me in costumes I've either made or put together, drawing I've done,  etc. *happy sigh*

I was Juliet in Shakespeares 'Romeo & Juliet' when I was 14 years old. It made a huge impression on my life, I think. Therefore, there is a shelf. 

And a dagger. And I had a bit of fun with that 'poison' bottle and label... 

So that's what I've been up to - along with trying to learn 14 dances for recital. Yikes. I'm getting close, though! I only have 2 weeks of classes left. It's sort of a bittersweet-sad thing, and even though I'm really excited to move on with my life (college!!!) I'm going to miss my dance classes a LOT. So these next few weeks are going to have to be awesome, so I can treasure the memories forever. :)

"All it takes to triumph over adversity is the conviction that you can" Author unknown

"We know what we are, but not what we may be." ~William Shakespeare

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." ~William Shakespeare, Hamlet