Garden of Thought

Wow, what a year amiright? I was stuck in my old house until September with my hubby holed up in the new house because he wanted to isolate while he worked on it and on his online job. This was okay, actually, if frustrating for me as I fretted over the new house's yard getting overgrown and whined about not getting to see the spring or summer flowers so I still don't really know what this yard has in it. BUT I was with my daughter and son-in-law in the old house which also needed work, and got to be there for her through her Expectation, as we are expecting a wee one in just a couple weeks here.

In Sept my hubby decided to head back to our little condo in CA to continue his hermitage so I was finally able to move furniture in and be Home. For about a week. Then our state caught fire and I had to go back to the old house which had a functional climate system unlike the unfinished new one. A couple weeks later, I could finally return so I've really only been "Home" for 2 months though we bought the house over a year ago.

Got a lot of work done on it in that time, and there's more in progress (the saga of the bathroom floor, the epic tale of the woeful furnace ducting, the gripping tale of the bedroom ceiling...)

And now we find they may induce my daughter a little early (still very close to due though, so not preemie time) meaning I am lurching into Grand level life very soon indeed. Next weekend, if all goes as planned (or as planned as such things can be). Time to roll up my sleeves and help a clueless young couple figure out which way is up on a baby!

Hope all is well with everyone out there, I've barely been online so I feel like I've lost track of a lot of you, bless you all.

While cleaning garden storage cupboards at our new place, I peeled off the old yellowed labels the previous owners had left (i.e. "PLANT CHEMICALS" etc.)

There's one longer cupboard up above with two doors both of which just said "EQUIPMENT". Peeling it off I found it originally said "ALCHEMY EQUIPMENT". From the pegboard inside it appears it was where they kept their watering wands. Hahaha! Wave them around and the dirt transforms into plants!

Our house weirdly came with two furnaces (one at either end) so we are in the process of notching the foundation and connecting the two ducting networks to make only one furnace. Where the second was pulled out is the perfect spot for a small pantry instead SO I decided that would be the uber-bright snap of color spot since it is only seen when putting away or fetching groceries. This project took me sooo long to do... My own fault for so many colors, all needing multiple layers and touch-ups.
Starting off... random outlining mostly. My only concrete idea was one oversized flower in it.




Details sloooowly filling in:

Sellers just agreed to our repair list and our loan is ticking along through the credit union just fine so I got excited and ordered address labels (hey, they better not change anything now! I ordered, y'know, ADDRESS LABELS). Heh.

Yippy! I get to pick out new paint and carpet! Aaargh! I have to find new paint and carpet that I actually like! What's with all these weird muddy colors out there? Why is so much interior decorating stuff the color of baby food or dirt?

I spent the day dredging stuff out of our lean-to and greenhouse, spreading half-full bags of fertilizer and dirt and such here and there around the property just to get rid of them, yippy! I am the Dirt Fairy! Aargh, why in heaven's name did I save so many plastic pots? I threw some away, others I think I'll take to the local nursery and see if they want to repurpose them. But really - SO. MANY. POTS. If the zombie apocolypse starts this month and the zombies can be held off by putting pots on their heads, I have us covered.

And what do I do with the entire front end of a truck? I'll have to find out where large metal thingys go. Then there's the giant pile of brush and branches that will have to be chipped... dear me. God bless people who are moving, we need all the help we can get.

Found a house! (been looking for nearly two years now) and made an offer - and now it's accepted and now we're going "Yay! Oh no! Yay! Oh dear! Yay! Oooooh boy look at all the things we have to do! Yay! Aaaargh! Yay!....."

I love the house though the kitchen is a little smaller than I would like, now the inspection has to happen this next week and I have to pray they don't find any 'deal-breakers' in that. It's so wonderfully funky, a mid-century modern with hexagonal living room and a fireplace tower going up to a cupola in the middle of it, an angled courtyard with a little waterfall into a small koi pond, an outdoor fireplace, a pergola with wisteria over it... aaaaa! It's difficult to wait for all the details and papers to work their way through now.

The wedding is done, thank heavens - we had a variety of snafus as often does occur... all the coffee I was given was whole bean and the only brewer was a giant percolator basket style one with no instructions, for instance - resulting in a panicked call to my parents to bring their coffee maker from their kitchen with them and any coffee they had in their cupboard. We completely forgot to put out the sparkling cider so I have all these bottles leftover....We had a lot of empty seats between the groom's family having almost no one there and so many of ours dropping out for various reasons... and they almost forgot to exchange rings - hastily put them on each other laughing just before heading back down the aisle. X-D

BUT - it was worth it! The dance processional to present the bride was amazing, and everyone had a good time. We're still waiting for the Good Pictures, but here's one to give an idea:

Situation: Son-in-Law gets back from Boot Camp.

His family: Long, nobly worded paragraphs posted about how proud they are of him, how he has grown to be A Man, etc (insert Hallmark card sentiments here). Photos of flags against the sun, military men lined up in crisp lines.

Our family: *weird hooting noises and kermit-flailing* *memes* *chasing each other around the room wielding spatulas in excitement* *impromptu group dance*

Well, we got through Bridal Shower Number One, which was the standard gathering of relatives kind, good game of dressing people with toilet-paper to create wedding gowns for entertainment and my mom brought Costco food platter things. We then hit re-set on the house and geared up for Bridal Shower Number Two - a tea with dancers and friends that needs more work.

Then the weather decided it was going to ice and snow and we had to reschedule it 2 weeks down the pipe. Now I've got to figure how to keep my house "nice" for 2 weeks with a table full of tiered tea trays and crystal. Pbbbbbt.

In the meantime my daughter is staying with me working on beading her bridal skirt and making a lace-up turkish vest to match her white-and-silver-jacquard dance belt. Today that means learning how to set grommets for the laces so we're practicing on scrap fabric first.

Less than a month to go!

I've been slowly allowing myself to watch season 2 of Miraculous Ladybug the way a dieter nibbles on that singular box of chocolates knowing they won't have any more for a long time. Only annoyance was I could only find them in English and I really hate the English voice acting, the French is SO much better.

Seriously, WHY do they have to make Nino always sound like he's stoned? Why is Adrien so whiny and worst of all, why the heck does Plagg sound like an annoying Disney sidekick? I love them all well enough I watch it even when it's painful but, ugh.

Was quite excited when my daughter said she had them in French and we are now going to watch them together with better voicing, woo!

We finally found a venue for my daughter's wedding in March - had to nudge the date over a week as someone else had already copped the first choice, but SO glad to have that booked. It's in an old barn that's been revamped into a very nice events space with a huge wooden dance floor and a stage, there's big rafters up above already pre-strung with lights. Woo!

Now I finally know some things for certain like the date, the place and how many windows we need to decorate. They have a big entry that the bride and groom come in through with a curtain rod 9 feet up. She didn't care for the curtains they had available to rent so I'm getting some sheers for it and we'll add swoops of sparkly tulle on the sides in her chosen ocean blue color. I think it'll look pretty good and not cost much so win-win!

Now to things like culling the guest lists and so on, still a lot to do. She wants cake toppers that are a chibi crow and dove so we'll make those from sculpy ourselves. Her groom shipped out to Basic training a couple weeks ago and she didn't take it too well but is getting better now that she's received some letters.