My internal alarm clock has been going off super early lately - like 3 or 4 am. Yuck. But, I can sometimes fall back to sleep a little bit. Sunday morning I was up at like 5:30am. I decided to take advantage of the coolness of the morning and start weeding. I set the sprinkler in the back yard and weeded the front flower beds. Then, I'd go in the back, move the sprinkler and weed back there. I kept hopscotching back and forth until about 10:30am and I got it alllllll weeded! Here's Rocky looking over my dead weeds. This was really only about 1/3 of it, I had three giant trash bags full besides what's on the ground here! While the yard was still damp I sprinkled 'weed and feed' over it in the hopes of bringing some of the grass back to life.
I have to say that my back and legs were SO sore Sunday and the next few days! OMG. Like so sore. My next yard challenge is going to be pulling the foxtails out of my raised bed, and cleaning rocks out of the flower beds in the back. Next month I am going to see if I can re-seed the grass. The weed and feed container said I need to wait 30 days to re-seed.
Saturday morning I made it to farmer's market. I was looking for cucumbers. Last year I totally spaced it until the end of the Summer and by that time pickings were few. I got there about mid morning and there were still lots of cukes! I bought a few pounds, fresh garlic, jalapenos and dill. Super fresh, beautiful, fragrant produce! Perfect for pickles.
Sunday afternoon I set about making some spicy garlic dill pickles. I know I've said before that canning is so much easier in my new kitchen, but seriously it is SO nice! I've got lots of counter areas which made it cool to have "stations". I also love my dishwasher! I washed the jars while I was cleaning up the cucumbers and cutting the jalapenos and peeling the garlic. The water started to boil right about when the dishwasher cycle ended which was perfect for processing. The jars need to be warm so that when you add the jars to the boiling water it's not a shock - there's a chance a jar could break if it's put in cold. I've never had that happen but it's better to be safe.
It never ceases to impress me how pretty pickles are. My kitchen smelled so delicious!
After finishing the pickles I wanted to get some sewing done. I went into the sewing room and who did I find in the closet snuggled with fabric? George! How cozy is she?
I decided to make some fabric baskets. I've been thinking it would be cool to have some to hold random stuff. I used the measurements from the 1 hour basket tutorial on Craftsy. I didn't follow the tutorial, just got the measurements from it. After making this one I wish I had actually read the directions. Not sure what I was thinking but I left an opening for turning along the top edge instead of the lining! It would have made my life easier to do it that way - now I'll remember for next time.
I made two at the same time with different facings. This top one is a super stiff facing. Not exactly my favorite. The facing had a "memory" and kept some of the curl from being on the cardboard bolt. I'm not a fan. Plus turning it inside out was a super pain. boo
This second one I used a soft fleecy facing that I use for my project bags. I was pleasantly surprised that it held up like a basket. I was afraid it would fold in on itself but it stands up nicely. Currently I don't have anything in this pink floral one but I'm sure I'll fill it up with something soon!
I plan on making some shorter versions to put on my rolling cart to hold a few things like scissors and such.
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