I've been busy...

 

Things have been busy around my house this past week...  We've been doing DIY in our backyard this summer.  Besides weeding and pruning back branches and cutting down  small trees where we don't want them (don't worry, we are not deforesting!  We have quite a huge surplus of trees!)  I convinced my husband to put a new staircase on the opposite side of our deck.  "It will be easy!", I said.  "It will take you an afternoon. It's only three steps!",  I said.  So he removed a section of our deck and he began to build new stairs...  Well it took a little longer than an afternoon!  We had thunderstorms in the morning and got a late start. Now almost finished, and has just a few edge boards to cut and nail onto the railing.  All we needed was 30 minutes more but another really strong thunderstorm rolled in and we had to stop.  I cleaned out and extended a garden on one side of the deck and I have another to clear and put in today on the side next to the new steps.  The steps look awesome!  My husband did a really great job!  Having them where they are now makes access to the yard so much easier and the open space makes it more inviting to the rest of the yard! 

 

I finished a pillow I started last week.  It started as a color experiment and evolved into a pillow.  It's a giant granny square that I embellished with some fern like plants, flowers and of course, a dragonfly!  (the quilted pillow in the first pic is a bear paw pattern that I pieced and quilted last summer.  I made two of them for the couch.  Last summer was all sewing and quilting.  This summer it seems crocheting is my obsession!)

 

 

 

The back is another giant granny square in a variegated yarn.

 

I crocheted and took out about five different edgings before I settled on this one.

I'm also working on some hexagon blocks.  I have yet to decide what they are going to be made into.  (ignore the cat hair I just noticed!)

 

 

The colors did not come out true, the green is more mossy looking and the red is a little deeper in color.  The pattern is called African Flower with an extra color change in the flower.  The colors and design were inspired by this fabric...

 

I love, love this fabric!  I bought it last summer without any project in mind.  Just couldn't pass it up.  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I made it into this bag that I keep my project yarns in.

 

It took a long time for me to get up the nerve to cut into it!  I just wanted to make sure that whatever I used it for, I was going to like. I was  unable to purchase more of the fabric as the shop I got it from closed.

I'm also working on a cover for my Mom's stool.

 

The stool is quite old and the cane is starting to unravel.  My cats keep playing with the loose pieces making it worse, so I crocheted a granny square piece for the top.

 

It sits near the entrance of my kitchen from the family room and are these are the colors in both rooms.  I still have to add a border.  I'm thinking something light and loopy.  It's still a work in progress, but now the cats can't pull on the loose pieces!

Of course I have been doing project planning, putting together assessment models and making poster after poster for my two rooms at school.  I have my beginning projects planned out for my K-5's.  I  have to make my examples and finish mapping out the rest of the school year. I'm going to try and get up to school the second week in August to get my supplies unpacked and my rooms together.  I have the entryway bulletin board to do in one of my schools. It needs to be up before the first day of school.  I already know what I am going to do, it's just a matter of making everything and putting it up!    Well, back to the backyard...