Projects. Of the many currently in process, I'm starting to see actual results on a few ...
The sweater is finished. Actually, it's been finished for some time, but I keep forgetting to charge the camera batteries. Maybe next week - in fact, definitely next week, along with pics of ...
Next weekend's Renaissance Fair costume. I have all the pieces cut out for the underskirt, blouse, hat, and most of the vest. All that remain to cut out are the outer vest surface (the layer that shows) and the overskirt; but since they are plaid, and I'm a little obsessive about matching the plaid lines perfectly, I'll be putting the rest of the outfit together over the next three evenings, and tackling the plaid from start to finish on Friday (I have Friday off in exchange for working BC Day on Monday), when there will be lots of nice bright daylight to work by and plenty of time to get it absolutely right.
The mending pile seems to be stuck in some sort of recurring time loop. I mend and I mend but the pile never gets any smaller. I suspect my family of sneaking items into the middle of it when I'm not looking.
Replacing what I lost when I hard to wipe the hard drive is slow going, but I'm chipping away at it. Most of it is re-entering and updating files from hard copies - bank statements, insurance inventory, and so on. And yes, this time everything is being backed up on CDs. My friend D (the tech wizard) thinks he may eventually be able to retrieve most of the photos I hadn't put on CDs yet.
I've started another sweater - just a nice casual cotton/acrylic hoodie, simple but pretty - but I suspect it will end up being a birthday gift for my sister S, because it's pink. Strawberry-ice-cream-pink, which is one of her favourite shades. And since her birthday isn't until the fall, I might even get it finished in time!
The basement cleanup is moving along, though rather more slowly than I like. I'm rapidly approaching the point where I will just haul everything that's not mine - in other words, pretty much everything that's still down there - out into the back yard. Anything that's still out there a week later will go straight to either a local charity or the dump, depending on what it is, what condition it's in, and what mood I'm in by then. Whatever it takes to get that space cleared out so that we can install the new high-efficiency furnace before it's time to turn the heat on again.
I have to confess, as much as I love the Big Guy, this is one area where he makes me want to beat him about the ears with a brick. He talks endlessly about the things he's going to do - replace the furnace, clean up the back yard, replace the old single-glazed living room window, put the new box on the truck, finish painting the kitchen ... but none of it ever actually happens. The living room window is the last one left to be replaced and it's a huge heat sink in the winter. Combine that with an ancient, huge, loud, clunky, dreadfully inefficient furnace, and it's no wonder our winter gas bills are so high. Before the suite in the basement was done, we only went downstairs to do laundry or get something from the freezer, so we heated the main floor with the wood stove. But now we have a tenant, and when a tenant's rent includes heat, we need to provide said heat. Hence the new furnace.
Thanks to a cold, wet spring that continued right through June and the first half of July, the garden I had such high hopes for is pretty much a wash. The rhubarb is looking good, and the chives thrive, but I don't think the tomato plants are going to produce much besides leaves. One planter of strawberries looks promising, but we'll have to figure out a way to keep the birds and squirrels out of it if we're going to get any ripe berries.
But the apple tree! My lovely, antique Gravenstein apple tree! It's covered with baby apples - the branches are already starting to sag under the weight, and they're still no bigger than golf balls. If I can keep the local wildlife (and lowlifes) out of that tree, we'll have applesauce and dried apples all winter. At least, that's the plan. Meanwhile, I'm going to go baste a blouse and underskirt.
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