As the days of Basketball Belly draw to a close, I sit dreaming of spring and summer.
As I sat outside on the garden bench today eating strawberries and looking over the many plants growing (lettuce, fennel, cosmos, sugar snap peas, blueberries, artichoke, grapes, sweet broom, and others), my mind wandered the lines of the fence imagining all the ways Birch and I could make our yard into a kind of wonderland with hideaways, various kinds of seating, a barbeque area, perhaps even a small deck. It's by no means a huge yard, but for an apartment it is magical.
Soon, my body will to some extent be my own again. (Hopefully) no more feeling faint even when I'm just sitting up, no more sun headaches, no more needing help to do something as simple as bending down to check the progress of a few chive sprouts. I'll be able to go for walks again and run errands, even when Birch isn't home to take me. I'll be able to wash a whole sink-full of dishes because I'll be able to remain standing for longer than ten minutes. I won't be able to sleep for a reason instead of just lying awake trying to decide if it's truly worth it to go to the bathroom or not from 3:23 a.m. to 3:56 a.m., finally deciding that, "Yes, it's been this long, I should just go to the bathroom." Speaking of which, I'll be able to get out of bed utilizing far fewer steps than the normally required six to eight it takes me now. I'll be able to get to the phone within the required four rings before the machine picks up. I'll be able to remember what it's like to be a real, functioning human being once more.
When that time comes I plan on being ready. My head is bursting with ideas, mostly involving repurposing various objects for garden and home decor, and I can't wait until I can hold a hammer again, move a bookcase, or carry a load of laundry without someone yelling at me that I'm not supposed to be doing that.
I'll "build" the bean teepee first. Roping together bamboo stakes and planting one or two seeds around each one, then watching them grow up towards the sun to form a little shady spot for baby to lay in on a hot, summer morning while I remain close at hand perhaps reading a book or harvesting food for dinner that night.
Then we'll get serious and finally build that outdoor rabbit hutch poor Harlequin has been dreaming of for over a year now. Something like this but with a much larger run and much more protection from the rain.
Next, I’ll start the conquering of the play tent. Keats’ nursery will eventually have a bit of a carnival feel to it and I’d love to sew together a tent for one of the corners of the room. Here are just some of the fabrics I’ll be using:
The "Lantern Bloom" collection by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller Fabrics
I’m so excited for this project. It’ll take me a while to complete as I’m assuming I’ll tackle it in doses. I want it to have four sides with a circus top and to have a quilted appearance, as if made with scraps of found fabric. Each side will be just a flap so that any side can be facing out and used as the entry. Perhaps on especially nice days in summer we can take it outside even. We’ll see. Maybe when Keats is big enough for his very own bed he’ll want to put it inside his tent, who knows? For now, though, it’ll be for a bit of fun and to satisfy my interior design leanings.
Somewhere amidst all of that, I’d like to enlist Birch’s help in building an outdoor daybed for the yard. Country Living featured this daybed made from repurposed headboards. With this in mind as a starting point, I am now on the lookout for cheap headboards (not necessarily matching) ready to be given a good home where they’ll receive a serious uplift into something wonderful. This is an ambitious project, but I think we can do it. Summers are long here in California so I’m hoping we’ll have time. If not, there’s always next year. It may even be worth it to just gather materials this summer and then build next year to make sure that I get everything perfect.
So much of this will be made possible by my wonderful mother, who donated her old sewing machine to me. Thanks, Mom! I love hand-sewing stuffed animals and things, but I think when it comes to these projects a machine will be much more practical and efficient.
As summer turns to fall perhaps I'll start reacquainting myself with knitting, but for now there are far too many sewing projects I'd love to try. Speaking of which, remind me to buy this book:
Birch is going to be throwing his two cents into this blog tomorrow so be looking forward to that! Let's see how similar our hopes for this summer are... should be interesting and goodness knows this blog could use another voice. As Birch and I actually conquer each one of these goals, I'll be sure to document with pictures and post the process here. I can't wait! All my love and hope you are all well on this beautiful, sunny day!
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