Curtain call!

My mother-in-law is AWESOME.  She does custom window treatments and pillows, and also all sorts of cool stuff that she sells at her Voncile's Originals storefront on Etsy.

Over Christmas she and I went fabric shopping to finish out our living room.  (Up until today we've had the wrong size curtains hanging on bent spring rods, just so folks couldn't see in at night.)  She offered to make us new curtains for our new house!

And today, TODAY, the philosopher and I received our amazing gift in the mail. 

She managed to make beautiful roman shades out of a sheer fabric, so the room is still nice and bright during the day, but not a fishbowl at night.  And the faux roman shade valance is a perfect fit.

Even the cat approves of the matching new pillows (and trust me, that's saying a lot).

Thanks, mom!  We love you!

High Point Hike

We ventured back to High Point Trailhead (the Alabama one, not the Georgia one) of the Pinhoti this morning, and were amazed at all the spring flowers.  See?

I told you they were pretty!  8-)

And because most of the trees were still bare, you could see the ridgeline across the valley.

And yes, the philosopher finally managed to get a photo of me near the end of the hike (usually I'm quick enough to avoid him!).  But this time I'd found a comfy spot to rest, so rather than move, I just decided to grin and bear it. (But rest assured, no bears were harmed in the making of this photograph!)

I can get used to 70 degrees in March, because the humidity is still low.  Yay for Low Humidity!!!  We managed about 6 miles altogether.  We stopped for lunch near the place we saw the snake last time (we call it Rattlesnake Ridge, though the USGS calls it Wolf Ridge.  Hmph.  What do they know??) Then we headed back in order to avoid the forecasted showers/thunderstorms. Maybe we'll have another good weekend soon and head out for yet another adventure!

My Spring Break (Vacation?)

So... spring break is over, and boy HOWDY do I need a break!  It was a crazy busy week, and the philosopher and I got lots of projects accomplished, and we also saw some interesting things, and even had a few fun adventures!

Here's the run-down.

On Tuesday, we SOLD OUR HOUSE in Alabama!  There was much rejoicing, and celebrating, and high-fiving, and wiping of the brows.  ::WHEW::
 
On Wednesday, we started a major outdoor project.  We dug in a herb bed to the back yard, using old retaining wall blocks and a load of happy dirt.  We also went on a quest to my new favorite place, Pike Nurseries.  We bought several shade plants for the shrub bed on the north side of the house, and some happy herbs to go in the new digs we built.  (Pun *so* intended!)  You can't really tell from the picture, but it's on a hill so we had to do a lot of digging on the back side to get it level.

On Thursday, we added a square-foot garden next to new herb bed.  (And I plotted and schemed about all the lovely veggies I'm going to plant, starting with sugar snap pea seeds going down in two weeks!)

On Friday, we took a trip to another favorite place - Harry's Farmers Market in Marietta.  We were continuing our house-selling celebration and got all kinds of tasty things: locally raised steak, Mississippi sweet potatoes, hummus, brie, and lots of other yummy food.  We don't go there often, but it's a real treat when we do!

We also finished the side bed, planting my grandmother's sweetshrubs, a hydrangea, an azalea, a Pieris, and some coreopsis.  Here's a great before-during-and-after comparison:

                                                                                        

                                                                       

Saturday I went on a treasure hunt, armed with nothing but a map with no measurements.  ::heh::   The back edge of our property is a tangled piney, viney, woodsy mess.  We didn't know *exactly* where the property corners were, and wanted to know how far back we could clear into the woods.  So I took the old survey we had (from when the house was built) and made some rough estimates to find the scale.  I then put on my work boots, grabbed my hoe, and headed out, armed with my trusty tape measure.  After a few rough starts, I actually found the pins!  And we have a lot more property than was visibly apparent.  Score!!

We also got to pull out the telescope and enjoyed an early evening clear sky.  I got to say "hello" to some of my favorite objects  - the Pleiades, the Orion nebula, and the Beehive cluster.  Even better is the picture the philosopher took of the moon.  Yup - I took the first one, and he took the other one standing on our back deck.  Near Atlanta.  With the neighborhood sodium arc lights beaming bright.  Beautiful!  (Click on the second one and admire the detail!)

Sunday after church the philosopher did some major wiring in the garage, in preparation for the New Garage Doors we ordered earlier in the week.  He did a great job - it was shocking!  ::snicker::  I did a pile of laundry (we got every bit of grubbies dirty during the course of the week) and then collapsed in exhaustion.  Can I take a vacation now?  I'm too tired to be at work!