Planning Ahead

In the spirit of sticking with my "simple life" plan for the not-so-distant future, I did two important things today: I planted my seeds in my seedling starter, and I finished a pair of improvised soakers (and finished the written pattern for them)!

 In my seedlings starter, I have Sweet Baby Girl cherry tomatoes; Pink Brandywine Heirloom tomatoes; Hot Pepper mix; Sweet Bell pepper mix; Sweet Banana peppers; red onions; and leeks. I have other seeds waiting to be sown directly into the ground, once it's warm enough: Spaghetti squash; bush cucumbers; carrots; parsnips; and a couple of others I can't recall right now, nor see from my comfy spot on the couch.   All of my seeds this year were purchased from Burpee.com.

Up close, the photo of the soakers is a little blurry, as I used my phone to take the picture. But they are really quite cute. A friend of mine at work is going to test them on her daughter for me and provide helpful feedback so that I can improve the pattern, if necessary.

In addition to all this fun, I spent the entire day with a very dear friend of mine. Ashley came over and hung out, and we just sat at the kitchen table and did domestic things. I knitted; she learned to use a sewing machine. I made the soakers; she made 2 heating bean bags out of flannel (and filled with various dry beans and barley). She gave me one, and I am so excited to use it! The beans hold onto heat very well--even better than oatmeal. And the best part is that when heated, the bag smells of barley and almost instantly relaxes one's body and mind. Although we didn't do a whole heck of a lot, we really had a  great day. It's very rare that either of us actually gets to sit and do that...but we will be doing this every month from now on. The time doesn't pass quickly, but it doesn't drag, either--it just passes easily, pleasantly, while we chat about nothing in particular.

Good times...