Winter Respite

Today was 75 degrees warm out. Seriously. I so needed this, it feels like God graciously gave me a little vacation just cause he knew I needed it sooo badly. :)

I crossed some invisible line sometime this week. I am now officially feeling better. Even though I have been "not sick" for awhile, my energy was wiped out, I just wasn't feeling "well", I was tired of feeling this way, etc. It seemed to take forever to get over it - I don't know if I got sick because I was feeling blue, or if I was feeling blue because I was getting sick - I don't really care about the causality. I do know that sometime in the middle of the week my energy returned, my zest returned, life started feeling fun again, and now I'm back. Thank God!

With this warm weather came a burst of creativity and in-the-moment-ness. :) Last night, as Maggie and I were heading out for our weekly sister date, we decided randomly to text Chris and Natalie and Abby and see if they'd like to go to dinner with us. They did! So not only did I get to hang out with loved ones, I got to see my girlie a bit more. Which is great, since I have Monday off (federal holiday - how can they DO this to me, lol? :)) so I only have three days with her next week.

After dinner, Maggie and I decided together that we needed some coffee, so we drove across town to the only open non-Starbucks coffeehouse. It was excellent coffee. Then we decided we needed to duck into Joann Fabrics to pick up some more crafty supplies, then we remembered we needed to go to Target. We couldn't remember what for, but we hoped that it would come to us as we walked around. It never did, but we found some other good stuff we needed to make up for it, lol. I found a couple of good sports bras on clearance, plus a lamp for my room since my last lamp decided to become an electrical hazard. Maggie found picture-hanging adhesive strips.

It was such a nice night we decided to walk down to the grocery store instead of drive, which in hindsight was a bad idea since it meant we had to lug plastic bags of groceries back. :) I stocked up on my favorite good foods - low/no fat cheese, lean lunchmeat, nonfat milk (organic this time - Maggie convinced me it was worth it, and I tasted some today, and it totally is! Also, Natalie swears it stays fresh longer, which is nice since I'm the only one drinking it), diet ginger ale, Eggbeaters, and some really fresh looking Honeycrisp apples. So psyched about this week!

I had a whole list of projects I wanted to do this weekend. First on my list: embellished T, in the style of this embellished tank. I knew I didn't want it to look exactly like this, but I was using it for inspiration.

I started off with this long-sleeved T from Target that I already owned (cept mine is black and white):

I bought 1/2 yard of black lace - it was originally $14.99 a yard, but it was the ONLY lace I liked, so I used my 40% off coupon, which brought it down to around $4. Much better! I also bought a package of glass "peals" for under $1 on sale, and 3" of black tulle for twelve cents. :)

I carefully cut the lace into two strips, aligned them along the neckline, and stitched the top down to secure it. I cut the tulle into 3"X3" squares, gathered them, and stitched them around the neckline, then used stitch witchery to tack everything down. I hand-knotted the pearls around the lace and voila! A sweet top! I'm excited about wearing this!

I have more sewing projects to do, but by the time I finished my T the warm weather was calling to me, so I abandoned them in favor of some gardening, albeit the very wimpy, indoor, pot kind. :) I have no green thumb whatsoever, but last year I wanted to learn how to raise plants, so I started pots of seedlings. Most of them died, and the ones that survived were pretty puny. Eventually I threw them all out and bought already-grown houseplants. Now that I've been able to keep them alive for a year, I'm ready to try some more seeds. :)

This little "spider plant"was given to me by a friend from church, who heard my gardening woes and brought me a seedling from her plant and assured me that I could not kill it. She was right! It's a hardy little plant, and best of all it's begun to sprout little - whatchamacaums? baby plants? - so today I pulled out some smaller pots and gave the babies their own pots.

This plant I bought last year on closeout at Wal-Mart. Somebody told me that the shinier and harder a plant's leaf it, the least water it needs regularly, and probably needs less sunlight as well. I have no idea if this is true but the rule seems to have worked in this case!

I had no idea how big this plant had gotten til I went to repot it. Big strong roots FILLED the bottom of the pot! I had a slightly larger pot on hand, but pretty soon it's going to either need to go outside or I'll need a MUCH bigger pot.

Oh, the possibilities... This particular pot is filled with Cilantro (coriander). I love cilantro! I'm "growing salsa" since it's so low-cal and healthy (filled with antioxidants) so this is a must.

I commandeered this strawberry flat box to grow tomatoes in. I love tomatoes!

Here's my French press watering can, lol. It broke last year and I repurposed it.

Last week after Mags and I got home from our friend's purple-themed bridal shower, I was feeling artsy and whipped up this little purple flower. Isn't it cute? I can't figure out what to do with it yet - headband, pin, or bracelet? :)

Hopefully I'll get to the rest of my projects this weekend, but if not, that's ok, too. The weather is incredible, and I'm enjoying every minute of it!