...11.2...Over the Weekend...

...homemade English muffin sammie for brekkie...

...I also had my golden mix...which is turmeric, ashwaganda powder, fenugreek powder, pepper and cinnamon...with just a shot of almond milk...it tastes like a mini chai latte...

...after breakfast we headed out for shopping...the bag of apples are McIntosh...because the Man wants to make homemade applesauce and those are the best apples...

...Aldi had organic Black Pepper...I'd not seen that before...and I try to buy organic when I can...

...and Stuff-Mart had these drinks on markdown...it was really really good too...so I'll be looking for them again...but they're probably being discontinued...

...and before we started on the BIG project for the weekend I needed a snack...so I had a Brazil nut...I have one every day to make sure I get enough selenium...

...and then I chopped up a bunch of muesli ingredients and made a cup of tea...

...instead of oats I mixed the muesli fruit and nuts into a bowl of corn flakes and it was very yummy and filling...

...after the grocery shopping and snacking we headed here to do some sod shopping...not really...no shopping I mean...we have centipede grass on the rest of the lawn so we're going with centipede beside the driveway too...

...then of course it was time to get started on the MAJOR project of the weekend...

...which involved digging up all of the sedum we had planted a couple of years ago...after the lavender failed to flourish...I had already dug up a couple of plants and taken them up to Mom last weekend because I knew this was coming...

...it wasn't really that the sedum was dying the way the lavender did...but more the constant weeding that I wanted to stop doing...

...I pulled up the edging that I had so painstakingly put down...

...it was really difficult and required our largest set of pliers to pull it out of the ground...I was surprised at how difficult it was to remove...

...anywhoo...I'll be repurposing that...of course...

...then I scooped all of the pebbles into garbage bags...

...then I got out the tiller and tilled up the strip to get it ready for sod...just thinking back to when we bought the house and it was just grass and that seemed to be doing ok...we're not going to try any other 'fancy' solutions...

...then I had to get rid of all the pebbles...they were really really heavy...so I rigged up an old luggage cart to move them...

...and by then it was getting dark...

...but I was really happy with the progress...

...so the next day we got busy laying some sod...

...which is not very difficult but does involve a lot of heavy lifting and bending over...

...and in no time we had a fresh new strip of green grass beside our driveway...

...I just took baby steps all over it to get it seated...

...and gave it a good long drink...

...the goal will be to keep the monitor in the 'moist' area for a couple of months until the new sod is well established...

...good luck to the new grass strip...

...while all of the sod-laying was happening...a loaf of delicious bread was baking the bread machine...

...after the setup it involves no input from me

...but I was really happy to get to come inside and have a nice warm crusty heel of bread slathered in vegan butter with a cup of tea...it was the perfect break...

...after my break...I headed out front to reposition the edging that I'd pulled up along the driveway...

...and it was the perfect length to border the new gardenia garden out front...so that was a win...

...also very happy and thankful that the gardenias all seem to like their new home as they were struggling in the heat and sun in the back yard...

...and I picked up a couple of curbside 'deals' on my bike ride...this basket that I think will hold some yarn or something in the laundry/craft room...

...a half-full bag of potting soil...

...and a hanging basket also full of potting soil...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...10.26...Over the Weekend...

...I made a rather sad trip home to Mom's to attend a dear friend's funeral...

...left before dawn to get there in plenty of time...

...it was more overcast than we were expecting...

...and for some reason I was feeling all nostalgic and all of the scenery kept reminding me of riding the bus along these country roads...

...because I am sort of backtracking our bus route all the way to our driveway...

...it was beautiful but there was less colour than I was expecting as well...

...and in no time we turned off at Nanny's house...

...the perfunctory view of Mills Knob...

...before I left I had cut some boards to finish up the dishwasher corner of Mom's kitchen...she sent me pretty exact measurements...

...and then I cut a thin strip off of a 2x4 to cover the area on the dishwasher where I'd torn off the new paint with the masking tape because it hadn't cured yet...

...so I carried everything inside...

...I had also packed all of the tools I'd need so we can start on that project later...

...Mom got dressed for the funeral and realized that her trousers were about 3 inches too long...so I used some Stitch Witchery from her sewing box to 'hem' those up quickly...

...and they turned out perfectly and it was way faster than if I'd actually hemmed them with thread...and I think it turned out neater too...

...when we got back from the funeral we just kind of snacked around for lunch...Mom had made a pretty spicy hummus...she must be related to the Man...haha...

...and we had the privilege of looking through our friend's photo albums...so I spent a few hours browsing those...a lot of them I didn't know who/what/where for them...but a lot of them I did...and it was so neat to see the events from her perspective...we were really close and had spent a lot of time together especially during our early married lives before we started moving all over the country...

...so I'll show you a few of those gems...

...this is a sweater that I'd knit for her young son...I remember it but before the blog I didn't photograph everything that I knit (imagine that)...so I'm happy that she took a photo when she unwrapped it...

...this is a photo she took of Mom and Daddy with a pristine photo of me and my sweet sissie...I remember well when we went to have that photo made...and the picture has faded now but it still hangs on mom's wall of photos...

...another knit project...I knit these matching ski sweaters for my sweet sissie and her hubbie because they were really into skiing...she said she still has the sweaters and she's pretty sure they still fit...and I love that she's sitting on his lap and they're holding hands...it's so sweet...

...this photo is from a camping trip we took together...we camped a lot back in the day...not exactly sure what we're doing but it looks like the Man is helping me get dressed...haha...there's a strap hanging down there though so we must be adjusting a pack of some sort...

...and this is a picture of my dear friend with my sissie...I have really fond memories of our times together and I'll miss her a lot...

...after looking at all of the photos...Mom ordered a bunch of pizzas for everyone...and my sweet niece brought a delicious ramen noodle salad...which she always sweetly veganized for me...so I had a mountain of that and three slices of pizza...

...so after that early and easy dinner Mom set up a table and covered it with a trash bag so I could paint the boards the same colour as her kitchen and dining room trim...Eider White...

...Mom had mentionned that there's a cold draft around the dishwasher cabinet in the wintertime...so the boards and some insulation should help with that...

...I just used a butter knife to wedge/stuff insulation into any gap that I could possibly cram it into all around the unit...

...I know this is slightly disorienting but the back corner of this cabinet area had a vertical trim piece so I used the dremel tool to cut it off so that my new backsplash boards would fit under it...

...about this time my sissie said that the sun was setting and shining on the knob across the river and it was beautiful...so I grabbed my phone and took a photo but I think I must have missed the splendour...still pretty but not spectacular...

...back to the project...I had brought my nailer so it was just a few quick shots and the boards were attached...and then caulked...

...I had to cut a little divot out of the side board to accomodate the power chord there...

...and then I glued the trim strip directly to the dishwasher where I'd pulled off the paint with some Gorilla construction adhesive...and it held well...but we taped the top and wedged the bottom with a heavy flower pot just to be sure...

...and it was getting pretty late but Mom and I spent about an hour going through all of her keys...she threw away a bunch and put several into a box to 'test out'...it was an oddly satisfying little project...but I say that about almost any little organizing task...

...then the next morning after everthing was set...I caulked the little strip and put everything back in place...

...and we stuffed all of the power chords into a cookie jar and set the lid askew on it...it hides them and makes the area look so much neater...

...and then my sister brother and sister in law all came down for breakfast and after that I packed up and headed home...

...it was a slightly sunnier and uneventful drive...

...and on the way home I stopped and got sub sammies...

...and my sweet S.I.L...gave me these puzzles...the note says 4...but my sweet sissie took one of them so I only got three...

...this one looks really hard...

...this one is beautiful...

...and all puzzles are fun...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!...