Hard to Believe

We had a beautiful end to a day 

that started out grey. 

(Poetic, yes, I know).

The sun came out and it warmed up to about 60. I think this is our warmest day this spring. So warm that apparently summer attire is warranted.

Hard to believe the clear blue sky and calm when they are calling for severe thunderstorms later tonight.

We had noticed on a visit to Madison last weekend a variety of flowering bulbs coming up all over peoples lawns and wondered when ours would poke their heads above land. Sure enough we found these today.

And what did I do on this glorious, fine spring day? I sat inside in front of my sewing machine for a few hours and completed these:

Vegetable bags for grocery shopping. I made two small ones and a larger one for things like onions and potatoes

This is a drawstring bag with four cloth napkins inside for when we dine at a restaurant with paper napkins.

This is our chopstick holder for when we dine at Asian restaurants~then we don't use disposable ones that will just be tossed.

Finally.

Don't look too close at the sewing--I'm no super sewer. Just like to get the job done.

Before I came up with the name for this blog I had tossed around Sassy Gardener. And I liked it because to me "sassy" implied a certain disregard for rules and perfection. I have no staff or house elves to help keep my home clean and beautiful; my garden weed-free or finish the myriad projects that chisel around at the back of my brain.

Things are very much lived-in and to a certain degree, neglected. 

I'm not always comfortable with that, though. And I blame that partially on glossy magazine photos and home and garden shows on TV. 

And on my grandma.

OCD when it came to cleaning. And yard work. Grandma and Grandpa's house and yard were impeccable. I swear she cleaned every day and he lived outside. When my sister and I went to stay for a week or two in the summer, she and grandpa would pay us money to pry up the moss that was growing in-between their back patio stones.

Now that I think about it, that moss was really pretty~lush and green the color of pine needles.

And I loved my grandparents dearly. I believe I inherited many positive traits from them as well as grandma's cleaning compulsion.

But see, I can't keep up with that and frankly I don't want to.

Sassy.

In the end I chose Dancing Apron Farmer because it hit me like a thunderbolt one evening when my daughter, while wearing my cooking apron, started doing a little jig in the hearth room.

And because I love to dance.

And cook.

And farm.

And because I love the joy in the sound of it. 

And because someone else was already using Sassy Gardener. In Oregon.

Oh well.