Damaged in transit. Ugh.

Last night there was a knock at the door... it was the Pink Champage lisianthus plants I ordered from Burpee... yay! I opened the door (the man had already hopped back in his truck and was rolling down the road by the time I got to the door), and discovered the box that said "THIS SIDE UP" all over it was laying on its side (and no, not the proper side)! Just great. So I went to open it up, and this is what I found, all the plants had been dumped out of their cells and their roots knocked loose:







I am... rather unhappy about this. I went and stuck them all in my garden anyway (though most of them barely had any roots at all). I sent an email to Burpee customer service about how to make a claim or get a refund... hopefully I will hear back soon. It was $26.95 for those 12 little plants! (By the way, the plants you get from Burpee so far seem to be about the same size as the 6-pk plants you get from Lowe's or Wal-Mart! What a rip-off! But I've only ordered the lisianthus, I don't know about the tomatoes or other plants). I received my other lisianthus plants last week and they were fine.

New project for my daughters

I've decided to make them some matching dresses. I got the fabric off the $2/yd rack at Wal-Mart, and the pattern is New Look 6884. I will use the bumblebee fabric for the main dress, the checkered fabric for the undershorts (and maybe for the ruffle on the dress, I haven't decided yet).

Rain, rain, come this way...

We have a lot of rain in the forecast. It rained a little on Sunday, and it rained for about an hour yesterday, but our 10-day forecast is calling for a 30-60% chance of rain every day this week (80% chance today and tomorrow).

Rain does such fantastic things for the garden. It seems like tap water from the hose keeps the plants alive, but rainwater makes them flourish!

Here are some updated pics of my garden. The first one is the same garden box I posted here, but taken from the opposite side. Look how much everything has grown in the last week and a half! My tomato plants have nearly doubled in size in just the last couple weeks, but I wasn't able to get good pics of them. Click on each of these for a little bit bigger pic.




My herb garden


My Austin dewberries. This plant has more than doubled in size since we planted it last month.


My Apache blackberries... look at all those blackberries!!


Closeup of a clump of Brightwell blueberries.


My Tifblue blueberries. Click for a little bit bigger pic, you can see how many teensy berries there are on it. I think they ripen in June or July.

Planning my next project

I think the next thing I need to add to my sewing project list is something I can wear in the sun! My daughter is in softball this year and she has 9 games left this season, so I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the sun.

I need a hat and a blouse, I can't find one of either kind ready-made that is a price I can agree with. So for blouses, so far I'm considering:

McCall's 5359
Butterick 5034
Butterick B4819


And for hats, I have a Travel Pop-Up Hat pattern and set of wires. I just need to pick some fabric out. (There is also a bandana hat kit, LOL, but I think I'll pass).

Oooh, strawberry!

This is the 2nd strawberry we've gotten so far... I let my husband have the first one. This one is MINE, ha ha! It's not quite ripe... I think by this afternoon or tomorrow morning, it should be ready.

There are some rather misshapen berries on our other strawberry plants... we have a total of 12, but only about 1-2 berries on each plant. You can see 2 other small berries on this particular plant, but I got this plant at Wal-Mart (the others were purchased at Lowe's). Not many people are successful growing strawberries in Texas, but I am determined to keep trying.

Bodice, part II...

Okie dokie, then! I managed to finish most of the bodice! Now I need to add the collar/trim and the buttons or hooks/eyes up the back. And finish the stuff on the skirt. I might wait until later next week to get all that done.

Click on image for a larger view.

And the bodice...

I just finished sewing the major bodice pieces together. Next I have to put on the sleeves and the facings and the collar and the trim (I don't have any trim yet!)