Finishing projects

There is something very satisfying about finishing a project, especially if it is something one has worked on for a long time or something that is very obvious and makes a difference in appearance.  I have finished one of each of these this week and I am feeling sort of 'chuffed' about it!!  One of the reasons I am feeling good about these two projects is that they were conscious efforts to do something I am not good at - which is to take my time!  I have been working on my natural inclination to finish in a hurry, finishing in a hurry tends to be a little slipshod, and I have been trying to let myself slow down, I am retired, I have the time, do it right.  I admit I do the same thing with a book (I have been known to stay up way too late to finish a good one in one night!), sewing (I have been known to start a dress today that I want to wear tomorrow), well you see how this goes.  So with both of these projects I have taken my time and done it slow and enjoyed the doing a little more in the case of the afghan.  HA!  Old dogs can too learn new tricks! (I can hear the smart remarks running through your heads - don't bother!)

My proudest of the two is the afghan.  This really was outside my comfort zone. I started it last spring, set it aside to do Christmas gifts and the granny square afghan (pictured here) and then picked it back up a couple of months ago.  I used a 'frosty green' and a 'frosty green speckle' and if I were to do it again I would do all one color, but otherwise I am pleased with the finished product and I  learned at least 5 new stitches or techniques doing it!

I had never done a border either so I felt like this was a real learning experience.  It will take pride of place on the rocker for now, coming up on summer it will have to wait a few months to be useful.




The pattern was free from the Red Heart Yarn website, it's called Aran Isle Throw  the website is one you can subscribe to for free and they have a lot of tutorials on youtube as well (thank goodness for youtube tutorials!)

This was how it started...

My next finishing up was the honeysuckle vines near the front of the house.  I have to admit that in my head I was calling them the 'stupid, ugly' honeysuckle vines!  I had begun the job earlier this spring and only took off part of what I thought could have come off so I could wait and see which branches were going to be new vines and which were old and to see if the new vines would cover the ugly stuff - they did not!

first cutting - seeing if it was enough...

much better I think!

I broke down and got out the ladder, and the hand trimmers (not the electric hedge trimmers this time) and got rid of all the old growth down to the new vines and the pretty trunks of the old plants that are woven into the lattice work.  I do not know if they have ever been trimmed before, the amount of dirt and dust would say not!  I even found wasp nests in there!  After I laid out the vines I wove them back into the lattice work and I am very happy with the results.  It looks (and is) so much cleaner!  (word of advice - always keep your mouth closed when you do this, and when you take your bra off at night you may want to do it over a trash can or outside...just saying)

I can check two things off my 'to do' list and I have made progress on self improvement - not bad.  Now if it will stop raining long enough to let me get the rest of the garden tilled and planted and then warm up just a hair we will be well and truly on the way to the busy season!

Too early to plant but work to be done!

I have discovered that my husband of many years has an electric hedge trimmer.  This is an awesome piece of equipment and I think everyone should have one!

Really this has all the fun of chain saw motion with much less danger involved and smaller limbs so it doesn't fight you as much.  I had been mentioning fairly often in recent days that the honeysuckle probably hadn't been trimmed in 10 years or so and if he got out the electric hedge trimmer I would go to work on them.  ('mentioning fairly often' is that thing that men call nagging and wives just call a friendly reminder!) He did get it out and two days and many scratches later the honeysuckle are pruned. (except for the ones we think are holding up the east fence...we aren't touching those until we are ready to replace the whole fence!)

There are two along the back fence, these are pink and yellow and the last two years they have been loaded with aphids.  Hopefully with the trimming and a little judicious spraying of soap and water early on we can keep the little buggers at bay.  I did not know that honeysuckle branches are layered and peel off in something that looks like basket weaving material.  I even found yellowjacket nests in this one!

this is the arbor between the house and the shop

this is the honeysuckle that hasn't been trimmed in years on the shop

this is the view from the other side of the arbor

I was pretty sure these had not been trimmed for several years and a couple of the plants were dead as of last summer.








I wanted to leave enough base for the vines to be trained onto and yet get rid of the spider home, robins nest, moldy leaves part.  Somewhere in that process I realized I probably should have had a mask on...sigh!










These things are all dead twigs and the big parts come off like a tumbleweed.  They are hideous to cut!  I will love them again when they bloom but I was about ready to rip them all out at one point!  The dead parts were hard as a rock and my arms looked like the cat and I had a fight, and I was picking little twigs out of my hair all evening!  The amount of dust that had built up in them was amazing and it was only the electric hedge trimmer that kept me going!  :)

 Hurrah!  We can actually walk through the archway now and the two bushes that I left are clean and ready for a little pampering this summer as they have been ignored and that's how they got this way!  They will get a little fish emulsion and some new weaving for the long pieces so they grow in the correct direction.  The arbor is close to our bedroom window and I have to tell you on a summer morning it is a lovely smell.  These bushes are the yellow and white ones with the black berries on them that I believe are poisonous.  The birds avoid them!

Yes this is much better!!

There seems to be such a lot to do before we even get our seeds started this year.  I think the major things have taken up a lot of our time the last couple of years and so these minor things are getting some attention now!  It is kind of nice to get out and work outside again...of course it may snow in a couple of days...ah well, we do what we can!