I got right into playing with plants yesterday. My parents had been over and we'd showed them around our yard and talked about some of our ideas for it. After they left I'd watered and deadheaded my outside pots and remembered that a couple of my indoor plants needed deadheading too (they also needed a lot of water). I decided to tidy up the violets a bit after getting rid of the old flowers and while I was cutting off some of the larger leaves I wondered if I could propagate new plants from the cuttings. (My sister recently gave me a couple of plants that she'd propagated herself and I think it's a pretty cool thing to do.) I looked it up and sure enough you can.

So I got my bag of potting soil and some spare little pots and a few other things from my houseplants bin and set to it. I've got three cuttings each of pink and white African Violets and one of a Christmas cactus (no idea if it will work; I didn't actually look that one up). While I was playing with dirt I figured I should repot a few of my plants that were showing too many roots. Two plants are in big new pots and one is in the same size pot but with a bunch of new soil (when I tipped it out to check on it I discovered that it had no soil - the entire pot was full of old roots).

Now I'm just trying to come up with places for all my plants (bigger pots require bigger spots) and continuing to scrub dirt from under my fingernails.

Oh, and as far as my list goes...
- My toe nails are now pink.
- My coffee every morning has gone cold before I finished it.
- I have some fun new ideas for our garden.
- I made zucchini bread (for breakfast) with a zucchini from my sister's garden.
- I haven't sewn anything yet but I have cut out a bunch of stuff and can't wait to get going.
- I bought needles and thread and oiled my machine (for the first time ever).
- I tidied the family room just enough to get the table set up and will start moving my computer and printer out there as soon as I've posted this (or tomorrow if I'm lazy).

It's been a good weekend - full but not busy. Lots of lazy time. It was raining when we got up this morning - pelting down - making it the perfect day for not going to work. We ate zucchini bread, drank coffee and watch The Labyrinth. And the special bonus of a long weekend - a short week. Yay!

(This picture is not really related to the text below but I wanted to give you something to look at. I'm trying to decide if there is enough of it to make a summer top.)

I love long weekends (who doesn't); they give you plenty of time to do all the things you feel you ought to do while still being able to do all the things you want to do. I thought I'd share my list of various "to do"'s with you.

1. Have a slow cup of coffee, outside if it's not raining.
2. Get some machine needles and sewing thread.
3. Bake something.
4. Make ice cream.
5. Find the floor in the family room.
6. Look at my garden (read "gravel") and start planning for next year.
7. Sew something.
8. Paint my toenails.
9. Look at fabrics for cushions for our new kitchen chairs.

It actually looks like a rather long list like this but it's very flexible. I like to take long weekends as they arrive without too much firm planning. It sort of makes them seem longer.

I've been wanting a few nice summer dresses ever since the warm weather hit us but hadn't really got around to it what with moving and everything. When I started to set up my studio I discovered that I had a few pieces of undedicated fabric that were large enough for simple sundresses. This one is a batik I bought a few years ago at the quilt shop. It's so clean and simple but with a little bit of whimsy from the batik process - perfect for a summer dress.

I used this pattern (same as for my t-shirt) and cut a larger size through the waist and hips so for once I've got a dress that fits perfectly everywhere. I will definitely be using this technique again; it's so easy. I used the short sleeves from the t-shirt and finished the neck edge (and sleeve hems) with elastic instead of using the round yolk.

The dress went together really quickly and without much fuss. Instead of doing French seams I just pinked the seam allowances and pressed them open. The batik didn't fray much at all when I washed it and my pinking shears are new and needed testing. Open seams also meant that I didn't need to figure out something different for the back seam with the zipper in it. I ended up doing the zipper by hand; my machine refused to sew through the thicker material (I think it needs a fresh needle but I haven't got any right now) so I just used the machine to baste and then sewed the zipper on myself. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and ended up looking really nice.

I wore my dress to Rob's company barbecue yesterday. It was really comfortable. The cotton was cool enough in the sun (even though it's mostly black) and the little sleeves kept my arms warm when it started to cool off in the evening. I also discovered that with this dress it's a lot easier to put together a proper outfit. All I need to add is a pair of black shoes and ta-da! - an outfit. Each pair of shoes gives it a slightly different look too. I think I'll try it out with my black and white sandals on Monday.

(Yeah - I know, I'm wearing brown sandals in the picture but none of my black shoes are very good for walking in sand.)