Projects, Projects

We've been busy, busy the last couple of days--but not much quilting has been accomplished. We have been moving my husband's office downstairs to his "Man's Room." Since I have promised not to fuss at him when it's messy and since it has the entrance that is most used by people coming to our house, I have told him that I am going to put a sign on that door that states: Please Use Side Entrance! I doubt anyone will pay attention to it though.

Anyway, yesterday we fixed the top of his desk. This desk was from a farm somewhere in Virginia or Pennsylvania and was called a plantation desk. We bought it many years ago and at the time, it had a felt insert that was in bad shape. About four years ago, a family member gave my husband a hand-tooled leather piece to replace it but, unfortunately, they measured wrong and it was too small. So . . .what we ended up doing--finally--was to order pool table felt--a very sturdy material. This is the before and after. I laid the felt on top of the desk and used a chalk marker to draw the outside edges. I then used a rotary cutter and ruler to cut along the line. We then glued it with Elmer's and piled books on top to keep it smooth while drying. We're both happy with the result and it only took 10 years or so.

Today was a different kind of project. We ordered a HUGE load of top soil and it came this morning and was dumped in the front yard. We then took shovels and rakes and spread it out. This picture really doesn't do justice to the magnitude of the dirt. We have the most sun and least wind at the front of the house and I wanted more contour to the "lay of the land" so mounds help to solve the problem. We have already done that along the side entrance and really like the effect. We bought some plants today and I planted those and mulched them. Hopefully, we'll get more tomorrow and the job will be done--until the weeds poke out their nasty little faces!