Little Bites

It's Saturday Sharing Day!  


I share a 150 year old farmhouse on 5+ acres of land with my DH.  He purchased the house 20+ years ago.  It has had some updates but they are not always logical in my mind.

Example1:

Kitchen sink which looks at a wall.  The dishwasher right beside it (good) but the only cabinets large enough to put away the drinking glasses, plates, and bowls directly over the dishwasher.  Oh did I mention the dishwasher is near the corner that wraps around to the stove?  There is a counter top directly opposite with an eating bar which doglegs so it actually makes this space really tiny.

Not a well thought out design.  We are in the process of deciding on what to do with the whole thing.  Lots of different ideas flowing and some acquisitions are taking place to get it working.
Example 2

Front porch with no roof which runs the width of the house and is 20 feet wide.  The front steps which went off the front ended about 15 feet from the road. The road is very busy, the state decided a few years ago to make it a state road, and therefore big trucks, and everyone and their dog races down the road at 50+ mph.  Oh and no one ever uses  the front porch. (insert puzzled face here)

Last year I convinced DH to at least cut it back to the first set of posts going across.  It is still about 8 feet wide, but at least it is not at the road, and we planted a hedge using some of the plants which were dispersed willy nilly about the property, and I added in a bunch of boxwoods.

Yes my hedge does not look impressive but I needed at least 10 and they are quite expensive so I purchased some on ebay-  10 for $15.  They arrived and they looked like a stick with some leaves.  They have grown quite well this past year.  Now they are officially stick bunches with lots of leaves.  LOL

Oh and meet the house or as I like to call it "The Fortress of Solitude."  Not very welcoming is it?  She needs a paint job, the porch needs to be finished and a roof added to it.  I think some shutters to break up the huge facade.

You get the picture.  Huge house, needs lots of work inside, and out, lots of land which has not been used in years.  Anyway with my crazy work schedule, and the elderly family members which seem to need a lot of attention things get started, then stop.  I decided that I would start doing things in small bites.  That way it doesn't look quite so ominous and overwhelming.

My Berry patch.  Yes there are actually 5 raspberry plants, 3 blackberry plants, and 2 blueberry plants in this patch of weeds.

Last year I put a bunch of plants in but the weather really was not helpful and I lost half of my berry plants.  The land has sat overgrown with weeds for a long time so the fact that I actually started a berry patch, and an orchard surprised everyone, and it will take a lot of work, but they actually have a lot of blooms and berries ripening.  Oh my!

I actually weeded all around them today about 1 foot around each plant.  Maybe later today I will go out and weed around them some more.  I did not take my gloves or wagon the first go around so I can get them picked up and handle the thistle which is grown all over too.  

The ugly mint green wallpaper with the floral border in the dining room.  I decided that I would do about 1 panel or devote 1 hour a day to it.  This is what I finished today.  Not too bad.  Yes I know a paper tiger and wall paper steamer would do wonders but I have a huge dining room it is 15 X 20 and the wall paper has a vinyl type coating so I wold rather do a little bit at a time than tackle the whole room at once.

Machine quilting a big quilt on a domestic machine

This is the first block I started. I worked on it for about an hour then decided that instead of getting tired or bored with it I would go an do something else.

I have some design ideas floating around in my wee head and so I am going to go work on those for a while then maybe back to the garden or something else.

I know long post, and kind of rambling, but my point is that for me all of these tasks are easier to deal with and life is a bit more enjoyable if I take small bites out of the projects at a time instead of trying to get it all completed at once.  That way I don't feel like other things are suffering, and I actually do get a lot accomplished this way.  Oh by the way--

It's Saturday Sharing day over at Pigtales & Quilts.  Go over and link up and share what you have accomplished this week. Everyone needs to give themselves a little pat on the back for their accomplishments.