So. How ya been?

Good?

Oh, that's nice.

Me?

Well, I'm just fine.  Busy as hell, but feelin' good.  Much better than that fateful day a few weeks ago when I shamelessly begged for your friendship.  Much much much better than that.  But still, very busy.

So that's why I've been avoiding you.  Ok, not avoiding.  Just prioritizing and unfortunately for you, that means avoidance of the internet. 

On Saturday, we went to Halifax, where we ate nachos and shopped at MEC.  We also went to the Farmer's Market and the mall (oh Gap, why did you have to halt production of my latest favourite made-in-heaven jeans?).  But you know what I forgot to do?  You're not going to believe this!

I forgot to go to the yarn shop.

Forgot.  To.  Shop.  For.  Yarn.

I'm still shaking my head at my sheer absentmindedness.  It must have been the world-class nachos.  The cholesterol must have addled my brain.  That's the only explanation.

Then, Sunday brought chores and the finishing up of mending projects (ugh), and I figured you wouldn't want to hear about that (you also didn't want to hear about the hour I spent re-fastening loose floorboards, right?).

So, that's why I've got nothing for you.

Well, ok.  Not "nothing".  There's this:

This is a little blurry, isn't it?  Sorry about that.

This never ceases to amaze me.  I know that makes me sound like a) a naive child or b) a pot-smoking, granola-crunching hippy.  But, I can't deny it - I'm always surprised when my seeds sprout.  When those first little stems poke up out of the ground, I inevitably do a little dance of joy, where I clap my hands like a dork and wiggle back and forth really fast.

It's really mature.  And attractive.  You should try it.

Anyway.  This is the only progress I have to share with you, sadly.  The sweater has stalled since you saw it last.  I have no new clothing to show you.  I am working on something right now (free pattern to follow!), but I can't show it to you because it's for someone who reads this blog.  I'll post it when said person is in possession of said gift.

{Now you're wondering if it's you, aren't ya?  Well, let's put it this way: If your birthday was last week and you've agreed to file my income taxes for me, then the answer is yes, this gift is for you.  If not, you're out of luck.  This time.}

Other than that, the sweater pattern is being test-knit by a very kind soul and I'll have that up as soon as she has finished and I've made some adjustments to the wording.  The tutorial for the pants is going to morph into something much bigger, methinks.  I've been thinking about going off on a longer general-clothing-sewing-instruction tangent and I may have to work a bit more on that before I'm ready to start.

The garden planning is somewhat on hold for this week.  I'm going to pick it up again this weekend.  I have plans to also go and visit my friend Ruth who is not only my yoga instructor, but a gardener-extraordinaire.  I'm going to document a bit of what she does and how she does it for you, my blog peeps.  She just got back from a three-week trip from Mexico (the jerk), so I'll give her a few days to gain her bearings before descending upon her, looking for gardening advice.  In the meantime,  I am looking at inspiration and getting some information together to make my planning easier.  I'm going to make a few of these, so I don't have to contend with my clay soil (P-Dub, I love you).  Oh, and when I say that "I" will make them?  Don't believe me.  I will be involved, but I can not lie to you - I shall be heavily aided by a certain male member of this family.  And by "aided", I mean "he'll be doing most of the dirty work and I will get to stand back and make sure it gets done right".   Like usual.  HA!  Just kidding. 

Sort of.

{I've actually been feeling increasingly guilty at the amount of work the hubs has been doing around here (*cough*hesdoingthedishesrightnowwhileIblog*cough*), so that's kind of why I took a little Interwebs-hiatus.  And that's the reason for the floorboard-fixing.  I just can't let him do everything.  It's not fair.  So, if I disappear for a while again, it's for a good cause - the survival of my marriage.}

Anywho, I gotta go and get some work done.  I'll be back soon with more stuff to show you.  In the meantime, if you've got some special tutorial/blog post requests, please feel free to leave them in my comments.  I'll do what I can to oblige! {Like, do you still want a mitten tutorial, or will that be put aside until autumn, in favour of gardening and sewing?  It's up to you.}

Here's a parting photo of Ruth's garden, taken in 2008, in late May (spring arrives very late, here - you can see that the trees are just starting to bud):

This only shows you about 1/3 of the garden, and doesn't give you any indication of the adjacent orchard. 

I know.  She's crazy.  But you wanna guess how much awesome (organic) food I get, for giving her a hand with the weeding?  Oh, yes.  It's fab. you. luss.

Ok, so farewell for now, my friends!