OF MUMUS AND MOCKTAILS

Aunt Chrissy and I don't drink alcoholic beverages (for reasons which are REAAALLY apparent when you've been with us for more than fifteen minutes), but that doesn't mean that we don't enjoy cold bevvies every now and then. This last weekend, we implemented the STITCHIN' SPINTER SISTERS SUMMER OF THE MUMU AND MOCKTAIL with three days of non-stop mumu-wearing, mocktail-sipping, stitcy-pawing fun.

Now I know you're thinking that this probably involved a lot of party decorations and several days of non-stop entertaining, but the truth of the matter is that we spent the last three days doing nothing but putzing around our respective houses, getting together in the evenings for dinners and movies, and wearing the ever important mumus. (I mean, you can't exactly have a SUMMER OF THE MUMU without actually wearing mumus, no?

So while Aunt Chrissy and I did nothing but sit on our stitchy a**es, Stewey and Bosco were hard at work making the places look ready for the season. They asked me to share with you the results of their labors, since both of them are just plain tuckered out today and are taking longer than usual snoozy naps.

First up is the view from the Happy Chair if you happen to be standing on the seat cushion (which I highly disapprove of, by the way):

Looking to the left when you step out onto the patio, you'll see the grill shoved into the corner, and then a few little plantings. Stewey selected hot pink geraniums because he thought they would contrast nicely with the sagey green siding, but Bosco wanted dandelions. Considering this is the site of the demise of Stewey's tomato plants last year, he felt that HE was entitled to pick the flowers for a sort of memorial:

Looking straight ahead, you'll see the fancy new solar post light that we found at the garden center. Stewey is always a little concerned about the overall critter population in the dark recesses of the back yard when he goes out for his night night potty trip, so he emptied his allowance account to pick this up:

And finally, looking to the right is the new vegetable garden:

Now, I know this will come to a HUGE surprise to most of you, but did you know that a 4-foot by 8-foot garden requires a LOT of dirt? About 1.25 cubic yards to be exact. This would have involved the purchase of 60+ bags of said dirt from the garden center and then poor Aunt Chrissy would have been tasked with carrying each bag around from the driveway. I didn't even have to ask her if this was something she wanted to do before she was on the phone to the landscaper ordering the dirt and labor to get my garden all set up. They'll be here Wednesday provided it doesn't rain.

This doesn't mean that I didn't get the veggies, however. I bought tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cauliflowers, cabbages, basil, sage, AND a huge bowl filled with salad greens that will continue to grow all summer long:

The one thing that we just couldn't pass up were some lovely Boston ferns. Mom used to grow them on the front porch of our Lima house, and people would drive by and actually get out of their cars to come up and touch them to see if they were real. One year we measured the diameter of them and they were almost five feet across! Mom always gave them away to friends at the end of the summer, and one year Mr. Murino had to bring his van to get it home. This one isn't quite that big yet, but methinks it looks kinda' pretty:

And last, but certainly not least, is a progress pic of "Spring Trainin". I'm still really enjoying this and will probably keep right on stitching it until something else distracts me:

So that's the report from Chez Spinster today, kids. I hope to have a lot of stitchy progress for you this week, because I'm feeling the need to plant my butt in the chair and not get up until something is fnished. Stay tuned!