Yard Clean-up and T-Shirt Turn-Around

The weather here in North Central Texas has been unseasonably warm.  It was a beautiful week, with temperatures in the 60's.  Sadie, our one year-old puppy miniature horse, has enjoyed the weather tremendously.  We have started calling her The Master of Destruction, as she has managed to destroy so much stuff.  Today, the kids and I spent the afternoon cleaning up the aftermath of her latest maelstrom.  My husband, Brian, put some old blankets in the dogs' houses for the winter.  Much to our chagrin, Sadie pulled one of them out into the yard and scattered the stuffing all over--in full view of the kitchen window, mind you, so that when our friends came over yesterday, they got to see Sadie's handiwork.

Yikes. 

Last week, Jacob and I bought two apple trees at Calloway's.  We managed to get the Granny Smith in the ground before New Year's, but the Jonathan was still out back, waiting patiently for us to plant it.  So, while Matthew, Lily, and I cleaned up stuffing, limbs, electric cord, and various other things Sadie had strewn about, Jacob dug a hole in the front yard for the tree.  While I was out there, I straightened up the yard and the kids played.  I put my tools away in a safe place (from Sadie) and Matthew took down the net from around the trampoline.  In the next couple of weeks, Brian and I intend to get started on a vegetable garden for the area of the yard that is next to our kitchen.  I've picked out some fencing that I like at Home Depot that is sturdy enough to keep Sadie out.  Jacob has offered to help us build raised beds, so I am hoping to get onions and garlic out by February.  Maybe I can even manage a crop of lettuce!

In honor of Metamorphosis Monday, I'm sharing one of my sewing projects that I completed last weekend.  I discovered the joy of machine embroidery two years ago, and I especially love to take something simple and give it a little extra spice with embroidery.  I found these plain, long-sleeved t-shirts at Wal-Mart for a mere $8 each.

I have a lot of awesome embroidery designs that I've gotten from http://www.urbanthreads.com/.  I like the more edgy, intricate designs that they produce.  I have several lovely fleur-de-lis patterns, and I wanted to do one in colors that suggest winter.  I have some beautiful thread, and I am always looking for opportunities to use it. :)

Here is my winter-inspired fleur-de-lis:

The picture is not very clear for my other t-shirt, which is a lovely eggplant color.  What I mean to say is that the color of the picture is not true to the actual hue.  I have a design that is intricate and beautiful that I have been dying to use:

Isn't it lovely?  I love the nutmeg color in the phoenix' wings.  The nice thing about machine embroidery is that I can change the effect of the design by simply changing the colors.  So, next time, I might embroider this in an icy silver, blue, and aquamarine combination and the design will take on a completely different feel.

The only thing I'm not happy with is the placement of the phoenix.  I should have put it a little closer to the bottom hem line.  Otherwise, they turned out great, and when I wore the fleur-de-lis shirt to work the next day, I was asked to do some embroidery work for the school secretary!  Bottom line, I turned a couple of $8 t-shirts into something a little more unique and fun.

I'm going to be keeping my eyes open for more things that I can add a little panache to.  I'm already thinking of making a knit dress with some embroidery trailing down the sleeves....

Many blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. I'm linking to Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/.