Jury Still out on Whether Necktie Skirt "Good" Funky or "Bad" Funky

Basically, the skirt suffers from an unwieldy shape. Also it's really stiff--feels like wearing a lampshade. (A plastic lampshade that has melted and warped?) Perhaps a photo of this creation will be posted at a later date and some feedback can be given.

We spent most of the day working in the yard. For those of you who have had the distinct pleasure of visiting my backyard, you can appreciate what a daunting task this is. The yard is pretty small, and built on a slope. When we moved in, there was a huge brush pile, random piles of rocks, weeds, dandelions, crabgrass, etc. There are big trees and lots of dirt. It's not pretty. I used to wear safety goggles when I mowed the lawn (what there was of it). We have not yet tackled any yard projects to date. Well, the plan for this summer is to put in a patio and a privacy fence. I dream of having a nice little space in the backyard to sit with a book and a glass of red wine without disruption from the five kids in the house to the right of us, and anywhere from 4-8 kids in the house to the left.

The man who built our house in the late 1940s lived in it for over 50 years. There was one owner between us and him, who lived there for three years, and didn't do much to the place. What we know about the original owner, John, is that he was a Burma Shave sign painter. Also, he was a crafty, handy guy, who finished the upstairs (aka "The Clubhouse" and "Big Time Attic") in pine, and the downstairs is also all finished off in pine, with built-in bookshelves and a little bar. All of these pine boards are actually recycled Burma Shave signs. He put in shelves throughout the basement using recycled BurmaShave signs, and I noticed today when cleaning the garage that part of the garage is actually built of recycled signs.

The other thing about John is that he collected rocks and threw them in the backyard. A neighbor told us that he actually had a huge rock garden in the backyard that was subsequently (perhaps by his children, after his death) destroyed. I think many of the rocks were hauled away or thrown into miscellaneous piles. But these are not ordinary rocks. I'm sure we've dug up more than 100 pieces of petrified wood, for example. Today, we found a dinosaur egg. We want to use these materials as much as possible to landscape--I think we'll use the rocks to create the walls of flowerbeds around the patio.

Little brothers have, of course, been conscripted to assist in the patio project. Toby was out there digging in the dirt with me all day. I called brother John this evening to ask if he could come down and help put in the pavers, etc. He's going to call back in a few days to confirm, but he may come down as early as next Saturday! Joy! Bliss! Brother John is great. I love to work on projects with him. He's just two years younger than me and we were best buddies growing up. My mom taught us how to sew and we made stupid little stuffed animals ("Stuffies"). He, Pete, and I spent many hours out in dad's shop and working on "the fort." We had the most incredible fort you ever saw. There was an upstairs and a downstairs, a princess tower, a secret ladder connecting to a treehouse, an alligator pit (duh), trap-doors (double-duh), a dungeon (goes without saying), a gangplank, etc. It was all built from wood salvaged from when we remodeled our house. The square footage of the thing was probably more than my first two apartments. Sadly, my dad burned it down in a "freak accident" while I was in college...

Shad, Toby, and I rewarded ourselves for a day of hard work by having Chinese for dinner. Some clients from my office were seated at the table next to us, so I stopped by to say hello, and they ended up picking up our tab. Neat!