Sewing and Seeds

It was cold and snowy again today, and I was content to stay inside and do some mending.  It took me most of the day to put a new jacket zipper in Tom's winter jacket, but the project went quicker than I thought it would.  I hand sewed the zipper in place with a double threaded needle, but I will pull out the sewing machine tomorrow and reinforce the seams.   Maybe next week I'll replace the zipper in my jacket -- it's shot, too.  The coat I wear is one I bought for my mother a long time ago.  After she died the coat came back to me.  It was originally a fuschia color, but when she was little, Soldier Girl hated it and used to tell me that I "looked like a pink Kirby" (whatever that is) in it, so I dyed the coat navy blue so she would stop nagging me.  Only the outer shell took the dye, however, so the coat really looks pathetic now with blue on the outside and mottled blue/fuschia on the flowered print lining.  I just had to mend one of the pockets on it that I caught and tore on a nail, too.  I keep telling myself to give it away, but I just can't let go of it.  It's a really good coat.  I can take the lining out to make the coat wearable in less cold weather; I can wear the lining as a short jacket; I can remove the lining's sleeves and wear the shell as a vest.  And it's washable.  It's really a nice coat.  I have worn it in temps as low as -65F (yes, Chicago where we used to live really has gotten that cold!) and been warm as toast.  Now that I think of it, that coat is going to have to fall apart before I get rid of it.

I'm having a lot of fun looking at the seed catalogs.  I have noticed, however, there is less of a selection in many of them.  I will order some seeds this year from http://www.heirloomseeds.com/.  That will be a new company for me so I'll let you know how their service is.  I printed out the order form from Horizon Herbs and will sit down a while with that and work out my medicine wheel garden layout.  I can't wait to have a good medicinal herb garden growing.  I have been looking forward for some time to being able to make my own medicines. 

I almost forgot to tell you my even better news!  Mr. Massey from The Country Today  newspaper called again yesterday morning and told me that they had to disqualify their original 3rd place winner in the Christmas Memories contest so my story was moved up to 3rd place, and that means I also win $25.00.  Wow!  That will buy some seeds.