stepping right along

My yard has been/is a step-by-step process.  Now that the planting beds are in, David put a ramp in for me coming off the patio into the yard.  I really like the ease of getting around with it...and Elise does too.  I think all of the grandkids will like it, but she's been able to see and use it daily.

Yesterday I had a load of dirt delivered, suitable for gardening.  For the $7 a yard difference between the compost mix and fill dirt, it was very much worth it.  It looks nice and rich and fertile, and hopefully will accomodate my green thumb.  Before I ordered it, I looked around and found pictures to get an idea of how much dirt was in 4 yards.  I settled on 3.5 yards, and it worked out well.  Here's a picture of it with just a couple of wheelbarrow loads already pulled off.   The young man on top of it doing the hard part is Joshua.  Couldn't have done it without him.

I did a rough estimate of how much dirt I'd need, and came up with 9 yards.  I'm sure glad I didn't order that much, because 1) this was plenty of dirt to handle in one day, and 2) I don't think I'm going to need anymore!  Needless to say, my calculations were a bit off. 

So here's where I am so far:

Next, figure out a "floor plan" of what plants I want and where I want them.  And I'm waiting till April to get some sod brought in. 

Shifting gears a bit, a recent Friday night pj party on the HGTV quilting/sewing forum was to make a carrying case for an IPad.  I didn't have the need for that, but it could be used for a purse as well, so I thought I'd give it a try.   It required a square piece, size optional, depending on what you were doing.  Seems like the IPad case called for about a 23" square, but I had this 20" block made up already, and went with it.  (leftover squares from this project)  I simply joined this to a backing with batting in between, and put a binding on it.

Here's the almost finished project, just needing buttons for closures on the 2 outer pockets.  You'll see two buttons to the side of the purse.  I'll use the red on one side, and the black on the other.  Not bad for using my stash and not having to purchase anything.  :)  That's a good thing.