Putzing Around

Weekends around our house are pretty quiet, and a time for relaxing, watching movies, maybe cooking together. What isn’t usual is for me to find myself completely alone in this big rambling house. Well, ok. My darling Josie (Golden Retriever) and Jamie’s Alyssa (Golden Lab) and our fat house cat Remi kind of object to that, because the truth is all three of them follow me around constantly. So I will amend that by saying it is unusual to find myself without any human company. (-:

But Sunday was a great day for just putzing around. I learned that phrase from my mother-in-law and love how expressive it is. “What are you doing?” -“Oh, just putzing around…”

I decided this was a good moment to make a little more soap. The choice today was Strawberries ‘n Cream! Actually there is more milk than cream in this recipe, but that doesn’t sound as neat. All it takes is to wash and core some lovely strawberries, mix the lye in milk (looks lovely, smells terrible), blend the strawberries with the cream… so easy, so much fun…

Hmmm. interesting… After mixing everything together that lovely pink color disappeared. This smells good, but doesn’t look like strawberries to me! (Not to worry, after 24 hours I see there is a faint pink color again…)

I had picked up some seeds this week, so this was the perfect time to start some more herbs for my kitchen. Crazy, I now, with so much space outside in which to plant, but I like having pots of herbs in my kitchen window, to have right on hand while cooking. Right now I have some lovely basil, rosemary, sage and pepperming sitting on the windowsill, but I wanted to add some more (mint, oregano, thyme, and a couple of herbs I don’t remember what they are called in English!). I use on large planter to start these herbs. If they start to grow out of hand I can always transplant to a space right outside my kitchen door.

Time then to cook some veggie soup for lunch and, while that was boiling, fold a little bit of laundry.

And then a lazy, lazy afternoon. Reading for a little, sewing for a little… I also remembered this old, battered up, metal tray that I’ve been meaning to do something with. The paint – both on top and on the bottom – is worn off and has started to peel off. And it isn’t as if this had been any great beauty to start off with. My mom bought this years ago, when I was a teenager, probably because in those days it was unusual to find a tray with legs on it!

To start, I decide to just pull out the gold spray and take care of the bottom… Much better, don’t you think? Now to think about the top. Decoupage, I think, but don’t know if I’ll go with paper or fabric….

Yep. A slow, lazy day. Perfect for putzing around. And for the realization, at the end of the day, that this old house I call home is — for me — the happiest place in the world.