refashioning and roses

I wish this post was announcing that I have chooks. I don't have chooks, but I want some. I've been making noises about this yet again. I think they could go well in the grassy spot outside the garage which is otherwise going to produce potatoes next summer. Sometime I will get results.

I pulled more stones out of the garden in front of the lounge this afternoon and then piled horse poo thickly on top. Then I took to the roses with secateurs. Brutally. I haven't seriously considered digging them out before because I didn't think I could within such a narrow strip but now I'm rethinking that assumption. They really are in the wrong place. They should be rambling up a tree or over a fence, not sprawling unattractively out of the narrow garden bed and over the driveway.

Tonight I have started to unpick the waist seam of my purple frock. I bought this long purple velveteen dress in an op shop in Ilford, Essex in 2001 or 2002. It wasn't as long as I wanted so I bought some deep red material and paid the mend it man at the dry cleaners in Goodmayes, one station east of Ilford to add it to the bottom and to edge a scarf to wear around my neck with the dress. It is a roomy and comfortable dress, so much so that I wore it to a christmas work do in 2002 when I was eight and a half months pregnant.

I wear it a lot these days and today as I took it off the washing line it occured to me that I could alter it and extend it's life and give my wardrobe a little new energy. It is an empire line dress and I'm unpicking the skirt from the bodice. I have some elastic to turn the bottom into a stand alone skirt. I'll see about the bodice later. I have a purple organic long sleeved t-shirt, also from my London days. They could be an 'outfit'. A girl has to have a few things to complement her gumboots.