Brother 1034DX Serger

And now for something completely different....

I shop at my local Walmart a lot. Like five out of seven days I have to pick up something I need, and since it is just down the street from me,  it is mostly out of convenience. However, when I buy something that isn't right, or I changed my mind, or for any reason at all, I know I can return it and get a refund with my receipt, which of course I always keep.

Recently in their miniscule fabric department, I notice the Brother sewing machines they have for sale on the shelf, give a smirk, and walk right by. But I have wondered if their serger is any good. Or, how can it be, at that price? 

 I was visiting my sister yesterday and we were trying to get her Babylock serger that she found on Ebay,  to run nicely, with no success.  Now I am not a mechanic, but I have had a bit of serger experience and can usually rethread and adjust the tension and get good results. So when I couldn't, I brought up the idea of maybe getting her the Walmart serger, and if it didn't work, then I would just return it, and mystery solved. 

This is where I would post pictures, but the website won't let me, so the link to everything is here:

I bought the serger and brought it home and carefully unpacked it, and did a test run. It came pre-threaded with four different colored threads.  I admit I was pretty excited and didn't look first at the threads that had been jostled in shipping and two had slipped into one slot, so when I sewed a sample the thread broke and I immediately assumed LEMON! But then I saw my mistake, rethreaded the machine correctly and ran another test sample. Perfection! I kid you not. My heart was pounding! This is amazing. 

The price I paid was only $252.00, and now as you look at the link you will see that since yesterday, it went down to $235.00. Wha??? 

Hrumph. 

Anyway. I packed it up and brought it over to my sister's house and set it up there, changing out the four little spools of colored threads for big spools of white serger thread and rethreaded the thing from scratch to see how difficult it would be if everything came undone. Not bad at all. Seriously. That is always the stumbling block with sergers, but the pictures on the interior show exactly where and how everything goes, and it works just fine. Not noisy, plenty of accessories and even a thread catcher tray which my $$$$ serger doesn't have. 

Lots of folks have sewing machines and want to sew clothes, (or home decor items) but have to finish the seam edges so the fabric doesn't ravel, and that is off-putting. With a serger, sewing the seam and finishing the edges is a one step deal. But sergers have been so expensive for so long or difficult to operate, that sewers convince themselves that they don't really need or want one. Now that is no longer the case. 

I am telling you all this, because it solves a lot of problems and makes sewing a truly enjoyable experience. 80% of my wardrobe was made using my serger, and it was a pleasure to construct the shirts, pants and dresses that I wash and wear with confidence. 

  

 

Just thought I would let you know. 

Spring Insanity

 Every Spring I ask myself why didn't I buy a truck instead of a car?  At least I did buy a hatchback which helps me get smaller loads home, on my own. For bigger stuff I have to rely on my brother-in-law, the famous John. 

I've gone back and forth on what to do about foundation plantings, and decided on these pots, as the easiest for me to do on my own, being that I am officially an old lady. 

I do have a plan, but this is step three, and I have yet to do steps 1 and 2. Those would be 1. digging out the earth where the pots will sit, 2. cover that spot with weed barrier and mulch and then 3. finally placing the pots on that mulch. 

I don't have the mulch yet, but the bottom third of the pots will also be filled with mulch before I fill the rest with potting mix. Lowe's and Walmart have mulch for $2.50 for a 2cu. bag. I will need LOTS. 

What goes in these pots? Hmm, definetly shade plants, like hosta, heuchera, ferns, astilbe, begonias, impatiens, and coleus. This photo above was taken at 1:30pm, and the pots are in total shade. 

 I moved my flower pots to the deck so my landscape guys could level and seed the yard. It's great seeing the perennials return. Mostly. 

I admit I didn't keep up with watering last summer but the daylilies, a couple of daisies, some coneflowers and some salvia managed to survive in most of the pots. I have already added some bleeding heart roots and a few corms of purple oxalis. Then I went on a quest to find a pink dogwood with buds on it. I came home with a white one with buds and a red one with buds, but no pink one. .

 Then today I went looking again. I ended up going to Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia where I finally found a bud filled pink dogwood and two Japanese Maples, all of these are from Walmart. The prices were so much better than at Lowe's, and their small size made it easy to get them into my car. These two trees were labled Bloodgood, one of which is obviously not. It's green, for heaven's sake and even the trunk is green compared to the darker reddish brown of the real Bloodgood. I don't care what it is, I love it.

With any luck it might be a Coral Bark Maple which is my fave. Even if it isn't, it has beautiful leaves.

 I started a bunch of lettuce, from a variety seed pack, so I have no idea what is growing here, but there are 25 sprouts and that is way more than any one person needs. However, they are pretty when they become mature and I can add them to my flower beds as filler and then give them away later.

 Now I am getting ridiculous, but this is a shot of a purple oxalis emerging, and I am pretty sure you won't be able to see it, even if you look hard. But I know it's there and it makes me so happy. I dug up a bunch of corms from my previous house and I have planted them in the first porch railing box. This is a nursery box and as they emerge I will be transplanting them everywhere. 

And in the house I am rooting lysimachia (Creeping Jenny) and plan to use them as spillers in the front yard pots.

OK, that's enough for today. It is raining off and on and of course that is so good for the grass seed and all the other living things yet to come.

Landscaping

 This is the before picture, or the 'after the grass was removed' picture and before the top soil was added, with grass seed and straw at the end.  O nevermind. This is the middle of the work picture. Notice the white something in the dirt next to the walkway. This is a large tree root, which cannot be removed, but will not be an issue since I plan to built a raised flower bed over this area.

 Here we are at the end of the day with the Bobcat still here, sitting on the future widened driveway. I plan on having that area paved, since so often off-street parking is needed.  In this picture there is a space without straw for that future raised flower bed, which is exciting to me. 

 The view from the street. I am trying to imagine all of this as green grass, which by the way will be fescue, not Bermuda grass, my nemesis.  The entire back yard has also been leveled, seeded and straw covered. A buried concrete foundation for some previous outbuilding was discovered and broken up and removed.

 This area here, adjacent to the porch, is always shady, so I am happily planning a large Hosta bed, my fave. 

And since the old house was listed on Wednesday, by Friday, we got our first offer, which is good. We are countering, but it looks like I will soon be back to owning just one house. Yay!

Exciting Times

My former house has been listed. Here is the listing. I am super happy to have gotten this far in such a short time. I bought my current house on New Years Eve 2025, so about three months later, I am done setting up my home, (with a LOT of help from family and wonderful workers) and now selling the previous one. 

I swear this is my last move. 

This week my famous brother-in-law John came over and power washed the deck.

What a difference! Just so you know I am NOT taking advantage of his kindness, I pay him and bought the power sprayer for him. He keeps it, but if I need it in the future...

So now as I wait for round two of my landscaping project, my thoughts turn to gardening. 

I bought seeds, bulbs and bare roots today, along with potting soil, and fertilizer, but have to be content with planting things in containers until I have actual beds in the yard. But I have plans!

Also this week I got window blinds installed on the west side of the house which means I now can sleep in a really dark room. Yay!

The weather has been so lovely and warm and around town the daffodils and pear trees are in full bloom driving sneezes like crazy. Thankfully, not for me. 

My friend Charlotte gave me some beautiful napkins for a housewarming gift and I immediately turned them into throw pillows, so they don't have hide in my drawer with the other napkins.

Life as a singleton is just so peaceful and pleasant. Last night I made myself a cocktail and sat on the front porch for the first time, eating my dinner of pistachio nuts. 

Then I went in and got back to my laptop, reading Murder on the Marlow Belle, which if you watch Masterpiece Mystery, will recognize the Marlow part. Tonight I will bring my laptop and cocktail out to the porch again and this time my dinner will be popcorn. Call me smug!

At last it's March

There have been lots of workers here over the last few weeks. Trees have been cut down, bad ones, like Hackberry which stains everything, and weed trees and bent over the house trees which could come crashing down on my roof. They are gone now, including all that wood.  My yard had been a dumping ground of just junk and the landscaper also cleared all that away too, which made me so happy.

 

And even more happy making, the plumbers moved the water and electric lines to the back wall of the garage and now I can blissfully park without crashing into anything. My washer and dryer are where they belong, and my stairs have been painted, as well as the two doors. They brought in a brand new water heater too, and if a water heater can make anyone happy, it is making me thrilled. I can now have hot water much quicker in the back bathroom and what's not to like about that? 

You would not believe that the original dryer vent just vented no where, just into the garage itself. Stupid. Now it has an appropriate outlet. 

 The water lines had to be updated and so did the electric. so now I have state of the art fixtures.  It's not sexy but it is a relief to have this awful job finished and so workable. 

Tomorrow my blinds get installed and on Wednesday my previous house goes on the market. Yay!

Now that it is March, garden thoughts are springing up. Whoa! Way too early, but still one can dream. My landscaper is bringing in earth moving equipment, to level out my back yard, which is like the surface of the moon, only with weeds. With many of the messy trees gone, I can hope for grass to grow, and can expect top soil and grass seed soon. Two huge shade trees remain, so it will not be a completely sunny back yard, just sunny enough. The weather has been lovely and I can lounge on the deck with a cocktail now and then. 

While all this is happening, have I been creative? Nope. I spent at least two days doing nothing. Well, unless you count reading novels on my laptop from Libby the library app. I know lots of people who count reading as doing something. I am considering joining them.

And then my sister and I spent a few hours at the big new America's Thrift store in town. And Goodwill opened a new store in the vacant Food City building which is huge! I found some stuff to buy but the line to pay was too long, so I left it all there. But at America's Thrift I found some great shirts and since it is closer to home, I will be making that a regular stop. That caused me to go through my closet for donations and I got rid of three coats which took up quite a lot of space. Yay!

But the best thing is that I have become a Great Aunt! 

Freya Stralka, age one day, daughter of Marianna and Michael Stralka, of New Jersey. Michael (my nephew) is the son of Dave's sister Carol and her husband Dan. Freya is long, plump and perfect, weighing in at 8lbs 4oz. Everyone is thrilled.