Still sick

I am still sick with this awful cold. I made myself get out of the house today; I think W was going to organize a mutiny with the animals if I didn't take him somewhere. Since I needed more Mucinex, we went to Wal-Mart. While we were there, I got some more plants. Last week I got a purple pansy for my front stoop. I got another one of those today to balance out the front door. I also got some plants for the backyard. While he was here in February, my dad drafted a "landscape" plan for our backyard. I stayed pretty close to his recommendations. I got hostas (4/$5), bleeding hearts (2/$5) and daylilies (4/$5) as roots to plunk into the ground. I got some freesia bulbs; I was surprised that these bulbs are supposed to be planted in the spring--I thought bulbs had to go into the ground in the fall--it was $5 for 25 of them. Finally I got seed packets of sweet alyssum (10 cents a pack!), moonflower and morning glory (97 cents each pack) along with some peat pots to start them in. I'm not too optimistic about starting plants from seeds, but I figured it was worth a try. If they don't work out, I'll just buy some more mature plants later on. I'd like to get all of the roots and bulbs in this coming weekend, so once I feel better, I'm going to go out back and start preparing the soil. There's a lot of preparing to be done. The only thing I can't decide on is how to design my beds. Should I use landscape timbers to make a raised bed? Should I set the bed apart using large, flat rocks? Should I use bricks or garden stones? Any suggestions? It's not a large area--about 16x4 at the most--but I want to set it apart a little to discourage Maggie from getting in it too much.
Tonight, while waiting for Mike to get home from work, I worked on my second skirt. This might have turned out to be unwise, considering how I'm feeling, but it looks okay so far. It's a straight skirt, as opposed to an A-line, which I made last week. It also has a side zipper, which I must say, went in much more easily and attractively this go around than last.