Little Houses Made Of Ticky Tacky

Is this a stoop?  Or just a front door / entry?  I don't know.  What I do know is that this sad sad entry stoop was plain and uninspired.  I live in a cookie cutter neighborhood.  Every time I drive down the street to my house I hear that song.  It goes:  "Little houses, on a hillside, little houses made of ticky tacky, little houses on a hillside, little houses in a row....." It was sung by Malvina Reynolds and is called "Little Houses".  It was the theme song to the show "Weeds".  Anyways, this space needed some personality.  I added a flower pot that I've had loitering in the backyard.  But, most importantly I added this awesome wreath!

Made with a dollar store foam 8" wreath and paper pinwheels. I just used straight pins and some hot glue to attach the pinwheels.  It only took 2 hours or so. The paper pinwheels took a while to cut and fold.  Wish it was bigger, but hey... it was what I had on hand.

I'm thinking lots more wreaths for different seasons is in order.  Don't you just love color in a boring space?  I know I do.  I'm happy every time I walk up those cookie cutter stairs now.

Just Catching Up

Summer is in full swing here in our house.  July and August are always crazy months around here.  The garden is doing awesome.  We are eating fresh veggies out of it every day.  I'll do a post on that another time.  The kids have been busy visiting family and hanging out with friends.  Alaina started marching band at the high school. (it still boggles my mind that she's starting high school....) So, she's gone Monday through Friday during the days until school starts.  Rachel has been reading like crazy and crafting.  Cael has been bug hunting and playing with the neighbors. Liam has been crawling, babbling, and just generally being very very curious.  And, he has his first tooth!  Curtis just started a new job. Yeah!  And, me... well.... I've been just trying to keep up with everyone else.  I've been canning summer goods, running kids around, holding a teething baby, looking for bugs, doing house chores and knitting every chance I get.

That's what I really want to post about today.  The knitting!!! I've finished more socks and some other goodies.  I'm knitting dish clothes and matching dishtowels for Christmas gifts.  I finished a pair of socks, two bandana cowls, a fat robin and nest toy, three star child mini dolls, and started some more things.

 Bandana Cowl For Aunt Megan.

 Bandana Cowl For Aunt Shannon.

 Bellatrix Socks

 I Beleaf Socks (I call them Falling Leaves Socks)

 Fat Robin And Nest

Some of the dishcloths.

I have to take photos of everything else still.  More to come soon!

Garden Update June 14, 2014... Late!!!

*Note... This post was supposed to be posted on June 14.  But, blogger didn't post it for some reason.  So, here it is.  Late, but necessary as it shows the garden a few weeks before my last posting.  I think these photos were taken around the 10th of June.

I don't even know where to begin with this garden.  This house was empty for 18+ months before we moved in.  Many of our neighbors have described the women living here as the "Crazy Plant Lady".  I guess every weekend she would drive up with her car filled to the brim with plants.  I could have guessed that by looking at this yard.  It was a jungle when we moved in.  But it was October so we decided to wait until spring to get going on it.  (not to mention I was due in just a few weeks!)  When April rolled around and it thawed out enough for me not to freeze, I got to work.  I pruned, hacked, and ripped up weeds.  And, the hubby and I hauled rocks... lots and lots of rocks.  They seemed to have stood on the upper deck and just throw rocks all over the garden as art.

Little bit by little bit the garden is emerging.  She was actually smart with what she planted, but not so much with where she planted them.  It's all edibles and butterfly and birds stuff.  luckily I've found about 50 plant tags scattered around.  So I've had a place to start.  As you all should know by now... I have a black thumb. I've been trying though.  And, really, if I can't become a good gardener here, I won't be able to anywhere.  The soil here is sandy loam. It's beautiful and rich.

I cleared out space for a slightly raised veggie bed.

Here are just some pics from around the garden.  There will be lots of updates over the next few months.

My September Garden

We are half way through September and we've been having July/August weather.  It's no wonder that my veggies are confused.  I've been told by a few "seasoned" gardeners that my veggies are fine for the weather that we are having.  I don't know if they are being nice or serious.  To me, the garden isn't producing like I thought it would.  I've decided to make a gardening journal so I can remember things from this year next year.  I do have to say though, that the veggies and herbs are awesome!  No comparison to grocery store veggies.  Next year.... I want a much much larger garden.

The tomatoes are doing the best of everything.  They grew quite large in size.  The fruit is smaller than what the tags said they should be.  The cherry tomatoes are about 1/2 the size of the ones in the grocery stores.  But, they do taste better!  The Early Girl tomatoes should be 4-5 oz each and they are mostly 2 oz each.  But, again... they are tasty!

I've been able to harvest 3 cucumbers.  The plant itself seams to be doing quite badly.  It's got very yellow and brown leaves.

The bell peppers are still going.  I've only harvested 2 so far, but there are quite a few on the bush still growing.  I'm hoping to have bell peppers for at least another month.

The zucchini squash are just sad.  I think I need to plant only one plant per pot next year.  Just sad....

The green beans have been sad too.  They never got larger than 10" tall and only produced 5 beans.  No picture of these because they are really boring!

Overall I'm happy with my results this year.  Considering how black my thumb is.  I've gotten a great sense of accomplishment out of growing things I can feed my family.  I still hate weeding and cutting the grass.  Give me a yard with just some grass and raised gardening beds and I'd be a happy gardener!

Garden Update - Late July

 The garden is growing well.  Though honestly, I wouldn't be able to tell you if it was truly thriving.  But, from what I can tell... things are starting to happen.

My herb table is looking lush and green.  We pluck something from it almost every night.  The pot in the center is mint, peppermint, and pineapple sage.  After I took this picture I decided to split them up into their own pots.  They are doing much better now.  I can't believe how big they got.  I need to learn to dry these herbs to use them in the winter.  Especially for tea.

As you can see my tomatoes are doing well.  I'm actually quite surprised.  On my big tomato plant I have about half a dozen 1" or so tomatoes growing.  I seem to find a few more itty bitties every day.  I can't wait until they get big and red!  My cherry tomato plant is also going strong.  There are a few dozen tomatoes started.  Ray is sooo excited about these.

My hanging cucumbers are starting to grow too.  There are many 1" cucumbers started.  I've never seen them grow before so this is exciting!!

I've harvested two 4-5" green bell peppers so far.  There are 3 more on bush and the red bell pepper plant is just starting.  Hubby says that the bell peppers that we've eaten so far were't to great.  Hmmmm.....

The zucchini has 5 started and lots more flowers.  2 are not going to make it, but the other 3 are looking good.  Some of the leaves are turning yellow.  I think I need to fertilize with something.  I will have to look that up.

The green beans, strawberries, and blueberries are very uninspiring.  Very small strawberries, only a few very small green beans so far and only a dozen or so blueberries that may ripen up.  Hopefully they will get better as the weeks go by.  No photo of these as they aren't that interesting right now.

All in all we are having lots of fun with our garden.  I am loving seeing things grow that we can eat.  Very satisfying.  Next year we will definitely be planting more variety.

The Start Of My Edible Container Garden

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a black thumb.  You may remember my post from last year about planting seeds.  Yeah... they all died.  We ended up buying two tomato plants and a strawberry plant.  Planted them in those upside down thingies.  Yeah.... those died too.

This year is they year! I am going to grow food.  I will not let my plants die of over or under watering.  I will produce something edible and yummy.  I started with some good container potting soil.  I bought some 10" tomatoes and some smaller bell pepper plants and a cucumber plant.  Some tiny herbs and strawberries and a blueberry bush.  Here are my tomato plants!

These pics were taken about 2 weeks ago.  The tomatoes are now about 8" taller than pictured.  They are doing great!  I've been keeping them watered and fertilized.  I've been pruning anything that is looking wilty and I've been making sure the stems are going over the wires for support.

Here are my other goodies.  In the blue pot are some  red and yellow bell pepper that are newly planted. Next to that is my green bell pepper plant.  I've had this one for a month or so now.  It currently has a 5" and a 4" bell pepper growing as well as a few 1" ones!  The small plant next to that are some zuchinni squash.  Next to that are green beans.  In the larger white pot in the corner is my blueberry bush.  I'm not expecting this one to do much in the way of fruit this year.  But, as the years go by it should start producing nicely.  In front of the blueberries are my strawberries.  These are growing like mad.  We've only had a few very small berries so far.  But, we all agree that they are the best berries we've ever tasted. - Just a note that the picture was taken 2 weeks ago.  All of the plants have grown quite a bit since then!

 And finally I have my herb table.  Missing in the front left is my basil.  We LOVE basil.  In the back left is cilantro and chives.  In the middle green pot is peppermint, sweet mint, and lemon something... In the back right is oregano.  This one came up from last years oregano.  And in the front right is Italian parsley.  Again, it's been 2 weeks since this photo.  All my herbs are doing great.

A Little Spring Planting

It's been a while since my last posting. I figured that instead of doing another post about cloth diapers I would try something new. There hasn't been a lot going on around here other than the normal busy of a household with kids. But, we did do some spring planting.

Now, everyone who knows me knows that my thumb is anything but green. Totally brown if not completely black. The last time I tried to grow anything from seeds all died. My hubby knew that I wanted to try some herbs in a pot this next season and maybe some upside-down hanging tomatoes. I figured we would start with already started plants. But, he brought home seeds.......
I figured I would have better luck with them if I got the kids involved. Their love and general cuteness can make anything happy. I decided to start with egg cartons and potting soil. I wanted to find something free to start the seeds. So I figured this would work ok. And, it did! Here are the girls filling the egg cartons, and putting in the seeds. The trays that we put the cartons on fit nicely on my kitchen widow where they would get plenty of light and also be right with the sink to remind me to actually water them.

Here they are about 3 weeks later. Everything is growing except my tray of basil.... of course it would be my tray. My same tray with the tomatoes are growing fine... but not the basil. (my favorite thing!) Everything needs to be transplanted into something bigger. Again, I didn't want to go buy anything. So I read about newspaper pots. Love them! I made up a tray of 24... I still need to find another tray that will hold another 18, but for now at least the girls plants will have bigger pots.
Here we are transplanting and the final tray of seedlings. They are now sitting on our back patio table all watered. I think I'll leave them there for at least today. I think they will have a better chance of staying watered if I keep them in the house. But, I'm not sure where to put such a big tray.