Growth Update:Garden

Monday, April 27, 2009

I hope everyone is doing well. I just wanted to give an update on this years "theme." You may remember, though probably not since it has been so long, that my theme for this year is growth in several areas.

Here is the garden now. I am very pleased with the results so far. Since the last post I have planted squash, lima beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, leeks and marigolds.
These are the sugar snap peas climbing up my mothers home made "trellis." I had some that were planted before the snow. The snow didn't effect them but the rain before (the drops were huge) absolutely pulverized them. So, I planted some seeds as a safety. The seeds have done better than the ones that started from seedlings.

Here is the second bed that was vacant in the previous post. it doesn't look like much now, but hopefully it will come along nicely. It contains lima beans, cauliflower, bell peppers, tomatoes, squash and carrots.

This is one of my blueberry bushes. Isn't the soil terrible? But these blueberries love Georgia clay so they have been totally hands off. I also planted the impatiens this weekend. The plan is that they will re-seed and be low maintenance.
This was the best investment I made. It was a bag of mixed salad green seeds. They are great to throw in with the romaine. In Georgia you can grow it from February through November. I took my mom's advice and planted some more every two weeks so that I would have as much as I needed.

News

Monday, April 20, 2009

Sorry for the brief hiatus. I have been very busy since I blogged last.

• I finished a 132 page yearbook for the school where I teach.
  
• I have written seven individual education plans for the children I teach.
  
• I have planted a kicking garden (pictures when the sun comes up)
• I let coupons expire before even cutting them out
  
• and most importantly... looking at a lot of this kind of stuff

Now that I am done with all of the paperwork and the yearbook, and through the first trimester I will be blogging more...I promise.

How does your garden grow?

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Back when we were all doing resolutions in January. After posting mine I got to thinking about some of the talk of having a focus for the year.

This year's focus for me will be growth.

Mental-possibly going back to school
Spiritual-being more intentional about placing myself before God so that he can use me
Physical-growing a vegetable garden. This is the one I will focus on in today's post
Unexpected growth-TBA

After watching several bloggers and what they had done in their gardens I took a page from Manuela's book and decided to do raised beds. Our home is newly built and they scraped all of the top soil off of our land and only left clay. We have had a difficult time just getting grass to grow. My father (who happens to be a master craftsman) built me these beds.

First we laid down newspaper that I had been saving from my coupon clipping exploits. Next we added leaves, then some of the topsoil that we do have on hand, and finally some store bought soil and finally the rich miracle grow to get it really going. In the end mom and I decided to throw in the soaker hose. Not because it was necessary, but because it was free.

I am grateful for Hubbs for the brute strength, and Mom and Dad for their expertise. I am grateful to all of them for working along side me in this project as if it was their own. So far I planted:

Sugar Snap peas (see the little thingy that mom rigged for them to climb)

Romain Lettuce

Spinach (seeds)

Lettuce Mixture (seeds)

Broccoli

We also planted two blueberry bushes. Did you know you have to have two for cross polination?

I am working on a home organizing notebook

Monday, February 9, 2009

I am kinda type A. I have been saving lists and things forever and working up to have an entire notebook of organization. You know you have all of those stain charts, master gift buying lists, garden plans, shopping lists, and Sunday school class members phone numbers. I don't even have kids yet and I feel like I already let things slip through the cracks.

Does anyone already use one? Here are some helpful links I found.

• Fly Lady's Control Journal

• How about a daily To-Do List from Penny Pinching Diva-Complete with space for a bible verse and checking off your 8 glasses of H2O a day.

• Great printable for every ocasion. There are some very intriguing ones for the scrapbooker at Household Notebook.

• Or there is this daily docket from Simple Mom who encourages you to swallow the frog first (do the thing you really don't want to do.)

• Overwhelmed already. I really enjoy Home Sanctuary. This Company Girl encourages her readers to do one small thing each week day. I work full time and sometimes more than 10 hours a day. If I can do one small thing it makes me feel a little better as a wifey. You keep track of each small thing (they are all worth a different ammount of points) and at the end of the month she has a giveaway for the person with the most points. Don't worry though, there is also a random drawing for everyone else. She has a new song on her site each day to go along with the day's small thing.
  

I will post my notebook when it is finished. It will be about a week. Until then her is some click candy.

God Bless!

I have an obsession

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Allow me to confess one of them to you.

Enamel Pans!

Crazy, huh?

Let me tell yo why. You don't have to be fussy about what utensils you use when cooking them. You can get down and scrub them with steel wool or wire sponge when you goof and burn the rice on the bottom(I NEVER DO THAT!) Yeah Right, I do it all of the time. My DH does all of the dishes in our house. But when I burn something I always clean it. Enamel pans are the greatest for my somewhat forgetful way of cooking. And where do I get these little Jems? Why, at the local neighborhood goodwill.

This is my egg pan, not becase I cook eggs in it. I am sure you can see why. It is perfect for cooking dried beans, rice, and heating up a can of soup.And here is my latest acquisition. It doesn't have a name. It is highly useful in skillet meals and hamburger helper. It's durability has already been tested. I burned hamburger helper on the bottom of it this week when I walked away(always the multitasker), and it is just as pristene without a stain on it. I love my little forgiving pans. The hubs is getting tired of trying to fit them all in the drawers.

Lovvve is in the air

Saturday, January 24, 2009

I wish I had had the time to decorate for winter. I love what Joy has done for the winter. She is my decorating hero. I would have my house look like hers in a minute. Alas, this week was about an 80 hour week for me. So, I skipped winter and went straight for valentines day. Interesting fact-my V key is on the blink just in time for my VVVVVValentines day post. Here is what I did with my chalkboard and sewing hoops for V day.


This is what I have going on in my china cabinet right now. I really love the rose pink depression class. I recently aquired the candy dish at the flea market and am loving it.I am so glad that I made these books when they started popping up all around blogland. They have sported jack-o-lantern faces, Christmas ribbon and now are looking lovvvvely for Valentines day. I think I need more for sort of a cluster.

This cute little cake plate is one of two that I got from my sister. The other is larger and they stack together. This ivory spray painted frame travels around my home with different magazine clippings that I think are cute and seasonal. I love candy hearts. I need to buy some more to eat and not just look at.


And last but not least here are my two favorite guys. They are the hobbit adventurers Marry and Pippen. Yes, Mary is a boy. I have had Pippen (the siamese mix) for almost 5 years and can't imagine life without him. Mary is a relatively new addition to our home. But, Pippen is showing him the ropes and will kindly swat him if he gets out of line. And in case you are wondering Pippen is not evil, His eyes just dialate more slowly than the average cat.

Tutorial:Versitle Seasonal Decor

Monday, January 19, 2009

I love using sewing hoops to decorate. Fabric is always easy to work with and very inexpensive. You can always find interesting prints in pillowcases and other scraps at your local thrift store. I took these Pictures in December, these were the colors that I used for Christmas. If you look carefully you can see that I kept several of the scraps in place for Valentines day and only swapped out the green ones. I keep all of the swatches tucked away together so that I can reuse them for different seasons. For more examples check out my post HERE (Fall). I also have some wooden ones in my craft room here. In this room I actually used some shelf paper in the hoops, just because I liked it better than any of the fabrics I could find. The hoops are easy to find. All of mine came from either the Avendale Flea Market or the United Methodist Childrens Home Sale. Some of the fabrics came from there as well.

1. Choose your fabrics. and hoops They can come from anywhere. Some of my hoops are quite small and don't take much fabric to fill.
2. Choose the portion of the fabric that you want to "Frame." This mostly applies to fl orals and toilles.
3. Place the bottom of the hoop under the fabric and the top piece (they come apart, these metal ones have springs and cork to cushion them) press down until they firmly hold the fabric in place. You may have to tug the fabric until there aren't any wrinkles. Be especially careful with stripes so that they don't get wavy.
4. Trim around the edges.
   
5. Hang.

Here are the ones that I have up right now for Valentines Day.

Camera Broken

Sunday, January 18, 2009

I hate blogging without pictures. So, I haven't blogged in quite a while. The camera is broke so I am having to revert to my older one. It is charging now and I promise I will post some pictures soon, I have been doing some decorating for valentines day. I have been very busy couponing. My husband even got a little involved today. We went and did half of our Publix shopping after church today. When we were at the register he was cheering as the "ammount saved" kept going up. The total that we spent was $9.23 and we saved $34.86. Joel was very suprised and gushing with pride at my couponing skills. Hope to post more pics soon.

Last day of winter break

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Sundays are my day of rest. My husband and I live 45 minutes from our church and we choose not to go back to church on Sunday nights. We go to the morning service and to Sunday School. When I was growing up we went in the morning and then back at 4:00 for choir practice and then the evening service. We lived three minutes away. Sundays are the beginning of the week and they are important for me to be able to prepare for the rest of the week. Some people may judge us for not spending three hours on the road on Sunday, but I know for us it is the right decision. We have decided that, for the new year, we will have our date night on Sunday evenings and I couldn't be more thrilled. This evening we plan on having dinner...at the table, discussing our goals for the new year and watching Superstars of dance. He and I are both huge suckers for anyone with rhythm. Have a great Sunday

Coupon Bonanza

Saturday, January 3, 2009

There will be 5 coupon inserts in the Sunday paper tomorrow. So, even if you aren't one of the few, the proud, the couponers, you might want to check it out. There is a preview over at Taylortown Preview. The site looks a little scarey, but if you scroll down you can see what's in them. I spent the afternoon clipping them and there are lots to be had. It is good news because a lot of the ones that I had expired 12/31. Happy Clipping!