2014 Garden

The first step in container gardening, obtain containers...

Second step obtain dirt and compost, seedlings and add sunshine and dash of water and... Voila! Garden!

This Year's Hair Cut:

Before:

During:

After:

Busy...

What a day... it ended well enough... Dinner out! Only because the kitchen cabinets were wet with a shiny new coat of paint... that I put on this afternoon. It only took 3 months.

At any rate, the cabinets look lovely! We had a fun evening out together and all is well!

Our First (Surprise) Harvest:

We tried. It was an epic effort. And then the sun hid his face and the snow blanketed the sprigs. We thought all hope was lost. Until the last week. The springs bounded upward toward the sunshine that peeked through the leafless trees. Perhaps all hope is not lost for a garden this cool season!

Green Harvest Bounty:

and the Ensuing Lunch Fare:

OH the maddness:

So it's been a while since I have posted. The children are growing like weeds and we're staying incredibly busy.

Since November we..

had Thanksgiving Lunch with family

enjoyed a weekend away to Atlanta for Chanukah with Michael Rood

worked progressingly on remodeling our bathroom

took the whole family to the zoo

begun packing and cleaning our home for possibly selling/moving

generally have been keeping our heads above water

I have been taking pictures along so here are a few!

Picture Post: How does your garden grow?

Very Berry!

I brought the children up to the mountains for a few days of gettaway. On the way we stopped and picked raspberries and blackberries! We enjoyed it for the first 20 mins. then my goal was to pick and get outta' there! It isn't as hot and humid as it is in SC but MAN i just didn't appreciate the sun. N. even has a cute little farmers tan from riding on my back as I picked. We enjoyed some discount shopping and then an afternoon at the house. We ventured out after a heavy rain shower to pick more. This time is was blueberries off my mom's bushes. We picked about half gallon. off one bush. (!) The plan is to pick more blueberries tomorrow, and more raspberries on the way out of town.

This, folks, is a REAL berry. (Yes, singular.) the biggest I have ever had. A couple of jamming nights once we returned home and I put back quite a few jars of jam! So very exciting, considering these berries were organically grown.







Exit stage Left... Raspberry Jam!

Swing Helper

This...

Plus this...

Equals this...

Repurposed

I really don't know how to describe the bliss of completeing yet another simple but on hold project! I mean, only a few months ago L. would throw a fit if I sat down to sew.. and now.. it is like he's another child! At any rate, I'm not going to argue! (hear the hum of my machine in the background...)

To some, aprons may be a simpleton reminder of pre-women's lib era, totally passe' and pointless. BUT I would like to point out that they are totally functional and totally trendy, and a breeze to make! Here is my new little half apron. She was repurposed from a Sz 3x skirt I picked up at the goodwill.

Here, in all it's colorfun glory...

Taking it's place, upstaging the ole' apron!

Stars and Stripes

I love to sew. Recently however, I have been in a slump. My room was messy and I simply avoided it. After some caffeiene and a self-motivating pep talk it was cleaned up and ready for our overnight guests. And the side bonus of an undercontrol sewing area. I mused to myself and others of how frustrating it is to start a project and NEVER get to finish it. So, yesterday I fished out a summer jon jon outfit I had been wanting to 'whip up' for L. The process is simple and should only take an afternoon to complete but sadly I rarely have an afternoon to whip up with... But here we are, ready for the summer July festivities! Oh and just because: This was an old ladies blouse in it's former life!

Steve's Chicken Shack:

Over the past few weeks we've planned and executed our latest building venture! We're very proud to say that it was mostly recycled and in the end cost us very little! Steve slaved away in the hot sun (and partial cloud coverage, and shade..) I helped little bits as I could, mostly preping the recycled lumber (ie pulling old nails out... whoo-hoo). And L. helped Steve measure the wood and measure everything else within sight.

It's a simple 4x8 rectangle with two windows and 1 door. My mom and dad come to help frame it and slap the roof on. Steve finished up with the walls and door. There's even a cute little chicken door. It's not complete but shouldn't take much more effort. I want to paint it green and we still need to fashion a door for the chicken exit and raise the fence for the run area. I'm also excited about finding the future pet/chickens. I have been keeping tabs on the local free ads and also craigslist. I suppose if I am not too late, I might order them from Murry McMurry Hatchery!

Here are some pictures of our process!

AND...

The Wall...

Part of our home makeover was to erect a wall that would separate our kitchen and form a laundry room! We have worked long and hard with this project, in snatches of minutes here and there, naptimes and late nights. Here are a few snaps of the process... please excuse the mess!

Here we see... construction!  Spakeling and sanding... priming and then painting..

Laundry Soap 101

This was a strangely stressful experience that turnned out to be no more difficult than making potato salad, though i highly recommed you NOT eat this project! 

And here it is.. step by step...

1: grate half a block of Zote soap. I really didn't enjoy this part. I found that the fine dust produced by this action irritated my sinus' and it has a very strong fragrance... almost *gasps* suffocates! The zester side worked best!

2: melt soap in 4 cups water over med/low heat, til all the little bits of soap are gone and you are left with a fragrant soapy syrup... like this... *gasp* then fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 way with hot water and dump it in..

3: The next thing is like adding mayo and onion to the potatos, but instead its 1 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax to the pink, suffocating, soapy water, and stir stir stir it up.

4: Just fill it up with water, wait 24 hours and -Viola! Laundry Soap! (this is the Duggars' recipe... you can read more about it here. It makes a LOT!)

Thanks Cori for the inspiration and help with recipes, and thanks Gwen for the motivational peptalk and finding the soda! I'm counting down for 24 hours to start using it!!!! 

Random Pics of L.