love is the answer

Inspired

This spring has me so inspired in so many ways. 

My garden brings me joy everyday.  In the morning I putter around and check to see who is bigger and growing well.  I think my guys (the plants) are going to be wonderful producers.  I have a new favorite show, I want to be this woman!  She is so rustic and earthy. Its called The Edible Garden.  I can watch the same show over and over until the next one airs.

Here are some current garden pics.

In my square foot garden I am growing peas, broccoli, lettuce, onions, kale, and cilantro so far.

In another area, I tilled the ground with some compost and peat moss.  So far I have planted corn, kale and brussels sprouts in that one.

This is the corn:

This row has the brussels sprouts and kale:

I can't wait for the fear of frost to pass so I can get my tomatoes and peppers going.   At night, I lay in bed obsessing about what else I can plant.  I'm thinking potatoes, garlic, cucumbers etc...

I have also been sewing again.  I seem to go through sewing phases.  I will sew almost everyday for three weeks, and then it might take another month before I start up again.

Here is a little wristlet clutch type bag I  made:

I also made a cool reversible bag. You can get the tutorial here.  I finally found a use for this awesome vintage tree fabric that I bought at a thrift store.  The whole bag was made from thrifted materials so I think it probably cost me like a dollar to make it.

I'm also loving that its yard sale season.  The other day I found two awesome plant stands for only ten dollars! Now, my container plants look even better!

Into the Swing of Spring

My wonderful husband totally hooked me up with a super awesome birthday gift.  A porch swing!!!!  I've wanted one for so long and I'm so thrilled to finally have it.

I think I'm gonna sew some pillows for it.

Well, getting the swing made me want to spring up my porch.  I still had my dead mums in the pots by my front door and decided to freshen them up.  I've never done much container planting but I wanted to give it a shot.  I picked up a few plants at Lowe's and got to it.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

MUCH BETTER!!!
 
  
 

Spring Happenings

Oh the joy of spring!  It feels so good after having a long, hard winter.

I'm super happy because my broccoli and onions are doing great.

and check out these two BFFs!  

 

LEPRECHAUN update

Well that little fellow made it to our house again.  Once more, he left footprints all over the T.V which, he always does.  This year though, the leprechaun left willy a gift too.

 
 

Walnut Shortbread

This week I made walnut shortbread from Martha Stewart's March issue.  It was pretty easy.  The only step that took some time was toasting and grinding up the walnuts.  Very, very yummy.

A Warm Day

We are finally having a bit of warm weather here.  On Monday, we enjoyed it by planting some seeds and getting our garden ready.  I bought this book to use as my gardening bible.  I read it cover to cover and I am doing exactly what it tells me to do.  I really want to enjoy having my own organic produce in the  months to come.

On this day, according to the book, it said to plant pepper and lettuce seeds.  I used paper egg cartons instead of little pots.  I read somewhere that when your seeds sprout, you can just cut them apart and put them directly into the ground.

We wrote with a sharpie on popsicle sticks to identify our seeds.

I bought all the supplies for my four square garden and got to work.  First, we had to drill holes in the 2 by 6 by 4 untreated wood. 

Next, we used screws to put the box together. 

The third step was shoveling the grass out of the 4 by 4 area. 

After that, we put weed cloth over the area.

Then, we placed the frame on top. 

Now this is where a lot of hard work came in.  We had to mix compost, peat moss and vermiculite on a tarp.  This was a bit tricky, but we got it done.  The picture only shows some the compost, so trust me when I say we had a huge pile of stuff to mix and move. 

Finally, we filled the box with our new perfect soil.  We still need to make a grid for the top.  Hopefully today will be that day.  Since I still have extra soil, I want to buy some more wood to make a 3 by 3 foot garden for Tyler.

Thank You Mr. Sun for FINALLY coming out!!!

  

Loving Me.

Lately, I have been trying to really embrace who I am.  Sometimes, I can get negative, focus on what is wrong and just not feel good enough.  Yesterday, I was driving, had a creative burst and went to the store to buy a canvas.  This morning I got right to work.  I think I'm going to hang this in the kids bathroom.

 

Sewing Bags

I tried two new tutorials for sewing bags.

This is the first one.  It was very easy to follow but I had a difficult time sewing through the straps.  It was more of a me problem than the actual tutorial.  I made this bag for Madison to use for school.  She loves it and has been using it.

This weekend, I used this tutorial to make myself a messenger bag.  I really should have used interfacing to make the bag stiffer.  Oh well, I still like it and I love when I make something using only thrifted materials. 

 

My Mom Rocks!!!

I've been complaining to my Mom a lot about the intense winter we've been having.  My kids have had 14 snow days.  It has snowed and snowed and been very, very cold and gray, for a very, very long time...longer than this sentence. I tell her my dreams of organic gardens and flip flops. So, being the awesome mom she is, she sent me some happy mail.

Oh, and remember that mesh thingie I mentioned in my last post...this is what it became.

No more little plastic bags in the produce section.

 

Weekend Thrifting

Near my house, there is this thrift shop in a church.  I love going there because you can find a lot of vintage items.  My favorite part is when its time to pay.  There's this little old lady, who is always in a good mood, and who takes her job seriously.  She adds everything up on a notepad!!!  Going here is like going back in time. 

Check out my special finds.

A bag of vintage fabric scraps,

a mighty mouse chapter book (he was my fav as a kid), and that humpty dumpty book which is from March 1966 (it has the best illustrations that I want to embroider),

some children's books,

fabrics (the coral and pink ones are linen),

some mesh thing (I don't know what its supposed to be, but I want to cut the mesh to make a produce bag for the supermarket, that way I won't have to use small plastic bags anymore), some pom pom trim and elastic cording,

a keep your bread warm thingie, a thermos and a vintage raggedy ann and andy pillowcase,

two pillow shams that will match Tyler's bedding perfectly.

All this stuff for $18.24!!  :)