GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

I love these skirts!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

This has to be the most fabulous costume I have ever seen! What a talented seamstress. Can you just picture Scarlett wearing it with her red curls? I will be over the moon if we win it!

Cherry Picking

We haven't been fruit picking outside since we moved to Idaho. Yesterday we drove about half an hour from here and picked cherries. $1.30/pound when they are $5.99/pound at the market is fantastic. We had such a great time we are going back in a couple weeks for apricots.We ended up with ten pounds of cherries, which we ate a bunch of already. Plus I made a fresh cherry pie last night. It was so yummy. I prefer cobblers, but they all wanted pie so I was outnumbered. No pie picture though as it overflowed and wasn't very pretty.

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Salad

That is all from my garden! Yummy.

Bwahahahaha

OMG I just love Crazy Aunt Purl. I am not an every day reader of any blog at all but she cracks me up every.single.time. she posts. You have got to go read her blog for today. Oh, if you read the Yarn Harlot first it is even funnier. William Shatner & Slash, oh my! I bet I would have a blast hanging out dropping stitches knitting and getting drunk sipping wine with her knitting group if I go back to LA for a visit. Hmm, I may have to put that on my tentative to-do list.

I'm hoping in the next year or so to make it out there. The kiddos are long overdue for a visit to Disneyland and I miss some of my old friends. I want to stay a bit longer this time so I can make sure to hit all of the places I want to eat. Funny how when we go back I plan each day around where we *have* to eat. Philippe's, The Farmer's Market, Mucho Mas, good sushi somewhere for Rob, Electric Lotus, Mazzarino's and my mind fails me on the others right now but I have a master list somewhere. I love living out here except for the lack of ethnic food. You could get anything you wanted at any time of day and that totally rocked! We are pretty limited here with our restaurant selections. Good yummy food, but it just isn't the same. I do really love Carraba's even though it's a chain. I would say it is my favorite restaurant out here, besides the uber-expensive Mona Lisa.

Adorable!

I have been knitting too, but I never did show what I knit recently since they were a baby gift for a dear friend. My good friend Kimber (4 years now!) that was the mama I met who introduced me to AW and the cool cloth diapers gave birth to her beautiful baby girl Brooke Kaylee just a few days ago. I am so very happy for her and her husband. She was a long time coming and I bet she is going to be so showered with love. If it wasn't for Kimber I would never have tried cloth diapering again. With Jordan we used a diaper service for a bit, but it was such a hassle living in a security building, not to mention no one showed me how to properly use the Proraps so I never really got a good hang of it. Kimber set me straight. I remember the first time we hung out in person and saying to her "You sew your own diapers?" "I can sew..." as my mind starting working overboard lol. I didn't actually do anything more than serge some prefolds & sew some wool covers back then. The sheer amount of awesome cloth out there to choose from was enough to keep me busy building a stash. A month later Damien was pretty much all in cloth. Ah, I love reminiscing. So here is the sweet ruffled capris I knit for Miss Brooke Kaylee. Filled with extra love!

Radzilla

Holy cow was I hit with a surprise today. I went out to check on the garden and see where it needed water. We have been having rain off and on since last night. Actually more like drizzle. It has been pretty warm though, so I wanted to check the soil and see which areas needed water since I knew not all of them would. I got to the most recent radishes planted on 4/13 and encountered what I have named ‘Radzilla’. Now, I know it has been about 6 or 7 weeks since they were planted, but for some reason the four squares of that corner have a really hard time germinating, so it took a long while to sprout. I actually only got a few radishes out of the 16 I planted. I know it wasn’t the seeds either because pretty much every other one grew in the other box. Anyhow, Radzilla is about 2.5” in diameter and nearly 1.5” high! You can see my ring next to it for comparison. I’m almost scared to eat it. lol.

Onions!

Green ones to be exact! The salads get better every day. *grin*

Win a free Ergo

Win a Free Ergo Baby Carrier from Along for the Ride

More radishes harvested today. :)

Clear as the eye can see

there is no snow! So I planted tomatoes and peppers today. Grape, Roma, red, yellow, orange, green bell peppers. I'll get pics and the proper names of them tomorrow when I put the last bits of mulch in the patchways. I am happy to say that there is only one raspberry bush that hasn't sprouted new leaves though. Unfortunately some of the strawberry plants don't look so well. I am not sure if it is lack of water, or too much water and wind from a storm we had last week. I think maybe the latter since they were fine until the day after the storm. I'm going to take tons of pictures and post them at the board and hopefully get some advice though. I hope I can salvage the ones that don't look so good.

Nice haul

for a first harvest. Woot! I love me some peppery radishes. They are so delicious.

Long overdue update

Wow I have been so busy the past three weeks. This will be a quick update until I can get pictures uploaded. I have everything planted for this year, except for the tomatoes and peppers which will go in hopefully this week.

Our crops & their current states:

• Basil


• Marigolds, sprouting


• Edamame, sprouting


• Rainbow Carrots, sprouting


• Assorted letttuce, growing nicely


• Purple Onions, growing big


• Green Onions, almost ready for harvest


• Little Marvel Peas, growing well, no signs of peapods yet


• Assorted Radishes, harvested one, various stages, ready to harvest some today


• Chives replanted, have some that are growing in the wrong squares due to wind or something


• Cukes, sprouting


• Nasturtiums


• Big Max Pumpkins


• Strawberries, some have flowers, some doing okay, some barely hanging on. Only one or two have kicked the bucket out of 48 plants. Not too bad!


• Raspberries, 7 out of the 11 planted have gorgeous new leaves and the others are getting plenty of water and sun, so we will see what happens with them. The ones without new leaves are the bigger ones so maybe it just takes them longer.

I also participated in a swap with some of my sewing and crafting friends. I'll try to get a picture up of all the stuff I made since I have been extremely neglectful of my artistic side lately. Although, there is something very artistic about being outside in nature.

Oh, I almost forgot. Mother's Day weekend we got a dwarf Elberta Peach tree, a Silver Maple tree and a Red Oak tree. The oak is in the front yard and the other two are in the backyard.

Busy busy!

Today I am planting the remaining 2 squares of carrots and 1 square of lettuce that i didn't manage to do before I left for Florida. I am also planting 48 strawberry plants, 14 arbor day trees (some sort of pine?), and 14 raspberry plants. The trees are last on my list they may not get in until tomorrow. However with all of us working together and it staying sunny until late now, we should be good to go. Rob got me a tiller yesterday so I am going to tear the crud out of the soil today and make it nice and fluffy for the raspberries.

Still around

My Grandpa passed away on April 14th and I have been away in Florida. I will post an update in the next few days, but I wanted to let you all know that I haven't disappeared.

A brighter shade of white

Yup, you guessed it. SNOW. I have my husband to thank for that one. He remarked to me yesterday that for sure we have had our last frost for the year. I explained that it normally is still another month out. Even though the weather is nice, I wouldn't be surprised if we had snow between now and Mother's Day. Well thankyouverymuch Murphy's Law. I woke up the kids for school and was glancing out the window as I walked down the hallway and did a double take. What did my little ole eyes see? Snow all over. Hopefully the sun will come out quickly and melt it all since I should be having lots more radish sprouts soon. Maybe if I go outside and sing like Little Orphan Annie...

With that, I leave you with this picture of me moving dirt sans shovel, because shovels just slow ya down.

We have radish germination

So exciting, I had to make a second post today. :) While I was outside watering I saw our first radish sprout. 12 days is what it took. Not bad considering we have had snow since I planted, and I had a bit of a rocky watering start. I cannot wait until we get our first harvest.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Notice anything different? *grin* The upper left box will have 2-3 tomatoes, basil & marigolds. Upper right box will have 8 square feet of peppers, 3 square feet of purple onions, 1 square foot of green onions, 1 square foot of chives, 1 square foot of nasturtiums, and 2 squares undecided. The bottom two boxes will be filled with 48 beautiful strawberry plants. We love strawberries! I am going to dig up the grass behind the boxes and transplant some raspberry bushes back there. We still have lots more of the soil mix too, so once I get the grass up, I will add the soil in there. You can't really see from this angle, but there is I think 6 or 7 feet behind the boxes.

I also planted 1 square of onions, 1 square lettuce, 2 squares carrots. I discovered too that I think I wasn't getting enough watering done. :( I was using the misting suggested by SFG, but after being out there working for hours upon hours over the last few days, I noticed it kept drying out really quick. I seem to have come up with a better watering system for now, so we will see if it helps. Hopefully since I caught the issue within the first couple weeks, it hasn't done too much damage, just slowed germination, especially since it has been raining some.

I'll be going out later today to place the grids on all but the tomato box.

And the winner is...

DOVE KNITS!

Congratulations, I will be contacting you for your address to ship your goodies. :)

Sprout

and sprout again. Two itty bitty purple onion sprouts have made their way through! So exciting. I first saw the one, but upon careful scrutiny, I saw sprout number two. Proud mama today. I am sure I will be even prouder when my big kids bring their report cards home from school. No other news on the gardening front. Just watering and waiting. I found a great deal on strawberry plants thanks to my friend so I will order those tomorrow.

I have started on a very special gift for Kimber's sweet baby girl. I hope to finish it in time to get it to her baby shower. I need one more thing for it which I should have tomorrow to help me with it. They have been waiting many years for this baby and I have all my fingers crossed that she patiently waits another 2 months to meet her mama, papa & big brother.

Tomorrow is the last day of my contest.

Nasty trick Mother!

Mother Nature that is! So yesterday after I posted, I rushed outside to get a square of purple onions planted. I also interplanted radishes in the 2 unplanted lettuce squares. I just can't stand seeing them empty like that. I was planning to wait, but the idea of soon-to-be gratification overtook me. I know I am planning to succession plant, but I figured that I would deifintely plant some with the 2 unplanted squares of carrots, and just keep replanting radish as everything harvests. I really hope that I manage the carrots so we don't run out. I also am thinking that I can get some onions in with the tomatoes. However I had better get those beds built asap if I want to have big onions rather than just green onions. I want both ideally. Sorry, I went completely off on a tangent. I will blame it all on my mama friends who can't stay on topic ever. You know who you are!

Oh, and back to Mother Nature. So I did my planting and asked Rob to get the garden watered down for me. I was really craving some chocolate and decided to make a quick run to the corner to pick up some clearance Easter candies. When I came out it was dark, cloudy and windy as all heck. I had trouble keeping the truck in my own lane driving home it was so bad. I was really worried that my seeds would blow away. Probably unfounded worry since it is not like my garden is dried up or anything. But it hadn't been watered yet yesterday. He hadn't done it, but outside it looked like it was about to start pouring. I went home, made a quick dinner, took some migraine meds and got in bed. Next thing you know I hear the kids screaming "look out the window". OMG! SNOW!!! Big fracking quarter-sized snowflakes. And still, no water for my garden. Gah. I hope it is not too bad out there. I am scared to go check. At least I don't have any sprouts yet. Never thought I would be relieved to say that.

4 days left to enter my contest.

Purple Haze

I picked up some purple onion sets today. We also got some crabgrass preventer and lawn food. Our grass will be happily fed just like our veggie bed. I was planning on having two varieties of onions, but the place we went to only had big bags of 100 sets. Seeing as of right now I only need 32, I really couldn't justify buying both types. I want to figure out where to plant the remaining ones as well. I can't imagine wasting them. I'll have to see if they can be interplanted in any of the other squares. Speaking of which, if you scroll down, you will see that I edited and no longer have a square dedicated to my radish crop. I decided to stick to completely interplanting the radishes. As of right now those will be with the lettuce, 9 in each square, then wherever else I feel like sticking them. They grow so quick 3-4 weeks so we will be eating those frequently. In fact I am going to go plant some more right now. I am also going to get my onions in.

I know I keep talking about it, but we are even closer to getting the berry bed done. We priced top soil & compost by the yard and were pleasantly surprised at the affordability. Now I just need to figure out where we are getting the retaining wall pavers form and we are set to go. Rob is going to ask his buddy to help us pick up the dirt in his pick truck this week. I can hardly wait!

5 days left to enter my contest.

Small Update

I planted some radishes, rainbow carrots, lettuce and more peas. Luckily it has been raining off and on so mother nature has been watering for me. :) We have a busy weekend packed with birthday parties. I am going to drag my almost-finished second sock with me and try to finish it, finally. It is really stopping me from casting on any new projects. Nothing planned on the gardening front until the end of the week. Hope you all have a pleasant weekend. Don't forget to check out my contest.

My very first blog contest!

Today is the 5 year anniversary of the passing of my Grandma. We miss you GiGi! In memory of her I am running my very first contest. When I think about growing up, I remember cooking with my Grandma. She wasn't a gardener, but she was a wonderful cook and knitter! I want to hear your favorite memory of cooking, knitting or gardening with your Grandma. If you weren't fortunate enough to know your Grandma, you can still play with us. Just share a story of someone similar. Leave the story in the comments and make sure to include your email or link to your blog so I know how to reach you if you win. I will choose the winner randomly, so just tell me your favorite memory. No need to make it extra sappy lol. Feel free to link this contest in your blog and include the link in a new comment and I will give you an extra chance to win.

The contest will run until 04/04/08 at 11:59pm MDT. Oh and you want to know what the prize is don't you? I will send some seed packets, some yarn and hopefully a candy surprise. There is something in particular that my Grandma loved, but I am not sure I can get it here. If I can find it, you will get that too.

When dreams become reality

my family will not starve. At least I hope. Last night I had this wacky dream. Fueled by pain, antibiotics, and pain meds I was unable to sleep well and fell in and out of sleep. Mostly I was in a state of lucid dreaming I guess. Everything was so bright in my dream. Like the sun never went down. When I startled awake from it I discovered that when Scarlett came down from her room to get in bed with us, she left our door open. That of course meant there was the bright shining light from the upstairs hallway shining over the banister right into our bedroom. The sun that never set in my dream. My dream was like some post-apocalyptic hunt for food. I can't recall exactly how we got to the point where we were needing to scavenge for food, but we were. And not hunt in nature either. We had to search offices, stores that had already been looted, etc. Everything was pretty neat, but already picked over.

When I woke up I realized how important it is to have a garden and not be so reliant on the grocery stores. Especially with the recession. Excuse me, the *upcoming* recession. With an abudant source of food in our own backyard, I know that should something happen to the company my husband works for, we will be fine while he looks for work. I am going to be buying tons of pantry items whenever they go on deep discount, rather than letting the pantry get low. Also my friend mentioned she knows of some good beef that has a cut & wrapped price of $2.50/lb per 1/2 cow which is unbelievably cheap. It is supposed to be antibiotic free, no hormones, etc. Hopefully we are going to split a half cow with someone to fill our freezer.

I am going to price out the supplies for our berry bed this weekend and see about getting the dirt next week so I can build it. My friend FrugalMom has so graciously offered to let me come dig raspberry bushes from her garden, so that will save me a bundle. All I will have to worry about getting are the strawberry plants. Today is sunny so we are planting some seeds like I talked about yesterday, and I am also going around the corner to the nursery to see if they have onion sets too. If you have experience with onions in a SFG, please leave me a comment with some advice. I am trying to figure out how to stagger my planting so I have onions (not green) every week all summer long. I would love to have about 5-8 a week if possible.

Rain, Rain, Rain!!!

Oh yes, it is raining again. Woot! Yesterday I sent the kids out to measure the distance from the faucet bib to the garden. I wanted to see if the longest hose we have would reach since it is on the opposite side of the house. It reaches all the way, so no need to buy a new hose. I love that. Perfect for the cheapskate in me. ;) Anyhow, after that it rained a bit, so no need for the hose. Then today I had to take myself to urgent care to get some meds for a bladder infection (ouch) so I hadn't had a chance to water yet. Well now it is raining so once again, no need for the hose. I am glad I don't have to be out there in the dark cold watering. However, I do look forward to doing that in the nice warm sun. Since it is looking like rain will be coming off and on now I think I will snag the very next nice afternoon and get some more seeds down with the kids. If I pass a single day up it could leave me a week behind my target. I hope they have as much fun as me poking holes with their fingers and getting dirty.

Edamame~~Edamame~~Cuke~~~Cuke
Carrots~~~~Carrots~~~~Peas~~~~Peas
Onions~~~~Carrots~~~~Lettuce~~Lettuce
Onions~~~~Carrots~~~~Carrots~~~Lettuce

That is the layout of the garden that I have decided on. I checked a companion planting site and don't see any issues with it. The only crops they said shouldn't be planted together are peas and onions, so hopefully I have those far enough away. I really don't see any other way to get them farther. If you think I have made any bad choices, please let me know quickly since I will be getting quite a bit of this in the box in the next week or so. The top of the garden is East, and the fence in the picture. Our house is a few feet away to the North. I am also planning to put the tomato boxes along the side of the house, though not too close as I want to make sure they have the appropriate sun.

So I am planning to plant the remaining peas, as well as one crop of carrots, onions, lettuce and radish in the next few days. Then I will wait a week or so and plant the remaining crops of onions, carrots & lettuce. I am hoping that will help the harvest stagger just a bit so we always have fresh veggies. Edamame, squash, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes will go in when it is warmer. I am not sure when exactly yet. I have to check the mountain for snow!

My plant varieties:

Little Marvel Pea
Rainbow Mix Carrot
Medley Blend of Hybrids Summer Squash
Radish Mixture
Lettuce Blend
Salad Bush Hybrid Slicing Cucumber
Onion sets, tomato & pepper plants will be bought locally
I requested edamame seeds but if they don't arrive, I will order some Midori Giant.

I love peas

especially ones in a pod. ;)

So far still only peas have been planted, but here is some current pictures of the garden. Can you guess which square has been planted?

A boy and a box

A couple weeks ago Rob built my box with some help from me and Damien. It was a bit of a tougher task than we anticipated, complete with a broken drill bit! Turns out a pesky knot in the wood was stronger than the bit and busted that sucker right in half. Luckily no one was harmed in the making of our lovely redwood garden box. :D

The box is currently sitting where that chair on the right is. I filled it with a mixture of equal parts Grandma Z's organic compost, vermiculite and peat moss. I have quite a bit left over so I have decided to build 2 triangular tomato raised beds.

Today I finally mapped out the definite layout for planting. I have been wavering back and forth on how many squares of certain crops to plant. I finally just put my foot down and decided them once and for all. If we have too many of a certain veggie I will just share with my friends. I also planted the first crop of Little Marvel Peas. The second one will go in next week, so that we have a continuous harvest of yummy peas.

I will get a picture of the current box later when my camera batteries are charged, and also list out the crops and when they will be planted along with the layout. For now I am snuggling a sleeping toddler.

Oh, I almost forgot! We have also decided to tackle the swampy area in the yard by making it fruitful rather than just "dealing" with it. So, we are going to use some pavers and make a curved raised bed of at least a foot. In that bed we will plant raspberries & strawberries. What a delicious solution! I can't wait. Special thanks to my neighbor for showing me her garden and helping me come to a much better solution than icky gravel to deal with the drainage issue.

Knot in the garden

but I was earlier. That is about all the humor I have right now though, so enjoy it while it lasts. I have been working on getting the garden going the past few days. Saturday I spent shopping for supplies, yesterday I spent building the box and discussing with my neighbor some ideas, today I hauled bag after bag (including a 3.8cu foot one) all by myself and mixed them all and filled our raised bed number one. Shoot I had a fancy name for it and I forgot. I will remember it and post a picture of it. I have some pics but I need to get them uploaded, and I will post a more detailed update as well.



My Grandpa is very ill and was moved to hospice today. My Mom & sister are flying across country right now trying to get to him before he passes. I am positively devastated. I love him so very much and can't imagine how my Grandma must feel to be losing the love of her life who she has been married to for 65 years. I wish I was in Florida with them right now. I am trying to stay busy here instead with manual labor hoping the physical ache can take away some of the heartache I feel.

I still knit

Some things for trades...

Mama has a brand new 'do

I donated my almost butt length hair to locks of love. Don't I look sassy? ;)