My Garden

My Garden as been a work in progress since I started one in 2008 and you can see the evolution on this post.  Last year we converted the garden and made raised beds with walkways and it has made a huge difference!  Here in the Midwest we get TONS of bugs and they all seem to LOVE me.  I want my garden to be as organic as possible so once the bugs come out, I stay in.  Making the beds raised has made the bug situation a lot better without having to treat my plants with pesticides.

I've had a few people ask me about my garden, so this post is going to be the grand tour.....

Let me start with a little background.  The lot that our house is built on is about 1/3 of an acre.  Even if you take out the house and the front yard, it leaves a pretty big big space.  

The garden is about 15'x17' in the South West corner of my back yard.  Behind our property is a wooded lot that I adore...  although this means more bugs, it gives an extra element of privacy and it is so pretty.

Right when you walk in you will see my herb garden.  Most of this is perennial with leeks, oregano, chives, thyme, sage and catnip.  A few of the annuals that I have to replant every year are basil, parsley, cilantro and rosemary (although our last winter was mild enough that my rosemary came back this year!)

Next to the herb box I have the asparagus box, with a few rhubarb plants in between.  The asparagus are the really tall ferny things on the right.  I usually get a nice crop in May, enough to feed the family and then they come up sporadically after that.  The sporadic stocks I just let grow, and they grow crazy!!!

Right next to the asparagus, we have the pepper box.  I plant green peppers and jalapenos and for me, the peppers do better in the shade.  So I made sure their planter was closest to the trees.  They still get a bit of sun, so I planted 2 varieties of sweet potato vine and when they start to vine out, I will trellis them over the peppers for more shade.  I also LOVE the wild honeysuckle that is filling up the back of my fence.  I have to trim it aggressively but it is well worth it and right now it is in full bloom and the garden smells amazing!!!!

In the center of the garden are my pallets.  I have 3 and last year they were full with vegetables but I had bad luck with most of them.  Our last summer was horrible for vegetables, so it may not have been my fault.  But this year I decided to limit the veggies... The front pallet is filled with mostly tomatoes, the middle pallet is mostly flowers and the last pallet is filled with Strawberries.  Here and there in the pallets I also have shallots planted, which are perennial as well as the strawberries.  (on a side note the chicken wire box on the top/left of the pic below was an enclosure for a few box turtles that we were keeping as pets.  This Spring, we let them go and I haven't decided what I will do with that space yet).

These boxes aren't too pretty and not well taken care of but the left box is filled with potatoes and the right is filled with weeds scallions.  Both of these are perennial, provided you don't dig them up :-)  We left some of our potatoes in last year.  We haven't quite figured out how to get the most out of our potato crop... until we do more research, it will probably look just like this.  The scallions are fun and easy to grow, I have learned to just trim a few of the stems/leaves at a time instead of digging them up.  This way I don't even have to replant.  Maybe I should pull a few of those weeds so that we could find said scallions :-)

A few years ago, my neighbors built a matching garden on their property and we took down the fence that separated the 2 gardens.  (I think the real reason why we wanted to do this is because our neighbor's are our best friends and this makes it a lot easier to go from side to side.)  So now we venture onto the neighbor side of the garden.  This box was originally for sweet corn, but we couldn't keep the squirrels from eating it so we turned it into a compost pile.  We have a few pallets that we are going to build into this to section off the different sides, but haven't made the time for that yet.  This is our first year for the compost pile and so far so good.

Also on the neighbor's side is the Chicken Coop.  Now, it's nothing pretty but there's a reason for that.  When we built this coop, we used the wood that we had on hand and purchased only the chicken wire.  We used every darn scrap we could find and even managed to incorporate an old dresser hutch/book shelf for the nests (which was falling apart anyway).  Given that this cost us less than $20, I say it looks pretty darn nice!  :-)

Last year a fox got into the coop and killed the chickens that we had.  So after a few adjustments to the coop, we bought more this year so they are about half grown.  I have no idea of what the varieties are but a few of them will lay colored eggs!!  How fun is that?!?  (I just fed them so clearly they have better things to do than pose for pics.

Oh wait, we have a taker!  :-)

That's pretty much the garden!  Here are a few close ups of my faves....

I planted some hens and chicks in the corners of the pallets.

I just bought this Dahlia plant a few weeks ago and I am IN LOVE! Although Dahlias in my region are annual, I can dig up the bulbs in the fall, winter them over in my garage and replant next spring!

My lilies are sooooo close to blooming!

Oh and look! I had some fresh Strawberries ready today!

I hope you like my garden!  Feel free to ask any questions and if you have any tips/tricks/advice for this garden novice, they will be greatly appreciated!  Until next time, Happy Gardening!

Writing on the Wall

I decided to update my mantle recently and really like the idea of the painted word.  Lots of people are making painted words on canvas...  here is one by Elsie Larson:

Here is one by Elise Blaha Cripe:

I love the simplicity of it and how easy it is to achieve.  Most of the examples that I have seen are quoting a song or some lovey dovey poem, both are really not me.  I guess I am an atypical girl on this note, mushy stuff makes me want to gag.  Seriously...  If I open a sentimental greeting card, I just move my eyes to make it seem like I'm reading it and then put it in the recycle bin because I don't enjoy being sick.  With that said, I thought long and hard about what I wanted my wordy canvas to say and I decided on my favorite Amy Sedaris quote from this book:

Here is my process:

1st step: I painted the canvas white.  Why paint the canvas white if it is already white when you buy it?  Well, there are a lot of reasons for this...  from an artist's perspective, when you paint the white... white, it will look intentional instead of looking like you forgot an entire section.  An additional coat of paint with also help stretch the canvas even more and the most useful reason is because if you have any touch ups to make at the end, you can paint over them with the same white paint.

Step 2: I cut a piece of paper down to scale with the canvas.  I measured out the lines on both the paper and the canvas, then wrote the quote out on the paper to figure out spacing.  Then I transferred the words to the canvas with pencil:

Step3: Then I painted the words.

With a quote this long, I would have liked to have had a bigger canvas.... but I was limited since the space between my mantle and the ceiling is pretty small.  I still love how it turned out and I get a chuckle out of the irony that you assume that this is going to be a sentiment of sorts and then you read it and it's about throwing up in dishwashers.  Heh heh.  This is a really easy project and I would recommend it to anyone that needs a little update to their decor.

Until next time, Happy Painting! 

May Trip

You might recall that my grandmother passed away this past December.  Although she lived most of her life in Erie, Pennsylvania, she was currently living in my hometown of Las Vegas, NV.  Her burial requests led us all back to PA.  Erie is known for their lake-effect snow, so it was the consensus to wait until warmer weather before having the service.  My family chose Mother's day weekend, which was appropriate, to celebrate the life of my Grandmother.  We just got back home last week and here are some of the highlights. (I'll spare you the 900+ family pictures)

We arrived just in time to see this beautiful sunset!

I love the beach! 

The beach community that we stayed in.

This might be morbid, but I find old cemeteries to be absolutely beautiful.

My mom saw no problem bringing several bags like this in her check in luggage.  She did get stopped by security but surprisingly not detained :-)

Bloody Mary time with the fam.

Although it was cold, the lake was still beautiful! 

 Roasting marshmallows with the kiddos.

Both sets of my grandparents are buried in cemeteries only a few miles apart, we were able to visit them all.

Ah...  and the trip home, only 15 hours in the car.

Those were the highlights, minus the karaoke videos...  I might get into some major trouble sharing those with the World Wide Web of Embarrassment :-)  I am horribly busy right now with the school year coming to an end and handling the back up from traveling.  I am hoping that once school is out, it will allow some time for me to blog more.  I have plenty to share!!!  Until next time, Happy Travels!

My Girl's Got A Blog

I Always Pick the Thimble!

© IAlwaysPickTheThimble

My friend, Karen, recently started her own blog.  She has great taste, beautiful pics, awesome DIYs and her blog is amazing!  Definitely check it out here: http://ialwayspickthethimble.wordpress.com/!!!!!!!

© IAlwaysPickTheThimble

© IAlwaysPickTheThimble

© IAlwaysPickTheThimble

I hope you enjoy Karen's blog!  Until next time, Happy Blogging! 

Cross Stitch Canvas DIY

You can't call yourself a crafter if you've never cross stitched!  It's a right of passage in the crafting world and it is a 'must-do-at-least-once' kinda thing.  Recently it has become extremely popular to incorporate cross stitch into modern home decor.

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 Here is a great 1st time project or just an updated way to practice cross stitching.

1st step, paint your canvas.  If you want to go with a white background, I still suggested painting it with white paint.   Sure, the canvas is already white, but it will make a more finished look and will show that the white was intentional.

2nd step, map out your lettering.  I printed a large font from my computer and used the print as a template.  Then I made a grid to map out my stitches.

3rd step, paint the word Sweet.

4th step, with the grid as a guide, I taped it onto the back of the canvas and using a thumb tack, I poked the holes where each of the corners of the crosses would be.  Then start stitching using yarn.

And whaaaalaaa, you have a simple and unique addition to your home decor or a really nice home made gift to give.

Enjoy! 

Crazy Vertical Scarf Pattern

Wow, not only is it March already...  but it is almost April.  Life has become extremely busy for me and I have had almost no time to do anything, including post on the ol' bloggy.  As more time becomes available, I am going to start posting some older projects that I haven't been able to post about.... and hopefully I will be able to work on a few projects in the interim. 

First up is this Crazy Vertical Scarf with a FREE pattern!!!  My favorite part of this project is there is no need to tuck in your ends because it has fringe! 

(Photo by the amazing Rob James at Adrienne Maples Photo Studios, click here for more info)

Materials:
Size 15- 32" circular knitting needles.  (You can use bigger and longer, I used what I had)
Stash Yarn. (If you don't have a crazy stash like I do, you can use 1 ball of Alp Oriental by Feza Yarns)
Crochet hook (if desired for adding fringe)

Pattern:
Cast on 150 sts. If using the Alp Oriental, Knit until you are at the end of the ball, leaving a tail long enough to bind off with.  If you are using your scrap yarn (see below for tips) knit 2 rows with first color, leaving long tails at the beginning and end.  This will make it so that you have tails on only one side of your scarf.  Knit 2 rows of each color way until you reach desired width, bind off.

Finishing:
With the Alp Oriental, the pre-cut fringe is attached to the ball of yarn, so using a Larks Head knot, attach the fringe to each end, making sure that you are spacing them evenly apart.  You will most likely have a length of working yarn left over after your scarf is finished.  Cut that piece apart so that each piece is double the length of your fringe and attach those pieces as additional fringe.

If you were using Stash yarn, you will notice that one side of your scarf has fringe and the other doesn't.  Cut pieces of each coordinating stash yarn double the length of the fringe and attach each to the "bare" end of your scarf to add fringe.  When all the fringe is attached, trim to make them all even.

Stash Yarn Tips:
I used yarn that I had to make an overall look similar to the Alp Oriental yarn.  I pulled balls of yarn from my stash that would look good together and match well enough.  I pulled some furry yarns, sparkly yarns and fuzzy yarns too to add interest.  Once I had them all pulled, I sat on the floor of my living room and separated them into groups of 2-4, depending on weight.

I wanted each group of yarn, when held together, to have about the same overall weight as all the other groupings.

When you knit each color group, hold a strand of each yarn together and treat them as one yarn while knitting.  To save time, when I was done knitting with one color group, I immediately cut the pieces for the fringe that will be added when finished to the opposite end of the scarf.  

Knitting Tip:

Make sure that you cast on and especially bind off loosely!  I didn't pay attention when I was binding of the 1st time and the bind off ended up being really tight and the scarf would bend on one side like this:

I ended up taking out the bind off and re-doing it.  The 2nd time when binding off, I made sure each stitch was double the size that it normally would be.  Some of them ended up too big, but isn't that big of a deal because it now lays flat instead of bending.

Good Luck and feel free to contact me with any questions.  Until next time, Happy Knitting!