Category : Around home

219 posts

201606/28

T Tuesday: late June garden edition

Last week for T stands for Tuesday I promised an update on my garden this week.

T Tuesday late June garden edition

It’s flourishing! Tons of blossoms. I think we are just at the cusp of production.

There are already jalapenos on the plant…

and roma tomatoes…. come on fresh salsa!

The deck box garden is doing really well too.

I ended up pulling up the horse radish that was growing in here since there is another plant in the big garden space and planted my Egyptian walking onions instead. I saved the bulbs from the top of the plants last year in a paper bag in the shed. They overwintered out there will seemingly no ill effects.

The planters along the railing are also looking great with the herbs and green onions. I’ve been thinning the green onions by using them…so nice to have those fresh green literally right outside my door. I couldn’t be happier.

It meets Marvin’s approval as well.

Over the weekend I adding a little bit of ambiance to the deck with a string of lights.

We have yet to try them out at night but I think they will be a lot of fun.

I also noticed some birds have been very busy….

I do remember seeing a chickadee hanging around here quite often. I’d have to bet he is the guilty party.

I’m also going to continue to share my CSA box each week as I really believe that its well worth the cost to bring fresh organic veggies to your table each week…provided you have enough people to eat all those veggies.

Week 2: cilantro, basil plant, kale, green onions, garlic scapes, mixed spring greens, head of leaf lettuce, strawberries, carrots, kohlrabi, broccoli and white turnips that are eaten like radishes. Can’t wait to see what the next box brings.

Today I’ll be finishing a commissioned seamstress project. I was asked to shorten some curtains and sew lining fabric behind the thin linen for some actual light blocking.

What are you doing today?

Around home | Blog | Outdoors

CSA, gardening, T Tuesday

15 Comments

halleday

201606/25

Frugal frame fix

Frugal frame fix. Say that five times fast!

Last summer I picked up a cool frame at an occasional shop not too far from here. I had the thought of stringing wire or perhaps even chicken wire (dang, just thought of that now) to create a changeable photo gallery piece.

I’ve reserved one section of wall for family photos, caricatures and memorabilia in the game area of our family room. This is an always changing wall, which I love.

Since the wall is so busy and colorful on it’s own I felt that black frames were the way to go.

Of course I never remember to wear gloves….

I’m pretty sure at any given time I have paint on me somewhere…whether its on my hands, nails, hair or clothes one just never knows.

This morning I got my supplies ready so I could finally get this project off the game table.

I stapled the bent wire across the frame on the back then curled each end to lock it into place.

Easy peasy right… One would think so. This was only after making my first mistake did I realize that I had to staple to the side wall of the frame…not straight down.

Crud…the staple went right through the front of the frame. Oh well, nothing a little bit of black paint won’t fix.

Perfect.

I’m thinking I may keep a box of favorite photos right here so it will be easy to switch them out.

Around home | Blog | Crafts | Creativity

decor, frames, frugal living, home decor, paint, photo, photo gallery

3 Comments

halleday

201606/21

T Tuesday: CSA edition

Last week we received our first box of produce from our CSA. What a bounty!

All of that came from the 3/4 bushel box on the table.

Another really cool feature is a “swap box” at the pickup site. If you see something in the box you’d rather have, you can swap it out for something in your box. That’s how I ended up with 2 bunches of radishes. I swapped the second bunch for a bag of arugula.

Carrots, beets, bok choy, garlic scapes, mixed spring greens, spinach and radishes all in week one! AND the basil plant in my deck box. I knew from seeing the boxes last year that we’d likely get one so I didn’t bother planting any…just left a spot for it instead.

Between the CSA, our home garden and the garden space at my in-laws, we should be eating super healthy this summer!

I’ll update you on my gardens next week. They are growing like crazy. I’m so happy to walk out there every morning to see the growth. I don’t even mind having to pull a few weeds and use the watering can to hand water the spaces with our collected rain water.

I hadn’t realized until just a few days ago how much my focus changes to the outdoors in the summer. Likely because our winters are so long and sometimes harsh that we tend to spend as much time as possible outdoors.

Mini-me and I are off for a small adventure today since J is at work!! He got his first job and is at his second day of training today.

What are you doing today?

Around home | Blog | Kitchen | Outdoors

T Tuesday: progress edition

Welcome to T stands for Tuesday…grab a your favorite cup and stay a while.

This summer I’ve been tackling projects and items long overdue on the to-do list. I’m drowning in half finished goals. It’s really beginning to drive me a bit crazy. I start my morning or my 3am bout of insomnia with thoughts of how my day is going to go and then BAM…I get hit with a curve ball or worse yet, am distracted and start another project. I haven’t even finished a pot of coffee lately, which is totally out of character for me. (Ah ha…just there….see how I worked in a beverage reference) :)

But seriously, the frustration with myself is mounting. Every “not used daily” surface has something in progress all over it and that’s not even mentioning the outdoors. I think I have too many ideas and unfortunately have enough stuff around to get started but either run out of steam, ideas or gumption to continue. I even totally blew up my blog over the weekend and am still working on fixing it. UGH! The blog backup I used definitely didn’t work the way I thought it did….I could not recover what I lost.

I am feeling a bit of accomplishment with both a personal project and a household one.

I completed the cover on my heART journal just yesterday.

Here are the inside pages. The earliest page was from Feb 2014. Good grief…talk about taking a long time to to 6 pages.

Mini-me and I did get her room painted. Here’s an old before and the after side by side.

What a difference. She’s had the green and stamped flowers since we moved in 13 years ago. It had just been painted so we just left it as is. Definitely time for a change.

We’re slowly going to be replacing the accessories such as the fabric bins in the cubbies. Mini-me had yet to decide what color she wants for her accent color.

It’s definitely more sophisticated already. Agh…my baby is growing up!

So today…I’m going to try my best to finish a thing or two I’ve started. Wish me luck!

What are you doing today?

Around home | Art | Blog | Creativity

art journal, heART journal, painting, T Tuesday

12 Comments

halleday

201606/07

T Tuesday: early harvest edition

Since school has been out I feel as if I’m busier than before. Not sure how that happened. Yesterday we went to my in-laws house to plant in their garden. I had 3 tomato plants yet to plant from the ones I started back in March. I also planted summer squash, green beans and snow peas.

So where does the harvest come in, you ask. They have a huge strawberry patch and wanted us to pick. Mini-me and I picked nearly three 5 quart ice cream pails full.

I also harvested some rhubarb so I could make a batch of muffins. Mini-me and I are the only ones who will eat rhubarb, so I’m cautious on how much I pick. I baked these muffins in the afternoon.

I’m really not much of a baker. In fact I don’t like to do it at all. Too much measuring. Rules to follow. Not my thing. But this recipe, which I slightly adapted from the original on allrecipes.com, turned out perfect in looks, texture and taste.

Rhubarb muffins

1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups diced rhubarb

sugar crumb topping

1 Tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup organic cane sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Using an electric mixer, combine first 5 ingredients and mix thoroughly. Then add the dry ingredients. Again mix until thoroughly incorporated. Lastly toss in the rhubarb. This may be easier done by hand unless you have a large paddle on your mixer.

Place muffin liners in pan and fill each nearly to the top. Next melt the butter and add the sugar and cinnamon. (next time I think I’ll add some rolled oats for more texture) scoop a bit on topping on each muffin.

Bake at 350°F for 25 mins and enjoy.

Today will be spent painting mini-me’s room. She’s picked out a very sophisticated grey. I’ll share some before and after photos when we’re done…hopefully next week for T stands for Tuesday!

What are you doing today?

Blog | Kitchen

baking, kitchen, recipe

10 Comments

halleday

201605/24

T Tuesday: planting edition

Yesterday morning before the impending rainfall I hurried up and planted my garden. I had planned to plant over the weekend but when Mr. G went to rototill the garden we discovered millions of ants and larvae under a stepping stone smack in the middle of the garden! Crud! I grabbed a flat shovel and scooped off all the larvae and hoards of ants and threw them away. YUCK! they were crawling all over us.

While Mr. G went to work with the rototiller, I went inside to look up garden safe solutions to my ant problem. I made a concoction of water, borax and sugar, then soaked some cotton balls in it and placed them in a plastic lid in the freshly tilled garden. I never actually saw any ants drinking my mix. I think it was the heat of the blazing sun that drove them away…that and the search for the larvae. Fingers crossed that they are gone for good.

In the big garden I have the usual fair…although I am trying cucumbers in this garden again. In previous years I haven’t had good luck with them but this year I purchased some really nice healthy looking plants instead of starting seeds. I planted them close to the fence so they can crawl right up.

Some of you may remember last fall that I decided to just leave my herbs in the garden and see what happened. Well the rosemary died as many told me it would but the sage and thyme are flourishing, I cut back some of the thyme just to make room for a tomato plant. I’m drying a couple of bundles…it smells so heavenly.

I made a last minute addition of a jalapeno plant near the gate. I was planning to put it in the deck box garden but changed my mind. Do you see my plant stakes I’m using as row markers?? A pink teapot and a purple butterfly. I think the teapot works for beverage related post…right?

My deck box garden has just two things…our favorite little yellow pear tomatoes and the horseradish plant I tried to eradicate last fall. Guess it didn’t work. :) My worm tower is definitely looking weathered like the rest of the garden. After it rains again I’m going to try and find some more worms to live in the bin. I fear some of red wigglers perished over winter as the scraps in the tower aren’t going down as quickly as before.

The deck boxes have flower, herbs and onions. I grew green onions from seed in half egg shells this year. Just an experiment. Likely won’t do it again unless these turn out amazing. The shells were hard to crush before planting without crushing the fragile onions. I did find two volunteer onions in the big garden so I moved them to be with their friends.

In addition to the onion volunteers, I found some dill and thyme growing from the dirt I had dumped from the pots last fall. Mother Nature can be very persistent.

I still have 3 tomato plants that I plan to put in my in-laws garden plus whatever seeds I have left.

We also purchased a CSA share this year. We had joined a different one a few years ago and liked the produce but the cost vs amount we received just didn’t make sense or maybe that should be cents. *grin* Our neighbor has been using this CSA for 7 years now and I’ve been able to see first hand the wonderful boxes of farm fresh veggies they get each week. So excited for it to start. Just a couple more weeks! I’ll be sure to share with you our bounty.

Playing taxi driver for my mom today unless her plans have changed

What are you doing today?

Blog | Outdoors

CSA, gardening, T Tuesday

11 Comments

halleday

201605/23

Refreshed flags

Several years ago I made a banner for the deck rail. It added a bit of whimsy to the deck box garden.

When we added a second garden I made flags for that as well. Over the years the elements have done a number on the flags. Up until last winter I always took them down at the end of each fall. Knowing that they really needed replacement I left them up to continue the whimsy throughout the cold months.