Martha Stewart's craft encylopedia has been out for a while but her new book on sewing and fabric arts is new. Costco is selling both for around $20 each. (A better price than other retailers.)
Friday, April 30, 2010
Craft break!
Martha Stewart's craft encylopedia has been out for a while but her new book on sewing and fabric arts is new. Costco is selling both for around $20 each. (A better price than other retailers.)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Vacation projects coming along
The wine boxes are free: The DH brings them home from work when they're available. We use them for storage, decoration, book shelves, and when using them as planters we drill a few holes in the bottom, fill them with potting soil and they're good to go.
We also planted spinach in planters up on the deck. The big pot is from last year's Costco tomato plant. We've become very big on reusing things to keep gardening costs down. The strawberry pot in the background is still empty. Not sure what we're going to put in it. I do have some nasturiums that would work well there. We were going to outline the garden with nasturiums (they provide pest protection- I guess animals/bugs don't like the smell) but they need to be watered sparingly. We water by autotimer that gets the entire garden for a good length of time so I'm afraid the nasturiums would not be happy. But besides being a pest deterent, Nasturium flowers are also edible. They go great in salads, imparting a slightly peppery taste and brilliant color. Having them up on the deck would provide easy access for salad picking and provide a good show of color.
Here is our newly tilled expanded garden (complete with frost- which is why we have been starting seeds in the green house). We have an awesome neighbor who just invested in a bright, shiny red, brand spankin' new rotitiller. He was kind enough to offer to till our previous garden spot a couple of weeks ago and kind enough to let the DH borrow it last night to break the new ground for the expansion. THANKS JIM! Today we get to pull out all the sod, rake it and pile more compost (from the pile on our driveway) on the section. I mentioned up above the nasturiums that, now, won't be lining the garden but we still plan on planting radishes around the perimeter for animal determent and putting up Ivory soap on wooden dowels every couple feet or so around the perimeter. This works on keeping pests (deer) out of the garden. We don't want to spend money on a fence and found that the smell of the soap does indeed keep them away. (As evidenced by the eating of our squash and pumpkins last year that stopped once we put the soap "fence" up.)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
My Finished Greenhouse and more gardening
Here is a video of our finished greenhouse and the seeds and plants we have started!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Family Exercise
Monday, April 26, 2010
Is it Lavender? Is it Sunflowers? NO! Its...
Sunday, April 25, 2010
God's Plan For Us
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Healthy Homestead Lemonade!
16 oz of fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
8 cups water
sugar to taste (we like to add about a cup)
Cut lemons in half, juice, strain, pour into pitcher
Add water and sugar, stir
add ice if desired and garnish with extra slices of lemon
You can also use limes in this recipe. Make limeade or lemon-limeade.
Gotta love other people's junk
Friday, April 23, 2010
I'm a killer!
The DH asked the the kids and I to pick all the dandelions in the yard in an effort to stop their seeds spreading and erradicate the herb from our yard. Notice I said herb, not weed. I am personally pro-life when it comes to dandelions. They are a pretty and useful flower. I don't understand the suburban man's lawn fixation. Why must you only have one type of grass growing in your lawn and why in the world would you want to spread poison all over it to stop useful herbs from growing. Freedom for herbs!
Alas my DH is one of those men. He does not want anything but grass growing in his lawn. He cringes at the thought of ripping out the lawn and planting something as ridiculous as... food. Anywhoo... as a submissive wife... the kids and I went out and picked everylast flower and stem we could find. Luckily we did not have to dig up the roots- we'd still be digging when the first snow falls next winter.
After we were done I noticed my neighbor/landlord went out and spread chemical poison- ahhh- fertilizer over the yard. Sigh. Silly-minded men and their lawn egos.
If you want to read up on the GOOD that are dandelions go here.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Cooking For a Crowd- Inside Out Turkey Cheese Burgers!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
You might be a red-neck if...
Ooops...
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
A Good Old-Fashioned Taffy Pull!
She speaks softly...
This is Taylor's current favorite play thing: The stick we keep in the sliding glass door track.
Monday, April 19, 2010
86 lbs and counting!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
God's Plan For Us
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Off To Candy Making Class Today
Just a sampling from one child's basket.