Summer Bounty

This is the first summer in a few years that we are actually doing fairly well with our garden. Last year we didn't even try to grow one due to over-time at dh's work and family health issues that required some time and attention from hubby as well. But even the few years before that, when we were trying to grow our own produce, we just weren't seeing much results from it. Mostly it has to do with the fact that our soil has too much clay in it, but our ground water is very salty as well. You wouldn't expect that in Kansas, but there are actually underground salt deposits here and it messes with our water supply. In years that we get enough rain, this isn't too much of a problem. First, we don't have to water the garden as much if it is raining and second, getting lots of rain dilutes the salt enough not to cause problems. However, we have been in drought conditions for several years now and that means the salt level is pretty high. Salt water REALLY doesn't help plants to grow:)  So this year we decided to construct a couple raised beds to grow our garden in.

Pepper plants

With limited funds, because the wood and soil are kind of expensive, we decided to start with two 8x4 ft beds, see how they do and then add a couple more next year. I have to say that it has really been a success!! Having nice fertile soil that is light and fluffy instead of like rock has been great, and nature blessed us with some much needed rain at just the right time as well. We planted 4 tomato plants, 2 cherry tomatoes, 2 jalapenos, 4 bell peppers, 3-4 cucumbers and 2 serrano pepper plants, and most are still alive!! :) We did make a mistake and waited too long before deciding on caging the tomato plants and so we didn't end up

Cucumbers

caging them at all. This would be fine except that the tomato plants overtook that bed which also had the jalapeños in it, and now I can't find them:) And the weather was really nice and cool at the beginning of the summer, which cucumbers must not like because all but one of those plants died. However, we've still gotten about a dozen cucumbers from the one plant, so that has been really good. The only real negative that we've found from our experiment is that with only 4 regular tomato plants, we have an awkward amount of tomatoes. There are too many for our family to eat (only dh and I like them), but not nearly enough for canning. So some of them are going bad. And we have cherry tomatoes coming out our ears!! We keep looking for recipes that we can use them in and dh has them in his daily salads.

This weekend's pickins'



Look close for the horn worm!!

This has been successful enough for us to decide to do another 2 beds next year. Our plan is to have 2 beds of tomatoes and to add some okra and maybe some herbs to it. The only thing I'd still like to grow would be green beans. I like the bush variety, apposed to the pole beans, and the bush beans take up a bit more room. Since I'd also like to can green beans, I'm thinking I'd need another 2 beds just for them. Maybe the year after next I'll be able to do those:)   

Sew Along Anyone?

You all know that I love to cross stitch. You've seen the many, many project that I have started and the few that I have actually finished:) You may even know that I really enjoy to crochet and that I have recently started learning to knit. Last year I even started learning to do other kinds of embroidery. I really find any kind of hand to fabric/thread/yarn very relaxing and enjoyable. But like many of you, I never seem to have as much free time to work on these things as I would like:) So challenges and stitch-alongs gives me a bit of an excuse to push me to spend a little more time doing what I love to do.

I was reading though my blog list and came across a (another!!) sew-along that I am going to give a try!! Martina from Sunshine Quilting found this book.....

and would like to do several of the projects in it and decided that a sew along would be a fun way to encourage herself and others to get the projects done. After looking through the sample pages, I decided to buy it as well and it is simply beautiful!! There are quite a few project in it that I would also like to make for myself or others for gifts. The projects are nice and simple but are all very pretty. So I have joined in the sew-along, and there is still time for you to join in too if you would like. Just head over to Sunshine Quilting and leave a comment before Aug 17th.

Something Old/Something New

Time to restart the Something Old/Something New posts!! I really love having this 'excuse' to make sure I'm keeping my stitching practice fun and exciting!!

This month I have the following projects I'm working on...

 

My 'Something Old' isn't very old at all. This is the newest Prim Society club chart from Threadwork Primitives. This will make into a 'Stitcher's Pad' with a pin cushion built in. This is a really pretty design that has many possibilities for color and different kinds of projects. I'm one that likes my stitching to be useful, and I'm not sure how useful this will be as it seems that it would take up a lot of space just to be a pin cushion, but I'll make it how it's intended and maybe I'll play with it another time to make something else out of it.

 

And here is my 'Something New'. This one is a kit and I'll be making it for LoveQuilts. The theme was to be 'realistic dog with no girl colors'. It's been a while since I've done a kit and I forgot just how big of a pain sorting out all those threads are! As it was I needed to buy different fabric since the rules for LoveQuilts is that they fabric has to be cut at 13x13" so they have some wiggle room to shape the block for the end quilt. And there are a lot of color changes in this one, but it is really cute and should make a nice block for a little boy. I haven't done a block for LoveQuilts for a while now, so while this one will be a bit of a challenge, I'm pretty excited to get to work on it and send it in.

 

 

That is it for now. Hope you are all having lots of stitchy fun too!! :) 

Back On Track

Whew, what a busy summer this has been. DD signed up for an apprenticeship program with a zoo an hour away in June. Thankfully grandma and grandpa live close to that zoo and kept her some during that 3 week time frame so I didn't have to drive back and forth so much. She had a good time though she said that she gets to do much more on her own at the little local zoo that she volunteers at than they allowed there. But she made some friends and will get to see them again next weekend when the whole group gets back together for an end-of-summer party.

After that it was time to get ready for the 4-H fair. This would have gone pretty smoothly if it weren't for me getting sick. We still aren't sure what it was (dr. thought at first it might be a kidney stone, but it wasn't), but it had me down for a little over a week, right up to the week of the fair!! No worries, we got most of what she wanted to get done ready just in the nick of time!! :) And she did really good at fair. Several purple ribbons with one Champion ribbon and some blue and a red too. The only really disappointing thing was that her female rabbit was disqualified for having 'butted' teeth. Something we hadn't noticed. The rabbit will be fine as the teeth are still wearing down like they should be, but she won't be able to be shown, and since this usually has to do with the way their head is shaped, we are worried that it may pass on to future generations, which is why we got her in the first place. DD needs to do some research on that before we decide to breed her.

We are still trying to fit in a few more fun days before summer break is over and we have to do the dreaded thing....

Yep, it's about that time. I have tried with all my might not to get ready for this:) However I purchased a curriculum this year that has most of the planning done for me, so I really won't have an excuse when the time comes to get started!! Really all I have left to do it print out my planner/grade book and take it to Office Max to have it bound. Other than that, and convincing dd that 'Yes, you really do HAVE to do school!!', we are just about ready.

With the school schedule comes a chance for me to start working more on my stitching and sewing and blogging as well. And tomorrow I am going to start up my 'Something Old, Something New' posts again. Even when I'm not stitching a bunch, I still find a way to sneak in a new project here and there;) Maybe you have something new you want to show off too?

Stitching Right Along

Amongst other things that have been keeping me happily busy lately (like reading and TRYING to get myself to do more exercise), I have gotten in some stitching time as well!!! Summers are WONDERFUL!!!! I think every year that dd gets closer to being done with school gets harder on me and the summer break gets more and more needed. When we are all done homeschooling (somewhere between 3-4 more years) I will need to find a job and start a new path for myself, and that likely won't involve having a summer break, so I must enjoy this while I can:)

 

Last time I posted I was just almost done with this... 

 

And now you can see that it is all done!!! Again, this is 'Growing Love' from Threadworks Primitive and it was the first chart in this year's Ladies Prim Society club. Now I just need to finish it into a 'Stitcher's Wallet'. 

 

 

Now I am working on Summer/Winter/Spring Snapperlands from Bent Creek.  They are all in various stages of 'not-done'. I get bored very quickly working on just one project, so I thought I might spread my time out between the three of these, for a while anyway. They are very similar to one another so I may get bored of them as a bunch too. I really want to see these all done up.

 

This is the Autumn Snapperland, the only piece that I have ever had framed (my sil Marianne Meyer of Midnight Stitching had it framed for me:), and it's just about the only piece I have ever hung up on my walls. I do have a 'tuck' that I change out smalls here and there. Actually I think Marianne gave me the tuck as well:) I love stitching, but I'm not so big on decorating!!  

 

Until next time, I hope you all get a little time to fit in whatever it is that makes you happy!! 

Back to blogging?

Well, maybe:) I didn't quite mean to take such a long break, actually I hadn't planned on taking a break at all. But as the end of the school year neared and all the activities that entails, I just couldn't see finding my way back to blog-land.

Now school is over, and even though dd's activities are not, they will, for awhile anyway, allow me some extra free time. Take this morning for instance, dd is off with her friend and a local farmer rouging. (Note to city people - Rouging is when a crew goes out into a field of whatever crop- this time it is wheat - and cuts out excess weeds or volunteer plants - this time it would be rye. I didn't know people did this either until I met my dh:). So she isn't here right now, and I didn't even have to take her anywhere or pick her up!! Next week she will be helping with the VBS program at a local church, and while I will have to take her and pick her up, it will allow for a couple hours at home by myself. And finally in a few weeks she will start a program at a zoo about an hour away where she will work for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for 3 weeks. It would be way too much driving for me to take her everyday, so she will be staying with her grandparents every couple of nights. So that will give me a day here and there then as well:)

As much as I love having her here with me, I've always been a person who values my alone time. However, even with only one child, when you homeschool, you get very little time just to yourself, so this is a special treat for me. No doubt, by the time all of her away activities are done this summer (these will only take her into the middle of summer), I will be ready for her to be home lots and lots again:)

The last month or so hasn't been all running around for dd's activities though - okay most of it has, but that has also given me some time, while waiting in the car for her to be done, to get some stitching done as well:)

 

The first one here is almost completed, hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll be able to show finished pictures of it. It is the first of the Ladies Prim designs (this one is from Threadworks Primitives) for 2014. It is called 'Growing Love' and will be turned into a stitcher's wallet. The other one is the very beginnings of Summer Snapperland from Bent Creek. (BTW - I'm not sure why the pictures show the fabric looking all stripe-y, that isn't how the fabric really looks?!?!?) 

These are both from Blackbird Designs. The first is one of three patterns that will all go together, called 'Summer Loose Feathers'. I've made a bit of progress on it since I last showed it off. The other is the second 'Ladies Prim Society' design called 'Salute to Abigail', and I have to be honest, there is going to be a lot of tweaking with this pattern. I'm not sure I would call it Prim at all, because to me it is too bright and too busy. I like to idea of it though, and I will keep the colors that came with it (mostly because it came with silks and this is the first time I've stitched with silks:), but I'm cutting out the boarder and toning down the color changes and maybe re-arranging the pattern a bit. Not sure yet, but I did go ahead and give it a little start and will need to play around with it a little.

I'm hoping with the bit of extra free time that I'm going to have here soon, I will be able to join in on blog-land a bit more as I do miss sharing what I'm up to and seeing what other are up to as well.

Weekly Goals April 1st 2014

My weekly goals keep getting pushed to Tuesdays:) That's okay, gives me an extra day to get the previous week's goals done;)

I did okay on some of my goals for last week, but for others (mostly the exercise!!!) I failed completely!!! So here is what I got done...

1. Housework - catch back up on dishes and laundry. Need to vacuum and clean the bathroom as well.

**I got most of this done. I still need to get all the dishes done up, but that is really a daily challenge, it's never-ending!! The laundry is all washed, but I need to finish folding/putting it away.**

 2. Blogging - Just getting on here and blogging a time or two will be my goal:)

**I didn't get anymore blogging done last week, I have a few things to blog about this week, so I think I'll be on here more:)**

 3. Exercise - I haven't been to the gym in over 2 weeks!!! Hoping to get back there today!!

**Umm, no. I was having lots of problems with breathing/coughing and didn't think everyone wanted me hacking all over the machines, so I stayed away last week. I *could* have done a video at home, but didn't do that either. It's time to get back up on that horse and get some exercise this week!!!**

 4. Sewing/Crafting - I have learned how to cast-on for knitting and can knit a row or two without throwing the needles now:) I would like to continue practicing. I need to get the Spring exchange project done and mailed off. Also want to work on my Something Old/Something New projects and NewFO project before the next group of projects are due:) Hope to have a couple of projects finished off and ready to show for Whoop-Whoop Friday!!

**Didn't get to Whoop-Whoop Friday, but I did get most of the rest of the projects at least worked on. I worked on my New project, but not the 'Old' one and I got these done/worked on as well...

 

Knitting is coming along. I'm not working on a project, just practice, practice, then rip it out and start over. This is my best result so far. You can't see it, but there is a little fuzzy mess on each side of this that is really the only mess-up I have in this so far. I'm enjoying learning something new, but it's going to be a while before this feels natural to me like crocheting does.

 And this is the Spring exchange project that I was working on last week. It is all stitched, but I need to sew it into a small ornie and get it mailed out today. This is from Sylvia Kuhnert at www.syku66.blogspot.com, but I changed a good deal of the colors on this so it won't look exactly the same as on the blog.


Okay, so for this week I'd like to....

1. Keep up with housework. DD is going to have a birthday party/sleep over with a couple of friends in two weeks. I don't want to have to do 'flight-of-the-bumblebee' mad-dash cleaning frenzy right before the day of her party in order to have the house ready:)

2. Keep blogging. Having a laptop has changed my blogging habits quite a bit. I just don't want to have to get the computer out each time I need it, so I don't. I really need to get over this;)

3. Lots and Lots of fun projects!!! Okay, this one is kind of a given. I would like to work on my NewFo quilting project from March, start Something Old/Something New projects for the month, and maybe get a couple things completely done!!! Wouldn't that be a surprise!!! :)

4. EXERCISE!!! This is really a nessesity. I would like to lose some weight, but it's more about being healthy, which in my case will require me to lose some weight. I just want to feel better and maybe get off the blood pressure meds as well:) SO this week I want to get to the gym 3 times and do yoga at home 2 times.

The next two months are super busy around here, as Spring time tends to be for everyone. Lots of activities for dd, including her first 'Formal',  birthdays and an anniversary. But I really need to try and fit the rest these things in there too so I can stay sane!!

So what are you up to?