Garden DONE!

The gardens are done, well at least the front garden beds are done!  And by done, they have dirt, and have plants in them.

We still need to get the river pebbles for the ground cover.  I think we decided that that would be best for the cat issue.

but before we get the pebbles we have a whole other garden to fill with dirt.  Yes we have finally completed the raised garden bed in the back yard for the vegetables/edibles!!

Selfie!

And of course by WE I mean my DH dug out and built the garden. The dogs kept watch, as did I.   We compromised on the material, and the garden is built out of cedar, which yeah isn't cheap, but it's all natural, and doesn't have chemicals in it like some landscaping materials do.  I think it looks a bit better than rock, although I do think eventually I will create a small flower garden and bench space, maybe an arbor so I can have some climbing vines, like clematis, or wisteria, in the square in front of the 'L', or even a small water feature!  The sky is the limit!

Well...the budget is the limit, but it can wait till next year...

I did have two grape vines, Concord and Pink Catawba, that I purchased from a big box store, the same time that I purchased the Flowering Plum tree we put in the front yard.  Wouldn't you know...they never budded out, or grew, they were dead when I purchased them...so those got returned today, and because they didn't have any live grape vines at that store, and I really wasn't keen on spending another $25 on vines or plants at that store I came back to Smithville and went to Pack's Hardware.  Man oh MAN do they have a fabulous selection of annuals, perennials and edibles! And their plant gal Terry is phenomenal!  I hope you have a place just as good in your neck of the woods as I do in mine...I ended up getting another Catawba vine, and of course they were out of the Concord, they are such popular vines because the fruit is delicious!  I decided to try a "King of the North Grape" I will do another post later all about the grapes...

I did also decide to purchase some vegetable plants, so I chose two types of beans, and a tomato plant.  I will probably end up with several types of tomatoes, and possibly some other vegetables, but this is a good start for my first garden!

Happy Spring and Happy Gardening!

Reaching out

This week I was fortunate to meet the founders of, and hear about a wonderful foundation based here in my small town.  There are not enough nice things to say about the founder and her family, and the work "Spread a Little Joy Foundation" has done, and continues to do.

About

Spread A Little Joy Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to making wishes come true for adults with life threatening illnesses, while offering their families lifetime memories, resources, and support.www.spreadalittlejoy.org

Mission

Spread A Little Joy Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to making wishes come true for adults with life threatening illnesses, while offering their families lifetime memories, resources, and support.
It was founded in memory of Joy Holmes Brown who lost her courageous battle with cancer in November 2010.

Biography

When our mother was diagnosed with terminal leiomyosarcoma cancer, she felt helpless, scared, and frustrated. We realized the only thing we could do was to help keep her spirits up, and in an effort to do so, we chose to try to fulfill as many of her wishes as we could.
Through the efforts of family and friends, we were blessed to be able to make many of our mom's dreams come true. Watching her smile and laugh while she enjoyed these experiences was not only beneficial to her, it helped us as a family. We were making memories to last us a lifetime. Through our Spread A Little Joy Foundation, we now hope to pass these gifts on to others in need.

Company Overview

Non-profit organization based in Kansas City founded in 2011.

Description

We offer patient driven wish fulfillment in an effort to give the patient (our dreamers) spirit lifting experiences, and to give their families memories of a lifetime.
By creating a network of supporters we hope to be able to call on people to assist whenever their particular skills or connections are needed. 

Like their facebook page here.
Visit their website here.

Time for playing in the dirt!

One of the most expensive projects after purchasing a new house is the landscaping.  Sometimes you get lucky and the previous owners had decent green thumbs and everything was to your liking....but in our case there was ZERO landscaping here....And as in everything else I have champagne tastes, and a Rolling Rock Beer budget.

With the outdoor cat population in our neighborhood, we decided to do a rock border, and some plants that would help keep them from using our fresh turned soil as a litter box.  As we are only part way through our project we have not totally agreed on the topic of mulch vs. rock.  I'm pro rock, he's pro mulch.

We found a place nearby that mines the local limestone, and cuts it into big chunks for commercial use,  of course we need the smaller stuff and at our first house we ended up purchasing three pallets of the stone at $115 a pop....and we would need about the same for this house...fortunately we were told of several large chunks at our church, that needed to be disposed of, so for the small price of labor and fuel for going back and forth we (We, as in DH and my dad) were able to bust up several chunks, enough for us to do the borders for the side garden, and the two front gardens.  There will be enough left over for us to use the same stone in the backyard for the raised vegetable garden beds!  Woo hoo!

On the East side of the house I have planted the irises my dad dug up for me at the last house.  Some of these irises I helped my mom dig up at Longview Farms before Longview Lake was a lake...some came from other places, but I do know several of the rhizomes are from my childhood.  And those memories make me smile.

We were fortunate to get help from my dad breaking up the huge rocks, and then our neighbor came up and helped us rip up sod, and get some of these stones in place, I wasn't much help!








Now for the real expense associated with our landscape project.  The plants.

And that isn't all of them!  I was able to get some in the ground already thanks to a neighbor who had some great black dirt and had too much for their garden!

Lilac and Lavender

I decided this year to concentrate on a few solid and permanent plants for the garden.  Perennials are more expensive, like 3x the price of the one season annual.  But, worth it, because if I do my job watering when mother nature isn't making it rain then I shouldn't have to replace these plants, ever.  Doing the research on the different types of gardens in the small area of my front yard has been interesting to say the least,  I actually have a true shade garden, two full sun gardens, and a morning sun only garden.

We have one spot in the front yard to finish, fill and then plant, but that should be done this week!

My advice to you, research the area you want to plant, choose a color scheme for your gardens, mine is purple and green, and then take your time selecting plants.  Water as much as the plants need, so read the tags, and prepare to enjoy all your hard work and planting!  Whether you selected plants that are fragrant, edible, just pretty, or a combination of all three, having a garden can bring a smile to your face!

Sometimes a deal is too good to pass up

I love shopping, for home decor, and I LOVE finding a good deal!  I went to Old Time Pottery in Independence, and found an awesome circle wood and metal art piece.  But it's broken, and instead of the original price of $60, it was discounted to $12!  Score for me!

It took some time to get the pieces apart.  But it was worth it.

Then it was time to fix the broken part, and get to painting!  I chose the blue from our bathroom as a base.

Once the base color is dry it's time to apply the crackle medium, then that needs to dry for 2-4 hours.

We went fishing...so when we got home it was time to put the top color on!

It was so pretty, but still looked too new, so I grabbed the antiquing medium and mixed up some weathering magic!

Unfortunately at that point it was too late to spray-paint the metal piece...but the next day I sprayed it to match the fixtures in my house, oil rubbed bronze.

I also had to purchase new screws, the original piece was missing one screw, and the two screws that secured the medallion were completely destroyed.  Because the screws were new brass, and they would show when I screwed the metal to the wood, they got a quick spray of matching paint.

And I sprayed a coat of polyurethane to seal the weathered wood.

Once it was all dry I was able to put it back together, and hung in my entrance!

Here is the before and after pic, for comparison!

I'm putting down my hook

Well I'm putting it down because I'm DONE with my wave afghan project!!!  Finally!  And I decided to post it to the Crochet Crowd on Facebook.  The response has been overwhelming!  I have over a thousand likes, countless comments and shares galore! See my post here.  Join the Crochet Crowd here, it's free, and there is soooo much eye candy and inspiration!!!

So without further ado, here is Leslie's Scrap Afghan!

And now that this is done I have started another project, and this time it's NOT crocheted!  Yeah I know!  Wow, but I needed to give my poor hands a small break.  In a few short months I will be hosting a table at a formal tea at church, and decorating my own table!  So I decided to make some place-mats, I used colors that match my decor at home, so I can use them after the tea.

The blue is leftover from my wedding, and the print I found at Wally World, on clearance!  After you cut a front and  a back for each place-mat you want to make you pin them right sides together

Then set up your sewing machine.  It helps to tape off the measurement so you make sure your seams are the same.

Sew up three sides, and part of the fourth, I left my opening in the middle of a side, it will help camoflauge it in the final steps.  Turn them right sides out.

That is as far as I have gotten on them so far, I still have to press them and do the final stitch, more blog on that later!

Tarry not, for the hook awaits thee.

 Yarn is an addiction for me, it is my happy place, and gives me peace.  Seriously!  Now there are times that I growl in frustration at whatever project I'm working on...but for the most part, crocheting makes me smile.  So when I get the chance to feed my stash I do it with GUSTO!  This past weekend was once such chance.  I am not a fiber artist that can afford the really expensive yarns so when there is a sale, or coupons you can find me taking advantage of that!  I was shopping for an afghan request.  I got to choose the colors.
















The pattern I will be using is a broomstick pattern, so I also got a dowel and had my DH sharpen one end to make it easier to draw up the loops and to crochet them off.

I also got a pom-pom making set because anyone that has ever made poms knows that they can be difficult and tricky.

And I didn't stop there!  There were a few more skeins that called to me.

I love blues

I see a teddy bear...

And I have started one project already!  A hat for me.

The pattern was a bit confusing as the stitches just don't look the same in the pictures compared to what mine looks like

And I have some custom buttons, designed by me, made by my dad! These go on the brim of my hat, well two of them will!

I hope I get this hat done soon, otherwise it will be too warm to wear it!

It was a sheet...now it's yarn

I finally found a pattern that my brother and sister-in-law would "allow" me to crochet for them.  It's a cat nest, or a cat poof...so of course I was ready to get started on it asap!  The poof doesn't use "yarn" it calls for fabric scrap yarn.  Click the picture to go to her site.

Today was an adventure in making my own scrap yarn.  After a mostly failed attempt to do it at my house because the dogs thought they should lay on it, or that it was time to play because I was on the floor I packed it all up and headed to my parents house, and their dog free wood floors.

After removing the hemmed edges, and ripping out the top hem cause that added almost a foot of extra fabric, we trimmed an edge so we had a straight edge to start.

The cat, liked the scrap edge.

Fortunately she didn't disturb us as we lined up the edges and started cutting!

And balling the yarn

I had no idea how to make a sheet a continuous strand of yarn and I'm so thankful for the "interwebs" because I found a fabulous blog that gave excellent and clear instructions to make this yarn.  It took the better part of today to get two sheets cut and rolled into balls.  So the cat nest will have to wait for another day.

Maybe tomorrow.

What defines you?

There are a few things in life that I know to be true, God loves me, I am addicted to crochet, cooking makes me happy, I will never be “skinny”…but, I am the new beautiful. Who defines beautiful? Lately in the news there has been a lot of talk about Photoshop, and how it has destroyed the mental ideal in all people.  Men women and children are brainwashed into thinking that you are only beautiful, or should only be seen as beautiful if you are perfect.  There has also been a movement about redefining beauty, I’m gonna get on that bus and ride it till the end.

I know I am not perfect!  My hair is sometimes impossible to control, I’m in my mid 30’s and I still get zits, I squint when I smile for pictures, I (gasp) also sometimes have a double chin.  I’m not quite 5’5” and I’m closer to 150lbs than the 120lbs that is printed on my license. My body isn’t perfect.  But I am the new 

beautiful.  The things that make me different are the things that make me unique.  For years, I have felt that I wasn’t pretty, despite what my mom says.  But hey, my mom has always told me that I’m beautiful.  My husband thinks I’m beautiful, and sexy. But he’s my husband; he’d better think that I am!  What about the rest of the world?  If I went to the beach in a bikini would I be that girl, the one that gets the “why is she wearing that” look? These are the thoughts that go through my mind when I’m getting dressed every day, and why I sometimes change my outfit 5 times.  My husband thinks it’s funny.

Some Men want to see a woman with impossible curves large breasts and perfect skin, guess what guys, she doesn’t exist!  At least not like you see in glossy magazines, sure the model is real, but what you see in print has been digitally enhanced for your viewing pleasure, just like movies, “the Hollywood.”  Young girls watch shows like America’s Next Top Model (and I do to) and think I won’t be pretty/accepted/happy unless I look like them.  I stopped watching ANTM when they called a gal “plus size” who was slightly more curvy than the sticks next to her.  That is not plus sized. That is healthy.  I’m not knocking the stick thin gals, as long as they aren’t starving themselves to look like that. There are also shows out there that poke fun at people for looking less than perfect. “Fashion Police” is the worst of them; I also used to watch that show, but the nastier they got the less funny it became. Making fun of celebrities is just as bad as making fun of the girl with the pigtails in hand me down clothes.  It’s bullying plain and simple.

The antithesis to “the Hollywood” comes from recent posts seen online like Lizzie Velasquez. Or the brave teenager who talks about the harassment at her high school, her story can be seen at causewecool.tumbler.com.  Another empowering story is at Unlooker.com because we and that is EVERYONE reading this, can redefine beautiful.  If you are on Instagram, post your selfie, and don’t forget to #redefine_beautiful let’s all get together and make a statement to the world!