Garden 2011

This year, our Bishop never cleared our garden plot, and I didn't feel like driving a mile to weed the stake garden, So Brett talked me into container gardening in his dad's back yard. It's sad because I don't get to walk out and see it every day, and when I do go to see it, I forget my camera.. so I finally borrowed an Iphone

My little crowded corner:


My swiss chard isn't very happy with this new arrangement, but everything else is:

• I'm getting a pumpkin that might actually get bigger than a ping pong ball before the frost(last year I got a 2 inch one just before it froze)
  
• I'm getting 3 watermelons that are already a few inches long( They kept dying last year)
  
• I've gotten about 6 Pickling Cucumbers( last year those died repetedly too) and they grow so fast that I can't pick em while they are picklin' sizes.
  
• I've gotten only 3 squash (less than last year, but that one is about 7 inches long instead of 4... so probably not as prolific because that one got too big)
  
• Before I could get a good look at them, Brett harvested8 cherry tomatos (I only got one last year before they froze.) I'd show you, but Brett made haste to eat them...though he did let Carissa have one, and gave me a bite (I don't like tomato's in their fresh form, but I did actually not hate this one... would have preferred it dried on a pizza, but I can see the potential in it)
  
• There are a handful of( large but still green) Black Cheroke tomatoes that are full of promise
  
• I've gotten a good ziplock baggie ful of snap peas
  
• and my hot peppers actually made int into a cute little bush that is flowering.

Ohhhhhhhhhh!!!! AND THE HERBS ARE ACTUALLY GROWING.

• The Basil is healthy, prolific, and very motivated and is very persistent in its endeavors to bolt.
  
• I have leeks.... though I don't know when to harvest them
  
• Cilantro!
  
• Parsley!
  
• Chives are there, but not really growing
  
• Sage is small, but usable and smells lovelier than any sage I've ever bought

It's kind of a hollow victory though, because what is the fun of having fresh homegrown herbs if you have to drive 30 minutes to get them... kind of takes the spontaneity out of cooking.

Biggest disappointment of the gardening year is that someone stole my yogurt cup of my growing green beans and i never got to transplant them (I put all my seeds in yogurt cups that were aranged in a shallow box. I kept this box in an empty dumpster cage at our condo's so that it would get sun and be protected from the violent local wind. It was within brick walls and had no feet to sneek over the gate on it's own).

Brett assembled a timed drip system that keeps my roots moist and happy. Not sure if we will get it's money's worth of veggies out of it this year (plus, even though we re-located pots from our balcony, we still had to buy several more AND a lot of potting soil to fill it), but hopefully we will be able to use it again for several years, even if it moves to a different location.

And this is where I stop boring you with my garden info.

Twas the night after Thanksgiving

And Carrissa and I put up the tree. It was my first 3-D tree of my own. I usually hate fake trees, but this one was pleasantly full. I was hesitant to take the tree when Nanapa offered it to us after last christmas, But I'm glad we got it. You'll notice I finally got to use my cinnamon ornamentsI made last year.The rest of the ornaments are mostly from Nanapa's donation, though a few are from Brett's Childhood.

I also put up my wall stickers I bought last year. They look phenomenally better on the painted walls then they did on the bleh walls we used to have.

I've noticed I have a tendency for reindeer and Stars/Snowflakes. Not a big snowman/Santa person. I should really find a way to work more religious material into my decoration scheme besides the symbolism of the stars.

Handy Hubby

Brett did this for me, because pulling stacks of pans out from a cupboard is annoying. (we have one more pan to put up in the empty space, but we were using it.

He also found a way to squish our ironing board into unusable but easily accessible space.

And yesterday, I found some nice cords at Eddie bower. Brett likes me in cords, isn't that odd? I think it is because I had a lime and a cotton candy colored pairs when we got married.


And now I am done eating, so I will stop blogging and go to Tracie and Austin's, where I will inevitably have more fun than you are having.

Halloween in progress

I'm working on window. This is the backside of a work in Progress

The Cat took forever to outline. I am not a natural at drawing.

Make-it Monday:Garden stuff

1. I love gardening.

On perk being that I have seen some of the most fascinating insects in my life, including some super strange spiders. I hapened to have a point and shoot on me when this pinecone butt spider caught my eye. I thougt is one of those sock-burrr seed pods at first.

When I go out, I often have a difficult time prying my self away, and as a result the sun goes while I am out there. Fortunately there is irrigation and a well near by for me to self water when i want to (and they have a pump they use to flood it once a week). Unfortunately that irrigation means that when I do keep going as the sun goes down. I end up with mosquito bites galore. They could care less about my repelent too. last week I counted 45 bites. Since then I have made my visits brief and late afternoon.

2. I may love my garden, but it doesn't love me. I waited too long to transplant things and they got root bound. then brett convinved me that one heavy watering a week is better than frequent watering (because a farmer told him), so I didn't get someone to water while we were out of town. As a result most of my plants died.

The peas held on though (they are twice as tall now. this photo is from 2 weeks ago), and are making fruit for a week now. Strangely, they will only grow on one side.

3. I've realized one flaw to my gardening. I don't know what veggies are supposed to look like. As a result I sometimes can't tell what is a vegetable and what is a weed. Silly Charlotte. I think I figured out that the ones in the raddish row with holes in them are raddish, and the other ones are weeds.

I have a new solution to this. A few days ago I transplanted some new sprouts (pumpkin, zucchini) in hope they will live this time (even if they don't fruit before frost) and I transplanted them into the cut off tops of paper cups, so that the roots can grow down, but so that the cup shows atop the dirt, and I know it is not a weed... cause, you know, it is in the cup. Silly though, cause those kind of plants are easier to tell. I also seeded some beets, raddish, and swiss chard this way.

4. The carrots survived the transplanting pretty well (Comparatively). I like them because none of the weed sprouts look anything like the carrot sprouts. They've grown since I took this photo 2 weeks ago, but not as much as I would have liked.

5. Swiss chard have been my pride of the garden. They are thriving, and much much bigger than in the photo. They are beautiful. Brett likes them




6. for the longest time, my squash was barely hanging on. Brett wanted to put it out of it's misery, but it recovered, and even got some blossoms. It Has twice as many leaves now! I have hope for it yet.
Garden's count as something you've made, right? I mean, I have other stuff, but I haven't taken pictures yet.

7. Lettuce has been another pleasant surprise. it hangs in there, sprouts all right. It just doesn't get super big. I think i am going to have to fertilize it, and maybe some of the carrots to give it a boost.


8. only 3 tomatoes survived. one cherry, and 2 purple cheroke. Like most of the things in my garden, it seams that in the last 2 weeks they have awoken from their dormant state and decided to grow leaves. the cherries have even gotten blossoms, and I have a little hope for them yet. Here is a pic of them trying to decide if they ever want to grow or not.

um $600... No thanks... IKEA hacker, Thanks!

Dear Pop-Up-Kenel,
You have served us well, but I want you out of our bedroom.

Dear crate-making companies,
You need to make more aesthetically pleasing/functional (ie. doubles as an end table) crates. Oh, and less expensive too please. (These ones range from 400-600).



Dear Ikea,
I failed to be hack inspired by browsing your website. Infact, your website isn't my favorite to navigate.

Dear Ikea hacker blog,
I appreciate your thourough research in redirecting me to this gem made from 2 odd Ikea desks.
*$100 to make (still hoping for a cheeper solution though)
*The white desks should match our existing ikea dresser/night stands ( I hope)
* Side access as opposed to front access (so we don't have to angle it)
* Can stick stuff on top of it.
* Need to check size though
*may add a valance on top to help close off for more cave-like feel (keep him out from under the bed).

room Tour: Room 7-8-Guest Bath and Living/dining/Kitchen

So you know how I went to california for a few days earlier this month? Okay, so I didn't post a lot about it, but it happened.

Well I came back, and Brett and his sister had painted the bathroom. Then, I bought some pictures for the bathroom. They are still on the floor.

Bathroom Before:


Bathroom colors Now:


They ALSO painted the Trim in the hallway for me. If I posted a pic, you would probably think it looks exactly the same as the last time I put up a pic (without the blue tape), but trust me, the new white looks better.

Then, shortly after, I woke up to find B painting the living room. Eventually I helped.
I'll try to post some better pics in the future with a better lighting set up that allows my camera to get farther away from the flash on the co unter...(the lights are in the closet where B's Mom is sleeping....


Living Before:
(we've since cleaned the carpet, and the paitned walls looks better with the carpet than the white walls did.).

Living After:
( New couch, New ottoman, new drapes.... not shown, also new entertainment center and new TV.

Kitchen Before:


Kitchen After:

Brett really wanted the wainscoting to be all one color, but now that it is done, he is not so sure... so eventually we might paint this with some sort of 2 color scheme.



So, we're almost done! just a door, a few ceilings, and some touch ups! Since Dec, we've used b's income to buy our first table, first TV, first ottoman, first couch, first entertainment center, first Wall Art, first Drapes, first curtain rods, first decorative chair... After 5 years (almost) of marriage, we finally have furniture, and painting as opposed to being stuck with white walls.... it really feels like home.

decoration ideas... for someone else

I don't have wood slats like these, but I found this image while googling "tiffany blue," and "Robin egg blue."

I never thought about doing that..... painting the diferent slats different colors.... I like it a lot.

(from appartment therapy....I think)






Plus. I really like attics.

room Tour: Room 6B-Master Bedroom, REVISITED

So, remember how last time I posted pictures of my bedroom, I told you I had already changed it? well, here are some changes:

Some Pillows:

A painting
A squatty little black chair

Curtains and a curtain rod

Below you see I switched back to my old white duvet, and I think the pillow helps tie in the carpet a little bit. (I decided on the black bed skirt, and not on the yellow one)

My pretty corner is fun to look at as I wake up. Looks much better with the curtains, painting, chair, pillows, and table runner than it did with just grey/black walls and reddish brown carpet...

But, now my big mirror looks rediculously small, and I'm not sure what to do about that.

I still love Chevron

So Brett wasn't too excited about the idea of chevron paintings above the bed...But I still like my chevron patterns.... I would love something like this pillow on my couch.
If I were as talented as the etsy artist who made it, i would try to make my own, but my sewing skills are pretty sketchy, so for now I can just sit and think about how I will never pay 87 bucks for a decorative pillow....

Possible decorations.

I was thinking about doing something like this above my bed. I'm not sure though.

I like that the girl made it herself. I was wanting to make something myself for that area.

Room Tour: Room 5-Master Bath/CLOSET

When we finally put pictures up, we also put two into the master bath. I think it helps a lot to break up all that dark brown...less overwhelming.

View from the throne:


Origionally I bought it for the frame and matting. I was going to put some of our own photos in it, but surprisingly it doesn't bother brett, so I am going to leave it for now.


We had a hard time committing to a shower curtain, but we decided to keep this one, and I think we chose well.

Room Tour: Room 4- office

My other favorite room. also goes well with existing carpet (and existing blinds). We use up most of the wall space with our desks and filing cabinets, but there is plenty enough room to walk around and let our chairs roll. I was worried about the orange, but I love love love it, and the frames pop against the orange without being to obnoxious.

I go back and forth on whether I picked the right color for the doors (that one is the closet), but in the end it at least doesn't bug me... and I got to use the same color paint I used in the hall, so I win.



Did you notice that brett's monitor is purple?

That is because he keeps trying to convince me that I want a large external monitor for my laptop (which, sometimes would be nice, but I'd rather spend my fun money on something else...I'm not a Brett). So, he convinced me to try out his monitor a while back. I admit it was nice having the largeness to work on my work stuff, but I didn't like the semigloss/pearlness of his monitor. I also Couldn't stand the glossy edge of his monitor. IT DROVE ME CRAZY. Maybe that sounds stupid, but I have a slight astigmatism, says the doctor, so I blame that. Plus, I do a lot of color correcting and when glares effect the appearance of color, it makes it hard for me to be exact.
So I lined it with post-its so it wouldn't drive me crazy. That was months ago and I haven't used it since... yet... as you see, he still has the purple post-its there.


I wish I had gotten a strait on shot of my desk because the 3 frames above my desk make it feel so much more complete. I did attempt to, , but that is when I broke the glass leaing against the frame above my filing cabinet (because I didn't realized I was using my macro lense... no wonder i had to back up so much!). ANyhow. I got distracted, so above is a picure of a detail of my desk (I got it in california, it is a bit juvenile, but it makes me happy). Below are the three frames at an angle (and our old imac we hook up to our cable tv for now)

See! don't those frames look nice on the orange wall!
WE still need to find something to go above brett's desk though :(