garden progress 6/9/09

Last night Dad tilled up some more of the garden for me so I can finish planting the cabbage soon, and get some cucumbers and zucchini started.

We are done with all the radishes now. They started going to seed and the ones that were left weren't worth keeping, so we cleared out the front of the garden where the radishes were and I planted some flowers there. More zinnias and cosmos!

The lettuce is now in its full glory, beautiful and green and ready to eat. I had a very nice salad for lunch today. That packet of lettuce seeds was only 10 cents... and with all the lettuce it produced, wowsers. Lots of savings right there.

garden progess, 5/09/09

Some of the radishes John planted before he left for New Zealand are being eaten right now! The onions are looking good, the lettuce I planted earlier is tiny, and I think the red lettuce didn't grow :( So we just have green lettuce, which is fine with me. Although I do enjoy colorful garden salads. My zinnias are also growing. I may have to fill in a few places where I got crazy trying to get rid of weeds, and accidentally yanked out a few of the little zinnia plants :(

Today I planted one row of Earliserve Bush Beans, two rows of Sugar Snap Peas, and one row of Mammoth Melting Sugar Snowpeas.

Also: four Roma tomatoes, one Yellow Pear tomato plant, and one Old German heirloom variety tomato plant.

Soon to be planted: Beefsteak tomatoes, cabbage, bell peppers, brussels sprouts (YES I ACTUALLY LIKE THEM), broccoli, sunflowers, cosmos, and more zinnias.

garden progress, 4/19/09

Today I planted dahlias in the flower bed in the front yard. They are pompon dahlias in orange and a pinkish-purple color, and I can't wait to see how they turn out! I've never had dahlias before and I really hope they bloom and that I don't end up killing them or something. Today if I get more motivation I might plant some of the sunflowers.
I need to start some more of the statice seeds, not many of them came up. Also I got another nice little mini-greenhouse at Menards for $2 yesterday. score.

Yesterday was a happenin' day. I helped Doug do some gardening at his place in Fort Wayne. We weeded the three raised beds and added some sphagnum peat moss and good topsoil to the soil that was already there. We planted some asparagus, which unfortunately, can not be harvested this year... but it will be there for Ben to enjoy next year. Maybe he will share some. And we also planted some marigold seeds in one of the beds to keep the tomatoes company, when there are tomatoes out there. Gardening is going to be a new adventure for Doug and I hope he enjoys it :)

garden progress, 4/17/09

I feel like I have been very productive so far this morning.
I planted a set of red onions, a set of either yellow or white onions, red lettuce, green lettuce, and zinnias.
The radishes John planted before he left are about 1/2 inch high and I have been trying to work on thinning them every time I go out to the garden.
I'm just excited that we will have garden-fresh radishes and lettuce ready, probably around my birthday!

The next few items I want to plant are peas and green beans. I need to get some system in place to protect them, because last year there were rabbits out there constantly destroying a lot of my plants.... grrrrrr....

Also I need to plant more flowers. I've got seeds for cosmos, bachelor buttons, swan river daisies, and more zinnias. I'm going to have some awesome flowers for the tables at the wedding reception!

It's such a nice day, there's so much I want to do right now. I just want to plant flowers everywhere and I have so many ideas! I'm afraid if I went to a greenhouse I'd just go crazy buying way more stuff than I need :)

latest sewing projects!

i have been sewing up a storm lately!

i just made two baby dresses, one for Julianna and one for Kyla, using a pattern i got from here:
http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-itty-bitty-baby-dress-pattern.html
it's a great, super easy pattern sized for small babies, and best of all it's free! i was able to make one in almost 2 hours from start to finish, and that included cutting out the pieces.

i'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

i've also been working on a vintage dress, McCalls 4480, but i'm still not exactly happy with how it's turning out so far. i've been fighting with it trying to make it not look like a maternity dress, and so far i've done about as much with it as i can. the front panel was supposed to be gathered, but instead i made it flat. i also took about 8 inches off the length. also i'm not too happy with my fabric choice... now i wish i had gotten something in a darker color, but it's too late for that.

my next project, since i have sewing ADD, is a dress from a mail-order pattern company, Marian Martin. the envelope was addressed to my great-aunt, and postmarked 1957. it's a shirtdress and the fabric i have chosen is dark blue cotton with white polka-dots.
it's a little different working with a 1950s pattern.... the pattern pieces have a series of punched out dots on them to mark the darts, where to place on the fold, and other important markings like that. i only just cut out the pieces, we'll see where it goes from here. it doesn't seem too complicated, and hopefully i will have it finished later this week.

last but not least, this is the next dress i hope to make:

i've been reading pattern reviews and lots of ladies have had positive experiences with this one. i want to make one in a nice, summery cotton print, and a more formal one in taffeta or shantung.

i really wanted to make this dress for my bridesmaids to wear, but none of them seemed to like the idea. yes, you heard me... i said i wanted to make it! i know the girls would tell me i'm insane (i've been told that already, haha!) and that i will only get myself stressed out. although we didn't choose to do that, i still would have been perfectly capable of doing so. see, i need to have projects and things to do to fill my time, otherwise my brain cells shrink and i lose my creativity. fo' reals.

i will have more sewing updates soon!

lulz.

toothpastefordinner.com

quote of the day, from my dad.

"I don't understand the point of wings. If I want to eat chicken, I want to eat chicken. They're too much work for so little meat."
-Dad

(he said this after i told him i did not want anyone disturbing my leftovers from b-dubs....mmmmm. but then i had to explain that they do make boneless wings these days. he still doesn't get it, lol)