The end of a season

Well it's officially over. The ground is covered with leaves and school is in full swing. This was a difficult summer, but it was also full of many blessings.

It's getting colder here which will bring me inside for more projects other than gardening and building which will be a nice break. Happy Fall!

Spring distraction #1

So it's been so hard to concentrate on normal indoor crafting withe nice weather coming fast. The sewing has slowed down a bit and the yard projects have begun. The first completed project (that will HAVE to be how I post them since more have been started than have been finished) is our little fish pond. It has been really great and easy (so far) and has really added a nice serenity to the patio. The plants seem to grow fast and we have gone from 2 lily pads to 6, in only 2 weeks. I found some great water garden info on the following sites. Doesn't have to be a half barrell but mine was free so that is what I used.

http://www.jeffcook.com/hbpond.shtml
http://www.well.com/~gjmurphy/pondindex.htm

From what I've read, water plants can be very easy to divide and share so if you know somebody with a pond you might be able to get some great starter plants free.

Busy times

It's officially cold outside. We've started lighting fires in the fireplace, we brought in the succulent pot, finished up the seasonal decorating outside and I'm almost done converting the basement into children's winter playroom of fun. (Only a few More boxes to go through, then vacuum and voila). I've set up my own little sewing haven in the basement with both machines on one table and all of my fabric sorted, washed, folded and categorized for me to get started on my projects for my 2 craft fairs coming next month. So as of right now, I'm officially behind on EVERYTHING! I wondering if there will ever be a time when my whole house is clean at the same time. Despite the business around here, I promise to do better at doing regular posts. One has to prioritize :o)

I'll be putting this one on the tradition list

I read about building fairy houses in the fall as a family activity and thought it was worth a try. My kids are still small so they loved this. There were collective duties and individual ones so everybody contributed and felt like they had a special job to do. They were very serious about doing a good job to make sure that the fairies would have a really nice place to live during the cold winter months. They would like to build another one tomorrow and maybe one more the day after that, so I'll definately be adding this one to the tradition list for the fall!

A very small harvest

The pods are out on the impatiens and since they were so beautiful this year I decide to do a little collection to start our own next spring. First of all let me say that I am a perennial person, my husband is the one who loves annuals (how is this marriage working?) so every year we each do our own gardening on the plants/flowers that we planted. This year I thought that his impatiens were so beautiful (I can admit it) that I decided to get some seeds together so we can plant the same ones next year. To contain the little pod explosions I placed the pods in a an envelope made from parchment paper, sealed the top, shook it and voila, you can see the flipped pods and seeds everywhere.

The seeds are now drying on my kitchen window sill so they will be ready to plant next year. Fun for the kids and me to do a fun little project that will add to a beautiful garden in the spring.

Playing catch-up

9 whole days since my last post! Crazy, crazy times. Just as a catch up on what goes on in the life of a homely animal, I've finally finished the modifications of a new muffin recipe (coming soon), the upstairs bthrm has been tiled/painted, re-painted the kitchen and had the floor boards installed, finished grouting the backsplash tiles in the kitchen, cleaned the over-painted part off of the front door knobs/locks AND sorted every single little piece of children's clothing that is floating around my home packing up 2 huge bags for freecycle and goodwill. Oh and did I mention knitting the kitty cat hat AND last but not least...drumroll please.... "hello beautiful" I say out loud as I look at my 'new' huskylock serger... it was time. (there is no excuse now with the husky AND 'the form') Also I'm totally loving my new bobbin holder (courtesy of my great husband). Coming soon is a tutorial on making your own grocery bags. When I say soon, I'm talking in the next couple of days, so stay tuned! :o)

p.s. that was the one and only pumpking that our plants yielded this year. The stem was not so mysteriously broken off within about 5 minutes of detaching it from the vine. "Mom, you're supposed to do that."

The other side of summer

Summer went so fast this year that I really can't believe that it's almost over. I send boy1 and boy2 to preschool/pre-K next week and I wonder how it will change at our house. Our tomatoes are still ripening, but once they're gone, they're gone for the season. I'll miss having all of the kids home all day, among other things but I know I'll have more time to be able to prepare more fun stuff for them when they come home.

It's been so great to have a back yard. It's our first full summer with a 'childproof' backyard, free from building supplies and dangerous things. We reseeded it and it so nice and green, I will be sad to see this season end. I'm not really ready to trade in bug-bitten, bruised, scraped, and dirty summer legs, for pristine white winter legs but we've got a few more weeks before shorts are replaced by jeans.

So as sewing season begins I hope to complete and post more of my projects and to also find more fun stuff on other blogs once they do the same. Oh, and there is Halloween and the costume making which will shortly be underway. Here's to a wonderful summer!

Hello Gorgeous!

This year we tried hanging tomato plants. Although there are numerous online tutorials for making your own, I opted for the "topsy turvy tomato" kits available at Target, I think they were around $10 each, and they have been a success. The kit didn't include dirt (of course) or a tomato plant. Of the 2 plants that we have, I think that the cherry tomato plant seems a better size for this planter, although if you had a higher place to hang this (mine is about 6'3 off of the ground) a larger tomato plant would work. From what I can tell, these container will be re-usable for next year, and I'm already planning on buying a few more. We don't have an area to plant an in-ground garden, so this has been a very successful alternative.

In the days before SLR...

I could never get photos to look like this... it's obviously not me, but the camera that makes the difference!