latest projects

that's right...this little man is going to be a big brother.  may 14th to be exact.  and thus, i have completed no new projects.  well, besides this shirt that i made...and of course the human i'm growing.  i think those count though!

landscaping & garden UPDATE

well...time flies...and plants grow, so here's a visual update and a few notes for myself for future reference.

first the garden...

notes:
-no pumpkins next year; they don't seem produce much fruit on the trellis and take up WAY too much space
-only plant one thick row of peas, and plan next to something that will need lots of room; it ended up as wasted space this year.  i did plant some marigolds there on the fourth of july, but they prob won't bloom til late fall if they bloom at all
-water strawberries early and often, be careful with fertilizer
-plant basil plants...not seeds

and now for the front landscaping...

for next year:
-use red, white, yellow and purple color scheme next year.  move the pinks next to the mail box. no marigolds in the front.  use cosmos sparingly...and remember they are TALL.

and just in case you're curious...here's the front door.  i'm loving the color.

landscaping

since we ripped out all of our overgrown front landscaping, i took a landscaping class at Thanksgiving Point this spring.  i was hoping to learn the basics of design so we wouldn't waste our time, efforts, and cash putting new plants in.

the class wasn't exactly what i expected, but i did learn quite a bit.  i came away with a basic idea of what i wanted and a huge list of future projects!

just to recap, here's where we started...

from house listing

then we ripped everything out...

march 2012

and then we started over...

 

and now we wait...

for the curious, here's a plant list:

autumn joy seedum (7)*

daisy (4?)*

spicata (1)*

boxwood (4)

variegated redtwig dogwood (1)

forsythia (1)

daylilly (3)

mum (2)

wave petunias (9)

alyssum (18)

*my generous green-thumbed mother sent me home with these starts at the beginning of april.  

i have thoroughly enjoyed planning and planting.  it's been such a fun process!

paint

in general, i like to finish a project before starting another one. however, january has been all about the unfinished! during the course of the month, i had two books that were started and unfinished (luckily i did finish one by the skin of my teeth just before book club, a pillow that is about halfway finished, blocks cut and partly sewn for a stocking, and a few mending projects. you'd think i'd finish some of these things before i took on another project, but no...i decided i was going to bite the bullet and paint our office!

well it started out this lovely (insert sarcasm) blue. i'm sure it totally worked for the previous owners, but it was mostly making my head hurt. also...the room was a complete disaster. isn't that the ideal time to paint?

anyways...we had leftover paint from our bathrooms, and we happen to totally love the color. it's coconut husk from behr in case you're curious. i've also been drooling over striped walls on pinterest lately...thus the stripe wall. and i LOVE it.

it's not perfectly styled or organized (you'd laugh if you saw the opposite wall with the piles of clutter), but i like to savor the happy parts in the midst of the mess.

so...now i can get back to finishing my other projects, right? (actually, i'll be painting the bedroom next...so those will just keep waiting.)

and the stockings were hung...

this is the first year in many that i haven't been in the middle of thesis research, coursework, or getting ready for a Christmas baby...so i decided i'd load on the projects! 

two of my most Christmas themed projects were a Christmas table runner for my mother-in-law.  {i love how it turned out.}

and stockings.  i didn't really know what i was getting myself into...they were a lot of work, but i enjoyed the process {for the most part} and LOVE how they turned out.  i've got enough fabric to make a few more for any future kiddos...so these will last our family for quite some time {hopefully forever}.

anyways...it was a crafty Christmas...and i think that made it even more fun than usual!

pears

lest you think i am an overachiever, let me start by saying this venture was slightly accidental.  not accidental as in i accidentally bought 10 quarts of pears, but accidental in the fact that i had not planned to set out on this venture alone.

you see, i have this goal...to become involved in my ward.  so seeing an opportunity, i signed up for 'canning groups'.  'great', i thought, 'this is a great way to be doing something and meet people'.  little did i know that the term 'group' was being used very loosely.

a week or so after signing up i got a call from a friend in the ward.  she found a great deal on pears and wondered if she could pick some up for me.  i thought that sounded like a great idea...that is until she said they weren't really going to be able to do the groups...since it was the weekend before school started.  but by then...it was too late.  i was stuck...with 10 quarts of pears.

so i peeled.  and i peeled.  and i peeled.  then i got excited and started filling jars...but i only filled 3 1/2 jars...so i peeled some more.  and i peeled.  well, you get the idea, there was a lot of peeling involved. 

it really wasn't as technical a process as i had imagined it would be.  hot water.  sugar.  lids.  steam canner.  and lots and lots of time.  and peeling...don't forget the peeling.

luckily for me, all of my jars sealed and i can call this venture a success.  but i must give credit where credit is due.  first to my mother-in-law who gave me the steam canner a few Christmases ago...thank you, thank you, thank you!  and to my own mother...who answered several distressed questions and gave great over-the-phone instructions.  thank you, thank you, thank you!

my jars are currently sitting on a shelf in my cold storage room...much too pretty to be eaten.

pickles

in an effort to make use of the massive quantities of cucumbers coming from my garden...i ventured into the land of pickling.  luckily, i saw a segment on studio 5 (a utah morning show) on pickling. 

i opted not to process them, so we'll be eating 5 pints of pickles in the next 2 weeks.  let's hope they're good!

next up...dilly beans.