The first week in 2012

January 1st:  guess where?  Who Dat!

January 2: being deliberate

January 3: finished new black and gold skirt (no pattern, just cut some rectangles based on another skirt I love.)

January 4: shipped my first orders of 2012

January 5: finished first week of Couch to 5K

January 6: discovered picnik

 

January 7:  a beautiful day to work in the garden  (we’re enjoying broccoli and cabbage right now.)

 

Just a note:  For several years, I posted on 3 blogs:  1 for personal sewing and family stuff, 1 for sewing instruction notes, and 1 for my shop.  I find that this leads me to neglect any 2 at any given time.  Look for several things to change.  I think all three topics will be combined onto 1 blog, but I’m not sure where or when.  I’ll keep you posted.

What’s new? December 6th addition

What’s new?  Here are a few peeks at what we’ve been up to this past week:


On my sewing machine:

I’m almost finished with this quilt top.  I was drawn to the modern colors and design, so with Momma’s help, I have almost pulled it together.  The picture above is actually just the blocks laid out on my bed.  It really is a big pile of Christmas tree blocks and courtyard squares that looks like this:



With the kids:
‘Tis the time for Christmas musicals!  C was an angel in the angelic hosts while his big sister donned a beard as Isaiah.  The kids were incredible under Mrs. Vee and Adrianne’s direction.


In the kitchen:

Christmas cookies! 


In the garden:
Our December harvest.  What?  You don’t have watermelons in your garden in December.  Well…
Actually, this was the last of the summer garden.  The frosts took care of the pumpkin and watermelon vines, so we’ve pulled those.  We are left with tomatoes (that are probably done), lettuces, cabbages, and broccoli.

My little pumpkins

Look what we found in our fall garden!  Whoo Hoo!  The kids are so excited about these little baby pumpkins.  I hope they turn orange before Halloween!

 

Our other vegetables are growing too!  We harvested a handful of bell pepper that were promptly chopped and frozen, just waiting to be mixed with a little garlic and onion and (store bought) celery.

 

Fall Garden

This hot, hot, dry, dry summer was tough on our garden.  We harvested a few tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and 1 little bitty ol’ canteloupe back in June and July.  Since then, it has been too stinkin’ hot to even get out there to work.  Yuck.  We pulled everything up in late July (except the watermelon vine and that crazy pepper plant that likes the high temps)with the plan to start a few things for August.  Um, yea.  That didn’t happen. 

Finally, we have a break from the heat.  We had a couple of pretty (read as cooler than 90 degrees) days around the beginning of September so we weeded everything and laid down a new layer of compost.

Today, the high is only 89!  Whoo Hoo!  (let’s pretend that last Friday wasn’t day #65 or so of 100+ degree temps)  I picked up some lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli from HD to transplant.  I decided to try one more early producing tomato too.  Maybe we’ll get a few more before the temps get too cold. 

So…here it is, the fall garden with it’s teeny tiny transplants, the crazy and loaded bell pepper plant and one happy, but not fruitful, watermelon vine.  Bring on the fall!

 

Rainy Day Gardening

It rained!

Two days in a row!

(We haven’t seen rain in weeks and weeks and weeks.)

Hooray!

But, rain and thunderstorms = no pool time.

No pool time = stir crazy kids.

Thankfully, I’d picked up two of these kits the other day.

           

  

And that is how a 6-year-old gardens while indoors!

Decisions, decisions

What shall I make with my garden goodies? 

Pasta Primavera, Spaghetti Sauce, Zucchini Bread… 

We have onions

My FIL said it was time to harvest my onions.

So we did!

How long do you think these will last us???

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

A Garden Update

**This is all about my garden.  I’m not really writing it for y’all, but to document it for myself!  But, please read if you’d like.  Oh, and Anne, if you see this, please show the pictures to our FIL.  Thanks!**

We’ve sort of finished a phase in our garden.  I guess you could say our Winter/Spring garden is finished.  Here’s the garden as it looked in March:

This was a few weeks ago (before the temps hit 90!!!):

 

Here it is today (after we pulled out all the peas and we’ve eaten most of the lettuce, spinach, and cabbages):

We’ve eaten: lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, sugar snaps, broccoli, English peas, carrots and onion tops.

In next year’s spring garden, we'll grow:  lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, broccoli, LOTS more sugar snaps, carrots and onion tops.  (and those fluffy asparaguses that are developing great little root systems right now.  (We didn’t find the English peas to be worth the effort.)

Next up:  We are waiting on our tomatoes to ripen and our squashes to get bigger.

Our summer garden has:  some Swiss chard, cucumbers, cantaloupes, green beans, bush beans, cherry tomatoes, Early Girl tomatoes, green zucchinis, yellow crook-necked squash, purple onions, yukon potatoes, strawberries, and sunflowers.  We also have dill, mint (2 kinds), basil, oregano, stevia, cilantro, sage, tarragon.

I’ve also given some thought to the fall.  I think it will look much like our spring garden:  cabbage, broccoli, sugar snaps, lettuces, and carrots.

Sharing little pieces of our garden

What do you do when you start WAAAAAAY too many cherry tomato plants?

Share them, of course.

I used a leftover jelly jar, some scrap ribbon and little plant stake to pretty-up these tiny tomato plants. Then, we shared them with our Kindergarten teacher. Easy, cheesy gift!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Our little garden

We’ve played in the dirt quite a bit the past few months.

January:

Februray:

March:

 

And, finally, it’s paying off.

We’ve already enjoyed 4 big salads from our little garden.

Next up:

Tomatoes, Zucchini, Squash, and Cucumbers will go in the ground this week!

I’m showing off my BG’s new spring skirt and linked up here today:

Another use for those stinkin’ pears

In my desperation to use up more of those pears, I modified a carrot cake recipe and came up with this yummy breakfasty-type cake.  

 

Pear Cake

3 cups chopped, peeled pears (about 10 pears in my case)

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup veggie oil

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 14 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup walnut pieces

NOTE:  Since I had it out anyway and since it was already dirty from chopping/shredding pears, I used my food processor to mix my batter.

Combine the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla and pears.  Mix until the sugar dissolves (30ish seconds).  Add the flour, soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg and stir until blended.  Stir in nuts.  Pour the batter into a 9 x 13 x 2 baking pan and bake at 250degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.

‘Da Pears

It’s that time of year again. 

Pear Picking Time

 

But, I’m done…

Almost…

 

(18 qts canned pears, about 1 1/2 gallons pear butter and currently 3 pints of dried pears.)