To-mah-toes

I stepped outside this rather soggy morning to find that I have tomatoes! Well, kind of. They're not anywhere near eating yet, but they're so cute!


See it peaking out there? It's not quite the size of a dime.



Bug's eye view


Also -- cucumbers! These have been growing for some time now. They're lopsided, but I hear that's because the flowers weren't pollinated. Oh well.

Beans and Stirfry (and Fish Biscuits)

This was a couple weeks ago, but oh well. Here is my first major bean crop.




I added three more to that, and then Norman made this:



It seems that one of Norman's favorite things to do is make stirfry. He's very particular about it. I'm particular about a lot of things, but cooking is not one of them. Mostly I figure we have to eat, and I want to spend as little time as possible on cooking and still make tasty food. Norman takes his time and makes everything just right. This is a good thing. Otherwise we'd never have anything even approaching gourmet food in the house. So, needless to say, this stirfry was awesome. The vegetables were still crisp, which apparently is the way they're supposed to be (who knew?).

While we were eating the stirfry, I was struck by how magical food really is. I mean, 2 months ago, those green beans were just seeds. And all I did was stick them in some potting soil, water them, and wait. And now they're crazy-delicious, sweet, crispy, nutritious green beans! (Can you tell this is my first gardening experience?)

I was talking with Kelly Mac at church about kombucha and kefir and all sorts of other magical things. We determined that modern nutrition just takes all the magic out of life. It's quite sad, actually.

Oh yeah, and these aren't magical, but they were pretty fun to make:



That's right, those are Lost fish biscuits. Fortunately they taste like citrus sugar cookies, not fish or dog or bear biscuits, or whatever they were supposed to be on the show. I got the idea and the recipe here.

Flowers and a Bean!

Pumpkin flower (it's a lot oranger than it looks in the picture):
Cucumber flowers (I actually had no idea that vegetable plants would be useful and attractive):

Firstfruits (should I be giving it to the church?):

Garden Update

I went outside this morning, and my plants just looked so cute, and I'm just so proud of them that I had to take pictures and share them with the world. (Can you imagine how obnoxious I'll be when I have kids?)

Pumpkin (doing that viney shoot thing):

Green bell peppers (chuggin' along):

Cucumbers:

Sunflowers (the white stuff around the bottom is DE -- the ants were going to town!):

Herbs (clockwise from top: cilantro, mint, mint, sage, basil, basil):
Tomatoes (were getting eaten, but I got some neem oil pesticide -- I think we're good now):

Green bean flowers!!!

Garden Update - 6 May

Beans

Basil

Sunflowers

Cucumber


Pumpkin

Let me know if you want some cucumber, green bean, or basil seedlings. And probably other stuff when it comes in (if it comes in?). I planted too many seeds.

Exchangin' that Mechandise, Part II

We went out "treasure hunting" again today. Not quite the haul of the last two sessions, but good nonetheless. Also, commode sightings were off the charts. We beat our previous record by three -- that's nine commodes! I think the two pairs we found helped quite a bit. So what else did we find?

--books. It was a massacre. There were bags and bags of books, all of which were covered in dew. I saved the ones I could. I left feeling very depressed.
--comic books (no covers -- for crafting, though Norman insisted on reading them first)
--packing peanuts!!! This had been the great irony of the month -- no one ever wants packing peanuts, they are a nuisance, and yet I, who did want them, could not find anyone getting rid of any until this morning. But I have a big ol' bag now, so I'm good. I'm going to put a layer of them in the bottom of my planters to keep the root rot away.
--a tiny glass vase
--And now, the completely useless, most awesome find of the day.......
A miniature store display canvas tent! Ya know, like these, only mine is more like a canopy for having a party in your backyard. I've wanted one of these since I was quite young, for my dolls, of course, so now I have no idea what I will do with it. Sell it on eBay, maybe. In fact, I think I'll go outside right now and see if I can actually take it off its plastic base.

Green Thumb McGee

I'm starting a garden soon. A garden made entirely of potted plants (see previous post and above picture -- I have plenty of pots).

I plan to plant the following:
*green bell peppers
*mixed bell peppers
*lettuce
*cucumber
*green onion
*green beans
*strawberries
*pumpkins
*tomatoes
*lavender
*mint
*sunflowers
*sage
*chives
*cilantro
*basil

Last Saturday I went to WalMart and bought seeds, a garden hose, and 2 bags of 2 cubic feet each of potting soil. I have a lot of soil. Last Saturday I also went to a garage sale and bought a big straw hat. Tonight I bought a pair of gardening gloves at the Dollar Store. Tonight I also made a scoop out of an empty gallon milk jug (thanks, Amy Dacyczyn!) I am so ready.


Booyah.

Exchangin' that Merchandise

The city of Norman holds bi-annual "Clean Up" months -- the city's sanitation trucks and workers are out en masse every Saturday for a month picking up whatever you put out on your curb. While some use this time to get rid of stuff, others of us use the time to amass more possessions. My amassed possessions from April 7 and April 20, respectively:

-2 tomato cages
-about 20 plant pots of various sizes
-2 sets of plastic letter tiles in a wooden cigar box
-1 year of Martha Stewart Living magazines
-letter stencils
-floral bulletin board letters
-a small cooler
-about 20 plastic cookie cutters (animals, holiday, etc)
-Chinese workbooks and dictionary
-huge box of slides


-Stratego board game (complete with DIY drinking game rules)
-box of textbooks
-50 or so LOTR: Two Towers posters
-10 LPs (including Chubby Checker, which I quite like) and a plastic 45 insert
-fabric
-Harry Potter 3, 4, and 5 (hardback)
-videos: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Short Circuit, The Big Green, Angels in the Outfield
-2 strings of working multi-colored Tiki lights
-2 1000-piece puzzles (which appear to have all their pieces)


More to come after this Saturday.

Jumpin' on in...

So I did it. I jumped in with both feet. I signed up for a craft fair. I paid a stranger for the right to try to sell my creations to a bunch of middle-aged Normanite women. Oh dear.

Here's a list of what I intend to have available (the fair is 31 March):
~Jewelry Scrolls
~lavender sachets
~assorted note cards
~zippered pouches
~vinyl record bowls
~possibly some other minor things

I'm hoping that my relatively "fresh" take on things will set me apart, and that the fact that I'm a little more toned down than most of my "indie" comrads will keep me from alienating said middle-aged women.

So the question is... What am I doing writing a blog post??? I've got to get to work!

Christmas!

This is what I gave Dotty for Christmas:


I had a blast putting it all together. It's pretty much everything anyone would ever need for making their own note cards, mail art, collages -- whatever. I was so excited to get to share!




I also made my mom some potholders, which I forgot to take pictures of before I mailed them.

I made Norman a pair of flannel boxers, and I'd take a picture of them, but he's wearing them at the moment (too much information?).

I made a bunch of other people some croutons and dream bars, but pictures of those would be boring.

But what I can give you are pictures of what I gave Meghan (Earl) Barnes for her wedding shower:


A throw pillow and sham.


And two ribbon candle votives. These are approximately her house colors (in a non-Hogwarts kind of way.) Yay!