garden update and completed rain barrel

i finally hung the garden gate. oh my how i love it! still need to cut the side post down and top with finials or birdhouses. thanks to my dear dad for coming over and tilling the garden for me with his power tiller. i don't know if any of you have ever tried to till a garden by hand....it is difficult and exhausting. i was so glad my dad had the power tool and the time to help us out.

our old potting bench was also moved into the garden area. i plan to grow something up the trellis to make it appear to be in a room of its own. chicken wire side gates are up to keep the pesky rabbits at bay. still need to line the bottom of the fence with wire to make sure they do not sneak in.

the boys and i planted seeds last week. carrots, lettuce, sunflowers, and marigolds. corn and pole beans will go in this week along with the tomato, peppers, and herb plants. our lettuce is already starting to sprout up!

plant markers and tomato cages are in and waiting. i divided the garden into sections with jute so the boys could each have a space and know where things were planted.

i signed up for a class on how to make a rain barrel. unfortunately i was sick with the flu that day, but my friends who also were taking the class put mine together for me. thank you lorie, amy and leslie!! i finally got around to painting it and installing it to the gutter. these are bit unsightly, so one of these days i will get some plants in around it. one project at a time. but for now.... let it rain!

friday fun finds : : week one

garage sale season....my favorite time of the year! i never really go to look for anything special, i just like the thrill of the hunt. so i thought i would start this little 'friday fun finds' series. each friday i will blog about my fun garage sale finds i found during the week.

let's get started!

how sweet are these tiny white chairs? (they measure approx. 7" tall) they were all lined up in a row and i could not resist them. as much as i love these babies, they are going in the june sale (details on the sale when it gets closer). i just need to decide if i will sit small potted herbs on them or a candle. so cute!

i also thought that this old wood table was destined for the june sale. but....once i got him home i decided that i needed him here on my patio. the cute round mirror has a plastic frame. it was cracked, but for $1 i knew it had to go in my garden or on my patio. love it!! i also found an old black tray and a garden trug, and a one can never have enough white bowl. i will put my tray bella touch on the tray and maybe some old garden tools in the trug and they will be for sale at the june sale. the bowl i will keep to hold fresh vegetables from my garden.

a photo of my patio. stuff just got lugged out for the season. looking at this photo i see lots of projects. wicker chairs need a new coat of paint and the wood coffee table and my new small table need a coat of marine varnish so they will withstand the summer weather. look how cute that tiny table and mirror look. a perfect spot to hold summer drinks or appetizers when we do summer entertaining. i knew i NEEDED that table!

have a good weekend!

who needs a gym when you're building a garden

did i mention how physically difficult building this garden has been? oh, there are no complaints here, i just had no idea that it would be this physically draining. i thought that building small beds would be an easy project. wow was i wrong. but i am loving every minute of it!

over the weekend i used a post hole digger (thanks dad!) to dig the holes for the gate posts. they are in cement and with all the rain we have had will most likely take a week to dry. that gives me time to find some gate hooks so that i can hang the gate. i will also even up the posts on the top and M wants to top them off with bird houses.

luckily the rain stopped yesterday and lucky for me it was during C's nap time. with my rubber boots on and already muddy jacket i headed out to work some more. i have a pile of bricks, left over from another unfinished project, and decided to add some visual interest to the front of the garden. these are just sitting there for now, hopefully this afternoon i will get them buried into the ground a bit. this makes it easy for the mower wheels to go over while mowing the grass. i also need to get these box woods planted and mulch around them.

i finally got all the dirt from the end of the driveway hauled back to the beds. some bags of compost and also mixed in some mulched leaves. once the dirt dries out i will get the beds tilled and we will be ready to plant. it is coming along and the kids and i can not wait to get plants in and watch them grow. i better get out there and get those bricks in the ground.... stay tuned.

easter traditions

chicks and eggs decorated sugar cookies always complete easter around our house. i use my grandma's swedish sugar cookie recipe, and royal icing to make these irresistible cookies. they are always quickly gobbled up by children....AND adults! i wish there was one left to go with my latte this morning.

coloring eggs is another easter tradition. the boys have a good time dipping the eggs and seeing what colors transpire. by the end, i think each egg gets dipped in ALL the colors. we never know what we'll end up with, and M thinks of it as some science project. we eventually got C to slowly lower his egg into the glass. but then he said 'i like to splash it'.

seems like we always end up with lots of purple and pinks. the pale blue ones are my favorite.

luckily these just go right back into the fridge....because you know how i feel about pastels. ;)

i prefer my eggs colored in strong coffee, but this was a kid project and as long as they are happy mama's happy too.

easter decorating

i am not sure why, but i always have a problem when it comes to easter decorating. my home is pretty neutral, so you would think that adding some pastel color to it would be an easy thing to do. but for some reason, when i go putting pastel decorations around, it just looks like the easter bunny came in and threw up.

i think the real reason is that i just do not like pastels. oh i like light colors, white, cream, grey and the lightest of browns. every now and then even pale blue but it has to have a bit of grey in it. so i do not do pastels for easter decorating, instead i use lots of browns and whites.

these cute little eggs, wrapped in strips of paper torn from a french book, are cozy in a nest that sits on an urn.

the perfect color of toasty brown.

spanish moss in a jar with a few eggs is so easy to create. a white rabbit next to a large cream crackled egg sits on my entry table.

this tall rabbit i love. i changed out his pink bow to a chocolate one and i like him even more. he sits on the mantel in our living room.

aaahhh looky there...some blue! i tuck nests here and there and some are filled with eggs. most of these i will keep up all spring.

i just love the simplicity of this white rabbit and like how he really stands out from the green plant he sits in front of.

little brown cast iron rabbit sits quietly on my other mantle waiting for the easter bunny to tuck a filled egg next to him.

so if you are also one that does not do pastels..... do not worry that you can not decorate for easter. just go with the more natural colors of springs. happy easter!

tis the season

for the flu! ugh! what a yucky weekend, thank goodness it's over and hopefully that is our only flu experience for a long time. i have been meaning to update my blog for awhile (where does the time go?!) but got busy busy with a project and then hit with the flu. sorry if you are a daily lurker and had nothing new to look at here. i am going to get better at posting more often...fingers crossed. ;)

so.... tis the season....FOR GARDENING!

for three years i have been wanting to make raised vegetable gardens in our backyard. with picky eaters, i thought it would maybe help them with their vegetable intake if they had a hand in the process.

in a sunny part of our yard we started the building. i had some helpers but after just a few smacks of using the hammer they were done. then they decided that a snack in the garden would be good. i hope they are as excited for snaking in the garden once we get some vegetables growing!

it took the better part of the entire day to get these two beds made. chicken wire around the exterior of the beds to keep those pesky rabbits out. a rusty gate i had stored in the attic for this project will be the door to our garden. these will be organic beds, so i could not use grass killer to kill the grass in the beds (and i was too lazy to dig it out). instead, i layered cardboard and then newspaper and then filled them with dirt. the truck load of dirt i had delivered to the end of my driveway was a three day workout for me. not much dirt fits into a wheelbarrow...back and forth, back and forth. wow, was i hurting for a few days (a good kind of hurt!)

our garden project is getting closer to being done. i still need to set the posts that will hold the gate and find something to hang the gate with. i need to mix in some organic soil and then i think we will be ready to plant. well....that is once snow and freezing temps get out of our forecast! stay tuned throughout the season and watch our garden grow.