Amazing Giveaway...

Rachel at PS I Quilt is having an amazing giveaway, check it out! :)

Decorating...and Sweating...

Oh my goodness, it is so MUGGY! Lol* I'm sweating my behind off...which is in a way a good thing! Lol*

I think I showed a picture of how I'm decorating my oldest daughters room once before...but here's a few more shots of the progress I've made. It's kind of here and there, the work...I do a little when I have a little time. I still need to add the fence detail over that green...right now it just kind of looks like a funny green zig zag pattern...just try to imagine a rustic fence. Lol*

I bought a few little doodads to decorate. There is still a lot more to add. I know in a few years she will probably hate all this, and want to paint it neon pink and hang up pictures and things...but until then I still get a say so I'm taking advantage of that! Lol*

July 28th Garden Pictures

Well last night was a fun night at the quilt guild. I think it was one of my favorite meetings yet. One of the ladies brought in the owner of a local historic home, well known as being part of the underground railroad in our area. She brought in an old quilt and told us about the history of the underground railroad in the home and our town. I love history, and even more I love learning history of this town, because I grew up here, and love it here. To go along with the theme we watched a good portion of Eleanor Burn's Underground Railroad dvd, and a lady from the guild brought in her Eleanor Burn's Underground Railroad sampler quilt. It was gorgeous, and a lot of fun and inspiration. I haven't been able to go to any of the guilds in a while, because summer means softball, and I am pretty much a single parent until the end of the season! Lol* But now that Hubby's home again I am excited to get to enjoy fun programs like this one...and I'm getting SUPER excited about the program coming in September!!! It's going to be Bonnie Hunter! I have been waiting and waiting for this. I love Bonnie's quilts. I have only made one, but I have drooled over many! Lol* I have blogged about it in the past, but I love her scrap system, and have converted a good chunk of my stash using it. They have come in handy for so many projects.

I haven't done much sewing lately, but did start this mini-stitchery...

See? Proof that there is still some craftiness in me, waiting for the cool weather! Lol* In the mean time, here are some garden pictures from this morning.

Weeds...oh the weeds! I do love this weedy patch of black eyed susans and echinacea though...

I thought all of these snap dragon seeds were eaten by birds! But look who decided to pop up fromthe weeds...

Zinnias...I think it's safe to say these are my favorite annuals from seed...I planted at least 8 packs this year. Here's one little clump of cut and come again's.

Purple and pink phlox going to town...I love these...

Oh...and I notice too that I'm nearing 100 posts on this new blog! Lol* I guess that means we're getting close to a little celebratory giveaway... :)

Taking Control of our Health

Well, a lot has been going on here, as always. Lol* Last Monday my Husband had a tooth pulled...he had cracked it the previous Friday on a popcorn kernel, and it became infected over the weekend. After two visits to the Dentist and still bleeding after nearly a week, Friday we ended up in the ER. Turns out Hubby has high blood pressure, and it was preventing him from healing as he should. This sent me into a bit of a panic, as my Husband is only 30, and both of us have strong family history of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. So I've made a commitment, to re-learn to cook, and to take control of our health, before it's too late. I've talked about this before, but this time it's different. My children are young, and I believe we still have time to prevent major damage in the future, while setting an example for the girls. So yesterday I threw out half of the contents the fridge, and bagged up what could be donated from the cupboard.

I restocked with fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats from our local farm market. My parents shared some easy recipes that will be better for our health, and I think we are on our way. For breakfast we had a slice of toast and fruit. Lunch was salads, with lots of vegetables, and half a baked potato. For dinner, pork roast, with red potatoes, carrots, and green beans. A big change from the sodium packed high fat boxed foods we were eating before. But I think we can do this, and I think it will even be fun. :)

Wow, a week is a long time in the garden!

Remember when my pumpkins looked like this?

Well that was exactly one week ago...on July 13th. It's now seven days later, July 20th, and here are those same pumpkins...

Isn't that CRAZY!!!? WOW!!! Those babies really grow!!! I could swear that every evening when I'd go out and look at them they were bigger, and now I'm seeing it wasn't my imagination! Lol* I have counted a total of 6 pumpkins that have polinated and are growing. There may be more hidden in the vines that took over the bush beans, and into the corn, but I can't get to them! LOL* I'm not sure if these will grow to carving size but I really hope so. I also make a lot of pumpkin rolls and pumpkin pies in the fall for friends and family, and to earn some money to help fund Christmas...so I'm hoping to have enough for those too!

I covered myself up head to toe to pick bush beans that were buried in between pumpkin vines and corn this morning...I harvested this haul for my Mom & Dad...

There are still tons of small beans on the bushes too. I am amazed at how much food just a couple of packs of seeds produces. Just imagine if the rabbits hadn't found the carrots and eaten them to the ground! LOL*

I actually am beginning to think that over planting worked in my favor. The beans are surrounded by prickly pumpkin vines, and those seemed to keep the critters from finding and eating them up. I'm thinking by over planting the pumpkins I also may have helped to achieve a higher polination rate of female flowers...being as they were all crammed together there was I'm sure a lot of cross polination going on. I haven't seen any silks forming yet on the corn so we'll see if my gardening blunder helps or hinders those. Lol*

Here's some tomato plants already forming fruits that were 1/2 off at the garden center...being behind schedule has its perks! I am calling this my hillbilly tomato staking system...

(leftover bamboo stakes from some project I found in the shed, and twine.) Here's some peppers also half off...budding but no peppers yet.

Here's a shot of the entire overgrown veggie patch...vining and bushing out to the left are pumpkins, to the right, corn, and in front of the corn, sunflowers, and between the corn and pumpkins...carrots that were completely swallowed up and not visible at all (partially because of pumpkins, but the rabbits ate them before the pumpkins claimed the space as their own), and bush beans, which you can barely make out. There is a lot of space between the vines though, room to put my feet and dig around for beans.

Here's right next to it, an area I'm slowly working on throughout the summer for next year. This will be the add-on to the existing veggie patch. . Right now it's basically a giant compost heap getting ready for next years veggies. I'm sure my neighbors love that! LOL*

I'm really getting into gardening not only for fun, but for FOOD! It is absolutely nuts to me how much food this little bit of land has given me. My total cost for the entire veggie patch?

- Corn Seeds $1.00

- Pumpkin Seeds 33 cents

- Sunflower Seeds 33 cents

- Bush Beans $1.50

- Stakes and twine that I already had FREE

- Heirloom Tomato Plants 1/2 off - 90 cents

- Bell Pepper Plants 1/2 off - 90 cents

Total = $4.96

Total cost of plants that didn't make it = $1.00 (carrot seeds)

Ok so that doesn't include watering, but listen, we live on a budget, and believe me if I ran the water bill up my Husband would TELL me! It's literally an insignificant amount of water I've used. I've more or less relied on rain, and water every few days if there's been no rain. I reuse rain water that collects in random yard junk laying around! LOL* (I.E. - wagons, baby pool, any other pots or garden junk.) I've also been hang drying a lot of laundry on a line outside to conserve, so I guess things even out in that way too.

Blog Giveaway at Quilt Hollow

Just checking in, and reporting on another awesome give away, at Quilt Hollow! I am usually not one to join in so many give aways but these quilt bloggers have been really generous lately! :)

My First Bouquet

How exciting! I'm such a nerd, seriously. Lol* I cut my first flower bouquet today from the garden! I have been reading magazines and getting ideas...I'm going to have to dry and press flowers next year. There are so many things I want to try, I'm not sure if I'll get to it or not this year!!! I'll try though! :)

A little shot of one of the garden beds. Try not to look at the weeds...lol* I kind of blur my vision so I only see color...not weeding to be done...I suggest you do the same!!! LOL* I'm proud of it though, my little weedy flower patch.

Mid July Garden

Gosh, this summer is flying by. It's already the middle of July! There are so many things I still need to do around the house before school begins again. Wheew. Maybe I stop to smell the roses too often? LOL*

These daylilies are amazing. I'm toying with the idea of creating a small lily bed. I've seen some on other garden blogs and am in love!

Here's a little scrappy looking one, these are newly transplanted from my Husband's Grandmother's Garden. How lucky am I? She thinned out her garden a week ago and this was one of the lucky plants we inherited. Oh I can't wait for next year!!! I can't wait to see what all my babies do!

I can see why black eyed susans are a staple in many gardens. They are so hardy, and I am amazed at how much one packet of seeds has mulitiplied to in a years time in my garden. I think I may have been a little crazy to buy eight more plants this year from a garden plant sale! But they were only 50 cents a piece so I couldn't pass them up. I'm going to have these coming out my ears next year. But I think that's ok ;) BTW, this picture, shows only about 1/4 of the returning black eyed susans from the packet I direct sowed last year.

Oh oh oh...and I had to update on the pumpkins! Did you see a few posts ago these were just little babies about the size of a small grape? Now they are about the size of a golf ball. C'mon pumpkins keep on growin'!

The garden has been a lot of fun to enjoy with my daughters. They remember every stage and when Daddy comes home at night, they say, "Daddy, Daddy, guess what we did today?! We saw the baby pumpkins and picked beans!" They have helped me plant nearly everything in the garden, water, and watch it all grow. I'm so happy, I hope they always remember these things! I remember when I was a little girl and my Mom and I would pick plants by the railroad tracks for drying...Queen Anne's Lace, buttercups, Yarrow...we'd find wild sassafrass growing and my Mom would make tea with it. I remember picking green beans in my Grandmother's back yard garden too...and that those simple little things were so much fun too!

Who's got beans?

Me. :)


Dad was right though, don't have too many, but mostly because the pumpkins took over and swallowed up 2/3's of them. Woohoo BEANS! :)

Giveaway at Green Fairy Quilts

Big giveaway at Green Fairy Quilts! Check it out! :)

Before, I only thought I had a problem...

...but now, I know I do.

I don't even know where I am going to put this. LOL* We don't have a very large house, and who knows, I might just have a really good yard sale in a few years! ;) I am actually embarassed that I could not control myself, and I bought another sewing machine. LOL* It's just an old singer from probably, what, the 40's? The cabinet is nothing to write home about, but it's so pretty, and I worry that these are popping up everywhere because their long time owners are passing away and in a few years they might be harder to find. So now my daughters have a nostalgic beauty to learn to how to sew on. It's like the machine is pouting at me, saying, "Valerie...please take me home, please love me." I do love you sewing machine, I do. :)

I also found a couple other sewing related treasures. Some old needlebooks filled with needles, and an old Dritz sewing basket.

Now all I need, is to do some actual SEWING! Lol*

Giveaway at Candle Lite Quilter

Just wanted to post and share about a give away over at Candle Lite Quilter - stop over and check it out. Even if you don't enter, she's got a really cute blog and you should check it out! :)

Oh my little daylily...

I am so in love with daylilies. Without even intending to, I collected more than a dozen new daylillies this year. I'm not sure what the name of this one is...it was supposed to be more of the coral color around the edges, but I'm not complaining! The peachy pink it turned out to be is so beautiful...

Donna - you asked what kind of lily this is? Well, I'm impressed with myself because I actually found the tag! Lol* It's called "Always Afternoon Daylily". I bought it on clearance at Lowe's for $2.00. The picture on the tag shows it to be a little more of a coral color, but I love the mauve pink with the green center it turned out to be. I am learning...tags don't always tell the truth!

A Stitching Treasure

I found an absolute treasure at a yard sale Saturday - a treadle! It's much more ornate than the treadle that my Husband bought me, that I think may have been made sometime between 1900-1920. This one is so fancy that I'm wondering if it might be even newer? Maybe made to look like the fancy old earlier ones? I'm not sure.

In any case it is beautiful, and I think all it needs is a cleaning and a new belt. When we got it home, after some fiddling, Hubby and I opened the drawers to find them stuffed full! There were four or five boxes of parts and attatchments, notions, some old pictures that I actually felt really guilty for having after we got it home because it probably belonged to the lady at the sale...now I couldn't tell you what house we got it at either. There are old reciepts for service repairs and I think, the reciept for the actual machine...it says $300 and some odd dollars. SO neat. I can't wait to get this machine working...

it has the bullet style bobbin case - anyone know anything about this type of bobbin? There are a few manuals but I didn't see one that went with the machine, although there are so many things inthe drawers I wouldn't be shocked if it's in there somewhere!

OH, the kicker? It cost $25.

July 5th, 2009 Morning Walkthrough