Over Easter, my parents helped me till and plant the rest of my garden. I've decided that this is the last year I'm growing in my garden soil - if it doesn't do well, I'm going to pots next year.
So, we'll see about the experiment as the summer goes on. But as for now, here is my garden!
A few small rows of sweet corn, one row of watermelon, red onions and an egg carton full of pepper seedlings (which haven't sprouted yet...)
One row of sugar snap peas, two rows of bush green beans, parsley, dill, basil, chives, garlic, yellow onions, a cherry tomato and a roma tomato plant.
and my (free) flower garden. Lots of experiments this year!
Grow tomatoes, grow!
And on the other side, a few strawberry buds. Maybe we'll get more than 5 berries this year!
Help! I might need an intervention ... I keep finding wonderful vintage stuff for the shop, but unless it's boy or a quarter garage sale find, I really need to temper my vintage finding/buying. I have tons to list, but I just get so excited to find something!!
My friend, Sarah, is a huge garage-saler and has found some great stuff (garage sale season has started early with 70s and 80s in March this year) already. I rarely find vintage baby clothing at garage sales, but she's scored.
Here's the cutest little "cheerleader" baby shirt dress she found. 10 cents. Seriously.
Oh, so, cute!
And a Sal Army find: my German "dirndl" style baby shirt:
And, I stopped at a kids sale on the half price days and found several dresses:
(nautical!)
... and a lovely peach smocked, size 3 Orient Express toddler dress.
So I decided to brave an attempt at fixing some sleeves on my little vintage dresses. Two had the exact same problem: worn out elastic in the sleeves. Otherwise they are in excellent shape!
So I whipped out my trusty elastic thread and went to work.
(Excuse the bad lighting in the photos...)
After I took out the old elastic, I was left with this:
I sewed around the sleeve following the old sewing marks with some elastic thread and tada! Re-ruffled sleeves.
What a difference, right!?
Here's the other: before...
... and after! Much better.
I also took it around the waist of these pink corduroy overalls, but the effect wasn't quite as great because of how heavy the corduroy is. It worked okay, though. I'm good with how they look now.
I love elastic thread! What's your secret sewing weapon??
A perfectly heart-shaped potato at the bottom of my 5-lb sack. Gotta love a surprise every once in awhile. I mean, too bad it wasn't the face of the Virgin Mary - I'd be rich! :-)
Just teasing.
(And yes, I have graduated to wearing my old glasses because my last contact bit the dust a few weeks back. It's not my favorite thing, but I guess it's a good way to save money. Good thing my eyes haven't changed much in the last 10 years! Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to wear sunglasses when it's blazing out in March... and they may also bite the dust with the way the girl "plays"! Yikes.)
One of my piano students birthdays was last week (the same day as my mom's actually - happy birthday, Mom!) and I had sudden inspiration the day of to make her a fun card.
She said her favorite candy was tootsie rolls (or pops) so I made her a "bouquet" of tootsie pops and broke out the mad decoupaging skills and made her a Tootsie Roll card during naptime.
Super easy. I took brown, red and white cardstock and cut a brown rectangle, two red strips and then two rounded "candy ties". I made one tie and then inverted it and cut out the other so it would match. (If you look close you can see that the brown/red part is a little bigger than the white - it was already glued down, otherwise I would've trimmed it up. Oh well, perfection is not the goal.)
Then I googled the font on Tootsie Rolls and came up with Cooper Black. Thankfully, we had it in Word and I typed out a few different sizes of her name and printed it out. Size 60 was just perfect, so I painstakingly cut out the little letters (I left them connected in little spots so it would be easier to attach) and then decoupaged her name on so it would all be shiny like a real candy.
I am (slightly embarrassingly) still super excited about this card. Love it!
Well, here goes another try at a garden in 2012. I'm debating whether or not to try tomatoes and peppers again (just because they've failed so miserably the last few years) and just make it an herb garden, but I just love homegrown tomatoes SO much! And tomatoes and peppers are what cost so much - organic, homegrown goodness. All to myself. Affordably.
*sigh.
The beginnings of basil.
The chives that keep coming back.
Garlic we planted in the fall. Already so big from this crazy, warm March weather!
Strawberries ... what's left of them. Maybe they'll grow and give me a juicy berry or two.
What are your garden plans this year?
P.S. This week is a really busy one so I'm signing off until next week. See ya then!
A friend alerted me to some 60s and 70s patterns at a local thrift store and I was on it! Normally local thrift shops have only super ugly 80s and 90s patterns that no one wants ... but I was so surprised to find their huge selection of earlier vintage patterns!
They were all very cheap, plus 25% off, so I bought 16 to add to the shop. I think I figure if I can sell two of them the rest will be profit. That's pretty darn good!
Here are a few fun ones.
no date - 1960s - my favorite!
1967
1966
1972
1973
*Sigh. Hoping to find more 50s patterns sometime. They are probably my favorite ...
A couple of days ago I posted here about the little lady's plants. And I finally got them replanted! Yay! I actually purchased another pot (and I'm glad I did!) because there were so many different varieties hiding in my one pot.
I can't believe all of these came from one place!
Pretty! Now I have a garden on my kitchen table (because it's the only room in the house that gets enough sunlight...). Now to just keep them alive with my not green thumb! :-)
It was less than two weeks before the start of Lent and I got a call from our pastor asking if Jeremy and I wanted to plan the upcoming Ash Wednesday service. Our church is Protestant, Nazarene, but much more liturgical than the norm and we observe Lent together as a church.
I thought for a second and said I'd talk to Jeremy but since we had almost two weeks, but I thought it would be okay.
I haven't planned a service in a LONG time. But the initial idea was to give some space for those usually involved in the service (worship band, pastors, leaders, etc.), to make the service simple yet special and hands-on for those kinesthetic and tactile learners. Not to mention, make it accessible for all age groups.
It was a challenge! To say the least, but I followed the course of last year's service with some changes and tweaks. The worship pastor did lead an acapella hymn from her seat and our pastors led the corporate confession and imposition of the ashes (both of which we felt were important for the leaders of the congregation to do), but both our goals of simplicity and giving of breaks was mostly accomplished.
We listened to this song and people sang along. I'd loved it to have it performed, but there just wasn't time.
After explaining the reason for Lent and the symbolism of the ashes, we moved to the four stations meant to help all of us enter in to the season together.
One station was a repentance box: I was so moved by the families who all wrote down a confessions together and those adults who moved away from people to write down what they really wanted to repent from. It was completely sincere.
Another was a station of light: I wanted to emulate a Catholic candle stand and it just so happened that we had a similar one in the Student Center all ready to go. With a reminder to have children ask for help, many candles were lit, for repentance, for another person, to lift a prayer to God. A kneeler was placed to the side for those who wanted to pray, reflect or simply watch the candlelight.
from facebook, thanks, B.B.
The third station was forgiveness, where you could write an offense or name of a person you needed to forgive on a sheet of dissolvable paper and stir it as it disappeared into the basin.
Finally, a station of blessing, to bless your friends, your spouse, or your children by anointing them with oil.
Communion and the ashes were offered in the midst of any station and if anyone was finished (or chose not to participate) they could sit in their seats and quietly reflect on Psalm 103.
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We were a different face, so that may've engendered some compliments, but overall I was given the impression that it was really meaningful for people. Even yesterday, several people still were saying thank you and telling us that it was meaningful. For this, I am thankful. I put a ton of time and emotional energy into the service, but really, only the Spirit can speak to His people.
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As we've journeyed almost two weeks into Lent 2012, here are some Lenten links I've found if you're interested in reading.
My friend, Jess, has some really great words on Lent this year. Her writing is so incredibly thoughtful and beautiful.
This is a knock-off version tutorial (click the picture's source for tutorial) but Post Road Vintage is the source I trace it back to. Lovely shop! And I'm totally knocking it off too.
Here's my jar in waiting:
I prefer PRV's stainless steel pumps, but since I'm going as cheap as possible, I have to wait for one. Once my big bottle of baby shampoo runs out I'm making this - but that could take another whole year! It's the only bottle I have that has a straw long enough for the quart size canning jars. And ... the pump is yellow. Think I could spray paint it silver? Would that even work?
On another note, I think clear soap looks best so I gotta hop a ride to Costco for a huge bottle of their environmentally friendly clear dishsoap. Wish me luck!
I'll update you ... oh, in about a year. :-)
What DIYs do you love or have you been working on?! Link up in the comments! I love DIY projects!
