I found these on http://cathypentondesigns.blogspot.com in her newest post. Can I just say, "LOVE"? I really love the way they look. I have to say, better than the ones I had done a few weeks ago. HMMM....
Friday, February 10, 2012
Spring Gardening
Over the past few weeks, I have been steadily working at cleaning up the garden area and getting it back to being plantable. Last summer, I had the unfortunate experience of having my watering system fail, which caused me to lose my plum tree, my grape vines, and the cat's claw that was surrounding the garden to cool off the area, from the cinder block fence. Of course, I also lost everything in my garden, pretty much. It was all in all, a very disappointing summer/fall/winter. I haven't really been able to get out there and work on it until now.
Luckily, I have been able to devote some time to working in the garden, and the weather has been so amazing it has made it even enjoyable. I still have some dead grass that needs removal, as well as the dead grapevines that are not showing signs of life.
I have had to keep my little chickens kind of cooped up for a bit, since there are some new starts in the garden that I would really like to keep, and not sacrifice to their stomachs. They really need a little run, so I do have some plans to fence in the little area to the right of the chicken coop for them to have some added space, but where they won't cause trouble with my plants. I think that will make them happy.
Although it isn't very visible in the above picture, I did manage to get my favorite flower planted. Yes, tulips can grow in Arizona. When I was a little girl, living in Yuma, our teacher asked us to draw our favorite flower. My mom had planted some tulips that year, and that is what I drew. Actually, I think that might have been the only year she planted them. Even so, I remember my teacher telling me that you can't grow tulips in Arizona. I argued with her that you could and I know that she did not believe me. It is possible though. If you want to start the bulbs yourself, you need to keep the bulbs in the crisper section of your refrigerator for 6 weeks to fool them into thinking that it's a cold winter, and then put them out. Or you can cheat, and buy them already semi sprouted from the garden center, like I did. Either way, they are truly beautiful, and still my favorite. If only the dogs didn't like to tromp through them, they would look so much better!
2012 Arise and Shine Forth
In our ward, we are coming up on New Beginnings for the year, and are debating on what little something we can give the girls to remind them of the them. This is, of course, not a necessary thing. However, I do have so much extra supplies from projects that for the most part, something like the necklace above would really cost less than $1 per girl. This is just one example of something we might do. I actually really like it, but the down side to the copper is that it does need to be cleaned periodically to keep it shiny.
Valentine's Day Decor!
My sister-in-law & I decided we needed a new banner for Valentine's Day. I had seen some sewn stuffed hearts and these are our version. They are super simple to make, and stuff. We just used scraps of fabric, so there wasn't anything to buy. To hand them, we just sewed a skinny ribbon onto the heart and then tied it onto a long ribbon that is used to hand them across the entryway. LOVE them! Too bad I can't leave them up all year long...
The streamers are ruffled streamers that I saw a tutorial for. Very simple to make and very inexpensive. The tutorial can be found here...http://www.danamadeit.com/2011/05/tutorial-ruffled-streamers.html
Fruit Tree & Berry Cane Pruning
The weather is beautiful, in the 70's, and it just feels so wonderful outside. This is why we live in Arizona! The mad flurry for spring planting has begun!
Our yard has a little micro-climate on the north side of the house. This spot gets very little direct sun, and the soil really does stay pretty moist all year, even in the middle of the summer, partly due to the air conditioning overflow drip that continuously drips into the area. Anyway, this spot is definitely cooler than any other spot in our yard. Every yard has these. It just takes a little observation to notice them.
This spot is perfect for the berries and fruit trees. Last year, I put the raspberry and blackberry canes in, just a few of each. The raspberry canes took off, although they aren't quite thick yet. The blackberry canes didn't do as well, so I ended up replacing a couple of those on top of the clean-up chores. I also had transplanted 12 little strawberry plants last year. Wow, they really spread, and are now all over the area. I have yet to get any berries this season probably due to the fact that my husband decided to turn off the water to the yard. Why? It's a mystery. I finally figured it out, and managed to get the drips working again. YAY!
My friend gave me 3 banana shoots from her neighbor up in Mesa 2 years ago. I had plopped those down without much thought into the area. Last year, they had gotten frozen, and I thought that I had lost them. Much to my surprise, one of them really grew, and even put off another shoot. So, those are looking ok. We shall see how they do this year.
What started out to be a quickie trim of the apple and peach trees soon turned into something much more, when I realized the raspberry and blackberry canes needed a quick prune of their tips and the strawberries that are so happy underneath them, needed the undergrowth cleaned out.
After consulting a book on how to prune an apple and peach tree, I attempted as best I could to prune them. May I say, very nervous? Anyway, it turned out not to be as bad as I thought. It did, however, make a big mess, that the dogs proceeded to track around the yard. "Oh, goodie, mom is making us some toys!" Hopefully, this will be the year we get some fruit off these little 2 year old babies.
Since raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries are all heavy feeders, they needed a little organic fertilizer, some water, and some mulch, and the yearly chore was done.
All in all, it was a delightful day!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Merry Christmas with Shutterfly
An hour later, I was showing it to my son, who promptly noticed his name was missing from the card. (Oops!!) This is what he said, "Nice mom! You forgot about your son!" (This is the son who always says he is the favorite son!) So, I quickly emailed Shutterfly to have the change made. Basicallly, what they said was, sorry, we can't change it. You can refuse the order and then reorder. Not so hot customer service. I sent them a reply about how disappointed I was, etc. They did however, the next day credit me with the entire order and ask me to reorder. Much better customer service!!
Today I received these. These are the incorrect ones, and the new ones are supposed to be delivered tomorrow! YAY!! I still love them, even after all that drama!! Thanks Shutterfly!!
Cute Fabric Rose Bracelets
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