And So It Begins

It has begun!! My garden is producing!! The snowpeas are arriving daily now....and those little guys demand ATTENTION. If I turn my back for five minutes there are more ready to be picked. Literally, they grow overnight. YAY!

Guess what this means? Time to haul out the Ball Blue Book of Preserving....and start preserving!

First, they need to be washed and destemed. Then blanch for 2 minutes.


Let them take a cool dip in ice water to stop the cooking process.

Lay them on a clean dry towel to absorb some moisture, then bag!

Two bags ready for the freezer. More tomorrow I'm sure.

Here it is....the list. The list has now commenced. It's always fun to keep track of my preservation efforts...so gratifying to look back at, once the garden is finished. By the end of August I usually feel like I want to hide from my garden and it's bounty....but I always have the words of my dad in my head saying "when you're sick of preserving, keep preserving...you'll thank yourself in December."

Oh, and my dad's voice is also in my head when I drive (he taught me to drive), when I back up (he taught me how to back a truck), when I use a hammer (he taught me how to properly swing a hammer)....and on and on.....aren't dads great. And moms......moms are the icing on the cake.

I know mine is.

Bedside Roses

Bless you summer. And the roses you put by my bedside.

Kitchen Garden

I have now accomplished something I never thought possible....I have planted EVERY seed and EVERY plant I acquired this spring. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. For many of you this may sound silly, but when balancing a trillion things all at once, a few seed packets tend to slip by the wayside...or rather, you're so exhausted they just sit in the seed box until July and you give up on them.

BUT, not this year my friends. NO SIR EEEE. My "kitchen" garden is now planted and looking darn cute if I do say so. This completes EVERY seed I ordered.

Basil, spinach and coriander in here. I started by putting a few pieces of rip rap in the bottom of the washbasin, covered it with burlap, then soil.

Do you recognize the washbasin?

I talked about it WAAAY back last fall. And it looked awfully pretty then.

Then I planted the "legless" washbasin with dill and parsley. Same deal, riprap, burlap, soil. And we can't forget the garden markers I can't stop making.....I just need my family to drink more juice!

This is the former life of that washbasin.......burrrrrrrrr. (It's hiding right there beside the sled and frozen greenery.) Pretty too......but oh how I am enjoying the WARMTH!

Flowering Dilemna

Happy Memorial Day to all! Humor me while I pretend I'm the optometrist......above you see photo 1. Now tell me which looks better......photo 1....oooooorrr.........

Photo 2? Again, that's photo 1 or photo 2.

Ahh, you're right, photo 2! Those scrawny little petunias came home with me from a store which will remain unnamed.....it rhymes with Dome Lepot. ;-) I paid $2.99 for each little pack. Ack. It pains me to pay for annuals....they just die at the end of the season. But I digress, I wanted a little somethin' somethin' to put in my front porch pots....so, I managed to hand over $6 to the Dome Lepot cashier and went on my merry way. Well not soooo merry, because I just paid $6 for those pathetic little things....which on a sidenote I NEVER buy plants from big box because we have an AWESOME greenhouse 8 miles away.....but I got a wild hair.

SO, back to the story. My voyage took me next to a grocery store (that I love) that rhymes with Baldi. Okay, I give in.....I was at the Aldi. ALDI ALDI ALDI. I love Aldi. If you don't have one nearby you must convince them to build one. NOW, being two days before Memorial Day they had these little planters marked down tooooo......you guessed it, $2.99. WAH? I felt used. Used by the Dome Lepot. I got about 40 times more flowers (okay, slight exaggeration) for THE.SAME.PRICE.

Lesson learned. I should have stuck to my greenhouse and avoided flower purchases in non flower producing stores. But, thank you Aldi for brightening my thrifty day. :-)

I pulled those little planters all apart....each had 4-6 petunias, PLUS a bunch of other lovely flowers. I added one little pot of tobacco leaf to each pot and now they look lovely. The tiny flags even came with those little Aldi planters.....try to beat that Dome Lepot. I dare ya.

Garden Markers

Am I the only crazy that saves EVERYTHING? I know there's someone out there with this logic too....besides you Dad..... "but it's so neat....there's got to be SOMETHING I could do with this, I should just save it." Some time ago began my compulsive environmentally conscious saving of concentrated oj metal lids....you know the metal thingies on the ends of the can? Well.....it finally dawned on me! Now aren't you glad I saved these my dear husband? I didn't spend a dime on this project. ;-)

GARDEN MARKERS!!!!

Basically follow these instructions, add a piece of wire as a poker, a pretty bead and there you have it! I'm off to make a jillion more to label all the things I lose track of in the garden. :-)

Linking up to:

Penny Pinching Party

Show and Tell

Idea Sharin' Wednesday

It's So Very Creative

It's Coming Up Summer Around Here

YAY SUMMER!!!

Wallpaper Removal MADE EASY!!

Be forewarned...if you have unwanted wallpaper in your home and you read this post....you may fall in love with me. Just so you know. As part of the "grand" kitchen remodel we are now undertaking (small squeal), there is a great deal of wallpaper to eradicate. Luckily, early in our homeowning experience I came across this mixture....and it saved my sanity.

Into an empty gallon milk carton pour 1 cup ammonia, 1 cup liquid fabric softener, fill the rest with water. Shake, pour into a squirt bottle.

This is what your solution will look like....you may want to mark the jug...

to avoid an unfortunate cereal incident.

Now squirt the wallpaper. If it's the really old kind just squirt it right on and let it soak a couple minutes. If it's the shiny "modern" kind just try to grab an edge and tear some of the shiny off, then squirt.




Now scrape it off the wall like butter on a hot day.




Seriously, it comes off this easy...in sheets...practically sliding down the wall before you can get to it. This will change your life. ;-) And your house will smell great (choose your favorite scent of fabric softener)

Our entryway hall is now primed and ready for topcoat....photos coming soon!!
Progress marches on.




Linked up to:
Hodgepodge Friday
Remodelaholics Anonymous