In His Grip

Garden Container Makeover, Again!

Two years ago I did a makeover on two planters that I had on my front porch.  My Hibiscus trees lived in these pots for a couple of years until during a crazy Kansas storm one of the trees blew over and broke the container. Off to Home Depot to find two more large containers for my trees, but I had an idea for this one lonely planter.  Paint it pink of course!  After all, when in doubt pink is always the right choice.

I took this container from a subtle black to the excitement of berry pink in the matter of a couple of coats of my favorite spray paint. 

Once the spray paint was dry, using an acrylic white paint and a sponge brush I lightly covered the detail just enough to make it really show up and have more texture.

In my own opinion, I think this turned out perfect and the bright pink geraniums that I chose to go inside were a perfect match.

Over the summer this pot will be almost covered in the vines that are planted in it but bright pink always has a way of showing through.  Believe it or not I like it that way!

We've Got BIGGER Power Tools Than You

This weekend we had a big project that required a BIG power tool.  We found this new rental store near our house when we needed carpet fans during our recent flood.  Johnson County Equipment and Party Rental just opened this year and all of the tools are brand new and most not even used yet.  Last weekend Jeff rented a 9 horsed power bed edger to edger all of our flower beds and he was the first to use it.  So when we needed to dig some post holes for our new arbor Johnson County Equipment and Party Rental was our first call.  They had this super duper post hole digger and rented it to us for $30 for one hour. Again, never been used. 

As it turned out, this was a fantastic deal.  Our ground is pure clay once you get past the top soil.  There was no way we would have been able to dig these two 18" deep by 10" round holes in the short time it took this power tool to dig them.

In order to get the holes deep enough it took the two of us totally forcing all of our weight to get the auger to cut through the clay.  But finally, our holes were dug and we returned our BIG power tool within the hour time allotted.

My new arbor is now up and will be standing for a good long time, after all those holes are full of cement and are not going anywhere.  I love power tools.  There is just something about having the right tools available to get the job done, even if you have to rent them. 

Mossy Twig Jar Candle

Spending time in the north woods always inspires me to do some thing creative with the things that I find outdoors.  In the woods near my Mom's home there is an abundance of mossy twigs.  I have always loved the way that the moss grows and makes the branches of the trees look like they have a fine lace hanging from them.  Again, with the fall decor in my home this season taking on a more natural look I thought I could use these twigs to make a jar candle that I will use on the table in the dinning room.  

I collected a bunch of branches covered in the lacy moss making sure I had a variety of size twigs to be able to cover the jar.

Using a jar from a jar candle, I began hot gluing the twigs to the jar being sure to cover the area completely.  When the twigs did not fit close enough to cover the glass, I just took some of the really fine ones and glue them in to fit.  

This is a perfect addition to my natural dinning room table decor.  Adding a candle to it so that the light shines through the small spaces looks so good.  I wish I would have made several sizes, but this is the only one that I made.  Shoot, I guess that I will have to go back to the north woods to make a whole display of these.

I am participating in the following link ups: Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff,Boogiboard Cottage, Its So Very Cheri, Sew Chatty, Dittle Dattle, Sew Can Do, Keeping It Simple, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Ladybug Blessings,Sugar and Dots, My Girlish Whims, The Thrifty Home, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Woodsy, Keeping It Simple, Today's Creative Blog, Somewhat Simple

Farmers' Market Goodness

One of my favorite parts of Summer is going to the Farmers' Market.  There is nothing better than cooking with fresh picked vegys and because I am not growing anything other than herbs this year, the Farmers' Market is the place buy.  Normally I go and just buy what looks good and for me more often than not that is everything.  So this year, I have armed myself with the newest issue of Farmer's Market Cookbook magazine.

This is a special publication put out by Vegetarian Times. It is pack full of all kinds of recipes made with items you purchase at the Farmers' Market.  Just look at those stuffed tomatoes on the front cover, I am here to tell you they are absolutely fabulous.  Here is what mine turned out like.

Okay, so mine are not near as pretty as the the magazine's, but after all I am not a professional.

Here are all of the vegys I picked up.  Aren't they pretty?  As for the fennel, I did not even know what that was, let alone what it looked like.  But I had to find it for the Cold French Lentil Salad.  It is my new favorite ingredient.  I love the licorice smell that it has as well as the taste.  

Here is my salad.  The dressing really makes the whole thing.  My guess is you can't just use any olive oil, I picked up a fancy one from The Tasteful Olive.  I purchase one called Hojiblanca.  I have no idea how to pronounce that but it has a very robust flavor and made my dressing delicious.  Next time I go to the Farmers' Market I am looking for eggplant.  I have never prepared eggplant before but my magazine has a great recipe for a Walnut-Stuffed Eggplant, sounds good to me!

Frigid Weather Casualty

Are you freaking serious?  Who killed my herbs?  I have been growing these inside my back door since the first freeze and they have been doing so good.  I have basil, thyme, and sage growing in this pot and I use them all the time.  They are in a perfect spot where they get nice sun, I have fed them and have treated them, oh so, nice.  But yesterday afternoon I walked in the kitchen and this is what I found.  Really?  How did this happen?  It took me a while to figure it out.  But remember my Three Word Thrusday picture yesterday?  I took that cute heart picture right out side my back door, WITH THE DOOR OPEN.  Needless to say the tempature yesterday morning was 2 degrees with the wind chill well below zero.  I had no idea the damage that would do to my percious indoor herb garden.  The hybiscus tree that they sit under suffered no damage, so I am going to try to bring these guys back to life, but I will not be using fresh herbs in my cooking for awhile.  Dang, dang, dang, double dog dang.

 
 

The Blizzard of 2011 @ My House

This is as far as we got this morning shoveling out of our big snow from yesterday.  I don't know how those people do it who live in places where they get this kind of snow on a regular basis.  These piles of snow on either side of the driveway are about 3 to 4 feet high.  Jeff and I started at 6:00 am and worked for over an hour and we still have another 1/3 of the driveway yet to do.  We got enough shoveled for Jeff to get out this morning, but I am not going anywhere as the center of the culdesac has at least 18" to 20" as the snow blows from the burm and stays in the middle of our street.  Until we get a plow in here, we are stuck.  During the last snow a week or so ago, it took until around 3:00 pm for the plow to make it to us.  I am not hopeful for today.  However, the sun is shinning and there is nothing better or brighter than snow shinning on a new blanket of snow.  My yard looks like it is filled with diamonds.

 
This was the front porch yesterday afternoon.  This moring the gorilla (yeah, Pittsburg State) and the snowman were covered in snow.  All I could see was the head of the snowman and poor Gus was totally buried.

 
 
At the height of the blizzard, we could barely see across the back yard.

 
My Mom and I had a bet going, she thought the snow would cover the wagon and only the handle would be seen.  I have to admit she was on the way to winning, as at one point the snow was up to the writing on the side, but with the wind blowing through, you can even see more of it today.  Sorry, Mom I win :o)

 
Because I work at home, this is what I call snowed in, too bad it just does not keep me from working.  Now I cannot see out, I cannot drive out, I am feeling a bit claustrophobic, I may need recusing by the end of the day.  If I start feeling sweaty and my legs start twitching I'll call for help.  Does 911 come for a self-employed gal going stir crazy?

Meet Our New Tree

For the last month or so I have been anxiously awaiting the delivery of our new baby tree.  If you remember last summer, our beautiful Bradford Pear blew over in a storm and our yard has been very empty without its loveliness and shade.  Wow, we were amazed at how much we missed the shade that our beloved Bradford provided to our front porch as well as the large window over the front door. In fact, my front porch flowers suffered as they were a more shady variety and then the shade was taken away halfway through the season. 

 
I knew right a way that just any little bitty tree would not do and I would not be happy with your typical, pitiful, stick with leaves on it that I had seen in my price range at the local nursery. However, as luck would have it, I found out that a local nursery was going out of business and needed to get rid of their "mature" trees for free.  Thats right you heard me FREE.  Well, not totally free you still needed to pay for them to harvest it and deliver it, but for $90 this lovely tree, was a bargin.  My friend, Sheri, need some trees for her place as well so being the super kind of gal that she is, she picked mine out and they were all delivered to her house.

 
Not being a hortaculture kind of gal, I wasn't really particular about what kind of tree I got as long as the only thing that my new tree dropped were leaves and not acorns, pods balls or those bean thingys.  Another friend of ours, Chad, owner of Adki Group, was kind enough to go pick up my tree from Sheri's and arrange to have it installed.  At this point the consesus is that my tree is some kind of Ash.  I cannot wait to see what it looks like this Spring and then again in the Fall. So I guess we really don't have a baby tree, more like a toddler as she is already over 12' tall.  Yipee!

Pumpkins From Up North

With the days as beautiful as they were when we were up north, I was inspired to do some crafts that required things from the good old outdoors.  There are lots of birch trees around in the woods and beings as it is Autumn how about some birch pumpkins?  Now this was something that I had thought up in my head and really wasn't sure how it was going to work out.  So the first course of action was to peel some birch bark from the trees around my Mom's property. 

 
Birch bark peels easily right off the trees and it is a light orange on the inside and an ashy white on the outside.  It will peel off in strips that can range from the thickness of tissue paper to hearvy cardboard.

 
I soaked the bark in hot water to help make it pliable and bend the way I wanted it to bend.  I found that this also loosened up the layers of the bark and I was able to make the pieces that were too thick much thinner by stripping away some of the layers.

 

Using handy dandy hot glue, I just started covering the artificial pumpkin with the strips of bark, overlapping as I went to make sure I had good coverage. 

 
Once the pumpkin was covered all of the pieces came together on the bottom and did not look very good so I cut a round piece of bark and glued it down.

 
Next, I drilled a hole in the top and glued in a birch branch.  Taking some thin bark, I cut some leaves and made some curls for vines and glued them next to the the stem.  

 
These turned out way better than I ever expected.  I love them.  Now my mind is going crazy as to what I can cover with birch bark next time I am in the north woods.

 

 I am participating in the following link ups: Its So Very Creative, The DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, The Halloween Scene, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, New Nostalgia, Life as Lori, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Paisley Passions, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Its a Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest

Felted Acorns

I found some great felted acorns on a blog a couple weeks ago and thought "I can do that".  I began a search for some acorns so that I could use the little caps, I put a post out on Facebook for anyone with acorns in their yard and I would come by a pick them up.  My friend Nancy responded that she had recently found a giant acorn while on a walk and brought it by to me.  This nice big acorn was awesome, now just any acorns would not do, I needed the BIG ones.  While at K-State for family weekend, we were visiting Anna at the Pi Phi house and what did I see but giant acorns all over their front yard.  Score!  I had all the BIG acorns I wanted.

I began by taking the nuts out of the caps and cleaning them up a bit.  Some still had their leaves attached so I decided to just keep them and see how they will fair over time.

Because I am just a sparkly kind of gal, I decided to spray paint the caps with a metallic gold spray paint.  What nature makes, can always be made a little more sparkly with some gold paint,right?

I chose to use wool roving to make the felted nuts, thinking the roving would be easier than Kristi used over at The Speckled Dog.  Using roving would also give me the ability to make my acorns mutli colored by mixing the colors together.  To add a little more colors I found some 100% wool yarn that I added in as well.

 

Taking a wooden bead and a hunk of roving large enough to covering the bead, you dunk the whole thing into the hottest water that your hands can stand, working the roving into a ball around the bead.

 

Then you add a drop of liquid soap and continue to work the ball of wool.  I am not sure why you need soap, but just trust me you do. Lightly roll the ball around in your hands dunking it down into the water again and again, putting it a side for awhile and starting another will allow the water and soap to soak in and help the felting process.  This takes a lot longer that I anticipated, but as you work it into ball it will continue to get smaller and smaller and will dry even smaller than that.  This being said, be sure to start with a little bit bigger ball of wool than you think you are going to need. 

 Once the felted balls are dry, just hot glue them into the caps and you have some fun acorns for your enjoyment.  I am not sure what it is about acorns but I love the way they look.  Maybe, its because they are the only nuts around that come with their own accessory, hats.  Love it!

I am participating in the these link ups: Its So Very Creative, The Halloween Scene, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Showoff, Skip to my Lou, Coastal Charm, A Silly Little Sparrow, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket, Paisley Passions, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Frieflies and Jellybeans, Finding Fabulous, Its A Blog Party, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Its Fun to Craft, Life as Lori, The Shabby Nest, Vintage Suitcase, Tidy Mom

In Grandma's Garden

My Mom has lived in northern Minnesota since she and my Dad retired over 10 years ago.  Okay, I know, who retires to Northern Minnesota? Well, if you could see the lake and house that they retired to, your questions would be answered.  But one of my favorite parts of the lake house is the garden that my Mom has put together.  She is not a big plant person, so the flowers are not really the focus of this garden.  She originally called it her prayer garden.  Just a little piece of the world that she could call her own and meet with Jesus there.  She has things in the garden that remind her of the people that are on her prayer list.  I like to picture her walking down the little rock covered path praying for me and my family.  One of the things that I have been able to count on over the years is that my family has always been covered by the prayers of my Mom, and before they died my Dad and both sets of Grandparents.  The heritage of Christ followers in my family has been one of the greatest blessings in my life.  Gardens don't just have to be for flowers and plants they can be full of the prayers of a Grandma for the ones that she loves.  

 
 

Impromptu Blackberry Picking

Today I was out at Lindsey's house helping her finish up the finial details of moving into her own place.  I remembered that a couple of weeks ago we had gone out to the blackberry bushes that are behind her house and they were not quite ripe yet.  Today this is what I found. BIG ripe blackberries everywhere.  The bushes are huge, over 10 feet tall in some places.  I started picking only to be reminded of my friend Sheri telling me about the HUGE bugs that come out of the bushes when you start picking.  Sure enough, out comes one of the HUGE bugs right at me.  I was totally freaked out, but it did not take me long to be tempted by the berries once agian.The bugs move so fast I could not get a good look at what they are but I agree with Sheri they are HUGE!

The bummer thing about blackberry bushes is that there are so many berries just out of reach.  Because these bushes are so tall some are too high and some are just too far inside the throny branches to be reached.  

I was able to surprise Jeff with enough berries for a special treat with ice cream as well as more for tomorrow.  Not only will we have berries tomorrow, but the bushes are covered with berries that are not quite ripe.  We wouldn't want all those fresh berries to go to waste, dang, I guess we will just have to keep picking, yummy!
 

An Easy Pesto Recipe

I love the flavor and the smell of fresh basil.  I have planted sweet basil in my garden for the last several years and have enjoyed finding new ways to use it. I have put it on pizza, pasta dishes, salads, etc. The wet, hot summer has been perfect this season for my basil and it is going crazy.  I have eought basill to supply my neighbors. Tonight I decided to use a bunch of it by making this great, easy Pesto recipe that I got from my friend Debra.  To be really honest with you I did not even know what Pesto was until I attended one of Debra's cooking classes last summer.  Pesto has eaisly become one of my favorite things.  The flavor is awesome not only to mention the amount of garlic it requires.  I love garlic!  Jeff is not as big a fan of garlic as me and has to remind me often to go easy on the garlic.

 Pesto

4 cups bail leaves (not tightly packed, but "somewhat" packed)

1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil

1 cup parmesan cheesse

4 - 5 cloves garlic (I alwasy use 5 cloves! Yes!)

1/4 cup walunts (or pine nuts)

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until you reach the desired texture you like. 

See very easy and so tasty.  Try Pesto on a pizza crust topped with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella.  It is soooooo good.

Flowers From My Garden

This morning I decided to cut some flowers from my garden.  I do not pretend to be good at flower arrangements, all I do is cut a bunch of flowers at different lengths and stick them in the vase and expect the beauty of the flowers to do the rest.  When I plant flowers in my garden, I tend to pick varieties that can be cut.  I love to have fresh flowers in the house.  In my garden over the last couple of years my flower varieties have grown and I have  been able to have cut flowers in the house most of the Summer and well into the Fall.  I am waiting for my zinnias to mature because they are my favorites.

 
These are a couple of the vases that I use.  They happen to be ones that I received flower arrangements in as gifts from florists.

Some of the flowers that I grow are a small variety of black eye Susana's.  The plants themselves are about 24" high and multiple quickly.  I will need to separate mine next year as they are taking over the area they are planted in and are starting to shade my roses. 

These flowers grow in bunches.  I remove most of the leaves before I put them in the vases as this keeps the water from smelling bad after a day or two.  I add fresh water every couple of days and black eye susans will continue to look nice for about a week. 

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Herb Basket

One of the things that I love about this time of year is having fresh herbs to use in cooking.  My favorites are chives, cilantro, and sweet basil.  However, I have learned my lesson and I no longer grow herbs in my garden along with everything else.  They tend to take over and become unruly and quite frankly, spread like wild fire. I have started to grow them in baskets or pots.  They are then placed in the garden so they too can get the sun and the rain along with everything else but are contained and are better behaved this way.

Here is the basket that I have been planting my herbs in that last couple of Summers.  But this year I wanted to jazz in up a bit. 

 
Once I again, I grabbed my berry pink spray paint and gave this basket an new coat and color.

Using the moss that I collected in Minnesota last Fall, I soaked it in water and lined the inside and the bottom of the basket.

Using my favorite Miracle Grow potting soil I filled the the basket and planted my herb plants, then covered the top of the soil with more moss.  Putting the moss on the top of the soil helps hold in moisture and keeps the basket from drying out in the Kansas wind.

Now the rest of the Summer and into the Fall I will have fresh herbs without the worry of them spreading into unwanted parts of my garden.

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Believe in the Garden

It is this time of year that makes me just want to be outside all of the time.  I even like being outside in the hot humid days if I can be in the shade with a good book.  But part of my being outside thing, is wanting to make my gardens look like places you want to spend your time.  And with the way that I love color, the more color I can get in my garden the happier I am. So to me that means lots of flowers and of course, my choice here is pink, duh! 

 
However, I had some sad looking pots around that needed some help.  This particular pot started out several years ago as a little water feature with a fountain and some water plants in it.  But I just could not keep it from leaking all over the place, so the last couple of years it has been a planter that now needs a makeover.

So I got out my handy dandy heirloom white spray paint and went to town.  I thought the pot looked a little plain so I started searching through some of my craft supplies and came across the word believe in a rub-on transfer.  Perfect!

Okay, this was starting to look better, but it is still a little stark and too high of a contrast.

 

I watered down some brown acrylic paint and wiped it all over the pot.  This helped take the stark whiteness away and gave it a little bit of a warn look.  You cannot see it so much in the pictures, but I think it looks a lot better.  I allowed that to dry and then finished it off with a clear coat.

Next comes the really fun part, the planting.  I picked up a hot pink geranium and some fun little vines that I have never used before and then covered the soil in the "creepy" moss that I got from Minnesota last fall.  And I have a great "new" re-purposed pot in my garden.

This goes perfect with the quote that I put on the garden bench, "Gardening is a way of showing you believe in tomorrow."  

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