Things that melt my heart!

Yesterday, I got home and found this note. It just kind of melted my heart, to see my 11 year old be responsible...every mom's dream. :)

This little guy melts my heart, too. My little 1 year old nephew. So CUTE!!

Altered Coca-Cola Shirt

At the gun show last month, that my husband dragged me to, this shirt was for sale. I thought it was pretty cute, & thought you might like a smile for the day!

Garden Planting

So. The chickens now have a little yard. I bought this fencing at our local Home Depot. I am not sure I like it. It doesn't close easily. It is difficult to align with the connectors on each side. Also, Rylan cannot get it closed and so I can't really send him out there to feed the chickens. That's not going to work, for sure. Quite obviously, I am going to have to do something different. Bummer. On the bright side, the chickens love it! They love it so much, that they have started flying over it to get out. So, I did go purchase some netting to put over it, not realizing that doves are flying down to get the bird seed that isn't eaten. The birds are now getting caught in the netting several times a day, which is then driving the dogs insane. All of them. Which is driving me insane!!! And having to go out and get the birds out of the netting all day, is completely too much. So, something will have to be done! (I have an idea of what, but I don't want to have to do it.)



I have been saving this topiary form in the garden shed for almost 9 years. I had 2 of them in our previous home, covered in creeping fig in our front yard by the front door. One day, after we had moved, the new owner, who were friends of ours, had them pulled out and was throwing them away. These things are hard to find, and since she is not a gardener of any sort, she just plain didn't want them. So, I snagged them from her. YAY for me. I really don't know where the other one went... This one looks nice right her in front of the little chicken coop. Love it! Can't wait for the creeping fig to grow in.

My great grandma lived in a little trailer near my grandma's house. Along the side of her trailer she had a lot of mint planted, and every time we would go and visit her, I would pick some and chew on it. Funny the things you remember. So, this spot is perfect for some mint filling in the space. If I can keep the dogs off of it. Hence, the little fence.

We also planted in a couple of new plum trees, into the same hole. Everything I have read about plum trees says that the Santa Rosa Plum is self fruiting, but that it bears more fruit if there is another variety nearby. So, since I have seen this to be the case with the previous plum tree & I had until LAST summer... We now have 2 new little trees, emphasis on the little.

Saturday was a full day. My son and I planted 6 new vines in the garden to cut on the reflective heat that the block fencing adds to the already stifling temperatures in the summer. We put in 4 cat's claw vines to cover the back wall and 2 trumpet creeper vines, the Madam Galen variety, which is supposed to have beautiful flowers all summer, and is quite a vigorous vine. I was discussing this with the gardener up at Harper's Nursery. All of the online information I have read about this vine indicates that it's roots are a giant nuisance, sending out shoots everywhere and that it's almost impossible to remove. The gardener at the nursery was saying that that may be true in moist climates, but here in Arizona, with our very dry conditions, and clay soil, the root systems just do not act in that way. They then showed me a mature plant of it that they have at the back of their nursery, which climbs up a telephone pole every year. He told me that every other year or so, the city comes out and has them cut the vine down to the ground, and it climbs back up with no problem whatsoever. This is the kind of vine I need on the fence surrounding the garden. I had cat's claw until last summer, when the watering system broke and I lost everything. Even the cat's claw died, which is rumored to never die, no matter what. I know it doesn't look like much here in the picture, but it is dormant in the winter, meaning it loses all it's leaves, and looks dead, even though it's not.

The asparagus are a little behind this year. This picture is a little blurry, but this is the first little shoot. YAY! It looks like I need to add some soil to cover the crowns a little better.

The lettuces are doing ok. Hopefully it won't get too warm. I may need to move these over by the fountain area, where is a little cooler. We shall see.

My daughter begged for this little garden gnome a couple of years ago. At the time, I thought he was kind of ugly, but as his paint has faded, his attraction for me has grown! :) I do think he is quite cute here, don't you?

The peach and apple trees are blooming. I just love the deep pink on this peach tree. It really is beautiful.

Well, that's it from my little organic Arizona garden!! Happy planting!

My Brother's Project

I am super lucky to have 2 of my brothers and their families, living nearby. One of my brothers, lives about a mile from my house. The other day he and his wife were over & I was working in the backyard trying to remove a pygmy palm. Can I just say, WOW! That is a project and a half!! Not sure I will undertake that again. Anyway, as I was moving the rock back and trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to hack away at the stubborn roots of this palm, my brother decides to come out and stand there and proceed to give me tips on how to use a shovel, etc. Slightly annoying. Aargh. Anyway, I finally turned around and told him that if he was going to critique me, he could help. Long story short, it ended up with him removing the palm and me standing there, jumping on it to try to loosen the roots. It's a good thing we don't have a video of it. Embarrasing. Well, the palm is gone. But, he was going out of town the next day and had a small project he hadn't finished, so I told Bekah, my SIL, that I'd come over and finish it for him, since he was helping me & didn't get to it.

When I got to their house, this is what I found. Hideous. He had tried to refinish their little backyard table in this nasty orange color. My SIL and I sanded and sanded on that table. Finally, on Friday, last week, we progressed to using paint stripper. What a mess!

However, this is what it looks like now, freshly stained in my favorite Minwax stain, Provincial. I love that color and use it for everything. I can't think of an occasion that it doesn't look good. And after 6 long hours on Friday, it is finished!! YAY! It looks lovely. Great job, Bekah! And to my brother, I don't think you should do any more projects like that any time soon. Because if you do, you are on your own!!

St. Patrick's Day Decor

I have a daughter that LOVES all things "St. Patrick's Day"! We have made her several sets of pj bottoms in St. Patrick's Day prints, she has socks, a hat, sunglasses, a oversized Notre Dame sweatshirt (because it wasn't available in any size that would fit, and she did not care. She had to have it!). We do have some Irish blood in us, so maybe that has something to do with it. I don't know. But even so, apparently there will be a "St. Patrick's Day" party happening at our house this year.

This banner in the entryway was made in about 1 hour, using some paper I printed off on my computer, some letters I printed off on the computer as well and punched out using a 3 inch scallop punch. The scallops were then adhered to the pennants (the pennants measure 5 inch x 8 inch) with pop dots. Love those things!! Then the pennants were punched once in each top corner and I threaded some 1/4 inch ribbon through them to hang. Super easy!! Love it!

A Hot Air Balloon Right Over My Head!

Last Tuesday, I was working in the garden, trying to clear the pathways of the grass roots that invaded last summer. What a task!! I had really had one of those days that you never want to repeat. As I was about to collapse from fatigue, I looked up and directly overhead was a beautiful hot air balloon. It was so close, I felt like I might be able to reach out and tell the people in the basket "hi"! I definitely could hear them putting more hot air in...so lovely! It gave me such a smile! So, thank you, hot air balloon, for cheering me up!!

Valentine's Day Party

I have 2 lovely daughters, one of whom is very social, and one who is not. The one who is social works at The Tomkat Studio and is constantly around party ideas, parties, etc. Because of this, she decided to throw the non-social daughter a Valentine's Party for her and some of her friends. She decorated the place all up, organized a couple of games, one of which was valentine family feud, which judging by the amount of laughter going on, was a big hit. These kids are 17-19 years old, and they had a great time!

One of the favorite treats that my boys always love are homemade oreos. I never make these, as they are a lot of work, but their sister will patiently bake them and fill them, which makes her brothers so happy. These didn't last long at the party.

I just received these bottles! Aren't they cute?? Love them. Purchased them at Specialty Bottle. The paper straws are available at The Tomkat Studio, of course.

The Strawberry Lemonade Punch was lovely, and simple to make.  The recipe is available here: www.bettycrocker.com 

The cupcakes below were a boxed vanilla cake and then a standard cream cheese frosting with sprinkles. They were very tasty. The cupcake toppers were from The Tomkat Studio.

Love Love Love

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....

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!