A walk with me

Walking through my garden is so fun lately. I took all these photos yesterday but didn't have time to upload them to flickr. Since it's raining today I thought I'd share the progress with ya'll.
I'm so excited to see my cucumbers growing! This one is my biggest so far. there's a bunch of little ones and I just can't wait for them to get to the eating point!
I'm also pumped for my beans. The ones I planted this year are of the bush type. So they don't climb as high as the pole variety. Supposedly they taste a bit better. we'll see when they're fully done growing. I have some that look purple like in the photo and others that are green. I'm wondering where the purple comes in.. oh well we'll see soon enough.
I have many many tomato plants in my garden this year. I'm so thankful to my Aunt-in-law for gifting me some of her extra seedlings. Some of them are called burpee Big boy and they're shaped more like tomato shaped. The others are called Big mamma (i think) and they are more Roma shaped. The photo is them up close. I took a photo of the "wall of tomatoes" LOL I had to tie up the pvc stuff b/c the plants were getting heavy and leaning over. Next year I plan on planting every other square or so.. This year was defiantly a trial run. I plan on doing things a bit different next year. Starting with a few more walking areas, and a smaller planting area etc.
On the other end of my garden I have another "fence" for growing other tomatoes also cukes and zucchini. I snapped a photo of the Roma tomatoes I planted. I actually got one that ripened the other day. So I ate it in a salad also from the garden. It was super sweet and YUMMY! I just love tomatoes.
I also snapped a photo of the golden tomatoes planted next to the Romas. you can see the Romas in the background.
I also planted peppers that are growing well. If you'd like to see more photos of my garden I have a garden set over at flickr. You're welcome to check them out.
I'm so excited about my garden, I wasn't expecting much when I planted everything. I was going to be happy with what ever grew. But now I'm just super duper excited. I'm planning on canning some of the extra stuff that grows. There's great info on canning here and more info here. I know there's more out there. but those are ones I've been to lately.
If you have some good recipes or good sites and you'd like to share just leave me a comment!

mostly pix today

I'm going to update you with my project 365 photos.

July 15th I was working on the sock pattern I'm writing. Here's the pattern up close and personal. Pretty huh? I've finished and sent off the pattern to my sister to be tested. soon then I'll have it ready for sale over at Ravelry.


July 16th beady and I played outside. She played in the small pool jumping and splashing and having a grand old time.



July 17th I found a lone lettuce plant. a stray seed must have taken root. I'm letting it grow though b/c it's not hurting anything.


Friday July 18th I got a small package in the mail from renuzit. I'd signed up hoping to do a pay per post but I didn't get it in time. Oh well... the house smells wonderful!



Friday night the Bub came home from camp. She had tons of fun. I didn't get to take a photo of her sunny self until Saturday the 19th. She's such a goofball. We had a surprise for her when she came home. We took the girls to see Wall-E. it was a pretty cute movie.


Sunday the 20th we spent most of the day rearranging our guest room. We bought a new bookshelf to combine 3 small ones into one. and we also got a curtain for over the closet b/c the door was broken. We also picked up a small desk for my DH's school stuff. the room looks roomier now! In case you're wondering it's the only room in the house that my DH's allowed to decorate. that's why it's covered in sports stuff. it not only serves as our guest room and computer room but all the video game systems are in there also.

This past week I've been able to harvest some lettuce from my garden. Monday the 21st I snapped a photo of some of the leaves I gathered for a salad. I planted a gourmet salad mix and one of the type of lettuce tastes kinda nutty with a sharp spicy flavor afterwards. It really adds something to a salad.

Today I received a package in the mail that I've been waiting for. It's a tea order from stash. I'm excited to get drinking! they also a sample of some Lemon Blossom iced tea. YUM!

Ok so I've caught you up for the week.
how was your week?

It's so Quiet.

I know I have a lot of photos like this but this one is slightly different. these are new sheets! why you ask? b/c we got a new (bigger) bed! I'm sooo excited. We've moved from a queen sized bed to a king. YIPPIE! I've been wanting a king for a while.
If you look really closely at the ground near the kiddie pool you can see some sponge balls I made for the girls to play with. They loved them. Ok so back to my bed, you can't really tell it's so big but sleeping in it I can tell. I can't believe that we waited so long to upgrade! There is so much more room. (which is helpful when you sleep with a bed hog) I can say that b/c my DH doesn't read this. LOL
Today the Bub went off to camp for a week. She was so excited to go this morning she ran on the bus and forgot to say goodbye. then she quickly ran off the bus said good bye and ran back on. what a nut! It was a quiet day, I'll say that much. We do miss her though! To keep busy I started the community knitting project my LYS is doing. Everyone can choose what they want to make either the children's log cabin blanket where they would do 3 squares. or the Adult patchwork blanket where they can pick some yarn and a pattern and go to town with one or 2 squares. it's pretty cool!

How've you been?

We got back from our trip to WI on Monday morning. And I was excited to see that my garden had grown since I was gone. It won't be too long before we get some great veg from it.
Sunday, before we left we went strawberry picking. (you can see pix in my WI trip set at flikr) I was excited b/c we got to bring home some berries. I wanted to make some jam. when I get to make it, it's not really jam. Jam tends to have lots of chunks and I have this aversion to chunky jam. So I puree the berries until smooth and then can them. It turned out really yummy. And it gives us a reason to eat toast!
This week was probably a horrible week. all b/c the Internet was down. (at least in our neck of the woods) it was killer. To pass the time I made bubbles. it's really easy to make and rather cheap. Here' s the recipe

Bubbles:
4 cups water
2 tablespoons dish soap
2 tablespoons oil
mix them all together and using a wand blow bubbles! FUN for everyone!

I also got to read some books I picked up at the library while waiting for the bub's story time to be finished. It's always fun to read younger books b/c you can finish them in one day or so. I got the Ella Enchanted book b/c the girls love the movie so much I figured it would be fun to read the book. I haven't started it yet though since the Internet is working now I thought I'd catch up on my emails, blogs etc.
so sorry it's been so long BTW.

Breakfast anyone?

Yum Yum, I made breakfast this morning. I'm a member of Knit 'n Bake over at Ravelry. I happened upon a post about scones and it made me flash back to Thanksgiving 2 years ago. My family got together at a cabin(used loosely) up in MD. Well my Aunt made these Delicious scones that everyone gobbled up. and I forgot to get the recipe from her... So anyways while reading the above mentioned forum I started getting hungry. I put it off till this morning where I whipped up some scones. I smooshed a few recipes (found at allrecipes) together and made my own scone recipe up. So I decided to share it with you! In fact I'm eating one right now. (they're great as a snack too!)

Cranberry Nut Scones

Ingredients
1 C all purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick of butter
1/2 C chopped pecans
2/3 C dried cranberries

Directions
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. cream butter, sugar, sour cream and egg.
3. add vanilla, baking powder, soda, salt cinnamon and flours. Don't over mix
4. add pecans and cranberries until they are just mixed in.
5. it should be a clumpy mess dump it out on a floured surface.
6. pat into about an 8 inch circle 3/4 inch thick
7. cut into 8 pieces and place pieces on baking sheet 1 inch apart.
8. sprinkle tops with sugar
9. bake 15-18 min until golden brown.
10 enjoy!


if you make these LMK!

Procrastinate much?

So I'm almost done with my last Christmas present. I'd started them a while ago and never got around to finishing them.
I figured since I'll bee seeing my family for the 4th, bringing the finished pair of mittens should be joyous for my brother.
LOL seriously it makes me laugh. it's Christmas in July.
Giggle giggle giggle.