Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Gardening!

It's about time for an update about the garden! Let's start with the edibles! (Click on any picture for a larger version.)The garden is divided into four beds by woodchip paths (which are now mostly weeds but I'm cool with that). Starting from the lower left, this bed has tomatoes, peppers (sweet bell and jalepeno) and growing on the fence are Blue Moon and Rouge Detamps (cinderella's coach-esque) pumpkins. The tomato varieties are Red Russian, Gajo de Melon, Burpee's Jubilee, Brandywine and a yellow tomato that I'm not sure of the name.

The next bed up holds the pumpkins and gourds, including Jack Be Littles, some more Blue Moon and Lumina and a fun assortment of mini gourds with fins, dipper gourds, warts, etc.

Next, to the right we have the zucchini, yellow summer squash and cucumbers. The trellises in this bed are for the cucumbers. This bed also has the perennial crops of rhubarb and green onions since they can be in the corner and undisturbed when I till. And hiding over on the far right are some broccoli and brussels sprouts. I had some excesses seedlings so I went ahead and found space for them.

Under this bed, we have the rotating crops like carrots, spinach, lettuce, kale, and radishes. When one planting is finished, I yank it out and plant something different in it's spot. The carrots have included Creme de Lite (white), Purple Dragon (purple, duh!), and Nantes. Here's a better picture of this rotating bed.In another edible area of the garden, the blackberries are getting ready to turn black!And in yet another edible area, two new additions have been made to the herb garden. I bought some variegated Sage and a Winter Thyme plant. They join the Cilantro, Dill, Fennel, Chives and Sweet and Globe Basil. This is the ornamental pot that sits in the middle of the herb garden on the stump. It has sweet potato vine and ice plant in it.In the courtyard, my potted Caladiums are up and doing their thing. Along with some Coleus in the same color scheme.More Coleus keeps my Lavendar company in the partial shade of the Clematis.This rock is also in the courtyard. I planted the bigger holes in it with a great variety of Sedums I bought from this Etsy Shop.
These are the pots that are on my front porch. More Caladiums, sweet potato vine, and Sedum. Can you tell I like fun colors of foliage?

Welcome Scavengers!


Food - Games - Prizes - All week long!
It's a scavenger hunt! My friend Pam & Frank are having a blog Scavenger Hunt as part of their new blog redesign blog party. And I am one of the stops! The hunt is from Tuesday July 14, 2009 to Saturday July 18, 2009. At each blog along the way, you'll have to find out something about the blogger by searching around their posts. You can win a gift certificate for the awesome Pass It On Plates shop!! See here for more info on how to enter.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Craft update

I want to thank everyone who has sent in pink scraps and fabric! I have such a great variety, I can easily make a wonderful, cheerful pink quilt for our new neighbor! thank you to Bertha, Tracy, Holly, and my mom for their gracious donations. Here are the two squares I worked up this weekend, just to see what they would look like.I also got one of my Rainbow quilts for Project Linus started. The border isn't sewn on, I just laid it out so you could get the idea. Cute! I have to give a big thank you shout out to Wanda, who after hearing that my quilt from the Rainbow Block Swap would be going to Project Linus, donated her set of blocks to me! Thank you so much, Wanda! The second rainbow quilt will be much the same but with a different white on white pattern for the sashing.And last but not least, here is the dress I made for the fair this year. I originally bought the fabric and supplies to make this to wear to a wedding last summer but then found out is was a very casual affair and wore jeans instead. :) So I just finished this from the Butterick "walk away" dress pattern. I am not in love with the way it looks, but it is sort of neat the way the underskirt shows through the very flowing overskirt. Lots of bias tape and too much hand finishing for my tastes (sewing on all the snaps/hook and eyes, whip stitching all the ends of the bias tape together).

Monday update

Start Weight: 215
Current Weight: 183
% lost overall: 14.8%

Husband has requested a Monday Fitness Update, since I've skipped a couple of weeks! So here goes.

In July, I am participating in Oh She Glows' Summer Glow Boot Camp. She's got an awesome calendar full of great articles, assignments and exercises for each day. So far I really enjoyed writing a letter to my body, trying out new ab exercises from The Beholder, and writing three goals for July.

One of my goals is to keep up with my three day a week run training. This week starts Week 5 of Couch to 5K! My friend Sasha has been awesome about running every Thursday with me, what a superstar! Week 5 will build me up to 20 minutes of non-stop jogging. I have been doing some of my workouts outdoors and some at the gym on the treadmill. I want to be well-versed in the treadmill to be prepared when the weather gets too hot to run outside. :)

Shame on me, I haven't been taking many pictures of all the delectable garden produce I've been eating. I picked up blueberries and nectarines at the farmer's market Saturday and have been chowing down on those, along with cantaloupe from the grocery store. I picked the very first zucchini of the year and made some baked zucchini with passata and it was delicious! I ate it with some steamed tri-color carrots. I took this picture before I added the polenta that I heated up in a skillet. I made a giant batch and now I have polenta rounds all cut out and ready in the fridge for quick lunches this week. Yum!

My tip for this week is to use hot tea to curb evening cravings. The other night, I wanted a sugary treat so bad but it was after 9 pm! I typically shut down the kitchen at 8 since anything I eat after that is usually junky and I'm not really hungry, just bored. But I was a little chilly and wanted to curl up with SOMEthing so I made some hot tea (my absolute favorite, Almond Sunset) and it HIT THE SPOT!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Am I famous now?

I was recognized! At the Dog Training Club the other night (after our very LAST 4-H training class for the year), one of the club's instructors and I struck up a conversation and it came up that I had a Corgi and she asked if I had a blog! Turns out she recognized my name from exhibiting at the County Fair, knew the blog from the post I wrote about exhibiting and put two and two together! Smart lady! So hi, if you're reading!

Speaking of the County Fair, it is only a few short weeks away! So far I have completed my doily, a knit capelet, a dress from this pattern, and my entry for the "craft made from recyclables" category. No, I'm not telling! Then everyone and their mom will steal my brilliant idea! Next up on the crafting list are a Halloween banner decoration, a stuffed toy and a quilt if I can get my act together!

The sad part is that I won't be able to take my items myself. My wonderful husband has volunteered to tote everything over there on Saturday morning because the dog and I need to get over to Bloomington for a Graduate Novice obedience practice session at their Show N Go that day. But I will get to go later that day, after the judging, to see if I won any ribbons. And take pictures, of course!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

5K Fourth of July

Here's a post-5K pic from Saturday. I made Mike and I matching patriotic rosette pins that turned out so cute! I wore my "FREE" t-shirt from when Mike and I were part of a huge American flag made up of people in different colored shirts. They took our picture with a plane! That was nearly ten years ago!

You may notice I'm also wearing a medal! My time was 38.29 minutes. I got 1st in my age division and second walker overall. (but they didn't give out overall awards for walkers.)
Here's a tasty meal I ate today, all fresh from the garden! Corn bread pudding make with last year's sweet corn (ok, so it was fresh from the freezer, but it was fresh from the garden before that), purple and white carrots (steamed) and kale salad! Yum! The watermelon is from the store, I never have luck growing watermelons. I'm too stingy with the water so they always end up stunted.
And in not-so-health-conscious news, we decorated cookies for the shelter again! Red, white and blue for the fourth! Want to host your own cookie decorating party? Visit Drop In & Decorate for more info!
I delivered them on Friday, in time for enjoying on the fourth.
Some of them look like Patrick from Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

End of June updates


Over the weekend, I got to the last day of my 6 weeks and won the President's Active Lifestyle Award! (You have to be active at least 30 minutes 5 out of 7 days for 6 weeks.) Someone at work asked if I had cut my hair. Nope, just wearing a headband, the same one you can see in this picture. I made 6 of them (plus several for myself, of course) for the Hair Accessory Swap. I'm waiting with baited breath for everyone to get theirs in so we can see what all we got!Did I tell you I found nearly-new Brooks running shoes at a garage sale for $6!? I was in such need and there they were! I had to go back with socks so I could try them on and they are SO comfy, what a wish granted.Tonight I made Pink Purl's pesto tabbouleh, since she was so nice as to share her recipe. Wow, what flavors! I whipped up some spinach pesto in the blender with the last dregs of the spinach from the garden. I think bulgar is my new go-to grain, so fast and easy!
Here's another meal I gobbled up this week. A salad full of carrots from my garden, purple and white and orange ones! The lettuce and spinach are from the garden as well, only the onion is from the store. The main dish was an egg scramble with veggie italian sausage, tomato, fresh basil and cheese with crackers on the side. I'd thought about having it on a tortilla but when it came together, it was enough on it's own.And for breakfast one morning, I had oatmeal with almonds, dried cranberries and some Kashi granola (Cocoa Beach flavor) on top. YUM!

Next week is our last week of 4-H dog obedience class for this year. The show is on Friday, the 10th, so everyone is busy prepping their dogs and worrying over what will happen. I'm sure they will all do fine, we have a great group this year, just like last year!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Giving Challenge and a plea

I am in my third week of the 29 Day Giving Challenge. I am blogging my daily gifts over there, check it out if you like. So far, I only flubbed on one day. Since then, I have been trying to plan my giving at least a day in advance so I don't forget. :) This stuffed bunny was one day's gift, left at the Post Office with a Toy Society tag so that the recipient would know it was alright to take home.

It has been really fun, finding little ways to give each day. But later this year, I have a larger give planned! As I mentioned last time, a Habitat for Humanity house is being built in our neighborhood! We also have new neighbors to the south and the house across the street now says sale pending so we will have lots of new faces to meet at that ice cream party! But back to my plan! The family moving into the HFH house is a single mom and her 9 year old daughter. I have been given the ok to make a quilt for the daughter, who has requested an all PINK room! So I am making an all PINK quilt. Here is where I need your help!

Do you have scraps or little dabs of pink fabric? I am making a strip quilt so I need a good variety of pinks to make it look awesome! I would greatly appreciate ANY pink fabric you could spare. Any left over fabric will be used to make another all PINK quilt for Project Linus! Just comment or email me if you're feeling generous with your pink stash and I will be forever grateful!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Wanna see my new outfits?

My splurge I mentioned last week, my new workout clothes!
And to top it off, I was at Walmart because ours is selling out their entire fabric stock at 75% off. What was back there next to the fabric? $3 workout shirts! So I picked up two new shirts to go with my new SportSkirt!

As seen on many fitness blogs, I have been trying my hand at making Green Monster smoothies. My first attempt was pretty terrible, I tried to make a pumpkin pie falvored smoothie with spinach in it. The spinach was NOT the problem, the whole pumpkin pie idea was. This one is strawberry banana and LOADS better! And just like everyone tells you, you can't taste the greens (kale and spinach here).
It's been hot here, and a nice, cold smoothie sure was tasty tonight! I found out some terrific news this afternoon! I won a Neighborhood ice cream party from Edy's! I am one of 1500 whose essays were chosen. They will be shipping me ice cream, bowls, napkins, spoons, table cloths, invitations, and more, enough for 100 people! I am so excited!! I really like our new neighborhood and am looking forward to inviting everyone over on a hot summer day to gab and eat ice cream! (All the ice cream they are sending in Slow Churn! Hooray, low fat!)

I also just found out that a Habitat for Humanity house is going to be built one street over and have contacted them about how to help out. I have signed up to bring lunch/snack to the crew. And I am planning a little craft project as well, more on that later!

On a completely unrelated note, I added a Follower button over there on the left so if you want to follow me via Blogger it is easier to sign up. :)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Monday!

Start Weight: 215
Current Weight: 187
% lost overall: 13%

Earlier in the week I made corn and black bean salad (recipe from the book "Eat, Shrink and Be Merry"). I ate it with a veggie bologna sandwich one day. This weekend, it was grilling time! Grilled romaine salad inspired by the one we had a few months ago at the Spice Box.

We grilled up some vegetarian Italian sausages
I had mine with grilled onions and peppers on top!
Mike picked up some MINI Krispy Kremes on Friday. A box of 20, but they're so cute! And under 100 calories each!