Welcome To The Jungle

When I saw this.....

I knew that spring was really going to here one of these days... Chee Hoo!!

Irv planted some green peppers, tomatoes and geraniums. They are growing in our basement under their artificial sunshine. There are even lights underneath them that keep them warm. It's all so darn awesome to me. I love it! See the little guys growing in there? Irv does the most amazing job with them!

Last year he planted a ton of vegetable and flower seeds. In his excitement for spring to get here, he planted a lot of them way too early. The result was a jungle in our basement as we waited for the weather to warm up so we could get them outside. Click here to see last year's post about our jungle!

This year he is planting less and being really careful when he starts them....but I can already taste the delicious organic veggies!!

It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

We went out to lunch today at work and then they let us go home after. It's such a beautiful day. I already mailed Angela's craft show apron. It turned out really cute. This is the fabric she sent me to make it with. Cute isn't it? Her show is the 20th and I know she is going to kick butt. If you've never seen her awesome collages....you can check them out here.

I went outside and just snapped some pictures of the wonderful flowers in our yard and our great garden. Irv worked so hard this off season...planting everything from seed. Almost every thing you see in planters, he grew from seed. The entire garden is from seed as well.


I've been trying to add a few more perennials to our yard each year and it really is pretty in the spring. We have a long way to go, but they sure are nice to look at.


So enjoy the pretty flowers...I'm going to take advantage of the extra hour and work on a new apron. It's the one I'm doing with this fabric. I love it! I hope to get some of the aprons listed this weekend. Yeah!

Irv couldn't remember what these were when they sprouted, so it was a surprise when the little violas came up!

I love this bush! The flowers are so pretty and right now it is covered with them!

These have never done really well where I have them. They get nice flowers, but the leaves get yucky really fast and then they look like poop!

I received a couple of tiny baby roses as gifts and this one has just one little flower on it so far.


Many, many years ago, I took care of an elderly woman that had Alzheimer's. She had me take a few bunches of this one and it spread beautifully. She's been gone for quite a few years now, but every time I look at it I think of her. :)

I have a few of these. Can't even tell you what they are. They are cute but only bloom for a short time in the spring and early summer.

More of Irv's impatiens he planted from seed. We have them everywhere. He went a little overboard, but he was anticipating them not doing really well, and they sure did!

The awesome watering can planter on the top was one of my Mother's Day presents! So cute!

My bleeding hearts are just about done for the season. I really love them. I just wish they bloomed for a longer period of time.

Irv built this above ground garden. He wishes his whole garden was like this. It's so easy to take care of at this height! I can't wait until my lettuce is ready!

I think I see a weed! Oh no! I'll have to run out and "pluck" it!

Mmmmmmm........fresh, organic lettuce!

Have a great evening everyone!

Plants and Pillows...Pillows and Plants

I got the yellow pillow listed last night. Here it is. I am so in love with this pillow that I want to keep it, but that is my #1 no-no! No keeping. I am headed to the fabric store tomorrow because the new pillow ideas are filling my head and I must get them out! The only way to do that is to make the things! If you click on the picture you can see other views from my etsy shop.

Anyway, I promised a story about Irv's basement garden. To make a long story short...last year Irv started some seeds in the house. They did "okay". Nothing spectacular, but we were able to plant a lot of the things and he had a great time with it. This year he decided to step it up a notch. He bought LOTS of seeds...flower and vegetable....and he built a little "greenhouse" in the basement using plastic and all kinds of lights and little heat lamps.

When the first little sprouts popped up earlier than they were suppose to...he was so proud. He thought he must be doing something right. Then everything started popping....early. Then they got bigger. Then the excitement caused a kind of planting frenzy and he bought more seeds and more little pots and more special soil. He added more tables and more lights and more heat....are you getting the picture here?Things continued to sprout and grow. Then one day he came upstairs and said, "I think I f----d up." I thought maybe something bad happened. "I think I planted everything way too early. You should see how BIG it's all getting. I'm going to have to transplant things."

That lead to more pots, more soil and more work this past weekend. We have flats of flowers on March 31 that are the bigger than what we usually buy at the garden center in mid-May to plant!!! Yikes!

Despite not having a clue how he is going to nurture these little babies until they can be planted outside in May......this little cutie brought a smile to our faces today!

So, Irv is making a mental note of when he should probably start planting his seeds next year, so we don't end up with a flower and vegetable jungle in the basement again!

I Did It! Woo Hoo!

I made the pillow with the awesome brown, ivory and tan global floral print fabric for MyOtherShop. Here it is! Tah dah! It's a 14" square with the print on the front and a coordinating brown on the back, and I love it. Click here to see other views from my etsy shop.


Then as soon as I finished this one....I started on the yellow one, and that one is also kick butt if I do say so myself. I might get it listed tonight. It's this little yellow rectangular pillow that slides into it's own little "baby duvet" that ties on both ends. Oh my gosh...I want one!

I already have the next two pillows layed out in my head. I just need to go get fabric...and that is a long process for me. There is just so darn much to pick from. I can stand there oooing and awwwing for hours! It's also hard for me because I tend to always go for fabrics I love, but not necessarily what someone else might like in their home. Have to be careful with that I guess.

I also have another little sewing idea rattling around inside my thick skull.....can you hear it? I might be able to show you one soon!

Anyway, I am so psyched about the pillows! I had so much fun! Can you tell?

Tomorrow I am going to show you what has happened to Irv's basement garden!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! That's all I'm going to say right now.

See you tomorrow!!

The Gardener's Tail (woof woof)

I told you yesterday that I went shopping to combat the boredom and the disgust that winter is so darn long here, and that I would share with you what Irv is doing to pass the time away until the thermometer hits a reasonable temperature.....he gardens.

Last year, Irv decided to start some of our flowers and vegetables from seed. We had a kitchen table covered with trays of seedlings in various stages of development. It was fun watching them grow. He had tremendous success with green beans! He was so proud of them. Slowly he moved them to the deck to get some sun before he transplanted them into the garden.

One day Wrigley was outside and Irv had run to town to get something. I went to the back door to call her in and I looked at the deck and all I could say was, "Oh shit!" Irv's beautiful beans plants that were so tall and so strong and so healthy looking.....were now laying all over the deck and the yard. Little peat pots were shredded everywhere and dirt was scattered from one end of the deck to the other. The yard looked unreal with parts of bean plants and parts of the little pots just everywhere. How could one little dog destroy so many bean plants in such a short period of time.

Irv would surely kill the cute little dog when he got home....and even though I felt so bad for Irv I couldn't help laughing! I wish I could have seen a video of the rampage. I'll bet it was the funniest thing ever! She must have had so much fun. You can be sure he will be much more careful where he puts his little plants this year when he wants them to get some sun! (Little dogs that are left unattended, even for a short period of time get very bored and will search out their own entertainment.)

So, here it is February 1st and Irv has been busy gardening. Since he is doing this on a larger scale this year than last, he moved his project to the basement. In order to do that he had to rig up some warmth for the little guys. He hung some lovely black plastic around a big table, hung lights overhead, added a light underneath and presto, he has an instant greenhouse.

Understand, that we don't have a finished basement. It has a painted concrete floor and walls and a little rug, a tv and a couple little tables, so it isn't like he has taken over living space...it's just a basement.

I was actually thrilled that he decided to do this again this year. Not only did it produce a lot of great flowers last year for a lot less money than we normally spend on flats, but it gave Irv, the I hate winter so much and turn into an obnoxious human being by the middle of January, something to keep him busy. It also reminds him that spring will get here eventually!

I use to be the flower person in our family, but in 1998 I was diagnosed with melanoma, and since then the sun really isn't my friend. So, Irv has taken over all of the outside duties and I will occasionally find my way outside...covered with sunscreen and/or sunscreen clothing to say hi...and then I run back in the house. Well, I'm not quite that bad anymore, but I am very careful about the amount of time I spend in the sun...and trust me...it is very little.

I enjoy watch the plants grow, and it is so rewarding when you can plant the flowers outside in the yard and they blossom and look so beautiful, or your garden produces so much that you spend the entire summer giving it away!

So, now you know what old people like us do with our spare time in the middle of a midwestern winter. We shop and we garden!