crosspost from my other blog--heirloom garden seeds

I posted this Current column last March, and since it's already time again to plan gardens, now's the time to revisit the seed issue.  Heirloom seeds are important to me, as is supporting local businesses, so I plan to buy my Botanical Interest seeds again from Allisonville Nursery.  Almost time to rig up the grow-light in the basement again and coax the seeds into seedlings!

i sew capri suns, and, in the garden, verbena bonariensis

I ventured out into the world of sewing capri suns this week--easy and fun!  We've been hanging on to these and cut the tops off just enough to open and rinse them.  Then I got 9 in. zippers and we made pencil pouches. 

First I sewed 2 capri suns together with the tops facing each other, repeated, and then sewed the zipper in the middle.  Perfect!

Then I folded in half and sewed the 3 sides closed.  This all took maybe 5 minutes.

Voila!

I made 2--one for Grace and one for Eric.  They LOVE them.  I'm sure I'll make more.  They're nice and crinkly too. I plan to sew some larger bags at some point, and am working on a lunch bag for Grace.  Grace wove a pop can tab belt and it's a hit.  Her friends and classmates think it's pretty cool.  Love recycling, especially making something funky and fun.

So this is not a great pic, but I have this awesome verbena bonariensis growing in my front flower beds.  I love it so much.  I must have planted one at some point (I can hardly remember year to year) and now it's reseeding.  It's so light and airy.  My flower beds are going crazy, and it's been so hot I don't like working out there.  But I need to suck it up, because the weeds are taking over.

Loving these moments, and growing sprouts

I took this picture yesterday, a beautiful sunny morning.  As I pegged each diaper on the line (oh, I love my clothesline), and looked at the ragged edges (how many times have they been washed?  200?  300?  More?)  I thought how fleeting this time is.  Calvin will be out of diapers soon, and then this baby time is gone forever.  We're on the cusp of having a teenager in the house too, and a fiesty kindergartner and a second grader.  Yeah, time could slow down just a wee bit.

And recently I found my beautiful little 25 cent copy of Wild Oats stores bulk foods guide.  In it is a page on how to sprout nuts and seeds.  I remember my Grandma had a little clipping of how to sprout mung beans inside her cupboard, but I never saw her or anyone do it.  I forayed into it way back then, years ago, and then somehow got out of the groove (how and why?!)  So I started again, right now we're sprouting lentils and plan to do many more. Black beans and kidney beans next maybe? I told Grace 'We're sprout farmers!'.  It's ridiculously easy and fun.  I joked with Rob that I could turn our counters into a sprout farm.  He said that would change my farm classification (because for SOME reason I'm listed in farm directories as owning a farm.  For real.  My main crop?  Agave.)  We could make a million dollars.

And I miss my Wild Oats store (yes, i know Whole Foods bought W.O.  i liked W.O. better...).  We used to live within walking distance of a Wild Oats for a short time.  But even better would be a locally owned bulk and local foods store right on the courthouse square.  Yes indeed.  If only I had that million dollars...

earth hour & gardening update, and Sweet Papery

We celebrated Earth Hour last Saturday from 8:30-9:30 pm.  I thought it was/is a great way to consider the environment, and a tangible and uniting way for humans to show their desire to conserve our limited resources.  So while looking for candles to light, I got this basket of tealights down from my cupboard and looked at it lovingly.  It's special to me, as my friend Kristen gave it to me when she gave me a blessingway when I was pregnant with Lily.  So those candles were first lit then, almost 5 yrs. ago.  They were lit again when I was in labor and about to have Lily (I think??  Or there might not have been time.  *I* sure didn't light them).  Then they were lit again when I was laboring with Calvin.  These candles provided the only light (except for the flashlight) when he was born at 1:30 am.  Nostalgia!

So anyway, we lit candles and ate popcorn and read stories.  We talked about how when this house was built, there was no electricity, only candles and lamps.  How different the world was then!  And hard to imagine, but fun to try to by candlelight. 

Our seeds are sprouting!  We're 12 days post planting.  Not all are up yet, so I'm anxiously awaiting that.  Outside the lilacs are leafing out like crazy, daffodils and hyacinths are blooming, peonies and hostas are coming up, too.  And I can hardly believe today is April 1st!  I thought it was still March for part of the day, disbelieving it can really be April.

We met some friends at the Children's Museum today for the first time and had a great time.  We (my internet friends and I) laugh about meeting our 'imaginary' internet friends.  I feel so grateful to know so many great women, near and far. 

Just got an email from Sweet Papery :

Happy April Fool's Day!

We love a good joke, but we love a good sale even more. Starting Friday and ending on Sunday we are offering our favorite customers (that's you!) 25% off your entire order. Just go to our website: www.sweetpapery.com and enter the following coupon code when checking out: tomfoolery

I love their stamps!  I have this one: 

garden 2010 & happy Spring!

The gardens are multiplying this year!  Grace decided she wanted to do a flower garden of her very own, so the beautiful Saturday (oh, how glad I am that this cold, rainy day is happening on a Monday, and not over the weekend) we dug out a 5 by 6 patch in the side yard.  This turned out to be quite funny.  When I told her where to stake it, I said to stake it out 'around the dogwood tree' and she literally did--the dogwood was right in the middle!  So I said 'no, I meant near the tree...here, move it closer to the porch, with the tree being the center point and mark off a few feet on each side', which somehow was again misinterpreted, ala Amelia Bedelia.  We were laughing. 

Rob also built me a real compost bin!  Which I'm so excited about.  And 2 more 4x8 raised beds.  That plus the edges all around that I'm going to also plant in means I'm more than doubling the vegetable gardens.

Yesterday we tucked tiny seeds into their little dirt beds and whispered 'grow, grow' and watered and set them up in the basement with their grow light.  We'll be anxiously awaiting them to come poking up.

This is what we planted indoors:

herbs:
basil
lime basil
sweet basil
english thyme

tomatoes:
green zebra
black krim
yellow pear
ace
paul robeson
green sausage

various:
brussels sprouts
mexican sour gherkin cucumbers
jelly melon kiwano

flowers:
love in a mist
verbena
snapdragons
celosia

This is what we'll sow outside:

flowers:
zinnia
sweet peas
cosmos

vegs:
spinach
scallions
beets
sugar snap peas
parsnips
carrots--muscade, tonda di parigi, royal chantenay, danvers

...will we have enough garden space???

glimpses of my garden

Pictures taken around our backyard this week.  Tulips. daffodils, peonies, lilacs!  We have 2 baby lilacs, the smallest of which is only 4" tall.  Lils and I checked on it yesterday and it's budding too.  We danced around and sang 'it's alive, it's alive, it's alive!'

This weekend we'll be planting seeds.  Welcome, spring!

the winds of change

...can you feel it?  It's coming.  I'm feeling it this week.

The world is waking up, though it still looks mostly dead. 

But it's not.

We're using this warm weather inspiration to work in the garden.  I took up the bricks that I had put all the way to the edges between these 2 raised beds and am using them as a walkway on the ends here.  We'll be more than doubling our garden this year (yeah!) and I'll use that space to plant carrots or similar.

So there will be lots of grass diggin' up, lots of raised bed building, and lots of planting coming up here.

'Grandma and Grandpa in the Garden'

taken last May during the building of these 2 raised beds.  2 more to come!

a little of the mundane (which is exciting in its own way) & more about hoopn

Tonight I cut up some of these containers into little food containers with flaps to fold down.  I always hate to throw them away, can they be recycled??  There is nothing on them to indicate that they can, so I thought it'd be better to at least let them get a little more mileage this way.  The little pint ones are GREAT for packing in lunches, and not a big deal if they get lost/damaged. 

You could put little velcro self adhesive tabs on, like above, but those aren't too cheap.  It works as well to just fold the flaps in, as shown in the top picture.

In other news, I had a really, really great time last night hoopin' at a Lite-Hearted meeting.  I did a demo and let everyone try and wow, they did great.  They were so enthusiastic.  I loved seeing all the hoops spinning around...and I wished I had my camera!  It was so awesome.  I loved spreading the hooping love!  I also sold nine hoops, bringing my total hoops sold count to 18!  That plus my other hoops in stock and the ones I own means I have made something like 40 hoops.  I hope to make many more.  I am just thrilled to get others introduced to the wonderful world of hooping!

I had an article published today about safe seed companies/avoiding GM seeds.  You can see it here.

Seed love

Yesterday I stopped by this nursery to pick up a couple of packets of seeds in anticipation of spring (still a ways off, I know) and somehow ended up with 17 packets.  Yes, 17.  Oh my. 

Pros:

*purchased from a small independent business which is so incredibly important. 

*they are heirlooms, which fits my ethics and desire to grow unusual (nowadays) things, plus I am really annoyed angered by GMO's and Monsanto.

*they are so awesome--I mean, who can resist tomatoes called 'Black Krim'?

*my children will LOVE growing these together.

*we will LOVE eating these together (well, not the flowers)

Cons:

*where on earth (ha, ha) will I be planting 17 packets worth of seeds?  I see much garden work ahead, many more gardens to be made, somehow, some way.  Poor Rob.

And I had to post this today as my fb status update, since I read it last night and went 'WOW.' 

To live as closely as possible to the numinous wild a woman must do more head tossing, more brimming, have more sniffling intuition, more creative life, more 'get down dirty,' more solitude, more women's company, more natural life, more fire, more spirit, more cooking of words and ideas. She must do more recognition of sorority, more seeding, more root stock-keeping, more kindness to men, more neighborhood revolution, more poetry, more painting of fables and facts, longer reaches into the wild feminine.

~Clarissa Pinkola Estes, from Women Who Run with the Wolves

flowers, vegetables, vintage & other stuff

Anyone who knows Lily knows the girl loves to pick flowers. So the other night I set her loose to pick a bouquet of shasta daisies and coneflowers. She went to town.

I'm working on a fabric birthday book for my (gasp) almost one year old. I printed these images on fabric...only I realized after the fact that they are not waterproof. Trying to decide what to do now. Spray them with a clear coat? I could, but I don't want them to be stiff and scratchy. Hmm.

first tomato haul from the garden! Eric was so proud to pick his 'babies'--yellow pear and chocolate stripe tomatoes.

Went to an annual church rummage sale today--and SCORE!! Got this wool dinosaur rug for Eric's room by Pottery Barn Kids. $20.

Grace found this for me--a vintage music box that plays Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I have a Jack and Jill one from when I was little, but it's really beat up. This one is in great shape. 50 cents.

And a twin Holly Hobby vintage sheet set. What's cool about this is that I had this same set when I was a girl. I still have the pillow cases, but I don't have the sheets anymore. I remember many hot summer nights lying in my bed on my HH sheets reading a book with the window fan blowing over me. Sweet memories. This was $2.
I love, love, love vintage books. I've never seen this one, it's by Margaret Wise Brown. Very sweet. 25 cents.
Here we have a school reader full of stories, a vintage Jack and the Beanstalk, and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (a must for every cook, don't you think?) 1.50 for all 3.

I am also a sucker for milk glass, though let it be known that I did pass up a bunch of it today. I got this vase for 25 cents.

A friend of mine found this under her house and gave it to me. Sweet! I haven't seen a lid like this before.