Gardening success

We have had a bit of fun in our backyard this year. I planted onions. Phoebe planted strawberries. Our compost grew decorative gourds.

These gourds are the coolest! They have thin necks and fluted sides. I bought them at the grocery store last year for Halloween. This year, the compost gave us a new batch! If you look by Phoebe's knee, you will see a little yellow thing. That is a baby gourd. The little ones are so cute! There are like 30 growing on this vine that we have done nothing to! No water. No weeding. No nothing. Next year, I want to try loofas and see if they just grow like this.

Some underground critter got to a section of my onions and ate the roots and pushed them up. So, we got an early tiny onion harvest. They were delicious in our chili and chicken meals. Phoebe even ate them!

In addition to the ground critter, some insect laid eggs on them. These are very cool looking. I have no clue what did it, but I like it!

Here is a strawberry plant. They aren't huge, but Phoebe has gotten a couple of good ones. The dogs also got one, to Phoebe's chagrin.

Next year, I am adding green onions, garlic, artichokes, and loofa. I am hoping to do some square foot gardening, too. If I do that, I want tomatoes and bell peppers. We go through peppers and onions something fierce and to have those in our garden would be sublime!

What to do with wood?

I got these wood trays salvaged from retail unused bliss. Basically, these were used for clothing display, but once the displays get redone, out these go. It isn't very often that you get really cool, good-looking trash like this! But, let's face it, they are big, wide trays. I can't put a cast iron pot on it since they aren't that strong. I was going to put a lazy susan on it to use for game, but they were too thin. So, I slapped on some scrapbook paper I liked and hung them in my bedroom hallway. I put a tiny, white flower button on the nail to add a little more jazz and cover up an ugly nail.
I am thinking of rotating them to hang diagonal for some real spice!

Future mangosteen kitchen curtains

My sister's visit is going too fast! Every turn offers more hilarity!

She is inspiring my craftiness to new heights as we have made (I made-she supervised) a removable cover for our "coffee table," an embroidered stool cover, and refinished a breakfast tray and TV tray.

While searching for some interesting fabric to mock up some diaper bags/purses, we stumble upon bolts of this fabric.

Ahh, just as the humble Artichoke is undervalued and ignored, so is the illustrious mangosteen.

Desk redux

Mike's dad's desk's (had to go with the listing of apostrophes there) refinishing project is coming along like a charm.
Here he is wiping it down to prep for staining. Stay tuned for the finished project!

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