A Little Bit of Gardening

Well, summer is off to a great start!  I spent over a week visiting family in Illinois, which means I can finally show you some of the birthday presents I made for my niece...but more on that later.  I wanted to share this quick post about my spring/early summer gardening adventure.  I took some of these pictures a while back and thought it was about time I post them.

It all started back in March when I was inspired by this post at Young House Love.  I thought, hmmm...maybe I should try starting our herbs from seeds this year.  So, I went out and picked up an indoor greenhouse and a few different herbs that we tend to use on a regular basis.  It was sort of nice to see a little bit of spring start to sprout in our very cold Connecticut apartment.

By May they were ready to be re-planted outside...

We had the starts of Rosemary, Parsley, Basil, Oregano, Lavender, and Cilantro for our little herb garden...plus Catnip to draw our curious baby cats away from the other herbs!  We planted them each in their own little pot, and also picked up a few flowers to plant.  Now, this being my first independent container-gardening adventure, I encountered a few bumps along the way.  Well, actually one major bump, but it was entirely fixable.

After a few weeks of spring rains, I realized that the large pot of flowers was looking like this...

Not good!  Obviously I had a bit of a drainage problem.  So, I went about on a rescue mission to save my drowning flowers.  After buying some much needed supplies, including rocks for the bottom of the planter, I was ready to tackle the water problem.  With a trusty turkey baster (that later went through the dish washer twice...just to make sure), I was able to siphon off most of the standing water, retrieve my drowning plants, and start all over again.  Now, don't worry, I didn't just throw the sopping wet soil aside, I just redistributed it over some already existing flowerbeds in the yard where it could slowly dry out.

As I was checking everything out to see what all was contributing to the problem (aka...was I just a bad beginning gardener, or was the pot also working against me), I turned the planter over and found this...

That's right, a large planter with two...count them two drainage holes!  Luckily this was easy to fix and after about 2 minutes with my handy drill I had this...

A large planter with 17 drainage holes.  Much better.  I proceeded to fill the bottom of the planter with rocks and replant my flowers.

You can see the freshly planted herbs in the background.  I did end up losing a few of my small white edge flowers.  I think they had been too far gone when I discovered the problem and didn't survive the transplanting.  However, most things made it and I think they are looking pretty good right about now.

Here is a view of the deck container garden as of a few days ago.

 The flowers are all blooming and the herbs are doing great!  And yes, the catnip is at the bottom of the stairs so the baby cats can get to it easily.  Everything started off just sitting in a clump on this side of the deck (it gets the most sun), but we wanted to change it up a little.  We went hunting and found the crate and the stairs hanging around the apartment unused, so Jess decided this would be a perfect use for them.  And judging from this picture, not only was she right, but also it might be about time to make some pesto!

Have you done any container gardening?  Did you have instant success or end up on a learning curve like me?  Or just re-purpose anything from around the house lately? 

A Great Week

Well, I think I have finally recovered from last week's Brimfield excursion.  We've managed to get our Brimfield trips down pretty well...we know which vendors have stuff we like, where the prices are good, and who is willing to haggle.  We've also figured out how to see everything we want to see and get in and out in under 6 hours!  Granted, when we decide to make the trek without a trusty list in hand and predetermine to just wander around and look for what inspires us, well....those trips are a bit longer...

This, was not one of those trips.  We managed to get very lucky and found the most desired and largest item on our list (a club-style chair for the living room) towards the beginning of the day, which meant we knew exactly how much room was left in the car for bringing home other treasures.  It is always fun to see people stop and watch us as we carefully maneuver our treasures into our Pontiac Vibe...it isn't a large vehicle, but as we are fond of saying "it may be small, but we know exactly how big it is."  Here is what we brought home...

And yes, our beautiful cat Annie thinks that we bought it just for her sleeping enjoyment!  Ah well, whatever keeps her happy...as long as she shares.

Here is a glimpse of some items that did not make it home with us, but were sufficiently drooled over...

 

Our circa 1912 bride just barely didn't come home with us.  We found her at the end of the day and by then had already spent our budget for the event..and I was trying to be good.  So instead, I just snapped this quick picture and will look for her again in July.  Doubtful she'll still be there, but you never know at Brimfield.

After our weekend trip, we had a nice week of good weather and managed to enjoy some of it with a friend of ours.  It was our first real dinner guest at our new place.  We made veggie kabobs with homemade bbq sauce, grilled pineapple, fresh tomatillo salsa, and potatoes with onions and sage...and awesome vegan apple cinnamon cupcakes for dessert!  We didn't have our table project finished yet (which you will all get to see eventually) so we ate out on the back deck and used the deck box as a table.  Of course it was dressed up with some vintage linens from my Aunt and our awesome serving dishes.

Yay for friends and a good week.  Here's hoping this coming week is just as great.

Have you found any treasures lately?  Had to pass something up because you were "being good?"  Or just had a friend over to enjoy a nice Spring evening?

Decorating Yourself for Spring

I love how inspiring spring is!  Everything starts blooming, the weather turns nice and the people and animals come out for some much needed sunshine.  Oh, and my favorite thing happens...the lilacs start to bloom :-)

With all the inspiration coming my way with spring finally in New England, combined with the fabulousness of the Royal Wedding (particularly all the hats and fascinators), I decided to get out some of my favorite hair decorations. 

I like this one because it is simple and it goes with everything since the feathers have black, brown, and white.

I love wearing this one with a ponytail so the headband gets hidden and all that's left to see is the wire and beaded flower. 

After all the inspiration from this week, I think I'll be making a few more fascinators before the spring is over!


Did the glamour of the Royal Wedding inspire you?

Earth Day and Puffins

Happy Late Earth Day and Happy Early Spring!!!!

In celebration of Earth Day, I decided to wear one of the earth-inspired felt pins I made this winter.  They provided a great way to think of the coming spring in the middle of the cold snowy winter we had this year.

I had a hard decision to make...ultimately the tree won out because it celebrated Earth Day and Spring.

I hope everyone had a happy Easter, and is having a great start to Spring.  This is what Spring looks like around here...

These were taken across the way at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.  They have some beautiful grounds.

This morning, before continuing our early spring activities (taking walks and spring cleaning) we tried a new recipe....Puffins!  A puffin is a tiny pancake-muffin from Bakerella.  And they are delicious!!!

We had ourselves a little Puffin Picnic with real maple syrup, peanut butter, butter maple syrup, and blueberry syrup.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :-)

I hope you all had a great weekend.


How do you celebrate Earth Day and Spring?