Green tomatoes aplenty

When I heard the overnight low forecast for last night, I decided to pick the rest of the tomatoes off my 12 plants. 

Now I have a plethora of green babies that I'm hoping will ripen over time. 

Any hints on helping them along??

 

Sewing, gardening and painting

Not necessarily in that order. 

Or maybe I should have called this my 

late summer catch-up post.

Regardless of title...

I found a few fun garage sale deals this summer. Mostly storage items that had seen better days...such as a set of two copper canisters.  

Only one pictured. 

Not sure why,  other than laziness on my part.

I soaked all the black paint off using my favorite product Sol-u-mel and a scrubby pad. 

After carefully taping the rims of the copper tin where the lid fits down over, I gave them new life. 

The color is "celery". Not my first choice but what can a girl do when free is the price.  

Thank you County Reuse Center. 

The black I had on hand...although now I am out. Good colors like that don't generally end up at the recycle center.

Aside from painting the tins and a little bit of the lawn...oops...over-spray,
I've been sewing a lot!!

We've had a hot summer here in MN. Ways to stay cool are in high demand. 

If you may recall back at the 4th of July, I made a bunch of neck cooling wraps for the days festivities.

I carry a zipper bag of them with me all the time now because you wouldn't believe how often it has come up in conversation. 

People asking if I know where to get them.  Well yes, in fact, I do!  *grin*

In addition, I've been gardening. 

My green beans have been a disappointment this year, especially if compared to last years bumper crop.

My tomatoes are really starting to ripen and are oh so yummy.

Labor Day is quickly approaching...the kids head off to school the next day. 

It's bittersweet for me. 

I like the extra freedom I am allowed but I honestly miss them not being around. 

I won't miss the bickering or tattling. Geesh, when will that end?!?!

The homework, the early mornings and activities add a different layer that always takes a bit of adjustment as well. I've started my list of  "projects" to tackle once my time is mostly my own again. 

Until then...I'll be around haphazardly....

sometimes posting...sometimes silent.

No worries...I haven't gotten lost. 

Just soaking up the remainder of summer with the family.

 

A week in review

Since Independence Day fell smack in the middle of the week this year, Mr. G took a week's vacation. We've been busy...mostly with 4th of July festivities and trying desperately to stay cool during them.
To that end, my neighbor brought over some fabric and we started making neck coolers.  I was reminded of them while browsing Pinterest.
I think I stitched up about 20 of these...at least 4 being "little kid size". We kept them in a cooler of ice water during the parade so that everyone at our gathering could pull one out whenever they needed it.

I even sold the one off my neck to a carnival worker when the kids were playing games. I could have made a fortune ...and then promptly get a big fat fine from the city, I'd suppose.

By the way...your eyes aren't deceiving you in the above picture....it does look a little foggy. 
It's so humid today that my lens fogged. 
See...

Ah...that's better.


The garden is producing...snow peas, green beans and kohlrabi so far.




Ah crud... my ADD is showing again....
I got off track...
I was talking about the 4th of July.












While Mr. G was helping set up a canopy and such, I walked the kids to the carnival. I had them sit for a caricature. You can see one of those cooling neck wraps around Big J's neck.









The parade is always a great time....

Friends, food and fun right along the parade route closely followed by a water fight and more food. 

This little cork covered car had to be my favorite of the day.
That's a lot of wine!!

We're still trying to stay cool...current temp is .....

Yuck!!

The cool down is coming "they" say...I hope "they" are right.

See you next week...working on a project with bottle caps.

Landscape project

We finally tackled a project that we've been thinking of doing for quite some time. This multi-trunk tree is a beautiful accent to our yard but is a pain in the @$$ to mow around.  In fact, the last time I mowed around it I bent the throttle linkage on the mower from bashing into in the wrong way. Whoops!

Mr. G and I have no landscaping experience. We didn't have a clue what we were doing. During the process there was lots of sweat, a couple trips to Home Depot and a few cuss words muttered.

Today I planted the annuals, I picked up at 75% off, in pots. I decided to wait to plant perennials until next year. I have lots of hostas in need of division for starters.

I used a trick I learned on Pinterest for the pots.  Place a coffee filter in the bottom of the pots instead of a terracotta shard or rock to block the drainage hole. Genius!

The kids have been having a blast with all the trimmings around the yard as well. They've created some sort of "survivor-hunger games" type scenario. We've had up to 5 kiddos playing peacefully together with a 10 yr age span in total. Amazing!!

I love the imagination they can muster...check out the "campfire" with cooking spit.  

   

Missing Tea

I never realized that I'd be busy over summer.

Honestly, I don't know where the times goes.

I'm afraid my Tea Tuesday friends from Kimmie's blog may have forgotten about me or worse, thought I forgot about them.

I'm skipping the tea for today and going for a big glass of ice water.

We've had so much rain here. Now high temps and humidity...with more storms due tonight.

My garden is mud...

Luckily the plants aren't seeming to mind.

I've got tomatoes on every plant.

In addition to gardening, I've been "home-schooling" this summer. Trying to keep the kids brains engaged so they can retain the info they've already learned. 

Other craft goodness has been on the agenda as well. 

We just came home from knitting group... 

And I've been sewing as well. 

So I guess when you add up everything going on, it's not to difficult to see where the time went. 

What's keeping you busy this summer?

 

Garden and treasured tea

It's that busy time of year. 

Getting the garden prepped and planted. 

I started with my herbs that hang along the deck. I was able to over winter both a thyme and a flat leaf parsley this year. Additionally I started seeds early this Spring and picked up a couple small plants at the greenhouse yesterday. 

We love having fresh herbs in our food.

I have 12 tomato plants this year of 4 varieties that I started from seed back in mid-March. 

Six live here... along with some green onions and basil I'm hoping will sprout.

The other six are in the "big garden". They are sharing space with green beans, snow peas, kohlrabi and jalapenos.

I got the fence up immediately this year so  the wildlife wouldn't get any snacks from me.

This morning I saw that one of my book purses was this Etsy treasury.

Just had to share...makes me happy when something I've created is appeciated.

Lots of fun stuff was featured....

Are you gardening this year?

Thanks for stopping by for Tea Tuesday with Kimmie and the gang.

 

Garden 2012

 Preparation for this years garden has begun.  

All of my seeds have sprouted into these cute little seedlings...hooray!

I have 4 varieties of tomatoes, basil, mint, parsley, thyme and dill in one tray and petunias just getting started in the second. 

Not sure if  the flowers will be big enough by the time I want them outside but I had to try anyway.

The garden plot is waiting to be prepped as well.  

I haven't dared do any raking or hoeing since hurting my back. I've got plenty of time though, we usually don't plant anything outside until after Mother's Day. Then the chance of frost is pretty slim.

Can't wait to get the rest of the seeds into the ground! 

We love having a garden to eat from.

 

Heirloom Tea

My garden harvest is winding down...so

I've started the process of saving seeds for next years garden. This way I'm creating my own heirloom seeds. This is what I've collected thus far. 

I'm waiting for a 3 other tomato plants to ripen so that we may sample the goods and see if they are worth saving.  

I got those plants from my psuedo-sister-in-law so I don't even know what they are called. 

Do you save seeds? Vegetables? Flowers?

I save them all....it's fun to see what comes of it and besides that-

IT"S FREE!!

Stop by Kimmie's blog  to see what she my Tea Tuesday friends are up to today. 

I'm heading there next myself.

BTW-Kimmie also has a wonderful gardening blog that can be found on her side bar.

Tea Tuesday: Enjoying the garden

On yet another beautiful morning, I am having a little quiet time on the deck before diving into the day.

Days like today remind me why we put up with the extremes of Minnesota weather.  

We've been blessed with an abundant garden once I figured out how to keep the critters at bay. The fencing and the flags along with an occasional sprinkle of blood meal seem to have done the trick.

I've picked a couple ice cream buckets full of green beans...  

Enough snow peas for stir-fry and munching...

Several big, yummy cucumbers 

with more on the way...

Very soon I'll have more tomatoes than I know what to do with...

I can't wait!

And by the way...

our leaves are starting to turn... 

just a few here and there. 

What a short growing season!

Drop by my friend Kimmie's blog to see what's going on with my tea Tuesday pals.

What are you doing today?

Flags and a garden update

So I go out to check the side garden this morning and the deer have eaten the tops off my green beans and snow pea plants. Wasn't that nice of them...pesky things.  So I decided that maybe some flags would scare them...create some movement...and generally get in the way of their snacking. Bonus...I think they look cute.  We'll see what happens.

The garden box is also doing very well.  There are tons of little green tomatoes on the plants. 

Check it out ... 

Nature is funny at times.

First harvest

The weather has taken a turn for the better so I took my coffee outside this morning.

We decided it was time to start harvesting some from the garden. It's nice to have little hands to help in the garden.


Have a great day!!