2015 Garden Plans

Oy. Gardening. I feel like I have a lot that I want to do but so little time/money to get it all done.

And that's ok.

For right now!

Last year I planted pollinating plants on one side of the boulevard. Unfortunately I didn't get to the people that were re-seeding the construction areas in time so this year I'll be killing grass (naturally) and then adding in more mulch and a few more bee and butterfly friendly plants. So far I've got Bearded Lilies, Daylillies, and some random daisies. I want to move more daisies down to the boulevard and then also plant maybe another rose bush and more Bee Balm. Bee Balm spreads, so I'm hoping that if I move a few stalks when I see them come up in a few weeks, they'll spread for next year. Between plants I'll put down newspaper that I've been saving up to cut down on weeds and then mulch over the newspaper. I'm positive that my neighbors will like mulch instead of newspaper. It has to be somewhat attractive, right???

Then, since Rusty died (sad face here, poor Rusty), he won't be around to kill all the plants in the backyard. He's killed anemones, bee balm, basil, hostas, boxwood bushes, grass, and countless other flowers that I've tried to plant. He was so tall he was even able to pee in pots. That ASSHOLE.

In any case, the Monkey's great-uncle bought her a little gardening kits with seeds that we've started. I've allocated approximately 10 square feet for her little seeds and garden area - since she planted the seeds randomly in the seed-starting kit, it will really be a crapshoot as to what comes up (possibly peas, tomatoes, flowers, or something else, I don't remember). To get that area ready I'm going to need a pitchfork, and the compost from the bin to turn the soil over. We just don't have a big enough area to justify getting or even renting a tiller. No big deal. She can dig in the soil with me.

In the front, I'm going to get more newspaper down in the big beds and cover it with mulch. I've just decided I've really had it with as much weeding as I've done in the past (but not all weeds are bad - a lot of weeds provide food for bugs and birds. Weeds can be a great distraction for pesky insects that would otherwise feed on your nice flowers!). So that should cut down on my "garden work" this year. Plus the mulch that I buy is extremely cheap and pretty much composts back into the ground and helps to make the garden soil better. I'm thinking I'll need close to 20 bags of mulch (not including what will be happening at my mother-in-law's garden, which is also part of the reason why I'm mulching so much at home, we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer getting her house ready for sale).

So garden planning. Yeah. I've got my work cut out for me but that's ok. I LOVE gardening so I don't mind doing all this work. In the end, the flowers bloom and I get to enjoy it all!

I Want A Giant Metal Chicken Sculpture

Or another giant animal sculpture for my front yard.

I guess I don't really care what animal it is (it could be an alligator jumping out of the front garden), I just want some sort of giant metal animal sculpture. I think most of our neighbors would laugh. Some would frown. At least one would probably call me "That Weird Hippie Lady With The Ugly Sculpture." And that's fine with me.

I JUST WANT A GIANT ANIMAL SCULPTURE.

So I'm buying Bimmer Man a welder for our garage.

Either I will make it myself (and hopefully not burn anything down).

Or Bimmer Man will help me.

Or I will bribe someone with beer.

But come Hell or High Water, I'm getting my giant animal sculpture.

More Stuff Is Gone - Thanks to the DAV

Every time I've called the Disabled American Veterans to come and pick up "stuff" we no longer need or use, the pick up time they've given me has been MONTHS out... and that's a good thing! It means more people are donating their stuff! WOO HOO!!!

But then a few weeks ago, I actually got a phone call from them saying that they would have a truck in our neighborhood and they would have room for stuff from our house.

I pretty much jumped for joy. This means I wouldn't have to load up the back of the Pilot and wait in line at the local Goodwill (I don't donate to the Salvation Army because of discrimination, I still draw the line at donating stuff...), haul the Monkey in the back with her asking questions all.the.time.

But I only had four days to get BOXES ready.

As it turns out - I went through my closet (AGAIN) and found 2 garbage bags of clothes - mostly work clothes that I realized either wouldn't fit or that would need to be updated anyway if/when I go back to work and a bunch of old college T-shirts and sweatshirts. Enough already. I had that box sitting since last Fall and freaking forgot about it. Time to go!

Books, an old pot, more books, some home decor that I haven't used in months, and even some toys and Monkey's old clothes that I knew she wouldn't wear (because if it's not pink, polka-dots, or stripes, she won't be wearing it. I can't go shopping without her!). I even tossed in some children's books that we don't read anymore or that weren't interesting or they were just plain dumb. Bimmer Man even donated some clothes. And yarn. I DONATED YARN. I donated yarn that I knew I wouldn't use but happened to come upon it for free - it seems that I happen to come upon lots of yarn for free. I'll still have to go through a few balls and decide if I'm actually going to make something or not but in four days I didn't have time to go through all my drawers. Next time I'll have to focus on an area and just de-clutter that.

Oh My Goodness. It was such a relief to just set everything out on the front step. I didn't have to do anything else. WOOT!!!

I think it's amazing at the amount of "stuff" I've already gotten rid of and then I can find more.

It's that weird moment when you look at something and think... "If I were traveling for a year, would I bring it with me?" If the answer is no, then out it goes.

At some point I will have to get rid of some camera equipment and bags, I have two that I absolutely LOVE, one that is easy to carry and another HUGE one that can carry all of my equipment. I've already gotten rid of reflectors, a few lens, and another camera bag.

Bimmer Man still wants my old camera to use as a track camera because I don't really care if it gets grease on it or gets dropped and breaks. That's fine. I've had all the use I can get out of it so no loss there if it gets broken. I'm sure it could ultimately be repaired anyway.

But my ultimate goal: Spring is coming. I want to spend less time inside cleaning and caring for stuff. I want to be outside in the garden, biking, walking, hiking, spending time at the park, and in general... just to be outside. That's what is important to me.

Someone Turned 3

This little one turned 3. And holy buckets, it's like she's already a teenager. This is such a FUN age though - we can have actual conversations, she plays well by herself, she cleans up after herself, AND I can give her chores to do. It's pretty freaking awesome. 

Life has been busy. 

We've now been invited to THREE destination weddings. Within about 4 months of each other. OY.

All people that we dearly love, but man... so EXPENSIVE. I'm not sure we can pull it all off. I don't know when destination weddings became so popular - it's like eloping... but inviting people...

In any case, I'm trying to learn of all the craft fairs in the Twin Cities area - not exactly in the Cities because people don't shop at craft fairs - instead they shop at Target where items are cheap, so that makes selling handmade items pretty difficult. I just can't lower my prices to the side of sweatshop cheap, not only do I lose money but I don't make enough money to buy new supplies for more items. Craft fairs are much more popular out in the sticks because there's really not much else to do AND there aren't as many shops to buy items - which means that selling out in the suburbs and in the rural areas is much better for crafters (however, if it's a home-base business like Norwex or something, I have no idea of what the market is like). 

So, this Spring I'm making hats instead of scarves (which I got a little bored of), I have some new Wool of the Andes yarn which works up beautiful and some new cotton. Hats abound. WOO HOO.

Blogging sort of took a back seat these past few weeks as I've been trying to get SO MUCH STUFF done, including laundry and Spring cleaning. The weather should be better this week which means we can be outside. YAY!!!

Happy Monday! Have a great week!

So Crazy Busy Lately/Vintage Plastic Tile

My mother-in-law is going to be selling her house so we'll be helping her get a few things repaired and updated. I've been at Menard's so many times in the past week and now I've got a ton of prices and information swirling around in my brain.

Our basement is getting there... slowly but surely...

And it snowed yesterday but this weekend it will probably melt which means that this was most likely the last snow of the season. That's too bad - I was really hoping for at least one really good blizzard to satisfy my winter soul. Oh, well.

I also need to get some seeds started, I've been saving egg cartons and next I'll have to get some organic seed starting mix and probably lose at least one jelly roll pan to the seed starting. That's ok, but hopefully it will warm up enough so I won't have to grow the seeds on our dining room table and I can stick them out on the porch... one can hope, right?

Also, if anyone is interested in buying 1950's vintage plastic wall tile, or knows anyone that is interested (renovating a vintage camper???), please, please let me know! I've got a whole bathroom of this stuff, I'd really rather have it re-used than end up in the dump.

4 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch tiles
3x9 black bullnose
1/2 detail tile

Trying Something New

Well, in my attempt to declutter I found a small treasure. Back when Bimmer Man and I got married we received an awesome gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma. I bought a Le Creuset grill pan. Little did I know that the color I bought would be discontinued. I have been searching for these green Le Creuset pans for years... and they no longer stock the Chartreuse which is really too bad so I need to find a new color to covet.

And I stopped using the grill pan because I wanted something a little bit different - one with a flat side to make pancakes and something that covered two burners.

Into the back of the cabinet it went.

Now, in attempt to use it I'm putting it into my regular assortment of pots and pans.

It's also the start of Lent tomorrow which means that we'll be eating a lot more fish and seafood and a lot more vegetarian meals (I know, God doesn't really care if we actually eat meat or not, it's really about the sacrifices and good things you do, but I digress). 

So in 41 days we shall see if I have actually used this and how much I really use it.

I may just keep it hanging because it looks pretty. 

Who knows.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Keep On De-Cluttering

I think I've reached the point where it's now getting to the hard stuff to de-clutter.

More sentimental items.

Possibly more furniture.

Or possibly not.

I'm not sure, I guess we sort of have to live a bit with the less stuff and see how things go. I think I still have too many kitchen appliances and kitchen gadgets so I'm going to need to go through my drawers AGAIN. I can think of two baking dishes that I don't use off the top of my head so those are going to go into my "Donate" box.

I tossed two more pairs of pants into the Donate box and I think I have at least two more sweaters that can go.

I'm going to have to clear out some more books. And more children's books. I want at least one empty shelf in the living room book case. Somehow, having one empty shelf makes me feel better.

I donated extra towels, which I haven't felt that pinch yet - I don't think we will anyway. We still have at least 10 towels for 3 of us, so I do laundry every other day, we should always have at least two clean towels around here.

The basement is slowly but surely getting finished. I need to go through two more boxes in our storage area, hopefully toss a few things and donate a few things to have more room. I'm thinking about getting one more storage shelf - but not until next fall when we have to bring the outdoor toys and stuff inside again. There's one storage box that is empty and HUGE that needs to go. It's been empty for YEARS except for random crap we've tossed in.

OH. AND I HAVE A BED FRAME THAT NEEDS TO GO.

We put it outside for the last garage we had but it had no takers. So, I'm thinking it's going to be donated to Goodwill, it's a 4 post bed that's in GREAT shape but it just doesn't fit our style anymore. I'd rather have just a frame until we're ready for something new (or not) instead. It filled up our bedroom and made it seem so much smaller. Time for that to go!

Bah. Back to de-cluttering.

Happy Monday!!

YAY!!! SNOW!!! Oh, wait... RAIN!!!

I'm pretty sure I need to return my snowshoes if I want it to snow.

When I bought them back in November I was so certain that it would snow. A lot.

And it didn't.

We've had a handful of snow storms that have been accumulations of only 3-4 inches and then it's melted.

BUT I WANT SNOW.

I've been super jealous of the Boston snow storms lately and it's because all I want to do is get outside in the snow.

One of my goals that I want to achieve this year is to bring Simone out snowshoeing in deep snow. I know that she can snowshoe because after a 4 inch snow we went down to the park where she RAN in her snowshoes up and down the big hill, went around the pond and in and out of snowbanks. She was really great at walking in her snow shoes but I think they also slowed her down a little (which was great for me, it meant that I didn't have to run in my snowshoes!).

Sometimes I think Mother Nature is against me.

But probably not next year. Maybe next year we'll end up with 6 feet of snow and Simone and I will have to snowshoe up to the co-op with a makeshift sled to get supplies. HA.

SNOW. I JUST WANT SNOW!

Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup

I'm fairly certain that if Bimmer Man could only eat one soup for the rest of his life he would have a VERY hard time deciding between Zuppa Toscana and Byerly's Minnesota Wild Rice with Chicken soup. I would take Zuppa Toscana.

Simple, delicious, easy to make, and well, I'd consider it fairly healthy. But I'm also NOT a nutritionist and I'm sure a nutritionist would say LEAVE OUT THE CREAM. LEAVE OUT THE CREAM. No, oh, no, I would NEVER leave out the cream. That's what makes it so delicious. Even the Monkey eats this - though she's also been on a soup kick lately, so I've been trying to make as many soups as I can to decipher exactly what my toddler will eat (which is a feat in itself...).

Gather your delicious supplies - basically kale, potatoes, shallots, chicken stock and not pictured is the sausage - I used a bulk sausage instead of sausage in casings. If it's in casings, you can either just slice it to brown it or take it out of the casings. No big deal. Olive Garden doesn't peel their potatoes, I like my potatoes peeled, pick whatever you want. 

Brown the sausage first with the shallots and some garlic. Then add in the chicken stock, potatoes, kale, some salt and pepper. Let it simmer for 25 - 35 minutes or until potatoes are nice and soft.

I wanted to make this so I could freeze it. I put cream in each bowl to serve instead of in the soup. Cream soups that I've frozen have NEVER turned out as well after re-heating. It's like the cream curdles or it just doesn't taste quite right.

Copy Cat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

1 lb sausage - I like mild Italian sausage for this

4 Russet potatoes cut into bite size pieces

1 - 2 shallots, chopped (if you like onions, use 2)

1 - 2 bunches of kale, chopped into bite size pieces (I used 1 1/2 bunches of kale because I like kale)

2 cartons of chicken stock (I used 2 cartons of Kirkland brand from Costco)

3 garlic cloves, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Cream - just enough to serve, so 1 - 2 tbsp per person

Brown the sausage and drain it.

Saute the shallots with the garlic until translucent. Add back the sausage. Add in the potatoes, half the stock, then add in more stock if you want it "soupier." Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Add in the kale and simmer another 15 - 20 minutes.

Serve with 1 - 2 tbsp of cream in each bowl. 

I froze the rest of the soup in family size portions - then I just buy fresh cream when I serve this for dinner or lunch.

1,000 Posts - Time to Celebrate - Giveaway Time!!!

I hit 1,000 posts on my blog. It took me YEARS to do... unlike lots of blogs out there today... I just don't have the time to post several things daily to hit a posting number of 1,000 in a year or 6 months or whatever. I've come a long way... from Minnesota to Indiana and back again to Minnesota!

In celebration of everything I've posted (food, home decor, crochet, dog stuff, kid stuff, organizing stuff, random posts, stories about my daily life), I've decided to do a fabulous giveaway!

Now you might ask... how do you enter? 

Easy!

Just comment on this post. 

I'll enter in the number of comments into the random number generator at random.org and voila! That number comment wins! I'll contact you via e-mail (whatever is connected to your Blogger ID, if you comment anonymously, well, then I can't contact you and you don't win). If you don't e-mail me back with your address within 3 days, I'll go back to the number generator and then next person will win.

The drawing will CLOSE on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5. Winner announced on the 6th. 

Open to continental US residents only.

Now, onto the prize. 

It's a cowl - cream, one of my most popular cowls this past season and since it's still cold in Minnesota and across the country, well, I think it's perfect.

Good luck!!!