7 Things For a Happy Monday

1) A cloudy, chilly morning. Maybe not so great for swimming lessons at 10:30am (imagine a pool full of screaming, shivering toddlers clutching at their mothers) but great for me none the less. "June Gloom" already? Sounds good to me!

2) Gardenias in bloom. Gardenias are one of my most loved things on this planet. They were our wedding flower!

3) Greek-style honey yogurt. And plums. Daaaang.

4) Paper cutting while the babe naps. Can't wait to show you what I'm working on.

5) Plans for cafe curtains in the kitchen!

6) Bootcamp class tonight. Yay! I haven't worked out since last Thursday and I've got so much pent up energy needing to get out!

7) Pushing Daisies is back! Well, sort of. It's still been cancelled, but ABC is finally airing the last 3 episodes that have been shot. The first one was on last Saturday night and the other two will be on the next two Saturdays! It makes me happy...but sad. After this it really will be over. :(

Terrarium

My dad has a thing for junk. He has a lot of it. All kinds of things that no one wants or has a use for anymore. Old film projectors, spot lights, motorcycle parts, radio broadcasting equipment, pretty much anything you can think of (and things you probably don't realize exist). He has built an entire mini radio station in his backyard from mostly free stuff that other people were going to throw away. He is finishing a little camping trailer that he has built from other peoples' "trash". He is amazingly resourceful.

When I was growing up, he took an old vintage blender (you know, the cool futuristic silver ones) and turned it into an aquarium. With fish in it. It was incredibly cool. He also gutted a computer monitor and made it into a terrarium. It was the first terrarium I had ever seen and I have never forgotten it. And since then I've been a little bit obsessed with them.



Lately it seems that I've been seeing a lot of terrariums on the bloggernets and I've been wanting to make one for a long time. And thanks to the sweetest, most generous girl on earth, I finally have! I recently won a scarf give-away on her blog, and because she is so sweet and knew of my longing for some moss with which to make a terrarium, she included some moss and 3 adorable little mushrooms she made herself with my scarf (which I love!). I squealed many times in opening the package.




The other day, William and I finally put this terrarium together and I LOOOOVE it so much. Who knew 2 fish bowls, some rocks, moss and little mushrooms could bring so much joy into my life? Maybe I'm some sort of freak, but isn't it gorgeous?? And so easy! You should seriously considering making one of your own.

Oh yeah, and before the month is over I had to show you this page of my calendar. Doesn't that paper about kill you? Crap I love it. I need to do something incredible with it. The only question is WHAT?

Back to Life, Back to Reality

We've been home for a week now...and I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. Back to our morning walks, watering the plants, never-ending picking up after a toddler, kickboxing classes, and some sewing and crafting that I'm really excited about. And juggling that all with actual work-work.

Speaking of plants...


They survived my absence! And not only that, they actually grew!


The tomatoes grew several inches and the Early Girl even has a flower.



I'm so relived. Of course, this is only the first of several times they'll be left to their own devices over the next 5 months...so I'm still worried.

There was one disturbing discovery when we got home, however. I put the peppermint plant in our kitchen window while we were away, along with the cilantro. When we got back, I found that the peppermint had grown to insane proportions, but also had tons of little tiny green bugs all over the stems. I need to do some research but I'm pretty sure they're aphids. I'm so grossed/creeped out. Blech. Anyone have any good advice on how to get rid of them? For now I've just separated it from the other plants.

The lemon tree has lots of open blossoms. I think I need to get some other flowers back there to get some bee action happening. And I still need to fertilize. It's still a bit naked in the leaf department.




Some exciting crafties coming soon!!

I Could Really Use a Nap.

We're leaving town for the week to party with some old best friends


and some new best friends.


I'm expecting it will be a good time. How could it not be, with these people?

Now if we could just finish getting ready and get out of here...

Another topic:

My violet is finally getting some flowers again -- after a year of being flowerless (since we moved). I'm so excited.


As for all my other plants...keep your fingers crossed. I don't think it's going to be too hot while we're away, and it rained all last night. So they are very well-watered and I moved them into a shadier area. I'll be worried about them the whole time we're gone. Eek.

Garden Update

So far so good. The mint is doing great, the peas are noticeably taller every day, the original tomatoes were unceremoniously ripped from the ground from a certain tiny boy and have since been replaced by plants from the nursery. The lemon tree is pretty sad -- I need to get some fertilizer which means I need to go to an actual nursery with someone who knows what they're talking about. Oh. And some money.



Also transplanted outside (you can see the pots in yon distance in that picture above) are some snap peas, oregano and chives. Inside we still have every herb known to man, peppers and some zinnias. I'm waiting until they get a big bigger (and to get more of the aforementioned money -- need more pots) before putting them outside.

The weather has been wonderfully cool the past week or so, which has helped things greatly, I think. No scorching of the earth or anything. So, yay. That'll come soon enough though.

I'm very pleased that the casualties have been minimal. I just hope we can keep it that way. I'm very nervous about what to do to ensure their survival when we're gone for a week this month. Terrified, actually.

Plants!

Every morning, William does three things immediately upon waking up.

1) Gets my glasses for me from the bedside table
2) Does the sign for "eat"
3) Says "plants!"



So we get up. We leave the bedroom and he says "Dada!?" and then "Plants!" Before getting breakfast, we first must go outside. That's when William gets really excited, says "plants!" several more times, "wow", and also "hot!" (his favorite word) as he pats the pots and ground, and pokes the dirt.



After a few minutes of checking on the outside plants' progress, we can come inside to check the seedlings. William always proclaims "wow!" and "plants!". And then it's time for breakfast ("gogur!" and "tos!" -- yogurt and toast, always said with enthusiasm).



It's really a fantastic way to start the day.

Bored.

So, I'm bored. John has rehearsal for much of the day. The only things that need doing are things I have no energy to do (not much sleep last night). The other things I want to do require spending money -- of which I have none -- or must be done baby-less, or result in ingesting unnecessary calories. I'm not left with many options here.

I suppose we'll go on a walk at some point. The weather today is my very favorite. Cool, a tiny bit of sprinkling, and completely overcast. It's pretty amazing. I guess I should go take full advantage of it before the 95-degree days start. They'll be here any minute.

I did get a bit of my container garden started. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, so we'll see what happens. I took some pics this morning just for you.





Dahlias

I'm also have snow peas, snap peas, peppers (a variety), beets, carrots, parsley, rosemary, sage, cilantro, basil, oregano, chives, dill, and thyme. I need to get some sort of watering system set up so everything doesn't up and die while we're out of town.



Anyhow, wish me luck. We'd better go walk up some hills now to escape the Nutella calling to me from the kitchen.

What I've Been Up To...

Reading Everyone should read this book. Most people are completely oblivious to where their food is coming from. Which is sad and creepy.


Planting




Watching the rain



Lots of walks



Schemeing and shopping for felt



Lots of things in the works over here!

Cutting It Close

A bottle of berry flavored sparkling water just exploded all over me. It was extraordinarily annoying.

I finally joined Goodreads! But, as a warning to those of you who are also on there, I really suck at like, writing about books I read. First, because my brain like, can't translate information going in into information coming back out. Second, it's WAY too much like school and writing for school is the equivalent to flipping the off switch on my brain. Maybe I need a new brain.

How come when I feel especially fat I just want to eat more? It's incredibly annoying. I'm having to use every ounce of self-control I have to not just go eat myself to death right now.

Remember this little lemon? Well, I finally just picked it! It didn't get very yellow, but it is very yummy. Maybe I'll get another one by next summer! Haha. That poor tree has had a hard life...I'm not expecting much.



So bear with me here...I have three more blogs to do in order to have one for every day of May. Hehe.

Almost Jacket Weather -- Praise Be!

Today was incredible.
Fluffy clouds!? No way!
1) We had weather. That's right. Here in Southern California. The air actually FELT and the sunlight actually LOOKED like autumn. It was almost disorienting. And apparently, we're supposed to experience things like cloudy skies and MAYBE rain for the rest of the week! These past two days we have done such unlikely things as turning off the air conditioning, opening windows and I actually wore a jacket this morning. Craziness I tell you. 67 degrees what?


A baby lemon!
2) My lemon tree is growing a lemon. This is an event I thought would never take place. I'm not known for my plant raising abilities and for a tree under my care to actually grow something is nothing short of a miracle. Keep it up champ!

And finally...
3) I have two finished projects to show off plus I'll have another tomorrow once the happy sun comes back up and I'm able to take some pictures. I'm a sewing/knitting fool over here, I tell ya. Of course, I was very naughty today for being up so much and now my poor feet are paying the price. I'll have to spend all day tomorrow on the couch to make up for it -- but what is one to do when motivation strikes? That's not something easily ignored.


Pillow covers!
A) You may recall our pillow conundrum (here and here). Well, after seriously months of searching and discussing, I finally ended up making these - a variation on John's vision that I made come to life. I like them, but if left to my own devices, they aren't what I would have come up with. Which may be a good thing? However, I am relieved to finally have something on the naked, pokey inserts. And I'm very happy that John likes them.


Don't look at these too carefully!
B) And here we've got some little booties I knit up. They are from the Sublime pattern book and yarn that Lisa gave me. I actually finished them a couple days ago and hated them (I do, however, love the buttons. They were salvaged from a vintage sweater that fell apart). I have a problem with rarely being satisfied with things I make because I know all of the flaws they have. However, being a couple days removed from these booties, I am happier with them now. Time heals all memory of imperfections, I suppose. :)

See ya'll tomorrow!