Blooms... And A Garden Tour

 Hello Friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I know that most of my posts have been garden related lately, but I really love this time of the year.  My garden is planted and things are starting to bloom around here!  I thought it was time that I took you on a tour of my little wonky-willy-nilly garden.

 I have been so excited to show off these canterbury bells!  I remember the first time I saw canterbury bells-- I was working at a florist shop.  (Many, many years ago!)  I thought that these flowers looked like something straight out of a fairy tale or a Mary Engelbreit picture!  I've missed growing them and decided it was well past time to grow some at this house.  I'm so glad I did!

 My garden is kind of spread out... some of it's in pots, some of it is in a garden box, and some of it is planted in the side border next to the house. 

I like a bit of whimsy in my garden, and this year I added these fun skeleton lampshades into the mix.  I love them so much!  I found them at a vintage fair being sold by my-favorite-garden-art-people-of-all-time, Old Soul Studios. 

 Many of the plants that I grow are from heirloom seedlings that I purchased from a lady in my neighborhood.  She sets up her little heirloom plant stand on the sidewalk in front of her house, like a lemonade stand.  Don't you love that?!!  Her adorable little daughter helps her cultivate and sell the plants. This plant growing on the lampshade is some kind of an heirloom purple/scarlet bean.  I can't remember the name, and I've lost the marker.  It's just starting to bloom.  I've never grown these before, so I'm excited to try them.

It's crazy fun how fast things start to grow when they get to a certain point.  These are the purple beans, red and yellow peppers, sugar snap peas, herbs, and flowers.

 I like to mix flowers in with the veggies.  I try to companion plant where I can.  (Another link about companion planting here.)  Keeps everything happy and colorful.

Lots of herbs... I think that I really take them for granted.  I don't use them as much as I should, but when I do use them... yum!

 These peppers were starting to bloom here...

...and not long after, they looked like this!  These bell peppers will grow and turn yellow.  I'm not a huge fan of green bell peppers, but I do love the red and yellow!

 The sugar snap peas are starting to bloom here...

...and poof!  Seems like they turn into pods overnight!  These sugar snaps rarely make it into the house-- I love to eat them right off the vine.

  Every morning, usually in my pajamas, I go out to water and putz around in the garden.  This happy guy follows me everywhere.  It's kind of our ritual, and my favorite way to start the day.

 This garden box was already here when I purchased my house.  I've got about four heirloom tomatoes, a lemon cucumber, a dragon's egg cucumber, petunias, zinnias, sunflowers, and sweet alyssum growing in here.  The nasturtiums are from last year, so I let them stay and hang out with the others.  Oh, and there's a mystery plant.  I bought it from the plant stand. I know that it's "suppose to be good for the garden", but I cannot-for-the-life-of-me remember what it is.  Don't worry, it looks legal. (Ahem.)

The larger plant is a "Mortgage Lifter" tomato, and the one next to it is a "Purple Cherokee".  Do you see the chicken wire to the right?  I put it there so Hagrid wouldn't get in there and play "rototiller" like he did the day after I planted the garden last year.  Yep, he did.  The soil looked gorgeous-- so gorgeous-- but he dug up the entire box.  Seriously, the entire box.  Why couldn't he have done that before I planted?! Silly boy.

These two tomato plants are "Green Grape" and "Hawaiian Pineapple Stripe".  They're growing sooooo slow, and not doing as well.  I amended the soil before planting them, but some thing's off.  The nasturtiums are blooming like crazy and that's a sign.  Nasturtiums bloom well in bad soil.  I might also be over watering the plant on the right.  Any pointers, friends?  Although I've been gardening for a while, I'm still always learning.  I hope that I never stop learning.  I think that's part of the fun of gardening! 

I know, this ohm chime is kind of random.  I've had it for years and I love it.  I bought it at a Hare Krishna llama festival.  Yes, I did.   

 These are the lemon and dragon's egg cucumbers.  The dragon's egg cukes are new for me this year.  I'm kind of curious about trying them.

Nasturtiums... they're edible and taste kind of spicy, like a radish.  I love putting the blossoms and leaves in salad, especially my favorite tomato salad.

I had extra sunflower seeds leftover, so I threw a variety of them in here.  I'm so glad the birds didn't eat them before they germinated.  (I think they got to some of them in the box.)  The small pot has bee balm.  It comes back every year and I love the blooms.  So do the bees!

This is the first year that I've cultivated this border along the side of the house.  Everything looked so small when I took this photo.

This is what it looks like today.  That's a "One Ball Summer Squash" there.  C'mon, (nudge, nudge) I know you want to laugh at that name.

 The shasta daisies have been taking their sweet time.  I'm eagerly awaiting the first bloom.  Hurry up, shasta daisy!  How is it that some things seem to bloom overnight and others take forever?  Gardening teaches me patience every year.  It's all good.

 The summer squash blooms are huge and abundant!  (Watch out neighbors... someone could accidentally leave a bag of squash on your porch.  I have no idea who...)

Hello, cosmos.

 This "Dinosaur Kale" came from the plant stand.  I kept the original marker.  The plant lady's daughter drew a tiny dinosaur on it and I love it.  It makes me smile everytime I notice it.  This plant was teeny, here when I bought it, and has taken it's own sweet time to grow to a whoppin' five inches or so.  Right now it's struggling with a hungry pest of some kind.

Well, here I am.  After hunting for quite a while, I purchased a vintage lounger this year at the Sacramento Antique Fair. At the end of each day I try to spend some time out in the garden lounging and decompressing.  Hagrid looks for squirrels, visits (through the fence) with the neighbor dogs, plays with his toys, explores the garden, and lays around. 

Well, if you're still reading, thank you for hanging in there.  I hope that you've enjoyed this little tour.   It's a funky, wonky garden...but I love it.  It's my little piece of this big planet.  It's where I work out my stress and anxieties-- and find my calm and happy.  It's my happy place.

Hugs,

Itty Bitty Harvest

Mmmm...nom nom.

Hugs,

My Salad Bowl

Hello, Sweet Friends! Life has been busy around here, and part of what is keeping me busy is Spring!  I've recently been working in the back garden, so I thought I would show you a little bit of the outdoor nesting that's been going on around here.

Above, is what I call my "salad bowl".  It's full of all kinds of yummy heirloom lettuces.  It's nice to be able to pick a fresh salad for dinner.  There really is a difference in flavor with fresh lettuce.  This lettuce has been really easy to grow, and with it hanging I haven't had to worry much about slugs and snails.  Love. That.

 

Recently I've been picking up plants here and there to get my vegetables, herbs, and flowers going again.  I found a few of my herbs and tomato plants at a garden club plant sale at McKinley Park in East Sacramento.  I love going to garden club sales.  You never know what you're going to find.   

One of my basil plants is called "Goddess Basil".  I got a kick out of the name, so I couldn't resist bringing it home.  Apparently it has a fairly spicy flavor and is considered a gourmet basil.  I wonder if it's the basil often used for "Green Goddess Dressing" ?  I love how there are so many types of basil to choose from.  Check out this fun basil list-- I was shocked at just how many types there are!

I also picked up some low growing plants to refresh my fairy garden.  Winter was not kind to my fairy garden this year, so I'm excited to re-plant and re-fresh my tiny garden.  I think the fairies will be very happy with my choices.  The gnomes, however...

This is just a little peek at my potting bench.  It's just a teaser because I want to make a new skirt for it before I reveal the whole thing.  I've had this potting bench for several years now and although it's very simple, I love it.

Okay, so I love a good Buddha in a garden.  Is this not the sweetest face on this Buddha?!  I know, this is not exactly vintage/cottage style decor for my garden, but I adore him.  I picked up the little aqua pot with succulents at Trader Joe's last year.  I love Trader Joe's for little things like that.  They make great gifts.  This was, uh, a gift for myself.

Soooo... what do you do with a dead tree?  You hang bells and chimes on it!!  Can I call this repurposing and recycling?

This vintage water tank stand has been repurposed into a plant stand with a galvanized bucket and some flowers.  I love repurposing vintage items in the garden.

I love the columbine and ranunculus flowers.  The fluffy white ranunculus flowers remind me of Hagrid's fluffy head.  Oh, that is Hagrid's fluffy head!

I hope that you are all enjoying spring.  I'll be back soon to share more of the back garden.  I've been very busy-- this is just the tip of the iceberg, friends!

Hugs,



Coffee Time

Hello, Sweet Friends. I've been doing a lot of stitching these past couple of weeks and thought I'd show you what I've been up to. This is a dishtowel that I stitched up for my friend's 88Th birthday! (Yes-- 88 years old and amazing!) Jeanette's favorite color is blue and she loves her coffee, so this is what I came up with. I used a whimsical vintage pattern and added the words "coffee time".

My friend Jeanette is very dear to me. We were next door neighbors when I lived in my little apartment, and we became really great friends. Now that I think of it, I bet she was quite entertained by my shenanigans. I always had something crazy going on out on the front patio... outrageous multi-dimentional pumpkin carving for contests at work, silly outdoor decorations for every holiday, growing sunflowers and building gnome gardens with the neighbor kids. Oh, and the baby possums that use to come up on the porch to eat the cat food! Yeah, never a dull moment.

Anyway, when her birthday rolled around I wanted to stitch something up for her that she could use, so I stitched this up for her. Don't you love the rick rack trim? I love rick rack. I lovelovelove it. It makes me happy. So does dingle-berry trim. (That's what I've always called pom pom trim.) I now wish that I had stitched "Rosie The Riveter" on the towel. Jeanette was a "Rosie" back in the day. She worked on airplanes, and she looked just like "Rosie The Riveter"-- absolutely adorable!

This is just a quick snapshot of how I wrapped her dishtowel. It was a quickie-- as always-- right before I ran out the door. I even managed to make a little gift tag to coordinate with the polka dot tissue. I love making tags. They're usually quick, easy, and not as overwhelming to create vs a card.

I've been busy all weekend cleaning, purging, and organizing my studio. I've never completely moved into this house. I still have boxes full of stuff. Boxes in the studio, boxes in the guest room, boxes in the garage-- so many boxes! Well, I've had it with boxes. I'm so ready to be done with boxes.
Well, in the midst of working in my studio-- which is also a sun room-- I locked myself out of my house. In my pajamas. In my socks. In the dark. In the rain.

Good times. Thank goodness I was wearing a bra.

Oh, and thank goodness I was able to get my gate open, as opposed to climbing the fence. That would not have been pretty. Seriously. It would not have been pretty. I walked through the muddy yard over to the house next door. My sweet neighbors helped me find a locksmith and saved the day.

Long story short, the locksmith and I were greeted by a happy, shaggy, Hagrid about one hour later, when the door was opened. He was oblivious to the adventure that I had been on, but seemed happy to see me. Haggie can sit, shake, high-five, and stay-- but somehow I forgot to teach him how to unlock a door.

Hugs,

Welcome To My Little Christmas Nest...

Okay, so it's no secret now that I love to decorate for Christmas. Did you know that I like to decorate outside as well?

No, I do not do outdoor lights like The Griswold's, but I do have a flamingo. It's pretty special. It has a hat. It's head moves. It's cord is carefully covered with strategically placed leaves. It's strongly secured to the ground with a cinder block. Yeah, I'm classy that way. Haggie seems quite smitten by her, doesn't he?

Every Christmas I hang my outdoor lighted garlands. They're battery timed, so I put them up there and they do the rest, like clockwork. Easy peasy. The wreath on the courtyard gate is the same. For the window and door, I purchase a fresh cut wreath from Costco. They're such a good deal, it's a no brainer. Although I have an artificial tree, I love the smell of fresh cut pine-- so this is how I get my fix!

Okay, this is my favorite Christmas decorating tip: visit your local Christmas tree lot and ask them if they have any branches they want to get rid of. Some people like to trim the bottom branches off their tree before they leave the lot. The guy at the tree lot I went to keeps a "free, help yourself" pile. I get free greens, and he doesn't have to cart them to the dump. It's a win-win. I like to snuggle the pine greens into my existing planters.

Even the fairy garden gets a little fluffed up with pine.

The front door to my little nest. Welcome! Please come in...

This is just inside the entry of my house, hence the picnic basket full of shoes. I love this old vintage dresser. It has lots of storage, and what little nest doesn't need more of that? I use to store my shoes in there when I came in the door, so they wouldn't be piled all over. However, I eventually found that I wanted to use the prime real estate in those drawers for other things.

A few of my favorite little things... I've always loved pine greens with red roses. Can you imagine how great this would smell if they were real?!

I love The Polar Express, and so I went nuts when I saw this Polar Express bell. It's an ornament, but I like to place it near the book. I love the story, and the graphics of the book and animation. One year I went to the 3-D version of the film at the Imax Theater downtown with friends. I loved the snowflakes...

I have this little Christmas pennant hanging on my lamp. My fabulous friend Debra made it, and I love it!

Okay, I know that you've seen this room(s) before, but I just need you to note the size of this room. Okay, now picture it with twelve people, a baby, and a large dog. That is what this room was like the other night when I had my family over. My family is much larger than twelve people, but not everyone lives near. Last night was the first time I've ever had my family over for a holiday celebration. I've always lived in tiny apartments, so it was impossible. It was really fun and special to have them over to my place during a holiday season... finally. I baked a bundt. (Isn't that just so retro/vintage? Hee hee! It was chocolate and I served it with toppings!)

Haggie loved that everyone came over just to see him. He was able to show off his new Christmas light bulb squeaky toy, and let my niece's adorable six month old baby boy sit on his back like a baby monkey on a pig's back. (We changed the words to the song... "baby Brennan, baby Brennan, riding on Haggie's back... Baby Brennan!) Ah, good times had by all at The Little Nest!

Hugs,