I finished J's pants...

I like the way they came out. Better than tossing that old ripped pair of pants, or making rags from them!

Sharing on Frontier Dreams' KCCO linkup.

An evening project

Sharing the Keep Calm and Craft On vibe from Frontier Dreams.
I've been working on a pair of pants for J made from a pair of my old corduroy pants that ripped.

I'm using the Big Butt Baby Pants pattern from Made By Rae, which I've used before.
I'm stitching it together by hand, little by little in the evenings.

What a weekend!

Beautiful weather, good times!
We attended the local Peony Garden Tour, an excellent annual event. Peonies are my absolute favorite flower.  S got a new peony shirt for the occasion and managed to find a flower that matched her shirt:

 And my own favorite peony is having it's best year yet:

We picked our first few strawberries this week:

 And here's a garden check in:

 Friend or foe? I know ladybugs are good for the garden, but this doesn't look like the typical ladybug. Does anyone know? There were a few of them on the peas and beans...

 The Jacob's Cattle beans really shot up in the past week:

 In case you're wondering what the cucumbers look like under the Agribon, the answer is weedy:

 But something about the row cover (I think it's moisture retention) makes weeding really easy.

 I was able to clear the cukes in no time, while J snoozed on my back. Babywearing, garden-weeding selfie:

In other garden news, the cress is flowering, and the spinach has bolted, so I pulled them up and planted some carrots and lettuce in their spots (today, 6/24). I also planted the rest of the corn. I will also be going back to the first post to add in my planting dates for a better record.
Stay tuned!

Garden Check - 6/15/14

Halfway through June, it's time document the state of the vegetable garden. One of my hopes for this blog is that I will have a record of what I grow each year, how it does, how things fare at different dates, etc. I got the garden in late this year, and the weather is still coolish here, so things are behind a bit compared to previous years. I am linking to my seed sources.

Row 1: parsnips (planted 5/13), carrots (5/13), spinach (5/13), lettuce (5/13), radishes (5/13), curly cress (5/13), and scallions (5/13):

Notes: This being the first time I've grown parsnips, I didn't know what the seedling looked like, and had to google it to find out before I could weed them. They are neat, with a large, round serrated secondary leaf, that looks sort of like parsley. The cress is almost done now, about 5 weeks after it was planted. It was kind of a waste of space. I like the peppery tang, but there's only so much of it you can eat, and most of it is bolted, not eaten. I think I have grown it only for the instant gratification; it's so quick and the first thing ready out of the garden. I picked the first three radishes after I took these pictures. Once I got them inside, washed, and sliced up, I offered them to S, who didn't like them. I am no fan of them myself, but I grew them for my husband. I gave the dish to him, and he said "no thanks, I don't really care for radishes". So, I guess none of us like them! I will give the rest of them to my brother-in-law, who loves them, and I won't bother growing cress or radishes next year.

Row 2: cucumbers (5/29), broccoli (Solstice and Umpqua, planted 5/31), cabbages (5/31), and dill (5/31):

After a couple years early on where our small cucurbits were decimated by striped cucumber beetles before they were very big, I have used Agribon floating row cover for the past several years. I love it. I leave it over the cucumbers and squash plants until they start to flower, and then remove it. We often still have cucumber beetles, but usually by the time the row cover is removed, the plants are large and healthy enough to withstand them. I definitely recommend the Agribon. The broccoli and cabbage seedlings are still very small, and I think I may have planted them too late. They need cool, wet temperatures to thrive, and it may just be too summery for them at this point. If they don't progress, I can pull them and try to start a fall crop there later this summer.

Row 3: Tomatoes, a couple watermelons:

I have ten or eleven tomato plants this year; a mix of cherries, slicers, and pastes. They are in traditional tomato cages. Still fairly small. I bought the plants from Molly at Nettie Fox Farm, since all the seedlings I started died (I think there was just too little sun this spring to successfully start seedlings on a windowsill). There was some space on the end of the row here, so I tossed in a few melon seeds (Diplomat and Petite Yellow, both on 6/10). Not ideal, since they will be right next to a squash mound, but, oh well. Here is the list of tomato varieties: Sweet 100 cherry (2), Sun Gold cherry, New Girl, Rose de Bern, Jet Star, Supersteak, San Marzano paste (3), Amish Paste, Grandma Mary's paste, and 3 super-cherries from Grampy Harold's stock.

Row 4: Potatoes (5/31), beets (5/31), peppers, Kabocha squash:

The potatoes this year are organic Elbas from Fedco. They hadn't surfaced when I took this photo, but as of today (3 days later) there are several plants poking through. Next are the beets, which I have never been successful with. A couple of those seedlings have surfaced. The pepper plants are ones I bought from Molly, and they look great. A friend had two Kabocha squash seedlings left over after planting his garden, so I took them, and stuck them in at the end of this row.

Row 5: Green beans (6/6):

This is a whole row of Provider Bush Beans. Nice crooked row, I know.  You can't see them in the photo, but as of today, the seedlings are a good 2-3 inches tall and look great.

Row 6: Peas (Knight 5/13 and more on 6/1, Progress #9 5/13, Green Arrow 6/1) :

I'm trying a couple new varieties of peas this year that supposedly don't require staking. I hope they work out, because we can never have enough peas. My family could eat an entire garden of nothing but peas.Our old standby section of staked chicken wire is at the end of the row for some peas that require staking. These pea plants look good, but they aren't as tall by now as I would have hoped. Honestly, to me they look like they need to be staked.

Back Left: Winter squash mounds and three rows of dry beans (Jacob's Cattle, 6/8):

As of today, several of the Jacob's Cattle plants have poked through. There is also a long line of sunflowers planted along the edge of the garden to the left of this photo.

 Back Right: Winter and summer squash mounds and three rows of sweet corn (6/8):

A couple of the corn plants have surfaced. I hope many more do.My family loves corn on the cob, and I have never yet been able to grow it to harvest successfully, and I try every year.

Winter squash mound (example):

I love winter squash and always try to grow way too much. This year I have the following squashes planted; Waltham Butternut, Zeppelin Delicata, Potimarron (Red Kuri), Jarrahdale, Autumn Gold Pumpkin, Blue Hubbard, Kabocha. I also have one mound of zucchini planted. All these were planted from seed on 6/8, except the Hubbard and Kabocha seedlings I was given. In this photo, you can also see an example of the garden markers I made this year. In past years I have used popsicle sticks/tongue depressors, only to lose them as the garden grows. This year, I painted tongue depressors with bright colors and patterns, and then sprayed them with an acrylic finish to make them a little more weather-resistant. Hopefully they will last all season. They are marked on the back with the plant and date planted.

Looking back toward the house from the rear of the garden:

Carrots (after I weeded them):

There are also melons planted in tires by the house this year, including Dark Star (5/24), Sweet Freckles (5/24), Sugar Baby (5/24), Small Shining Light (5/24), Golden Gopher (5/24), Sakata Sweet (5/24), Orange Honey (5/24), Jenny Lind (5/24), and Green Nutmeg (5/24).

Mama's little helper:

Nighttime gnome

Since we have been working on transitioning J to his own crib, I decided to make a little nighttime pal for him. I followed this pattern for a Gnome baby, using scrap yarn. Pretty sweet little fellow, I think.

My project on Ravelry

Meet J!

Here's Mama's sweet boy, J!

Born last fall, he is not quite standing or crawling, but he is doing this:

He is a very sweet, mellow, good-natured baby.

He is mostly still eating purees and yogurt. Although yesterday, Mama decided that, since he kept trying to grab her toast, she would just give him some of his own:

We will be working on more finger foods from here on.
My sweet little J, his smile can make anyone's day. How I love him so!

Meet S!

This is my sweet, clever, beautiful, smart, happy daughter, who will go by S on this blog.

She will be turning three later this year. She is currently struggling through the difficult post-two-and-a-half stage, but is generally a joyful child and a pleasure to be around.

She's so smart and inquisitive. I just love this sweet girl!

She was my first baby; the little being who forced me way out of my comfort zone and into motherhood.
She's my girl!

Let's give this a try...

Having been inspired by some beautiful blogs lately, and having been kicking myself for some time for not keeping a diary, I've decided to give blogging a try. I'm getting sick of Facebook, which I have been using lately to share pictures of my kids and general life, and occasional musings. In general, I think Facebook users have a limited tolerance for that stuff. I know I get sick of seeing it from others. I think a blog might be a better place for my purposes. I need a space to share and document my children growing, my family's life, my projects and passions, my hopes, dreams, and miseries. A place that I may look back upon to remember how things were, and how far we've come.
I know nothing about blogging, and will be learning as I go, so don't expect professionalism. What you can expect are posts about my wonderful children; S, my girl born in the fall of 2011, and J, my boy born in the fall of 2013. These children are my obsession and my passion, and often a source of grief and frustration. You can also expect posts on gardening, crafting, art, food, beauty, and my home, which is in Maine.
I also have a husband, whom I married in 2007, and a dog, who we got a month later.
You are welcome into my life, but be warned that I tend to be overly passionate, and often melancholy about lost time and opportunities. I will try to maintain a cheery blog, as I believe I am a rather cheery person, but I hope to use this space to work through my troubled times as well.
Thank you for your companionship!