With Gratitude!

Oh my gosh, what a wonderful honor to be voted 1st place winner. Thank you ladies!    There were so many absolutely awesome dolls!  This was such a nice start to the summer...  Thank you Sherrie Nordgren for all your hard work on this challenge!    
 

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have not spent much time at the computer this summer.  Too many other things have been keeping me occupied.... craft shows, sick kitty, doll challenge, the gardens.   I'd rather chat with my friends on the phone, because I can keep working.  Deerfield was a wonderful show as always, however I find the summer shows to be slow.  We brought along some new designs, and a glimpse of autumn.  I really enjoy the shows, much more than online...

Amherst was a rainy show, and we got to meet lots of nice people ducking into our tent to escape the buckets of rain pouring down from the sky...  Glad we brought an abundant supply of paper towels!The gardens are spectacular this year and we are drowning in cucumbers and zucchini.  An explosion of tomatoes is imminent and I will be canning lots of salsa and sauce. 

A little peek at the dolly I created for my first doll challenge.  I really enjoyed making her!

Now I am hard at work creating some things for the Autumn shows... my favorite time of year to create for. 

Hope you are having a nice summer! 

 

A little quickie...

 

I'm sorry I haven't posted very much lately.... With two craft shows approaching rather quickly,  my already limited internet time has been mostly hit and run for the past month...  I have recentlydiscovered Facebook, which looks like it could be a lot of fun, but for now we are outside getting the gardens going for the year.  This is a quick little peek at my raised beds.  The sunshine is making a huge difference. 

my hubby, hard at work... he's such a good sport!

Arts AFlutter May Lisitings

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue!   How quickly this month has gone...

Vegetable Garden vs the Trees

Well, we did it finally.  I'm a bit sad, but also excited... When we built our house 19 years ago, we kept as many trees as we possibly could.  I  love! all my trees, as well as the birds and squirrels that make their homes high up in their branches.     

 However after 19 years of working doubly hard to have a great vegetable garden while lacking the proper sun, we finally took down two mammoth oak trees at the top of the hill.  We are both not getting any younger, and I want a working garden more than ever, while we are still young enough and able to get the structure in place.   I enjoy growing our own food, and it's great exercise too.   Most years we have been able to grow some tomatoes, summer squash, broccoli, cucumbers, and leafy vegetables, but not in the great quantities we should have with the raised beds.  I cannot grow eggplant or peppers, two of my favorites.   

.  This shot was taken quite a few years ago.  We have about 24 raised beds, about 4 x 4 1/2 each and a long bed across the back. They're about 10" high, with nice rich soil.    The paths between them are lined with heavy black plastic covered by several inches of gravel.  We have room on the wooded side to add another long bed, but put it off because some of the boxes are getting crumbly after several years.  While we replace them we are going to re-do a bit, and make narrower longer beds.  It'll take longer because hubby has irrigation lines running into each bed to conserve water.   This past time we used 2 inch thick pine (not pressure treated, it's poison) for the boxes and that held up for a long time.  This time we are using thicker rough cut pine from the sawmill, and blocks from Home Depot.  I really like the cobblestones and might buy a few at a time so I don't realize how much I'm spending on them!  They might be expensive, but will never have to be replaced again.   The raised beds are pretty and make it so much easier to garden. Usually in the fall we dig in some of our shredded leaves and some compost, and the beds are nice and fertile.  We don't have to till anymore, and can just work the soil a bit and put the plants in.    After planting we add some composted chicken manure and then line each bed with newspaper and a ton of shredded leaves so there is very little weeding to do.    

Anyway, I have convinced hubby to add a whole new garden to the top of the hill where the trees were.... That is what we will concentrate on for this year, and I will plant the existing garden for one more year.  We've finally learned we can't do it all at the same time anymore, especially with my growning list of craft shows...

...will take some photos along the way!