Renata's Plot

Renata has been begging me to have her own plot or area of the garden. I tried a couple of things but ....ahem...I had a hard time letting go and letting her really take over a part of the garden. She kept asking for her own plot and I decided it was time to give her one.  I had a perfect place for it and a friend gave some fun wood with a tiny bit of decorative wavy trim on it . I thought it finished it off nicely. She wanted to plant flowers and we got her a bunch of annuals. Now I just have to figure out what to do about all the other kids who now also want their own plots. 

The Grumpy Gardener

I have a new favorite Garden blog, The Grumpy Gardener. Hilarious and informative. I highly recommend. He even has a contest for who sends in the best picture of a badly pruned ("murdered") crape myrtle every year. Garden humor, gotta love it.

Kitten Love

 Well not all of us love the new kitten.

 This is what I look up on when at my desk.

 This sleeping spot charms us all. 

 So cute and little.

Nothing like homeschooling with a kitten on your lap.

We are now pretty sure Pepper is a boy not a girl but we are keeping the name Pepper.

Painting My New Office Space

 I finished painting as much as I could reach in my new office nook and stair wall. I chose a high gloss white.

 Clean white wall. I know this is not exciting for you to see but it was so dirty and gross on this wall I am jumping for joy at it's cleanness. I decided to only use high gloss paint for my house. It is so much easier to clean.

This corner is still a bit of a mess.

Flowers

 Hibiscus and begonias on the porch.

nasturtiums

My flower bed. I have a very sophisticated way of planning my flower beds. I go to Lowes and pick out plants on clearance with no tags and no blooms and plant them. Usually in the fall. Then in spring I try to figure out what I have planted. I also pick out things I really love (knock out roses and butterfly bush) and put them in praying they will look ok to together. I seriously do pray that things will make sense later and i can move things as they don't work . So far God has blessed me . I like how it's coming along. I do tend to pack the plants in because I want as few weeds as possible.  

 Knock out roses, sedum, mum, aster

 anise hyssop?, phlox

 This is the unfinished side of the flower plot. I planted a few veggies till I figure out what to put in it. 

lemon balm, celosia , knock out roses

I like nasturtiums.

George

George and Joffre were getting ready for a pool party the other day and putting on bathing suits. George looks over at Joffre and noticed they were both had Hawaiian flowered patterns on their suits. So George says, "Hey, we both have Hawaiian flowers on our bathing suits."And then with a slight smirk on his face, "The girls will like that. They like flowers."

Reviving Chairs for the Porch

Our porch chairs were cute once a long time ago but are now poking and showing their stuffing immodestly. So I decided to try to revive their lost souls with cherry patterned oilcloth. They are very sturdy so I didn't want to get rid of them.

To do it I cut a pattern out of craft paper till it seemed like it would fit and cut out a piece. (This is the hardest part and I did it with a decent loss of material  as I folded and tried and cut and tried again.)  Then for the bottom part I folded corners and started stapling one side of each corner to the bottom. Then I stapled the middle of each side , slowly rotating after each staple to a new side. I worked from the middle out to the corners and pulling tightly for each staple. At the other side of each corner I folded again and stapled (this is the other tricky part.) It's like stretching a canvas if you have ever done that.

For the top part I traced the outline of the shape on craft paper and added a seam allowance of 1/2". Then made two pieces for each chair. Sewed them together right sides together and clipped with triangles along curves. Turned them inside out and slipped them over the top. That was it. The top was super easy.