Spinach, Radishes, and other spring plants growing in my garden

So in this first photo I have drawn a red line at the edge of my property.  This year I am going to put rocks down for mulch all the way to the property line.  The field behind it is an alfalfa field. 

If you look closer at that square foot garden you can see the radishes are growing.

And the spinach has sprouted. 

This is the first flower that has bloomed in my garden.

I've transplanted the Kale, Cabbage, and Broccoli. 

This is blue kale.

This is dutch round ball head cabbage.

The peas have all sprouted.

The garlic is getting tall. 

The mountains still have a dusting of snow.

And the Wellsvilles are looking beautiful especially at Sunset.

The new paint color reveal...

So my son's old bedroom is now the same color as the hallway.  And I had to paint the bottom half white too. Here is what it looked like before.  I loved it but it was too dark for the birds.  This is now Kiwi and Mambo's room.  I have a few spare rooms in this house.  I think I should set one up as a craft room and I'd really like a Macaw and an Eclectus.  I could live with just an eclectus.  Someone want to give me one?

What it looked like before!

The flash didn't do the color justice.  It's a brown grey.  Benjamin Moore Ashley Gray

The shadow on the floor is from the flash paired with the wide angle lens.  

Proof the grass is turning green.

  Ceiling - my son exclaimed, "Mom, it looks like the state of Utah - our state!" I'm so happy my kid has a state he can claim. I moved so often as a child that I couldn't even remember which state birds went with which state I was in.

Take a look at someone else's garden today

Check out Edible Gardens Point Loma most recent garden post or view the video here. 

It's a work of art.

This video is worth the 4 minutes it takes to watch.  It's an entire year of gardening for a family in the suburbs.

Give your plants room to grow - or - Little peat pots are a waste of money!

Well now there isn't even a comparison.  I'm so glad that I decided to do this.  Sometimes we think that we are saving money and that the slightly more expensive pot that takes up more space is a waste.  WRONG! I grew all of my celery in the tiny pots last year and they were still pretty small when I transplanted them.  It took them forever to grow into something worth eating.  This year I can hardly wait to get the large pots into the garden so those roots can spread out even more!

If you want to see the progress go

Here 

Here

and 

Here

Kiwi is healing and starting to molt. I hope his wings fill in this year.  He had kidney problems and an infection so he was on Allopurinol and an antibiotic as well as baby aspirin.  His little bottles said, Kiwi Bird Vanderbeek.  I thought it was so cute.  And because we've trained him to lay on his back, we had no problem giving him his medicine.  He's such a good little parrot. And daddy is no longer allowed to feed Kiwi crackers or anything salty. And well, we've added things like apple slices in his cage at night. For those of you who are new, he is a Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure. They are super friendly, perfect for people allergic to cats and dogs and parrots with powder glands (African and Australian parrots), they love the whole family (flock), and they learn tricks quickly.  They don't talk much and learning to speak on command isn't easy for these parrot.  They are loved for their quiet nature.

 Here is the top view of the celery.  The comparison is beyond funny. 

Now if someone could please tell me which of my dozen fire alarms are beeping, I'd be so happy! 

My awesome digital scrapbook of our spring vacation in Moab, Canyonlands, Arches, and Dead Horse Point 2013

I created the elements in Adobe Illustrator and the background paper in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

All four of us took photos on this vacation but most of them were taken by my husband.

Dead Horse Point State Park

Arches National Park - Delicate Arch

Canyonlands - Mesa Arch 

Canyonlands - Shafer Trail

Arches - Double O Arch

Arches - Landscape Arch

Arches - Double Arch

Arches - North & South Windows

Arches - Park Avenue

National and State Parks - Junior Ranger Program!

Bedroom redo - new paint is just the beginning

My son moved into a much bigger bedroom.  This room is rather tiny.  So I decided to patch all the holes and repaint.  First I thought I would paint over the navy blue.  Oh boy.  

The painting it self wasn't difficult.  I had to cut in twice and add two coats to cover the navy blue.  That wasn't so bad. 

But finding out that the paint on the lower half of the room didn't look good with the top half was a little disheartening.  

No project ever goes smoothly.  And I'm also thinking of having someone install the cabin grade hickory flooring that's been sitting around for 6 years into this room.  The birds are going in here and wood flooring would handle their messes so much better than carpet! Know of anyone who could do that for me?

I did get to listen to Elder Bednar's talk, "That we might not shrink."  On the right side of the page is the option to list to it or even watch it.  I loved listening to it. What a wonderful talk. If you know of any faithful Christian with cancer or caring for someone with cancer, they will love this talk.  Please share it with them.

As you can see we have 9 foot ceilings on our main floor.  Good thing I have a tall and very steady ladder.

I'll post photos of the finished project soon!

Cute homemade cupcakes and birthday invitations for my children

So in this first photo you can see the icing tip that I used and the Green Wilton Color Mist. I love it because it adds to the textured look of the cupcakes, gives them perfect color, AND it is not as bad as eating icing that is full of dye.

So cute, right?

And here is my daughter's invite which I made in Adobe Illustrator with some inspiration from the web.  

And the invitation for my son that I also made with a little inspiration from the web and some old scrapbooking projects.  

I let my children pick out their own balloons this year. They are attached to their chairs at the dinner table. 

My son's green balloons are attached to his lamp in his room but the mylar soccer ball is also at the dinner table. 

This is the party room at the trampoline park.  It was perfect.  The boys sat at the table on the left and the girls sat at the table on the right.  Each child got a moment in the spotlight to open gifts.   

And the cupcakes made it without incident - well, mostly.

And this is the great Wilton cupcake carrier.  It was $11 with the 40% off coupon at Michaels Craft Store.