Laura Vanderbeek

Harvest Monday - January 30, 2012

2012-01-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like my onion sprouts are doing well. The celery plant is a little larger but since this is the first time I've grown celery I have no idea what it's supposed to be doing right now. A nice garden blogger said she starts her celery from seed in January and gets a plentiful harvest the same year. Next year I'll have to try that.

Remember all that rain? Well, the mountains got plenty of snow. In just a few days the base at the ski resort doubled. It's only 54" but that is way better than 21". To be honest I haven't been skiing since before I had children. I used to ski weekly during college. And this time I skied on the same skis my parents gave me when I was 15. I know you're jealous of my vintage skis, aren't you? They're even florescent orange underneath. They scream 1990! The helmet is new. I need to get a good photo of it.

At least I remembered how to ski. I was so nervous the first run. It brought back so many wonderful memories. I am so grateful to have the strength to be back skiing.

He wasn't nervous at all. Just excited to be back in the snow. Usually we go tubing with our children this time of the year but there just isn't enough snow in the valley ... yet. Tyler is a fantastic skier.

Notice the snow on my black scarf. That wasn't from crashing. That was from a certain someone who sprayed me.

And our daughter took snowboarding lessons. She's never been on the mountain before. She had a great time and did wonderfully. I'm super pleased with her ability to snowboard in just a few short hours.

I'm going to try something else to keep my neck warm next time.

Lunch break

In line to get on the lift.

I've gotta have something to do when I'm not GARDENING.

Can I mention one thing here?

PLEASE Don't tell someone who has gone through 9 months of chemo and radiation that if they're going to have cancer, Hodgkins Lymphoma is the kind to have.

Just say, "I'm glad you are doing better" or "you look wonderful for all you've been through" or "Is there anything I can do to help you?".

HL kills people all the time. Even stage 1 HL requires 4 months of chemo and 11 radiation treatments. a 3 inch wide tumor that reaches from below your lungs all the way into the middle of your neck isn't the kind to have. But it happened. And I am so grateful for each and every extra day. And there are a lot of cancers that only require surgery and follow up visits. I know there are a lot more aggressive cancers out there. I see it everyday with the Cache Valley for Hope cancer foundation.

Cancer is Cancer

Don't minimize the emotional and physical strain it puts on a person's life with a few careless words. Just help them feel loved and appreciated. What are some kind things you would say to a person who needs some encouragement?

OK, off my soap box now!

What a day...

2012-01-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here's my hero out working in the mud. The water was rushing off the back hill. The ground is frozen so the water has no where to go. Tyler dug some trenches out back to try and divert the water away from the house.

And he was in mud most of the time.

Here is one trench.

And another through the west flower bed.

South East flower bed - Looks like the lilies I planted my get uncovered. The bad thing about this spot it that it's closest to the basement so instead of the water going east and out into the empty lot, it's pooling here because of all the mud that eroded. You can't tell where the flower bed ends and the yard begins.

So they dig a trench at the top to force it east and stop the erosion.

Here is my garden. I think the garlic got uncovered.

The nice big wall of mud my husband created to block the water from the alfalfa field.

It's already filled in with water but at least it is headed East and away from our yard and basement.

And suddenly it started to turn to snow.

And here it is 10 minutes later. You should see it now. It's even more beautiful and closer to 2 inches in just a few minutes. We'd rather have snow than rain right now.

Another round on the Lake

2012-01-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

We borrowed a 4 wheeler and Grandma's saucer and walked down to the lake and went for a small spin. It was so cold it did not last very long.

Not to complain about the weather...

2012-01-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

but I just hope that the snow on the side of the road melts fast enough to let all this water through so that we don't loose electricity to our house. If it fills up anymore, we are in trouble. We live in the middle of an alfalfa field. I don't know if you can see the new lake in this photo. There was a drain from that side of the road to the farmer's field across the road and past the neighbor's house. It filled in years ago.

You can see our house and our electric box in the background here and the neighbors' box in the foreground on the left and the water washing across the road.

Here's a better view of the amazing amounts of water pouring across the road. Anyway, I am going to go fill up the other two bathtubs with water because if our electricity goes, so does our well pump and I'd like to be able to flush the toilets.

Harvest Monday - January 16, 2012 - making preparations

2012-01-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

It snowed last night.

This is how one of my square foot gardens looks right now.

On the 6th of January I planted onion seeds. Last year I planted them on February 1st indoors and they were not big enough for transplanting in the spring. This time I sprinkled fewer seeds over the soil so they would have more room to grow.

The other problem is that I do not have my grow light station set up. They are in the window sill on the south side of the house. Less light and I'm at the mercy of the weather. I bought a full spectrum work light but haven't set it up.

And then I thinned them today.

Not all of the seeds have sprouted so I'm sure I'll have to do it again.

These are Big Daddy Onions.

I saw this post via pinterest and thought I'd give it a try. My stalk sat in the water for a while longer than hers did, as you can see in my photo. And I bought celery hearts instead of the large stalk because the big stalks don't fit in my fridge drawer.

I've never grown celery before because the lady at the garden center said it takes two years to start them from seed.

In the post I linked to it said you can grow it in 9" pots so today I transplanted that celery into a 9" pot full of potting soil.

The water seeped out of the soil into the tray below but with our dry air it will be gone quickly.

And if you are wondering' "Why Big Daddy Onions?"

It's because they store well over the winter. Some onions go soft within weeks of picking them.

I have the Big Daddy onions in a box in my unheated garage and they are doing well. I just run out there and grab one when I need it. If I still have some close to the end of spring I will chop them up and saute them and freeze them. But for now they are doing great.

Fun on the ice

2012-01-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun on the ice yesterday. It really is the only place with any snow. The mountains, well, you can see them in the background of a lot of these photos. But the lake has about 3 inches of snow. Which is fun and slippery.

We bought a LuckyBums ski tow for teaching small children to ski. We haven't gone skiing yet this year. I did buy a helmet. It's bright red like my coat. I just hope it doesn't do the opposite and make me a skiing target. You know me and head injuries and freak accidents. Oh boy.

We took turns pulling the sleds. Everyone had fun.

Tyler wrote our last name in the snow.

We ran and laughed and soaked up the sun.

And slipped and fell on the ice a few times. The ice is 6 inches thick below the 3 inches of snow.

Snow Angels - can't forget those!

I just love this little detail. Had to share.

And Daddy is so fun! Donuts on the ice.

Heading back home

Just a cool action photo

Awesome boots from Cabelas. I'd honestly walk barefoot in the cold if my feet didn't get wet from the melting snow. My husband however needs the warmest most toasty boots available. But he did take his jacket off.

And these two were fascinated with all of the fishing holes. Most had frozen over with about 2 inches of ice. There were ice fishermen everywhere. I don't remember anyone really doing that when we moved in. Maybe a few brave boyscout troops. Now there are dozens - every day.

Patience and Waiting

2012-01-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

I am working on my 2010 family scrapbook finally and I came across this image again while reviewing my blog. I took this photo 2 years ago. It's on the front page of my scrapbook now. I turned the wide version of it into something to cover my second computer screen. I love the quote and have it thanks to my friend Mandee.

It applies to so many lessons in life and I can't help but think of my garden. It's a lot of work. We wait for the right weather. We wait for the seeds to sprout. We wait for the plants to grow. We wait for the fruit to ripen. We work hard to make all that possible.

So I thought I would share three of my favorite garden photos from 2011 - because if I showed them all it would take a very long time to look through them.

And by the way, I did plant onions seeds a few days ago.

My birthday

2012-01-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

I recently had a birthday. And my sweet husband had these sitting on the breakfast table when I got up in the morning. Isn't he the sweetest thing!

Fun project with vinyl

2012-01-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

Click on the images to see them larger

I have a lot of blank space on my walls. I don't put stuff on my walls just because it's empty.

We also moved into this house just a few weeks after I finished cancer treatment which included 6 months of chemo and 5 weeks of radiation. So I have been slowly working on my house because I've really been working on the garden - it took us an entire summer to put the sprinkler system into the 1/2 acre yard and up to the garden. Then I've mostly spent the summer planting flowerbeds and the veggie garden. Last summer we added 4 trees for a total of 6. Still need way more. I mostly just work on the inside when it's winter. I painted a mural downstairs in the closet under the stairs which took one winter. And a few months ago I painted the branch on the wall and the leaves and birds.

I was waiting for my Silhouette to cut some vinyl to really give the hall the look I wanted.

Yesterday before school I photographed my daughter inside with backlight from the window so I could create a silhouette.

Then I turned the photo black and white. Next I upped the shadows and the highlights creating the contrasty look you see below. I used a white paintbrush to get rid of all the extra stuff I didn't need. I used the black paintbrush to fill in the hair. I didn't want the Silhouette to have to cut too much detail.

Then I turned it into an SVG file in Adobe Illustrator. In fact while in Adobe Illustrator I used the Live Trace. Then Expanded it and used the Pen tool to remove a few of the anchor points to smooth things out. I have the Designer Edition of the Silhouette software so I can open SVG files that I create in Adobe Illustrator.

Here you can see I pulled it into the software. If you right click on the image you can change the file into a path and then a compound path. I knew my blue vinyl was 9" wide so I didn't enlarge it any bigger than the brown frame I cut from 12" vinyl.

I painted the branch, birds, and leaves a while ago but had to repaint the branch to match the dark brown frame color.

Then I traced the birds and cut them from the 9" vinyl. And I realized my red leaves were not the right red - I want it to match the red in the quote I'll be adding along the bottom. So I traced all of the leaves using left over tissue paper from Christmas packages. I scanned them in and did the same thing as above. I love the red vinyl for the leaves. It's beautiful!

This is my favorite photo because you can see the large wood baseboards near the floor and how it wraps around the corner. And yes, my son's room is painted navy blue but the wood work that is 3 feet tall is a light tan color.

My entry ceiling is 12 feet tall and my hallway and bedroom ceilings are 9 feet tall.

As you can see it's been a busy 3 days and I have the Quote to add to the lower part of the wall still. Time for me to go find that measuring tape.

Silhouette Cameo at it again

2012-01-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Remember this?

Well I made this bag using the designer software. Of course, you can see that the doll came with a bag that I used for inspiration. They are not quite the same but close enough that her dresses fit in it. My daughter is loving all the new bags. I haven't bought cardstock in years because I am a digital scrapbooker but now I am really loving paper crafts since I got the silhouette cameo. Now I just need to get some glue so that they sides of the bag look all snug and pretty.

Extreme Paper Crafting

2011-12-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

This tool is amazing! Maybe you have the old Silhouette. This is the new Silhouette Cameo. Uhm, can I just say WOW! It is 12 inches wide. The old one was 8.5 inches wide. And my husband not only rocks for buying this for me for Christmas but also letting me get lots of extras such as the ultra cool Designer Edition Software. Why is that so cool?

It's cool because I also have Adobe Photoshop Illustrator. I can make my very own designs (Illustrator is what gives my designs those smooth edges that don't have any pixels). Well, making my own designs is cool enough for me but the EXTRA cool thing is that I can turn them into and SVG file and send it to that Designer Software. Then I can trace it with the click of a button, print it, and then feed it into the cameo and it cuts MY DESIGN out perfectly and quickly. Print and Cut is sooooo cool.

It will also cut out fabric as long as you use the iron-on interfacing. It even cuts vinyl.

No, I'm not going into business. As many of you know, we just shut down Vanderbeek Images after years of photographing weddings and families. What I am doing are all those projects around the house that I've been wanting to get done. In fact, I better go because I have a 2010 and 2011 family scrapbook to complete this year, hallway quote to cut and put on the wall, silhouettes of my children to cut from vinyl, magnetic paper dolls to make, and lots of other cool projects.

Silhouette Cameo - you are Perfect!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas! We hope that you are having a wonderful time this Christmas season.

Here are a few photos with what we are up to:

The lights of Christmas

2011-12-22T11:40:00.029-07:00

This year I found the star filter. It fit perfectly on my 50mm f1.8 lens. It was fun to try this oldie but goody - it's nice to be able to control the focus on the dSLR.

But even more fun to get this look without having to go with f22 using the star filter.

Here you can see the decorations better because I turned the living room lights on.

A few close ups.

And a fun angle I've been wanting to try for years but just plain forgot about.

My favorite Christmas decoration is my nativity. It's by Willow Tree and wrapping a few white lights down and around added just the right touch.

And my pine cone garland with lights on it this year.

The little entry tree and with the big tree in the background.

Ahhh

I LOVE my mantle!

Great Grandpa and Grandma's party

2011-12-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we enjoyed the annual great grandparents Christmas party. Each year one of their children take care of getting a church cultural hall. This year we just went and enjoyed our time there. Great Grandma gives $25 per grandchild and $25 for their spouse (me) and $10 per great grandchild. Tyler got a new Backbone for his ipad. I got ski goggles. My daughter received 2 Littlest Pet Shop Walkables. And my son received an SUV with a snowmobile on a trailer. We brought a green salad. Someone even brought gluten free rolls and they were yummy.

Basketball

2011-12-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

My husband was the coach of my daughter's basketball team this year. In her last game she made 3 baskets. This is her first year playing.

She was so excited - especially considering that the girls on the other team were about 12 inches taller. Mostly she had fun and got to spend more time with her good friend.

Turkeys

2011-12-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

You can click on this first one to see it better - but those are wild turkeys in my backyard. There are somewhere between 18 and 20 of them.

My neighbor called and said, "Before I go outside and disturb them, I wanted to let you know there are turkeys in your backyard."

I was shocked to see how many. By the time I grabbed the camera and took this shot they had moved further away but there were in the white snowy area when I looked.

And then my little turkey got off the bus with his new friend. He was so careful with him. It was a proud mom moment. I love his teacher more and more. She is so fun and my children enjoy learning from her.

Neighborhood Christmas Party

2011-12-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

A few years ago (7 or 8) our very spread out neighborhood decided to change things up a bit. There is a lot of farm land this side of the reservoir. NO MORE NEIGHBOR GIFTS. It was great inspiration. WHY? Because we all live so far apart and because that money could be spent in a better way. The neighbors bring soup and a donation. The money goes to help a local family in need of food and gifts for Christmas. We gave the money to the local church leadership who would then buy the things that family needed.

Here's what we do. Every year 3 people get to head up the committee. Every year it's been someone different. I was on the committee this year along with my friends Julie and Shelli. Next year is the first repeat.

Someone rents the Civic Center for the party. It costs $50 as long as we all clean up afterward. If not, it'd cost $200.

Thank you Pinterest for all the great ideas including this invite. I changed it from the original - but still cute. I love Adobe Illustrator. I drew the whole thing myself. I did the invites last year too. Not doing it next - sorry.

The Committee figures out:

The Decorations.

(we use something from home to keep the cost down - remember, there are better ways to spend the money)

The side dishes

(romaine with caesar dressing and french bread)

The Dessert

(chocolate fountain - marshmallows and sprinkles)

The entertainment

(A Minute to Win It Games)

Sets up and takes down the tables

(15 this year not including the games tables)

and

The invitations

(I designed them and printed 2 to a page - hand delivered by the committee. This year I attached labels so each pot of soup was labeled)

We had over 100 people there. It was great fun to see everyone.

Marshmallows and fountain

I brought some wrapping paper to put on the wall behind the fountain to prevent sticky oily splashes of chocolate on the wall. The teen boys put up the paper which is why it doesn't line up - but it kept the wall clean!)

Lots and lots of soup!

And it was a blast. I was so nervous that no one would show up but we had the largest turn out yet. And everything was so yummy. And I was excited to see all of the donations that went to help out someone in our local area. We live in a great place and we love our neighbors.

Homemade 18" doll apron pattern

2011-12-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

This is a photo from Christmas day last year.

I made matching aprons for my daughter's 18" dolls.

My friend asked me if I had a pattern - well I do now.

You can make this from scraps because it only takes a little fabric to make this.

I drew it up today now that I'm getting a little better idea how Adobe Illustrator works.

Click on the apron pattern and then download or it will not be the right side. It's on an 8x10.

Hopefully the photos explain what I didn't on the pattern.

The ribbon across the waist is 12 inches long. The velcro is 3/4" and cut 3/8" long - so it's short and wide - hope that makes sense.

You can see I attached 3 pieces of ribbon.

Christmas Cross-Stitch Bears

2011-11-16T07:14:00.016-07:00

Maybe you remember this cross-stitch that won First Place at the county fair? Scroll down a bit, it's there. Anyway, I have these ornaments that I made along with it but haven't posted yet. I made them with the scraps of linen. I love the linen. And it looks perfect in my house.

This one is for my son.

This one is for my daughter. My daughter wants hers now. Sorry, this is a post-kick-the-bucket gift sweetie.

And these I made clear back in high school before I found out about linen, back when all I knew was 14-count.

I'm going to have to make this one again on linen. It's is my favorite.

There are a few other designs but one of them I can't stand. Someday I hope to have the time and energy to make a few more.

And - YES - my tree is up. It's so dark we just had to.

Gardening in the winter

2011-11-14T15:01:00.001-07:00

Hah, I so didn't get the rest of the soil for the garden but I did get the rest of the hoops up. I don't remember the short hoop when I picked it up from my parent's house but I can always remove it. I also need to add a pinch of white pvc pipe to the top.

My 5 year old son helped me put it all together. We had a blast together.

What boy doesn't like a little dirt?

And spray paint - I did finish painting the outside.

Maybe I should have added the hoops to this garden instead - it's smaller and it's full. Hmmm, maybe in the spring. So, until January when I start my onion seeds, it's no more gardening for me. However, I will be decorating, oh and cleaning the house.

My house is so much cleaner and incredibly organized when I can't garden.

Snow Fun!

2011-11-07T11:31:00.014-07:00

Daddy borrowed Grandpa's 4 wheeler to plow the driveway. Then did donuts on the side yard with the little guy riding on back.

Finishing touches on snow removal and the gorgeous low clouds.

My children were playing with neighbor boys and I knew it was a great opportunity to get some good snow photos. They were already in Grandma's backyard on the Great Sled Hill.

I had fun with my camera- it does amazingly well in the snow.

They made it out into the field but didn't make it over the first big bump down there. And since we don't have a snowmobile this year it's all about the walk back up - great exercise!

Hope you enjoyed your day - snow or not.

It's cold out there

2011-11-06T07:00:00.017-07:00

We've had frost on the ground a few mornings lately. It's about time. Seriously. It's November.

And I finally got my garlic in the ground the end of October.

I purchased these two bulbs. The rest are from last year. Hard neck garlic from somewhere in Eastern Europe but forgive me for not paying attention to the name. I love the garden store in the fall with its piles of garlic originating from all over the world. And I love hard neck garlic. Bigger cloves. Less work. Stronger flavor.

Placed them in the trench.

Covered it all up.

Moved the trellis and covered the garlic with the 3 little panels I had left over.

And here is the square foot garden from my parents. I got it spray painted. I just didn't get more soil. So much for getting things going and getting that cold frame in place. I really think I need to add in the rebar but I am not sure how to cut it. We get a lot of wind.

I do have a good excuse as I've not been feeling well. I usually work through it but this stopped me cold in my tracks. I'm feeling better now but where am I going to find the mix for my garden this time of year?

The weatherman was right...

2011-11-05T11:27:00.000-06:00

We actually got some pretty decent snow last night. I went down to watch a few episodes of Castle and when I came upstairs there was about an inch on the ground and still snowing. Looks like we got the 4 inches of snow (which was the max expected). Good thing we got the Christmas lights up on Thursday night. I went with Red, White, and Green.

Hah, I may just have to turn them on tonight in celebration of the snow.

Sledding photos in 2 days alrighty.

It'll be in the 50's again soon. But we're enjoying the snow while we can.

Reusable Scrap fabric bows

2011-11-05T07:23:00.024-06:00

As promised - the first tutorial on the bows. Now mind you, this is the first one I've ever made so it's not perfect. It usually takes me three times before I get things just right. But here goes.

Remember this bow?

Well, I had some leftover fabric from my 18" and 20" pillows. so I lined it up on my cutting mat. And I used my new broken clear something or other - sorry I have no idea what those things are called. They are super handy and a must for making this quick and easy.

See? I just cut them at every inch.

Just like this. This is folded over and double thickness. (photo by my 5 year old)

That's important because you want your pieces double sided. This makes the inside and outside of the bow more colorful and it gives it a little more structure. You don't want the bow too flat. I sewed each piece twice - once on each side and it's just barely inside the presser foot. You can decide how much fringe you want.

See? two pieces.

I'll show how to get the fringe just right later. But in the meantime my kindergartener was busy counting to 60 on my tape measure. He is so good to entertain himself for a bit every once in a while.

Shoe Box Display

2011-11-04T07:05:00.010-06:00

My daughter had a book report and a shoebox display all due a day apart. It's a good thing she likes to read. And it's a good thing she is learning to type and find info on the web. I only had to remind her that she forgot to mention a few of the critters so she added those and her report was finished. She chose the Mangrove swamp because we got to go through the Happy Happy Ecosystem display at the Oregon Aquarium. She could choose swamp, forest, or desert. I spray painted the box and cropped the background photo and made the crocodile. She made the fish, crab, mangrove roots, log, and snake and painted the mangrove roots and all the characters. She hot glued the sea stars and plants in place. She spread the mod podge and sprinkled the sand on it. She even cut the foam brick to form the hills - although I was a bit nervous about that. Sometimes as a mom we just have to realize that if they cut themselves they'll be more careful next time but that with me watching she was careful enough and it all went well.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-03T09:14:00.010-06:00

On Sunday night after Stake Conference for church we carved pumpkins. Even Daddy carved one!

I think they turned out so cute and I love that my husband took this great photo to remember them by.

Scary Faces.

And I sewed my daughter's costume - Rapunzel (at the end of the story with her hair cut off and brown). Why no wig? Well, I wore a wig a few times during chemo and let me tell you, itchy itch itchy and she has very sensitive skin so I knew it would be a waste of money. She was happy and so was I. And I learned a whole bunch. This is only the 3rd dress I've ever sewn. I used Martha Stewart template stencils to add the sparkly trim and some glitter paint for fabric. I love how it turned out.

And this little monkey couldn't decide forever. So we finally bought his costume. He was so happy to be a monkey.

Happy children. The best part.

Haunted Halloween Houses 2011

2011-11-02T09:02:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I posted the images on how to glue the gingerbread pieces together with melted brown sugar. But we did finally decorate them. Some of the candy came in the box with the house such as the pointed spires. Some of the candy Grandma purchased and the cute little leaves came from Wilton too but in a bottle instead of the box. I wish I had not put as much of the recommended water in the icing - it was a little runny - that was fine for the green grass but not on the vertical pieces of the house. I did buy extra color paste - in brown, orange, green, and black.

This pumpkin patch is my favorite along with the path to the house. I added green icing to the tops of the pumpkins to get the leaves to stick. Fun!

I hope you had a wonderful and safe Halloween!

The Green Side - 18 inch Christmas Throw Pillow Covers

2011-10-22T21:08:00.016-06:00

So you probably remember this - 2 days ago right?

And I didn't show you the green side. So I had to make the bands a bit off center and for someone like me, it's almost more than I can take. I love symetry but you gotta do what you gotta do.

So with the extra pieces of left over fabric I made this CUTE fabric package bow. The strips are 1" wide and make them as long as you can. I stitched all the way down both sides. You should see the pile of string left over after pulling it to make the fringe.

Click on these to see them larger. I just sort of did by eye - sorry no measurements on the rest. I sewed 2 together and them 4. Then layered them. Then hand stitched the center loop and then stitched it to the rest. I love how it looks but I think I need to make it bigger for these pillows.

But honestly - who can argue with handmade bows that use up fabric scraps and can be used for years? I may just have to make a bunch more!

Seasonal - 18" Christmas throw pillows

2011-10-20T21:05:00.000-06:00

So this first photo is so that you can get an idea of where the new throw pillows are going and the color of my couches. You can see the old throw pillow covers on the couch - that was when they were new.

This is what happens to linen after about 7 and a half years of wear with small children in the home. I bought the 18" pillows and the linen covers at Pottery Barn.

Then I measured them to get an idea of what I needed in the new pillow cases. Of course I am making Christmas covers and they will not remain on the pillows all year - at least until I can find some heavy duty cotton that is made to look like linen.

I decided on making them 17.5 inches because I want them to look a little more fluffy. And can you see why I picked this fabric - the green looks lovely on my couch.

I cut all 4 pieces. The back is an envelope style so they overlap. That means that I cut a 22" piece (wish it were longer but I was working with fat quarters here - I found them at Pine Needles - Yikes - new fave store)

Then I finished all the edges that would be showing.

And left all the edges that will be finished later.

I placed the band that would cover the envelope "seam" on the back.

Line up the first piece of the back.

Then line up the last piece.

Here is what it should look like. If you have a bigger piece of fabric make sure you make it overlap more. It'll look better.

Pin it all together starting with the banded area and work to the right and then the left.

As you can see I used a regular sewing machine for this.

I did a zigzag and then a regular straight stitch to finish it off.

Stitch length

Turn it inside out.

Iron it if needed.

Stuff it with the pillow.

And throw it on your couch.

Front and back.

Close up of the cute band. Don't you love it?

Love this!

And this too. Isn't this fabric delicious? It's by Moda I think.

Just having fun with the depth of field on my camera. Then my son told me I needed to cover the big leather pillows. So we went to the local quilting store and they happened to carry the same line. I bought enough for pillows and an adorable Christmas apron for me.

My daughter picked out two fat quarters to make a blanket for her 18" American Girl doll. I love that she loves to sew too. And guess what???

She asked me to teach her to IRON.

Fall leaves and General Conference

2011-10-07T10:45:00.018-06:00

During the afternoon session of General Conference we decided to take another drive. IT WAS A GORGEOUS DAY! And can I just start out by saying that it was just like this photo below. Sometimes we struggle to get the eye to see what we see. When we saw what you see in this first photo we were speechless and Tyler stopped the car and got out the camera. I added a tiny vignette but other than that I didn't do anything to the photo. How did it turn out so great? It's called a circular polarizer. It allows you to cut the glare and get the sky to remain it's amazing blue color. Click on the photo to see it larger.

Tyler took this photo.

And this one was just off the peak. I took this photo. Gorgeous wild flowers!

We were shocked how much snow was up there. It's amazing how much more than what we saw July 2010 and you'd think it being Oct 2011 there'd be less by now.

And Tyler took this photo too. Beautiful!

Fall Leaves and General Conference

2011-10-05T05:12:00.023-06:00

We found out the BYU has a radio station on satellite radio so on Saturday we loaded up the Jeep at 10 a.m. and headed up into the mountains. We went up by the ranch where the elk eat during the winter and up to Red Spur. We ate lunch around Red Spur and enjoyed the view.

My daughter asked to go to Ephraim's grave (a really big and dead grizzly bear). And then down and back home. I really enjoyed conference. Especially Elder Bednar's talk. It was near and dear to my heart since I helped my dad go from paper to the computer with his family history. I want to share that love for family history and the temple with my children. I started helping with family history research at the age of 9.

I got to enjoy the beautiful fall leaves and take notes about the bits of inspiration I received during conference. Now I am reviewing those notes before I pray in the morning to help me and my family during the next 6 months.

Haunted Gingerbread Houses - a sticky situation

2011-10-04T07:30:00.018-06:00

Well, it's that time of year again. And I've told people before but I don't they think it'll work or that it's a huge pain. Let me tell you, trying to get heavy gingerbread to stick together with icing is the huge pain, not this. First of all, you want nice fluffy brown sugar. If you don't have one of these discs you are missing out. Nice brown sugar all of the time.

Lay out all your pieces and know how they fit together.

Using a non stick pan, melt the brown sugar on medium heat. Yup, that's it - just brown sugar in there.

It'll start to melt and you might have to stir a bit. Watch it closely and turn it down if it starts to get dark bubbles in it.

Once it's nice and melted it's time to dip the pieces in it.

Make sure the short sides go inside.

See that nice pretty seam. Seriously in like 10 seconds it's stuck and not going anywhere.

Now just stick them all together and I even put some on the bottom to stick it to the gatorfoam board. I usually have black board but it was not in the closet so I grabbed the white and will cover it with green coconut. (see the one in the back) I use a spoon to stick it to tough spaces I can't dip.

My daughter wanted pumpkin pie so I made 2 - the farthest one doesn't have a crust- I wasn't in the mood to make myself a gluten free crust. I used a frozen pre-made roll out crust for the other.

And here is one happy kiddo. The middle one is the graham cracker house for my son. Grandma usually makes small houses for the little kids. We just got a jump start on ours. I also bought Wilson sprinkle leaves and 4 colors for the icing plus we have some black, purple, and orange decorating sugar from a two years ago. We never eat them after. But we eat plenty of candy while decorating. And we do this while the guys are at Priesthood Session of General Conference.

Harvest Monday - October 3rd

2011-10-03T17:06:00.000-06:00

I planted this bare root peach tree last year in the spring. It took forever for it to sprout a single leaf but it finally did. This year it had gorgeous blooms all over it but I honestly wasn't expecting anything else to happen. Maybe you remember this photo? Or this photo? They were about the size of golf balls and I had no idea how much they would grow. Now that I know, I will remove buds that grow too close.

The two smaller peaches really aren't that big but they'll be yummy on vanilla ice cream as our treat for Family Home Evening tonight.

My daughter picked the first peach.

My son picked the next peach - his was the one that was up top but he got it.

I picked the last and largest peach. My daughter wanted to know why. I told her it was because I bought the tree, planted the tree, watered the tree, added fertilizer around the tree, and gave it its first pruning. It's nice to add some fruit to all the veggies around here. And my children are excited about eating fresh fruit tonight.

This peach is considered the ultimate canning peach. The skins slip off easily when blanched. And you can store them for up to 7 years! Not that ours ever last that long - maybe 10 months.

Check out this week's harvest at Daphne's Dandelions.

Cache Valley for Hope Gala and dress

2011-10-03T07:14:00.027-06:00

This is the first nice dress I've purchased since we got married. My friends tell me that I could wear it if we go on a cruise. Well, we have $200 in pennies, nickels, and dimes saved so it's gonna be a while and hopefully my body won't change too much so I can still fit in it. It's hard to find a modest dress that a 35 year old mom can wear. I purchased it at Petals and Promises. Most of the time I'm dressed down, working on a project or in the garden or something, I'm sure my husband appreciated me getting all dressed up for once. Go check out Cache Valley for Hope.

If 10,00 people in our valley donated $10/m we could generate $1,200,000 to help the cancer patients in Cache Valley. There are 300 people currently being treated at the local cancer center, not to mention those who go out of the state for specialized treatment.

One of the mothers who spoke at the Gala has a son with a terminal brain tumor. The clinical trial meds he is needing cost $12,500 a month and his insurance hasn't decided if they'll cover it because it's a clinical trial. It's working and his brain tumor shrunk 25% already. He's 16.

Another mother brought her 2 year old whose rare retinal cancer can only be treated in two parts of the U.S.A.

Another mom spoke of her battle with breast cancer with 3 young children at home.

And the last was a gentleman with pancreatic cancer who hadn't been to the doctor for 50 years and was surprised when his skin and eyes started changing color.

It's super simple but elegant. I've never worn big earrings before. I kinda like them!

And Pam at Valhalla did my hair. And yes, I retouched my face. Are you kidding me - I have to smooth out my skin. Chemo is not friendly to skin. It's so rough.

A clean garage and the new to us old car

2011-10-01T07:52:00.047-06:00

I don't normally share these kinds of things with others because I don't want them to take it the wrong way but please hear me out. The car we leased for 3 years went back to the dealer in April of this year. It was okay and got us around. It was a toyota camry and honestly the corolla I had before it, was a much better car.

Since then my husband has been carpooling to work and saving the $$$ that would have gone to another car. He decided since it was just something he needed to get back and forth to work in that it needed to get good gas mileage and needed to be under $10,000. He also wanted it to be fun. Well, he found it and test drove it and wanted it but decided to keep looking. After 2 weeks of driving a bunch of other cars he finally decided this was the one. It is 11 years old. No, that's not a typo. It is 11 years old - it's a year 2000. And that's Grandma's McQueen car my son is sitting in and her driveway and she took this cute photo.

It has 70,000 miles on it. It's got a few dings and we spray painted part of the black area around the rag top because the paint was chipping off and well, we didn't want to replace the entire top. Tyler took it in and had synthetic oil put in. It needs a new stereo - it has a cd player that skips and the radio barely gets a signal. That's gonna have to wait. But it's cute and fun and gets amazing gas mileage. Tyler even got it for nearly $3,000 less than it was valued at and for less than his goal you saw above. You can't assume it was expensive just because it's a red BMW. We need to take the seats apart and fix the little pieces that hold the seat belts forward. That'll be a doozy. Thank goodness for youtube videos. Now I just need to learn to drive it. It's manual. ack.

On the 24th we spent the day cleaning out the garage. It looks so much better. It's nice to not have to worry about all the dead grasshoppers and all the dirt - oh and all the stuff I dragged in from the garden. I like driving the Jeep and he loves his little car. Can you hear me singing the primary song: We are a happy family!

Monkey Birthday scrapbook pages

2011-09-30T14:31:00.001-06:00

My son loves monkeys. Maybe it's because everyday after Dad walks in the door he rushes to change out of his 'monkey suit' into something comfy. Maybe it's the cute monkey he earned the money to buy from Build a Bear. Maybe it's the fact that the neighbor boy bought one just like it so they could play together. Maybe it's the monkey blanket I made him from fleece I purchased at JoAnn's.

He asked for a monkey party and he got one. I finally made the paper to go with it so that I could finally scrapbook it. I'm funny that way, I like things custom. Apparently so do my children.

Go check out the Monkey kit at CottageArts. It's on sale during it's introduction stage.

By Laura Vanderbeek

Cottage Arts Design Team member

Tonya Regular

Harvest - uhm not quite monday

2011-09-30T10:51:00.000-06:00

I didn't quite get this done for harvest Monday. But my neighbor said I could go get as many peppers and tomatillos as I wanted because they were out of jars. They grow over 80 tomato plants. I didn't even count the pepper plants. The left 3 bags are Serrano chilies. The front red is chopped salsa peppers that he didn't know the name of. The right two bags are jalapenos. The far right bags are tomatillos. He said to just throw them in the freezer and pull them out as I want to make salsa this winter. Yum! He also have me the gourds. One of his pumpkins crossed with the gourds and is all warty and about 4x's the size of the other pumpkins. It's going to look cool on their porch.

I bout that tall metal bucket for $1. It was blue. I spray painted it black and it works perfectly with my harvest decor.

Oh boy...

2011-09-20T06:50:00.000-06:00

I love autumn. I love the decorations.

This is what happens when you store your candles in the attic all summer. doh...

I broke most of it apart but I had to take the torch to the rest of the little bits. It looks much better. And I didn't add another candle. Yet...

Harvest Monday - September 19th

2011-09-19T06:14:00.030-06:00

Right now I have 3 peaches on my peach tree. Because it's still so new I still purchase my Early Elberta peaches in Brigham City at Grammy's. We purchsed 1 1/2 bushels. They even gave me a 5% off card to use anytime I go there. The peaches are bigger this year than I ever remember. They need to sit for a few days. My house smells amazing. My husband is looking forward to eating them - like every morning on his cereal or with ice cream once in a while.

We also picked a 1/2 bushel of apples at my mom's house. She gave me the square foot garden off her back porch since they are getting ready to sell the house. It's 16 feet long and fits with about a foot to spare in my row garden. I'll share a photo when I get the soil added in.

The other day when I grilled the tomatoes I cut the core out of the heirlooms and saved the seeds in this bowl. I've never saved tomato seeds before. I've saved onion seeds but that's it. I think it's something great to learn.

Then I put them in this metal strainer of mine and ran luke warm water over them.

Then I spread them out on paper towels. When they were nearly dry I scraped them off with a spoon and put them on some old plastic ware lids to finish drying. I really want to see if I can get a few to grow before I freak out in the spring because nothing is growing. And I'm excited to make a few seed packets in Adobe Illustrator - uhm and peach canning labels. I saved the Red Beefsteak and the Pink Brandywine.

Found

2011-09-18T19:09:00.000-06:00

Not a gardening post but I had to anyway.

One letterman's jacket. At Bartlett High in Anchorage, Alaska I lettered in Drama. You had to participate for 2 years to letter. My favorite part was Dream Laurie in Oklahoma. I also lettered in Swimming. I would have been in several AP classes my Junior year but that didn't happen. Then between my Sophomore and Junior year we made the trek to Utah. Home is where the Army sends you, after all. I went from a class of 650 students to a whopping 37 students at Dugway High in the middle of the Utah desert. I lettered in Choir - I even got to be Choir president. I lettered in Track. And I got to participate in Honors Math via TV with a class in Tooele.

I received a bit of a scholarship to Weber but went to BYU Idaho instead. I wanted to be further away to clear my head and stand on my own two feet. That choice had nothing to do with family. Dugway-ites know why. Best thing I ever did.

And here you can see my Sterling Scholar pin.

Proof that this is my jacket.

A friend of mine has a son going to Bartlett. They just had homecoming week. I realized that it's been 20 years since I attended my first Bartlett Homecoming. What?!

At Bartlett they gave you your letter with a certificate. At Dugway you had to purchase your letter and since the shop was so far away I never did. I'd already spent a bundle on this jacket. I need to get this dry cleaned but it's only going to hang in my closet. huh. If I'd saved the certificates I would have ripped everything off and had it framed.

Roasted Tomato Soup

2011-09-18T12:22:00.000-06:00

I went visiting teaching to a lady at church and her husband was making salsa. He told me his trick - he grills the tomatoes first. It was unbelievably good. So the next day I threw these tomatoes on the grill to try it myself. Normally I don't rush into things I'm not quite sure about but I was tomato-ed out and didn't really mind if they didn't turn out.

I also decided to grill some garlic cloves. Uhm, yum! Luckily none of them fell through and disappeared into the flames.

I threw all of the roasted tomatoes into this bowl when I was done. Use a hot pad while transporting them inside. I ran them through my Roma Strainer. But then something interesting happened.

I didn't make salsa. I was out of cilantro (again). I ended up with about 5 quarts of tomato sauce/juice so I grabbed the Canadian Steak Seasoning I get at Sam's Club - I hear the new brand isn't as good as the Tone's Brand. Add 1 tsp per quart. Anyway, I added 1 chopped onion (I even ran it through the food processor because I wanted the pieces smaller). Add 1 chicken bullion cube per quart. Then it needed a few more tsp of salt - salt to taste. It was amazing! I ate 3 bowls worth. I can't stand Campbell's tomato soup - it's too bland and I'm allergic to wheat. This however was a delight for my taste buds. Make some and you'll see.

Harvest Monday - September 12th

2011-09-12T14:51:00.000-06:00

You can click on this to see it larger

There are Red Beefsteak tomatoes up front, next is the sugar pie pumpkin and pumpkemons (the little multi-color pumpkins) and Pink Brandywine tomato on the far right (those are my favorite slicing tomato -yum!) and also one crook neck yellow squash, some genovese basil, 11 quarts of tomato juice, a bunch more green beans (way more than I expected this year), two very small but firm columbia cabbage (they took the entire summer to grow), more than my fair share of lemon cucumbers (if you want some email or text but you have to live close enough to pick them up or let me drop them off), and the basket in the back is full of early girl tomatoes and a few roma tomatoes.

Check out Daphne's Dandelions for even more great harvests from around the world. Did you see all the links at the end of today's post? Click on those and you'll see some great gardens.

A new visitor

2011-09-09T11:00:00.000-06:00

Last night a squirrel came to visit. You have to understand that this is very rare for us. Once a year usually. This morning I went downstairs to work on the sleeves of my daughter's RaTangled costume and I heard this squeaking on the window. I thought it was another vole.

It was this tiny bunny. I mean 5 inches from head to cotton tail. There is no way for it to get out of the window well. It's cement walls are smooth and they are deep and quite large. We get pretty good light for a basement. Mom - doesn't this bunny remind you of Daisy?

I took a few photos and then donned my garden gloves and picked him up. It's feet were moving speedy fast as I quickly put it in this paper bag. Then I carted it up from the basement. This is a regular brown paper bag from the grocery store - see what I mean? TINY!

Then I tipped the bag on its side and after a minute of coaxing it hopped out.

And ran to the rock wall to hide. Cute little cotton tail.

And that was it. Hopefully it doesn't find its way back into the window well again.

Differences in tomatoes

2011-09-07T07:37:00.030-06:00

So what's the difference between these two tomatoes?

The one on the left is an heirloom tomato - it's meatier and has fewer seeds spread throughout. The pink Brandywine really is pink. The Red Beefsteak is more sour than the Brandywine. The one on the right is an Early Girl which is a hybrid tomato and the seeds are all in fancy little pockets and easy to scrape out. I like the heirloom for slicing and for puree - the seeds can be saved and used next year but it's a little process. A free process. I like the Early Girl for salsa because I can get rid of the seeds so easily but it's a really juicy tomato but I prefer to not puree it if I can.

And I've had some whoppers like this come out of the heirloom plants this year. The skin is lumpy. I think it's kinda cool looking. They are great on sandwiches - wish I could eat a sandwich but gluten free bread just isn't calling my name this year.

And this is a Hybrid tomato (Early Girl to be exact) - it's not terribly huge - it's more like the vine ripe tomatoes you see at the grocery store. The skin is smooth too. My neighbor loves them for canning whole. The skins slip off easily when tossed in boiling water for 60 seconds and then into icy cold water after that.

Harvest Monday - September 5th - Labor Day

2011-09-05T19:25:00.000-06:00

So this has been an interesting week with its twists and turn. Thankfully the grasshoppers are no more. I got sick just looking outside my windows but not any longer. I even walked outside once today without shoes on. Life is so much better now that the hoppers are mostly gone. However they are still in my garden. In fact they've eaten most of the ripe tomatoes on 3 plants. Good thing there are 22.

About every 4 days I end up with a harvest like this:

On Thursday I decided I had better get to work on some more pico de gallo before they went bad. I quarter them and then scoop the seeds out. In the other three bowls are tomatoes that I ran through my Roma Strainer.

I ended up with 5 quarts of tomato sauce after it boiled down for a while.

And 32 cups pico de gallo.

See - 32 cups right here. Now it's in the freezer. Wish I could find more of those Ball canning jars locally. I love them for freezing salsa.

Two of the quarts of tomato sauce before going into the water bath canner.

Genovese Basil - next year I am going to plant it around every tomato plant.

And jalapenos - just enough for all my pico and even some incase I get to put away more this week.

Today's tomato harvest. Weird heirloom tomatoes - half green, half red. Oh and today I ripped most of the leaves off the top part of the heirloom plants to get some more airflow and sunlight on them. It's apparently going to frost soon. We get about 3 to 4 months frost free and then it's over.

Here is my big harvest. I pulled these this morning - all 108 of them. Considering that a medium size onion sells for $1 each during the winter here I am pretty happy with this. Thankfully we only have 1 car in a 3 car garage although car #2 will be here soon. And Daphne, thank you for sharing how to braid them. As you can see I will be very busy soon.

This is my largest heirloom so far. It's a Red Beefsteak.

And this is me being cheesy. My husband took the photos for me and I was being silly and did this just as he took a photo to make sure the camera settings were the way he liked them. BUT I always say the gardener is missing in most garden photos so I included it even though I was covered with dirt and looking like I just woke up and I was being cheesy. Nice. Forgive me. I think I even stuck my tongue out and rolled my eyes a second after this. Aren't you so glad he caught this photo instead?

This is a Big Daddy onion. What's cool about all of these onions is that I started them from seed. All 108 onions cost me 99 cents total. Of course I have no idea what it costs me to power the pump for the well to water everything in the high desert but we'll ignore that part ok.

And today with the help of both of my children and my wonderful husband I have 26 more cups of pico made. So that's 32 on Thursday and 26 today. Nice - freezer is STOCKED!

And Bell Peppers - I washed them and saved 2 for chicken fajitas this week. The rest I put in the dehydrator that I received when I graduated from high school. Nice graduation present huh? It sat forever. But I use it more often now. I've had it for a long time. A very long time. I am way older than I look. I got a kids menu when I was 6 month pregnant with my oldest - I was 26.

And here is that ancient dehydrator with the bell peppers I picked today.

It does the job so I'm good with it.

Hope you had a great Labor Day!

Pumpkins

2011-08-31T14:04:00.000-06:00

I decided to pick the pumpkins before the pest control guy arrived just incase. Good news - I walked up to the garden and only got hit by a few grasshoppers rather than hundreds. I really want to freeze a little pumpkin this year. Gluten free cake tastes so much better when it includes more flavorful items such as pumpkin and the spices that make it so delicious. As you can see I have 6 more Spirit Bush Pumpkins than I did the other day and one new Pump-Ke-Mon pumpkin (picked 3 more today). And yes, I made that banner on the mantle. I love Adobe Illustrator because it enhances my ability to make all sorts of crafts. Of course, if you have a handy tool that makes making those rosettes easier I'd love to know. Wow! That took a while.

Harvest Monday - August 29th

2011-08-29T15:21:00.000-06:00

What in the world? No harvest here. Yeah, I'm being a rebel. I am having my yard sprayed - tomorrow. We have grasshoppers. I don't just mean a few. I mean so many I don't even want to walk up to my garden. And the wind makes it worse. The hoppers loose all control and slam into you as they try to hop back into the alfalfa field. My grass is literally moving. They are about 3 inches apart. And not just little hoppers. Great big huge hoppers make up about 80% of them. My grass is covered with 3 inch long brown sticks that are moving - until you walk outside and they start flying. Now I promise - they won't spray my garden. But I will make sure they get close to it so I can at least walk to it sometime this week. I'll post later this week. For now I am avoiding the hoppers as best I can. One good thing is that they don't like day lilies and so far my new hydrangea is doing well.

In the meantime we drove up in the mountains to get out of the heat. Think I'm kidding. The 11 year old boy (who lives next door to his Uncle Scott and just up the street from us) that spoke in church last Sunday about fasting started out his talk saying, "It's been really hot lately. So hot that when my Uncle Scott went out to get the eggs from the chicken coop, they were already hard boiled." He got a good laugh. And he gave an excellent talk.

Don't you just love our outfits? Anyway, we saw a moose too while we were up in the mountains (under the first letter e). My husband didn't want to walk any closer because he heard snapping sticks in the wooded area nearby. This means that there might have been momma and baby in there. So he kept his distance. I love going up there. We see moose often. Sometimes they are swimming in the lake. And the wildflowers were fabulous. It's one of those places where the phrase "take only photos, leave only footprints" truly applies.

Getting the garlic ready

2011-08-27T19:01:00.001-06:00

I got out my tray of garlic the other day and starting going through them to pick out the cloves to plant this October. I probably only pulled apart 1/3 of my bulbs. I saved the smaller cloves for cooking and kept most of the larger cloves for planting. Last year I think I had to break apart 90% of my bulbs. Last year I planted 80 and this year I have 100. I could always do more but I think that will be more sufficient for my little family. Besides I need enough left over for spicing up my food this winter.

I guess these are called bulbils (below). If you want your hard neck garlic bulbs to get bigger you can snip these off when they are little. Or if you want to try growing garlic from bulbils (I guess it takes a few years this way) then you can let them grow. You have to let them get to the point where they are just bursting out. My bulbs were just fine and now I have both. We'll see what happens.

Of course I found out that the deer have rubbed their stupid antlers on my new trees. I really hope all the bow hunters driving around these parts on their four wheelers get those four big six points very soon.

More Pico de Gallo

2011-08-26T18:40:00.024-06:00

I'm enjoying the tomatoes before the grasshoppers eat them all. I made 7 more pints of pico de gallo yesterday and I also used my new Roma sauce maker and pureed all the roma tomatoes. Then I made spaghetti sauce out of it. I'm not sure if it's my soil but is there a way to get my sauce a little more sweet? (besides brown sugar) My carrots are the same way. I can't quite call it sour or bitter but it's a bit of something like that.

I love that old scale but it's not big enough to weigh my pumpkins. And my husband purchased it in Germany and so it is in grams - I have to spend a little extra time converting things (but it sure makes using his German cookbooks a breeze).

And I've picked this many jalapenos twice but haven't bothered to weigh them. I just wanted to get them into my food!

Roma sauce maker

2011-08-25T19:23:00.000-06:00

This roma strainer makes life easier. Who am I kidding? Growing Roma's from seed and then protecting them from pests, oh and then washing and cutting them is never the easy way. But this does make that choice easier. You don't have to parboil them or anything. Just pick vine ripe tomatoes, quarter them, and smash them into this strainer. It will send the seeds and skins out one way and the delicious parts of the tomato out the other side. I know it looks gross but it makes for delicious spaghetti sauce and maybe next time I'll try and make pizza sauce.

Just so you know my five year old helped me turn this while I smashed the tomatoes. He had a great time! One of these days I will decorate that big empty wall over the stairs. In the meantime I'm busy gardening.

1st Day of school

2011-08-25T10:26:00.000-06:00

I like to take the kids out front and grab a few photos in their new school clothes. It was a bit windy so I they have on jackets that don't coordinate but that's the way it was so that's how I photographed them. I'm looking forward to seeing them this afternoon.

Of course I am busy with this - the largest harvest of cucumbers so far, about 4 lbs.

And I need to get to work on some more of this - can you see the jar on the far right - half gone already. I can't help but scarf down this salsa. Love it!

And the very last of the green beans. I planted more but guess what? The grasshoppers have eaten every last leaf off the new plants. And they have eaten the carrots to the ground. And now they are eating my tomato plants. I'm not sure how to fight grasshoppers this thick. They are about every 3 inches in our grass. gross. Anyway, if you want to preserve green beans in the freezer, blanch them for a minute or two in boiling water. Then toss them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer. After 3 hours or so pull them out and stick them in the freezer container of your choice.

My pumpkins are a little early this year...

2011-08-24T15:16:00.000-06:00

And I'm not sure why but my children are excited about it. I've only picked one. I am going to leave the rest until September 15th - unless the deer arrive first. Last year they knocked one of the bush and took a few big nibbles out of another. This is a Spirit Bush pumpkin and yes it grows on a bush instead of a vine and does much better in my soil than the vine type. (And that's a Napoleon fireplace - the glass keeps the wasps from entering the house)

My friend Barbara was over the other day right after I picked this and it was dripping wet from a little wash. She saw my pumpkin bushes out back and was so excited to hear about a bush type pumpkin plant. I told her this one was a Spirit Bush pumpkin and she said she thought it was one of those pumpkins you can get at the craft store it was so perfect. Looking at this photo I can see the imperfections in the pumpkin but I love it.

And my youngest is heading off to school. It's the end of an era. For 9 years I've been a happy stay at home mom 24/7. I guess we'll see how this goes. I made a cute scrapbook page for his teacher to display in the hall (all the kids bring one). I changed all of the wording because you really don't need all the info about him. I'm sure you're thinking it's an okay page but here's the kicker: I made everything. I made the background paper and drew the monkey plus the little frames and textured the circles. I love Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I'm a digital scrapbooker for good.

Now I better get back to cleaning the kids closets and choosing outfits. And finding something to replace chocolate. I have been breaking out in hives again and think that's what caused it. I'm sad because I'm already allergic to wheat, soy, melons, nuts, and berries. Of course maybe it's soy in the chocolate. Either way most chocolate contains soy as an additive.

Harvest Monday - August 22nd

2011-08-22T18:36:00.000-06:00

Well, you win some, you loose some. This past week was an interesting one. On Tuesday I spent the day fighting off the Army Worms. I thought at first they were tomato fruit worms and a neighbor called them cutworms. Apparently they are all related. But I sent an email to the USU extension services with my bowl full of those nasty things (see below) and Taun said that they came from the alfalfa field and I was lucky that the ground was not moving. Uhm, seriously? If I had that many I don't think I'd ever garden again. I have faith things will be better - see, I'm starting more lettuce.

I did have a crazy run in with the tomato hornworm. I found a one inch tiny one first - not bad. Then as I was shaking the only roma tomato in a cage this big fat hornworm flopped on the ground. It was at least 3/4 inch wide and 5 inches long. Gag! I screamed and then jumped back a few feet. I lost half my roma tomatoes which is sad because I really wanted to try making my own tomato sauce because I purchased one of these this year. I don't know if the plants will recover enough to give me some more. I ripped off all the larger roma tomatoes - green or otherwise and checked for holes and if they were good, they got washed in soapy water and placed in the window as you can see here. I have 8 roma plants and I don't think I'm going to get much after all.

See - as my friend Keiko said, "I think I just threw up in my mouth." No, I did not touch the hornworm - I scooped it into the bowl with the lid. Yes, I did pick off all those army worms by hand. Thank you Atlas garden gloves. And having said that, I will never buy leather gardening gloves again. The nitrile touch garden gloves have spoiled me. They wash well and wick the moisture away. I LOVE them. They fit well. And I don't get dirt down into the tips of the glove fingers like I did with the leather gloves. I blame the seams for that. Atlas nitrile touch garden gloves rock!

I did have some luck on Thursday and harvested this nice bunch of tomatoes, 1 more squash, and 4 lemon cucumbers. Loving the lemon cucs.

And go check out Daphne's Dandelions to see fun a beautiful harvests from all over the world. It's also interesting to see how far behind I am living here in the tops of the mountains. And I have to share this photo again. Can you blame me?

View from the tops of the mountains

2011-08-21T07:36:00.007-06:00

The Salt Lake and sunflowers at sunset.

Stars, tree silhouettes, and I-15 - my husband took this photo while I got the kids tucked into their sleeping bags.

Overall I think it was a wonderful camping trip.

Wild flowers seen while camping.

2011-08-20T07:28:00.022-06:00

We're at the bottom of this post but in the meantime enjoy some pretty scenery.

Columbine is so pretty. Especially surrounding our campsite.

There is so much beauty in the trees as well as the flowers.

My daughter took this photo.

Mountain Columbine

I think the flowers look even more tiny with a bit of the tree trunk showing.

Sunflowers overlooking the Tremonton area

I love the mixture of colors here.

Wild Geranium

I love how this foliage looks

Again, it's amazing what a little fill flash can do. Inspiration Point looking south.

The four of us at Inspiration Peak looking north

Hats in the summer

2011-08-19T19:23:00.009-06:00

Hats are wonderful in the summer for keeping the sun out of your eyes but they can create problems when photographing. Here is the camera set on Auto.

Here it is on Aperture Priority Mode. Better.

Here it is with some Fill Flash

Notice how even the background changes. That's better!

Cucumber Salad

2011-08-18T07:30:00.010-06:00

It's pretty simple. You can peel them first or not. Then slice. Toss in a bowl with some Rice Vinegar. I use it because I'm allergic to wheat. But I prefer it because it's a bit sweeter. You can add all sorts of things to this salad. It keeps well overnight with just cucs and onions. Only add tomatoes if you are going to eat it right away.

The lemon cucumber is sitting in the middle here. You know how some cucs have a strange after taste. Not so much with this one. And it's kinda pretty.

Pico de Gallo from home grown produce

2011-08-17T07:12:00.000-06:00

I used 3 of these.

about a dozen of these

1 onion

some salt

a splash of lime juice

and some freshly pressed Korean Garlic

I didn't have any cilantro on hand

Tip: I use the food processor for the jalapenos. I don't know why but it seems like less is more in the food processor. I still chop them up with a knife a bit before I through them in. Keeps the pieces more even. But they seem to be quite hot when I run them through this thing rather than chopping them with a knife. And of course small bits of jalapeno are always better than biting down on a big piece.

Garden critters

2011-08-16T07:03:00.017-06:00

Click on this first one to see the first garden critter. She's a good one. Lady bugs are wonderful! I saw plenty of them this week. This photo looks like I used flash but I didn't. The clouds were moving so fast that my aperture priority had a hard time figuring things out.

And I've also seen plenty of these. What are they? And why are they eating EVERYTHING? Seriously. I found them munching on my jalapeno plants and I rarely see anything on those. They are everywhere I look and that means the road, the house, at the neighbors.They love onions too. Tomatoes, yep. Pumpkins, yes sir. Cabbage - for sure. Green beans - it's eating a stem that ended up on the back porch. Can I repel them somehow?

Harvest Monday - August 15th

2011-08-15T16:14:00.000-06:00

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions and scroll on down to see what everyone else is harvesting.

On the 10th I canned 10 Quarts of green beans. I'm loving the wide mouth jars for this. I used my 23 quart Presto Pressure Canner.

On the 12th I harvested the first of my tomatoes and 1 squash. I have 2 squash plants and they are producing just the right amount for what my husband and I can eat.

Here is today's harvest, August 15th. There is an infestation of caterpillars. They have orange red heads and black and grey stripe the long way. They are all over the house and it was amazing to me that they were on everything and didn't care that it was a jalapeno, pumpkin, or onion. I'll post a photo when I can calm down enough to get one. They've just about destroyed my green onions.

If you've never tried a lemon cucumber you need to. It's delicious! This one was a little bigger than the size of a baseball.

I accidentally got my first heirloom tomato. Oops. I love the character. This is a pink brandywine that's still green of course. I'm going to let it sit in the window sill and see if it'll ripen.

I also did my 3rd green bean picking. It's slowing down. They cut the alfalfa in the field next to the garden and the grasshoppers have moved in. Wish they'd eat the caterpillars instead of the green bean blossoms.

And this had me super happy. The jalapenos are starting to look good. I didn't really need this many but I did chop up 4 and needed 3 for my pico de gallo. It's heavenly to eat fresh pico from fresh produce. I'll post photos soon.

I haven't done a total before so I thought I'd start today. I think it's such a great idea and something I want to include in my garden journal from now on.

Today's Total

Alliums: 5.15 lb

Cabbage: .88 lb

Cucumber: 1.1 lb

Green Beans: 4.41 lbs

Jalapenos: .25 lb

Kohlrabi: .10 lb

Squash: .44 lb

Tomato: 3.7 lbs

Canning Green Beans - Tips

2011-08-15T07:30:00.001-06:00

Okay, taking a break before I show you the finished product. Here is the great illustrated guide in the Ball canning book. It's like $5 and worth every penny. Go get one.

You can see the bag of preserving salt more clearly in this photo and the back of the Utensil set from Ball for canning. It's got everything except the teaspoon.

And my Presto canner comes with instructions for Hot Pack and Raw Pack. I prefer Hot Pack just to be sure. When you decide to eat the green beans one thing I like to do it to bring them to a boil for 5 minutes just in case.

canning Green Beans - part C

2011-08-14T07:30:00.019-06:00

I love this little spatula for removing the air bubbles from the green beans. Just run it around the sides and press inward.

It also has these handy little notches on the other end so that you can measure the head room at the top of the jar. Green beans need an inch.

Wipe the tops of the jars with a wet cloth to clean any residue off. This helps get a secure fit. And this handy little lid lifter - because you don't want to try and chase these lids around in a pot of hot water. This lid lifter helps keep things sanitary and it's a serious time saver.

Tighten the lids down but don't over do. The air needs a little room to escape. Grab the finished

Place the prepared jars in your pressure canner.

Just like this. My canner fits 7 quarts or 20 pints. It's a Presto.

Close it up and bring it to a boil. Let the steady stream of steam escape for 10 minutes. Then bring it up to pressure. I live at 5,000 feet so the canner books says 13 lbs and the Ball canning book says 15 lbs. It's better to be safe than sorry. 15 lbs it is. When it reaches the right pressure then start your timer. 25 minutes for quarts.

More soon...

Canning Green Beans - part B

2011-08-13T07:30:00.017-06:00

After cleaning the jars and lids I like to place them in my water bath canner to keep them hot. I place them in a couple inches of water - you don't want them to float. After the water boils turn it down to a simmer.

Also place the lids in simmering water - you don't want it to boil or it'll ruin them.

Strain the water out of the green beans. I get a pyrex liquid measuring cup full of water and boil it in the microwave and have it ready to pour over the beans after they are in the jars.

Then I use this handy jar lifter to lift the hot jars out of the water bath.

Place the jar on a dish cloth and I love this handy little funnel. It keeps the tops of the jars clean. I prefer to fill my jars loosely with green beans.

Then I add 1 teaspoon of preserving and pickling salt from ball. If you use regular table salt it can turn the water cloudy. This salt is more pure and helps keep the water cleaner looking.

More tomorrow...

Canning Green Beans - part A

2011-08-12T07:30:00.014-06:00

This year I had the largest first picking of green beans ever! I picked 9 lbs and it covered 1/3 of my dining room table. My children were anxious to help snap them - it only happens after the first pick. And I was surprised they both stuck with me until it was done. It actually went by really fast with their help.

Here is a close up of the green beans in my water bath canning pot.

Yes, my little garden actually produced enough green beans to fill this pot.

The next step is to wash them in several changes of water. I'm not sure how many several is so I say 3 or 4. Sorry no photo. Then cut them if you want. My sister makes dill beans and doesn't cut them up.

Boil them for 5 minutes. And I'll share some more tomorrow...

Garden Harvest

2011-08-11T07:30:00.010-06:00

This is a small harvest from the 5th. I picked two small onions because I needed room for the larger onions to grow. Finally harvested my first squash - that's my fault - I planted 2 and late because of the soggy wet spring. And two kohlrabi which will sit in my fridge until I get the guts to throw them away.

On Sunday I picked two bell peppers and one onion for fajitas since my mom and niece were here. It was a great way to end Fast Sunday. My mom even noticed that the bell peppers were a prettier green color than she'd ever seen in the store. She was right. And much more delicious!

Garlic Harvest

2011-08-10T15:53:00.000-06:00

This is what I got from one row of 15 feet. At two to three inches apart I should have harvested 60 bulbs. I harvested 75 with only a handful of little ones. This is my best garlic harvest in the 3 years that I've been growing garlic. The nice thing is buying it once and then using cloves from what you grow to replant. This makes it the most affordable plant in my garden. No need for starting indoors, etc. And nothing likes to eat it. Just be careful to not over water because I've heard they can get some kind of rot and split.

catching up with the rest

2011-08-06T07:30:00.027-06:00

Peppers - it looks like my peppers are doing pretty well this year. They do need to be staked up and I'll get around to that soon. I need to make a trip to the hardware store.

And even with the hot weather they are starting to bud. I have a few bell peppers already showing up but the jalapenos are taking their time.

The fern leaf dill is going crazy. My husband pulled up two of them because he thought they were dyers woad. I can see the resemblance except that Dyers Woad is black this time of year and doesn't smell as good.

The nice thing about planting basil next to the tomatoes is that the horn worms hate it. The bad thing is that the slugs are terrible this year and they LOVE basil. Besides, all the rest of my basil has met with an early demise. I want to get at least one batch of bruschetta please. Check out that link, it's an excellent recipe and their site is great, that is if you haven't fallen in love with it yet.

And the squash is finally growing. I love summer squash. Grilled.

And the carrots are doing well. The middle section of the row washed away in a heavy rainstorm so they are short than the outer edges. But they are all growing well.

Cold weather veggies - not really

2011-08-05T07:30:00.001-06:00

I think the cold weather veggies are my favorite to photograph. And even though it's now quite hot, they are just starting to catch up. It's just been a weird year. Love the purple kohlrabi. So far I've harvested 1 columbia cabbage and two kohlrabi. I put them in the Moo Goo Gai Pan. Yum! They are so refreshing.

I love having the photos to compare them to other years. It's been super handy it figuring this whole garden thing out.

Green Beans

2011-08-04T07:30:00.030-06:00

I love green beans but this year they are off to a slow start. I thought I'd take a few photos however because they are pretty. I have 5 rows of Jade bush beans. This year I actually had my health in June so I thinned them to the 3 inches apart. Much better. The stems are so much stronger. They are super tender and meaty. I don't like the beans that end up being almost hallow. You have to get to the bulk seed shop early to get these because they go fast.

I also found out when planting these that you have to be careful when putting the soil on top of the seeds. Make sure the soil isn't wet and clumpy. Freshly tilled soil works best. Just toss it on top of the seeds and make sure they are covered an inch to inch and a half. Don't step on the soil or even press down on it. The lighter it is the better. Successful sprouting will happen if you leave the soil loose and friable.

You can see they are all kinds of tall and short. I had to replant the far left row. Oh and I don't know if you can see the drip line on the far right. I ripped out the spinach and planted two more rows of beans there. They are already up since taking the photo and blogging about it. You can click on the photo to see it larger.

Usually I pick them small and freeze them - then saute with minced garlic. My daughter does not like them that way at all. And they don't always turn out great. So we tried canning them last year. Ahhh, much better. We ALL liked them better that way. I'm really hoping for more than 6 quarts this year.

Day Lilies

2011-08-03T07:30:00.000-06:00

My Day Lilies are looking pretty good this year. They were slow to bloom (long cold spring) but they look better than they have in a long time. I've planted 2 other types and they'll bloom next year. This fall I am splitting these. I need to place them on the hillside next to the new Ash tree.

Pumpkins

2011-08-02T07:30:00.030-06:00

This is a Spirit Bush pumpkin. It's a bush type of course, which means they take up less space. And it seems to produce two perfect looking pumpkins per bush. They were pretty small the week before. And now they are bigger than a softball. Of course I took these photos on the 24th of July. I just took a lot of photos and its taking me this long to share.

You can see the 5 spirit bushes here and one little pumpkin enjoying some sun.

Here is the east pumpkin patch next to the green onions on the back upper tier.

And here is one sugar pie pumpkin. We'll see if I get any pumpkins on the vine type this year. Last year they started about September. Too late. They didn't even reach baseball size before the frost hit.

And here is a small Spirit Bush pumpkin hiding away in the leaves. I just really liked the way the shadows fell across it.

And here is the West side pumpkin patch. I planted these a little late and they just don't want to grow. Even with fertilizer! I tilled around them the other day. I need to take the herbicide to that mess at the end. I hate bind weed. It looks like morning glory. Only it's worse and it's roots can take up to 50 years to kill. I grew two yellow crook neck squash this year and they are just starting to grow squash. I'm thinking kabobs would be great - someday.

Green Tomatoes

2011-08-01T07:30:00.024-06:00

I'm looking forward to my tomatoes this year. I decided to try a few heirloom tomatoes. I want to be able to preserve some of my own seeds. I love starting my own tomatoes. I spent $4/ plant for 2 plants at Walmart this year and started 12 Early Girl and 8 Roma tomatoes for much less than $8.

This first one is a Bonnie Red Beefsteak. It's in a powder coated heavy duty cage that cost somewhere around $19 each. Now I wish I had made something taller from a cattle panel. It's covered with blossoms and has plenty of fruit starting to set.

This one is a Bonnie Brandywine. It's slower than the beefsteak.

This is an Early Girl. I got the seeds from Anderson Seed and Garden. I love these but not for slicing.

Here it is peaking out of the cage.

Just another view of the Early Girl.

And here you can see the Early Girls in the left two rows and one dill and the Roma's on the right. The Red Beefsteak and the Pink Brandywine are in my square foot garden clear across the yard. We are on a half acre on a hillside so I am limited on space. My row garden is 15x40 and my square foot garden is 10x3. Not sure on the size of the corn patch. I am looking to eek more space out where I can.

3 peaches

2011-07-31T07:30:00.010-06:00

I'm really surprised we have any peaches this year but we have 3. The peach tree has been in the ground for almost 2 years now. My next assignment is to figure out how to prune the tree this fall. Any suggestions for where to go on this? I did check the USU extension but it mostly had info for the first year.

Okay, so there are two in this photo. The other one is a ways up. They are small. But I am just happy to be growing some fruit. Especially because we preserve 50 bottles of diced peaches each fall. Eventually I hope to get a few bottles preserved from this tree. My husband eats them pretty quick. He has to have something to sweeten his cereal in the morning. He calls it horse food.

Daisies and Pin cushions

2011-07-30T07:30:00.008-06:00

Shasta Daisy - these are looking quite nice. I'm sure next week I will need to take the scissors to them. Want to take better flower photos then make sure you take photos from many angles. Of course it helps to have an f-stop of 4 or less.

Pin cushion flower just getting ready to open.

And this one is open. I love how they look like little straight pins in the center. And the wild flower look is really fitting around our home.

Green Onions and Yellow Onions

2011-07-29T07:30:00.020-06:00

I decided that I like to grow onions that I can store. So for the summer I love green onions. Did you know they freeze well? Great for mixing into your pico de gallo. Okay, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I can hardly wait for my tomatoes to be ready.

And my yellow onions are Big Daddy. If you have tried to start onions from seed but haven't had much luck, then this is the brand to try. Super easy. Almost too easy. And they store well. Just pull them when they are big enough and let them dry. Then throw them in an old milk crate or wire basket and you're done.

My nice row of Big Daddy Onions. The one next to it isn't so big. huh? not sure why.