Sewing and Gardening

Sewing:  Angelina has been working on her 4-H sewing projects, which means the serger and sewing machine have been out, which means… they’re accessible, which means…I’ve completed a few long-put-off projects.  The fabric for the baby blankets was purchased before Louis was born (he’s 2 1/2 years old), and the fabric for the three sets of pajama pants for Graham has been in my fabric stash for even longer.  So, Louis’ blanket (the brown striped minky with satin backing) is done!  He likes it.  I made a second minky for a gift and the three flannel blankets are also gifts.  Sorry, no pics of the pj’s; they’re in the wash or in use.

 

Not sure why, but my camera is not doing justice to the colors of the blankets.  They turned out super cute with the different color blanket bindings.  My favorite is the blue water with orange flannel backing (shown below).

Gardening:  The cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers are planted.  The tomatoes are purchased (still need to be planted).  And, the weed block and old paver’s have been placed around the SFG’s.  In doing this job, I determined that there was too much space between the SFG’s, so they needed to be moved closer together.  There’s still plenty of room for the garden wagon, though it is a tighter turn.  The pavers aren’t level, but the project is as done as it’s gonna get for now.  We might purchase a few more pavers to complete a pathway along the back edge of the garden, but that’s a future project. 

Dash is gone for the state FFA Convention, so I and the three middle kids did most of the work.  I dug out the weeds, the kids hauled them away.  I laid all the weed block and hauled the first couple loads of pavers; the kids hauled and placed the rest of the pavers.  Thankfully, the kids and I only had to move the first SFG.  Eric was around to help pull and shove the other six into place.  He also helped load and haul the last of the pavers.  It’s shaping up.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

My mom celebrates her birthday on June 7th, so we usually combine it with Angelina and Graham.  She took the carrot cake home … we had enough to last all week here!

ARghhhh!

Ok, I did it again!  I just noticed, tonight, while writing up the post for Angelina’s birthday, that I had the wrong year on the cake.  You’ll recall I did the same thing with Dash in April? 

Either I do not want my kids to age, or I am aging quicker than I realize.  In my defense, I was really tired after the weekend.  You’d think I’d learn after doing it once.  And, no one mentioned it in a way that made me realize what I’d done!  Angelina mentioned it, but I assumed I just hadn’t counted the candles right…well, I was off on that at first, too.  At least she blew out the correct number of candles.

Happy Birthday, Angelina!

Angelina turned 12 on June 5, 2012.  However, she doesn’t want to remain 12 long because a couple weeks ago I heard her counting down to her 13th birthday – that caught me off-guard.  She and Graham celebrated birthdays on Sunday, June 3 with grandparents.

Her Grandma Audrey made this last gift.  It’s a bed for an 18” doll.  The bedding is attached to an under-bed storage box.  Really cool idea – possible 4-H project for a future childcare exhibit.

Happy Birthday, Graham!

Graham is six!  He turned six on June 2, 2012, but we celebrated with family and grandparents on Sunday, June 3 with a grill-out.  I picked up all the fixings and the cake on the way back from Fargo on Sunday.  This was a cool chocolate chip cookie cake.  (When you have three birthdays to celebrate, variety is needed!)

Garden Progress!!

I made it into the garden and did quite a bit of work today.  I didn’t get exhausted, either…thank goodness.  It sure helps to split up the work into little chunks.

This morning, I replenished a couple of the SFG’s (Square Foot Gardens) with compost/soil-less mix.  I also planted the carrots, 1/2 the beans, beets, and spinach.  In addition, a few more weeds were dug out from the flower bed and garden area.  It’s sad to see that a few of the perennials I purchased at the end-of-season box sale didn’t make it through the winter.  Guess that means I’ll have room for more??  Or, maybe it’d be best to space the current plants, use all those scrap pieces of Roc-Kloth to cover the bare areas, and cover it with rocks/pavers so I don’t have to dig so many weeds next year.  The later sounds like the better option…

This afternoon, the rest of the beans, lettuce, and radish were planted and everything was watered.  Quite a few more weeds were dug out because I enlisted the help of the kids.  They aren’t quite as efficient in digging weeds, but their help was necessary.  They hauled the weeds to the burn site and helped carry tools back to the garage.  It’s those tasks that make me the most tired!

My future gardening goals (hopefully quite a few will be checked off the list tomorrow):

1. Get help rototilling the open areas again.

2. Plant broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, green pepper, red pepper, and jalepeno pepper plants.

3. Plant cucumber, pumpkin, watermelon and squash plants (this depends somewhat upon the room available).

4. Take up the torn pieces of Roc-Kloth and lay them strategically in the flower bed.

5. Enlist help to bring the leftover fieldstone to the flower bed.

6. Lay down Roc-Kloth between the flower bed and SFG’s to prepare for the paver pathway.

7. Lay pavers over the Roc-Kloth pathway.

8. Dig out weeds in day-lily and iris bed.

9. Dig out weeds around and in strawberry bed.

10. Transplant strawberries and enlarge the strawberry bed.

11. Dig out weeds around blueberry shrubs (Yes! They are in bloom!!).

12. Level the area where the pool will be situated…do you think the kids will work faster if this is at the end of the list of tasks?!?  I think they probably will!