artsy-crafty babe

cleaning, rearranging, and gardening

I discovered something else that totally wipes me out – cleaning & rearranging my girls’ room. I don’t know what got into me, but Saturday I went into the girls room to find something, and before I knew it I was cleaning out their armoire of toys.

Two bags of trash later, I was rearranging their furniture.  Did I need to do this?  No.  Did I plan to do this?  Not at all, but something came over me.  Probably not the wisest decision considering my recent energy level.  Oh my, those girls and all their junkety junk treasures!!  I tried my best, but I'm sure their junky clutter lovelies will be back in no time.

On Sunday morning I could hardly move.  Geeze, I’m falling apart!  Needless to say, I spent most of the day horizontal.  No complaints, the down time gave me the chance to revisit some baby knitting I started months ago – finally tackling those dreaded sleeves (teeny tiny ones at that)!

It took me until Monday to get things hung back on the walls, but I think their room is just about done.  I’m on the lookout for a new rug (did I ever show you their lavender painted floors?), a kid size coat rack for hanging dress up clothes is on order, and I’m thinking a few framed quilt blocks to hang on either side of the bed might be nice, but that’s it.  Well, maybe that plain white armoire needs a little something and those stuffed animals need some serious editing!  With this project behind me (almost), it’s time to start planning for baby…think pink!

I certainly don't want to think about my poor vegetable garden. It is fried!!  Once the stink bugs started attacking my tomatoes, I gave up.  Stupid stink bugs.  My cucumbers started spazzing out, making weird ball-shaped cucumbers, so I gave up on those, too.  And then all my sunflowers fell over (and I let the last few eggplant I picked go bad in the fridge). *sigh*

The only thing left doing any sort of producing is the cantaloupe, which we planted on a whim.  We plan to try one tonight, I'll let you know how it goes!  

 

gardening, a winner, and a coupon code

Hi there!  I hope all you Mothers out there had a lovely Mother's Day full of love and pampering - I sure did.  It was probably one of the best Mother's Day yet. There were handmade gifts, notes, and cards all around.  So sweet, that little family of mine!

Has spring finally sprung where you are?  We're practically in the heat of summer at this point, but I can't complain because we really have had a nice spring.  I finally got my patio cleaned up and put together right before Ava's party.  It's so nice to have a little space to enjoy outdoors when the weather cooperates.  I'm trying to spend as much time out there as I can before it gets too unbearable.

I'm loving my hydrangea, which is finally starting to bloom.  I was afraid that I'd miss out this year because a scissor happy little miss decided to give it a good pruning this past winter. Never a dull moment, I tall ya!

My little garden is chugging along.  Though I was late in getting it planted, it didn't waste any time taking off.  I spy my first tomato - so exciting!!  Seeing veggies grow never gets old, at least not in my book.

Sorry to drop the ball on the TYV Crafting with Kids giveaway - oops.  I managed to close comments on the appointed day, but then, oh well.  Without further adieu, the winner is #73, Lisa!

One last thing - throughout the month of May everything in my shop is 25% off, just use coupon code MAYFLOWERS at checkout.  Happy shopping!

a little garden at last

I am so behind on my garden this year.  By this time, it is usually well under way.  I thought about not doing a garden at all, but Saturday afternoon I felt well enough to go to the garden center for some plants.  Then on Sunday, I actually planted them!  I tried starting seeds twice a few months ago, but nothing ever came of it. 

Really, I had big plans.  BIG plans.  Lots of seeds and a garden twice as big as last year.  I don't think this will be the year for that, which is totally okay.  Heck, I didn't even plant my full garden, only half.  I'm still contemplating what I'll put in that second half.  As of now I have some tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and eggplant.  I'll probably plant the same again in a few weeks to stagger my harvest.  We can't get enough tomatoes & cucumbers around here.  The basil is already going in pots along with some heat wave lettuce.  Just those things together are a complete meal.

It's only been a day, but already this little garden is making me happy. 

blooms

Please pardon my crafty diversion at the moment, I'm soaking up the wonderful weather and taking in all the beautiful blooms around my yard.  I can't help but take photos to share!!

Oh my, my jasmine is full on at the moment.  I *wish* you could smell their sweetness.  Totally intoxicating.  This is growing on the lattice that separates my carport from my patio.  I'm thinking about planting some along my fence.  It can't hurt to attract more bees to my yard, right?  

On one side of my front walk are my mauve irises, which have been multiplying like crazy.  Any local friends want some?  Come on over with a shovel!  I also have purple and yellow ones, but those aren't blooming so much yet.

This poor little rose is finally doing something.  I don't remember how long ago I bought it, but I quickly neglected it...for far too long.  A year or so ago I put it in it's current location with a trellis to climb on.  I'm pleased so far! I absolutely love the color of these roses.

I never was a rose fan, but last year we planted some knockout roses.  Seriously?  These things are out of control!!  How gorgeous is that?

After telling Alex that he couldn't cut my roses, I contradicted my self and cut some!  I couldn't help it, I needed some of that beautiful color inside.  

Ah Spring, if only you could stay around these parts longer!  I know that all too soon it will be sweltering with all this loveliness burnt to a crisp.  Excuse me while I enjoy it while I can!!

spring has sprung!

Whoa!  It seems like it happened overnight.  I know for certain that I checked out my bradford pear tree on Monday morning and it barely had tiny little buds on the ends of the naked branches.   This afternoon (Wednesday) it is in FULL bloom - even a few leaves have popped out.  Amazing!!

I tell ya, it's hard to concentrate on anything with all this beauty explosing outside my window.  I always look forward to seeing my red-bud tree in full bloom.  Love it.

And then there's this thing, our loropetalum.  This is only a small section of it, but I don't think I've ever seen that many fuzzy little blooms on it.  It is a blaze of hot pink against the brick of our house.  

I especially love seeing all these blooms against that beautiful clear blue sky.  Yes, I do believe I've been afflicted with spring fever!

 

goings on

 
Oh life, you're so full & busy right now.  I suppose I had better get used to it because I don't foresee things calming down anytime soon.  It's so easy to get caught up in the everyday, but today I tried to take notice, which is something I've gotten out of the habit of doing.

 
While supper was simmering, I took a little stroll out to the garden to check things out.  My poor little neglected garden!  Once the heat of the summer hit, I pretty much let it fry.  A few weeks ago a cleaned it up and started some new plants.  I'm excited to see the first of my little lettuce plants popping through the soil.  This is the first time I've tried lettuce.  Silly me, I've been checking for it in the wrong spot, where the carrots were planted.  That's what I get for not marking my plants.  With a garden so small, I didn't think I had to.  My fall tomatoes are slowly coming in.  A little small, but tomatoes nonetheless.

 
Homework.  This school year had been a learning year for us.  We lucked out with Lily, who has always done her assignments on her own.  Alex, not so much.  He knows his stuff, but you have to be right there with him while he works on it.  And then he likes to be goofy and put down wrong answers to make sure that we're paying attention.  Silly boy.

 
Tonight Ava was feeling a little left out, so she pulled out the spelling puzzles.  She's all about letters right now.  I'm so glad that she's getting some use out of these puzzles because my other kids hardly touched them.

 
Lemons!!  Today my sister-in-law brought me all these lemons from her co-worker who has a tree full.  I gladly took them.  I love lemons.  Y'all have any good lemon recipes to share?  Sarah, I'm talking to you!

So there you have it, a glimpse at a little snippet of an evening at chez Lambert (pronounced shay lam-bear, of course).

It felt good to walk around with my camera this evening, it's been a while...

outdoor living

My backyard is my favorite place to hang out when the weather cooperates.  I love to spend afternoons tending to my vegetable garden and potted plants.  As of now, we've only carved out a little spot contained by the picket fence, which was a great solution when the kids were smaller, but I dream of putting a big privacy fence around the peremeter of the yard so that I can enjoy the big live oak tree at the corner of our property and I no longer have to stare at the back of my neighbor's house. 

Man, my little garden is doing so well right now, I almost hate to blog about it in fear that I'll jinx it.  Some of my patio plants have yet to come back (boo) and others are off to a slow start, but over all everything is doing well.

My first attempt at growing vegetables from seeds is going well.  Look at those beans!  I finally got around to building a simple trellis with bamboo this weekend.  The beans were starting to reach the fence.  As usual, my little garden is overcrowded.  I suppose I'll have to expand it yet again next year.  For reference, this was my garden less than 6 weeks ago.

Look, little green tomatoes!  I can't wait for those.

The jasmine is intoxicating.

The hydrangeas make me so happy.

My re-vamped patio furniture.  Do you remember when I got this set?  It was a free from my babysitter's neighbor.

All my cushions are from Costplus World Market and Pier 1.  These matched the tablecloth I purchased from World Market last year.  I shopped around for outdoor fabric to make my own, but in the end, it was easier to just buy them all ready made.  I've finally figured out my problem - because I can make things, I feel like I should, but in the end this holds me up and keeps me from finishing anything because I don't have the time to make EVERYTHING.  I felt a little guilty, but I bought the cushions and called it done.

As you can see, my Corks-n-Canvas paintings found a new home.  This is where I originally wanted to hang these.

The kids helped out with artwork for the other side.  These wooden pieces were in the packaging of my new bar stools.  Alex painted the more subdued one, with the help of Lily, and Ava and her friend did the more colorful one.

This table was the first table Matt & I bought when we got married.  It is made from reclaimed fencing.  We used it as our dining table for a long time, then as a desk, then as a catch-all table, then a dining table again, but that proved to not work well with 3 messy kids.  Do  you know how hard it is to get sticky rice from the cracks in that table?  And what a pain it is when spilled milk flows through the cracks all over the floor?  I needed an easy clean up solution, so this much loved table became the patio table while we got a new table to dine off of (which turned out to be a piece of crap, but that's another story).  The plastic chairs will eventually be replaced with benches.  Hopefully one day this table will make its' way back inside, I do love it so!

Have I ever shown you this Singer treadle table?  My dad gave it to me a few years ago.  I think some one was giving it away????  Thankfully he rescued it and gave it to me.  I love it and think it works perfectly out here. (yes, I have twinkle lights strung through the lattice, but I need more)

There are still a few things I need to do, like attach and fill some flower boxes with ferns to add some privacy from the back door, but other than that, this space is complete.  Anybody care to swing by for Birthday Happy Hour on Friday?  We'll have cake & ice cream (and margaritas) on the patio...

sprucing up

In my usual pattern of seasonal nesting, spring has me in a tizzy (or maybe it's a chocolate induced sugar high)!  I *wish* I could bottle up my current energy level and this perfect weather for when I'm not feeling up to it, but right now, I'm going full force.  I know that this won't last forever, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can!

This past weekend I was able to check off a few things on my never-ending-continually-growing to-do list.  I'm not gonna lie, it feels pretty good to cross things off the list!  First up is my back door.  I wish I had a before photo to show you, but it might gross you out.  Just imagine a dingy white door with peeling paint and mud splatters (at least I hope that's what that was) at the bottom.  Yeah, GROSS!  And this is the door that is used the most - by everyone.  That poor old door got a good scrubbing, a scraping, a priming and a new coat of paint - black.  I was a little worried about the black, but I love it.  It really adds some depth.  I still needs a little something, maybe wreath and a new doormat, but it is much improved from where I started.  Now I have 3 more doors to paint across the back of my house, but I'm saving that for another day.

And now when we walk through my back door, there's a nice long row of hooks to hang all of our stuff, conveniently placed at kid level.  This is something we've been wanting to do for quite a while.  It's a little thing that I think will make my life simpler - I can't tell you how many bags, jackets, hats, etc that I pick up which have been flung on the floor because there's no real place to put them...now there's no longer an excuse.

The biggest project I tackled was new curtains for my dining room, 4 panels in all.  Oh boy, am I ever glad to have that behind me!  Drapery panels aren't difficult to make, but they sure are time consuming, and a pain in the butt - fooling with all that fabric isn't my favorite thing in the world.  This fabric made a mess.  It's a heavy white linen, which shed all over the place.  I'm still cleaning up white linen lint from every surface in the room, and probably will be for a while.  I do think the effort was worth it - this space seems so much more airy with the white panels. 

Did you notice the top?  I got fancy and added a little pinch pleat at the top.  I find that panels hang so much nicer with the pinch pleat.  I think I need to start underestimating how long my panels should be because I always end up with panels that are too long.  This time was no different, even though I cut them shorter than my previous panels.  One thing I didn't take into account is how linen grows (the hem is folded in the above photo).  Oh well, lesson learned.

While I was in the dining room, I finally hung up my little collection of blue & white plates. Love!

I've been taking advantage of the gorgeous spring weather by doing a little gardening.  My window box got replanted.  I don't seem to have much luck with keeping things alive in my window box, but I have high hopes for this year.  Last year my geraniums did well, but that's all I had in there.  I decided to go with my tried and true while mixing it up a bit with some additional color and a few things that will trail down (to hide my pieced coco mat).  I sure hope this takes off!

My little vegetable garden doesn't look like much, but it's jam packed with veggies!  I'm being adventurous this year by doubling the size of my little raised bed.  I've planted quite a few seeds, which I've never done before.  I can't wait to start tending to this.  Checking on my garden every afternoon is one of my most favorite things to do.  And picking the fruits of my labor, well, that's just icing on the cake. 

Boy, do I ever love this time of year!  Happy, happy spring!!

i'm drawing a blank - i can't think of a title for this one

Let's start out with a pop quiz.  Don't worry, you won't be graded on it.

My absence from this space is due to:

a) spring fever

b) problems adjusting to the time change

c) lots of sewing

d) all of the above

I'm sure you know the answer to this - if you guessed d, give yourself a pat on the back (or a trip to the fabric store!).  My goodness, how can it be the middle of March already?  Seriously!!  Spring has sprung in these parts, and all I want to do is soak it up.  These longer days are wonderful, but I haven't figured out how to go to bed on time yet, which makes for some very groggy mornings.  Thank goodness for coffee.

Seeing all the flowering trees around my yard sure is making me happy.  My redbud tree, peach tree (that never makes peaches), bradford pear, and loropetalum are all in full bloom along with the many flowering weeds that my kids love to pick and bring to me daily.  I can't wait until we have green grass again.  I guess for now the clover will have to do.

Last week I told y'all that the knitting bug bit me, but I was going to finish my many (many) warm weather knits that I already have in progress.  Well, that lasted for all of about 4 days.  I worked and worked on my shetland shorty, but my eye wandered and whoops, I cast on something new.  I'm now working on a buttercup by Heidi Kirrmaier. I'm using stash yarn, so that's something, right?  I did have to get some new needles because all my others are currently on projects. 

The color isn't too springy, but it does remind me of my loropetalum (and the other pinkish/purplish blooms).  Knowing my knitting habits, I'll work on it for a while, put it aside, then maybe finish it months later so with that in mind, it will be perfect for fall.  I plan to modify this to have elbow length sleeves and a fitted body.

As of now, everything is still on track for my spring update this weekend, though I'm thinking it will be Sunday, or maybe first thing Monday morning.  I'll be sure to let you know!

how does my garden grow?

Is it just me, or does blogland seem quite lately?  Just wondering.

Anyway, here it is our first week of summer and things haven't slowed down at all.  We still have t-ball games to attend and a dance recital coming up and another birthday party to get ready for (yeah, I know - another one).   Last night was the recital dress rehearsal, which is always fun.  I love seeing all the sparkley costumes.

This afternoon I piddled around my little garden.  My vegetable garden is growing well, but my poor summer squash has been plagued by powdery mildew and it has spread to my cucumber plant, which does not make me happy.  I can do without the squash, but I LOVE cucumbers.  I'm pretty sure my problem is overcrowding.  That coupled with all the rain we've been getting has resulted in a moldy disaster!  The squash is now gone.  I cut off as many moldy cucumber leaves as I could, but as soon as the current cucumbers ripen, it's getting pulled up as well.  Grrr.

I picked up a few big pots with plans to grow another cucumber and squash off on their own.  We'll see how that turns out.  While I was at the garden center I picked up cantaloupe and honeydew melon plants.  I think I'll plant them near my little pumpkin patch.  That should work out, shouldn't it?  My pumpkin patch happened by accident.  I finally got around to throwing our Halloween pumpkin on the compost pile (I'm embarrased to tell you how long that thing sat by my front door...let's just say that Santa saw it).  I didn't get around to turning my compost pile, and before I knew it, I had sprouting pumpkin plants.  So, I transplanted them all to a little corner of the yard where I had planned to put another raised bed.  This is all one big experiment to me, really. 

At least I was able to pick a half dozen squash and got a few good cucumbers before their demise.  My tomatoes and eggplants are doing well.  Now I can't wait for those tomatoes to ripen.  Seeing those big green tomatoes is killing me!!  Gardening is definitely a test in patience, that's for sure :)