ffa plant sale this weekend!!!

don't forget to stop by your friendly neighborhood (high school) ffa!  these students have worked hard all spring to get these plants ready for you!  both mt. juliet and wilson central will be open from 8am to noon this saturday (and during the week till 5:30).  these photos were taken at mjhs.  you can see samples from wchs HERE.

jbs: i already miss this

a sweet layout about my baby boy and how i need to make him let him grow up (just a little).

you can read a little more about the supplies over on the jbs inspiration blog.  :)

good blog reads

a few more good blog reads for you!  and the kitties on easter sunday.  enjoy!  :)


uplifting and down to earth.  http://mammasaurus.co.uk/

a little girl in miami.  http://lilmuselily.com/

a little crafting and a little animal loving.  http://gemmagarner.com/blog/

i think i could learn a few things here.  http://iphonephotographyschool.com/

ecclectic with lots of music.  http://forme-foryou.com/

lots of crafties and gardening.  http://wolvesinlondon.com/

working hard on gardening and life.  http://margot-and-barbara.com/

an artistic life in poland.  http://silviasencek.blogspot.de/

wchs ffa plant sale!

calling all locals!  please support the wchs ffa!  stop in (during the hours listed below) and buy a few plants.  these kids (and their teachers) work hard to develop their skills and provide a wonderful product (at a great price) to their community.  g and i came home with six different varieties of geraniums.  i can't wait till they bloom!  (if you're in the mt. juliet area, the mjhs ffa is also conducting their plant sale as well.  i haven't been yet this year, but last year's crop was great!).

menu plan: deviled egg peeps

i hope your easter was fabulous!  our weekend was so wonderful!  we had friday off and visited cheekwood botanical gardens (or cReekwood BIOtanical as g calls it), went back to the farm saturday, and did easter dinner with friends who are more like family saturday.  indeed, we spent the whole weekend surrounded by friends, and we are extremely thankful for all of them.

i spent most of the weekend unplugged (except for an instagram extravaganza yesterday - i'm dorissander there, so original), so i have lots of pictures and stories to share this week.  these are the deviled egg peeps i made for easter dinner.  they are fairly self-explanatory.  the beaks are carrots and the eyes are black olives.  the nest is made of broccoli sprouts that g sprouted last week.

this week's menu plan is easy peasy.  i don't even have to go to the grocery all week except to pick up a few things for g's school lunches and to pick up a steak for the byob (bring your own beef) campout cookout on friday night.  looking forward to another great weekend ahead without cub scout family!  life is good!

this week's menu plan:

sunday - happy easter!

monday - happy easter leftovers!

tuesday - spaghetti

wednesday - dinner at church

thursday - homemade pizza (gotta use up those black olives as i only used two on the peeps, lol)

friday - steak at the campout

saturday - campout food

crocheted easter baskets

the easter bunny has been busy!  the holiday bug bit (fairly last minute) again and i managed to whip out a few of these little easter baskets for a few little friends.  i finished five to deliver today and need to make three more for monday.

i think they turned out so so cute!  i followed this pattern that i found on pinterest.  the bottom of the bowl i followed exactly and then for the sides i modified the stitch to the one i used for my dishclothes to give the bowls more of a basket weave effect. 

 

if you're looking for a quickie handmade easter project, these would fit the bill. each bowl took me about an hour to crochet and was made with scrap yarn.

 

the details:

100% cotton medium weight yarn
size E crochet hook (i love those tight stitches)
* for the bottom of the bowl, i completed through step 8 (48 stitches), the edge was then 7 rows tall plus the finishing row.  my completed bowls measure 3 inches across and 2 inches high
*i found the hello kitty bunny eggs in the easter section at target

hoppy easter, ya'll!

how does your garden grow?

i am just so so excited that gardening season is finally upon us once more!  it's been such a long winter; we actually had snow in the forecast on tax day this year!  craziness!

this year is going to be even better than last year.  a dear friend of ours has invited gabriel and i to share in his gardening experience.  he has 150 acres and two big hoop houses.  yes, please!

from the looks of the blossoms already appearing, we will have tomatoes and strawberries in early may!  hooray!

we spent three hours under this glorious blue sky saturday, and it was amazing.

g chatted nonstop with homer.  i loved it.  i am firmly convinced that a child can never have too many of the grandfatherly types in his life.  (plus, i got a few quiet minutes with my camera).

these are the remnants of the turnips, last fall's cover crop.  they were planted after the last harvest to deter weed growth and then tilled under in early december to enrich the soil.

the bees are loving these early blooms.

and i loved photographing them, although i am learning that macro photography is quite difficult with the iphone.  it refocuses every time it moves or the wind blows.  bees move a lot, so it's hard to keep up with them, plus it was a very windy day.  i must remember to take my big camera next time.

here is the bees' home.  we actually got to meet tennessee's state beekeeper as he was checking on the bees while we were there. 

g helped plant the cucumbers.  this saturday we're scheduled to help plant corn and zinnias.

and i will, of course, be taking more pictures.  and maybe crocheting.  and possibly taking a walk in the woods.  and taking more pictures.  and picnicing.  happy days ahead!

good-bye farm!  we'll see you again real soon!

linking up with mammasaurus and "how does your garden grow?"

52 weeks: february squares

wah!  i seem to be falling behind on all my year long projects!  i think it's the combination of changing seasons and winter lasting too darn long.  for example, i was going strong on my granny squares until basketball season ended.  without realizing it, i had gotten into the habit of carrying my crochet bag to practices and games.  i could usually get a square done in that time and still enjoy the game and atmosphere.  i know i'll enjoy carrying my crochet bag to the lake this summer as well.  it and a good book kept me company under a shade tree on many hot afternoons as the boys splashed.  now is the problem though.  i like to crochet while i'm doing something else.  yes, i'm a multi-tasker.  this week i've gotten into a rhythm of crocheting on the couch with g while he watches netflix on his ipad and i watch the flight 370 mystery on cnn.  the february squares are finally done.  maybe i will start the march squares at the farm this saturday.  hooray for a three day weekend!  and warmer weather!  and picnics in the great outdoors!

it's still so neat to me to document our lives in color.  the first squares were for our cub scout blue and gold banquet, the second for our kitty, pepito, the third for valentine's day, and the fourth for the olympics.

menu plan: shepherd's pie

i've been having the urge to learn how to cook some of the dishes of my childhood (and record them in my holiday mini-album).  shepherd's pie is one of them.  sadly, my mom doesn't even remember making it!  what?!  i googled it and went with the simplest recipe i could find.  it was even a bit too complicated as my dad is a notoriously picky eater.  seriously, the only condiments/spices he will allow to touch his food are butter, salt, and pepper.  i'm not even exaggerating.  it's actually the butter that i remember most.  i remember there being pockets of butter in the (instant?) mashed potatoes on top when it came out of the oven and even butter leaking into the meat below.  mmmmmmm.  butter. 

i pretty much followed the recipe, except for nixing the onion, boiling the carrots with the potatoes before dicing them and adding them to the meat mix (no crunchy carrots!), and no beef broth because i didn't have any (boo).  plus i added a little parsley flake to the top for color (dad would not approve).  g has actually requested it again.  this is a shocker as he used to not care for potatoes overly much.  i'm going to try it again this week using a cheaper grade of ground beef, no worcestershire (it was good, but didn't taste like the one my mom made for my dad), and making sure i have beef broth this time.    i think it will be just exactly right then.

i love that i baked it in the cast iron skillet just like mom uses and dished it up on my brother's old lassie plate.

this week's menu plan:
sunday - dinner out
monday - bacon and eggs
tuesday - chicken noodle soup
wednesday - dinner at church
thursday - shepherd's pie
friday - tammy's? poppyseed chicken?
saturday - fried ham, crash hot potatoes, green beans

quality literature: the valley of amazement

"the valley of amazement" is back to the amy tan that i love.  my favorites of hers are definitely the period pieces.  this one is early 1900s china.  it was fascinating to watch both china and the role of women in the culture there evolve over the course of the story.  as it's a novel on the life of a courtesan, it can be a bit graphic at times (if this bothers you, you could skip chapter four, courtesan training, and you would miss the bulk of it), but the characters and history are worth the read.  i enjoyed it even more after reading amy tan's npr interview and knowing the research and family connection that went into it.  if you've never read any of her work, i'd suggest starting with "the joy luck club" or "the bonesetter's daughter."  those are my absolute favorites of hers and, really, a couple of my all time favorite books.

florida photos: roadside attractions

i don't know about you, but i have a strong innate desire to stop on the side of the road and photograph wildflowers in the spring.  i don't often give in to this urge as i'm a little nervous about stopping on the side of the road.  back home, in florida, i'm a little more comfortable with the country roads, plus i have little boys who see ditches full of water and think, "crawdads!"

so, we had another successful crawdad excursion this trip.  g got enough again for aunt linda to cook him up a mess for breakfast.

troy got to show off his jewelry making skills once more.

and since it wasn't raining this year, avery and i got to enjoy the wildflowers.

he picked this little bouquet for his mom.

while i took my flowers home in photographs.

i've always thought it was interesting that wildflowers in florida (and probably most places) tend to be concentrated in certain color families.  in florida there is a great deal of white and yellow with a dash of purple. (and, coincidentally, these were my high school colors which i always thought was way cool).  probably, this has something to do with what the bugs like.  isn't that little green guy cute?  the little bee in the top photo has less discriminating tastes as he's enjoying the flavors of the non-native european crimson clover. 

 

speaking of native species, i was super excited to spot this beauty and realize it was a giant sundew!  i'm so used to seeing the tiny red ones that i never realized there were other varieties in florida. 

 

we also have carnivorous pitcher plants.  these are their buds.  hoping to get more pictures of the plants when we go back this summer.

while avery and i were investigating the flowers, g and troy were still busy with the dip nets.  one would think that this little guy was just a baby . . .

 

but the size of this behemoth tadpole would indicate otherwise.

not sure what this is, but it reminded me of mountain laurel.

not sure if these are pipeworts, bog buttons, or hatpins.  i never realized there were all different sorts of these.  must investigate further next time!

arrowhead.  and if you're in florida, i found a fun (free) app called "nature viewing along the great florida birding and wildlife viewing trail" that has flowers, butterflies, and birds.