• Around home - Blog - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: landscaping edition

    July 17, 2017 - By 

    Last week we had a beautifully cool, breezy, low humidity day. Outside projects were definitely on the docket. The biggest of these was replacing landscaping. This has needed to be done for quite some time.

    Here’s a photo from 2 years ago…T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies

    The log border was already starting to get a little wonky. Fast forward two years and it was rotting away.

    Now it looks like this! Mini-me and I did this one ourselves. The edging is recycled rubber. Nice and flexible to bend  and form to what your little heart desires. We had a couple of surface tree roots to contend with so we just made sure to line things up so that I wouldn’t have to pound a stake through the root. 

    I did end up going through what I can only assume was root a couple inches underground on the back side of this flower bed.

    We were so happy with how nice this one looked and how easy it was to install that I went back for more material to fix up another eyesore area in need of upgrade.

    I’m not sure if you can tell but along the right side of the photo is some black edging that was basically laying down…definitely not how we installed it so many years ago. Frost heave has done a number on it.

    Now it looks like this….

    Complete with a couple new perennials.

    I love how this looks so much!

    Since at least half of the black edging pieces were still salvageable, I put them around my water barrels.

    That is kind of our haphazard area. Mismatched pieces of this and that have all found their way over here. It all works though. Now if we’d only get some rain to refill my barrels.

    So after a hard days work a little refreshment is always in order.

    Just a couple more days of taxi driving for volleyball this week…then two weeks off before it starts up again…everyday. Mini-me and I are also getting ready for a little trip north. The boys are too busy working to come with us. I’ll be sure to share that adventure in a couple weeks.

    What are you doing today?

    T stands for Tuesday

    Oh and just for you Chris…

  • Around home - Art - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: gardens and more edition

    July 10, 2017 - By 

    This week I thought I’d give you a look at how my gardens are doing followed up with some art.

    FYI-photo heavy post

    The deck box garden holds my yellow pear tomato plants each year to keep them from cross pollinating with the red regular sized varieties, This year I think I got a few seeds mixed up. I have some non-pear shaped tomatoes on a couple vines. Hmmm. Time will tell. I also have my Egyptian walking onions, radishes and jalapenos in there. Resting on the edge is a new to me shepherds hook. Mr. G is going to move one hook about 10 inches down for me when he digs out the welder.

    The shed garden is going gangbusters after what seemed like a very slow start. I have tons of tomatoes on the vines. Even the bedraggled plants that came home from Biology class with J are doing fantastic.

    The pumpkin and this tomato included. I really had no hope for either of these plants so I didn’t work very hard making a good home for them. Obviously they don’t care a bit.

    The yellow summer squash and zucchini are getting large although the zucchini hasn’t produced anything yet.

    The yellow ones are tasty though.

    The first bit of bounty from the garden has arrived.

    I am dealing with this pest though. Anyone know what it is and how to get rid of it without chemicals? I’ve been knocking them off and squishing them but the little munchers keep coming back for more.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    We changed things up a little this year and didn’t attend the local parade for the 4th of July. Instead we went to a party close to our old neighborhood. We figured out that we hadn’t been to their annual bash in 10yrs. I forgot my phone at home so no pictures from there.

    We came back for the standard evening shenanigans on our block. J had 6-7 friends hanging out by the end of the evening. You wouldn’t believe how quickly 3 large pizzas can disappear.

    We joined a neighbor in their front yard for the awesome view of the fireworks, What a fun night.

    Of course, there was lots of overindulging of all sorts so my drink of choice the next morning was….

    alka-seltzer.

    I did take a bit of time for creating. I’m not sure how I feel about this page now that its dry.  The colors of the stains were so fun and vibrant before they dried. Now the page is a little dull.

    I went back and added these paper beads I made years ago to try and dress things up a bit. I love that they’ll hang outside the book begging someone to open it up to take a peek.

    I’m planning to work on the landscape edging around a flower bed before it gets too hot. The humidity is what is so bad right now. UGH! I get very cranky in the heat.  And don’t even talk to me about my hair.

    What are you doing today?

    T stands for Tuesday
  • Art - Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: returning edition

    June 26, 2017 - By 

    Hello!! I am still here. It’s been a while.

    Gosh, that sounds like the beginning to a song… I’m awful with names of songs/singers/authors/actors/movies/etc…so if it is one…sorry, I’m just not going to be able to commit any brain cells to that information. I have WAY too much other pointless trivia floating around in there.

    So I took a bit of a blog hiatus after mom’s passing and funeral. I just wasn’t able to “find my voice” for the blog. I think my bout of laryngitis is over now.

    During my break we traveled to north to do another college visit. This one was University of Minnesota Duluth. I completely forgot to take any photos on campus likely because our tour remained inside all but one brief walk outside as a shortcut. The awesome thing about UMD is that all the buildings are connected by tunnels and concourses. You literally don’t have to step outside if you don’t want to all winter long. I’d be blissfully happy if that’s where either kid decided to go to school.

    Mini-me and I did our traditional sea glass hunting. The view is lovely…

    and we always manage to find treasures.

    The kids and I walked down to Grandma’s (host of Grandma’s marathon that had been run just the day or two before we got there)

    Both times we’ve eaten there, we’ve been seated right by this sign. Too funny! I didn’t take the obligatory beverage photo but rest assured it was there and it was of the adult variety. Why not…we were walking!

    Back at home I’ve been keeping busy with gardening, driving back and forth to the high school for volleyball and some volunteer work I picked up. The choir director put out a call for anyone with sewing skills to mend the robes before they are dry cleaned to save the program some money. So far I’ve mended 20 robes. 

    It’s mostly split sleeves but there have been some zippers and collars as well.

    It’s all hand stitching and the stitches need to be hidden. Thank you Mrs. Wilwerding for teaching me how to sew in the 8th grade. My kid’s high school also thanks you for indirectly saving them lots of money. I’m hoping when I drop off this latest batch of 6 robes that at least some will have been taken by the others to mend.

    I have been a little creative as well. Here’s a little sneak…

    What are you doing today?

    T stands for Tuesday