Herb Garden

 When we lived in Puyallup, there was a well-established herb garden just outside the kitchen window. I would never have thought to plant one, but I ended up loving it. While cleaning my office today, I found an old note with the names of some of the plants we had in that yard.

Herbs

• Flat leaf Parsley

• Thyme

• Sage

• Oregano

• Chives

• Rosemary

• Curly Leaf Parsley

• Mint

Other plants I liked

• Weeping Cherry Tree

• Fiddlehead (Ostrich Fern)

Now if I could just find where I documented the names of the paint colors we used. I loved the paint colors in that Puyallup house.

ow i

We have our garden started in the planter and there are a few sprouts coming up!  

Here are our Brussels Sprouts and Corn Stalk

 I'm so excited!

I've always wanted a garden of my own, but I decided to make it small so the weeds don't make me want to cry constantly.

Once we had the first round of seed in the ground, we began installing the permanent fencing to keep Danny and maybe some day a small dog in the back yard without escaping.  We will put it all along the top of the retaining wall to keep people from falling, then along the wetland barrier at the back.

And as I work on the fence, I keep looking around the yard and wonder what fun details we can add to make it an even more awesome space for kids.

We already have a fire pit, playhouse, comfortable sitting area, and sandbox.  I think that is pretty awesome, so we don't need big statement details.  Just small details that will give it a real children's garden vibe that I could incorporate into some of the areas we are still working on finishing off.

 Tick Tack Toe Table or pavers

(woohome.com, thegardenglove.com)

Xylophone 

(sentequ.co.uk, kidspacestuff.com)

 Fairy/Gnome garden

(can't remember site for first fairy garden, but its not mine, anneofgreengardens.com)

ksassets.timeincuk.net V

Match box car race tracks

(princesspinkygirl.com, beafunmum.com)

  totally cool nest!

(tadmontgomery.com)

Whimsical Signs

(thediyfarmer.net, http://chelseasewbee.blogspot.co.nz)

Living Willow structures

urbanarboriculture.tumblr.com

there is a space where the planter and the steps meet.  An in ground slide would be neat there.

preschool playgrounds.com

Finishing new projects and dreaming of more

I am so addicted to Projects.  It drives my husband crazy to have things always a bit of a mess while I play :S
Right now the sump pump still doesn't have an electric outlet to connect to, and the sliding bathroom doors are not completed, but with he Weather so Awesome this spring, we jumped into the backyard project and we built the stairs to the lower section of the back yard.
We had some great helpers to assist us in hauling the leveling sand and concrete blocks to the back yard

Sam said Danny was so determined to hold on to the wagon that once or twice the little guy lost his footing, but never let go of that wagon.  When Sam stopped to help Danny back up, he was still just as happy as can be to be Daddy's big helper.

 My parent's came to help out while we laid the blocks.  My Mom watched the kids, while Sam, My Dad, and I laid the blocks.  They were HEAVY blocks at 60 pounds a piece!  It took us a half day to haul everything, and 2 full days to lay all the blocks in place.

We rested for a week or 2, then geared up to build this planter to cover some of the rusting hardware and wood that is poking out from the old retaining wall.  It will double as a veggie garden and bench for additional seating.

Over the next month or so we will be finishing up the backyard, we hope the major stuff is one before the girls are out of school.   But once the yard is done and the other projects that have been at a standstill are complete, here are the ones I've been dreaming of starting.  (Probably in the Fall when the big kids go back to school)

• a built in bookcase to go in a nook of the upstairs hallway for kids books and church books
• quick and easy bedskirts to make the TV room's sectional/twin beds look more finished.
• I'd also really love to make a built in end table to make the whole "sectional" customized to the room.  (I think that will make it look even more couchy and less bed like.)  I don't have a tutorial for this yet, but I will find something.
• sewing some new dresses for my girls.  (It's been so long since I've sewn anything.  and it is so difficult to find modest dresses for growing young ladies in the summer time)  I've just been mending items as needed and added patches to Sam's Uniforms upon request.  But Ive decided that sewing really relaxes me and it is something I need to make time for all through the year.  I just wish I had a room that I could leave a mess like the basement in Maine.  Having to clean up after my sewing messes really cuts down on the time I can dedicate to a project.

Neighborhood hunting
While we were home for christmas last month my husband and I went looking in so many neighborhoods to try and decide where we will begin our home search when we finally move home someday.  It has prompted a lot of conversation between the 2 of us about what we like in a home.  So I wanted to make a record of some of my favorite home features that we have seen.  Here are some of them

Space for kids to put their bags and coats after school is a MUST.  If there is not something existing, I'd want a space indoors, or in the garage where we could create a "mud room" type of thing.

Because lets face it, their stuff won't end up in the coat closet.  

Opening a closet door is just too much for kids ;)

This one has a creative solution for no laundry room in the main house.  Instead of putting the laundry in the garage, they covered the porch and put it in there.  I'd much rather pull my clean clothes out there, than on a dirty garage floor if Its not possible for it to be in the main house.  And in the summer it would not make the house hot to run the clothes dryer.

 outside view of enclosed porch laundry room.  Its also a good idea for a mud room for the kids to dump their stuff after school.

This picture shows 3 of my favorite features -

• Hard flooring for walkways, but wall to wall carpet in the family room/living room.  (I know it will need to be replaced every 5 years or so with kids, but the comfort is worth it to me.  And if it is just the 1 room, it won't be terribly expensive to replace.)
• I LOVE built ins.  I think they really class up a home.
• A family/living room that is large enough for 3 couches.  We have a family of 6 now, so we need plenty of room for us all to sit down and relax together.  (I don't care about a formal dining room, or having both a living room and family room.)

 I am not afraid of upgrading stuff.  In fact, I think that sounds like a lot of fun.  So if something is functional, but looks outdated, I am all about buying it so long as the space allows for us to dream up something awesome when the time is right.

This was something I liked for a kitchen space not large enough for a feee standing table and chairs.  Put in a built-in table and benches for a work station and the kids to hang out while Mom works

This picture show 2 more of my favorite features

• the 3 sided wall with windows to allow for a round or oval kitchen table
• a bar counter in the kitchen for kids to sit at and feel like they have Mom's attention even when she is busy doing dishes or making dinner and still be out of her way :)

 built in desks in the kitchen are awesome and help Moms stay organized with their menu planning and reminders for school.

A BIG kitchen NO-NO in my mind is tile countertops (not so bad for bathrooms)   The grout gets food stuck in it, cookie dough and pie crust don't roll flat and  eventually the grout get stained in the well used areas of the counter.  NO THANK YOU!

I LOVE architectural features.  So attic rooms are very charming and visually interesting to me.

Saw this and LOVED it.  Especially because you could add this to just about any home with a little extra flat outdoor space.  If you put it in the front yard think of all the neighborhood kids that would floc to your house when you roast hotdogs and marshmallows for FHE.

 As far as the outside goes, again, I like dimension and character that is visually interesting.  So I love Trim and architectural detail.

 This house reminds me of the home in the "Father of the Bride" movies.  Love the movie, love the house.  Cute fence and…

 …Gables are a huge plus in my mind.  

 I also like brick or rockery on the bottom of the house.

I guess I am not very picky about bathrooms.  Just so long as there is

• storage
• a grown up sized shower (I don't want my butt to touch the side of the shower when I bend over that is gross to me for some reason.
• a bath tub somewhere in the house for little kids
• And they are easy to clean.  If we bought something with an outdated bathroom that had bad grout around the toilet or tun, that would be priority 1 on the renovation list.

Obviously no home will have all of these features, but it is fun to dream.

Macintosh Applesauce Mmmmm

Everyone around here seems to be making applesauce, so we decided that in order to be considered New Englaners we should jump on the wagon and try it out.  I had a food mill that my Mom gave me a few years ago and a pressure cooker that I inherited from my grandma so I was excited to finally be able to use them for the first time.

 I got a half bushel of apples at a local farm stand and it ended up being way more than I could use.  I had time to make 6 quarts of applesauce while the kids were in school and I still ended up with enough apples to make 2 more batches of the recipe.

The recipe was so yummy, but we did make a few changes.  I put it through a food mill before pouring it into the jars so it would be fine with no chunks.  (This step is not needed though because I gave some of the sauce that was left in the food mill to my kids and they said they liked it chunky.)

 Then We pressure cooked it for 5 minutes at 5lbs of pressure.  Since I didn't know anything about using a pressure cooker I watched this youtube video so I didn't blow up my kitchen.

I was excited that it all worked out and the lids all sealed.  I think that next time I am going to try to find a recipe that doesn't have sugar in it.

 And here is my helper.  My father-in-law, who was such a good sport about helping me in the kitchen and keeping me company.

 I think the next time that I make applesauce I will buy smaller jars so that I can hand it out as gifts because it was that yummy :)