Tuesday, June 29, 2010

garden update

Okay, so the pictures on the last post did not turn out as planned. I uploaded them from facebook, and I didn't know half of the picture would be cut out. Oh well. If you want to see some pretty pictures of our trip just go to Sarah's blog, May Days on my sidebar.

Anywho..... several months ago I planted a garden. It was our first garden, and I really didn't, and still don't know exactly what I'm doing. Here are the plants that actually grew and gave a good yield:
- squash: We were overrun with squash for about two weeks. I couldn't cook it fast enough. Next time I'll grow a lot more squash, but I'm going to space them out every few weeks so they don't all come in at once.

- Cherry tomatoes: those have just started to bloom, and they are fantastic. I have already used them to make a roasted bell pepper and tomato salsa, and I have put them in salads. I still have plenty in the garden that are just waiting to ripen.

- Regular tomatoes: not as high a yield as the cherry and they are still ripening, but at least they grew, right?

- Cilantro: we had fresh cilantro in various dishes and salads for about a month. I found out that I love the taste of fresh cilantro, and I'm going to dedicate several squares to it and I'll try to grow them for the fall as well.

Here are the once that failed miserably:
- parsley: we had maybe only one measly leaf grow. It was pathetic.

- Snow peas: very viney, and not a high yield. Not worth it.

- Garlic: Yeah..... I have no idea what that was supposed to do.

- Okra: it was terrible. Hard as a rock, low yield, and even when I fried it and covered it with ketchup it tasted horrible. I'm not sure what went wrong, maybe I harvested it either too soon or too late.

- Spinach: I shouldn't have planted it in the summer. It wilted as soon as the sun touched it, darn georgia heat. I'm going to try this one for the fall as well. Apparently I missed the memo about it being a cooler weather plant.

My peppers are still up in the air. They have grown, and there are little flower buds, but no actual pepper yet. We will see!

Home again

Well, we just returned from another 8 hours away beach trip. This time we went way down south on the Atlantic Coast of Florida to Jupiter beach. We stayed at an absolutely gorgeous and gigantic house that was right on the river. Oh, and it had an amazing pool. I took almost no pictures while we were there, mainly because my brother Zach and my mom had their camera's, and I'm super lazy like that, so I'll just go ahead and say that I took these from Sarah and my mom's facebook albums.

We went there with my parents, Zach, Sarah, Micah and Connor, Andrew and Krista, and Joel. Mimi and Ted were there off and on as well. It was a blast! Leah loved the water; she was usually the first one in the pool, and the last one to get out. She also ventured into the ocean and braved the waves with my mom as well. I had a wonderful time relaxing, swimming, reading, and playing with Leah (actually it was more like watching my mom play with Leah). The boys had a great time fishing too. Tony caught a pretty big one, and we actually ate it for dinner (when I say we, I don't mean me, because I hate fish). We are happy to be home, though, and I have made myself a vow that I will not be in the car for more than 30 minutes at a time for quite a while :).


Leah thinks she is quite a swimmer now. By the last day she was kicking around the pool with this little floatie on. She did not want anyone to hold her. It was precious.

Playing with nana and Tony on the stairs.


This is the outside of the gorgeous house!


This is the view from the backyard.




Four generations! Mimi, my mom, Leah, and Me.

Aren't these cousins just too cute?


My little beach baby.



Thursday, June 3, 2010

End Table

-Lumber from Lowes: 15 dollars
- 2 packs of screws: 5 dollars
- New drill bit: 2 dollars.

Having a friend ask you if this end table you built is the one from the Hyde Pottery Barn collection: Priceless.


I know, I'm sorry this post is so braggy too. I promise I will try to contain myself from now on.