One thing that needs my attention every day is my garden. Things grow surprisingly fast out here in the desert, I imagine its from all the sunshine. I can barely keep up, but I really enjoy spending hours out there, except for the days when it's 115 degrees out. Those days I curse the garden and say desert gardening is the dumbest thing ever. This year was sorta a giant experiment and I have learned ALOT. I cannot wait until next year to try some new plants and new ideas. My cute little garden turned into a jungle in a hurry and I have been researching tons of ways to keep it under control next year. I have also been planning out what I will plant this fall and winter.
...see it's a complete mess, but it gives me veggies so it can stay for now. My cucumbers over grew the trellis I gave them and have now started climbing up and pulling down my sunflowers....
...for awhile I had more summer squash than I could eat, but they have slowed down and now I finally have acorn squash and cucumbers. I grew two kinds of cucumbers this year, armenian and pickling. I was able to make a small jar of refrigerator pickles but other than that the armenian ones have way out produced the pickling. I'm hoping for at least another little batch of pickling cucumbers so I can attempt to ferment them.
I took a small break from the garden to travel back to Ohio for my brother's wedding and to visit family. The wedding and the bride were absolutely gorgeous and it was in such a beautiful church.
It was such a fun time getting to see everyone.
While in Ohio I spent some time with my grandma and the older I get the more jealous I get of her little farm. As a kid I grew up thinking living surrounded by farms was nothing special and that most people experienced this. How wrong I was. I am very grateful for the childhood I had in her garden eating more of every thing than I picked and being surrounded by her animals. I now dream of having my own little piece of land someday.
...Malaysian Ayam Serama Chicken...smallest chicken breed in the world..
...even poultry deserve to have a pretty house..
My other hobby this summer has been dyeing.
If you have ever eaten at my house you know I am a huge fan of cloth napkins. Paper napkins rarely make sense to me. You buy them over and over just to throw them out. It's a waste of money, bad for the environment, and not as pretty. I have a large collection of napkins that we use on a daily basis. Most people's response is.."but isn't that just more laundry?" No, it's not. I keep a basket in my laundry room that holds dirty kitchen towels, napkins, etc. Whenever I do a load of bath towels, which we all have, I throw them in. No extra loads. What about kids? "You can't use cloth napkins with kids" you say. Well I am super messy and I promise you that a cloth napkin cleans up and absorbs so much more than a little paper napkin.
Oh yeah, before my little tangent about napkins I was talking about dying. Well to go one extra step and make my cloth napkins extra green and good for the environment, I buy vintage napkins. Yep, old used napkins. Most come with stains or look a little sad so I decided to start dyeing them pretty colors.
I may have gone a little over board and now have too many napkins....
Please visit my etsy shop if you would like your own pretty napkins.
