Digging in the Garden

I finally got the motivation to tackle the garden spot on the corner of our property when our friend Sarah gave me a bunch of great plants from her own garden. Since this garden spot had been neglected long before we bought the house I decided to start over completely. I removed all the existing plants, changed the boundary/shape of the spot, rototilled the area to get rid of some of the tree & plant roots invading the space, amended the soil, and planted all my new flowers.

Jane was hanging outside with me while I was doing parts of this. With the soil so light and fluffy she figured she could lend a paw and help me dig... and had an absolute blast doing it!

Love this shot with the dirt all up in her whiskers!
Let us know if you need any "digging" help on your next project - we'll send her to your house!

Independence Day

Independence Day - otherwise known as Cook Something on the Grill Day - was laid back. We didn't do fireworks or the parade this year but we did have the family over for a last minute afternoon BBQ which was just what we needed after two days of prepping strawberries!

Party for Lucy

Before we knew Lucy was going to be named Lucy or even that she was a girl, we threw a big party in her honor, as well as mom-to-be Stacy.

I took on the task of planning Stacy's baby shower and was happy with the storybook theme that I decided upon. It took a lot of prep work but I like doing crafty things by hand. Stacy's 6-page"storybook" invitation
and handmade banner
and since my world revolves around food, the bulk of my time went into planning that! All the food items had a storybook theme with a cover of the coordinating book to identify it.
I tried to mix old and new favorites.
Especially loved this one!

Plus a dessert that kept the storybook theme going by referencing the "story" that was in the invitation.
Story-themed cards to fill out with wishes for Mom or baby. Oh the places you'll go...
Plus the banner where we each clipped our guess for the sex of the baby...
A few games rounded out the afternoon including guessing the length of string to go around Stacy's belly. We all laughed about her cousin's guess which was too long around but would have been a perfect guess for Stacy's height!!
I had a good guess, but little Tyler (in her pretty pink dress) was VERY close with her guess!
And to round out the theme for avid reader parents-to-be, everyone brought a book to build the baby's library - and she got so many wonderful titles which Eric and Stacy have already begun reading to her!

We had a good afternoon celebrating your imminent arrival but we're so glad you're finally here!

To give fair credit where it's due, I took some great storybook ideas from this website and this one and this one for the invitation.

Yes we Can!

Canning that is! After wanting to try canning for a few seasons I finally did it - with great results! It started with 3 hours of Brian and I picking strawberries at Fairwinds Farm. That netted us 48 quarts - or what we figured was about 60 pounds of berries.
Mostly we hull the berries and freeze them whole so I can toss them in yogurt all winter long and be reminded of this beautiful tasty season. I wanted to freeze more this year - hence so many berries- but we forgot to consider that our freezer is only so big....OOps! Luckily Mel's parents agreed to store some in their chest freezer - Phew! But a small batch of those berries was destined to become jam...

Mash 'em
Boil 'em
Fill 'em up
Boil 'em
Let 'em cool and smile when you hear the tell-tale "pop" of the jars sealing. And the jam is really tasty too. Which is nice since we have plenty of it!