2013: Garden post #8

These were taken June 28th!

First strawberries. Um, delicious!

Don't worry, the zinnia post will come...

AND FINALLY! My mom's fancy pants American pansies that she has babied from seed have finally bloomed!!! Wow! How gorgeous!!

The best part is, they've only gotten better since when these photos were taken!! :)

Amazing ruffle varieties and gorgeous colors. ♥♥♥

Garden post 11.5

I'm titling this post as "Garden post 11.5", because garden post 11 was hidden in the post titled "September stress". 

The last actual garden post I wrote was already a month ago (today on the button!) and a mere #10. 

Funny how a blog about crocheting and painting/crafting and baking has become a gardening and photography blog... 

Not that I don't crochet or bake/eat anymore. ;) I just do those things less it seems. I'll chuck it up to being busy and seasonal efforts (=gardening and nature) taking up my time. It's true!!
On to it!!

This is the top of the corn stalk. 

Potato harvesting

Our big yellow pumpkin.

Hubby cut it up, roasted and pureed it. This will be used in autumnal desserts like perhaps a pumpkin pie?

Roasted pumpkin seeds = awesome.

Who knew dill could be so pretty?

Yellow snapdragons

Manta the very serious garden bear.

 

At home our tomato plants are long gone (without ever bearing more than a few flowers) and the chiles and jalapenos are doing well. We have 4 VERY HOT red chili peppers and many more green ones. The jalapenos are blooming. :)

Next time I'll share some of the little bouquets I've had in the house over the past month or so. 

Lots of pictures I haven't shared! 

See you soon, thanks for popping by!

September stress

 It's crunch time again. Yup, boo!

I have a to-do list of very important things that is nearing a mile long. Well, it feels like that anyway. 

Remember when I said I knew May was going to be a horrible month (and it was!)? Well, I knew September was going to be one, too. Double boo. :(

This month I have to finish my thesis. Ooooh that thorn in my side... I will be so beyond happy to put it behind me. Mind you, I still have to present it and other "fun" stuff, but at least I won't have to actively work on it any longer. Oh gee!!
If there's anything I'm looking forward to, it's chucking the darn thing in a fire come December.
It will be therapeutic to watch it burn. Page by page.
Muahahahhah!

This month, I have my last weeks of my final clinical training. After this, I am supposed to have enough insight to the wonderful world of nursing that I can act independantly as a responsible RN. Let me just say, LOL!!
The silver lining in the conundrum would be that I can work, which means I can make money, which means I can live more freely, which means I can eventually buy another lens for the camera.
There's enough justification for me!

 This month our garden needs us the most. 

Well, the most it did since May. 

Go figure the gardens needs coincide with my most busy times of the year.
To make matters worse, my mom (who is the other mastermind behind the garden) is out of commission due to hip surgery...therefore it's up to me to remind  and motivate these men to get out there and get busy.
Ugh. It's hard enough to motivate myself at the moment!

Hopefully next year I can be more dedicated to tending to the garden's needs... I can't promise as much at the moment. 

Time for a triple boo.

This is the last month I get to keep (at least) my upper wisdom teeth. 

In the beginning of October, I will be half as wise as I am now.

Ok, so it's not saying much but go with me on it!

;)

...so just as I thought September would suck (and it probably will regardless of how many clouds I find with silver lining gleaming), I know October will be as good of a month as June. 

Something to look forward to, right?! 

Hope your September is off to a good start!! Can you believe it's already almost half over?!

I'll try to make an appearance this month when possible...

hopefully I won't be overwhelmingly busy!!

:) 

P.S. All pictures were taken between August 28-September 2nd. Gardening, food, and so on. :)

Garden post 10

In honor of hubby's LONG summer vacation ending, we are going camping... I'm not really a camper, and honestly, I'm only going because I was promised smore's and because I'll never hear the end of it if I don't go. 

I'll be looking forward to lake front views from our tent (silver lining folks) and watching the sun go down eating smore's. 

Before I go, I thought I'd upload and share the latest garden pictures. I'm loving the plans for next summer, we just need to sketch them out and stick to them next summer!

We're toying with the idea of taking over a 4th allotment since we're starting to run out of room for all the things we want to grow. The plot next to us has been abandoned and overgrown for years, but it has potential. Hubby went over a week or two ago and chopped down the weeds (I hate that they spread onto our lot), and the idea kind of took over from there. I hope we can get the allotment, it would be nice to have more room to play!

(...but what we really need is a farm!)

Anywho, here's garden post 10!! 

Here are the pictures in the order I took them...

Pansies! ♥♥

These were on my mom's balcony, but she brought them to be planted at the garden, hoping that they seed and grow next year. Beautiful colors!!

Our little snapdragons.

 

 ...A ranunculus. 

To me, it's amazing that this grew!!

I had no idea you could grow these here in Finland but we planted seeds for giggles...and one sprouted up!!

I know what we're planting next year... :)

"Fairy"

 

I asked hubby to take a picture of me since my summer dress matched my boots so perfectly. This was by no means a practical gardening outfit, but a cool one anyway. Lol!

 

In the picture above, you can see a part of the sadder row of peas that has nasturtium planted in between. Here's a close up of the beautiful red flower.

I'm still getting a kick out of these cornflowers. Next year, I definitely want to plant blue ones. 

We used to plant cornflowers every year, but stopped since they need support and can look a little messy. 

I'm glad we came back to them!

 

My mom's favorite rose, "Romanze". This is a hardy rose for this climate. It ALWAYS looks amazing. :) 

SO PINK!

 

Our fall hydrangea, going crazy!

 

A million cucumber flowers... 

 

Along with nasturtium in between peas, we planted some sweet peas. I love the softness of the pink. :)

 

Pumpkins! What!! :) I want this to be a big one!!

 

We added a little brick path (bricks we meant to use for our patio but didn't).  I think this looks super cute, despite the dead foxglove (need to harvest seeds) and the weeds... 

 

Hubby showing us what a perfect raspberry looks like. :)

 

Beautiful zucchini. Mmmmm....

 

More pansies!! :)

I love these orange ones. They're so exotic looking to me. 

 

And zinnia. How cute. We've never planted these before, but will have to plant them next year...they're so pretty and cute!

 

So that was a quick run-down of the garden. 

I think this garden is like a little slice of heaven. 

I can only imagine what a farm would feel like. 

♥ Dreams ♥

Thanks for reading!

Will have to share our camping experience when we get back... if we get back!

(Just kidding)

(I hope). 

:)

 

Summer thrifting...and jam.

Flea markets, thrift stores... it's like a treasure hunt! I am unlike many my age who partake in the hunt, in that I look for mainly housewares and less for clothes etc. I see cups, glass, mugs, plates, textiles, etc before I see shirts, dresses, shoes, etc.

I think it's because I would rather decorate my home than myself.

And it makes me wish I had a huge farm house to decorate!

This summer has been a nice one, in that I have been thrifting quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, we've made house improvements this summer that were not thrifted (but at the cheaper end of the spectrum - thanks Ikea!), but I've also picked up some stuff that I couldn't leave behind... and for the first time, I've also bought clothes! 

By the way, I will be sharing our updated interiors soon... just need to get rid of one last item!

This little set was at the higher end of the price range I am comfortable paying at a thrift store. 

Not to sound frugal, but this teapot and cup combo set me back 7 euros. ;)

They are worn, tea stained, and gorgeous.

If they were pristine, I would have passed them up.

They have an antique-y feel... stamped with "made in England".

I bought this excellent condition cake tin for 2.50e. 

This little green bud vase (or I'll use it as one) for 2e. 

This following purchase was made a few weeks ago. I about cried when I stumbled upon them. 

A set of two cups and saucers for 1.20e. 

They are the German retro heart set I've been looking out for for about a year now. 

Talk about excitement at the treasure hunt!!

Now I own a little tea set!! ♥

OMG -- I wonder if there is a heart tea pot out there somewhere?!?!

 This summer I've bought 2 dresses, 1 shirt, and 1 winter coat (not pictured, because I forgot!). 

The little summer dress was adorable, perfect print and colors!! Swoon!

The shirt on the left is a loose fitting summer shirt, kind of has a lace peasant collar thing going on.

The shirt-dress is a light blue pinstripe that I love.

My mom bought me this mug, pansies!! AAAAH! LOOOVE IT! It's the new design by Kultakeramiikka ceramics brand.

And my mom and I went halvies on our next blanket project. This one is for my Godmother. 

We're going to add a darker blue to the mix and perhaps a white or black border... Can't wait to see how it develops!

What can I say, I'm addicted to crocheting granny square blankets.

We were in a predicament since our last garden trip... raspberries don't keep well in the fridge and need to get put in the freezer asap. Well, it's not that simple when you run out of containers. 

So we decided we'll make raspberry jam!

And then we realized what goes into jam. 

Pectin, ascorbic acid, etc. 

Google and pinterest weren't helping!

Until I found the recipe for old-fashioned raspberry jam from Epicurious.

Two ingredients: raspberries and sugar.

Great! We had a recipe!

Ok, now for jars... well, we were short on those so we ended up raiding the cabinets and the fridge and emptying out all the ends of the jams, pickles etc we could find. 

Woohoo!

It was a heckuva night, but by midnight, we had jam!

Yum!

This morning, we were giddy with excitement to taste it.

Perfect consistency, perfect flavor.

WIN!

So that's a little story about thrifting...and jam. 

Lol.

But to join the two together, making your own jam is kinda thrifty...and we used recycled jars!

HAH!

Lastly, I'd like to share this moody photo taken a couple of nights ago.

The sunset lit up the apartment with a beautiful peachy light...and then the sky became this:

♥♥♥

Wow!

Thanks for stopping by!

Remember, when life doesn't give you plastic freezer containers --- make jam!!