In other news, my husband tells me that nerds on the internet think I’m a babe which has been great for my self esteem, and since I love camera-whoring, nerds,  these are for you!

I’ve been trying to move towards a more airy and elegant and light design for the living room than what we previously had. We were just at that age where you inherit furniture and nothing says “this is our home”. At least the hand-me-downs we had were nice quality! We ditched the white large couch and chair and instead have a small white chair from ikea and a grey microfiber couch from JR furniture. The couch will wear nicely and clean easily. The chair is mostly disposable and I am still on the lookout for another chair to go next to it. Yet to come: new lighting, a lovely area rug as soon as I find the one I want.

The shelves and wallpaper in the photos are also new. Elena’s dad was lovely enough to come over and help us (and when I say help I really mean ‘do everything’) install the wall paper.

I can now say my living room is starting to look like just that, MY living room.

All I did was press the pie dough into the jars, fill them with whatever sounded good, following no recipe whatsoever and made pretty crusts (which, lets be real, is the best part of making pie anyway) I ended up making an apple and a berry filling. I have yet to actually eat either. I just put the lids on and popped them in the freezer! I’m probably going to give them as gifts.

Presentation points are very important. Never skimp on presentation. I should really do a post about wrapping gifts because it’s my favorite part of the holidays! For this project I used pretty leftover fabric I had laying around. I’m going to make pretty little cooking direction tags to go on top as well.

I have these weird little pyrex containers that I’m going to make pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust in next.

The requirements for attendance included fancy dresses and full frills and gimmicks. And of course, all were in compliance.

I served cucumber sandwiches, a lovely cheese platter (with Trader Joes apricot cheese being the number one selection), and carrots and hummus. After we went to a frozen yogurt shop in our pretty outfits. I will surely do more of this sort of event in the future, small guest list makes for good conversation (most of which is not nearly as ladylike as you might imagine for women who wear hats and gloves).

Luckily after all that work in the garden we were actually able to spend some time in it. Unluckily all the grass was dead because it was august. I should also mention that I threw this party together on about ten days notice because I had to get it in when it would still be sunny out. Next time I’ll make fancy paper invitations and send them out with plenty of notice and have a real serious menu planned…or maybe I should start throwing dinner parties.

I’m still looking for the perfect teapot to be the crowning jewel of my collection but it has to be perfect and I haven’t seen anything that came even close.

After the party I felt inspired to make my own mismatched napkins rather than use my standard table napkins. They will make their full debut at the next party!

And obviously we drank tea…

I suspect I’ll come across a crowding problem. But we’ll deal with that when we get there. For now all my plants are just little babies! I’ve tried to control my addiction by setting limitations, for example: only buy perennials, start all veggies from seed etc. Overall my rules haven’t seemed to hold me back at all.

So, here’s the update!

I went to the University P-Patch and now I have seriously strawberry envy. I was having a hard time getting them to grow big at all. I have four out of like nine plants that are looking ok but every time they get a strawberry that looks even remotely edible the squirrels or birds or whatever get them. So I made this fancy netting thing out of my old hula hoop tubing! *pictured below*

We had our two biggest trees removed and there were many plant casualties. The tree guys bought me some purple bell heather and thirty six lemon thyme plants so I started throwing them everywhere. They also cleared out the side yard for me so I’ve filled it with part-shade plants including but not limited to hebe’s, jasmine, pineapple sage (amazing go buy one), purple sage, juncas grass and one gaura that I bought clearance and may or may not die a tragic death. Luckily most of these I bought clearance for 75 cents. Not a big hit to the wallet.

Spinach and lettuce performed beautifully and are now on their way to seed. I’ll probably plant bush beans in their place.

Just when I thought I had my problem under control I saw an ad on craigslist for blueberries for absurdly cheap and it was at a house right on the way to my moms’  house. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “but Evelyn, don’t you already have three blueberry plants?” to which I would reply “Shut up it’s a sensitive subject!” These blueberries are bluejay variety and should be much larger than my other kinds, chippewa, northcountry and something else I can’t remember (bad gardeners don’t remember what they plant, don’t judge me). I put them along the fence between my lilac so hopefully they will fill it out nicely. Next trick will be to keep the squirrelys off my blueberries. (Speaking of squirrelys, we saw a car covered in plastic squirrels and pin wheels called the squirrely whirly. It was great)

I weeded the area around my asian pear espalier and put a couple succulents under it that I decided I needed after a walk around Queen Anne with my dad. I contained myself and only bought one of each stone crop and ice plant. The ice plant should go nutso and fill the whole area or that is my plan. I’m really into ground covers…mostly because I hate weeding and covering the ground with plants is a good way to go to avoid it. Plus mulch is not cheap and I’ve been mulching A LOT.

On that note, I bought two packets of creeping thyme seeds. I’m starting some of them in seed trays and the rest I’ll probably just throw…somewhere? Maybe in my rock wall.

It would appear the root of my purchasing issues is not having a set plan. I often find myself in the nursery thinking “ok wait where was I going to put this?” at which point I should just put down the plant and walk away. But I don’t and that’s why my garden looks the way it does.

It also doesn’t help that I’m surrounded by enablers! People at work bringing me plants, Roger agreeing to purchase livingsocial deals for Wights after I’ve already bought three of them. I figure since I’ve never been a frivolous spender I’m just making up for lost time. I’ve got a long way to go.

Growing up I never could keep anything alive. So I pretty much feel like a god now that I’ve cultivated a VEGGIE garden!

I also built the raised bed in the picture. And on another jolt of spontaneity and determination built this walkway

It took me all day in the rain by myself while roger was at school. But now that I have a pathway, patio furniture, a lawn mower, bbq and pretty garden I am super pumped to entertain outside!

Then of course once I started gardening I got addicted and now I feel like its completely justifiable to spend my entire paycheck on plants. It started with “oh I’m only growing things that I can eat and are pretty easy to grow” and then I switched to “well maybe I’ll just grow some of everything so I have more experience and whatever lives lives” but then once I did that something terrible happened and I started buying perennials for my rose beds and I haven’t stopped since.

In my garden I currently have growing: Radishes, Beets, Spinach, Lettuce, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Zucchini, Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Catnip, Cilantro, Chives, Peas, Cucumber, Peppers, Eggplant, Blueberry, Strawberry, Apple and Asian Pear.

*Extra cool points for my Asian pear tree as it is a 3 variety espalier tree!

*More extra cool points for growing most of my plants from seed!

I’ll let you know if any of this stuff actually survives…

Let me preface this with the fact that I’ve never kept a plant alive ever, but I do make some mean crafts!

These are my shrinky-dink garden markers. After many google image searches for plant labels I couldn’t commit to any one style so I decided to just make my own.

Materials:

Shrink paper (clear or frosted) One sheet makes about 6 labels

Permanent markers

14 gauge copper garden wire

Water proofing spray (optional)

Start by tracing a circle outline onto your shrink paper using marker. I used a wide mouthed drinking glass for my circle. Remember to account for shrinking! My glass was 4-5 inches diameter.

If you use the clear shrink paper it’s really easy to draw your pictures first on regular paper and then just trace onto the clear paper.

Cut out the shrinky-dinks and don’t forget to cut a hole to hang them from before you bake it.

Bake according to the directions on your paper.

Using pliers, cut and bend the wire to whatever shape you like. I prefer a swirly sort of candy cane shape.

I did one batch with water proofing spray and one without. both have merits and I will update again once they’ve gone through more bad weather. Be careful when spraying not to spray too close or you’ll wash away your image. Luckily I only destroyed one this way! I’ve found that the spray takes some of the shine away from the plastic and makes the images more likely to flake off.

There you have it. Super cute easy garden markers! (I even made one that says “weeds”)

http://www.marthastewart.com/285589/key-lime-bars

I’ve decided that graham cracker crusts are amazing and I never want any pie made of anything else. They are also amazingly easy to make (especially compared to making your own pie crust from scratch).

The simplest way I’ve found to mash up the crackers is to just throw about 5 or 6 of them into a ziploc baggie, squish all the air out and roll it with a rolling pin.

Smush your sugar and butter into a pie pan with your crumbs and pop it in the oven! Rubber spatulas are the best “smushing” tool

Depending on how fancy you want to be you can actually make the whipped topping that the recipe calls for. Or if you’re all baked out by the end you can be lazy and use canned whipped cream! I at least make it fancy with my little lime zest curls.

*Note* I use 5 regular limes instead of keylimes. I tried those once and they are dreadful little buggers.

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/352/Aunt_Annies_Soft_Pretzels13849.shtml

Pretzels are amazing and if Roger can make them then anyone can!

*Note* We also love making pretzel dogs or cheese and jalepeno pretzels. You can pretty much put whatever you like on them and they are always yummy.