Crystal Madrilejos

Design & Creative

via UrbanHomestead

How awesome is that photo?!

The garden this year has officially gotten out of hand. Sad to say, but we just couldn’t keep up with the abundance of weeds. I don’t mind weeding, really. Andrew hates it which is completely understandable. The best way to keep them down is to make time every day to go out and pull those suckers out. And the one thing we are short on is time. And Quil isn’t quite at that point where he can run free in the garden. He’s as bad as the damn deer! He just walks all over everything and pulls unripened veggies off the vine, grabs lettuce greens by the handful. He also likes to put rocks in his mouth and eat dirt. Typical!

Both Andrew and I know that having a garden requires a lot of commitment and effort, especially if you want to do it right. My dad is a great example of this. He is out in his garden every single day, rain or shine. Right now, that just isn’t feasible for us. So, Andrew and I have decided that instead of spending our time fighting weeds and feeling bad about our neglected patch of earth, that we are going to be smart about this and create something that works for us and or current situation. I am still holding out hope of having a modern homestead someday with sprawling vegetable gardens, fruit orchards and chickens. But until then, we’ve decided to build a modest greenhouse where we can grow the stuff we eat all the time, all year round.

We’ve been doing research and I wanted to share some of the inspirational images I’ve found.

via CSGD

via HGTV

via Alm Farms

via SinaEnglish

via Pinkpollyanna

via Apartment Therapy

via FlipFlipMeHeidi

I realize most of these are completely unrealistic. Don’t judge! They are truly just inspirational. I like the idea of doing something different, smart, and efficient.

We also realize that a greenhouse isn’t like a rotisserie, you can’t just set it and forget it! It will also require work but hopefully not as much weeding. Soooo, once we can carve out some extra time to build this bad boy, then we’ll be good. Right? RIGHT? Wish us luck!

-c.

Q is finally at that age (18-months) where he’s conscious and aware of the things he is doing and the things around him. It’s been fun watching him partake in summer and really enjoy himself. I know a lot of parents find it difficult to gauge whether certain activities are suitable for kids his age. Sometimes it can be a crap shoot with the results being either fun or meltdown-inducing. Here are a few things we did this summer and how they rated on the fun/meltdown scale:

The County Fair
Meltdown factor: 2 of 5

The animals and the food are really the only reasons we go. We don’t do games and we don’t do rides. I’m sure as he gets older, he will want to do those other things but as of now he’s content with petting horses and drinking 4H milkshakes.

Listening to Music While Eating Bananas
Meltdown factor: 0 of 5

Best for those unbearably hot days when going outside is completely out of the question.

The Zoo
Meltdown Factor: 3 of 5

Baby boy loves animals. Period. He seemed a bit unsure on the Merry-Go-Round, but he didn’t cry or freak out. I think he was just perplexed. He did get restless about being in his stroller, but luckily the zoo we visited is small so we were only there for about 2 hours. He was able to walk around somewhat, but sometimes he just likes to take off running for no apparent reason other than to just run.

Swimming (naked, or course!)
Meltdown factor: 0 of 5

This is one of Q’s all time favorite summer activities. Going down a plastic slide bare bottom is quite the thrill apparently. He shoots down that thing like lightening!

NYC
Meltdown factor: 5 of 5

Ok, so overall, our trip was successful. I gave it a 5 of 5 in my Meltdown rating just because it had the most potential for meltdown inducing factors – lots of car time (drive to NYC from Ohio), lots of time in the stroller while walking around, lots of time sitting in restaurants, etc. I think Q did pretty well adapting, but there were definitely moments when I was thinking “Beam us to the apartment, NOW!” If you are interested in learning more about traveling with a young one, check out A Cup of Jo’s – Tips for traveling with a baby One thing I was thankful we remembered – Q listens to the same CD every night before going to bed, so we brought it along and when he was fussing on the ride home we popped it in and he was out like a light! Yay for smart thinking!

What have you guys been up to this summer?

-c.

We’ve got veggies, people! Cucumbers and salad greens, to be specific.

I think growing food is one of those things in life that you can feel really good about and not have the time you’ve devoted to it weigh negatively on you. Unlike video games and reading gossip mags. Both of which, I’m known to indulge in. Super Mario is my jam!

Yum!
-c.

Ever since we cleaned off our porch, baby boy has been hanging out there a lot. It’s baby/toddler proofed enough that he can be out there by himself and we don’t have to worry about him getting into trouble (other than eating the occasional ant, yuck!) Most of the time he just sits out there and watches cars pass while singing to himself. It’s quite sweet!

But anyway, lately he’s been coming inside and shutting the door behind him. Not completely shut, but enough that it’s hard for him to re-open without something to grasp. So instead of him having to come get us to re-open the door every time, we put a little drawer pull on the door within his reach so he can open it himself! So far, it’s been a success.

However, he can’t open the door if it’s locked or closed completely. So, he can only get out there if we open the door for him initially. Don’t worry. Q won’t be terrorizing the neighborhood. Plus, it’s a screened in porch with a locked screen door. Just to be safe ;)

Our baby boy is growing so independent! Yikes.

-c.

We recently cleaned off our side porch (finally!) because it was starting to look like Sanford & Son out there. During the cold season it sort of becomes a catch all for anything we can’t figure out what to do with. Recycling getting out of control? Throw it on the porch! Old busted laptop taking up space? Throw it on the porch! And it doesn’t help that you can see all this junk from the street! Ugh, what must the neighbors think? I’m sure they could care less, actually.

Baby boy is an outdoor baby and being outside soothes him. We decided to make a little haven for him to play and hang out. We swept and sprayed and scrubbed then put down an outdoor rug to cozy it up a bit. He loves it! Now we just need to get some compact space saving furniture (it’s only about 6 feet wide) and we can hang out there all summer long. I went looking for porch inspiration and found some real winners. Seriously. Our porch is not nearly as big and spacious as any of these, but a girl can dream right?

Porch images via Remodalista, Coastal Living, & Pintrest 

How awesome is that porch swing/bed thing? I would love that, but I would be scared of spiders spinning webs under the pillows and blankets and such.  And I just imagine it would feel… damp, no? Spiders in your damp porch bed = when reality meets fantasy.

-c.

It takes the earth approximately 365 days to travel around the sun. And it takes approximately 365 days for a baby boy to go from this to this:

Whaaaaat??! When did this happen? What happened to that baby boy? He’s getting so big. As A Cup of Jo would say: It makes my heart hurt! The days are just flying by… *sigh*.

-c.

A couple weekends ago, I decided to finally address this little miserable patch of yard that is next to our porch steps. I’ve been meaning to for awhile, but other projects always seemed more important. But we didn’t have any pressing issues to deal with (like the damn deer) so I figured it was time!

The main issue with this little spot is the lack of sun. Most of the day it’s in the shade of a huge maple tree. We went to a local nursery and got some great advice from their perennial plant expert, Henry. It was so hard to choose, but this is what we went with:

A fun little mix of Hostas, Coral Bells, Solomon’s Seal, and Ferns! They will probably get totally crazy and outgrow this little space but then I can transplant them to other areas. Also, baby boy had so much fun helping prepare the area. He probably ate 10 pounds of dirt, but it really was sweet seeing him get so excited about digging in the dirt!

Anyone else have any fun gardening projects in the works??
-c.

I’m not sure if this is vintage or not. I got it at an antique store, but it could easily pass for something a kindergartener might make for Mother’s Day. Either way, I like it a lot. I couldn’t get a good picture of me wearing it that didn’t look weirdly staged.

I just really love the colors and the size and shape of the beads. It’s pretty chunky and awkward, but charming nonetheless.

I’m starting to realize that a pretty good gauge of my tastes is whether or not something looks like it could be candy. That’s what I think of when I see this necklace. Little candy cubes. With bubble gum in the center.

-c.

How awesome is this vintage Martex tea towel?

Weirdest name for a line of towels: Dry-me-Dry. “Dry” as a verb, followed by “Dry” as an adjective. Or am I reading into that all wrong? Anyway, I found it at a local antique shop called This N That for a few dollars. Usually this place is hit or miss and last time we were there the air was heavy with scented candles. So much so that it gave me a headache and made me feel like the inside of my nose and mouth was coated with candle wax.

I did a quick google search of vintage Martex tea towels and there are a few people selling this exact one on etsy in a variety of colors (and prices… $45.99 yikes!)

-c.

Hot damn! We finally got out to the garden to plant! This rain has been really been… raining on our parade (jeez, i’m dumb.)

We decided to scale things back a little bit this year. We’ve been overly ambitious the past couple years and while it’s been fun, it’s also gotten to be a headache at times. Plus, we have this tendency to just cram everything in. So this time, since we have a little more room to play with we’re giving everything room to breathe.

Yesterday (before it started pouring) we were able to get tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and carrots in the ground. Unfortunately, we were so late that we missed our chance to do regular potatoes, which have been the most fun to grow in the past. All the seed potatoes were gone before we even could consider planting, and we didn’t have any left from last year. Boo hoo!

Hoping to get the salad greens in and the fence up very very soon. The damn deer have already destroyed any strawberry plants we had left. They are such jerks! Heard this story on NPR the other day and it confirms my suspicions that the deer are hating on us hard.

-c.

p.s. How awesome is that garden in the picture above? Found it while looking for garden inspiration!