Category Archives: Domestic Blitz

In which we don our aprons and putter about the house.

How does your garden grow?

Victory Garden posterOne of my earliest memories is of getting lost among the rows of sunflowers in my parents’ garden. They grew big, glorious sunflowers that towered over my head and nearly blocked out the sun. The garden as I remember it was enormous. After we moved, my mom still planted a gigantic garden every year, and my grandparents always had a large garden as well. Mom hasn’t had a garden in five or so years, though, and Granny has scaled back her efforts quite a bit since her illness.

You’d think that growing up around such gardening prowess, a little bit of their green thumb-edness might have rubbed off on me. Such is not the case.

Rockford’s grandfather — also an avid gardener — gave me a tomato plant a few months ago. While tomato plants all across the region are heavy with fruit, the best I can say for our plant is that it’s not dead yet.

I’ve never had much skill with plants. Even so, I’ve always wanted to have a small vegetable garden. I don’t want the gigantic plots that my mom and my grandparents put so much work into. I’m far too lazy for that sort of labor. I just want to be able to harvest a few vegetables throughout the summer, to cut down on food costs and just to say, “Yeah, I grew that.”

Soon we’ll be in a house with a yard. A yard that I could conceivably use to grow something. The trouble is, I have no idea where to start. I’m aware that it’s too late to plant anything for this year — at least, I think it is — but I need to know what to do for next year. And when to do it. And how to do it, on this slope-fest of a yard.

This was only slightly more interesting as it happened.

In a moment of daring and great self-confidence, I bought this pattern last fall, thinking that I would breezily make several of them to outfit Poppy for the spring.

I unfolded the pattern yesterday and looked it over. Then I cut out the pieces, folded them up, set them aside and went off to have a bowl of ice cream and a good chuckle at the expense of Daring Nichole. She’s so delusional.

Oh, but that’s not the end! I pulled everything back out today and tried to sew! First I made a crooked denim tube. Then I threw it in the floor and cut out the “yoke” pieces again. And it worked! (More or less.) And then I got confused! And I think I attached it the wrong way! So I stopped!

Now the parts are folded up again. And so they shall remain until my mother-in-law comes over to help me.

Let's get digital

Works for Me Wednesday

I started working on my 2007 scrapbook on February 1. Now it’s mid-April, and I’m one layout away from finishing it. This never would’ve happened when I was “manually” scrapbooking. For me, digital scrapbooking is worlds faster than paper scrapbooking. Overall, I’m happier with my pages, too — it’s easier to undo my mistakes on the computer!

Getting started
You’ll design your scrapbook using photo editing software such as Photoshop Elements. If your Photoshop skills need a boost, Jessica Sprague and the Digital Scrapbook Place have excellent tutorials — including one for “Creating Your First Layout“!

Embellishments
There are great, free resources available for digital scrapbooking. My favorite source for decorative elements is Shabby Princess. There are several “kits” there that include digital papers, photo overlays, “stickers,” alphabets and more.

Several sites also sell kits and individual pieces. I don’t buy much to do my scrapbooks, but if I’ve seen several things at Two Peas in a Bucket, Scrapbook Graphics, The Shabby Shoppe and Designer Digitals that I’d like to have.

Printing
One thing I was worried about when I started scrapbooking on the computer was whether or not I’d be able to print my pages. Some people print their pages at home and put them in a traditional album, while others just print some elements for “hybrid scrapbooking.”

My preferred route is to have the whole shebang printed and bound. Lots of photo processing sites now offer photo books; just make sure you know what the page dimensions are before you get started, then upload your layouts and use them as full-page photos in the book. I’ve printed two books so far. I used Photoworks for the first and Blurb for my most recent project, and I was happy with both. The Blurb books include a dust cover, which makes the book look pretty darn fancy. I’m using them again for the 2007 book.

My digital conversion has left me with a surplus of paper and stickers, but that’s OK. That just means Poppy has a packed arts & crafts kit!

Get more handy-dandy tips at Works-for-Me Wednesday!