Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Epic Continuing Work in Progress . . Seedling Pictures

As promised - seedling pictures:

pumpkin

 beets




snow peas



Epic Continuing Work in Progress . . Condensed Updates

So the garden has been in place now for abut two weeks.  You've seen the progression of clearing the jungle.  In some of those pictures you can see beds laid out in a grid pattern with white twine and sticks for stakes.  Low cost solution.  The grid pattern is because I'm using a technique called square foot gardening which is mostly about efficiently utilizing your space to get as much in as you can.  I hardly needed it because the spot turned out to be more than half again as big as I was led to believe.

I planted a ton of stuff, some for me, some for other people because I just had so much space.  I got all the plants and seeds free from the community gardening organization so luckily I did not have to purchase anything really beyond the space itself.  A hopefully complete listing of what I attempted to grow is:
carrots
radishes
cauliflower
raddicchio
cubanelle peppers
banana pepper
pumpkin
spaghetti squash
butternut squash
snow peas
tomato
cucumber
white cucumber
bush beans
beets
dill
basil
marjoram
*some other herb I can't remember now*
lilac pepper
brussel's sprouts
habanero peppers
purple cabbage
green cabbage
... plus assorted flowers including marigolds, nasturtium, and sweet pea

Some stuff grew, most of the herbs did not.  I think one basil seedling came up.  Some of the peppers have died, about half the cubanelles, the banana, and the lilac.  The habanero peppers seem to be treading water right now.  The winter squash and cucumbers seem to be growing, as are the bush beans.  Many of the plants were eaten off by woodchucks, but most of them appear to be trying a comeback so I hope they can make up for lost time.

Pictures to follow of some of the plants.  In other news some kids started a fire in the woods near the garden that spread down into the field behind the garden and came right up to the fence by my space before they got it put out.  I can thisclose to losing a good portion of my plants.


Epic Continuing Work in Progress . . The Beginning

My garden!  I may have mentioned the garden previously, but now I have pictures!  Finally having my computer back means pictures for the having and posting and seeing!  So this post will be picture heavy to get us up to date on the garden that is.

So I got the space from a community garden organization.  I didn't sign up until june so I was lucky to get a space.  However, it was filled with weeds.  Let the cleaning begin.  I grew up on a farm so these weeds didn't scare me one bit.  (Now those weeds in the fields back home that literally chest high - those were out to get me I swear!)  These pictures are in order of clearing so you can see the progression:
















Super Secret Project . . . Revealed!

So a little while ago I alluded to a super secret project I was working on.  But I'd given the intended recipient a link to my blog so I didn't want to chance a big reveal flop.  The gift has now been given so I can safely share what all was the deal.

So a friend of mine went back to grad school (again) and I wanted to give her a nice gift bag of stuff as a Good Luck and Congratulations on Going for Your Second Master's gift.  So rundown on the contents, unfortunately I didn't take a picture of everything.
1. orange thyme plant (yes we tested it when I bought it from the farmer's market, it does small like orange)
2. scarf (why a scarf in the summer you say?  well I happened to have yarn in her fav colors and I had time before giving the gift so I went a little overboard)

3. two placemats (but not just any placemats.  These placemats were single crocheted from black organic cotton yarn)





4. two coasters (squares of cork that I drew her initial on with marker in fancy lettering.  Don't want them walking off on their own you know.)



5. a rice heating pad (A nice big one that can lay across the top of one's back and over one's shoulders.  100% cotton toweling and thread so it can be heated up in a microwave or oven.)
6. A tote bag (I needed to give the gift stuff in some kind of container, and I thought a tote bag is also a useful thing.  No pic of it because I made it at the last minute.  Flannel with a green and brown pattern, plastic insert to help the bottom hold shape, and wooden buttons as a decorative element where the handles join the bag.)

Of course after the fact when the gift had been given I thought of all sorts of ways I could have made it better, but isn't that always the way.  She seemed to like the stuff, as eclectic as it was, and I hope they either make her life at school a little easier or at least help her relax a little.


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Project Acquired - workout pants

Alrighty.  SO I haven't been doing much sewing around here.  Just mending and commissions for my side business.  Which is all well and good, but my sewing machine is calling my name.  Which it should totally not be doing after it let me down on that tote bag I whipped up at the last second for the grad school gift bag.  (Which I will totally post pictures of as soon as my main computer is back up and running I swear.)

But I've been casting about for a project to get started on, and then today it hit me.  I just recently started a martial arts class - krav maga if you're interested - and I need more workout pants.  Right now I have two.  one black in a knit fabric that is okay, but the fabric tends to cling a bit as I get sweaty.  The second is the bottom half of my martial arts gi from college - I took soo bahk do then.  I much prefer the second pair, but only one problem....they're bright white.  Which is sometimes awkward.  I love the weight of the cotton canvasy fabric and how comfy they are and how they don't cling.  They're just so . . . white.

Unfortunately I did take that no new fabric pledge, so I will have to go diving into my many boxes of fabric to see if I have something appropriate.  I have a few patterns for sleep pants that I am sure I can find one I want to use for this.  I figure a sleep pant pattern will have a loose enough fit to work for a martial arts class.  These are one pair of pants that I want to be a little baggy.

My only concern is the waist.  I'd like to do an elastic waist, but my weight fluctuates a bit so I'm not sure if I should make the waist a little small or just add a drawstring just in case.  Any thoughts?

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

First new business fail

Well, it was bound to happen.  Just wish it hadn't happened so soon.  I was asked to take in a seam just a little bit to hide a weird spot where the pattern, white stripes on a navy field, had created a white spot that looked bad.  So I took in the seam a little and returned it to the owner.  Unfortunately I had apparently not taken it in enough, because she had to give it back to me to fix again.  I was a bit embarassed that I had not done a good job the first time, but I took the seam in more this time so hopefully it will hold.

I want to build a reputation for doing good work, so I'm hoping this doesn't happen again anytime soon.  But I also hope that having a policy of fixing my work when it doesn't meet standards will also help me build a good reputation.