Adventures in the Garden

:aerial cantaloupes:

:barely contained:

:orange about to explode:

:towering tomato trees:

:graceful white flowers:

:a jungle from below:

Sweet Holy Muffins!

Yesterday's launch of the Hyena Cart store was a raging success! We received six orders, one of those for my own custom dyed yarn to be knit into a pair of longies with a watermelon motif, have over 50 people signed up in our lotteries, and had a bunch of great comments letting us know how cute our stuff was and that they'd be back soon. I had so much fun monitoring the store yesterday - checking for mistakes, answering questions, sending out responses for custom orders, and generally just being excited to see my dream finally becoming a reality. I have nothing but high hopes that Baby Bean will continue to grow! If you want to see it, you can find it at http://www.hyenacart.com/babybeandesign.

On another good note, I painted my basement a lovely shade of dark blue. With the white trim it's a lovely contrast. Tomorrow we'll be moving our couch and entertainment center down, which means Wednesday I will be setting up my workspace up here. EEEEEEEEE!

I hope your day is as fun as my last couple have been! Tomorrow I plan on posting a picture montage of my garden, so tune in for an eyeful of veggies!

The Update

It's been an interesting week. Levi and Dani have officially left the building, which means we've been spending time reclaiming our basement by tearing down walls. We plan on tearing down two walls, putting up one, and making the downstairs our all purpose family room; the upstairs that currently houses our entertainment needs will become a large dining and sitting area. Beautiful! I am so excited to finally have that project underway!

A few weeks from now, the approach to our garage will be poured and the post holes for the fence filled, marking the end of all plans for the backyard this year. With all of the big projects and groundwork done, next year will be focused on the actual yard itself, right now a sea of yellow grass and sandy earth. The plan is to make one side an elaborate maze of small flower and garden beds, surrounded by rock and pavers, and embellished by a container garden. The other half will be replanted with grass.

My small garden is in bloom right now. The bees are hovering over it daily, and every morning I have to explore the plants and smile over the new flowers that peeks out at me. My green onions never really took off, but the carrots are growing in their neat little row, and the peas and beans are thriving, occasionally running together a bit haphazardly. My one little cucumber plant is shaded by the huge zucchini plants that I believe I planted a few too many of; if you know me personally, best believe you'll be receiving a few of them when harvest time comes. A few little cantaloupe are holding their own, and I have two perfectly round green tomatoes already, getting a little bigger every day. My pepper plant seems to be stunted, however. It is, quite literally, the same size as the day it arrived in my backyard, still green and healthy, but not going anywhere. I suspect one day it will simply surprise me. Last but not least is the small pot of chives that is ready to be transplanted to a new and permanent locale.

Bella is also thriving. She has fulfilled the bulldog genes perfectly and earned herself the nickname "Big Stinky". Most of her time is spent lazing around in a long bully nap, interspersed with moments of extreme joy that consist of leaps of joy, chasing the cat, and wagging her non-existent tail by waggling her butt back and forth. She is still stubborn to a laughable fault, but she has learned several tricks - sitting and staying, going to crate on command, and, my favorite, sitting perfectly still with a treat on her flat nose until the okay is given, at which point she tosses the treat in the air slightly and gobbles it down when she catches it.

Aidyn and Ely are my joy and my undoing. Not a day goes by that there isn't some fight that requires mommy intervening and sending the parties to their separate rooms to cool down. Several of these have turned into actual brawls, and by the time mommy wades into the melee Aidyn has Ely by the hair and she is landing punches with amazing alacrity. Then there's the moments that make my heart melt - Aidyn's new-found singing skills, Ely doing her wiggle dance with her elbows in the air, sitting at the library reading their books together, and the giggles that ensue out of their rooms as they pretend they are pirates on their way to the store. Aidyn has come out with some gems lately that I had to write down for a later date, like a week ago when he explained to me about his "arm knees" (elbows).

Daddy is hard at work, as usual. His time at home lately has been spent working out and sharing cuddles with his favorite people (I'm so happy to be included in that number).

I have spent the last week madly knitting and adding products to the Baby Bean storefront that is launching on Hyena Cart this Sunday. I spent all day yesterday cleaning up the clutter I've been neglecting so that today I could focus on nothing but knitting up one more pair or two of little woolies to add to the "shelves". Yesterday I dyed some natural yarn with kool aid, a fun and rewarding project. I now have a large skein of yarn half green, half pink, with a small stripe of white in between...just like a watermelon. A smaller skein of pink will make up the waistband and cuffs of the little shorties I have in mind.

Next week I plan on doing a week in pictures for your viewing pleasure. I'd love to be on here to update more, but summer is too short and I don't want to miss one moment of it, so I shall keep you updated as the spirit moves me and take plenty of pictures to fill in the space of the words. I hope you view is bright today!

Time Marches On

I'm back. I've thought of my little bloggy often in the past week, but it's simply been too busy to find a quiet space and write out some thoughts, mostly due to the fact that my brother and his wife, who have lived with us for the last year, moved out into their own place.

They came here in early April last year, young and not even married yet. Levi had recently lost his job, Dani was flunking her last year of high school, and they decided a change would do them good. We invited them to stay here a few months until they saved up enough to find their own place, but somehow, the months flew by and got away from us. Dani and I were reminiscing as we packed up boxes and it came as a bit of a shock to realize that Ely was only about eight months old, Aidyn a little over two. In the past year there were more fights over dishes than I can count, endless pots of coffee to support Dani's habit, a garage built under Levi's supervision and knowledge, a wedding celebration, Levi's 21st birthday, and Dani's 19th. There were fights (if only Levi knew how to walk through a house without leaving a trail of debris behind) and there were family nights (come one Tawny, watch this, it's not scary). The best part was watching two young kids, in love but without a clue, grow into adult versions of themselves, still naive about many things, but somehow, a little more wise and even more in love.

It was a pain and a privilege to have them here, to get to know my brother again, to learn about Dani, to watch them marry, to see Dani pick up little tips on cooking and cleaning that she'll use in her own home, and watch Levi go from a gruff and stern uncle to a puddle at Ely's feet. While I appreciate having the full use of my basement again, I will miss them here. Dani having coffee with me in the morning and joining us on visits to the mall, Levi always fiddling with something or bringing home some new toy.

And so, a look back at the past year and several months: