What is in my garden mid summer

So summer is over half way over and being in Minnesota I feel like my garden (my happy place) is half way over too...

It was a very wet spring and although I started my garden early (from seed) it seemed to be stunted by the extremely wet conditions and severe storms (winds). I lost about 30% of my tomato crop by June. Many of my other plants either did not show or made a very poor showing.

My main crops every year are: strawberries- for eating and freezing, raspberries- for making jam, and the vast majority being peppers and tomatoes- for canning spaghetti sauce and salsa. However, I have been fighting tomato blight in my garden for 3 years.

In planning the garden, my daughter is also a big part so I plant things she likes as well. We always plant sunflowers, lettuce, carrots, sugar snap peas and beans for immediate enjoyment. However, I added a few new things this year.... some look good some not, OK most do not but hey I am branching out!!!

I tried planting the cucumbers under the sunflowers as suggested but only one cucumber plant has shown up and its really late, so we are not going to see very many cucumbers climbing the sunflowers this year.

This year I added cabbage, squash, watermelon, shelling peas and calendula to my garden. The cabbage has done nothing so looks like I will be going to the farmers market for all my saurkraut fixings.

Creative fun with scraps around the house- hair clips and ties for school

So my girl is starting kindergarten this year.... I KNOW! Its going to be a tough day in our house.

Since she will be wearing uniforms, her tutu and make believe style will be halted.  Anticipating some difficulty, I'm committed to find a way to help her still have her "style". With the strict dress code policy it seems hair will be our only option (and there are restrictions there too). 

We have been and will continue to try new hair styles. I have not found any hair clips or ties I thought would really work so I decided to start to dig through some scraps at home and do what my mother used to do.... make some!

Here is the first of many more....

This one was made from some cream material I found in my closet. I will add the technique I used later as I did not take any pictures while making it. 

This one was made with some wired ribbon I had. I used my bow maker. 

Playing around with some navy blue felt, same technique as the first one just different medium.

This flower clip was an from scrubs in the donate pile.... going to work on flower clips more. I think I could have added more petals.

Next up, ribbon clips and hair ties! 

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Winter in Summer

Quite honestly, creating a winter wonderland in August did not sound like a good idea to me when my daughter first requested it. However I took the challenge and did the best I could. If a five year old's opinion means anything- I did good.

Creating games based on the Frozen theme....A few of which included... coloring sheets, face painting, pin the nose Olaf, Frozen Freeze dance, Do you wanna build a snowman?- using marshmallows, pretzels and raisins (the missing nose led up to the Olaf game) and the much requested pinata.

I forgot to take pictures of many things I had put in place prior to the party starting. But here are a few of the pre-pre photos. What I love the most about this is these three pieces did not cost me anything to make. I had all the materials on hand, most of which are reused or donated from other people or places. I had a great magic maker in my mom who finished up Elsa for me and made her come to life.

As we are still eating our sparkling snow cupcakes and cleaning up from the snowstorm, my daughter is already planning her next party. As long as she does not change her mind I love having the extra time to plan & create!!!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.

A beginning...

Wanting a way to keep track and possibly share my life projects in the garden, in the studio, in the kitchen and around the world. With no real plan, like many things in life, I decided to begin. 

So here it goes. Enjoy the journey.