Home Gardening Part 2 : The foundation

  We've been working on the garden these past few days, and I must say it's coming along quite nicely. The "idea" has changed abit and the theme might not be quite the same, but thats what happens when we work together and share opinions. c ;

 I can't wait until it's done, and we have a nice, cool, shady spot to go sit and read. The sweet smells of different kinds of herbs wafting up around you. Or to walk through it at night, your feet touching the cool stones as the lights reflect in your eyes, watching the fireflys dance all around.

 We need beautiful places. It's a part of us. It's the way God made us. Why else would He have created flowers and butterflys and all different kinds of animals to decorate this world with? Why else would a sunset, whether it's behind an ocean or a mounatin range be so breathtaking?

  That's why I can't wait for our beautiful place to be done. So that we can be able to sit and enjoy the simple, beautiful things that have filled our world since the beginning of time, the things that God designed Himself to be beautiful to us.



                             So here is our foundation....partially.

                                                                                  First, we laid out our plans..

       The long row in the middle is the walkway from the porch, complete with mulch and stones. The colored in areas to the right are more paths through the raised beds, and the empty squares on the left are the raised beds. On the right, the little square shape in the center is our sitting area, and everywhere else there will be some kind of shrubbery.
    Also the really long "U" shape on the left outside part of the paper will be kind of like a long side bed where we will also plant herbs and such.


   This is only one side of the house, we still have the other side and a triangular shape in the corner to tackle, but heres what we have accomplished so far.

                         All the boards for the raised beds were first laid out in the basic place of where they would sit.

         Then we nailed them all togeher! (Minus the 4x4 footer in the center which were still lacking two boards for.)

I'm glad I get to do this with my mother, I always tell her if she were a fairy, she'd be a garden fairy. She loves this stuff. The dirt, the sun, the grass, the hard work. It's like she was wired for it. She never stops working.

   I started a juice fast a few days ago, but iced tea with lemon and rosemary is a nice substitute for the usual, and it still quenches the thirst. c ;

                                              Swimming is a great pass time on a hot day!





   On a side note, we had a bird in our woods that called out all day long and I could have sworn it sounded like a snipe ( you know like the one on the movie UP ). They assured me it was just a peacock that one of our neighbors probably just bought, but i'm not entirely convinced just yet. c ;

   I mean, come on, how cool would it be to have one of these guys in your backyard?

He Wrinkled my Tablecloth

      It's festival time here at the Wright house. That means boxes, tables, crafts supplies, baking goods and lots of other things spread out all over the house in preperation for the Carrell's festival. We do this twice a year, and yes, we might just be a little crazy for it. c ;


     But it's worth it, the excitement that fills the air, the anticipation at possibly selling something of their own is a big deal for the younger ones. And for me, I get to decorate, bake, paint, draw....some of my favorite things.....

 She sat down next to me, eagerly explaining how she was going to set up her own table and provide her own homemade gifts for the enjoyment of others. "Can I use one of your peaces of paper?" She asked politely. My first thought was, It's carsdstalk, and we have very little of it. Remembering past times where shes gone through stacks and stacks of paper, trying to get it just right. "Just one." I told her......not even stopping to realize what was happening. Not realizing at the time just how carefully she watches me, how easily she steps into my footprints, following them wherever they go.

This thought sobers me, if she watches me that closely, how much more closely should I watch myself, to make absolutely sure I'm leading her down the right path?

We sat there together, her asking me how to spell each word then waiting expectantly as I guided her. And it hits me, that my actions do not just effect me, even if I think they do.

 

This is my new idea for our table, setting out fresh tea with lemon, rosemary, mint and sugar to add at will. Don't know if it will do well, but I'm crossing my fingers! c ;

Mom and Steven spent a few hours brought lots of boxes in from the camper, where they were being stored. And now I fear we'll never have our den back again. :\

Trust me it looks alot worse than this, this is just the left side.

In the midst of all this, I'm trying desperately to keep my spirits up. For some reason they had been down for a while. I'm getting frustrated, theres so much to do, it seems that everyone is in a relatively bad mood, and everything is beginning to look hopeless.

And then while I'm taking down my Mary Kay table, out of the blue, my little brother Steven walks in and adopts his hilarious british lady accent and says "Hullo miss! May I buy something today?" 

I laugh and shrug him off, but he comes back when I'm setting up the next table. Smoothly I walk to the other side of the table, throw the table cloth up and let it drift down over the table. I smooth it out carefully and turn around to pick up the first item, but when I go to sit it on the table, the cloth is all wrinkled. Steven is standing off to the side, giggling and smileing.

I laugh at his joke and unexpectedly, my spirit seems to lift. He stayed for a while and kept wrinkling my table cloth. But it was okay, it was almost like God saying, "I see your haing a prticularly difficult day, let me lighten the mood."

c :

He's not this little anymore. : (

I love decorating and baking and crafting, but what I love more are the little lessons God teaches us everyday through our family and others around us. May we always have open ears and hearts, to hear and understand what He has to say.

Home Gardening

  This time last year I believe I created a post about our garden and how we were starting to renovate it, but the storm and alot of other stuff kind of got in the way, so were trying again this year. Only this time, with the help of Pinterest!


Here are some before pictures along with the ideas behind their renovation. c ;








These are some overall pictures of the three main areas we'll be working on.

Above is the right side and this one with the arch is the left side...

And this is the middles area.






Not very much to look at just yet, I know. But when we get done it's going to be beautiful!

Here is the place where our stairs will lead of from the porch and into the pathway...

Here is our inspiration for the walkway : Stones, mulch and lights to line it with.

                                                 

Here we will have a fountain and/or pond, in between two flowerbeds on either side.



And our inspiration! c ;

See that post on the left? There are about four of those throughout and we'll use them to hang lanterens and hanging pots from.





Here are ome other ideas we'll use eventually, once all the harder work is done.

Our fencing...love it.

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not." Definately making one of these!

And these!

Lights will be a big part of what we incorporate into out garden, they give it that "enchanted" feeling. c ;



Bird feeder, made out of a slinky and a cloths hanger....how cool is that?



Table decorations!

That's all for now, we start by tilling up the ground and putting up the fencing. Then arranging the raised beds, laying down mulch sand stones and then we get to the fun stuff!

   Input if you have any would be greatly appreciated!

I'll post pictures as we go, I love these summer projects that we can all work on together. Maybe this will give you guys some good ideas too! c ;