Messy Messy Fail - I left my viola at orchestra camp. This is what I tell me students not to do, or make fun of them when they do it (leave their instruments behind somewhere). And I just did it. I hang my head in shame.
Tidy Victory - In our garden veggie garden, we have four square raised beds. I may have mentioned it before but I was able to clean and weed out two of them to try planting some veggies this year. We also have a compost bin that I did dig in to - without any planning or prior knowledge I grabbed some bucks of compost and mixed it in with the dirt in the raised beds. Plants in - done. Now not only do I have a rhubarb jungle BUT a tomato and squash jungle as well. I'm pretty sure I have hundreds of tomatoes, and the plants are so big they are knocking over the cages they are in. So I guess compost is helpful!
Messy Messy Fail - I found the reason I have been stung 4 times in the last 4 weeks - an underground bee hive right underneath my island garden! I stepped right into it hanging up a humming bird feeder, the bees came a flyin' and I went a reelin'. Pretty good sting - made my pinky swell right up!
Tidy Victory - I ended up purchasing an aloe plant to have on hand in the house for both aesthetic and medicinal purposes. I hope I can keep it alive (you remember my succulent seeds...)!
Messy Messy Fail - With all of the cherries I picked, I was running out of ideas to make but I took some advice from my FB page and Instagram page and made some cherry jam in the crockpot. I don't know what happened but it didn't set. So I have cherry syrup, maybe even cherry soup. Not jam.
Tidy Victory - I did bake some tasty cherry cinnamon roles that turned out beautifully, check out my pictures on Instagram or Facebook. Or you can pin the recipe from Pinterest here.
Messy Messy Fail - I knew I shouldn't have let the boys paint on the kitchen table, sitting on the fabric seat cushion.
Tidy Victory - Zout to the rescue - I swear that stuff can get ANY stain out. What do you use for a stain remover?
Messy Messy Fail - I have been stung now twice this week while it in the gardens weeding. I don't think I've ever been stung twice in my life, but then twice in one week. Is this a sign?
Tidy Victory - The island garden outside of our breakfast nook is pretty cleaned up - now I just need to find some fun perennials to get in there to replace the weeds that I pulled! BTW they weren't actually weeds, come to find out it was Snow On the Mountain but it's still pretty invasive!
Messy Messy Fail - You know it's funny - I think I do pretty well with houseplants and outdoor gardens, but I CANNOT keep succulents alive! I bought the UPK'er a cute T-rex planter for his birthday with a green little succulent plant. Thriving, living, bringing joy - yesterday I found it leafless. Now this has been happening over the course of the last month when I first discovered it was failing quickly, but nothing I did could revive it. New purchase at Home Depot today for 3.99 - a blue aloe. I thought that looked like a dino-y succulent.
Tidy Victory - We had a successful blueberry harvest from the 9 bushes on our new property, and two have still yet to turn blue (there are both early AND late blueberries). Friends came over to help because I KNOW I could never use that many blueberries. I gave them some more rhubarb too, because that is still thriving. #welcometotherhubarbjungle
Messy Messy Fail - We recently sold my 2017 Champagne Camry (I called her Cecilia) and upgraded to a new 2018 Pilot. We really like having the extra space but it feels so strange driving so high up off the road now! Unfortunately, when I was cleaning out all my old CD'S (yeah remember those?!?!?) for the Camry before the new owner came, I left them in a plastic bag in the garage and the soon to be UPK'er found them. He thought they were frisbees, my Radiohead The Bends CD in particular, and it now is quite scratched up and no longer usable.
Tidy Victory - So I THREW IT OUT! Aren't you proud of me??? The dump can have my Radiohead CD!
Messy Messy Fail - For our recent family vacay, I was determined to bring our Sony camera to take some nice pictures on the beach. Our iPhones take nice pictures, but there's nothing like a picture from a hand-held digital camera. Too bad I forgot the power cord and I had about 12 minutes worth of power left.
Tidy Victory - The rest of our Outer Banks vacation was fabulous - gorgeous weather on the beach with family. A little vitamin D, read a good book, lots of good beer! I highly recommend any vacation to the OBX, and the booking company we use is Surf or Sound.
Messy Messy Fail - The weeds overtaking my garden are seriously insane. At first I thought it was astilbe, but then I realized astilbe doesn't grow EVERYWHERE like this plant seemed to be. One good plant identifier app later - we are plagued with bishop's weed, an invasive plant that spreads widely underground, so pulling the plant out doesn't do much good. Not sure how I can take care of this one, it's seriously everywhere!
Tidy Victory - We got some seeds finally planted in the raised bed last week - some quick growing lettuce, carrots and pumpkins. I've never had a veggie garden before, so we are taking it easy and just experimenting to see how it goes. So far I see little pumpkin plants coming up!
Messy Messy Fail - Did you know that chipmunks and squirrels are able to destroy a plastic bird feeder in one chewing session? I left the house in the morning with the birds enjoying the bird seed but returned to pieces of the feeders strewn across the lawn. I guess that's what I get for spending $5 on a feeder.
Tidy Victory - I have never planted a veggie garden before, but with the raised beds that came with our new house, I had to give it a try. I purposely bought seeds that could be planted outdoors later in the season (May-June) to just give it a try and see how it goes. We are waiting for carrots, lettuce and pumpkins to show their little selves.
Messy Messy Fail - One of my favorite scented hand lotions literally blew up in my purse today. Everything smells like rose & carrots (if you can imagine that). To see what it smells like, try it out yourself Rose + Carrot Hydrating Cream.
Tidy Victory - The garden is slowly but surely getting weeded out. I discovered we have what is called bishop's weed and it is quite invasive. I'm trying to pull all of the roots out of the ground, we'll see how it goes!
Messy Messy Fail - It's official - my second thyme plant is dead. I seriously have no idea what I did. It has little white specs all over the stem and on the dirt around the stem. Any ideas folks?
Tidy Victory - I made the cutest cupcakes EVER for my sister's Velveteen Rabbit baby shower - pictures to come on my Instagram and Facebook profiles!
