My Gardens

So I thought I would update you all on my gardens :-) 
First off I will update you on my  U shaped raised Lasagna Garden.   I planted peas, spinach, beets, carrots, lettuce and onions early in the spring and they are doing well considering the fact that the sun has rarely come out all spring.  It keeps on raining and snowing .  Seriously I woke up to a sciff of snow just this morning two days before June!  I really  hope it will finally decide to warm up one of these days.  Anyway last week with a lot of faith I planted my warmer weather plants like Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, egg plant, more carrots and herbs.

Here are some pics.

Here is close up of some of the lettuce,spinach and peas

I planted my corn in my 3 sisters garden last week also.   I hope it works out.  I have never planted a 3 sisters garden before.  Actually, I have never planted corn before either so it is a huge experiment really.
If you don't know what a 3 sisters garden is click on the link above and it can explain it much more then I can.  I will plant the pumpkins and beans and melons next week :-)  Anyway right now it just looks like a bunch of  dirt mounds.

I think I have mentioned before that I am wanting to add more edible plants to my landscaping. 

 So in my front flower garden I planted strawberries, romaine lettuce, a currant bush and a black berry bush.

So anyway there you have it! I will give you another update in a few weeks of  how everything is coming along :-)

Happy Gardening !

Finished Stitchery

I finished this stitchery a few days ago, but I have not had much of a chance to get on the computer these days so this morning I finally sat down to do it. Anyway here it is :-)  I have a picture of it just plain and one after I colored it in with crayon.  I can't decide which way I like it better. 

I love this quote and really liked how my little stitchery turned out :-)

There are 4 different types of stitches I used in this stitchery.

Basic backstitch

Lazy daisy stitch (flower petals, leaves and bee wings)

French knot (bee atenas, dots on I's and the center of orange flower, the center of purple flowers and dots around it, and the cream flower)

Satin stitch (door of  beehive, bee bodies

For more info on how to do the different stitches here is a great link.  Stitchschool.

Recipes and a Stitchery!

I am a huge fan of the "Taste of Home" and Quick Cooking Magazines! I used to have a subscription, but the magazines would stack up so I stopped getting them. With the idea that I would buy the cookbook that would come out at the end of the year with all of the years recipes. But I never did end up doing that. A couple of weeks ago I went to our local Library with my kids and while browsing I discovered that there was a whole section with cook books. I decided to check out some that caught my eye (most of them were Taste of Home). I have been going through them picking out recipes that sound good to me and trying them out.

What a great way to find recipes without having to buy the book! I don't know about you, but I usually have several favorite recipes in my recipe books and then there are a ton that I don't care much for and then all those books take up space in my cupboard. I wish I had thought of it sooner! I have been slowly copying down ones I know will be good and favorites that I have tried out on my family :-) Everything so far has been a hit with them!


On a different note!


I have been getting back into doing stitchery lately. I have not done it in several months because I have been too busy. but I got to teach a stitchery class to the 12 and 13 year old girls at my church. I wanted something with a Beehive and flowers and a good quote. I could not find anything I quite liked so I compiled several ideas from different patterns and made it my own!

here is what I have done so far.

I will reveal the finished product soon :-)



Also I will update you on how my gardening is going soon :-)

Easy Ramen Noodle Stir Fry

Grrrrr!   Does Spring just not exist anymore?  It is literally snowing outside at my house right now!  Next week is when I planned to plant my garden. I hope Mother Nature will decide which season it is by then! 

Anyway this winter type day made me in the mood for something warm and comforting for dinner.  I saw a recipe a few days ago in one of my many cookbooks using Ramen Noodles in a stir fry.  I have had no luck finding it again.  I just have the image of the picture in my mind.  So I decided to try and figure it out myself using another recipe online as a guide that sort of helped, but it was not exactly what I was looking for so I tweaked it to my liking and it turned out really good :-)    If you are interested here is what I did. Oh and sorry no pictures :-(  My family devoured it before I thought to take a picture.

Ingredients:

2 packages of Ramen Noodles ( I used a combo of oriental flavor and beef flavor)
1 package of frozen stir fry veggies
Meat of your choice. chicken, beef, pork ( I used a lb of ground pork)
1/2 onion (chopped )
water
cornstarch ( 2 tsp)
season salt ( add for flavor)
soy sauce (about a tablespoon)
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup of peanuts

First I removed the noodles from the Ramen Noodle packages and boiled them in 2 cups water for 1 minute and took off the heat and drained the water off. 
Then I added 2 tablespoons oil to a saute pan and browned the meat with the chopped onion and sprinkled it with season salt  and about a tablespoon of soy sauce.  Once the meat was browned I added the stir fry veggies. When they started to soften up I sprinkled on the 2 season packets from the  Ramen Noodle packages.
Next I stirred 2 tsp of cornstarch in a cup of cold water and added it to the meat and veggies and seasoning and stirred until It thickened up.  Then I added the noodles to the meat and veggie mixture. I found that my sauce was too thick so I added water a little at a time until it was the nice saucy consistency that I wanted it to be.
 Last I stirred in the peanuts.  Our family also loves to sprinkle those crunchy chow mien noodles on top to give it some extra crunch :-) 

This meal was easy, cheap, and filling!  I will for sure be making it again!

Cute serving apron

So here is one of the finished  half aprons I have been making. 

I am making these aprons for a wedding reception. The serving girls are going to wear them, and they are also going to be their gift for helping serve at the reception. I love the simple black and white with just a touch of green :-)

Projects I want to try!

I have not been doing much crafting lately because I have been focusing on garden stuff, but I am starting to get back in the mood again! 
I found these two projects this morning that I want to try.   It is funny because they are both sewing projects and I always claim that I am not a very good sewing person, but I keep getting attracted to these cute projects!

First I love this coin purse at Paws and Thread.

She has a tutorial to show you how to make it.  I (as usual) am going to make some changes and cut some corners.  Instead of pleats I think I will gather the bottom half instead.

Next I love this ruffle purse!  It reminds me of my ruffle aprons.  Especially the little half aprons I am making right now for my friend.

You can find this purse here  If you want the pattern for this one I think you have to buy it, but I am going to try and figure it out myself.  I have this inner part of me that always yells out "I can do that!"  I rarely buy others craft items because I love the challenge of trying to make them myself.

I actually am posting this later then the first half of this post.  I found another tutorial that shows the gathering idea for the clutch purse that I was talking about.  You can find it at From an Igloo. 

Dotty and Daisy May went to the land down under!

My Etsy store lately has been sadly neglected :-(  I have not added any new stuff for a while.
 All my Nativity puzzles ( my most popular item at my store) are all sold out, and I need to make more.
I want to add more variety at my store, but I have been distracted by gardening and other projects lately.
I have however had  some of my little peg dolls on there for quite a while now.

  I had pretty much given up hope that anyone else thought my little Garden Girls were as special and worth buying as I thought they were, but a special someone finally did!  Daisy May and Dotty had a long journey  all the way to Australia :-)  I was sad to say good bye to them, but I am excited to think that these little peg dolls that I made all the way over here in Utah ended up having a home all the way to the land down under!  I also made this cute little box to package them in. I got the little box from the dollar store.  I modge podged scrapbook paper on it.  I think it turned out really cute :-)

Thanks Elyse  if you are reading this. for taking interest in my Peg Dolls and for your kind words :-) It has inspired me to make some more!  Right now though I am going to be busy making 8 serving aprons for my friend Donna, for her daughter's wedding reception.  These aprons will be like my like my  flour sack aprons with ruffles, but they will be half aprons instead of full.  Her fabric she picked out is really cute so I am excited to see how they turn out!

Happy Crafting!