Weekend Work

I have to say I had a very productive weekend. It followed a very unproductive week due to recovering from my bachelorette weekend.

Two ingredient chocolate buttercream frosting

I had to try this buttercream because it sounded so easy. You melt a bag of chocolate chips with a pound of butter. Just roll with the amount of butter and save the dieting for later. Refrigerate until hard, then return to room temperature. Beat in a mixer for 2 minutes on medium speed and it magically turns from firm buttery chocolate to whipped light and fluffy chocolate icing. It worked. It was miraculous and amazing. And.... salty. Unfortunately I didn't have any unsalted butter on hand so I used the two sticks of salted I had in the freezer (I only made half a batch). While it was super light and fluffy, it is also inedibly salty. Combine that with the failed "healthy" cake I frosted and it was a gross dessert. Into the trash it went. BUT! The fluffy frosting did indeed fluffy and frost quite nicely, so I would try it again with unsalted butter.

Blind Hem

Bought my first maxi dress and it was too long by a couple of inches. But it is the only maxi dress I've ever tried on and actually liked, so I bought it with the intention to hem it myself.  Mom suggested I do a blind hem, something I hadn't ever done before. After looking it up on YouTube and in my two sewing books, I pulled out the machine to test it. SCCCCREEEAAAAACH. Something desperately needed oiling. It probably took me two hours to get the thing open, cleaned out, oiled, and back in somewhat working order. So much for taking the dress with me to Leavenworth last weekend! On Friday I had the time to sit down and actually sew the dress hem. Took some finagling to get the folds right, but success! I wore it Saturday to a baby shower and it was perfect.

Deviled Dinosaur Eggs

Speaking of the baby shower, it had a dinosaur theme, so I made deviled dinosaur eggs. So easy and fun. After they are cooked, you just crack the shell and drop the eggs in food coloring. Dye seeps in through the cracks and colors just the cracks of the eggs. Cute!

Lettuce Harvest

My lettuce was bolting so I harvested as much as I could. I left a few head of romaine that were still doing ok, and a few heads that were flowering so I could save some seeds. Aside from that, this is the results of 5 squares of lettuce. I didn't pull up the plants in hopes that they might sprout again in the cool damp weather we've having this week. I cleaned it all and there was mass genocide of spiders. If you judge a yard by insect diversity my yard is VERY healthy.

Bookshelves!

Several weeks later and we finally put the first coat of paint on the new bookshelves. They look SO GOOD. I'm so excited to actually start using them. They need at least one more coat of paint, then I've heard the shelves should "cure" for 14-30 days before putting anything on them, otherwise they can be a bit "tacky". I can't wait to get my basement back to working order.

And, I finished a knitting project, but it is still blocking and I didn't take a picture. So productive!

Stitch Fix Number 2

Came home from field work on Wednesday to another StitchFix box on my porch!

I got two blouses, two dresses, and earrings.

I started with the blouses. I could tell from the pictures on my style card that it was going to be too blousey for me.

(Please ignore the messy dresser in the background of all my pictures....)

 Blanchette Tie-Neck Peasant Blouse  - $64

That's a nope. Too see-through and just too big and baggy. Apparently blouses have to be cut just right for them to work on me.

Blouse number two, however, I really  liked.

Filbert Abstract Striped Henley Blouse - $54

I guess I'm just a sucker for 3/4 length sleeves. But this top had some fun details and totally wasn't baggy like the other one, so I dug it.

Dress number one.... Ugh.

Harriet Chevron Print Detail Dress - $64

I don't know how you can call something with so much chevron pattern boring, but this actually really was. The skirt either should have been fuller and more of an A-line, or a bit more fitted. Just a no. Nope nope nope.

Dress number two was such a Robyn dress.

Spensur Striped Jersey Dress - $54

A-line (which I guess people are now calling a fit and flare??) with a fun striped pattern. Yup, definitely something I would wear. However I'm kind of debating on this one because the material is just basic cotton and I just bought something really similar from Loft.... This dress, but obviously not the maternity version. It's even two shades of blue, too. I'll have to try on them both tonight to decide if I should have both in my closet.

The earrings were another no.

Adele Hoop & Stone Earring - $32

I didn't take a picture of them, but here's a link to someone else's blog that got them in their Fix.

So, I think this time I'll be keeping one shirt and maybe one dress, which is about what I kept last time. While I might not have been as impressed with this box as my first one, I still think it's a lot of fun. The anticipation of getting a box and the excitement of opening it to see what they sent you might be worth spending a few extra bucks on a shirt. It's the experience! But I think I'll wait a few months before my next fix. I can't imagine getting a monthly box at these prices. All of my shopping budget would be blown and I wouldn't be able to stop at the Rack on a whim on my way home to pick up something random. Heaven forbid I not be able to impulse buy at the Rack!

Radishes bolted

I have been harvesting lettuce like crazy. I pick a little here, a little there, and let it regrow.  It's still growing strong.



My radishes, however, have all started to bolt. The french breakfast radishes did great and were actually edible, but my scarlet globe radishes all started to bolt before they bulbed up into anything edible. I ended up pulling all of my radishes since it's starting to really heat up. I plan on filling those squares with more lettuce, some carrots, and maybe some fall kale.





Speaking of kale, the kales I have in the raised beds are also growing really well. Not yet of a size I can harvest, but almost. I had two kale plants that were still in small pots from my early seed starting that I just planted in pots and place along the outside edge of the beds.



My summer savory has been growing in mats.  Unlike my thyme, which had about two seeds that germinated in the beds. The thyme seeds did fine in pots, but failed when planted in the ground. I tried to plants some seeds in my herb garden, but none of them germinated.



And, new this week: A fence!



Seems pretty dang stable. I think more birds are perching on the chain link than did on the wire fence.

We haven't talked to the side neighbors about replacing that fence yet, but they did mention that they are paying someone to put in two terraces in their backyard this summer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that part of that landscaping is removing all the blackberries and other weeds growing in the corner. Keep those blackberries off my property!

MG Planting

Last Sunday we hit the King County Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale. I was a lot of fun. There were vendors from nurseries lining a walkway and a couple of big tents where the Master Gardeners sold all their starts. I did my part supporting the MGs by purchasing several plants for the front bed.  I talked with the nursery people and got some suggestions for what to plant in the dry shade under our Doug fir. I just got them all planted this afternoon.

I don't have pictures of them, but I bought two different kinds of Rudbekia species and planted them along the sidewalk. And, in the corner by the driveway, I planted the shasta daisies I inherited from Alan's aunt.

Of my plants from the MG sale, I got a hosta "June", which I was told the slugs really like, so I might have to keep an eye on it.

Apparently hostas grow really well anywhere ferns grow. So if we don't take out any trees I might have to buy a few more to replace some of our failing shrubs.

I got three Epimedium x veriscolor "Sulphureum".

We planted them on the downhill side of the slope with the hope that they would spread a little and cover more of the space. One or two of the plants at the show still had flowers on them. They were small, but cute. We were going for more of the green ground cover effect than for the flowers.

We also got one Disporum smithii to plant in deeper shade back towards the tree.

The plant card says it's one of the "greats" for dry shade! Sturdy and pest free.  Again, hopefully it will spread in clumps and take up some of the newly exposed planting area.

As you can see in the first picture, there is still a TON of exposed ground. I'm going to sign up for Chip Drop and see if I can't get a free delivery of some wood chips to cover the soil. I'm also going to beg and plead for some alpine strawberries from a couple people we know when the strawberries start sending out runners later this year.

As for the veggies garden, the radishes and lettuce are growing like crazy.

My neighbor was kind of in awe of all the growth. They have new raised beds in front of their west facing house. Their beds get a lot more sunlight than ours, but their seeds are barely up. Maybe spending all that money investing in the compost/vermiculite/peat moss mix was really worth it! From seed I have radishes, lettuce, carrots, and summer savory all growing. The thyme is just starting to sprout, which surprises me since the summer savory is growing in MATS already.  Three kinds of kale and a broccoli got planted a while ago and are slowly doing their thing. And just today I planted a Sungold and Nova tomato. I'm saving a square for a jalapeno, but the rest of the tomatoes and the other peppers will all go in pots.

I gave away three tomatoes and some kale to Sarah, and another tomato to my neighbor. We can test the sun vs soil debate!

I've been doing a decent job identifying all the plants in the yard. This is my current plant project. It's the shrub next to the raised beds along the fence.

To the Sunset Western Garden Book!!

April in the Garden

It's been a busy month on the yard work front.

At the start of the month we pulled down the ivy from our trees. I don't have very good pictures from before, so I stole this one from Google Earth.

The ivy was a good 30+ feet up the trees. We cut it at the ground and waited a few months for it to die off before pulling it all down. We got all but one of the trees de-ivy-ed.

That's a big ivy pile. About 20x20x3ish.

On Saturday we got around to picking up this pile so we could work on the stuff growing underneath it. This patch was pretty solid ivy.

We had some helpers and they were key in the ivy removal process.

One day of work and DANG it looks so much better. We got out almost all of the sprouts and a heckuva lot of roots, but I'm sure we'll be pulling pretty frequently for the next few months, with less and less over the next few years.

We exposed some plants I didn't even know we had! Discovered a red huckleberry under the forsythia, and discovered that the other plant is a mountain huckleberry. Sweet! (Also ID's a plant in the backyard under the hemlocks - it's a Mexican Orange! Not a mock orange because it has five-petaled flowers, not four and more evergreen foliage)

Last week we worked on the weeds in the back yard.

We got a new "action hoe" (I call it a D weeder because the end is shaped like a capital "D") and it made quick work of the soft weeds. 

I got my lettuce, carrot, radish, and herb seeds into the raised beds, too. The radishes, at least, have sprouted. The lettuce is just now starting to pop. It's sunny and 60 today, so I bet I'll get some growth today.

I also put some starts in from the basement grow operation. I planted a couple marigolds, broccoli, and a couple kinds of kale.  Everything else is still perking along under the grow light.

I just transplanted the tomatoes last weekend when I did the planting in the beds.

I was able to retrain myself from separating too many of the tomatoes, but I have to admit, I did separate one or two. But I do have intentions of giving them away.


I had been watering the starts with a spray bottle, but it was such a small bottle that I had to keep refilling it. I finally got so frustrated I came up with a new device.

A 2-liter with about 7 tiny holes drilled in the lid! The holes are small enough that not much water comes out at a time and it doesn't wash away all the soil from the starts. So perfect. And FREE!

Apparently the weather report is calling for 80 degrees on Thursday and Friday. Time to start watering the raised beds!

Bandwagon - Stitch Fix version

I read about Stitch Fix online a while ago, but didn't think any more about it.  Then, a few weeks ago, a friend posted about her shipment on Facebook and I realized that real people actually use the service.  And they like it. I've been thinking about trying to turn my wardrobe a bit away from comfy cotton laying tees and cardigans towards a bit more professional attire with some blouses, etc.  I've had a bit of a hard time, partly because I don't go shopping all that often, and partly because when I do go shopping, I totally gravitate towards little cotton tees, with the occasional dress, and an even rarer jacket with fun details. 

So, long story short, I signed up for a Stitch Fix shipment and got it on Wednesday.  I have three days to try them on, decide what I'm keeping, and mail back what I don't want.

And they send you a little style card with recommendations on how to wear your items.

Please excuse my open closet in the background in all these pictures.... apparently I wasn't thinking about posting photos when they were taken...


Collective Concepts - McKinley Tribal Printed Short Sleeve Blouse - $68

I like the pattern, but man. This is one of those loose flowy blouses that are in right now. While I can get behind the flowy, the flowy combined with the sleeves and the high neck... Nope. Not for me. 

Status: Returned.



Splendid - Ruben Tab Sleeve Open Cardigan - $78

I actually like the blouse better with the cardi over it. This is your basic long open cardigan. It's really soft cotton, and I dig the coral color. How much I have in my closet to go with it though.... I'll have to check.  On the docket for tonight. But is it worth a whopping $78???

Status: Debating.

AV Max - Hammond Clover Stud Earrings - 38

Nope.  $38 dollars for earrings, and studs at that. I normally wear drop earrings due to my earlobe size, and I think I could find silver studs I like just at much for half the price at the Rack.

Status: Returned.

41Hawthorn - Madox Tribal Print Fit and Flare Dress - $68

Hello, well fitting dress. It fits like it was meant to be. And with all the baby showers and bridal showers coming up? Calling this one a win.

The dress is pink and blue.  Look how well the coral cardi goes!

Status: Kept.




Pink Martini - Moises Colorblock Sleeveless Dress - $68

This dress is thin stretchy cotton, with a polyester skirt. Obviously the top is really thin and see through (hello black bra). It's cute. But... I kind of feel like the tulip skirt makes my bottom half look even bigger than normal. If the dang tissue paper wasn't in the way....

Maybe if I had a lil jacket over it? I don't know if that would mask the balloon butt syndrome though.

The man liked it. He brought up all the upcoming showers that will require dresses. Not sure if it's worth the $68 though.

Status: Debating, but will probably go back.


If I didn't like any of them, I could return them all and just be out of the $20 styling fee, but I think I'll keep at least the tribal dress, and maybe even the cardi if I can convince myself it's worth it.

If you decide to try it, use my link and I'll get a $25 referral credit!!

Soil Mix

Home Depot is having their "Spring Black Friday" sale all week.  That doesn't necessarily mean that what I wanted was on sale, but it does mean that I keep hearing ads and it really motivated me to go purchase the soil mix for my raised beds.

My math is a little sketchy, but the beds are 4 feet by 4 feet.  The boxes are 12 inches tall, but after positioning and an attempt at leveling, they are more like 6-10 inches deep.  Under the assumption that both beds were 6 inches deep, we would need 4' x 4' x 0.5' times two.  So 16 cubic feet of fill.

The Square Foot Gardening manual says to use 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost. For my beds, that would mean 5.3 cubic feet each. Right? Right.

Well, that's not quite what we bought.  There was some discussion and little debate about what we really needed to fill the beds.  Some of it was regarding the math, and some what about how deep the beds would be, etc. Our final tally included:

- 4 - 2 cubic foot bags of compost from one manufacturer
- 2 - 1 cubic foot bags of compost from another manufacturer (Cedar Grove, the place that processes Seattle's yard waste)
- 2 - 2 cubic foot bags of vermiculite
- 3 - 3 cubic foot bags of peat moss

How our math came out to mean that 10 cubic feet of compost, 4 cubic feet of vermiculite, and 9 cubic feet of peat moss was the right amount? I have no idea. But that's what we came home with.

It was 70 degrees out in Seattle yesterday, so I declared it yard work day. We managed to get both beds in their final locations and mostly level.  Then I pulled out the tarp and we got to mixing bags of soil.  So far, into each bed went 1 bag of 2 cu. ft. compost, 1 bag of 1 cu.ft. compost, 1 bag of peat moss, and 1/2 a bag of vermiculite.  Before adding water, that about filled one bed and was a little low on the other. 

Then we brought out the hoses.  Which, of course, meant finding hoses, checking to make sure they worked, and rinsing out all of the soap (??!?!) that was in one of them, before we could actually spray the soil mix.  I gave them both a good spray, mixed them up a bit, gave a bit more spray, and then let them sit over night.  It's supposed to rain the next few days, so on Thursday when it's sunny again I can top off both beds and start planting!

Next up on my list are a planting plan, creating a grid for square foot gardening, and researching mosquito repelling plants and how to attract animals and bugs that eat mosquitoes. Last nights mosquitoes were at LEAST the size of a nickel!