Halloween Cards

Our next card swap in September has Halloween as one of the themes.  I found a really cute card online at http://www.faithabigaildesigns.com/2011/10/stuck-on-u-sketches-design-team-post_21.html   It looked like a fun card to try, so I made some similar ones for the swap.  Here they are:

 I used a combination of left-over die cuts and patterned cardstock from a Little Yellow Bicycle Halloween mini album kit and the haunted house and fence cuts from Happy Hauntings.  I added black Stickles spider webs to the haunted houses to dress them up a bit.  I didn't cut the windows and doors details from the haunted house because they came out too tiny at this size.  I saved the cut-outs from the yellow fence sections to make the door and windows on the haunted house.

These cards are A2 sized.  Each one has a different phrase or style.  I like them all!

2014 Garden

I love to garden! Spending time outdoors among living things and watching them grow is a satisfying experience.

The flavors of home grown, naturally ripened produce far surpasses store bought produce. Blogging about each year's garden helps me remember what I planted for the next year's plan.  It's fun to look back at the garden pictures on dreary Winter days to remember Summer.  Here's this year's garden:

From left to right, we have:

 1-strawberry plants with Kale peeking up from behind them

2-Mint, Thyme, and 2 kinds of basil with nothing in the neighboring box

3-Red onions, Brussels Sprouts, and Peas with Parsnips and Mixed leaf Lettuce next door

4-Hot Peppers, Chamomile, and Tomatoes

East of the planting boxes, I decided to finally plant crops in the open space along with the compost bin instead of battling weeds there.  Next to the house and along the fence behind the corn, we have raspberry plants.  All around the corn plants, we have a pumpkin vine.  Corn and squash are good companion plants, and I figured that since pumpkins are a kind of squash, they could grow well together.

The corn with the reddish silk is actually popping corn.  Last year I thought it would be fun to try growing my own popping corn, so I found a seed packet labelled popping corn and planted some right next to the sweet corn to see how it does.  It looks like it is working so far.  It just needs to dry out before popping, as far as I know.

(Close-up of two kinds of basil, mint and thyme)

(Close-up of peppers, chamomile, and tomatoes)

I honestly don't know what kinds of peppers I planted.  The tags said either serrano or poblano, but I think I got one Anaheim plant, too.  I've never grown hot peppers or chamomile before, so I'm just experimenting this year.

These raspberry plants are in their second year, so they are producing fruit really well, thanks to our local bees.

This planting box is empty because the watermelon and canteloupe plants I planted there died soon after transplanting when unseasonably cold weather hit.  I decided to leave it empty to rest for this season.

This pumpkin plant loves growing alonside the corn stalks.  The vine has grown even longer since I took these pictures in July.  Three pumpkins have formed so far.  Hopefully, they'll be ready for Halloween!

The red leaf lettuce has started to bolt, due to heat.  The parsnips seem to be doing just fine.  They take a long time to sprout leaves, much like carrots.

This was my first time planting onions and Brussels Spouts.  I have no idea how either crop should look at this stage.  I'm not seeing any sprouts on the Brussels Sprouts.  They look really bushy and leafy.  Maybe they need cooler weather to form sprouts?  I picked one onion, because it had droopy leaves.  It had gouges in the outer layers, as though a snail, slug, rodent, or something ate a long, thin chunk of the onion.  Plus, the onion had begun to rot.  I don't know if the other onions will make it.  I planted them for homemade salsa, along with the hot peppers and tomatoes.

The strawberry plants like to send out runners everywhere, so I'm going to let them take over the rest of the neighboring planting box.  They will probably fill it in completely by next summer.  By then, the kale and the lettuce will be gone.

I plan to use all of the garden space next year, too.  The corn probably needs to go to another area to give the soil a break, but we'll see.