Scrappy Lump

Let me just tell you how excited I am about this little Lumpy I made. It is soooo sweet. It's made from scraps from the gnome t-shirts I finished earlier this week. I had all these little triangle scraps left over and I decided to sew them into a tiny patchwork piece. Before I knew it I had made the cutest little Lumpy known to man, and in the process I eliminated a ton of tiny scraps that would otherwise have gone into the landfill or polluted my life here at home. I shall call this my Scrappy Lumpkin. I have such an overabundance of scrap fabric I feel sure these will be showing up from time to time in the shop. The best part is that each one will have to be unique based on the fact that my scrap sizes vary greatly. I love this, because it means I won't have to bore myself making the same thing over and over again. I love coming up with new things, sometimes I just hate reproducing them endlessly. Anyway this little guy is only measures 3" tall and he comes with a tiny quilt/bed, pillow, and it all fits in a 4" snappy tote. Did I mention I'm in love with this?

I really made me feel good to make something new. Ahh, creative release:)
Otherwise, yesterday we lazed around the house. I'm still not driving yet, so it's made getting to the post office and pretty much anywhere a little bit impossible without some assistance. Oooh, we had this happy little lunch yesterday. Numbers & 'Chreese', garlic sesame tofu, fresh apple carrot juice. and 'Ants on a Log'. M2 prefers her's ant free, thanks.
It was VERY well recieved...

Our Urban Garden

This weekend was sort of rotten so i thought I'd post about something more cheerful. It's really chilly here now and my tiny garden is filling up for the Fall. I hope that everything grows big and delicious by Thanksgiving.

Anyway, when we moved into this house 7 years ago, the backyard was a 10'x15' plot of grass. and we had to mow this ridiculous little patch about twice a year. It was so silly. So, we decided to make it into a garden. I designed it to be four raised beds with brick walkways in between. What was a silly little lawn, became a nice sized garden for a small family.
This Spring
In the front two beds (closest to the house) we have strawberries that overhang the little wall, and herbs and flowers. In the back two beds we grow the veggies. This year I went ahead and planted all the usual crops even though we were planning to be away in Cleveland for the entire Summer. Tomatoes, peas, green beans(and yellow & purple ones), sunflowers, mustard greens, and a ton of strange gourds and zucchinis reseeded themselves from last year. So the garden was beautiful and full when we left for the summer.

We abandoned ship from June 23 until August 19th. In that span of time my garden took over the neighborhood. It was amazing! the sunflowers were at least 10 feet high and the mustard greens and beans had reseeded themselves. The wisteria that Kurt planted the summer before he died was finally reaching over toward the house with the help of the wash lines that I had accidentally left up for the entire summer.
The Takeover!-End of Summer
There was a lot of work to do. I pretty much gutted the entire garden except the items that were regrowing.
Post Gutting
My favorite parts are the tiny clover that has reseeded and is now covering all of the beds and filling in all of the bare spots. And I also love this little nook that I carved out of the wisteria. I love it. next summer I'll hang a trellis on the wall and let it grow onto it, so I can detach it from the laundry lines.
Tiny table nook
This is a super little urban garden. I'd highly recommend doing this to your yard if you've got one of those 'silly little lawns' at your disposal...I'd go ahead and dispose of it. Replace it with veggie garden goodness. I think it's especially nice for my two M's because there is so much more to explore now, they get to dig and plant and harvest where once there was only glass. The slug population is high this summer from all of the overgrowth. So many damp places for them to hide and reproduce. They haven't really been destroying too much though and for the first time the girls and I are starting to appreciate all the great things about slugs...

...like the glittery trails they leave behind.

Just a little side note-
here are some of my favorite books
about gardening in a small space:

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
The Self-Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour

and a good organic gardening book:

Grow Organic by Doug Oster and Jessica Walliser

Hatched!

The little mourning dove family welcomed a new member yesterday morning, when the surviving egg finally hatched. It is so tiny. I don't think I've ever actually seen one when they are so small. But, since this season's parents are so jumpy, they fly off the nest every time we come or go out the backdoor. Usually they are very vigilant at protecting the egg/chick but this ma and pa are a little kooky.

Mourning Doves

Yesterday morning my pair of mourning doves laid the first of two eggs in the hanging basket outside my backdoor. This morning she laid the second one. They were here twice last year, but this year they seem more skitish. I looked in the nest this afternoon and one of the eggs had been pecked at. The other one seems ok, but mama and papa are MIA. I hope they come back soon. That other egg is getting cold out there....