Diaper Laundry

Diaper man with his diapers hanging on the line...
I thought the diapers looked a little too pale and weak so I decided to do some dying... I haven't dyed anything for about a year, and with some prompting from questions about dying material by a friend of a friend, I decided to take the plunge and dyed some of Acelin's diapers, a few of my shirts, and one of the kids shirts, which was a bit grungy. I had a shirt that failed to be white any longer and thought I should dye it for fun. I also throughly dyed one finger purple due to a hole in the glove. But I do like how the blue and green diapers came out! The My mama is a goddess shirt came out how I wanted it to. Dark on the bottom and sleeves and around the neck, and lighter in the middle!
Dying is fun, but I'm trying to curb another obsessive creative streak for me!

Miracle Grow

Well I decided to succumb to commercial fertilizer. I had put some vegetable fertilizer down before planting the corn in the front yard, only because the soil is so poor, and boy did that corn pop right up, and it's green green green, unlike the yellow corn in the back yard. I thought everything needed a little fertilizer, and let me tell you, those plants popped right up, perked up, and shot up in just 24 hours! It was amazing! So I will continue to fertilize, I guess with raw soil and little nutrients in there I have to give the plants a little food.
I also put some grass mulch around the plants in the back yard, just to keep the moisture in, and around the entire mound for the watermelons, and they seem so much happier now.

back yard garden

This is my back yard garden, these two plots don't have anything planted in them as of yet, I will get into that later today, or tomorrow. I plan on radishes cucumber, beans, and whatever else I have in seeds to plant. In the first picture you can see the whole side with some of the other planting plots already growing goods, and the tool hanger on the fence with a bucket for weeds, and the tools for the fire pit, which is just next to the two planting plots.

These are my two blueberry bushes, they should grow to be pretty big. Out in the woods are blue berry bushes almost as tall some small trees!
This is my first planting plot, a little crowded, but there is space on each side for the plants to vine off to, In only have 5 or 6 of each. On the right I have cantaloupe, on the left I have zucchini, in the middle is lettuce, and the thinning make good baby lettuce salads, or just enough for a sandwich. The back has a few corn plants, but I really don't know how they will do since they require 4 rows to get evenly pollinated. In the back planter I have a tomato that I rescued growing from my compost bin, carrots, beans, marigolds, and stevia, as well as a gladiola bulb, and some morning glory vines. I also planted the passionflower seeds I had behind the two empty plots, as it is a flowering vine, and the fence needs something to crawl up on it and grow. I do have one watermelon mound next to the rear planter plot.
I plan on keeping it simple so I don't get overwhelmed or sick and tired or maintaining the plants. I tried to get some other mom's I know to help out with the garden, and that they too could reap the rewards, but nobody wanted to get in on the gardening action...

front yard planter boxes

Here are my planter boxes that we have put in the front yard. Mike built them out of plywood and I painted them, moved all the dirt around to fill them with dirt, and then I put about 6 inches of manure and garden soil in so there would be decent dirt on top for plants.
Here you can see the cement paver blocks we also put in, and the pine bark mulch around the blocks and planters. I definately don't want to weed around the planters.
This is the view out our front door, the planters mirror the driveway, side walk, and the little cement patio in the front near the front door. The bottom picture is from the yard, and most of the front yard looks like the scattered grass and dirt. I plan on just making it more of my garden, as it seems a waste of water to get grass to grow. The plants you see in the bottom corner are sunflowers. So far in the planters I have: Tomatoes, bell pepper, eggplant, onion, carrot, chives, carrot, basil, and some medicinal herbs: Catnip, hyssop, valerian, Calendula, lemonBalm, Self Heal, Skullcap, Arnica, yarrow, and Astragalus. I have a separate little planter with lavendar and peppermint growing as well.
It's been a fun project, and I just keep planning on expanding it. I have more yard to cover, and have 4 rows of corn planted, and also plan on planting some watermelon and pumpkins in the front yard. I do have flowers and some bushes as well, but again, trying to get the most use out of the water that I have to buy to put on these plants, I believe is in my best interest, as well as my families, and the environments. I am also not using any fertilizers, other than compost, or pesticides on these plants. As I gain a harvest, I also plan on selling what I can't use, composting anything that is wasted, and any annuals will continue with a fall planting and winter havesting plants for Florida.

little boys room

I switched rooms with Jake and the little boys last weekend. The room was already blue and Grandpa had put the shelves up for Jake, so we decided the shelves would stay. I was going to paint the contrasting walls white, but it was just too much of a contrast, and I didn't like how it looked, since I already had to put primer down, I did use a white primer. I went and did the room accent computer match at Home Depot and came up with either green or yellow, and I decided the green would look much better. I taped off some accents on the wall around the window to give it a little more interest, and to make it seem like there were curtains or something different around the window. I got the nice faux wood 2 inch blinds for their room, and put them up so they would fit into the window. The blinds really keep a lot of the light out, which is good for afternoon naps!

I didn't have all the books and stuff on the shelves when I took the picture, they are now crammed with things!

Acelin and Cameron really like their new room, and all the floor space they now have. I also had to replace some of the tiles on the floor, and Home Depot didn't have the same kind, but the contrasting of the tiles on the floor add interest as well. It was a fun project, and much needed. The little boys really needed the space to be able to play in their room, and I needed to get some of their toys out of the living room and dining room!