More garden and new coop!

Today in the garden!

The tomatoes are busting out, I'm clipping suckers whenever I find them.

Lots of little tomatoes. Waiting for ones big enough to fry.

The clearance section adopted tomatoes are extremely happy about their containers.

 Winter and summer squash.

 We'll get a quite a few hubbards this time around.

 and a few acorn squash. Sadly the acorn is just not as prolific for some reason.

The peas are doing really well. Thankfully our summers are mild enough to grow these all summer.

Meza eats them raw, Koz likes them cooked.

We decided to add on an outdoor section to the coop in the garden area. It's easier to contain and hopefully will be safer. We'll still let them out on the side yard, but only when supervised.

Finally cleaned up the edges of the garden. The green house here is my next project. Not this week.

 Boom! Peppers! Got a few good sized ones going.

Here are the tomatillos and more hubbard squash along the fence.

Lots of tomatillos means lots of green sauce.

The outdoor area, wired and zip tied to all get out.

 Oh and that's a new roof up there too!

 David made me this lovely gate, still need to fill in the holes above and on the side, but it's nearly there.

 Nice little space for them to dig.

The coop cleaned up after 7 years. 

 Assorted nesting boxes.

Greens going good. I'm finding I need to plant more swiss chard.

The onions, nasturtiums and sale zucchinis. Which I am finding are not such a good deal. They don't seem to want to grow. Though they may end up useful late season.

Garden showoff

I am, without a doubt, a garden show off. If it grows and I can eat it, I'll likely post it all over. This is the first year in several that I've had my garden going. Kids kind of make it a challenge, with working full time too. So it just didn't happen the past couple of years. But it's coming back. And so are the chickens.

Here is the tomato utopia on the side of the house. Someday it will be made with twinwall, but for now it's wire and plastic.

Everyone is growing quite happily.

The basil is particularly happy there too.

Here is todays purchase. 30$ worth of bag soil (we'll buy a yard or two soon, just didn't have the money yet) and 20$ worth of overgrown starts. All .99 each in the sale section at sky.

I almost always overdo the tomatoes, but really, can you ever have too many tomatoes?

Here is a hubbard squash and some zuchinni. Part of why I like to grow winter squash is just how impressive it looks.

Acorn squash and yellow crookneck squash.

Here is my peas, beans and tomatillo row.

  The tomatillos are doing extremely well.

And more winter squash. I just can't help myself.

 And the garden proper. Lots of greens. A few flowers, quite a few weeds. Does anyone need some mint?

 More rescues from the Sky clearance section. Lonely zuchs. I always plant too much, but that's ok.

Did I mention the kale and swiss chard? or the weeds?

Yet another frame that will someday be twinwall. The peppers are finally starting to take off.

 Eggplants too.

and I added a lot of nasturtiums, well, just because...

Another 10 minute dress

Cause I can never stop at just one. and I do have an awful lot of quilting calico that could make some cute combinations.... hmmm.... I see a new obsession coming on.

In the meantime, here's another.

Got the pleats right this time.

Used a smidge of contrast fabric at the waist. And no, my ironing skills have not improved.

10 minute dress

Well maybe more like 15 with the tie. Anyways. I'm not a fancy dresser. I like hippie mama clothing. Durable, comfortable and girly enough to look pretty. This particular item is a copy from a nightgown. The grannie nightie, if you will. I used my serger and pretty much zipped through it instantly. Perfect!

 And of course I need to iron it, but hey a 10 minute dress has no time for ironing. I'll more likely run it through the dryer with a wet rag.

And yes I did do the pleats backwards. But it still looks nice. Once it's washed it'll shrink up a smidge and be super comfy soft. Love the calico prints.

Hobbitses

As costuming season begins (costuming season starts whenever I have watched enough of a particular movie for me want to start emulating the characters in it) I find myself with new and impressionable subjects to include. My children!
Fortunately they have begun to share in my obsession with the LOTR and The Hobbit. They requested hobbits costumes (it was bound to happen after all the nights of my whispering "you want to be a hobbit" in their sleeping ears).
My costuming is usually a combination of purchased items, repurposed thriftstore items, and hand made items. Case in point.

My daughter has the easiest costume. Hobbit girls really just need a good dress with some sort of undergarments to fancy it up.
I bought the white underdress, used as a chemise, and the corduroy jumper from the thrift store. I made her several pairs of bloomers and voila she is a passable hobbit girl!

 Bloomers!

My son's costume is of course just as easy. The pants are just cut offs. It's near summer and these pants had worn hems anyways. The shirt and vest are from his wardrobe. I will be making him a couple of proper vests, but I don't have a pattern on hand today and we needed costumes pronto. And finally the jacket. I tried finding him a good cord jacket at the thrift store but there weren't any boy sized ones. Jackets are a bitch to sew so I'm happy to let some used clothing store provide the difficult details. I found a womens size 2 jacket. It fits his body fairly well and with a little hemming of the sleeves it fits perfectly! There is a little detailing that the sharp eye my notice it is a actually a women's jacket. But not easily.

Next will be cloaks for the both of them. I will be doing polar fleece again for these as they are so durable and easy to sew. I have two fleece blankets in the house they may be converted over the next few days.

Army surplus hobo bag

Used the army surplus supplies to make a hobo bag. Kind of my favorite style of bag right now.

The pockets are appropriated from a utility belt.

 Love the closures on these.



Shoulder strap from a duffel bag.

Nice lining to brighten up the interior and a full zip closure.