Herb Garden

My family is so supportive and fantastic. Dad decided that I should start a herb garden, and Daniel put it all together for me; Mom assisted me in preparing the boxes for planting. In attempting to change my black thumb into a green one, every little bit of support helps!

Step 1: Put up boxes

Step 2: Pour in 1" of Pea Gravel

Step 3: Add potting soil

Step 4: Plant herbs

Step 5: Water and enjoy!

Mint too :)

And we've already enjoyed the chives. Several times. Dad found this delicious recipe for Blue Cheese burgers. Mmm! I'll be sure to share!

A Day at the Nursery

In preparation for landscaping, gardening, etc. my parents and I needed to buy plants...

So, setting off in the ugliest tennis shoes known to man, I traveled with my parents to a nearby greenhouse.

Have any of you ever added Dandelion greens to your salads? Apparently, they are very good for you, and this greenhouse had a field of them. :O)

Mmm. Tomatoes. Cabbage. Onions. Yummy! This summer's vegetable salad is going to be delightful, if God blesses our garden.

At the nursery, vegetables weren't the only attraction. There were beautiful flowers!

Don't you agree?

The daisies reminded me of Emma.

"I don't think we should keep daisies in the garden, they really are a drab little flower." Tee hee hee.

Though, I think these beauties could have persuaded me to take them home.

To be perfectly honest, though, I wasn't there to look at the flowers.

I was there for the herbs. I'm branching out - trying to grow (no pun intended ;)... and learn new skills. Like herb gardening.

More blog posts on my herb garden will be forthcoming - start preparing yourselves. Whoot? :O)

Obviously, this trip was successful.

Games No More

So, for quite awhile now, I've been storing my games on top of my bookshelf. And to be honest, "I'm not sure how well this plan was thought through." :O(

And when you've got a problem you should try to solve it, yeah? Dah dah dah! Organization to the rescue! :P And now, I'm happy! A picture frame and a basket of DVD's complete the picture nicely.

From Jeans to Skirt

I've been wanting to turn some old jeans into a skirt for awhile now... and after searching the web for a little while, I found these instructions. Whoot! And being on Bridgeport on Tuesday gave me the opportunity to visit Joann Fabrics and purchase some khaki twill.

 Step 1: Seam rip pants.

Step 2: Pin seams

Step 3: Sew new seams

Step 4: Measure and Cut inserts

Step 5: Sew inserts - front and back

Step 6: Try on!

You may have noticed that I didn't iron it. Yikes!

 Whoot! And I finally have my new skirt!

2 Cubed

Pardon the terrible pun. More in the organizational vein...

When I first saw the "cube" in a catalog, I found the idea intriguing. Now that I have two of them, I can say that they are great! They hide blankets and corn pillows so well!

 And if you like having extra blankets around, but you don't want to display them - the cube is invaluable!

I've always found the problem with blankets is there is never enough room in the closet, or they are hard to reach, etc. I'm happy to report that now my blankets are stored beautifully. And in an easily accessible spot.

 Oh! And the cubes are good for seating and can functions as end tables.

"I'm just not sure how well this plan was thought through"

Soap-Making is back again... At last, the girls and I got together to french mill our homemade soap.

Our plan? To make coffee soap and lavender soap. The first step? Grate several bars of soap.

Add coffee and heat. It churned up "light and frothy." Which wasn't supposed to happen... apparently.

But we poured it into the mold...

And set it outside to harden.

Next, we tried lavender soap. It churned up "light and frothy" too. Ugh.

Despite this, Kelsie diligently scooped out lavender soap into the mold.

While the soap turned out squishy, it still is good for washing hands. And the lavender is pretty. There's always a silver lining, yeah?

We'll definitely have to try again sometime.

What would we do with a basket?

For my part, I use them to keep everything neat and tidy. Take that Bessie! :P As promised, I am sharing my improvements to "a place for everything and everything in its place." When my baskets came in the mail, I knew it was time to display s'more of my organizational stuff.

If you are anything like me, your desk houses papers, markers, pens, Sunday school material, paper, magazines... And anything and everything else. While my second shelf on my desk had previously been the "catch all/junk" shelf, the basket arranges it all.

Magazines, markers, index cards, thank-you notes, and DVDs are now all neatly deposited in various baskets. And they look peachy on my bookshelves. Organized and Spiffy.

What I Love about Mondays

It seems strange to be posting about Monday on Tuesday, but I'm doing it all the same.

Mondays are a day for housework, etc. in the Powell house. And one of my favorite things *sung, of course, in my Maria voice* is cleaning my room.

It makes me feel bright and sunny to see my room freshly dusted and organized! And it must be done every week, for - if you are like me, you spend TONS of time in your room, and everything quickly becomes topsy-turvy.

Isn't it nice to have a place for everything and everything in its place?

Though, a "place for everything" can always be improved...

I can't wait until some of my organizational baskets come in the mail. More organizational posts to come!