My Dream Garden...

Yesterday I stumbled upon this picture while I was looking at garden tours online and realized that this is exactly how I imagine my dream garden.  I say "dream" because there is no possible way I could ever make this garden at our current house.  It would take up the entire back yard!  Maybe one day, we will have more land and I can do this.  Until then, I can dream, and maybe make a very miniature size dream garden, right?  Anyway, here's the link to the tour of this garden if you would like to read more about it and see some more pictures...

Why I'm smiling today...

Just wanted to show you real quick some things that made me smile today!

First of all, I woke up this morning to find that one of my hyacinth bulbs bloomed!  Isn't it gorgeous?!  And it smells like heaven!  Mmmmmm... I can smell it just looking at it.  :)

Second, my mother-in-law and I took the girls to the Boonshoft Museum here in Dayton and had a blast.  This picture doesn't really show what is at the museum but I love how happy my girls are!  We had a blast!

Third, I got two packages in the mail!  One was a delicious assortment of new fabrics for my bags!

...and the other was a couple of books I bought on Amazon!  "Grow Great Grub" by: Gayla Trail, and "The Backyard Homestead" by Carleen Madigan.

Cannot wait to get into bed tonight after the kiddos are asleep and thoroughly enjoy a couple hours of reading with a cup (or two) of tea!

Rachel xo

Updates...

Well, it's been too long since I've written a post.  So much has gone on since I last updated this.  First of all I have to complain and say that we got 6 more inches of snow yesterday.  Whaahhhh!  On top of the 10 or so inches we already have.  I feel like crying.  I looked at the averages for this area and the average temperature for the high in February is 40 degrees F.  We are NO where near that!  It's been in the teens and twentys for weeks.  Whaaahhhh!  On the bright side, it is very beautiful outside.

To add to my stash of plants I bought a Peperomia from our local nursery, I won a "Sweet Kate" Spiderwort at a gardening class I went to at our local Arboretum,  I've started a nasturtium on my windowsil, and my wonderful hubby got me a beautiful orchid for Valentine's Day!  I am so sorry to say that I was too anxious for the nasturtiums to sprout and I actually dug up one of the seeds to see if there was a root growing.  Big no, no.  I know.  I'm desperate.

Here is my hyacinth bulb!  It's growing even more!

I've bought a big stash of gorgeous fabric to start some new bags and I received some lovely linen in the mail that I bought from a girl in South Korea.  I LOVE getting new fabric!  It's like instant happiness!  Here is one of the bags I made with the new linen and a rolled fabric rose.  I used a wonderful tutorial from Portabellopixie for the rolled rose.  Cute, huh?

Until next time...

Rachel

Not waiting for Winter to leave...

I officially have a chronic case of spring fever.  And that is very unfortunate for me because it  is about 2 months too early.  That means in about 2 weeks I am most definitely going to be  depressed when it is still cold outside.  I have a whole bunch of projects I can't wait to get started on and I am already buying plants left and right and keeping them here in the house.

I've bought two African violets from a very nice lady who sells them as a home business.  In the picture, the African violet under the bell jar is called "Irish Flirt" and it is a miniature with tiny, curly white and green flowers.  The one sitting in the beaded glass bowl is call "Buckeye Extravaganza" and it has large, frilly pink flowers.  I planted some pink hyacinth bulbs that I bought in Colonial Williamsburg, VA last October and they are already starting to sprout!  You cannot believe how excited I was to see that light green color breaking through!  I am also desperately wanting to buy a dwarf Meyer Lemon tree, but I just found out that they don't ship them until April.  Bummer.

I've already planned out my vegetable garden and I received my first shipment of seeds yesterday.  YAY!!!  Here is a list of the vegetables I am planting in the vegetable garden. (I know some people don't care, but I just love writing lists, especially for my garden!)

- Carrots "Round Romeo"
- Broccoli "All Season Blend"
- Kale "Lacinato"  also called "Dinosaur Kale"!
- Pole Beans "Kentucky Blue"
- Tomatoes (all are heirloom)
          - "Sweet Pea Currant" (they are the size of peas!)
          - "Blondkopfchen"
          - "Cherokee Purple"
          - "Black Cherry"
          - "Flamme"
- Eggplant "Prosperosa"

Apart from veggies, I am also growing six different herbs and a special marigold that ParkSeeds sells that is supposed to be especially good for getting rid of nemotodes in the garden.

I've been so absorbed in my gardening stuff I haven't felt like sewing much lately.  I have one more custom order to finish up and it's back to designing later this week.

Hope you all are staying busy enough to distract you from the winter gloom, unless, of course, you live in a warmer area to begin with.  In that case, lucky you!

Rachel xo