My favorite mini garden!!

Hello again!

Yes, I am back! 2 posts WOW!

Today I thought I would share with you my favorite mini garden. I just love this one. It’s nature inspired in a primitive dresser drawer!

Now… I made a huge mistake on this so if you undertake this project don’t do what I did.

It started like this…

The mistake I made was that this was a perfect drawer and I didn’t bother to line it with plastic before adding the dirt. It warped severely. This could have been prevented. It drives me crazy but there is nothing I can do now. 

So back to the finished project.

Moss, succulents, Brass buttons are the tiny ferns, A nest, some rocks and some tiny potted hens round it out.

So serene. Love it.

I found this moss growing under my back deck steps! I was SOOO excited!

The whole porch set up where it sits!

I hope you enjoyed!

Until next time…

Carmen, Holly, Katie and the Primcats

My latest obsession ~ Mini Gardens!

Hi Everyone!

 

Long time no write! Thought I would make an attempt at catching up!

So what’s been keeping my busy lately?

Mini gardens! I am obsessed!

So far I have built 3. Working on my 4th!

This one was my first one. It’s my mini kitty garden!

It has undergone more than one transformation since I took these pics.

Sadly the moss didn’t make it so I have lots of fun different plant sin there now. I will have to get an updated pic!

So fun!

How cute is that teeny strawberry pot and the bee skeep!

It’s like playing doll house in the garden! So much fun!

I’ll post another one soon!

Until next time…

Carmen, Holly Katie and the Primcats

Almost planting time...

Hi Peeps! 

How are you all doing? 

Me? Fantastic! Busy... very busy. Doing this and that but then a whole bunch of nothing. LOL! I know you know what I mean. 

I came across this picture on facebook... and I just HAD to share. Loved it! 

I can't wait for to get some food in the ground. The weather is warming fast and I think it's safe to put some things in the beds now. 

Here are our beds back in 2008 when we built them...

And here they are in 2010 filled with yummy food!

(Yes, that's the cat enclosure in the background.) 

However... after 4 years of weathering my beds need some major work. The 4x4 corner posts that held my raised beds together in the corners have split. Recommendation... cap your posts! ;o) Lesson learned. If I would have capped the posts this never would have happened. The side pieces are fine. So since they need major repairs we have even decided to move and expand this year. I am not exactly sure of my plan yet so I'm going to go ahead and plant these beds for now... and I'll keep you updated on our expansion when it starts. :) 

So... back to the point of this post... rage against the machine and get out there and plant something to eat! Even if it's just tomato plant in a bucket... that's all it takes! 

Until next time... 

Carmen and the Primcats

Happy Monday!

Good morning friends!
Wow! What a weekend! The sun was shining and I was soaking it up. It wasn’t warm out… but it was still beautiful!


If you recall… I was on the Cinch! Detox last week. I did amazing! Lost 4 pounds in 4.5 days, from Monday morning to lunch Friday, eating 4 specific healthy meals a day. I was down to 129! That was my goal.


And then I proceeded to BLOW IT BIG TIME over the weekend! LOL! Dinner and drinks with a girlfriend in need of a shoulder to cry on Friday night, then dinner with hubby at a yummy Greek restaurant Saturday night, then pizza last night after cleaning all day. I am soooooooo bloated. YUK! And currently weighing in at more than before I started my detox. Crapola! Oh well… it was worth it to pig out for 3 days straight! lol! Now… it’s salads for me for the rest of the week! HA! I will get back down as soon as the water weight goes away! :)


I was supposed to go shopping with friends on Saturday but plans got cancelled. We were going to head down to North Shore Primitives for the open house but it just didn’t work out. That’s ok. We will go soon! Ended up hanging out at my besties house during the day and the dinner date with hubby later. It was a nice Saturday.


Sunday morning I got up early, met my friend Jamie and we headed to the Rolling Acres Country Craft Show. Lots of wonderful treasures there. Lots of overpriced treasures. I REALLY wanted two different cat dolls that were there but one was priced at $30.00 and the other at $20.00. No can do. It’s a ratty cat doll. I would rather buy handmade ones from blogging buds than buy one that says “Made in China.” for that price!


So I bought a huge handmade cute floppy eared bunny instead. He was only $8.00 and I think that was a super fair price.


Isn’t he cute?


   


I put him in the living room next to the Cranberry scoop light box I made.







After the craft show I came home and hubby and I started THE Spring Clean. He worked on the office and living room and I on the bedroom. Mom stopped by and helped me for a bit. And she replaced the lights on my mini tree for me so maybe this week I’ll be able to get them decorated! Thanks Mom! Tonight we finish the kitchen and bathrooms. It’s such a job… but it smells so fresh and clean in the house now! It’s always worth it! I love the fresh clean Spring cleaned house!


I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about a treasure box that arrived in the mail Friday! See you then!


Until next time…


Carmen and the Primcats

Craft Fair, Merry Makers, Antiquing and Grandpa’s Wingback

What a busy weekend I had! Saturday two of my friends and I went shopping!

First we hit up the Aladdin Shrine Temple Christmas Gift Fair in Columbus. It was…. so so. I was not impressed. It was mostly glass and modern art-ish things and I’m not into either of those at all. But there were a couple good country prim booths I got a few things at. I got a bunch of tiny ornaments, a little snowman and a little sheep. Pics later when I get to my Christmas decor!
Next… we headed to Springfield for the Merry Makers Folk Art Show. Oh. My. Gosh. It was great. The talent at this show was unbelievable! Unfortunately, and I mean absolutely no offense, but said talented artisans knew how great their talent was and overpriced accordingly. :( I do wonder how many of them sold anything. We are talking $50.00 or more standard at every booth for a tiny 2” pin-keep. Or $75.00 for a tiny 3” paper mache’ bird. I just do not comprehend. :( I was disappointed to say the least. They are beautiful to look at but I can not afford those prices. Not to say I don’t WISH I could… but it’s just not feasible. I’m middle class and so is my decorating budget. ;) I ended up buying only a cute mouse doll and a crow with Santa hat at the only reasonable booth there. Again… pics with my Christmas decor!

We were done with that show by 2pm and decided to go ahead and hit up all 3 of the BIG antique malls in Springfield. That was fun!!!!! And I got some more Christmas shopping done! YAY!

Sunday was a lazy day around the house. I made a huge crock pot of chili for dinner and freezing and did laundry. Not very exciting! LOL! But the chili was delish!
I am not the greatest cook, nor do I enjoy cooking, but I love making up big crock pots of stuff and then freezing it for later. Homemade is always the way to go and then you always have something wholesome and fresh to eat even when you don’t want to cook. Which is pretty much me everyday. lol! The last few weeks I’ve done Vegi soup, Spaghetti and Meatballs and Chili so far for the freezer. Not sure what I’ll make next!

Now on to a fun Goodwill find from a few weeks ago!
I came across a matching chair to the chair we already have in the living room. It’s a Sofa Express oversized wingback and it is SOOO comfortable. I love the one we already have and I snuggle up in it all the time!

It was, of course, at the Goodwill and at first I passed it up. I liked it but the fabric doesn’t match ours and I wasn’t sure I wanted to take on resolving that issue.
Here is a very bad pic of our chair in the living room already. Same chair different fabrics.

I thought about until the next day and I went back and it was still there. I bought it and I’m going to replace this old overstuffed chair (the one covered in blankets) with the new wingback.



Side bar. This is Gizzy on the ugly cat ottoman… and it will stay in this house until it’s shredded to bits. It’s ugly as sin but it is the only piece of human furniture the cats claw and we let them. All of our cats have claws, front and back, because I don’t believe that  amputation of a cats digits at the first knuckle just so you can have a pretty couch is acceptable in any way. It’s a horrible mutilating procedure that lands way to many cats in shelters. ;( Cats can be trained not to claw, our home is PROOF of that. Let them have a few things to scratch and express their natural need and instinct to mark with their scent glands in their paws… and they will leave your good stuff alone. We have two huge cat trees and this ottoman for them to kill and everything else is fine! Please don’t declaw. Please. I’m begging you! Off my cat soap box now! ;)
So back to the chairs, I guess I’m going to slip cover both wingbacks. And except for the fact that I can’t sew a lick… it should be fine. HA! 

Until next time…
Carmen and the Primcats

I saved the best for last...

More eye candy...

This Booth was full of nothing but beautiful painted windows! What an artist!!!! And a steal at only $45.00 each!

The Americana one in the top of this one was my fav!

Ok... I have saved the best for last!

This womans work was the most beautiful art ever!

I so wish I had this kind of talent. I am in awe.

Do you see how cute that tool box is!!!!

And this chair was adorable!!!

We spent a ton of time in this booth!

The deatil she put into her work was amazing!

More goodies!

This end table was incredible. Stunning!!! I think it was already sold... there was no tag on it.

This Dresser was sooooooo beautiful! The time and effort put into this were amazing! It was perfect in every way. It was sold... but I would have loved to have owned it! It was only $150.00!!!! Super deal!

More beautiful painted art...


Just look at this painted window!




Another dresser.... er... I mean... piece of art!

Last but not least... This little set of mason Jar salt and peppers and a toothpick holder were so cute!

I hope you enjoyed your trip through the craft show with me as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.

Until we meet again...
Carmen

To Garden... Part One

When I was a young child we always had farm fresh foods to eat. Most came from our own land. I grew up on a small but working 18 acre farm. Be it eggs, dairy, meat, fruits or vegetables… my mom was the master of good wholesome foods. Today they call them “organic” or “natural” but she didn’t do it to be healthy as is the fad these days… she did it because if we didn’t produce our own food… we didn’t eat. That’s just how it was. Plain and simple.

Part of that farm fresh food came from a garden that was probably about ¾ of an acre. It was gigantic. Enormous to me at least! My mom grew everything imaginable in that garden. It would be easier to tell you what she didn’t grow that what she did. And while the food that came from the garden was plentiful and great… so were the chores. Hrrrpmh!

Oh how I detested that garden growing up. I really, really did. So much work to be done. Weeding and hoeing and turning and picking and digging and, and, and… it never ended. I never grew to appreciate what a beautiful thing it really was. I can still remember to this day begging mom to let me and my childhood best friend, Vicki, go swimming before weeding the garden. She always held steady though… chores first then swimming or creeking or exploring the woods behind our house.

Today I appreciate the foundation of ethics that hard work instilled in me but the memories of that chore ridden garden from my childhood will never fade. I loathed that garden so much that as I came into my adult life I swore I would never, ever, never garden and I held steady to that swear for nearly 15 years.

That is until last year…. last year, I put in a real garden. But my garden is not the old fashioned - in the ground, backbreaking, daily weed pulling chore pit that I grew up with. Oh no! I can never waste my days away like that. I have far to much to do! I wanted a garden where I could enjoy the fruits of my labors from… but I wasn’t about to sacrifice my life over it. As I researched I realized that Square Foot Gardening was for me. (Google it!) It’s a simpler – smaller spaced way to grow just as much as a garden 2 to 3 times the size… and there is minimal work involved! Plus… they said a sfg garden thrives and grows much faster than a traditional in the ground garden.

So I drew out the plans and hubby and I went to work building our new gardens. Two Beds. Each bed measuring 4 x 8 Foot. Framed into a simple rectangle and plopped directly onto the ground and filled with dirt.








And then planted right away!



They didn’t lie. The SFG garden is the simplest, fastest, most wonderful way to garden. You don’t have to break your back or spend all your time slaving away doing garden chores to enjoy a “share with your neighbors” bountiful harvest all year long! There is nothing to it and the only work involved is picking whatever grows!

I love our vegetable gardens!

~Kat~