Seeds and Sprouts

I have sprouts! I’m so excited! I planted kale, purple peppers, lavender, and sage last week in a seed starter tray and the kale has popped out. I also planted peas, cabbage, broccoli, and spinach outside. They like the cold, so they should live through the changing weather of early Spring, but we’ll see how it turns out in the next two weeks when the frost monsters start going away. It’s been a little chilly and rainy, so I haven’t really done so much in the past week, except the planting I did on Saturday. It was chilly that day too. My mom and I ended up cleaning our garden boxes outside and that’s where we planted the peas and all the other cold loving vegetables.

Where’s MY Spring!?

It’s been a little cold and rainy, so some projects I wanted to do have been put on hold. I did get to build a bug hotel, which is awesome, because I’ve been wanting to do it for years.

Planting season is right around the corner! I’m getting my new garden ready and I’m planning to plant some peas today, since they like colder weather and it has been warmer than usual for March. They are one of my favorite vegetables and I can’t wait to see how they grow!

GPS Explorations

As I was leaving work about 2 hours ago, I had to take a different route because of a detour. Usually I don’t use my GPS because I know the way, but I ended up in an unfamiliar area, not to far from work. It’s about an hour and 15 min drive home. My GPS decided to take me a way I’ve never gone before, in the middle of nowhere, at night, with fog. Don’t get me wrong, I love exploring new places and different ways home, but usually not at night. I’m great with directions and I’m good at guessing where I am on a map. I knew where my GPS was taking me. However, it doesn’t matter if you know approximately where you are, it’s still a little scary driving through the woods in the dark. I would love to take that same drive during the day. I definitely drove through some small towns with small shops, farms, hiking trails, and historical sites. It’s so cool to discover new places (but obviously not in the dark). And I kept hoping my GPS wouldn’t take me through Clinton Rd in West Milford, NJ. If you don’t know why, just do a little research. Definitely not a road I want to be on at night. I ended up passing it by, so lucky me.

6 Reasons to Collect Your Own Marigold Seeds

Marigolds are great plants. They add a pop of color to any garden and repel all sorts of garden pests. Over the past few years, I’ve been collecting the seeds from the marigolds I’ve planted. The result this year was insane! I almost filled a 32oz plastic soup container (reuse, reduce, recycle of course!) with marigold seeds. It took me a couple of hours to separate the seeds from the flower pod, but the work is definitely worth it. You can do this with so many other flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables. The benefits of collecting and using your own seeds is fantastic!

1. It’s environmentally friendly. No resources, except your own energy, is used to get the seeds.
2. Marigolds are a natural pest repellent in any garden. Having a lot of them is beneficial.
3. You save money! I haven’t bought marigold seeds in years.
4. They make a beautiful annual addition to any garden because their color is so rich and bright. Mine have finally bloomed!
   

   
5. As a lovely reader suggested, they are so easy to grow! Marigolds also do well in the heat. I would always forget to water mine and they would survive through anything.
6. Last, but not least, some species are edible, can be used as a tea, and have herbal properties.

 

Mornings

There’s nothing like coffee and fairy gardening on a warm cloudy day.

This was two days ago and you can’t tell, but the sun did come out for a little bit.

Oh, Those Rainy Days!

This is what happens when you mix a rainy day, a crafty person, and scrap wood. I’m adding this sign to my fairy garden. It’s a dedication to some of my favorites. I got the idea from pictures I’ve seen and made it original of course (The movies, books, names, etc. are not owned by me). The green pole is a wooden candle stick. A treasure from my garage. The Hobbit was on last night and I just couldn’t help myself today. It was a rainy day anyway. We all get a break from the sun in the northeast for a few days. I didn’t take a picture, but there are little bees I painted on the back of each piece of wood, heading in the direction the sign is pointing

Fairy Garden (Part 2)

The last week has been really beautiful, so I ended up spending a lot of time outside (clearly, because that’s all I post about). I ended up spending a lot of time working on my fairy garden yesterday and came up with some awesome ideas and updates to the garden.

I added a cute mini clothing line, another bead lantern, a mine cave, I extended the original path, and the best part, I added crystals to the trees. They look like giant raindrops. The path will eventually be extended to more doors and other pathways.

I took random pieces of cloth I had and just cut them into the shapes of the shirts, pants, skirt and blanket, and then attached mini clothing pins (bought from the craft store) to them. The sticks holding the clothing line are actually bamboo chopsticks from a sushi order. Again, like I posted before, you can find random things in your house to use for any project. The crystal raindrops are attached to the tree by fishing line I found in my garage. I also found the crystals there. They are actually old chandelier pieces. It makes the garden look so much more whimsical and gives it a nice sparkle.

The rocks in the pot dish near the mine cave are gemstones from Penn’s  Cave in Pennsylvania.  You basically pick a bag of dirt and get to pan for the gems yourself. That was a great trip 2 summers ago. I’ll tell you guys about it one day. The idea just popped into my head; I new I wanted to add the gemstones, but I didn’t know how. Suddenly, I found a horseshoe in the garage and it clicked. I wanted to use spray paint for the background of the mine, but I hate using chemicals outside (or anywhere). I ended up finding black cloth and cut it into the shape I needed.

It’s so amazing how everything just starts to come together and the creative part of my brain starts lighting up.

Cupcakes From A Box

I randomly decided to make cupcakes tonight. I bought 2 boxes of Duncan Hines Caramel Apple cupcake the other day (it was on sale and comes with the frosting). I usually don’t bake from boxes, but this was an exception. Who doesn’t love apple and caramel? I love baking from scratch because you know what’s in your food, but sometimes you just need a quick snack.

There was no special occasion or reason, other than I just wanted some goddamn cupcakes.  I strangely enough don’t own a cupcake pan, so I had to improvise. I did find some foil cupcake tins in the pantry. I only found 7, but I do have glass containers that can go in the oven, so I used one to make the giant cupcake. Baking is all about improvising. I never have the right tools, but always manage to get it right. So, to anyone out there who is scared to try baking, don’t be. Experimenting and getting things wrong is part of life, but if you can get it wrong with flour and frosting, there’s nothing wrong about that.

They came out perfect, in terms cake and frosting. The decorating needs a little work, but I didn’t really try hard, so I wasn’t expecting them to look great. If you notice, there’s one missing. Well, that’s because I needed a taste before they had frosting on them. I just couldn’t help myself. I did sprinkle a little bit of pink salt on them to make it a salted caramel cupcake, but the frosting just took over the taste. It was extremely sweet, which I don’t care for and the apple and caramel flavor dissipated after adding the frosting.

Pros and cons of making cupcakes from a box:

Pros: It’s quick and easy and cupcakes come out close to perfect

Cons: You can’t control the sweetness, the frosting overpowered the entire cupcake, and all you taste is butter and sugar as apposed to the caramel and apple flavor.

My suggestion, take the time to make em from scratch. Everything just tastes better when you take the time to make it from beginning to end.  Quick and easy isn’t always the best way to go, especially when it comes to baking. I’ve learned that making things from scratch just tastes a whole lot better because you know what and how much you’re putting into whatever it is you are making. I guess I got a reminder of that tonight.

Treasures

If you want to come up with cool craft or garden ideas, just look in your garage! Assuming you have a garage full of random stuff like I do. Random things can be treasures sometimes. I was working on my fairy garden today and needed some inspiration and scissors. I ended up finding some really cool pieces to go with my garden. I found some old fake candle sticks, chandelier rain drops, and some other random stuff.  You can basically use anything from old tools to candle sticks. As long as you have the imagination, you can make anything out of random things you find around your house or garage. And the best part is, it makes everything you have unique.

I made this cool raindrop garden decoration from my garage finds. It came out awesome and goes well with my fairy garden.

The Cactus that Could

About a week ago, one of the cactus plants in my house decided to sprout these beautiful pink flowers. I didn’t even notice them until I started watering the rest of the plants. It’s funny, how humans become so distracted, they end up missing the most beautiful things.