Enclosed Garden in the Works

I had a vision.  I wanted a pretty enclosed garden where I could have a potting bench and all of my flowers and veggies would be protected from squirrels.  I also have this amazing husband who listens to my crazy ideas and makes them come to life. 

Slowly but surely, it's starting to be built.  We have to post holes dug and the posts placed.  The door is ready to be set and chicken wire should be going on any day now. 

I already have my potting bench in place and have been planting more flowers on the regular.  This table came with the house when we bought it and it is the perfect potting bench. 

I even have a sink that will be set up with water for washing my hands and watering my flowers. 

We've already got the garden planted.  In this section, we have raspberries, cilantro, artichoke, strawberries, zucchini, watermelon, onion, 3 kinds of peppers and pumpkin. 

This old truck bed has asparagus, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes.  We started with a garden bed this size last year to see if we could actually grow stuff and since we succeeded, we decided to go bigger! 

I did a little potting at my bench today and planted some succulents in this old bird cage.  I am really looking forward to to this enclosed garden coming to life and planting so many wonderful things in it! 

Linking up with: 

Dishing It & Digging It

Amaze Me Monday

Cooking & Crafting with J & J

Make It Pretty Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Keep In Touch

Talk of the Town

Sizzle Into Summer

Share Your Cup

Home Sweet Home

Jam with Ball House Party

Today I got to host some friends at my house for a really fun canning party.  I had signed up years ago with House Party to participate in some of their party activities but was never chosen so I sort of forgot about it.  This Ball party intrigued me so I signed up and was chosen to be a host! 

They sent me all the equipment that I needed to host the jam party.  I got an enamel waterbath canner, 12 jars, canning accessory kit, a recipe book, recipe cards and coupons.  I bought a jar of pectin and the sugar and my guests brought their favorite berries. 

We made 2 batches of mixed berry jam and everyone was so surprised by how easy it was to can our own jam.  We mixed the berries, the pectin and the sugar until it was ready to be put in the jars.  Then we put the jars in the bath and boiled them for 10 minutes. 

Even my friends 10 year old daughter joined in on the fun!  She had so much fun and was telling her mom about all the stuff she wants to make now with her new-found canning skills!

After the jars were sealed and had cooled off a little bit, I gave my guests something fun to decorate their jam jars with.  I cut some fabric into squares and made a custom tag to describe what we made.  We tied it on with twine and everyone got to take home a goodie bag with their jam, recipe and coupons. 

Here we all are after our jam was done.  I can't wait to see what kind of stuff everyone is going to can now!  We made 2 batches in less than 2 hours and I know that everyone will be having homemade mixed berry jam for breakfast tomorrow morning!

If you haven't already signed up to host your own parties, you should!  Visit Ripple Street to sign up and you might just be hosting a party of your own soon.  At the end of the month, I get to host a Kikkoman Grilling Party and I am really looking forward to it. 

#timewellspent

Linking Up With:

Dishing It & Digging It

Amaze Me Monday

Cooking & Crafting with J & J

Amaze Me Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Keep In Touch

Wow Us Wednesday

Swing Into Spring

Share Your Cup

Anything Goes Pink Saturday

Simple Sunday Fabulous Party

Tea Cup Exchange Reveal

I joined Stephanie's 12th Tea Cup Exchange again this spring and as usual, it was such a fun swap to participate in!

Here are the goodies that I received from Sheri in Las Vegas. Peach tea, a tea towel, recipes and a seed tin. There were also some gardening gloves in my package but I quickly put them to use and when I took this picture, they were too dirty to share! 

Sheri included a note with my package of goodies and it was fun to find out that her son-in-law comes from my area of Idaho.  It's a small world we live in.  Thank you so much for all of my stuff, Sheri! 

This is what I sent to Linda in Oregon.  

A tea towel, some tea, washi-tape covered clothes pins, a vintage finger tip bowl, a mini candle and mini matches that I decorated with vintage sheet music and of course, a tea cup! 

The tea cup has gold trim and pretty butterflies, perfect for spring.  Linda sent me a thank you note and I hope she enjoys her goodies!

Thank you Stephanie for always hosting such a wonderful swap!

Linking up with:

12th Tea Cup & Mug Exchange Reveal

Patriotic Potted Porch Girls Night

For the 2nd year in a row, my mom and I have had a girl's night out at The Potted Porch.  I am pretty sure this will now be an annual tradition for us.  And I love traditions!

I also love this cute little place.  What a great thing to have this adorable barn, plant beautiful flowers in really fun containers and invite women from all over to take park in a Ladie's Night event where they get to plant their own flowers with your help. 

You can also shop many different vendors while you are there.  My mom bought 5 HUGE hanging baskets for her patio.  I picked up lots of fun ideas...now I just have to find the stuff to plant things in!

We have to take a selfie in front of the barn, it's a tradition after all! 

Here is our finished project.  For $35 this year, we got to plant these super fun patriotic sap buckets.  I picked out a silver one and my mom's is rust colored.  There were 6 kinds of flowers to choose from and you got to pick out 5 and 3 flags.  I love this! 

This cute little fairy garden also caught my eye.  My favorite part is the fence made out of rusty nails kept together by rusty wire.  Now I want to make one of these for myself. 

Part of Ladie's Night at The Potted Porch included a fun dessert bar.  I LOVE frosted sugar cookies so I grabbed one of these quick.  I am also obsessed with watching cookie decorating videos so of course this made me so happy. 

There was also a fruit salad, lemon poppy seed loaf and these adorable cupcakes in tiny terra cotta pots with fresh berries.  I took one home for Cody to snack on.   

I love this tradition so much and look forward to seeing what we plant next year!

Linking Up With:

The Fabulous Party

Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J & J

Inspire Me Tuesday

Make It Pretty Monday

Keep In Touch

Share Your Cup

Share Your Style

Feathered Nest Friday

Anything Goes Pink Saturday

A Basket Full of Lilacs

My lilacs were finally ready to be cut and made into arrangements today.  So I went out and cut myself a big basket full of them!

They smell amazing and they are full of so many different shades of purple.  

I gathered up some containers and filled them with water and started arranging them.  I love how rustic and willy-nilly lilacs are.  They fall over here and stand up there.  They are imperfectly perfect!

I was able to make 3 very full and lush arrangements out of my basket full of lilacs.  I can't pick a favorite because I love them all.

See all those beautiful different colors?  These all came from the same bush but they all look so different.

I have put them all around my house so that you can smell them no matter where you are at.  This blue jar full is in the bonus room, sitting by my framed chalkboard.

This arrangement, in a vintage nosegay vase that was my grandma's, is sitting on the dresser in our bedroom.  I am sure the aroma of these lilacs will help us have sweet dreams tonight!

And this triple arrangement is sitting on top of the record player in our living room.  I can smell them as I type this and I love it!  Lilacs are definitely one of my most favorite flowers and I wish they lasted just a little bit longer!

Linking up with:

Dishing It & Digging It

Amaze Me Monday

Cooking & Crafting with J & J

Inspire Me Tuesday

Keep In Touch

Talk of the Town

Swing Into Spring

Wow Us Wednesday

Share Your Style

Home Sweet Home

Feathered Nest Friday

Anything Goes Pink Saturday

Simple Sunday-Fabulous Party

Red Chair Makeover

Even though we had a really mild winter this year, Spring has been super slow to show up around here.  I am still waiting for my lilacs to bloom, I would say that it will be another 2 weeks before I can smell their sweet scent in my house.  Today I did get in a little Spring project and it just makes get excited for more projects to come!

I found this chair at my local thrift store last fall for just a few dollars.  It has been sitting in storage waiting for me to decide which color to paint it. Here is the before, simple but nothing special. 

I finally decided that I wanted a bright, cheery red chair and today, that is exactly what I got.  I picked up a can of Krylon ColorMaster Paint +Primer from WalMart in the color Gloss Cherry Red.  It what the exact color that I wanted! 

I also picked up a pretty red primrose to plant for this chair.  I planted it in an old teapot planter and it looks perfect.

I dressed up this side of the pump house with my new red chair, some new outdoor pillows and my vintage stool with a few more fun planters.  

We have a lot of projects to get going on around our yard.  This one was really quick and easy and I love the end result.  I also love this bright red color!

Linking up with:

Dishing It & Digging It

Amaze Me Monday

Cooking & Crafting with J & J

Inspire Me Tuesday

Talk of the Town

Swing Into Spring

Wow Us Wednesday

Share Your Style

Home Sweet Home

Feathered Nest Friday

Garden Link Party

Keep In Touch

Cows on Canvas

Every spring, new cows show up in the pasture behind our house.  Last year, it was these 2 adorable babies.  They were so curious about me and my camera in the beginning, this picture was just perfect and I have been kind of obsessed with it ever since then!  I entered it in our county fair and won a blue ribbon.  When I was asked to review a canvas from Canvas Factory, I knew exactly which picture I wanted.

I chose to do the mirror image canvas so that the edges were wrapped and it was the best way for this particular picture.  There are 3 options to choose from and you can preview each way to see which one you like the best.  After I uploaded my picture on their website, it took about 1 week to get it shipped to me.  It came packaged nicely and is a great quality canvas.  I took my cow friends outside to do a fun little photo shoot before I hang them up inside. 

If you would like to win your own 16x20 canvas print, just let me know in the comments.  I will pick a winner next Sunday so start thinking about which picture you would want on your canvas.  I need to figure out where I am going to hang this inside my house.  That will be a harder decision than deciding which picture I wanted!  I wonder what kind of cute cows we will get in the pasture this spring?

Linking up with:

Dishing It & Digging It

Inspire Me Tuesday

Keep In Touch

Talk of the Town

Swing Into Spring

Wow Us Wednesday

Share Your Cup

Share Your Style

Home Sweet Home

Feathered Nest Friday

Anything Goes Pink Saturday

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

WINNER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED!