Spices Over Yanda Blog (Previously Allyson's Attempt at Domestication)

This is a project that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I even bought the materials for it at least a year ago! The idea was to make big pillows in three basic colors for the kids to have in the playroom to lounge on or read on, etc. I got some red, green and blue fabric and some big pillow forms when they were on sale. I finally got around to making them tonight. I only got two done so far and since it's midnight here and I don't have the blue material cut out yet, I am giving up for the night. However, this was so easy that I will definitely pick it up and finish it very soon. For the red pillow I used these instructions . In the end I do like how it turned out, but the instructions were hard to follow and you had to cut 3 different pieces of fabric. For the green pillow I used these instructions . It was sooo much easier. I do wish that the envelope opening overlapped more like the red pillow, but that is easily fixed by cutting the fabric into a long...

Last night I had an amazing opportunity! I had my first "lesson" in quilting! Kudos to Linda Petersen whom was so patient with me and really worked hard to give me a good first experience with quilting. I'm sure being a first time quilter would be easier if I wasn't such a novice sewer also, but alas I like to try it all! The sewing machine story goes as follows: One day my wonderful husband came home from the store with a new sewing machine. He said it was a really good deal. I asked him what HE was going to do with it! Hah! It took a couple years for the idea to grow on me that learning how to use the machine could acutally be a good thing. :) Last year I learned how to make a trick or treat bag for the kids. A wonderful friend taught me how and she also gave me a crash course on how to use my machine also. I'm a pretty quick study, but like anything else, if you don't use what you've learned you'll forget. Sooo...last night it took a bit for me to r...

Well, I've had my first infestation. I noticed a couple days ago this white fuzz on my tomato and strawberry plants. My first thought was some sort of fungus since I had the shade cloth over the garden now. However, upon further investigation, it was a bug. This bug is called a wooly aphid and it has white fuzzy all over it and it can jump really high. Weird. Anyway, it was also all over my cucumber plant. I researched and I am trying the least invasive solution first. I took a spray bottle, filled it with warm water and a couple drops of dish detergent and then sprayed directly on the white fuzz areas of the plants. I had to be careful because the bug would jump off the plant and try to jump on me. Oh the joys of gardening, haha! I'll keep you posted on how this works at ridding my poor plants of this yucky bug problem. This is a good reminder of why we need to be constants tenders to our gardens. If we don't visit our gardens regularly and take a close look, ...

I am noticing my first few problems in my garden. The good news is that I do have pea pods already on my pea plants. The bad news is that the pea plants are starting to die. I did a little research online and it is probably due to the heat we've been having. I thought at first it was a too much sun issue, but it sounds more like the heat is too hot for the soil. The plants are getting too hot at the roots. Any comments or experience about that for me? So the reccommendation was possibly putting some mulch around the roots and possibly some fertilizer. I think I need some shade also. We'll see what I come up with. Here is the bell pepper plant that's started flowering. I'm excited about this one. A big pea pod on my pea plant. My tomatoes should ripen any day and there are a lot of them! Another pea pod. There are a ton of green beans on my bean plants! The storm last week was rough on my bean plants and some of them are having a hard time standing up, but the...

Warning: Picture Overload. I am very excited about all the blooming going on in my garden and I MUST share. :) Strawberry Bloom My new bell pepper plant is about to bloom. My tomatoes. Those are only a couple of the MANY green ones I have. My tomato plants are blooming. My bush green beans are blooming. My tomato plants are taking over my garden. I sat out at my garden today for awhile in the heat trying to decide how to handle the "problem" LOL! I'll let ya know what I come up with. Feel free to leave your suggestions as a comment for me as well. My cucumber plant is blooming. My peas are blooming...and growing like crazy! Here is my garden....full of tomatoes, bell pepper, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, peas, cilantro, onion, jalepeno and green beans...yay!!! Here is Ray's garden. :) He's trying a tomato plant in the topsy turvy thing. A fun experiement. We'll see how it "grows" hee hee.

That's how my garden looks today! It loves, loves, loves the rain! First tomatoes! I am sooo totally excited! The only thing I'm concerned about is my broccoli plants. They just are growing very slowly. Not sure why. Also, my bell plant didn't come up. Tomorrow I plan on buying a plant to replace that. The picture taker! She HAD to be in ONE of the pictures! LOL!

My husband's birthday is always around Mother's Day, so we usually end up celebrating them together. This year I decided to do some handprint gifts and they turned out pretty good. My husband also decided to do a handprint gift. He got me this great garden cart and let the kids personalize it with their handprints. Priceless! :) Great minds think alike. This is the shirt we made for my mom. I really wanted the blue handprint up and to the right a bit, so it was overlapping the pink one. But he is 4 and this was pretty good. :) I think it turned out very cute. Here is the back of my husband's shirt. A right foot print from each child. I'll add how I did this at the bottom of this post. This is the front of his shirt. I've tried a couple times to get this the right way. On my computer it's the right way, so does it turn when I upload it here? ERggggggg! You can get the idea from it I guess. LOL! I also decorated a frame for my mom. Here are my supplies. 4...