This Vintage Chica

gardening under glass

My grandmother Florence always had a beautiful terrarium on her coffee table in her living room.  And I used to love to open the lid and peek in.  It really was like looking into another world for me as a kid.  But hers were much more dignified with delicate little ferns and carefully selected violets.

A few weeks ago, when the ground outside was warm enough to start working it up for the veggie garden, we were outside in the muck for three days (all day) in a row. Which was heaven for three little boys as you have probably guessed. Evidenced in the photos from the continuing Sixoneway project. I think every other week is a photo with one of the three with their fingers or toes completely emerged in dirt. We immediately started finding worms. Lots and lots of earthworms. Big granddaddy night crawlers.  Ian started an earthworm collection in a plastic cup, but insisted they needed a proper home.

So the quest was on for an appropriate container which resulted in two of my largest clear gallon jars, purchased from Goodwill for .50 cents each. They were quickly filled with compost and our worm farm was started. (you can see one of the little guys in the top right hand corner next to the glass in the first photo)

But of course being the only woman in the house, it was my responsibility and mine alone to spruce their little place. Instead of curtains and rag ruts, we used moss found on the side of the house and a few yard weeds to make the worm farm a bit more homey. Wyatt threw in a few seashells like throw pillows.  And when Zane found a snail underneath the firewood stack, he was added to the mix too and named Mr. Smiley S. Snail. "Now the worms have an upstairs neighbor!"  And yes, that is worm poop you see on the lid.  Which provides hours of entertainment for little boys.  I get to hear "Mom, the snail pooped again!" being screamed from the top of their lungs at least 26 gazillion times a day.  Just a little more natural fertilizer for the farm.

And apparently we're not the only ones with terrariums on the brain:

Two Straight Lines

Simple Sparrow

Hello Yarn

See more terrariums and get some great ideas for your own over at the terrarium group at flickr.

And for a much fancier version with way too many steps and ingredients in my humble opinion, Martha has directions on her site.

One last note to all you repurposers, my good friend Stefani is hosting a repurposing contest this month.  Check it out and enter!  She has some fun prizes up for grabs.  I don't know that glass jars as worm farms... umm, terrariums... qualifies, but maybe you have a better idea.

the making of a garden

Or another title for this post could be, what we did while the camera was broken.

The land our house now sits upon used to be a hog farm.  We see the old original farmhouse every time we leave the neighborhood.  But when the land was sold to developers, the rich topsoil was scraped off and sold - leaving a bunch of clay and rock on which to build the houses.  Not the stuff great gardens are made of at all.  So we needed to go up with some raised beds.  That was certain.

I remember seeing this post from Krista last summer and dreaming about having a larger version of the garden we enjoyed in Wisconsin.  But also knowing the blank slate of a yard and crappy soil we were coming back to.  So the garden building begins.

This is the first of four raised beds that are planned for the North side of our yard.  I know it doesn't look like much yet.  But hopefully in a few short months our garden will start to resemble something of beauty. 

You know the bi fold doors that come on the closets of houses built in the 80's?  Well I absolutely despise them as they are always coming off track.  And I am the one who has to struggle and fight to put them back on.  When we first moved back in, one of the first things I did was to remove the doors from the laundry area and replaced them with a simple tension rod and curtain.  I like it much better...and its prettier.  The old bi fold doors had been sitting, useless, in the garage since last summer.  Until I had the idea of screwing them together at the tops and bottoms to make our raised beds.  This made enough vertical space for a good 12 inches of new topsoil and compost.

Currently this bed hosts all of the early spring veggies - radishes, butter crunch and red leaf lettuce, spinach, purple cabbage, broccoli, yellow and white onions and beets.  We used the square foot garden method to maximize our space and so far it is working well.  Peas have been planted in a pot near the back door and are starting to pop their heads up - ready to start their climb up a tepee of bamboo poles.

And the summer plants have been started indoors from seed.  The above photo is of Pantano Romanesco tomatoes.  The saved heirloom seeds were sent by Carl O'Melay as a Christmas present.  Thanks Carl!  I hope it makes you happy to see your seeds happy and healthy in Virginia?  We will enjoy them thoroughly.  We have four types of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, pole beans, edemame beans and more planned for the other three beds.  (Which I need to get on the ball and put together.)  All these seeds we started are going to need to go somewhere when they outgrow their current homes.

But for now the Spring ritual of making coffee, heading out to the garden to water and gaze upon seedlings before the boys wake up has resumed.  And it feels good.

More garden progress later.  Its going to be in the 70's today and we're headed outside...somewhere, anywhere.

 

gettin' all political

There was a time when we first moved back to Virginia when I wasn't sure how to marry this creative, crafty, finding-me-again blog with the whole military lifestyle. Remember? And I wasn't sure anyone even cared what I think about it or how I deal with it. But judging by the comments to this post, I've muddled my way through it just fine. I am coming to realize this blog is simply a reflection of myself. 

My Papaw asked me not long ago if S and I were raising the boys to be conservatives. I love that my Papaw is always up for a good political discussion, but I was a bit dumbfounded. I wasn't sure how to answer him. Yes, I would consider ourselves pretty conservative. But on the liberal side by some standards. Here are some examples:

• We are obviously military, so by most standards, that would make us conservative.
• We are supporters of local farmers and organic gardening when we can, liberal?
• I limit our T.V. consumption as much as possible.
• We are very involved in our local church and attend regularly. We are Christ followers. Conservative?
• We are huge supporters of wildlife and land conservation. I even take spiders we find in the house outside to the garden.  Liberal? Possibly.
• When I watch news I watch Fox News because they cover the war more than any of the other stations.
• We incorporate unschooling philosophies into our everyday life. Most definitely leaning to the left.
• We hold our boys to a strict sense of right and wrong and aim to teach them that morality is not relative. Right wing?
• I own and wear on occasion a pair of birkenstocks.
• I love country music and will listen to it until I die.
• We explain the value of differing opinions and different cultures to our kids in terms they can understand. Our boys after all are of "mixed" race and come from two very different cultures. Liberal? Maybe.
• Our boys say "Yes, Ma'am" and "No, Sir" and call our adult friends "Mrs. Ambre" and "Mr. Matt".

See my dilemma in being pigeon holed into liberal or conservative? According to Rod Dreher, we are crunchy conservatives. But I don't know if that accurately seams it all in either. So Papaw, I still do not know how to answer your question. I would say yes, we are raising the boys to be fiscally and morally conservative, but to be free thinkers and embracers of new and innovative ways of doing things. Open to all that the world has to offer them.

And I do not believe that I am alone in this. I think as the world gets smaller and more complicated, I think we are all rethinking how our world should be organized and governed.

Thank you friends, for the amazing comments and outside emails over the past several days. I have been truly humbled, amazed and honored. Amazed that you actually care to hear my opinion on this war. And as many of you have commented, I am glad to put a face (or at least a blog face) to humanize all that is happening overseas. I do think that we (our family) have an interesting perspective and I am feeling more comfortable sharing that part of ourselves. And I owe that in part to this so very accepting community surrounding me. Thank you again for helping me learn to be truly who I am. And who we are as a family.

More upbeat posts to follow!

been playin'

• with the camera on my phone (hence the crummy photo above)
• with colors and patterns I never would have put together in a million years via Kathy's block for the Virtual Quilting Bee; she sent the blue and grey circles and the blue and brown diamond fabric, the center piece is from my grammer stash and the rest was purchased new or thrifted.  I love, love this block already.
• the guitar a bit more...a wee bit
• in the garden...more photos of that tomorrow, I hear water upstairs. Eeek!

don't lose sight

Yesterday morning I woke up early, turned on my laptop to find this story front and center on msnbc.com.  It frustrates me to no end and I haven't been able to shake it.  I am sure that the endless stream of photos of men and women in dessert camis is boring the American public by now.  I know what celebrities wore to the latest award show it more exciting.  And I am sure over the past five years you have become numb to shots of our soldiers holding machine guns in front of them as they patrol street in Iraq.  Yes!  We have been there for five years now.  Can you believe it? 

I ask you.  I beg you.  Please do not loose sight of what is really happening overseas.  Just because the media has gotten bored with "the war", please do not forget.  Our daddy is over there.  Our friends are over there.

Lives are still being lost everyday.  And the numbers of those coming home injured are staggering.  (see below) Having spoken to several wives who have had the pleasure of seeing their husbands again after mortar attacks (or lack of pleasure), the healing process is no fun and games.  And don't even get me started on TRICARE (the military's answer to health care).  Just some facts to remind you friends:

• 3,979 US Soldiers Killed
• 29,320 Seriously Wounded
• Spent & Approved War-Spending - About $600 billion of US taxpayers' funds. President Bush has requested another $200 billion for 2008, which would bring the cumulative total to close to $800 billion

  *Statistics from The Brookings Institute

If you that we rightly entered into this war, please do not think that just because "insurgent violence is down" that the deaths and injuries have stopped.  That families are not being asked everyday to meet the powers that be in D.C. to receive their husbands and wives bodies.  And if you are against the war, as I am, be diligent friends.  Dig for the facts and the truth.  Because the mainstream media has grown bored.  It is voting time my friends, it is an election year!  Please do not forget.

And to answer your questions and comments:

1.  Don't you miss your husband?  Yes, I miss my husband desperately.  And so do my boys.
2.  I don't know how you do it.  I don't know how I do it some days either.  I don't know how the women who are without their husbands for 18 months do it either.  But the alternative is to not get out of bed in the morning and let the boys make their own cinnamon toast.  And I really don't want to clean the kitchen up after that.
3.  (skip to # 4 Grammer and Papaw)  Do I miss the sex?  Of course.  Who wouldn't?  But luckily our marriage is stronger than that.  Hey it all goes someday, right?  At least we know our relationship is built on a hell of a lot more than the mere physical.
4.  You are a military wife and against the war in Iraq?  Yes, again, I am against this war.
5.  I am so glad it is you and not me.  I am glad it is me too.  Because I realize there are many things in my upbringing that I believe purposely prepared me for mothering these kids though the time without their dad.

I'm off to a MOPs steering meeting this morning. And hopefully getting some much needed sewing time in this weekend.  Happy Friday all!

a bit of inspiration today

a bit of inspiration today, originally uploaded by eren | thisvintagechica.

because I dont feel like doing anything else. And my camera is still in the shop. And I want to be planting in the garden already. And Im doing laundry...again. And the dishes are calling my name. And Wyatt is sick. And it is supposed to get cold here tomorrow again. And Zane didnt want to go to school this morning which prompted a "there are little boys in Nicargua" speech. And, and, and.

*And if you have noticed my feed over on bloglines screwing up lately - I have notified the powers that be and hope to have it fixed soon.