Garden Up

I love planning, creating, building, and gardening. So when I learned about raised beds and square foot gardening, I couldn't wait to get started! After two years with some great garden success I decided to add to it. I didn't want to take up more lawn space so I had to find a way to be inventive. I found the book "Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space" by Derek Fell and I was inspired! It was a great book about gardening in general. I have to admit that it didn't go into building the actual structures as much as I would have liked it to. But, it gave me what I needed to figure out what I could create and be successful with it. Dave and I took a trip to the hardware store and looked at our options. We decided to go with a PVC structure. Seriously this project took less than a half a day and only that long because we had to go shopping for the materials. We purchased 4-foot rod iron bars and hammered them as far as they would go into the ground. We cut the pipe to fit the garden boxes. We placed the upright pipes over the rod iron placed the elbow connectors on the top and connected each of the uprights with the cross bars. We thread the pipes through nylon garden net. Finished! So easy and it ended up looking better than we imagined. The book explained what plants could be trained on the netting and which plants to plant in front of them. So in the middle we have zuchini, summer squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, and cucumbers. We have a box with just tomatoes and Yanna's merigolds in front of them which she loves watering each day. In front of the squashes I have a variety of peppers and herbs. I then have another box with my salad garden which I am picking from right now. YUM!! You can definitely do this as well as so many other vertical gardening ideas for your space!!

Say it with a Diaper!

 

We have received some really sweet gifts from friends and family for Clara. I needed a nice way of saying thank you. And of course I am a designer, so I couldn't just buy them, I had to make them. I played around for a bit and came up with these! I had to make them so that they had dimension but were simple to put together (I am still sleep deprived over here ya know). I had seen diaper cards before but wanted to add some Poshness to them. I am so excited with how they turned out. I also created matching envelopes for them. Hopefully everyone will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed their gifts. I am now tweaking them to offer in the shop later this week!

We Are Back!

The past few weeks have been out-of-this-world CRAZY! But hopefully things will now calm down and I can get back to business!!
In April we welcomed to the family Clara Louise! She is perfect! We love her so much and are so happy to have her. The mystery was of course solved when she was born whether she was a girl or boy, but she decided to keep us guessing with her eye color. But now we are pretty sure she will have blue eyes.

I had a cesarean section so recovery was interesting but I am finally getting around pretty well. But I have new respect for all mothers of multiple children! I was getting next to no sleep what-so-ever! Clara wanted to feed every 2-3 hours and I still had to stay conscience in the day for Yanna. My family was a huge help. I love them so much for everything they did for us.

We took Yanna for a tour of preschools in our area and she ended up coming down with a virus that had her quite miserable with a 104.0 degree fever! During this time I wasn't sure if my sanity would make it. Between her being so sick and me still having to look after Clara and trying to make sure she didn't catch anything I just couldn't get to sleep.

So then things seemed to finally calm down as Yanna's fever broke and Clara started sleeping 4 hours in the night. We took a ride on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad Train with the family and went to see Thomas The Train. We had such a great time. Although I do not know who had more fun, Yanna or my Dad!

We must had forgotten to knock on wood because as Yanna ran into the kitchen to cook with her Opa (grandpa in German) and I, Diesel our dog attacked her face. I have never let out a louder scream in my life nor have I ever moved to fast. We rushed her to the hospital where I held a tissue to her face holding together the gash on her cheek. Yanna wasn't even crying, she was instead trying to calm me down. "Don't worry mommy, everything will be ok." "Please stop crying mommy, I forgive you." My heart was broken. Writing this now still makes my stomach turn. At the hospital they were amazing with her and they patched her up quite well with surgical glue and steristrips. Unfortunately, we have to figure out what to do with Diesel which is also heartbreaking but necessary.

Now, Knock On Wood, I am hoping to get back to work. When I originally opened the shop back up I had almost 600 Etsy convos to respond to! This made me super happy but, wow, I am still working on getting everyone a response. My email went crazy as well! So I have been playing some major catch up. But we have also been adding onto the shop. This weekend we put together a number of new products and have now officially a standard color chart! So many great things on the way! I can't wait to catch up with everyone!

Welcome to Spring????

After getting all excited about my gardening, the budding of trees and the blooming of crocuses, then the foretasted "few flurries" turned into THIS!

As it came down I kept thinking that it would stop soon, but it just kept coming down. The good news is that I designed a new free printable that I will share with everyone tomorrow. And I baked some fresh bread. Nothing like cuddling up in a warm sweater with a piece of fresh buttered warm bread listening to some good music and getting a bunch of things completed on the computer!! So while the weather was less to be desired, the day ended up being quite nice. Always find the silver lining I guess:-)

Homemade Goodness: Making Pizza from Scratch

As I approach my due date I have been particularly frantic about getting a lot of things completed in both the house and in my shop. But I have still been determined to avoid eating out and instead cook at home as much as I can. This week I wanted to share my pizza dough recipe with you. I find that it is one of the best doughs ever, especially when using fresh toppings from the garden! It is quicker than you would imagine and such a great project to do with the family!

I personally love my bread machine. It makes life so much easier and fresher. I rarely ever finish the bread in the machine, but it really cuts down on the elbow grease needed for making your own breads. But you can also do this dough in your stand mixer or even by hand. You may never want to go back to your local pizzaria once you have done this for yourself!

To make a 12" pizza or two 6" pizzas:
5/8 cup of water
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp rapid-rise yeast

To make 2 12" pizzas or 4 6" pizzas:
1 1/4 cups water
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1tsp rapid-rise yeast




Place the water and olive oil first into the bread machine. Sprinkle the flour on top to cover water and oil. Then make three wells in the flour. In one corner place the salt, in the opposite corner place the sugar, and in the middle place the yeast. (I prefer putting the yeast in this way rather than the yeast dispenser on my machine). Program your machine to the dough setting. Check to make sure that everything is mixing and make sure that you may need some more water if the dough looks dry or four if it looks too wet. As Alton Brown says in Good Eats, it's really best to weigh ingredients especially flour. But I never tend to do so myself.

When the dough is ready, pre-heat your oven to 425Degrees. You can roll your dough out on a floured surface to make one big pizza or cut up the dough to make personal pizzas. Put out some bowls with the toppings and have a pizza party! Someone will have to try tossing some dough into the air, it's just more fun that way!

To make life easy, feel free to buy pizza sauce. I still haven't decided on which recipe that I like best for this. But I will probably have one by tomato season. To avoid a soggy crust in the middle spread a little olive oil onto the dough before the sauce.

For toppings you can do anything your heart desires! We had pepperoni, mushrooms, red, green and yellow peppers, spinach, and cheese on hand. I also love taking seasonings like an herb and garlic seasoning mix to sprinkle on top as well as some parmesan cheese onto the crust.

Once you have all of the toppings onto the pizza that you desire, put the pizza in the oven for 15-20 mins or until it has browned and sizzles!! (The larger and thicker you make the pizza crust the more time you will need. The smaller and thinner the crust the less time you would need.)

Then you can enjoy!!!

Posh That Grows: Starting to garden in the Midwest!

If you really want to Poshify your year I really suggest planing your own garden! Even the smallest spaces can have a garden. A few years ago we found out about square foot gardening and raised bed gardening and we have been having an amazing time! There is something so satisfying about growing your own food. Plus you can relax and know exactly where it came from. It becomes addictive. We now have over 110 squares and me being the geek that I am even have my plans all computerized! We have a salad garden, a pepper and tomato garden, a squash garden, a strawberry garden, herb garden, and also plant kale and asparagus! We live in town and are able to do all of this within 110 square feet spread around the backyard. It may seem like a lot, but it really isn't. We live in town and still have plenty of space to run around. This year we will be adding two more boxes along the fence row near the front of the house, a vertical garden (have you ever seen zucchini grow in the air? We will see!) as well as a Yanna garden (since she has become very interested in digging in mommy's garden!)

This weekend's prep work

You two can have a beautiful and productive garden! If you live in apartment or condo with no backyard start a windowsill herb garden. They can be so simple and so great to add to your everyday food. If you just have a small yard there are still some great ways to have beautiful landscaping and making it work for you. There are a number of veggies and fruits that can add great color and texture. Asparagus pops up in the spring to pick and then has some beautiful ferns that are great for cutting with flowers or a great backdrop for some beautiful flowers like black-eyed susans and daisies! You can use strawberries as edging since they stay low and have some beautiful white flowers. Nasturtium have gorgeous flowers and leaves that are great in salads. Chives can grow just about anywhere, you can use both the sprouts and the beautiful purple flowers in cooking. Swiss chard with the colorful stems, colorful salad leaves, cabbage, and kales can all be used as landscaping and later harvested to cook with. As with everything, be CREATIVE! I will be adding pictures throughout the season of the garden and how to build your own raised beds. Plus we will add recipes on what to do with everything. I thought that I would need to plant more than one zucchini plant the first year! Talking about waaay too much zucchini!!

A variety of salad goodies

Be sure to talk to some garden clubs in your area. Some towns have public gardens where you can get your own plot of land to plant on. Plus I love going to http://www.garden-share.com/ there are so many great people on there who will share their ideas and help you with any problems. This may be the first year you ever planted cucumber so where did all of those cucumber beetles come from!? they can help!

and it keeps coming and coming

I will also be creating some great printables devoted to gardening. So look out for those as well!
In the meantime get those peas, green beans, and spinach in the ground!! Spring is finally here!!

May the Luck of the Irish be with You!

Decided to have some fun for St. Patrick's Day!
Once again, where I grew up St. Patrick's Day was quite the big deal. Don't be caught without at least a little bit of green on you or you would be surely pinched!! I have added the Pot-O-Gold basket to my Etsy Shop. This was a fun little project that I think will be fun for all of the parties over the next few days! Also, I have added a new FREE printable to my Fun Projects section of my website! Four Leaf Clover Glasses!! Haha! We have had so much fun with them. We were at the store and my daughter pointed a pair out. "Can I get one pleeaase?", "No sweetie." "Can we make some pleeaasee?" LOL, what can I say, she really knows me! Granted she also called the greeter at the front door a pirate due to having an eye patch...oy!