Wordless Wednesday: Garden Harvest Edition

You’re Invited to a Busy Bag Exchange!

Attention all local, lucky Mamas of Orange County! You’re invited to sign up for a Busy Bag Exchange! If you have a toddler between 1-3, this is the exchange for you!

Busy Bags are great, self-directed, developmentally appropriate activities contained in a bag that your little one can enjoy during nap times, during quiet times throughout the day, to take on the go, for the Doctor appts, etc.

The first 15 people to sign up get in on the action.

Here’s how it will go down:

1. Sign up. Deadline for signing up is Sunday, April 29 at 10:00 pm.

• When you sign up, include which activity you have chosen to make so there are no duplicates.
  

2. Pick an activity you would like to make a Busy Bag for. You can click on my Pinterest link on the side bar of this blog for ideas I have collected myself, Google ideas, or check out this Google doc someone else compiled for their exchange. Once sign ups close on Sunday, April 22 at 10:00 pm you will know for sure how many bags of your chosen activity you will need to make. I will do an update post on the blog.

Guidelines when making your busy bags for the exchange:

• Keep each bag under $1 each to create.

• Make the quality of bag you would like to receive.

• Any paper included in your busy bag activity does not need to be laminated. Moms can choose to do this themselves at a later time if they would like to.

3. Come to the exchange hosted at my home on Thursday, May 3 at 9:30 am.

• Bring all of your finished Busy Bags ready to exchange with other participants in the group.

• Bring a bag or bin container for all of your new Busy Bags!

• If you can’t make it for the time of the actual exchange, but would still like to participate you can drop off your Busy Bags before the exchange date and pick up your loot at a later time.

Hurry and sign up to get your spot with the activity you’re choosing to make for the exchange left in the comment section of this blog post! This will be so fun!

Ready……set…….go!!!!!!

Picture Credit

Sadie and Her Garden

Our artichoke plant we bought last summer as a wee little baby at our local Farmers Market is now full grown with four gorgeous chokes in full bloom. Every day, Sadie goes outside to give TJ and I the full report on their condition.

With this new-found love affair of growing plants, coupled with a glorious time frame of loving to eat, or at least try new veggies, I have decided to capitalize on the opportunity and teach Sadie how to grow what we eat. Since I love nothing more than fresh fruits and veggies, I want Sadie to grow up knowing about the hard work, the dedication, and the blessing real food is to our bodies. There is no better way to have an appreciation for such things than to do it yourself.

Over the weekend we began the process of sprouting some of our own sweet potatoes, who Sadie affectionately named Fish Potato and Pink Potato. Love that girl.

We also planted some giant sunflowers to make us happy. Especially Mommy.

Also on the list for this year is:

• Onion
• Carrots (Sadie’s current favorite)
• Garlic
• Watermelon
• Strawberries
• Celebrity Tomatoes
• Sweet Peas
• Celery
• Oak Leaf Lettuce
• Red Leaf Lettuce

Happy Spring!

Brewing Up Some Worm Tea

This weekend TJ and I were finally able to reap the benefits our thousands of worms from our DIY compost bin have been working so hard on.

First, check out that leachate (run-off from the bin) that fell to the bottom bin. It’s rich in nutrients for our plants. You just have to make sure to dilute it and don’t use it on house plants. Outside plants that have already proven to be strong are okay.

To get the compost, TJ laid out a trash bag and put the entire contents of the bin on top. The worms don’t like light, so they scurry to the bottom of the pile. That made it simple for TJ to sift through old food scraps that weren’t eaten yet, weed worms out to put back in their bin, and get the castings (compost) we would use for the garden.

*If you’re pregnant, stand at least 5 feet away unless you want to inhale some beautiful smells that will send you running for your bathroom. Not that I speak from experience or anything.

Here’s the lovely pile of compost. We put this stuff in the soil around our plants.

To brew your own worm tea, you’ll need:

• 5 gallon bucket
• Molasses
• An old sock
• Fresh compost
• Water

You fill the bucket with water and add 2 tbsp. of Molasses. The molasses is a food for the micro-organisms that are in the castings to allow them to grow and flourish so they don’t die off.

Next you fill the sock with your castings, tie it in a knot, and drop it in the bucket. Stir the bucket every so often, let it sit overnight, and then your tea is brewed. You can spray, or use a watering can to make your plants happy. Think of it as a lovely margarita for your plants as they enjoy the view from their perfect spot on the beach. Or maybe a nice, strong protein shake before your workout. Ahhhh….so nice!

Garden Update-Spring is here!

I can hardly believe my eyes! I haven’t killed any of our plants in our garden yet! In fact, Sadie and I picked two beautiful, big, sweet, juicy strawberries this week and gobbled them up. We regret not planting many more strawberry plants so we could have a bowl in the fridge. One plant only yields so many at a time, and it’s certainly not enough for the Brown berry lovers.

We’ve experienced squash blossoms, strawberries, and a ton of growth for all the plants we planted. I can’t wait for that huge zucchini plant to pop some out for us to grill!

Having a garden is something I love for many reasons:

• It reminds me of my Mom mulling around with her cup of tea, waiting patiently for her tulips to pop out of the ground this time of year and talking to the birds.
• It makes me feel domesticated…even though I have no clue what I’m doing.
• TJ and I enjoy researching and doing it together.
• I love the fact that I can go pick what I want to eat out of my own backyard!
• It makes me want to sit right here with my lemonade, put my swollen prego ankles up, read a good book, and enjoy watching both my plants and my babies grow!

*This weekend, TJ is going to be using our compost bin to make worm tea and we’ll finally be able to feed our plants some wonderful, nutritious compost. I’ll be sure to post the process if you’re interested in how we utilize our thousands of worms!

Paperless Kitchen

I saw other women on blogs I admire like The PigBear and New Nostalgia do this in their home and rave about it, but was positively sure they were nuts. I thought it was overkill, way too much effort, and didn’t make any sense.

How on earth can you survive without paper towels in the kitchen?!

It’s been over a week now that we have officially gone paperless, and I have to say that I’m loving it! Not because it’s a “green” thing to do, or because I’m attempting to be cheap (I’m NOT cheap, I’m frugal…there is a major difference). It just makes me giddy when I can stop spending money in one area and put that money somewhere else that I deem more important. I like to tell my money what to do.

I spent $10 on a glass jar to keep on the counter and $8 on 16 thick, white microfiber cloths to stuff it with. For less than $20, I won’t be spending anymore money on paper that will go straight into the trash. This is a good step forward since I’m completely guilty of wiping off one little spot on the counter and tossing it, or using 6 paper towels to clean off Sadie’s face after a meal. Oye.

I also have a good stack of extra baby wash cloths in Sadie’s drawer in the kitchen specifically for her pretty face after she makes her meal time messes.

Once I’m done, I toss the cloths into a little open trash can under the sink and wash them every other day while I’m doing cloth diapers. It’s literally no extra effort and my kitchen has never sparkled more.

Even the hubby thinks it’s a nice change!

I’m sold.

Hmmmm….maybe I just converted you too?!

Our Summer Garden & DIY Worm Compost Bin

This weekend we finally planted our garden!

We decided to start small since this is the first time we have done this as adults and because I have a pretty bad rap sheet of bringing plants home to live the rest of their days coming to a slow death.

Hopefully, this garden will finally prove I can keep something alive! We planted things we love to eat during the summer:

• Red Bell Peppers
• Mesclun Lettuce
• Zucchini
• Peter Pan Squash
• Strawberries
• Basil
• Thyme
• Cilantro
• Italian Parsley
• Rosemary

Since we’re attempting to do this whole gardening thing right and frugally, we also started a worm composting bin to feed our plants. We found an awesome couple here in OC who go through 50 pounds of organic produce per week feeding their own worms (that’s a lot of worms) and have an amazing garden complete with one huge chicken coop that Sadie went bananas for!

We considered doing a regular type of compost sans worms, but after researching, found that the worm way will yield a nutrient dense fertilizer in a much shorter time than the traditional composting method.

If you’re interested in creating your own composting bin like we did, here’s how to make your own.

Materials:

• 2 bins, one with a lid
• 2 bricks
• window screening
• newspaper and cardboard
• red wiggler worms (1,000 worms=1 pound)
• food scraps

Drill holes on the sides, lid, and bottom of one of the bins for the worms to breath and for air to help break down your materials.

Cut the window screening large enough to cover the holes on the sides of the bin so they can’t escape and lay it down in the bin.

Next, cut up newspaper into 1 inch strands, wet and ring them out. Place the newspaper bedding on top of the window screening in the bin.

Now get your lovely, new members of your family and place them on top of their newspaper bedding. Ahhh….so cozy, yet so hungry. I think I’ll eat my bed tonight.

Then place some food scraps and more newspaper on top.

Place your two bricks inside the bottom of your second bin (the one with no holes drilled in it). Place your worm bin on top of the bricks.

As far as food scraps go, those worms love fruits and veggies you don’t eat as well as eggshells, banana peels, tea bags, watermelon & cantaloupe rinds and leftover corn cobs. NO citrus or breads, etc. We’ll be keeping our cut up scraps in this bin in the kitchen until we take it out to the worms about once a week.

If you want a great video on how to make your own bin, check out the one we used as a reference:

DIY: Reusable Snack Bags

Call me crazy, but I think it’s silly that we use those dang Ziplock bags for one thing and throw them in the trash. Even though we do a lot of “green” things in our home like homemade house cleaners, cloth diapers, etc.,  I don’t consider myself to be in that clique.

I just never realized how much I was wasting my money until my little person with a ravenous 14 month old belly started making it a necessity to buy a new box of bags a couple times a month with all those snacks that I have to be packed in the diaper bag.

So I started looking into reusable snack bags at my local baby boutiques and online and wasn’t impressed with how expensive it was when it looked so simple to make myself.

After venting my frustration with some other Mama’s, who also happen to know how to sew and have the patience to teach a slacker like me, we (Deanna, Emily, and myself) set out to make our own for about $1 a piece instead of the $8-15 a bag.

Materials:

• Hook & loop (velcro) closures
• A couple yards of PUL (a moisture wicking fabric that is machine washable)
  
• A couple yards of fun fabric
• Scissors/rotary cutter
• Ruler
• Pins
• Sewing machine

First, I dragged this cute little thing to my friend, Deanna’s house so she could play with these fun guys while we worked.

She really is an unhappy baby, don't you think?!

Silas, Sam & Sadie.

Then we developed a pattern for two different sized bags.  One bigger one for puffy snacks, whole fruit, or sandwiches. Another smaller bag for things like cheerios, cheese sticks or crackers.

Emily working out the math

Then we cut out the PUL and favorite material for our big and small bags (7×7 and 4.5×7)

Emily measuring and cutting

Then we folded the PUL on the inside of our material and pinned our hook and loop in place. When we folded the material over, we made sure there was some overlap on the top so nothing could spill out when the velcro was fastened.

Pins in and ready to sew!

Then we let the sewing begin….starting with sewing the hook and loop and then sewing all the way around until you have the finished product! It was really that simple!

Tada!!!

Yes, that's me sitting at a sewing machine. My mom would be so proud.

DIY Mason Jar Lanterns

This year’s Thanksgiving will be our first progressive Thanksgiving meal starting at my brother and sis-in-law’s place down the street  for the main course, and ending at our place for desert. Not just any run-of-the-mill pumpkin pie desert though. We’re talking fire pit and pumpkin butter s’mores desert!

Since the fam is coming over, we needed to get some more lighting and ambiance in our new backyard. That’s when my super clever (and handsome) husband remembered how much I’ve been loving Mason Jars and discovered a little DIY project to get some lighting in our backyard for dirt cheap.

Ladies and gentleman, I present you with the Mason Jar lantern:

All you need is enough Mason Jars to fill the space you need (we started with a dozen)…

Get your hands on some bailing wire and wire cutters…

And a pencil to make a fancy little hole to thread the bailing wire thru…

Now go steal some sand from some little people at the park if you’re cheap (I mean frugal) like we are…

Place a small candle in your jar…

And then utilize the man and the drill to hang brackets along the fence…

And VOILA! You’ve got yourself some romantical outdoor lighting!