Soap.

Last night I made homemade laundry soap (#10) for the first time. It was a mixture of castille soap, baking soda, washing soda and vinegar. The castille soap addition kind of pushed it over the cost-effective edge.

I should try one with Borax, although I'm a little scared of Borax as it's rather toxic. The other option is to make a detergent using grated bar soap. Mike is suspicious of the dissolving effectiveness, but I might give it a try.

The Bathroom.

As promised here are pictures of the bathroom pre, post and during work. It's still not done quite yet though. Here's the bathroom in all it's beige glory before we started:

The light fixture that came with the house was out of 1985. Mmm....wood panelling. The toilet holder was also wood. But the towel holder was a chrome/brass combo. Lovely.

When we took the mirror down we discovered a hidden medicine cabinet in the wall.

When we took out the vanity we discovered the previous flooring peeking through.

First coat of paint down. No more beige!

After we finished painting and went to put the new vanity in we discovered that it didn't fit. Our drain pipe comes out of the wall too low for the new cabinet. We thought the only option to keep the new vanity was to rip into the wall and redo the pipes about six inches higher. So says our friend, there is some kit you can buy to do the same thing, but on the outside of the wall. We're going to Home Depot this afternoon to verify. So, we still have the old vanity in there right now with no doors or drawers. The bathroom as it stands today:

My splurge.

We really like the orange bathroom. No regrets. I'll post pictures of the new vanity once we get that whole hoopla figured out.

Green Tomatoes.

Well, the plum tree is now bare of leaves and the 10-day weather forecast also calls for 9 days of rain. I think that means it's finally over. I pulled up the tomato and remaining pepper plants today. I harvested all the tomatoes that were left (and one lone bell pepper). Most of them were green.

These guys all show signs of ripening inside.

These guys are all immature and should be used green. Recently Homesick Texan posted a recipe for pickled green tomatoes that look kind of delicious. I do love pickles. There is always fried green tomatoes too. I've actually never had them before. Maybe now is the time.

Now that I have pulled up the tomatoes and harvested the rest of the fall radishes it's just the winter veggies left in the garden (By the way, I have three sandwich bags of radishes and I don't know what to do with them. I was hooked on that radish pasta last Spring, but Mike is off grains right now. Any ideas?).

As I said before, the winter crops aren't doing so well. What we do have that is promising to get us through the winter is:

Kale: Three plants are doing really well. They got a head start before whatever little bug or worm came that is eating the rest of my starts.

Red Cabbage: There are a few starts that keep getting bigger and are showing promise of making it. Cross your fingers.

Onions: We still have oodles of green onions out there ready to pick at a moment's notice.

Carrots: There are still a couple rows of carrots ready to eat right now. They are supposed to keep in the ground just fine, so we can use them as we will throughout the winter.

Broccoli: Maybe, just maybe I have one broccoli that will make it. It's a few inches tall and hasn't been eaten yet. But with only one to rely on, I'm not holding my breath.

Swiss Chard: We still have three rows of chard that are growing and holding well.

Arugula: I impulse bought arugula and I have two rows going. I'm glad I did because most of my spinach didn't sprout, and the ones that did aren't growing. Did you know in the UK they call arugula rocket? Cute.

General Updates and Breakdowns.

This weekend was bathroom painting weekend! We have been collecting paint, towel racks, lighting fixtures and a new vanity over the last nine months and we finally took the plunge. There will be pictures to come. Not today....because the bathroom is still not done. I'll give you a hint. It ended with me crying and Mike and I drinking vodka. It was a rough scene in there yesterday. Hopefully it will all turn out well in the end.

It's getting colder around here. It was in the upper-30's when I left for work this morning, which means I should probably finally cut the rest of the tomatoes green. I keep thinking more will ripen out there, but this is the end. It is almost Halloween, after all.

Lots of my fall and overwintering crops aren't sprouting or are growing too slowly or got eaten by bugs. We definitely have a couple good kale plants and the cabbage seems to be doing well. But, I'm not holding high hopes for the broccoli or cauliflower to get big enough to flower. Sigh...

I am getting into garden planning mode though and making a plan for next year. Things I want to grow, where to grow them, things I need to build and things I need to learn. Even though this fall/winter garden isn't turning out so great I will learn from it and make sure next year is better!

Sewing Machine Update.

Last night Mike's mom stopped by to check out the sewing machine. She has a clue and has made actual garments on clothing of a real sewing machine! Gee! Anyway, we plugged it in and waiting for the moment of truth--

Free sewing machine WORKS! Very exciting!

I have started going to my company's craft night. They do it about once a month and it is frequented by people such as the head of costume design. So, I know I could get some good instruction there. A new sewing studio opened up in my neighborhood as well and they offer classes. I am a little disappointed that I'm working. If I were still home all day I would have this sewing thing going in no time! I would probably have my first project done by Thanksgiving. Now, I'm thinking my best bet is by Spring.

Enter Stage Left: Sewing Machine.

Mike made an awesome free box find this week - Sewing Machine! I don't know if it works....

....and I don't know how to find out if it works....So....what do I do with this thing?

Home.

It has been almost a year since we moved into this house. Next weekend, in fact, is the anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long already. Since living here we've done a few cosmetic things to the house - we put in the garden out front, we put in the patio out back, we painted an accent wall in the living room, put in a new faucet in the kitchen and painted the kitchen.

Oh, boy, did we paint the kitchen. We started looking at swatches not long after we moved in and we settled on a shade of green. I think it was called "Science Experiment". From the swatch it looked like it would be a bold version of avocado green. Once it was on the walls it was clear that it was closer to green screen green. It's not so bad around the cabinets and stove. There isn't as much wall space there and it serves better as a bright accent. The far wall of the kitchen, however is just giant and green. It's been like this since we painted it back in January or February.

At some point in the early summer we came across a yard sale and bought some accent shelves. We painted the metal part of the shelves black and cleaned them up. Then they sat for several months. Finally, yesterday, in a fit of cleaning we hung up the accent shelf in the kitchen.

Mike and I were astonished when suddenly, this tiny change in decor made our house feel like a home. It visually broke up the giant green wall and made the kitchen seem more cohesive. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the shelf with aprons and scarves hanging on it really softens up the room. So, now, that we have been here for almost a year it's really starting to feel like home.

Seasonal hindsight.

As another season draws to an end it's time to reflect on how the summer garden worked.

Next year I will:

• Plant way more tomatoes and get some more variety of type. Granted, this summer was cool and tempered the harvest, but I think I could do with a lot more tomatoes.
• Plant less Chard. I did three rows of three feet each, and I really didn't need that much. At the rate we ate it, it grew back sufficiently before we cut any more leaves. We haven't even touched the last row.
• Plant less green onions!! Back when I was planting seeds I thought about the bunch of green onions you buy at the grocery store. I thought that if I used onions at that rate, one two-foot row would go in a week! I, of course, did not use them at that rate. I pulled one or two at a time as I needed for meals. There are still so many green onions out in the garden that have been there since the start and I just don't know that we will ever get around to eating them all.
• Keep growing lettuce through the summer. After my lettuce started bolting this summer, I stopped sowing new seeds. I waited until it was time to start up on the fall seeds to sow any more and we have been in a lettuce drought for over a month because of it. By the time the cucumbers and bell peppers were ripe, the lettuce was long gone. Overall I need to plant less lettuce over a longer period to keep us in salads through the summer.
• Plant more beans with more fertilizer! My beans were sad this year. Again, it's hard to tell if it was because of the unseasonably cool temperatures or something that I did. Either way, I could do with more green beans.
• Plant more cucumbers and more variety! Not all my cukes took after transplanting and I was left with only one lemon cucumber plant for eating, the rest were pickling. In the end we had 3 lemon cucumbers total. Again, I blame the cool summer. But, I would also like some classic slicing cukes next year.
• Plant more peppers! Refer above, same applies. Although, peppers are notorious for not growing well here. Maybe I'll get a hoop cover.
• Even though I thought 3 zucchini plants would drown us, it ended up just about right. Again, blame the cool summer. If we had had a warmer one I bet we would have drowned.
• I do want to do a larger variety of summer squash next year too though.
• Have a real herb garden. I had some herbs in pots, but it was simply not enough. I'll have to designate space for some serious basil and friends.
• Have a strawberry patch! I have a strawberry pot (which is still producing) but I really want a patch so I can have a real harvest and not just 2 strawberries at a time.

My country kitchen.

I've really been enjoying my kitchen lately. It's small, but it's functional. I don't have any space to store a lot of things, so they just get left out in the open, but I like it. The last month there have been tomatoes consistently sitting on top of my jars.

I have spaghetti squash seeds drying on top of the toaster oven...

And now I have a bouquet of green onions in the corner.

I finally pulled up some of them that were just getting too large. They have been growing out in the garden since early spring. I planted way too many green onions! These might as well be leeks now, and they were infringing on the new fall bed of cabbage and kale.

I like that my kitchen is always working and full of fresh foods. Up on the menu for tonight: Winter Vegetable Hash.

Picture update: Fall edition.

It's been a while since I wandered the yard and took pictures of progress. So, here's a sampling from this weekend.

Lemon, bathed in early evening light:

Tomatoes, still ripening. I have decided I really love tomatoes.

Cat-proofed garden areas, still holding strong! We ripped out the zucchinis, beans, peppers and cucumbers this afternoon and put down some crimson clover seed. Most of the garden is now covered in wire:

Young arugula and onion growing under the safety of chicken wire:

Garlic or shallot (I'm not sure which) already growing up through chicken wire:

Plum tree, mid-leaf loss. Autumn is upon us.

Plum leaves on the ground:

Lemon, mid-yawn: