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: