30 Days of Gratefulness: Day 6, My Garden

I am thankful that despite the fact that our tenants were doing all the gardening at our house, I was still able to have one across the street at a community garden.  It was just built this year.  I love the neighborhood we live in, it's growing and new and exciting things are happening all the time.  We got to rent this plot for only $20.00.  They had water right there and we got to know some of our neighbors.  We met another VW Van lover who lives right around the corner.

It was so fun to check on the progress every day.  It is such a miracle to watch food grow from seeds.  

Doesn't food that you grow taste so much better?  Yum!

I'm still pretty new to gardening, but it was fun to give it a go.  We planted white beans, green onions, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, cilantro, basil, butternut squash, and some cucumbers.  We bordered the garden with zinnias.
Some notes:
The butternut squash took over by the end of the season and overshadowed and killed the carrots and lettuce.  We could have picked the squash just before it got ripe to let it ripen inside.  Maybe it could grow on a trellis?  It was so exciting to see them grow.  We waited patiently to pick them only to find out the squirrels beat us to them!

We had a little weird thing happen.  Right after we planted, someone stole our basil plant and replaced it with a puny one.  Someone planted a nice big pepper plant in our plot.  Someone or something pulled up the cucumber plants.  I guess this is what happens with a community garden.  Not too bad considering there was no fence.

I had so much fun sharing my zinnias with kids strolling through the garden.  Flowers are always a good idea.  One little girl got to pick some and she planned on giving them to her mom who was in the hospital.  I want to also plant dahlias next year, even though they come up later.  A little sunflower plant would be fun also.

The green onions did great.  The broccoli got huge.  Eventually it produced, I'm not sure why it got so tall.  The tomatoes did ok.  It will be better to plant earlier next year.  The peppers did well.  The basil and cilantro grew great, much better than how it grew in the pots.  I still think it's worth it to buy a good basil plant, I have trouble growing them from seed.

Things I would like to plant next year: kale, jalapenos, fingerling potatoes, garlic, shallots

All in all, we only got a little bit of food, but it was a good learning experience and I think next year will be even better!

30 Days of Gratefulness: Day 5

Today I'm having to dig a little deeper for the gratitude.  We are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done to our house.  I am thankful for the opportunity to work on it, and I am hopeful.  I stood at the top of our stairs in our attic and imagined myself sitting at a table overlooking Spokane and painting.  It will be wonderful.  And I imagined the tall steep stairs painted with a fun quote.  I'm hoping to get the attic cleared out soon.

 I am thankful for a washer and dryer.  This is so huge.  We got an awesome one  that can add steam to the washer and dryer.  This makes washing the diapers a breeze.  It's also fabulous for making sure thrift store scores are clean.  I did the smell test, and I thought it passed, but by the time I got an orange beach towel home it was a little musty smelling.  I washed in a regular washing machine and had it out in the sun for a while, but it still smelled a bit.  After running it through the sanitize cycle in our washer it smells oh so fresh.  It also has a huge capacity, so I can really wash a lot of clothes at once.  It's also awesome because it doesn't use much water at all, which makes the tree hugger in me happy.  We save $80 a month by having a washer and dryer, and I get an extra day at home each week.  Good bye laundromat.

I am thankful for friends who happen to have awesome furniture in their garages.  (Thank you Courtney)  I am having fun folding fabric and storing my milk glass collection in an awesome green hutch.

 I'm thankful for skype.  It makes it easier that my family lives so far away.  Luna will grow up thinking people live in the computer!

I am thankful for Luna's little friend Gage.  They are finally old enough to start playing together.  They were killing me with their cuteness!
I am thankful for a girl who went to bed early (8:00 pm) and the extra hour we get tonight.  It is the best night of the year in my opinion!  I need the extra hour tonight for sure!

Aren't you proud of my blogging frequency?  I'm thankful to be back in the swing again.

30 Days of Gratefulness: Day 4

Today I'm thankful for:

A few minutes to doodle and collect my favorite fall quotes in my first ever giveaway win!
Sipping Sweet Ginger Peach Black tea with local honey

Using my ultra fancy crayons, they just glide on the page like butter

 Thankful today's cloth diapers aren't anything like my momma's cloth diapers (yes we're giving it a whirl again now that I've got a washer and dryer- we just started yesterday, this will probably warrant a post in itself.)  A little girl who's busy, too busy for focused pictures!

Enjoying the little, tiny gourds and pumpkins we found at green bluff.  Loving my cozy house

Being flexible, canceling tentative plans because nap time was a little more necessary
Realization that I can wear the leg warmers I knit with my boots (I loved them, but was stumped as to how to wear them)

A funny bath mat that Sam bought for me

An evening among friends with big hearts

30 Days of Gratefulness: Color

I am so thankful that God made beautiful colors.  I realized I never shared after pictures of my dining room painting.  I was waiting until I replace the lighting, but that may take a little while, so I'll share it as it is.  It's so hard to get a picture, I need a wider angle lens for my dslr.  I love color.  I love red, bright blue, and green.  It's so fun.  I love 50 cent thrift store mugs.

I'm thankful for color.
I'm thankful for spray paint.
I'm thankful for green couches.
I'm thankful for thrift stores.
I'm thankful for the 60's and 70's.
I'm thankful for cheerful mugs.
I'm thankful for round little bellies.

Filled With Joy

We are reading Philippians in our little bible study group and I'm enjoying getting into the word again, I have been away from it for too long.  I am so blessed and encouraged by this group of friends I have.  Philippians is such a cool letter.  It is good to be reminded of the joy in Christ.  And it's interesting to remember that it's written by Paul while he is in jail, yet he is so filled with joy.  The key to the joy is being filled with Christ and his spirit.  I want to try to capture the joy and record it by taking pictures this month.  I think I'll start a flickr page and link to it on here.  One thing that I want to do that is different than what I normally do with pictures is to take more of a mix of pictures.  I want some pictures to be the beautiful and pretty things, but I also want to capture the mundane, or the chores, or maybe pictures of people serving.  I want a little mix of everything.  The blog world is a place of pretty inspiration, but sometimes it's a little too sickeningly perfect if you ask me.  It can make you start feeling like everyone else has a better life.  I know this isn't true, and I know blogs are just a little slice of life, and I know it's not good to compare, but it is hard when you see amazing pictures and fun things all the time online.  I just need to remember to fill my mind with His words rather than the worlds.  Philippians 2:3-7 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus...but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant..."  Finding joy in serving others, in lowering yourself and helping others, it's not something we see or hear everyday, but it is true.  There is joy to be found in Him.  I need this reminder.  I have been so encouraged and filled with the Spirit by these words.  I want to post mundane pictures saying- I am content.  Seriously, what's so wrong with contentment, not everything needs to be fabulous all the time.  I think it's hard to live in our society because we're disillusioned to think we ought to live a fun life all the time.  I love Phil 4:4-11  It speaks of rejoicing to God, to pray, be thankful, dwell on what is lovely, good, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you...for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am."  Ok, so I'm majorly paraphrasing there but it is a beautiful section of the bible, one of my favorites.

Luna's whole outfit is from the thrift store.  Except for the scarf, my sister in law made that, and the shoes are from her grandma.

 I am reminded of the book One Thousand Gifts.  The book chronicles the story of Ann Voskamp recording a list of gifts she is thankful to God for.  The habit is to be mindful and thankful to God.  I love Christmas- love it, but I do hate that thanksgiving gets completely looked over.  If you ask me, we Americans have it pretty good.  We're pretty rich and spoiled by many nice things.  So I want to take the time to slow down, rejoice, recognize and thank God for it all this year.  I'm joining in with many others to list some things I'm grateful for.

Here goes:
I'm thankful for
changing seasons.  I love the crisp smell of leaves at autumn, and the sound of them crunching beneath my feet.  I love the vibrant colors of fall.  The rich oranges, yellows and red.  I had fun playing with Luna in the leaves.  Fall is my favorite time of year.  I used to spend hours outside playing in the leaves, raking them into houses.  I hope Luna enjoys it too!  She kills me with her cuteness, kills me- I love these pictures.  I'm so thankful for a camera to capture her.

I'm rejoicing that the sun is shining.  I love seeing the sun

I'm thankful to have heat in my house.

I'm thankful I have dishes to eat off of- dishes that get dirty every day.  And I am thankful I can just turn a knob and fill my sink with water to wash them.  After our summer of hauling water and only having 2 jugs at one time, I am so thankful for running water.  I know that people in other parts of the world go to great lengths to get water.

I'm thankful for good friends who encourage me

I'm thankful for health.  I am so thankful we don't have any major health issues.  That is so awesome.

I'm thankful for fresh flowers that were cheap from Trader Joes.  They make me happy when I see them.  I love gerber daisies, they're my fave. and I love that the roses came with eucalyptus.

I could go on and on.

What I Wore

I stole the sweater from my mom years ago.  My dad bought it for my mom when she was my age.

The jacket is from Fringe and Fray, my favorite clothing store in Spokane.  I had store credit so I got it for free!  It was only $18 bucks though, they have such awesome stuff for great prices!  The shoes are Minnetonka Moccasins, funny story- I ordered them online while I was in labor. Sam thought I was crazy, while he was rushing around packing last minute items in our bag, I was filling my shopping basket at midnight entering in credit card info. in between contractions!

My mom knit the scarf for me.  The basket was bought at Hansen's last year.  I love it and use it all the time!

Man, as I look closer I keep seeing things people made for me.  I have a crafty family!  My dad made me that silver ring on my ring finger from an old spoon.  The other ring I got at a boutique in Colorado.

This blanket was made by my grandma for my brother.  I'll have to get another picture of it one day, it's awesome.  The yellow sweater she is wearing was made for my oldest brother- yep that was before ultrasounds revealing the sex, it's a pretty girly sweater if you ask me.

My mom crocheted this adorable little hat for miss luna bug.

I'm eager to try some new things out with my hair.  I have gobs of it, so I figure I should do more than just a plain pony tail, or leave it down and boring.  Pinterest has my wheels turning for new ideas. I tried out this hairstyle.  I don't know, I kinda liked how it turned out- but I also think I look like a cross between a German masseuse named Helga and Princess Lei, nevertheless I tried something new!

 I'm toying with the idea of posting some daily outfits.  I'm nervous to do this because I am the last person on earth to look at for style cues or inspiration on what to wear.  I have been inspired by Rachel and Rubyellen's Vintage Here, Vintage There feature and have been wanting to try it for a while.  I love dressing my little girl up in fun things, mixing old sweaters with cute little jeans.  So I thought I'd share my clothing and thrift store scores with you.  I think this will also be a good way to share all the handcrafted love that we've received.  It will also get me wearing more than the same 3 outfits all the time!  I'd love it if you comment, or link up with your own clothing post.  You can be honest, and I hope you will (I'm thinking my little sis especially- she has better fashion sense than me and she's truthful)  I think this means I'm getting old enough to not care if I have some weird outfits going on, it's my style and it works for me.  I think you can make anything work if you like it and wear it with confidence.