High Five for Friday

Hey there Friday people.  I've had a good week...a few bumps in it, but can't really complain.  I'm pretty pumped for my weekend, how about you?

In case any of you ever wondered what a smarty pants 13 year old looks like...here ya go!  He was mad at me because I was sitting in the same room with him..within sight distance..texting him.  I guess it was a little annoying, but I was totally doing it on purpose.  This mean teenager look is a result of having his buttons pushed my his awesome Mom.  He's still cute, though...and it's so fun to push his buttons!  :-)

I spent my Saturday canning peaches with my friend, Catharina.

I woke up and was ready to can

We had 35 ripe peaches and ended up with 8 jars.  They are sooo good!! Pretty impressive since it was my first canning experience.  I can't wait to make more.  Trey even told me I should go into business because they are the best peaches he's ever tasted and he thinks I could get at least $5 a jar.  ;-)

Father's Day was last weekend...My Dad always fusses because he never wants me or my sister to spend money on gifts for him, so I usually end up making his gifts.  After a day of canning I decided I would just give him a jar of my peaches.  I mean they were fab, and I knew I could dress it up to make it a neato gift.  I ran to Hobby Lobby and got some sisal, fabric and some awesome chalkboard stickers.  All under $10.00

I cut my fabric into squares.

Covered the top of the jar with the fabric, tied it on, and finished it off with a chalkboard sticker.  Now, if that's not the cutest gift I don't know what is!!  He loved it, and made sure to tell everyone he was not sharing his peaches!  :-)

I spent the day with my Dad at the lake.  We took the boat out, and made a day of it.  I think he is the happiest when all the kids and Grandkids, nieces and nephews are all together.  I always love seeing him smile!  I'm glad I got to spend the day with him!

When Catie realized she forgot her shoes on another boat her little face lit up when I asked if she wanted a piggy back ride to the house.  Aunt Carrie gives the best piggy backs!

The kids had such a fun day!!

I mentioned how much I love these ON sandals in last weeks post.  I only had a picture from the website...  This is what they look like on me.  I'm still digging them and wear them just about every day.  It's one of those things where you really want to buy a second pair so you have a back up after you have worn the first pair out.

I've been wanting to try this Coola face SPF for forever...like it's seriously been sitting in my Birchbox shopping cart for weeks now.  I was so happy that I got in my June Birchbox...and I absolutely love it! It is organic, it smells so fresh - like cucumbers actually -  and it works very well.  It's a bit pricey at Birchbox for $32.00...You can always use those BB points!!

This weekend I'm going to visit my buddy Marcie and her boys in Ohio.  Trey and I were talking this morning that we can't remember the last time he and I took a road trip with just the two of us.

I'm really excited to sip on some adult cherry limeades with Marc!!

and we're doing the Glo Run Saturday.  Have you ever done it? I thought it seemed cool.. 

What's not to love about a night race!?  

Hope you have an amazing weekend!!
Thanks for stopping by!

xo

Carrie

Cool as a Cucumber - Week 7

 Since this is my first garden I am quickly learning by trial and error, and next year I will know better than to plant everything so close together.  I have finally trained my melons and my cucumber vines to grow in the opposite direction of everything else.  So far they are listening to me.

This week we pruned the tomato plants, and tied a few of them up to prevent them from laying on the ground, which I have read will spoil the fruit. 

This was my harvest this week.  The strawberries never last long.  I basically eat them as soon as I clean them.  We shared broccoli with our neighbors.

I steamed broccoli for dinner. After steaming I found that we had broccoli caterpillars...nothing like having to tell your neighbors..."oh, by the way there may be bugs in your broccoli...enjoy!"  I looked it up, and apparently this is normal. We have not sprayed for insects.  Kyle put sevindust on once and I about flipped out.  I want my garden to be as organic as possible.  The way I see it is  that the worms won't kill you..protein right?  I guess you'll only get your protein if you actually eat the worms, which I wouldn't recommend, but that's just me.  Anyway, if you soak your vegetables in salt water the worms will die and float to the top, or you can do like I did and steam 'em to death.

My cucumber blooms turned into actual cucumbers this week.

I had no idea that they grew from the vines this way.  The male blooms appear first. The female flowers appear within a week or two.  The females are the blooms that appear with the cucumber shaped swelling at the base.  This is what will become the cucumber.  The male blooms fall off leaving only the female flowers to produce the vegetables. 

This is the largest cucumber I have.

I love to see how the vines intertwine...

This picture is actually two vines...one is much higher growing downward, while one is from a vine on the ground that grew upward.  They met in the middle and knotted themselves together.

This is my first week with Bradley tomatoes

I picked these strawberries today.  

Making a total of 7 berries harvested this week.  

This was actually my dinner tonight...with a glass of wine.

I only have three strawberry plants, and they seem to continue to produce fruit.

I read a helpful tip this week about growing strawberries.  If you have or have had strawberry plants you know that you plant one central plant.  As it grows it produces runners.  In this picture I am holding a runner.  They generally are long, straight stems running from your plant and are often reddish in color, or green.  The runners create baby strawberry plants which suck the nutrients from the centralized plant preventing it from producing fruit.  Finding and removing the runners is simple..the runner is always longer, generally flat on the ground and running from the base of the central plant.  Find the runner and follow it all the way to the base and pinch it off right there at the base of the plant. This week I pinched all of my runners.  I'm anxious to see if it makes a difference.

Why try explaining miracles to your kids 
when you can just have them plant a garden - Robert Brault

Thanks for stopping by!

xo

Carrie

High Five for Friday

Oh, hey there Friday.

I've been consumed by gardening.  I talk about it to everyone I know.  I think about it when I'm not home. If you stop by my house, I will insist you see it.  Sometimes I pull weeds in it.  I take pictures of it.  I don't talk to it yet..ok, so what if I do!? Sometimes I stand beside it, and stare at it.. frightened by its massive growth.  Sometimes I even peek out the window to make sure it's still there.

Since I'm a few weeks behind on H54F I have to mention that my little boy had his first (ever) date with his little girlfriend.  Yep, really.  I said date.  We picked her up, went to Steak and Shake for dinner, then went to the rodeo.  They held hands and he even walked her to her door when we dropped her off.  I'm glad he let me share his special day with him.  Pass me a handkerchief please, thanks.

Since we were going to the rodeo I had to wear my cowgirl boots.  Trey informed me that girls don't wear cowgirl boots with skinny jeans.  I missed that memo.  Then I was worried half the night that I looked ridic...then I was like hello, I'm not taking fashion pointers from a 13 year old that thinks hair hanging in his eyes looks cool, so after texting a few girlfriends for confirmation that skinny jeans were acceptable with cowgirl boots..I decided to hold my head up high and rock those boots.  If you carry yourself like you own it..no one will know any different!

I am in l.o.v.e with these strappy black and brown color block sandals from Old Navy.  They are very versatile.  I've worn them with skinnies, shorts and a chambray, and a maxi dress.  Even got a few compliments on how cute they are.  In my ON store they were on clearance for $10.94, but on the website they are $24.94.  I can't explain that one, but either way if I were you I'd def get me a pair.  

They also come in other colors.

Kiddie pools for everyone...for myself and the dogs I mean.  I spent part of my weekend sitting in my beach chair inside my kiddie pool with a book.  It's one of the most genius ideas I have come up with lately.  Brodie preferred to sit in my lap, rather than in the pool, but whatever.  I let him.

I had a movie and dinner date night last weekend.  We saw The Purge...which was super twisted, and then we went to check out Cheddar's, which was actually really good.

I had my routine appointment with my Rheumatologist.  My Lupus is still in remission, and the word excellent was used twice while he (my doctor) was speaking to me...annnnd I've lost a total of 52 pounds since last June.

Thumbs up for being awesomely excellent!!

I celebrated by grabbing a few cupcakes on the way home...It would be a lot easier to avoid if it were not directly across the street from the doctors office.

Besides, I totally earned it, and I shared.  

While I was out and about this week I stopped by my old house.  The tenants moved out, and we needed to make a list of anything that needed to be done.  While I was there I remembered that I let Trey make his handprint in the driveway the day the concrete was poured for the garage.  I pulled some of the grass back, and took this picture.  He was two years (and four months) old on 02/14/2002.  You can barely see his little handprint under his name, but I still remember the day we made it.  I also visited my old dog Charlie that's buried under a tree in the yard.  I sure do miss that dog, and my boy being so little.  Lots of good memories at our old house!

This week I have OPI's Sweet Heart (left) on my fingers, and Strawberry Margarita on my toes.

I, for one, am so ready for this weekend to begin!
Thanks for stopping by to read H54F!!

Have a great weekend!

xo

Carrie

I'm Diggin' it - Week 6

Week 6, and I am overwhelmed.  Today I found myself standing there staring at this 16 X 8 box of out of control craziness wondering to myself what in the world am supposed to do with all of this?  Everything is intermingling with its neighbors.  My cucumbers are strangling my onions, my tomatoes are all tangled together.  My cantaloupe and watermelon vines had to be re-routed so they will not grow into my beans and broccoli.  Saying the potatoes are massive is a huge understatement.  My lettuce is drowning out my beets.  I literally just stare at it all and I'm seriously like what the heck...why must you grow so fast?  Who sneaks in here in the middle of the night and drops a load of fertilizer on you!!?

My tomatoes are almost as tall as I am, and the corn is not too far behind..

I have so many cherry tomatoes I lost count...

the same with the Roma tomatoes..

The broccoli is fascinating to watch grow...

it sounds strange, but it's true.  

My cantaloupe has several blooms..and it makes my mouth water..

Ready for another joke??!!  :-D

Why do melons have fancy weddings?

Because they cantaloupe!!
(lol)

This was so sweet and delicious!!

This little guy will be a bell pepper...

Here is another bell pepper bloom that has yet to open..

Oh, hey there Mr. Hot Stuff..

Sweet banana peppers..

These are the potatoes.  I can't even tell you where they begin and end.  I had to google image potato crops today just to make sure this is what they're supposed to look like.  Who knew!?

Just beet it..

Cucumbers...

The cucumbers are actually really pretty...and fuzzy...

and they make the prettiest flowers..

You can also see the fuzzies on the vines..

This is dill that I have in one of my herb gardens.
I plan to use it when making homemade pickles.

I wasn't prepared for everything to grow so quickly.  In the beginning Kyle told me to just wait and see...it will be completely full before I know it.  I hate to admit it, but he was right.  There were a few times this week that I went outside to look at it, stood there, and turned right back around and went inside. I bought a pressure cooker and some canning supplies this week.  I've been reading blog after blog and watching videos about canning.  I'm excited to make delicious things and share them with my family and my friends.

Here are a few things I've learned from my garden..

1.  Gloves are for sissies.

2.  Many things that grow in the garden were never sown there.

3. I like green beans from a can...from the grocery store...better than fresh ones from my garden.  Sad, but true.  I'm hanging my head down in shame.

Thanks for stopping by!!

xo

Carrie