Run Lori Run!

I Grew Kale

It is bug-eaten and holey but damn it, it went from this:

to this:

I happily harvested it, quadruple washed it to get off all the bugs and then proceeded to ruin it. I used this recipe which is usually absolutely wonderful when I follow the recipe.  When I don't follow the recipe and *wing it*, it turns into a vinegary mess. Luckily my husband has an iron stomach and ate it anyway. This is why I married him.

It Is Now Confirmed That I Don't Have The Back of A Teenager

I am now laying on my sofa...wishing I had a heating pad or an ice pack or some bourbon or maybe a masseuse.  I now understand that I have the back of a near-forty year-old person and when a near-forty-year-old person digs up a bunch of sod in an afternoon, that body is going to be feeling it later. Big time.

Remember this photo I posted a couple months ago?  It is from the latest issue of Flea Market Gardens and my ultimate goal for this part of the garden.  We bought some Blue Star Creeper in hopes that it will eventually fill in and look like this:

This is how much I have left.  Not too bad considering this is what it looked like a few weeks ago:

That strip of lawn was covered in mint- it jumped out of the flower bed by the fence and just took over.  It had to go.

Things are coming along.  A couple Tylenol and I'll be able to head out there again...

Have I Mentioned That Time Flies By?

Bad photo I know but this is circa 1994 I think. I was a student at the University of Oregon and just getting to know my first husband's perfect little daughter Brandi.

Fast forward to just a couple weeks ago ~  SEVENTEEN YEARS LATER and we're at Brandi's graduation from the U of O. It was a wonderful day but it is a little unsettling when you realize how quickly she has grown up. I have no freakin' idea how the years fly by so fast. 

And now I have two beautiful daughters who make me so proud! How did I get to be so lucky?

Summer To-Do List

I am a list-maker. I get immeasurable joy by crossing something off my to-do list. I add easy stuff (laundry) just so I can gleefully check it off the list.  Once, in college, my roommate mockingly gave me a to-do list with the very practical reminder to...

Wait for it...

*

*

*

Breathe.

So here is my summer to-do list. It has some old stand-bys and some new things I'd like to try this summer.  

:: Pick strawberries (Hoods baby!)

:: Mt Hood Meadows alpine slide

:: Make ice cream for rootbeer floats

                                                                 Martha Stewart

:: Picnic

:: Back yard movies

:: Make blueberry salsa

:: Make a red, white and blue treat for the 4th of July

Martha Stewart

:: Weekly trips (not monthly) to the farmer's market

:: Oregon State Fair 

::Clean out the shed. Again.

:: Refresh my high school French (we're going to France and Italy in December!)

::Find something more creative (and healthy) to do with zucchini OTHER than zucchini bread.

What's on your summer to-do list?

Signs Of Life

It feels good to be outside...

Communing with nature...

Birds are chirping. Bees are pollinating...

But this?

This is just wrong on so many levels...

Summer Dreams

Isn't this lantern cool? I didn't realize how many spaghetti, peanut butter and pickle jars I had saved up hoarded in my basement but what do you do with them? I wanted to branch out from the oh-so-original flower vase idea so I saw this post and knew I had to make some!

They're super easy to make and I think they will provide nice evening lighting in the garden this summer.

The garden is slowly coming along.  The sun is finally coming out more often but I think it will still be a pretty short season. Hopefully I'll have a few ripe tomatoes! 

It has been nice to finally dust off the BBQ and eat outdoors.  I still have a lot of work to do in the back yard to get it ready for the season but it is coming along.  We also dug this bad boy out of the basement, a gift from my dad last winter:

Which this brings us ever so much closer to this, my ultimate summer goal:

Isn't this the most dreamy idea! (If you want to drool even more over amazing outdoor living spaces go here.) 

Trust Me On The Sunscreen

 

It's graduation season and I always think about this "song" this time of year. Have you heard it?  It truly never gets old, so many great things to think about!

Brown Sugar Goodness

I have a friend/coworker who eats Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal some mornings at work and it makes our office smell so brown sugar-y and maple-y and well, cozy.  Instant oatmeal reminds me of my childhood.

So I made some Honey~Brown Sugar~Oatmeal Melt-and-Pour Soap in her honor. I used this recipe with a goat's milk base and I tweaked the recipe to use my own essential oils.

I love goat's milk soap, it is so rich and creamy and I've enjoyed mixing and matching fragrances to build my own favorites. If you're interested in learning more, I recommend this book which has some great recipes in it.

The Need To Make Random Stuff

I was going to title this post Crap I've Made but then I remembered there is already a nifty blog titled Crap I've Made too... So I will title this is Random Crap I've Made Recently instead.

I made this patchwork camera strap last week because I was sick of the bright yellow advertisement for Nikon on my old one. Blah, blah, blah is much better...

I made this oil cloth composition notebook cover for my mom for Mother's Day...

We made chocolate covered bananas...

And crock pot granola.

What are you guys making these days?