THE Garden - Week Nine.

I came  home from a week away to this:

!!!

A giant overflowing garden is in place of the sad little water soaked one I left behind.

We lost the basil, but planted a bigger plant (from Trader Joe's!)  The dill isn't looking very well and is being attacked by the fennel - this is AFTER I hacked at the fennel...  I'm pretty sure I'm trimming it wrong, though, because I just got a giant fennel bulb complete with fronds from our beloved CSA, Sauvie Island Organics, and it looks nothing like ours.  Yes this is my gardening technique: look at the vegetables at the store, look at other people's gardens as I drive by them, and compare them to mine...

That giant tall thing is CORN!  I'm supposed to thin the onions, I think.  And the ONE sad little pea plant that made it through our wet spring is hanging on for dear life.  It even made 3 sweet little pea pods that the kids ate.  I'm going to leave the remaining 3 to dry for seeds.  NONE of our beans made it, so I'm going to plant more today in the graveyard of dead pea plants.

The tiny little guys in the middle of this photo are golden beets that are being over shadowed by zucchini plants.  I thought the zucchini would do more draping over the side than they are, and the golden beets are seriously stunted.

My Husband's 40th Birthday Party

I've had so many parties lately that I haven't been able to keep up with posting them all!  I know, this is the kind of trouble to have!  I'm going to try to get them posted as much as I can.

I didn't get great photos of my husband's party because, well, honestly I was having so much fun that I forgot!  We had a great time!  Friends we see every day were mingling with friends we haven't seen in years and we were reminded just how lucky we are to know such amazing, fun and interesting people!  This party came very soon after our daughter's 5th birthday party (which I have yet to post photos of), and in the middle of planning for a big "Voodoo, Vodka and a Van Ride Home" party which took a LOT of work.  I tried to make it lovely without killing myself.  I was intent on ENJOYING this one, and not being totally strung out before it even started - I managed a little of that.

Marc's favorite dinner is cheeses and breads and spreads and bites of different things.  So I ordered a GREAT local artisanal cheese plate from Elephant's Deli.  They always do a beautiful job, although they forgot to include the cards telling us what kind of cheeses were what and where they were made (very upset about that).  Also from Elephant's was a salami plate and various yummy crackers and dips and things.  His other favorite?  SUSHI.  We had a giant platter from his favorite sushi place.  Food? done.  I made a few little desserty things that were a snap, and NO MORE cooking.

I adore a good cocktail, and I like to feature one or two at every party.  They tend to be on the 'girly' side, so I found a French 75 recipe that was incredibly yummy AND was Hemingway's drink - can't get more cigar smoking, crony talking, manly than that!

We have a little house, so I set up different drink 'stations'.  The pomegranate cosmopolitans in  martini glasses on the built in in the dining room:

And the French 75's in champagne glasses on the other end:

We also had different local wines, so I put the glasses and bottles in the kitchen eating area:

Marc included his favorite local beer - LSD - in a keg from Lompoc, so we had beer glasses in the kitchen.  Our Lego master snuck in and out during the day "embellishing" the glasses:

Homer Price and His Doughnut Machine

My son's class was reading Homer Price

in his first grade class and they decided they MUST act the entire thing out, and Mr. H. of COURSE volunteered to make the doughnut machine for the play!  He assured everyone it would be SO easy and even built a model for us to follow:

With some help from his dad's recycling room at his office and a pinkie swear that the machine would NOT return to our house after the play, we set to work!  We first watched this video from youtube.com to understand the scope.

This is only part one, and there are THREE parts if you are so inclined.  We weren't.  But we did watch enough to build the doughnut machine out of cardboard!

The kids did a GREAT job with their play!  And someone ELSE got to take the machine home!  Win, win!

HARVEST!

I went out to trim back some of the poor veggies who have been just SLAMMED with rain in the last couple of weeks (please oh please let the rain stop and my garden have a chance to grow!!!) and I found these radishes poking RIGHT OUT of the ground!!  They are lovely.  And they were delicious!

And there was this lovely spinach that I sauteed with garlic from the recipe here:

That huge amount of spinach was enough for ONE side for ONE dinner, but still!  It came from our garden!!  It was a small accomplishment, but an accomplishment nonetheless.  My son, who likes NOTHING, even gobbled it down.

Pregnant? Just Get This Now.

You need a changing table.  Okay, you don't NEEED a changing table - you CAN change a baby on the floor or on your bed, or on the bathroom counter at your kids' school... anywhere really, but OH a changing table makes it SOOOO much easier.  We didn't have one with number 2, and I kept a pretty little canvas bin thing with me, complete with diapers, wipes, etc.  It was fine, but a changing table is better.  NOW we have a changing table and we went the "put a changing contour pad on top of your existing dresser" route.  It works fine.  Our dresser is only a teeny bit bigger than the pad, though, and so Baby O. kicks anything and everything at the end right off.  This is usually the dirty diaper I have just removed.  I have been using it for 20 months and I curse it.

If you are pregnant, save yourself the hassle.  Don't go searching around for the best one.  You've found it.   Buy this GORGEOUS changing table!!  If you are going to have more kids you will use it and use it and use it. 

Not only will your husband turn into a cool, "I'm still a skater punk at heart" kind of a dad, but you'll be able to keep everything together, and change that kid with plenty of room.  If you aren't going to have any more kids, make it a nifty desk for your one kid:

And, hey, while you are out, BUY THIS CHAIR!!!  I've wanted one for our kids for over 7 years now.  USE yours for those seven years.  JUST BUY IT!

If you want all the cool details about how this is the best highchair / kids chair / adult chair ever made check out their website.

Powell's 30% off Scandinavian Mysteries

Powell's Books, our absolute favorite place to be in the universe.  Well, not better than with our kids, or with each other, or, ... well, you get the idea.  It is the largest book store "west of the Mississippi" or at least it is HUGE.  And absolutely wonderful. 

Right now they are having a 30% off of their favorite Scandinavian Mysteries.  This is totally hysterical to me and awesome.  I've just recently read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and it was dark and interesting and gripping and fantastic.  I'm dying for the next one, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and the third one, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, which was just released.

Genius, If They Work!

These Tonytail wraps replace the little band of hair that you are supposed to pull out from your pony tail and wrap around your elastic.  I did that...  once.  I'm sure it would make my daily ponytail look ever so much more chic.  One of these days CHIC is what I am going to aim for again.  Now the highest I reach for is getting everyone dressed, brushed, fed and out the door on time.  Coats are an added bonus, as are library books, etc.  Drying my hair or wrapping the little piece of hair around the elastic?  They don't even make the list.

However, if this worked, it would be SO worth it!  Yeah, I want one.

Baby's First Year Collections at Campbell Salgado Studio

I've gushed about Campbell Salgado to anyone who will listen, but let me say again what a wonderful experience I had with them.  Now that I'm further away from the whole being preggo state, I look back at our sessions with them as actually part of my birthing experience.  The memories of those sessions are actually woven into my memories of having babies!   I was NOT an "I feel more beautiful than ever before" kind of preggo person, and really, the only time I slowed down enough to really celebrate being pregnant was during our photo shoot.  They made me proud of how I looked and the photos are treasures and our art in our home.

The photos at the left are of Mr. H. and I together when I was pregnant (and I actually went into labor that day!), and then when Mae was 7 weeks, and then again for her first birthday.  (YES, she now has hair finally!)  We have a computer and hard drive FULL of photos of our kids, but these are in a different league, obviously, and are framed and ON OUR WALLS.

Kim Campbell and Francisco Salgado have revamped their Baby's First Year package so you can choose which milestones you want to capture and how you want to present them!  Check out all the details here. 

AND now through May 30, 2010 you can save $50 on any Baby’s First Year Collection by mentioning promo code CSS053010A.  In addition, the first 10 soon-to-be or new moms who sign up for a Baby’s First Year Collection package will receive a Mamalates – mom+babe DVD and kit, for synthesized movement for pregnancy, postpartum and all mamas (reg. $35)!

How stinking cute is this collage from their blog?!!

The time flies SO fast, I know everyone will tell you that, but looking at those pics of my babies who are in ELEMENTARY school now, really, really, really, brings it home for me. 

GO SIGN UP. NOW.

THE Garden - Week Three.

It is all coming together!  And things are beginning to show growth - I think I can tell the difference three weeks makes??  First, here are some of the photos I hadn't posted yet:

Last weekend we planted the herb garden:

And the "fruit planter box":

Around the corner from the fruit planter, we planted blueberries in the GROUND - shocking concept...

And here are all four planters so far:

We will still make one more this summer to plant another wave - hopefully staggering the "harvest" - and then maybe another large planter next summer.  My husband is building trellises as we speak.

AND THESE ARE THE SEEDS WE PLANTED!!

and radishes!!

and CARROTS!!

I've planted exactly 4 things from seed in my life.  One was sweet little clover my husband and I found in Ireland on our honeymoon, complete with tiny "pot of gold" to plant them in.  I made a miniature tent out of toothpicks and saran wrap just like the instructions told me to.  The teeny little clover sprouted and grew sturdily until about three inches high when I was instructed to remove the itty bitty little tent just in time for the leggy greens to flop over and die on me!  Every. Last. Clover.  I threw the whole damn pot in the garbage.

For our wedding favors we shared Forget-me-not seeds with all of our loving family and friends.  These flowers grow like weeds in Alaska where I grew up.  Think THEY survived?  Not one. 

My third try is on our windowsill right now.  It is a princess terrarium my daughter received as a birthday gift from her dear friend.  It has already been dumped on the floor, and I'm telling you, if those little buggers don't grow, I'm buying a giant hanging basket of impatiens and shoving them in the damn little princess container and lying to her about the whole thing so she'll escape the curse.

Number four?  THE SEEDS YOU SEE GROWING ABOVE!!!!!!

Amazing Cooking Birthday Party!

We were lucky enough to attend the most delicious party ever!!  The details were stunning!  From our invitations that were in mini takeout boxes with measuring spoons, to lovely vintage cookbooks at every turn, to yummy recipe books of everything the kids made to take home with their own personalized aprons, oven mitts and wooden spoons!

Look at these gorgeous place settings!!! :

Some of the kids working on their mac and cheese:

And the invitations!

There are many more gorgeous photos at my favorite photographer's website!  Stephanie Bryan makes having a party FUN!  You can focus on the kids and the party and not worry about capturing it at the same time - she takes care of that!

THE Garden

We've finally done it!  We have planted a garden!  Of course since the weekend we've had wind storms, hail storms, and rain storms, but everything still seems to be alive and growing.  Can't see the seeds yet (yes, SEEDS, seriously, EEK), but I'm confident they will be showing themselves soon!!

Here is our original plan for the back yard:

(oy the new formatting in blogger is GREAT, and stubborn...)

We've decided to go with just 3 of the large planter boxes and 3 of the thinner boxes that will be against the fence.

We bought this great book at Powells and learned SO much - I highly recommend it!

This is the thin box before it gets a bottom:

After the bottom is put on, we but down the 3/4 - rock for drainage:

This is a barrier to stop the dirt from sifting down into the rocks, but water flows freely:

Then a compost/dirt/sand mix that was recommended:

Our little garden:

Our trusty little trailer:

AND the final wall garden!!:

Our first big bed!!:

I just checked and there is nothing to harvest yet....  maybe by this evening?!

And The Winner Is...

TARA!
I've emailed her to let her know, and she can choose which piece of gorgeousness she would like CSN to send her.
CONGRATULATIONS!  I'm not jealous.  (yes I am.)