Oh my Lavender!

We are going lavender crazy on our little farm as you can see....


I'm holding about 18 bundles in my arms and even though it looks like it was easy to carry, I assure you it wasn't. What do you do with so much lavender? Every year this happens to us..what to do with it? Last year we dried it all and took off the buds for chocolate baking and sachets. The year before I made tons of lavender wands but it was very time consuming. I've always wanted to try making the bath bombs or essential oils, but haven't ventured out their yet.



This year I've decided to create something that actually saves us a bit of money, lavender dryer sheets! To make them you can use any cloth you wish, I'm going to use old t-shirt sleeves and pant legs. Fill them up with some lavender, sew shut and throw it in the dryer with the rest of your clothes. They are good for about 10 drys and I have a lot of old t-shirts and lavender...this should last us for the entire year! Supposedly your clothes turn out great, not over powered by the lavender at all. Going to do this in the next few days, so I will post the project once we are done!

What would make try making with an abundunce of lavender?

Enjoy the weekend!

Gardening Days Part 2: Raised Vegetable Bed

FYI: This post is going to be a picture parade!

Our amazing zucchini plants!
We have way more vegetable plants growing, sprouting and seeded than yard plants. First up is our raised and covered bed, which was made with some scrap wood and vapor barrier my dad gave us last year. You can see the post here. We've made a few adjustments to the original design, such as attaching small pieces of wood to hold the plastic frame down. After using this cold frame and growing veggies in it for 2 seasons, we would probably design it totally different. For a starting point, it was a great learning experience.
Here is a picture that we took in the fall. To be honest I was happy to reuse material, but I thought the outer boards were a bit ugly. So an idea started forming...
Here is the after pic! We invited over family and everyone took part in painting the outside boards. Everyone had fun free handing it and painting whatever they wanted.

What you will need to paint your raised garden bed:
-White outdoor primer (paint the outside boards carefully and let dry)
-A variety of acrylic paints, paint brushes, a blanket to put on the ground, a fun group of people and a great imagination!

This is a wonderful project for children with adult supervision of course. It encourages interest in growing fresh foods! My lil one constantly looks out the window or runs outside just to look at his artwork. I didn't realize how much of an impact this would have on him, he just loves that he painted something outside. The added bonus it looks beautiful compared to the boring old wooden boards they once were!





My son's beautiful choice in colors!


My lil one took this pic of me this morning when I wasn't looking! My hair is getting so long you can't even see my face in this photo! I think I was pulling some baby slugs out of the garden (our major pest this year). I'm just grateful they are not those big, ugly slugs! I won't touch those things.

Here are the vegetables in the raised bed...
Green Bush Beans that are constantly fighting to survive against those slugs
Cucumber plants that I had to purchase as starts. I planted Spacemaster seeds, but they never came up.
A lettuce mix that included parsley, basil, swiss chard and 4 different types of greens! This was my first time trying out seed tape, which is basically seeds placed in bio-degradable tissue that you plant out in the soil. Saves you time, plus the small seeds that can be hard to work with are spaced evenly within the seed tape. I had mixed results with seed tape so far. The first growth only grew half the row, but the second growth seems to be sprouting well.
Baby strawberries on the way!
The strawberry plants...with a yummy red berry ready to be eaten!
First strawberry of the season, picked by my lil one. We shared it, and it had amazing flavor!
Since taking these photos a few days ago, I've planted some radishes (only a 20 day crop!) and 2 more lettuce mixes. Hopefully in a couple weeks we will see some sprouting!

So ends the tour of our raised garden bed, up next is my container gardening! I have about 20+ large containers full of veggies!

Maggie's Weight Loss Vlog #1

Here is my very first vlog, it was super fun to make, so feel free to giggle and laugh along with me. The run down of this week's vlog episode:

-An introduction to me
-The purpose of the vlog
-My weight and my weight loss history
-Before and after pictures of my progress thus far
-A brief mention of my workouts
-And of course the "Tip of the day!"

Hopefully this video plays well for everyone, it's uploaded through Youtube so it should work well. Next episode I plan to address what I eat, more detail on workouts, plus some other fun stuff :)

Enjoy!

My vlog idea...

Me! Right before my week 2 Day 5 of the Couch to 5km running program :)

I have been so focused on my health lately that I've been absent in terms of writing in here. I've been thinking about adding some video to this blog. I thought it would be pretty fun to do a few 4 minute videos of my everyday health and weight loss journey. I would love to look back at the videos to see how far I have come, but most importantly I want it to help others in similar situations. I know watching other health and weight loss vlogs I've been able to relate, be inspired and encouraged by their hardwork and changes :)

I'm pretty sure i'm going to try it out, see how it goes..might be fun and it would let me focus on both food, recipes, exercise, health, and weight loss :)

What do you think?

Mommy Blogger E-Book

I am really proud to share with you an e-book project I was part of....

"Mommy Menus-A compilation of kid menus submitted by health conscious moms", is a beautiful book brought together by blogger mom's from all different walks of life. I've had the chance to read through this entire book, read each of the mom's bios, review and tried some of their recipes and it really is a wonderful addition to my raw and health conscious collection of recipe books.

This book was created by Rawkinmom from Color Wheel Meals and Rawkinmom's Blog. She contacted me a few months ago to see if I wanted to be one of the mom's part of the project and I of course said yes!

Here are more details from Rawkinmom herself...
"Each mom submitted their blog/website information, a detailed Bio about themselves, and a recipe for a Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Dessert, and Drink. They also provided pictures of some of their creations. The result is an amazing and inspirational E-book.

I would love for you to receive this valuable E-book so I have priced it at only $12-this is less than a fast food meal for a family of four-these recipes may change your families life and health forever!"

Here is the paypal link if you are interested in checking out this fabulous e-book!

Enjoy all you wonderful parents!

Halloween Projects

Took some time off blogging for some much needed R & R :) Did a bunch of things that needed doing, read a few great books, did a bunch of projects with the little one, created a few recipes (more of that to come!) and spent some time with the hubby :) All is going great, recently we've been decorating the home for Halloween! I got really into this year because my lil guy is 3.5 and what better age to decorate, create and just have a bunch of fun!

Our first project was our Scarecrow! He is hay/straw free (in case of allergies) and costs zero dollars to make! You won't have to spend a nickel on this guy, just use what's around your house. We had a bunch of preschoolers walk by with their teachers and they were giggling and yelling "Yay, Halloween Scarecrow!" It will be a hit with the kiddies!


Scarecrow Project

Materials:
1 long sleeve plaid shirt
1 pair of pants (jeans, jogging pants, etc)
1 pair of boots
1 pair of gloves
1 old hat
1 brown bag
Black marker or crayons
A couple pieces of string
Newspaper




Directions:
Tie the end of the plaid shirt with string and then start stuffing it with crinkled up newspaper till it feels full. Set aside and then stuff the pants with crinkled newspaper till full. Use the brown bag and marker/crayons to draw the scarecrows face. Then stuff the brown bag with crinkled newspaper and tie the end of the bag off with string.Decide where to place your scarecrow either indoors or outdoors, on a chair, stairs, ground, etc... Prop your scarecrow up carefully, boots, pants, shirt, gloves and finally his head and hat. I placed ours on a chair so it supports him well. Then add some decorations. We collected pretty leaves and scattered them around the ground and on him. We also placed some creepy crawlies and spider webs, that I had purchased for a dollar. Enjoy your scarecrow!
~~~
I spent only about $20 dollars on decorations this year, which is amazing considering I had no decorations at all! The main part of our house and our front porch is all decorated! I shopped around and tried to buy everything at 50% off. I captured a sneak peak of our home for ya. I tell ya there sure is some spooky stuff happening! :O







Happy Halloween everyone!

Weekend Projects

We have been working on a couple family projects here at our place this long weekend. I usually try to come up with a couple small activity or projects for me and the lil one to do during the week. This weekend's project were:

• The Excalibur Dehydrator Project (which was mostly my own project)
  
• The Garden Label Project

The Excalibur Dehydrator Project was downsized a bit to mostly just clean up. Everything seems to run fine, it was just really needing some love. Although I did realize I have a weird quirk! If I don't really know where an item has been it's whole life I have a hard time using it. For example, I would probably never want used couches or bed mattress unless I knew the previous owner. I'm okay with 2nd hand clothes, plates, knick knacks, but there are certain things that give me the heebies jeebies. A friend of mine said, "maybe it's because you will never really know how clean it is!" Could be true, but I know for couches and mattresses I worry about bugs travelling into our home. As for the dehydrator I feel like I keep having to give it another cleaning and scrub before I use it. What is with me!?

Here are some before pictures

And here are the after pics...

It's in pretty great condition and run smoothly. Excalibur sure knows how to make a dehydrator! I'm thinking of making some dried apple slices for my first run through, since apples are just hitting the harvest season here.

The Garden Label Project is something my lil one and I have been working on. This is a great project for the kids! All you need are a few of those paint sticks you get free at any paint supply store, non-toxic paint, and some paint brushes. I let my little one get creative and choose whatever colors he wants for the stick/label itself. Once it's dried I use a small paint brush to write the vegetable's name. If you have older children they could totally do this project all on their own.



Supplies:
Paint sticks
Non-toxic Paint
Paint brushes
News paper (to protect the surface you are working at)


This label is actually one I worked on myself, since my lil guy's are still a bit damp. Pictures to come soon! His are so pretty because he blended colors together, it reminds me of sunsets and the ocean.





Other than projects we've been enjoying our long weekend by staying indoors. The fall weather has hit us, so it's rain, rain and chilly weather!

Welcoming Fall...

Last post in August, which means it's September and that means fall is around the corner in my part of the world. I guess I always associated September with the fall season because of school. School means summer is over. The equation September + school = fall season! I don't know about you but I LOVE fall. It has so many wonderful aspects to it. I can't wait the 20 or so days till fall is technically here so I'm making a post today.

To me fall represents a time of change...as spring to most represents a time of re-birth. In fall we see changes from leaves changing color to the weather becoming colder/rainier. I also see warm sweaters to cozy up in and tea to sip on.Then there are the pumpkins to adore...and the gourds in all their shapes and sizes.Who can forget the fall harvest...including cranberries...yum!We are lucky enough to have a Cranberry Farm in our area. I checked it out a couple weeks ago after blueberry picking. They had the most delicious cranberries I have ever tasted! I am going to buy some of there fresh cranberries once they are harvested this September. I am so excited!

Speaking of fall harvests, our garden is starting to grow, grow, grow! And check out the cold frame my hubby built. He designed it this way so that our vegetables could grow taller with the cold frame still on, plus it opens and closes really easily. The only problem we had today was a little bit of rain water pooling on one side. I caught it before anything happened.





My garden has changed incredibly in a matter of a couple weeks. It's amazing how fast these little one's can grow. They have doubled there size since I planted them! In the front of this picture is broccoli, to the left is kale and in the very back is butter and romaine lettuce. I still have to plant my spinach. I need to get on that!

Change is really hard for lots of people including myself. I'm not a huge fan although I don't mind small changes here and there. It's when a bunch of things change all at once that can make it hard to deal with. Maybe that is why squash, gourds and pumpkins are all at their peak that time of the year. Comfort food, hello :)

This September will be a bit of a change for our family, because my guy is going back to school. Just to finish up a few classes and then he graduates with his degree. He hasn't been in school for a few years now, so this will be a huge adjustment for him. As for myself and my little one it will be an adjustment too, meaning we won't see him as much and also having to give him quiet time to do homework. I think this change will be good for us. My guy will be able to complete something he has been wanting to for a long time and we can move forward in our lives together.

Now go enjoy the last 20 days of summer and ask yourself what changes are happening in your life this Fall season?