My card reader is still MIA (where did that thing get off to?), so today's pictures are brought to you compliments of my Droid. ^.^

A while back I posted about the silver maple seeds I had collected for planting. Well, today I show you a picture of how the little guys are doing. Soon I will need to transplant them from the Styrofoam cups I started them in and move them to bigger pots!



In an attempt to save more money, I've been learning the tricks of couponing. Yesterday we hit up Homeland (a local grocery chain) and CVS to grab a few freebies with my carefully collected coupons. ^.^ Here is what I managed to get:



I ended up paying about $2 in tax, but the items themselves were free with the coupons. I was especially excited about those pastas, as the husband and I love pasta for dinner. =)

Once a month, our neighborhood has Big Trash Day, when then garbage men come by to collect all your trash that is too large to fit in your trash bins. You wouldn't believe the perfectly good items that people throw away! Jason and I enjoy the weekend before Big Trash Day by perusing the neighborhood for items that we can use. Here is a picture of what we snagged last weekend:



I plan to post pictures of what I do with these items, so keep your eyes peeled for updates. =) Here are a few to start off with:

See that big black futon mattress? Our neighbor told us that the people who tossed it out also tossed out the frame for it, but someone already grabbed the frame before we came along. No matter, as what I really wanted the mattress for was this:



A nice, big, comfy dog bed to put out in the sun room! ^.^ The dogs love it and enjoy laying on it while they watch the world outside or taking a lazy nap. Plus, it's big enough that several of them can fit on it at once without starting the "he's touching me!" fussing.

I also found this Little Tykes art easel that was pretty dirty, but overall in good condition and still perfectly usable!



I took it out into the back yard today and gave it a good scrubbing. Now it is practically as good as new!



Jason and I don't have any little ones of our own (aside from the animals) yet, but it will be nice to have when we do, as if they are anything like me, they're bound to have an artistic streak. ^.^ Until then, I bet I know another little one who will get some use out of this. =)

I'm Not Dead, I've Just Lost My Card Reader

My card reader (the thing I plug my camera's memory card into in order to upload the photos) is MIA at the moment, which has contributed to my lack of updates lately, but I am alive and well!

Husband and I have been setting the wheels in motion for us to purchase some property outside of the city and start a farm. If all goes well, we should have a place and be moved in before autumn (hopefully in time to plant a pumpkin patch!). I am excited about living rurally again. I enjoy the city and its conveniences, but I dislike the constraints of living so closely packed with so many other people. It's hard for a hippie to live in suburbia!

I look forward to having a huge backyard for my dogs to play in. I plan to build some agility equipment for my more athletic canines, and, although I will be busy with the farming much of the time, I am still hoping to get them dog scout-certified through the mail, since there aren't any Dog Scout troops in Oklahoma. Soon I want to start uploading videos of their training to my Youtube channel.

The puppies I posted pictures of a while back found a great home together with a country boy and his fiancé who live outside of the city. They send us pictures of them every now and then, and they are getting big and doing well. I am very thankful that they now have a loving home and are still together.

The silver maple seeds that I planted in saved Styrofoam fast food cups have sprouted and are doing quite well. I haven't counted to see exactly how many have come up, but I believe it is around twenty. I would love to plant them on whatever property we end up buying (away from the house, of course). I plan to have a flower garden tucked into a grove of trees, so perhaps they will get planted nearby, where I can enjoy their beauty.

We have one of those cheap $5 or $10 plastic wading pools in our backyard that we used for the dogs last year, but it has since developed a leak. I am hoping to fill it in with soil and plant some watermelon vines in it. It seems like it would be a good planter for vining plants, anyway, since we can just pick it up and carry it with us when we move.

Husband showed me how to change spark plugs on his Grand Am a few days ago, and I really enjoy the learning experience. I am oddly intrigued by mechanics. I suspect I get that from my dad, as he always loved to tinker with machines. I am hoping to get a clunker for a project car sometime after we move so I can get more hands-on learning in that area. I am a big believer in hands-on learning.

Hopefully soon I will find the card reader so I can upload some of the new pictures I've taken over the past several months. Until then, live wisely and love deeply.

The Seeds of Change

Now that spring has finally dug in its roots and taken hold, I've been wandering out into our rather bleak backyard more often than usual. And since this is the first spring I have spent here when I wasn't holding down a job, this is the first time I have started to notice the seeds dropping off our silver maple tree.



Aren't they wonderful? Look at how beautiful they are! They remind me of little fairy wings. In fact, I may use a few of the wings for some mixed media art along those lines.



Since I share a love of all things that grow, I've collected a bowl full of them to try and plant. I've seen a lot of discouragement on the internet about this, saying that there are much better maples to plant than these and silver maples tend to be a very "dirty" tree, forever dropping twigs, branches, leaves, and seeds, but I have dealt with all of these things, having one in my backyard, and they do not bother me tremendously. And it is really such a lovely tee with beautiful leaves; I would love to have a grove of them (away from the house) when we finally move out of the city. Besides, I already have thousands of these seeds raining down on me, and lord knows I enjoy using what the earth readily provides.

So for now, it is my little horticulture experiment. And who knows, if I end up with a bunch of little saplings that I don't want come winter or time to move, I can always give them away.

And so the cycle of seasons continues.

Showing Off the Niblets

These are my little niblets. They're both four weeks old and male. I can't keep them, of course, but I've certainly enjoyed having them here, particularly now that they are, in my opinion, in the cutest stage of puppyhood - they're tottering around quite well now, have started eating (face first) softened dogs food, they have the most adorable little barks, and they give sweet little kisses when you pick them up.

Oh, puppy love. <3 There isn't anything better.







That first picture is when the babies were just a week or two old. Sweet momma kisses! She's ready to be rid of the little leeches now, poor thing. ^.^

A Little Experiment in Gardening and Usefulness

So, I'm doing a little experiment. Some of you may remember, back in kindergarten, doing an experiment to sprout a potato in a cup of water. Alas, I never enjoyed that experiment so far as I can remember, as my class went with the bean-planted-in-a-cup-of-dirt route. But now I find myself with five potatoes and an onion, happily suspended over cups of water atop my old piano. Whether or not this experiment will succeed, I haven't the foggiest, but I'm hoping.

Of course, this wasn't just a whim. I've been jones'ing to do some gardening lately, but, what with it still being in February, I have a feeling that the deceptive warmth we've been having lately may soon relapse into a final cold spurt before spring finally sinks its roots in.

This all started when I found an onion in a little bucket we use for produce atop my refrigerator. Well...truthfully, it was more like an onion *plant.* It had sprouted amazingly well, and while half of me was regretting that I hadn't cleaned off the top of the fridge sooner, the other half of me hated to throw out something that had such a strong will to grow. Hence, we started our little experiment, and since I was already going to the trouble (if it, in its simplicity, can be called that), I went ahead and sorted through the potatoes to see if there were any likely-looking candidates as well.

So here we are, and only time will tell if it will actually work and I will indeed be able to start off this year's container garden with my produce-gone-bad. In the meantime, I've named them. ^.^





And not only am I being thrifty by trying to sprout something that most people would have thrown out, I'm also using empty yogurt containers to do it in. Bonus points for me! And for the record, most non-meat, non-dairy food waste that happens in our home gets added to our compost pile, which happily resides in a large trashcan in our backyard. So one way or another, we put our food waste to work for us. I just thought that sprouting these items would not only allow them more potential than just composting them, but would also save us a buck, since we won't have to buy as many onion or potato plants when we get ready to plant the garden.

'Tis a Gift to be Simple

I've been knitting up a storm lately, so I expect a few posts will soon follow about my newest creations. First, though, I'd like to share with you the tulips that Jason bought me for Valentine's Day.

I don't like cut flowers. I just can't understand why people pay so much money for them, when they look pretty for a few days and then die. The only useful thing you can do with them is compost them when they start to go bad. But then, I suppose most people don't really think about the useful thing to do.

So, to counter-act this, Jason buys me potted flowers, which I adore. Potted flowers, especially bulbs, mean I can replant them again next year and enjoy their beauty for an extended period of time.

We found this pot of tulips at Sam's a day or two before Valentine's Day for $7. When I got them, there were just a few blossoms, but with each day that has passed since then, more have appeared and widened. They're at their peak right now, with the first blossoms starting to wane as the last are just starting to reach their potential. I've had them placed on my dining room table, but today when I saw them, I knew they were just begging to be taken out and photographed in the sunlight.

So, whether you're really interested in pictures of tulips or not, here are a few of my beautiful red reminders that spring is just around the corner.

Mr. Fuzzbutt

In all honesty, I'm not much of one for gifting my crafted items, but I made an exception for Christmas and sent this cute little crocheted bunny to live with my almost-two-year-old niece.





I named him Mr. Fuzzbutt and almost hated to part with him, but I suspect I'll be making another soon to live happily in my toy/craft room. ^.^

If you're curious to make your own, here's the Ravelry link to the free pattern.