watching a garden grow

There’s something quite satisfying about tending your own garden. The dirt between your fingers, the first leaves that sprout, the satisfaction of nurturing (and eventually biting into!) your own homegrown fruits and veggies.

Now, I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert gardener. I wouldn’t even call myself a gardener at all, but I like to dabble. I have this terrible habit of letting anything that peaks my interest take a hold of me. Or maybe, I like to become the master of all things interesting? Nevertheless, gardening has clawed it’s way into my life and into a 30′ X 25′ plot in my yard.

Go big, or go home. That’s what they say, right?

I suppose I could have started small since this was my first real experience with gardening, but why not just dive right in? I never did have much luck with getting my toes wet… just gave me a reason to not jump in.

So this adventure began last year when my husband and I decided we would have to clear the land.

This picture still cracks me up. It was actually gorgeous out, but Duca just had to have his winter gear on!

 

This took several weeks to complete, and we weren’t even close to being ready for the garden.  Thank goodness we planned ahead and still had a full year to prepare.

Now that the land was clear, it was time to build the fence and boxes.

We rented the trencher from Home Depot.

That machine was a beast! JG was able to trench the whole thing in under 30 minutes.

Time for the posts!

Starting to take shape…

I wasn’t thinking and didn’t take any pictures of the building process of these boxes. Anyway, here is box no. 1.

Box no. 2! Plus, we got the gate up to keep Charlie and the deer out of the beds. 😉

And box no. 3. That’s all of them for this season! We will build two mirroring boxes on that left side next year.

 

This year, we planted 25 bare root strawberries in that back L box, along with some radish. Tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, okra, green beans and squash are in that front box. Yukon golds are in that smaller bed.

Watching these little strawberries grow is so exciting!

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to grow potatoes for some reason, but…

The Yukon golds have really taken off.

 

And of course, I couldn’t have my own little garden without naming it.

So, there you have it! Hope you enjoyed the first look at our garden, and I hope you tune back in to follow the progress of our dirty side: Hale’s Harvest.

What a difference!

Before I begin, let me start off by proclaiming my love for my husband.  I love him dearly.  And now that that’s out of the way…

I hate to admit this, but I need to be honest.  Sometimes I want to punch my husband in the face.  Not at all in the violent, full of rage type of punch.  Just the quick “why on earth are you slamming those cupboards?!” type of punch.  You know the kind I’m talking about, don’t you?

Well, last year I decided I was tired of being angry.  Tired of being awoken by slamming cupboards.  And tired of my simple (it IS simple right?) request being left unmet.  It was time to take things into my own hands.  And the answer?

Blumotion hinge adapters !

I ordered the 10 pack, and it took care of all but one of the cupboards in my kitchen.  I have 11.  I could have easily bought an additional pack but I didn’t know if they would work the way I expected them to.  My plan was to just install them on the 10 most used doors.  I could always buy more later if they worked out well.  Well, let me tell you.  They are amazing!

The adapters are super simple to install.  We did have to use our power screwdriver but that was expected.  It took my husband about 30 minutes to install all of them.  Now, try as he might, but he can NOT slam a cupboard!  It makes such a difference in the house.  It seems like with two small children we are always in the kitchen grabbing something for them to eat.  Before the adapters, I would dread the banging echoes.  Now, I can’t even tell when my husband is making a mess in the kitchen! And I couldn’t be happier!

transforming a room: a closet into a nursery

My husband and I were expecting our second child, and just like most parents we were putting together a list of names — boy names.  Sure, we tossed around a few names for a baby girl, but we knew we were having another boy.  We could feel it.  Plus, that’s what the Chinese gender chart told us. Just kidding!

So, there we were, waiting for the technician to start the ultrasound and *fingers crossed* find out what we were having.  Boy. . . Girl. . .  It didn’t matter.  We loved the child.  But growing up with four other sisters, I knew what kind of special torture daughters could put their parents through.  And I was terrified.  My husband, on the other hand, was looking forward to a little girl.  At the time, D was the epitome of a mama’s boy and Daddy needed someone on his team.   It was just moments later we would find out Baby #2 was a . . .

Little duck?!

Sorry, sorry!  Just adorable baby feet! ☺️ Here we go. . . Baby #2 is a. . .

My heart stopped.  A girl?  Did she say we were having a baby girl?  I looked up at my husband.  Not with fear, nor disappointment.  Instead, I was overcome with joy I could never imagine, strength I didn’t know I had, and faith knowing God had blessed my family.  And I saw the same in my husband’s eyes.  Yes, we were having a girl.  My sweet, darling baby girl.  And now she needed a room. . .

Okay, so the title of this post might be a little deceiving, but it’s not that far off.  We didn’t really transform a closet.  It technically is a bedroom fully equipped with a teeny closet, a window, and slanted cape cod ceilings as a bonus to make the room even smaller.

 I can take 6 steps from one wall to the other and 6 steps along the other two… but I have to start ducking my head after 3.  I’m 5’0″, by the way.  Believe me when I say that many people have walk-in closets larger than my daughter’s bedroom.  But we knew what we were getting into when we bought our home.

Before turning the nursery into a nursery, it started off as my son’s. . . well, his nursery.  The colors were beige and it worked just fine as a little boy’s room.  It served its purpose as his nursery when we first moved in and continued to work well when we transitioned to his toddler bed.  We always knew that one day he would move into the larger bedroom, which was already painted the perfect shade of blue.

Once we found out that “Baby” was “Baby Girl”, we moved D into his newly decorated dinosaur room and got to work on the nursery.

The first step was deciding on a color.  Cool, muted, bright?  Which route should we take?  It didn’t take long before we knew she was going to be girly!  Soft pink and purple paint was splashed across the walls.  And it was beautiful.

We knew we wanted the room to feel peaceful.  Calm.  The slanted ceilings offered an opportunity to act as the sky reaching down in comforting embrace.  Slighty corny.  Yes, I know.  But I guess I actually do like my sloped ceilings.  Anyway, I searched everywhere for large cloud decals that could decorate the sky.  Finding the perfect design took awhile, but I finally found them at NewYorkVinyl.

Next, a trip to Target!  We were on the hunt for a white, shaggy area rug and wall decorations.  Oh, how I love Target!  We found the exact rug we had in mind.  And it came in a 4 x 5’6″!  It covers most of the hard wood in the room.

We also snatched up Threshold’s Traditional Shelf Set of 3 and a white tree wall decal that I could only find in store (not advertised on the website anywhere).  We decorated the shelves with dolls and books.

The mudroom chair from IKEA was moved to the corner of the room because we just didn’t have extra money to spend on a real glider.  It’s been working out great!  Of course, we have her crib and a small chest of drawers that converts into a changing table.

My husband’s childhood rocking horse sits in a nook finishing off the nursery.

  

My daughter’s bedroom might be small, but it is cozy, warm, and full of love.  And this smile . . .

tells me that it’s more than enough.