Raising Seedlings in the Cold

Basement Stairs and Other Such Items. Among the many issues with the Victorian property when we purchased it was the basement stairs.  I'm not sure that the term dysfunctional even begins to describe the state of the stairs which led to the basement.  There were a couple obvious issues, probably most notably the "cross slope" at the bottom flight which lead me to believe that the stringer was less than structurally solid.  Also an interior post that should have been holding the stairs up was dry rotted out at the base and clearly not supporting anything.  Luckily for me, and anyone who has used those stairs in the more recent past the stairs were also attached to a sidewall, and essentially hung from the main floor which provided enough support that I did not fall through.  Needless to say replacing these stairs was one of the earlier issues needing to be tackled.   The Existing Stairs       Of course when remodelin...

Sometimes the stuff we try from Pinterest can be a huge fail. Like a recipe I tried for Forgotten Chicken (yuck!) Other times its awesome, and inspiring, just as the website title suggests:-) This time is one of the later. I took a tutorial from Amy at Positively Splendid for making a baby smock (just a heavy duty baby bib) from a hand towel and bias tape and made it my own. While taking a hand towel and making it a bib for your child is a great way to re-purpose materials you find around the home or at yard sales, I wanted something even more durable and actually waterproof. If you use a hand towel there is still a chance that the baby mess can leak through onto their clothes. So I took Amy's pattern and made the same smock from PUL material. It Polyurethane Laminated Fabric and it is usually used by moms to make baby diaper covers. You can buy it at any fabric store or here on Amazon in a pack of three fabrics. You would need two of the three fabrics from the pack to make...

About three weeks ago, something in me snapped. (If you ask those at Bettendorf Chiropractic that do my prenatal adjustments and massages they would say it was my back and hips, 3 pregnancies in 2 1/2 years has done a number on my body.) But no, it was nothing physical it was the domestic diva section of my frontal lobe! I looked around my house and I was disgusted! I have living this house 3 years and there was so much I never did or cared to do, and it showed. I wanted to make a change, so I did, and boy does my house look better in those three short weeks:-) I owe all the praise for my home's transformation to my mother (Love you!) and Pinterest (love you too!) I will also give myself a little credit for also doing a lot of time consuming organizing, and pitching of accumulated crap.   The biggest transformation was my kitchen! My mother and I (mostly my mother) redecorated my breakfast nook to provide seating and storage for under $200. It looks fabulous and I now have redu...

 amount  OK, time for an update.  To the left is a photo of the greenhouse currently.  Due to the warm early weather I did a lot of planting of summer crops early in March.  On account of this we are about 45 days into the growing season.  I have begun constructing raised beds according to the grand plan, and filling them with soil removed from an area of my basement.  Below is a string of close up photos of a few of the crop beds; they are looking pretty good considering without a hoophouse most of these crops would barely even be planted yet.  First Planting of sweet corn, green beans, and sweet potatoes.  The green beans are beginning to bloom, and the corn is about waist high. This bed contains the second planting of green beans, sweet corn, and sweet potatoes which have been planted as sister crops.  Visible in this photo are tomatos, and sweet bell peppers.  Note the heavy bloom set on the tomatos. Thi...

DIY: Pacifier Clip  So for the last 4 months I have been kicking myself for buying a pacifier clip for Jack. Especially after I got mine in the mail. It is made of approx. $1 worth of material, and I paid $8  for a really cute one. I felt taken and just a little envious of the company I bought from for being able to convince someone like me to hand them 800% profit on an item. Sigh.... So I decided to do something about it. I examined my pacifier clip I purchased and designed the following tutorial.  1. Gather the following materials:  Scissors Sewing Machine 6in of 1/8in wide braided elastic 10-12 inches of ribbon ( I recommend 100% polyester) 1 Suspender clip (usually come in packages of 2, approx. $2 a package)  2. On one end of your ribbon take one inch and pull toward the other end. In the loop you just made add your suspender clip. There should be a place to look fabric through on the clip. Pin through both ...

Building an Economical Greenhouse. March 01 2012        First, I think it would be valuable to have a little background on just how it is that I became interested in greenhouse gardening.  Going way back to the beginning briefly may provide some interesting perspective.  So, childhood; I grew up in a large, thrifty family and gardening was a large part of my childhood.  All of my siblings helped out in the garden which was roughly one-half of an acre in size, but somewhere along the line I took a special shine to it.  During high school I even did a little truck crop gardening.  I grew roughly one acre of crops, mostly your average Midwestern garden fare, which I sold at a weekly farmers market in town.  In hindsight my methods were pretty crude, and the amount of work I put in was pretty huge for the amount of rewards I reaped.  After college I moved here to Rock Island, Illinois, and bought a small house on a small ...