Cool Ideas for Spring Gardening

So, this week has been tough one. I've been on a special assignment for work and, unfortunately, it is a third shift deal. I am definitely a diurnal person and being up all night has really messed up my bio-rhythm and made me quite the tried pup. I've stayed in bed (either sleeping or just being lazy) most of the day. The "to-do" list has flown out the window.

I am also tired of winter. I am really yearning for spring and gardening and just being able to go outside without ice cold fingers and toes. I know it's coming...but I am impatient to say the least.

Here are some cool urban gardening ideas found floating around the Internet:

 

Recycled Plastic Bottle Greenhouse

 

 

Marbled Fence

 

 

Security Door Trellis

 

 

Beautiful Mosiac Pathway

(I couldn't find the original source)



Springtime in Kentucky

I can say, right off the top, I really need to break out my camera.

Springtime in Kentucky is beyond beautiful. For work, I had to take a short trip to central KY yesterday and, with the blue skies, greening mountains and blooming trees, I was truly in love. This love, however, is kicking me in the butt. I don't recall having allergies as a child. I loved the outdoors and spent much time in the woods. I climbed trees, laid in tall grasses watching clouds, and romped through my mom's flower beds. Surely I would recall having miseries associated with pollen.

Now, in my middle years, I have suddenly developed horrible, horrible pollen allergies (or so I assume). I have been so sick the last few days. At first I thought it was a cold that just wouldn't go away, but now I am convinced it is indeed the wicked histamine. My throat hurts, my head hurts, my ears hurt. My eyes are burning and puffed up.

For the most part, the flora down here is the very same I grew up with and I have never had extreme reactions to it. Bradford pears are everywhere here, but I am ruling them out. The culprit I am considering is the gorgeous Magnolia. It's definitely more widespread than back home.

Whatever it is I hope it ends when reproductive season has commenced. I feel absolutely crappy!

Dropping Balls

Well, I still need to do a Thrift Share Monday post. I dropped the ball on getting it done by Monday and, hopefully, I will be able to get it finished by Wednesday. I have one or two or five cool finds to share. Life is exciting (good and bad ways) and hectic at the moment. I also dropped the ball on dates and found out this weekend that my child's 1st communion is NEXT SUNDAY. I, for what ever reason, memorized MAY (not March) and now I am scrambling to send invitations to family and friends (we are having a fiesta afterwards at the in-laws home).

I have to travel again next week (Minnesota-never been there) and it was a rushed plan of action (dread the rush travel). This has meant I had to alter my regular schedule on top of the news I had erroneously heard the wrong dates for my son's event (as an aside, part of the issue is I am not Catholic and the tradition is somewhat confusing to me. Plus, I am away during the week right now. My husband was suppose to be spearheading this important cultural thing and never told me any dates at all except a May date. Sadly, we dropped another ball when we did not finish an art project son was suppose to have at his retreat on Saturday. He was the only one without the project and I felt really bad for him-stupid parents! We have remedied this with a planner strictly for his church events).

I am still working on getting us organized to sell and buy a Louisville area home. Hard. When I returned back to KY from No.IN on Monday I was utterly speechless because the trees had leafed out and were in full-flowered beauty. It is actually spring here!*

*Meanwhile, back home, they are calling for snow this week. :(

Maybe, the Regret

Oh, spring loveliness here today. Blue sky and reasonable temps, I just had to get out of the office and drive around. Days like today I love KY and am so happy I ended up here (pure luck, I say!) And, the fact I have been here almost three seasons is just amazing to me.

Other days (and even sometimes into the evening), I feel panicked. My husband is a lot more adventurous than I am. He says, "Sometimes you just have to take a chance..." He is excited and happy about the move. Me? I have always been at odds with 'chance'.

Tomorrow, I am setting off to see too-good-to-be-true house and land (I've been there several times now, but the realtor does not know this fact). I saw they reduced the price by $15,000. The place is beautiful, but remote...or at least it seems that way considering one has to track up a mountain and down into a hollow. You can only see other folks' houses way off in the distance on top of a different mountain (okay, hill, but a mountain to this former flat-lander). The house and property are just perfect. I think maybe too perfect.

I am on the fence about the location. I am not sure I want to be remote again. Back home in IN, our house is rural, but the in-laws live just down the road. We can't see our neighbors, but they are there. This weekend, back up North, I managed to get both my vehicle and our pick-up stuck in the blessed wet snow. Husband was at work. My eldest child had a birthday party to attend later and we needed a gift. I was able to call up my MIL and she took son to store and party and my FIL and step-BIL (also a neighbor) came to my rescue with a tractor. In KY, we will be on our own. And this scares me.

So, I found two other homes to check out near the edge of Louisville. Both are 'city' houses, but both offer large (as in 2+ acre) lots. Both are convenient to the city and decrease our work commute. Well, it will shorten my commute (the other house is actually closer to hubby's work) and I am not sure I want to go back to an hour one-way commute to work. I love being home quickly when the day is done. The closer city homes offer a chance to know our neighbors (possibly) and have someone to rely on if ever there need be a reason.

I think my worst fear is regret. Maybe I will regret selling our lovely 10+ acre lot in IN. Maybe I won't find anything in the same price range. Maybe my job here will end. Maybe I will have trouble with childcare. Maybe I will be lonely here...or maybe I will love it. Maybe I need to let chance (aka fate) have her way. Until we sell the IN property and get Dh down here, it's all just a pipe-dream anyway.

Thrift Share Monday: All Seasons

This weekend as I pulled items from a box of recently thrifted knick-knacks, I suddenly realized that I had almost all of the seasons and holidays represented in one box o'crap. I found examples of spring (with a bonus Valentine's Day item), summer, and fall (I am leaving out winter although I have plenty of that kitsch too-I am just tired of the season and don't even want to consider it tonight!)All of these items have been gathered since Christmas in various towns and sources east of the Mississippi.

Spring: bunnies (of course) are represented by the Avon candle holder (love it) and the vintage cookie cutter; the little girl is carrying a basket and possibly an egg; the egg houses are a collection my boys and I have been gathering at yard sales and such (easier to find than Xmas village stuff and cheap!); I almost thought I had nothing for St. Patty's day until I discovered the Irish Coffee towel among my treasures. Can you spot the St. Valentine's Day representation?


Summer: June wedding month (I plan to remove the vintage cake topper and use the wedding bell jar in some other way); NIP Homer Simpson chia head (Ok, it seems summer-y to me); the pig cookie cutter (perfect for a Southern style BBQ event); the Dutch boy cookie cutter (hmmm, maybe he should be with spring since I think tulips with Holland); a bi-centennial storage jar; and an Annual from 1959 depicting camping girlies (this book has great illustrations in it).



Autumn: My favorite time of year and what better represents the return of cooler nights? Owls, of course! I found 8 of these cute glasses at a thrift near Cincinnati (50c each); I also found the Great Tales of Terror book for 50c recently; a darling set of ABC cards with vintage French illustrations (reproduction); and last, another ubiquitous cookie cutter (I thrifted all of the cookie cutters together if you can't tell)-this one, of course, represents that #1 fall-ish fellow Jack!


There you have it-a year of thrift in only a few short weeks of (cold, dank, miserable) winter!

Join the thrifting fun at Apron Thrift Girl and Her Library Adventures!