Hobby Happenings..with a little Oh My Garden!

Today is March 4 and do you know what that means?! My garden season has officially begun! I’ve been waiting for this all winter and I don’t care what that groundhog said, spring has sprung! My Easter lillies agree with me and that cold wind can go suck an egg somewhere else! Today I started my early tomato crop. I learned last year that you don’t have to plant every seed in the pack so I only did 8 this time. We have no intentions of having a tomato jungle again this year! Even though it took about 45 seconds to fill my seed pods and pop a seed into them, it felt so good to have my hands back in dirt! I’ll start the peppers next weekend. We also have to get the boxes filled and fertilized because spinach will be sown outdoors at the end of the month. Ahhh! I’ve so missed my garden!! If you’re interested in gardening you should def grab a garden calendar from the WVU Extension office!

In other news, my friend, Michelle, was here visiting us last weekend and that’s why I allowed myself to miss posting. She got a taste of our active life with a dog walk, yoga session, and bike ride. I’m pretty sure she won’t come back 😂😉 Just kidding. I also showed her how to make necklaces and she got her first painting lesson. It was quite an eventful weekend. We haven’t seen each other in two years so it was nice to finally spend some time together! I know most of you saw our paintings on FB but I’m posting them again for those who didn’t. 

The lotus flower symbolizes personal growth. Its roots grow in muddy water and the plant rises up above the surface to produce a beautiful bloom. 

A necklace I made. 

I see my nieces and nephews once a week and I always take a craft or activity with me to do with them (side effect of my job lol). A couple of weeks ago I thought they would enjoy making dragon eggs. You start with a ball of aluminum foil and cover it in air dry clay, which you can color with food coloring. What is not a good idea to do is to use your bare hands to rub that food coloring on the clay. Doing so will result in stubbornly stained hands, especially if you use a red based color, such as purple, like I did. For your learning pleasure I tried every google suggested way to remove food coloring stain from your hands. Let’s play a little game. I’ll tell you all the methods I tried and you try to guess which one(s) worked. Ready?

Vinegar and salt paste

Baking soda and vinegar

Fingernail polish remover

Bleach

Toothpaste

Rubbing alcohol

**************

If you guessed anything except bleach, you were wrong. Pictured below is my hand after each treatment (I forgot to take a “before” but it didn’t matter because nothing even remotely worked before the bleach). To be fair, the rubbing alcohol could’ve maybe taken a better shot had it not expired in 2016 🤷🏻‍♀️. Guess we’ll never know now. I experimented with the materials before I tried it with the kids so I took gloves for them to use (and I was genuinely surprised that Kate’s hands didn’t “accidentally” get stained anyway. Messy is that kid’s middle name). They enjoyed making the dragon eggs and Kate, of course, had to make three 🙄😉. 

Sansa is very excited that my hobbies have now started to include her. I recently took her to the vet because she is prone to skin infections and licked her belly for two straight days (driving us NUTS!) and I noticed a red patchy area starting to form. Just like at the people doctor she got weighed as soon as we went in. To no one’s surprise, she is overweight. And she’s sensitive about it so don’t mention it when you see her. 

She’s going on a diet and as part of such, Ive started making her homemade treats to replace her Milk Bones. All they are made from is equal parts peanut butter and coconut oil with a little bit of cinnamon. You melt it all together, pour it into molds (small ones because we learned this dog rarely chews and the first batch I poured into a mini muffin pan, making them just the right choking hazard size 🙄). They go into the freezer to set up and after you pop them out they should continue to live in the freezer. Otherwise they will be a melty mess. 

She loves these treats. She loves anything coconut scented, actually. I have a hand lotion that must taste good (to a dog) because she always tries to lick it off when I wear it.  I tried exposing to her that defeats the point of me putting it on but she can’t be reasoned with 🙄. I also tell her she doesn’t need to take a toy outside when she goes to pee but she never listens. And parents of toddlers, I can relate; my two year old doesn’t like to clean up her toys either. She takes them out and leaves them in the yard. I sometimes try to pick them up and she gets rowdy and takes them from me and drops them again so now they just live in the yard. That is until she comes across one that she hasn’t chewed on in a while and decides to bring it in. So if you’re ever driving by my house you will see plastic, gnawed on Nylabones littered across the yard. I had a supervisor when I worked for Head Start who told me to never get into a power struggle with a toddler so she can leave her toys in the yard but it’s only hurting her, since you can’t play with them. Until mowing season anyway.  

That’s all for now. I have a fun Passion for Repurpose coming soon! 😊