I see the sun rise.

I've been trying out a new gym, and yesterday and today I went to spinning at 5:45am. That's extremely early for me, so early that when I come home it's even earlier than when I usually get up. Monday I also happened to meet another early riser, the bat that lives in our house. It was flying around the living room, and maybe I was a bit freaked out.

I couldn't find it, but last night he started flying around our living room while Tyler was home and luckily he somehow caught it and set it free outside. Gigi didn't even blink.

I really enjoy the extra morning time before I go to work. I can catch up on my real housewives, take some photos, make a smoothie, paint my nails, it's great! I don't think I'm going to get up this early everyday, but a few days a week is nice. I'm still a night owl at heart.

it's hot.

Like everyone else in the east, I'm trying to avoid the heat by just parking in front of my AC all day. Now I remember why I hate summer. I almost fell in love, and then it jilted me. I wilt in the heat. My sister just had to tell me that it's 63 degrees in Portland today.

I gave gigi a bath today to try and cool her down. Animals must get so hot with their fur. At least the heat is helping my garden, my peppers are going crazy! Hope you all stay cool, and have a popsicle.

new things

:: friendship bracelet from my sis (yours is getting put in the mail soon I promise).
:: vintage jar from Norway, perfectly picked by my mom.
:: playing around with new materials
:: nail polish. when Tyler tells me multiple times: "that color is so cute" (and he even says the word cute) I know it's a winner.
:: my polish has been on for over a week in this picture so this new topcoat has definitely lived up to it's reputation.
:: chicken wire reinforcements to keep the animals from climbing up our stairs to our deck (nibbling on my plants).
:: serrano peppers!

I've been raining on my own parade.

taken last week during a sunny crazy storm

I always feel a bit mixed about summer, I'm a total heat wuss, and would much rather be bundled up for the winter than in humid heat. Also, my work schedule changes, and I have a hard time getting used to it because I'm not as productive when my day hours are taken away. I've been feeling a bit down because I don't know if I have a true direction or focus right now for my future. I have time to focus on the projects I want but I feel stressed that I'm not busy and stressed, but then when I'm busy and stressed I just want to have time to do what I want. It's a vicious circle. Oh my mind.
I'm really trying to change my thoughts about summer. It's been great so far, and I even went swimming this weekend. (if you know me, that's pretty major) I am learning to embrace my free time, I know in the future I won't have this luxury. I just started a ceramics class from the university, and my teacher is a delightful russian grandma who scolds. Her accent is very thick, at times she is really hard to understand and says things like: "Clay is like voo-man, it like to be controlled."

It was nice to work with my hands and not feel like I need to be perfect at it, I'm just enjoying the time to be learning something new. A little summer camp. I think we all need a little camp.

So even though I think my life is still a bit aimless, I think it's important to just think about the present. I look too far ahead and it freaks me out. Right now I'm going to focus on making some friendship bracelets, throw some clay, and embrace summer as I should have all along.

faux film food friday

pics from my instagram this week

I've been eating a lot of koldskål lately, it's the most refreshing thing to have in the summer for breakfast or dessert. We also had a half a watermelon for dinner, which is always fun, and gigi even got to have some.

There are a couple shots of my garden so far, today I fed all my plants a new healthy dose of compost, I've got things blooming and baby fruits brewing. It's so exciting!

update

Here's a bit of a progress report on my garden, things are going well! A couple of my tomato plants are over 3 feet tall. It's thrilling to see flowers blooming, cucumbers clinging to cages, shoots coming up through dirt, and tiny tomatoes.

My only drawback so far have been squirrels. We have so many, and they are terrorizing my pots. They ripped out my carrots, which made me so sad. I put some cayenne pepper around to try and deter them, but I don't think that's a long term solution. I have flashbacks of ground hogs eating everything last year, so I hope they don't touch my produce. Anyone have any tips?

potted.

Today it was hot and sunny. I had the day off, got a little morning knitting done, ran some errands and came back and worked outside. I enjoy spending time out on our roof deck, where gigi just lounges while I work, it's really coming together. I got the rest of my plants planted. My tomatoes, and herbs, and a few flowers too. My tomatoes already have a couple blossoms.

Tyler made me a planter for the deck rail with some leftover wood we had. I love how rustic it is. It's old pine, but I'm not sure if it was treated so I lined it with plastic, with holes and gravel to help it drain. Now I just need to get home to make me a few more...

ps. made grilled pizza again, they were great! The key was to make them personal sized for our small grill.

shaped up to be a perfect day.

Today has been beautiful, windy and sunny, 65 degrees. Perfect in my book. After getting some packages to the post office I took gigi out to the dog park, where as usual she bared her snarl at a 100 lb boxer lab puppy who dared to try and play with her. There was a whippet that kept giving her attention, but she was nice so gigi didn't mind. She went around the perimeter of the yard and then was good to go.

I once again missed getting some of the compost that our town dumps in a nearby park for people to take. You have to be early, I guess people are pretty vicious about their compost. So instead I just bought a 35 lb bag from the town for $3. Our town recycles yard waste and makes it into compost, and even started a curbside food scrap pickup for composting in certain neighborhoods.

I picked up Tyler after he finished a big final, and we had a late lunch of Indian buffet. Amazing. They kept bringing around fresh naan, and I can't say no. I was in a serious food coma after that.

To finish up my Thursday, I transplanted bees balm and chives into pots. I don't know if I did it right, they look a little worse for wear, but I'm hoping they'll perk up.  Hope you had a great Thursday!

first plants

This last Saturday the weather was beautiful. Tyler and I worked on some things at the house and then gigi and I went out to a great local farm. They had so many plants gigi and I walked around for more than an hour just taking it all in. I can browse forever. I wanted to get so many plants, but I decided to start with a few that I knew I really wanted. I also picked out some seeds, I'm going to turn my old garden bed into a wildflower plot, because it's fenced up the groundhogs won't eat them. It was really fun and all the ladies there were just fawning over gigi, who just calmly walked beside me the whole time.

As a reward, we went to the dog park where gigi did her favorite thing in the world, ignore all the dogs and go around the whole perimeter and pee probably 100 times. It was such a relaxing weekend. Now we're back to a cold snap, I hope I can keep my plants alive.

What I got:
Tomatoes: sun gold (best cherry) and brandywine red.
dwarf cucumber
BBQ rosemary
julep mint
alpine strawberries

seeds:
bachelor buttons
poppies
zinnias
snap peas
dwarf carrots
wildflower mix

tiny signs of life.

The other day when I was watching gigi outside, I notice little bits of green in my garden, which if you weren't around here last year, it pretty much spiraled into death and brown by August.

I had planted onions and leeks last year, and they seemed to never grow and withered and I thought they had died. But I realized there were a few green shoots that have popped up, so I guess some hung on! It's still really cold, we got a little snow yesterday, and I know nothing about onions, so maybe I'll dig them up and see what is there. They even have grown through discarded chicken wire.

The only other perennial to survive our heat and groundhog massacre last year is the chives. For some reason the ones in my guarded garden died last year, were totally brown and dried up. But they have revived and look better than I've ever seen them. The lavender doesn't look like it's going to live to see another summer, but oh well.

Because of my garden failure last year, I am going to try something a little different this year. I want to use our roof deck (conveniently safe from groundhogs) and have a container garden. Something low-key, no pressure, and hopefully lots of flowers too. I have learned to not have high hopes (I honestly thought last year that I would become an urban farmer) and that every failure teaches something new. We didn't use our deck very often last year, and I have a goal to utilize this luxury as much as possible.

Anyone built a window box before (I want to make a bunch to hang over the railing for flowers and herbs), or have any good container garden tips?