A day for creating and enjoying...

Princess Hampton loving her sun

There are some days in life simply too beautiful to waste indoors. So after I brewed a nice cup of coffee we all started our day tending to the garden and enjoying the beautiful day.

Each day in the garden brings something new... Almost all of our seeds have sprouted now.  We direct seeded sunflowers, radishes, cucumbers, California Poppy, carrots, and lavender.  You can see them growing each day.

Hitch thinking about taking a bite....

 Hitch the Hound is still learning to leave my plants alone. When he was a puppy I started a huge garden in NC and he loved to take a nap in the middle of the 20x20 patch. Sneaking a nibble or two from a garden that size wasn't a big deal. Well, today he decided to jump into the raised beds and up rooted my newly sprouting seeds.... I hadn't even finished replanting the poor seedlings before I spot him over my shoulder chowing down on the cucumbers! He is infatuated with the Bush cucumber leaves.  It will be a miracle if I get any cucumbers this year.... I hope so because I want to put my ball jars to good use and can some pickles....  If anyone has some good pickle recipes please share... 

The before product....

The artist at work

Matt took his wood working tools and spent the day working in the backyard.I checked on him at one point and he had every part of our yard covered in pieces of wood in varying stages of completion. Hampton and Hitch were right at his feet to dispose of any wood that didn't pass inspections. Hitch has his own pile of reclaimed wood...

The new medicine cabinet... Still to tacky for me to open and get a picture of... Those are too follow

His goal for the day was to make a medicine cabinet. He had a few challenges with the warped wood but the finished product was outstanding! The technique he uses to bring out the natural characteristics of the wood is beautiful.  Matt is breathing new life into these long forgotten boxes.

The transformation begins...

 I guess today was a day of boxes because once I finally picked a project for today mine ended up being an old box too. Only my old boxes are metal and I turn them into memory boxes. There are certain things I always buy when I come across them and metal boxes are one of them... I also have a weakness for old buttons, dusty books, and canning jars; you can do any number of things with a glass jar, storing gold concentrate is one of them.
In the deep recesses of a garage I came across an old Farmer's Almanac... Some of the graphics in it were priceless so I scooped it up along with a few other items and have had it sitting in my office waiting to be used.  I have a growing collection of ephemera or as most would say a stack of dusty old papers.

My new seed box

 After a morning of sowing cucumber seeds I was inspired to create the perfect seed storage box. I always have seed packets laying around... Some I keep for the graphics, planting instructions, and others are still full of seeds waiting for next years garden...



This little metal box I have was the perfect size seed packet container...

Sunset cocktails and puppy love

Blueberry Vodka Mojito

Matt and I were happy to spend the day together enjoying our home, the puppies, and restoring old boxes... We finished off the day with an ice cold Mojito just in time for the sunset...

Our Mojito's are pretty tasty. We will be putting Matt's liquor cabinet to good use now that we have discovered a cocktail we both love... So refreshingI think the secret is infusing the mint into the simple sugar. I have a big ball jar full of it on standby for our afternoon drink now:)