A busy day around the home-front. After the chiropractor appointment I stopped by our co-op store to pick up a few items. I was so excited when the gal checking me out mentioned they are going to be starting a work/membership. If you can volunteer there for about 3 hours a week you will be qualified for their membership which will also include 25% off! After that I stopped by the Dollar Tree to pick up a few containers and was very pleasantly surprised at the art isle, nice deals! So finally got home and put a second coat on my crafts!

These are little Mason jars and I am hoping to use them as garden makers. I will have to put some kind of weather protecting coat on them before that. The other idea that I had was to paint them more like my doTerra oil bottles and use them as magnets to give away at one of my classes. Yes I said classes, I have decided my teaching days can not be over. However, the age of my students might vary, and I will be teaching about something that I really love, use, and want to share with others!

My little shutter received a second coat of paint and today at the dollar tree I was able to pick up some adorable mini clothes pins. this will go lovely together. I am hoping to use this as part of my oil presentation for on line and in class, Hopefully I will be able to display some pictures and recipes!

A little view of the one planting table from the indoor garden. As you can see I am really running out of room. However, I will squeeze as much as I can in every inch because I LOVE planting!

I do not normally do very well in the kitchen department, but today I decided it was time to give it a whirl. The above picture shows a pumpkin/cranberry/nut cake with a hint of lemon! That's one of the many reasons I love doTerra oils because you can digest them!

It took a very long time but here is the almost finished product. The last step is to add the pumpkin glaze which needs to be done once it cools. Of course I did not have the patience to wait that long because I have a duty to my loyal blog followers to get a blog out!

Well the peas have been planted in their new home! I was able to find some old chicken wire, cut it to fit in the box and then carefully transplanted the peas in! Wow were they rooted! Those poor roots were screaming for a new home. So hopefully they will enjoy their new place and continue to grow!

I could not leave all that open space in the middle so I planted some carrots! Yep that's right I'm actually going to see if I can get some carrots to grow inside!! I also had some new sprouts coming up in the flower area!

You may have to really zoom in to see these little sprouts but they are there! At first I thought it was just the morning glories but on further inspection I spotted these little guys. So excited to see some more sprouts!

Tomorrow these poor tomatoes will be getting their new home! They are really looking pretty hardy so I think it is about time they get their individual spots so their roots can expand as well! I also had help to day from my son he planted his Carolina Reaper peppers and hopefully they will take off soon. He's a great gardener and the proud owner of his very own banana tree right here in WI! we have several little sprouts from his banana tree that we have replanted so now we can have more! Not only does he enjoy working with plants around the house, he loves the greenhouses and also took a class at his high school where he works in the school greenhouse as well. We just love growing things as a family! Hopefully you will follow the blog and see all the updates of our growing, and even some of our family fun trips!!

Look at these pea pods! Lots to update you on. First as you can see from the above picture the pea pods are coming along great! However, the cucumbers did not take after the fur friend incident so I decided it was time to take action and start something else in that area.

Here is a peek at the new starting kit, I planted four rows of cucumbers, four rows of cantaloupe, and four rows of eggplant. We have never had much luck with melons so I am hoping by starting them inside we will have hearty little plants to put out this summer!

I also started some zinnias in hopes that they will be looking good around Mother's Day! Trying to think ahead a little bit here and stay on top of the growing! Searching for an idea to vine the pea pods with, if you have any you want to share feel free to leave suggestions in the comment section. 

A quick update on the doll, still rooting hair and breaking needles, but I think she's getting close. Going to add a little more weight to her limbs and body; looking for her to weigh about seven pounds or so. The outfit that she is wearing now was one of my daughters so that is neat!

Gardening inside has its ups and downs, the down side is my fur friends. Sad to say I found this poor parsley pot in my German Shepherds kennel. I have since replanted seeds, but these are old seeds and not sure they will take off. I will give them a little bit to see what happens. Also Miss Molly had a stern warning to stay away from the plants. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to get some new seeds just in case these ones do not take off.

           

I am extremely blessed  by my very talented sister! She has given me such a wonderful birthday gift. First she gave me three mirrors that will go lovely with my shabby chic look. She also gave me two books, one is about the stories behind Christmas songs Love it! The other is a daily devotional that you can color, Yes I am one of those adults that finds coloring so liberating probably due to the fact I lack all other talents in the crafty area! Then she made me the most adorable little bird cages with handmade birds in them! She is so awesome. If you have not followed her blog you should give it a try just simply click on the word blog above and that link should take you right to her very crafty page.

Looking up more great ways to use Melaleuca I found this site called redefinedmom that has a lot of great tips! Just click on the above name and enjoy a very interesting site! Lots of great information!

Aloe Vera has been on my mind as I had mentioned in an earlier post we had a really large plant that was in need of getting cut back. Today I did the cutting back and transplanting in to other pots to share and then decided I should harvest some of the gel from the plant so nothing went to waste.  This proved to be very interesting. I started by just cutting the leaves, and scooping out the gel, I was a sticky mess and only had two drops in the bottle. I then used a vegetable peeler which worked much better but still proved to be tricky trying to get the gel into the bottle. I think buying aloe may just continue as I don't think I am very good at this harvesting yet. Any suggestions?

On a much happier note the indoor garden is comping along most splendid! Things are really starting to pop up. The little pea pods were very busy over the weekend and almost all of them are as tall as the cover.

I was also able to replant some of the little greens that my son Toby started and took out those that were not growing. That left me some valuable real-estate to put in  more tomatoes, cucumbers, and 2 different types of flowers. Very excited to see if these  take off as well.  I also started a brand new self-watering seed starter kit by Burpee. Nothing planted in that one as of yet due to trying to follow the directions and let the little pods soak in the water first. Hopefully they will be ready to go tomorrow and I will be able to fill them up as well.  

Today our Christmas Cactus received a brand new home. She started looking a little sad so I thought maybe she was trying to say "I need a bigger pot for my roots" and sure enough those poor little roots were wrapped very tightly all the way around, so now she will have room to grow! Its been a fun filled planting day!