Tired of being tired?

Our Garden Currently: Getting garlic in the ground before the freeze

This past weekend we gave planting garlic a shot.  We haven't really grown any type of garlic yet, but we are dipping our hands into the herb to see how well it does were we live.  We hope to have a good crop when it comes time to harvest, and use most of them for cooking and canning, so we shall see if we are garlic farmers when summer rolls around.

We started by clearing out a patch of area close to the house.  The area under our garden hose was begging to be turned into some sort of flowerbed, or planting bed.  My mother-in-law, Cheryl, actually grew up in the house that we are living in currently and said the area that we cleared out was once a flowerbed when she was a little girl.  With just river rocks and bark mulch in our way, we raked and hoed on the area until it was pretty clear of debris.  I loved how it turned out once we cleared the area completely.

Skylar is always such a big helper!

We used three eight-pound bags of organic potting mix from the local farm supply store, Wilco.  

We planted three different varieties just to see which one does the best.  We expect to lose a few of them to animals, or rot, but overall we should have plenty survive.  With any luck, all three will be great harvests next year.


We decided to plan the entire bulbs from the garlic cloves we bought, since the roots on them were very thin and small.  We may be swimming in garlic come harvest time, but we plan on canning a lot, cooking with it, and pickling it with cucumbers and by itself.  I've also been learning how to braid garlic, so we are looking for a large harvest next summer for sure!




With all of the rain lately, we haven't had a chance to manually water our plants or trees.  Sometimes the Oregon rain is helpful.  

Unfortunately, the rain also doesn't work well with untreated Adirondack chairs though.  We ended up saying goodbye to the 13-year-old Adirondack chairs Jeff and I got when we moved in together in 2000.  We were able to salvage some pieces to use in other ways, but its chair days are over.  We are on the hunt for some new ones as we speak though, and there are so many styles to choose from.  Here's one we've had our eye on lately.  

We love this look with the natural hardwoods.  This one comes from World Market and is on sale right now for only $99!

We have seen a few more that we like too.

2.  Amazon.

Our options are very much open.  Next spring we will finally make the decision.  In the meantime, I will find use of the parts from the old chairs and wait out the Oregon rain.  

DIY: Soy candles

DIY is the way to go anymore and with so many ways to do it, your possibilities are endless.  This is a marker movement we have going on currently, so anything and everything, and anyone who's anyone is making things. From the outlets such as Pinterest, to DIY kits being sold on Etsy, there is no stopping you once you catch the DIY bug.  With that, DIY movement companies have popped up all over the place with their own ways to push the DIY movement further.  Once of those companies is Darby Smart!

Darby Smart was founded with the idea of bringing DIY straight to your door.  Their kits arrive with everything you need to create stylish, functional, easy to do crafts and DIY activities.  Recently I received the soy candles kit and boy was it a blast!  The kit arrived with everything I needed!  It even arrived with a handwritten note, what a great touch!


My soy candle kit contained the soy wax, of course.

Wax colors in red, blue, and yellow.


The glass votive holders.

Bamboo sticks to hold the wick.

And scents in bacon (ha!), Spice Pumpkin, Dozen Roses, and French Vanilla.

#MadeByMe

I started first by melting the soy wax.  I didn't quite follow the instructions that came with the kit, step-by-step, because I wanted to be creative and see what I could do on my own. 

I filled each votive with the hot soy wax.

Split my wax colors in half and dropped in each other that I wanted to achieve in each votive.  I let the hot soy wax melt the wax colors on their own.

The wax colors as they were melting.  
This photo was actually featured on the Darby Smart page too!  Check it out here!

And this is what happened!  How awesome are those colors?  The instructions from Darby Smart say to grate the wax to help it melt faster.  I waited until the color wax was completely melted into the votive and then added my scents.  

I added the wicks after trimming them down to the appropriate size for each votive holder.


Beautiful colors!


The yellow was scented with bacon scent, the two blues were spiced pumpkin, the white was French vanilla, and the reds were dozen roses scent.  My craft room smelled heavenly for the rest of the day too!


As they were drying, I adjusted the wicks a little bit to make them stand up straight.

And the finished candles.


Such a great DIY project!  

And right now you can get this DIY soy candle kit for less than $25 HERE!  This makes an awesome Christmas gift for the DIY'er on your list!

Be sure and check out these other DIY kits from

1980's Throwback Bags

Craft Kit - Great Gift

Modern Plaster Votive Holders

Make This

Five on Friday: Spark of Loves this Week

It's Friday and time for another Five on Friday linkup with Christina over at Carolina Charm.  Here are the Five errr Ten things actually, that made my week special.



1.  This cup of soup.

Because I was home by myself on Monday and it seemed like a nice, quiet, less involved dinner to make.  I am not ashamed.

2.  This note to the Tooth Fairy.

Because my ten-year-old is losing the last of his baby teeth and it makes mommy sad.

3.  This Frozen Treat.

Because it's about time someone made these, and they are only 60 calories too!

4.  This Robin's Nest.

Because I finally found the perfect spot for it.

5.  This Movie Outing.

Because it was fun.  We live less than three blocks from our local theater, so we took off on foot and watched a movie, stuffed our faces with popcorn, and had a night of it.  We have decided to make this a special thing every other week on Wednesdays.  Free Birds is a cute movie too, go see it!

6.  This Cheesecake.

Because I made it and it was delicious!  Grab some washi tape and paper straws here from Brit+Co to make the little flags on top like I did.

7.  This Peach.

Because it was too good to pass up even if it isn't in season.

8.  My Christmas Cacti.

Because she's lovely this time of year.

9.  This Veteran's Day Project.

Because we love doing crafts in the Rain Valley Classroom.  See what we are up to week-to-week here.

10.  These Sugar Cookies.

Because Skylar and I made them and they were yummy.  And who doesn't like a sugar cookie shaped like a bone?  :)


Eco-Tip:  Use paper bags when lining your small garbage cans instead of plastic.  Paper will end up in the landfill just the same, but unlike plastic, it will actually break down faster.  For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me:  Go Green.