I have really been enjoying the opportunity to grow food lately, in both the edible and felt varieties.

Edible Food

We’ve had this raised garden bed in our backyard since we re-did the backyard over a year ago, and just last month I finally had some time to plant in it. There are six different kinds of Bell Peppers, Banana Peppers, Zucchini, Green Onions, Chives, Mint, and three different kinds of Basil.

The Zucchini just started to flower and the Bell Peppers aren’t far behind.

In a large pot near by are three different kinds of Tomato plants in varying sizes and a Tomatillo plant.

All of the plants in the container have flowers and two of them have a bunch of babies. It’s fun to watch the babies grow!

There are also some Strawberries in the yard that are having fruit, but the slugs are enjoying them.

Just about all of the flowers have started to bloom in the yard. There are a bunch of pictures in the Backyard Spring 2010 Album, but this one was my favorite:

Felt Food (Play Food)

My latest hobby has been making play food out of Felt. Here is a basket of what I have created so far.

From left to right there is a sliced Kiwi, Avocado, Lemon, Orange slices, sliced Grapefruit, and a peel-able Banana.
Here is the Banana being peeled, the top stems each have Velcro on them:

Here is a better picture of the Orange slices (I will be making the peel soon):

My favorite food item I have made was a 1st Birthday Cake for Emily’s Birthday, because it is super girly with Pink and Lavender frosting, candle and a Purple Flower in the middle. It is fun to make girly things sometimes. Here is a picture of Emily holding it:

There are more close-up photos in the Felt Food Album. Many people ask me why I have started to make Felt Food, and the main reason for me is that I remember how much fun it was as a kid to pretend with fake food. I think when Samuel is old enough he might enjoy it as well, but in the meantime it is a fun thing to make and is something that works well with my skill set – I only know how to sew by hand.

Ever since Joe and I purchased our home over a year ago we have been anticipating the day when our backyard would no longer be just a piece of dirt, but an extension of our home.

This weekend that day finally came, when Bryce and his team at Littlejohns Landscaping transformed our dirt plot to a place that we can enjoy for years to come. There is now a large piece of grass surrounded by a lot of hardy and fun bushes, and I even found a new plant to add to my favorites list – Pittosporum. The focal piece of the new landscape is in the left corner of the yard where a circle of pavers and more traditional tiered pedestal fountain rests surrounded by more pretty foliage. In the front left of the yard there is also a planter box for me to play around with growing items for cooking (mostly herbs).

For those of you that are fans of home improvement shows like we are, here are the before and after shots.

Before:

After:

There are still a few more things for Joe and I to work on; the fountain pump isn’t working well, and I need to figure out what is going to go in the planter box and plant it. Other than that, we are looking forward to the summer months when we can have dinner outside, and the time when Samuel is ready to start exploring and playing in the grass.

P.S. I forgot to mention how much our good friend Laurie helped out. She designed the initial plans (we modified the plans a bit) and was invaluable in helping to decide what plants to put in the yard. Thanks Laurie!

I’m writing this from our new house. We just got our appliances delivered and all but the dryer are plugged in and ready to go. We got my desktop a new 19″ wide screen flat panel which I think is nice. I’ve been using my 17″ CRT since I got it in 2001. We pretty much have all the utilities (including internet) all set up. We moved some things over but there is a lot more to go before we will be done. We’ll try to keep what’s happening on here as we go.

Last weekend was our 1st anniversary. We got to relax and just enjoy spending time together. It was a great time to reflect and reminisce about the past year and the wedding. We had a great time looking at all of the photos again and remembering how much fun we had with everyone being there to celebrate. Thank you everyone for making it such a wonderful day.

On other news, we’ve started the home buying process and are purchasing a new home which should be complete on January 31st, 2008. It is a really nice town-home with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths in a really cute community at the south end of Atascadero (for those of you not on the Central Coast, that is only about 15 minutes north of San Luis Obispo). It has a really big back yard that overlooks a dry creek, and a two car garage. We’re really excited and are looking forward to when we can move in! Photos of the model home (backyard is much smaller than what ours will be).