I Should be Procraftinating

I got this crazy idea last week that I just needed to cut some things out of my life and focus on one or two main priorities so I could get them done. All kinds of things got dropped in favor of focusing all my energy on THE PROJECT (i.e. that BIG AWESOME thing I would tell you about but I can't on my blog. If you know me in person you already know about it. I'm just not ready to talk about it on the internet yet) and cleaning. Even my BLOG (gasp!). I allowed myself to work on my pregnancy/baby scrapbook, but only because I want to be able to have it out for Norie's party and I'm almost a year behind. All other creative endeavors were cut from the calendar.

You know what?

It was awful. The whole week I couldn't focus and I'd forget stuff I really need, like parts of my breast pump at home (I had to buy  new ones) or lock my keys in the car and have to ask a friend to bring me my husband's keys (Thanks Justin), or some other not super horrible, but random and frustrating thing that doesn't usually happen to me.

Then this morning I was talking to my mom and I said something about how when everything just seems to fall into place it's because you're in the flow of The Universe. When you're not it's like you're continually going upstream and nothing seems to work and everything feels like too much effort.

Conclusion: The Universe wants me to be creative.

Even though my projects frequently annoy the crap out of my husband I think he knows it too because this morning he sent me a link to 23 Quotes That are Totally Craftastic. One from CraftSnark really got to me.

Via CraftSnark, http://www.craftsnark.com/2013/01/craft-definition-procraftinating.html

I clicked the link and do you know what she said?

There will always be laundry that needs to be washed. or folded. or put away. There is a constant stream of dirty dishes making its way towards the sink. Dinnertime arrives every 24 hours. But inspiration is not constant. We must create while we are inspired to do so. Because housework can wait... some more.

I will probably never finish absolutely all the things I want to get done and cutting all the fun creative stuff out doesn't make it any better. It just makes me frustrated and cranky about doing the functional life things I need to do. Hopefully I'll find that balance.

Until then I'll indulge in just a little procraftination.

Where have you been?

Hey peoples.

I haven't posted a lot lately. I'm working on something. Something BIG. And AWESOME. And I can't quite tell you about it on my blog yet, but between it and cleaning the house for Norie's 1st birthday party (it will take the whole month left) and focusing on spending more time with Austin and Norie I haven't had time to post.

I'll be back. Just give it time. I promise.

Smart Gardener OMG

It's official. I'm obsessed.

Remember that app I mentioned in the Great Garden Giveaway post last week? It was the Vertical Vegetables and Fruit Smart Add-On from Smart Gardener. 

SmartGardener.com Quick Tour Simply grow great food. from Smart Gardener on Vimeo.

It is everything I've been saying I want. I told it where I live and how many people are in my family (I only said two adults because I don't think Norie will eat enough this summer to match their kid predictions), then I picked out what I like to eat and it told me how much to plant and planned a garden layout based on a 4 year crop rotation, it's orientation to the sun, plant height and spacing, and the size of my household.


It is the COOLEST thing ever.

Or maybe just the best thing ever for an overly neurotic gardener who doesn't really know what she's doing but has control and perfection issues. Either way I'm hooked.

Did I mention it gives me weekly to dos that I can have sent to my phone?

Here's the plan for my three raised beds.

When you click on the pictures it even gives you information about how to plant it (depth, spacing, and a handy little picture of how to plant the square) along with companion planting info.

Did you know spinach and strawberries were good companions in a garden? I just knew they paired well in a salad. Nom. But Smart Gardener does so I don't have to know and I can just trust that it is optimized.


I even picked varieties that I know are available from the greenhouse where I'm planning to buy my transplants. Now all I have to do is get on my list of to dos. I have plans tonight and tomorrow so I'm thinking Wednesday there may be a flurry of activity in the garden. However, I heard a rumor that it might try to snow Thursday so maybe I should just wait it out until the weekend. I'm not sure if I can.

Strawberry Gardens and a GIveaway You Should Know About

Okay, so now that the excitement of Norie's first steps has been documented we're back to that post I mentioned Tuesday and meant to post yesterday.

Every fiber of my being wishes I had done something really impressive in the garden last weekend. Okay, not quite every one. A ton of them are huge fans of the fun things I did instead of gardening like going to see a live production of The Sound of Music at the Columbian Theatre and working on a little building project at my parents. The gardening fibers, however, are seriously disappointed. To help quell them I thought I should at the very least post something about gardening and share a super sweet deal with you. That's a fair trade-off, right?

I REALLY, REALLY want to plant some strawberries. Only problem: strawberries are perennial. That's great except perennials imply commitment and you know how I feel about commitment. The only thing I can commit to is my Babe. It's his birthday today. Yep, I sure did sneak that right in my post. :) Anyway, then I saw this on Pinterest.

Strawberries planted in gutters hanging from above and a light bulb clicked on in my little head. Well, actually a whole process of attempting to find the original source of the image that followed the exact path Cathryn Wellner details in this post occurred, but in that process the light came on.

I want to build a pergola, but instead of having slats I want to use gutters (or maybe build cedar wood boxes) and plant strawberries in them. It would be the most amazingly yummy pergola ever. Obviously pergola construction is a whole lot of additional commitment so instead I'll be planting strawberries in some empty planters I have laying around instead.


Now for the super sweet deal.

Right now Storey Publishing is having the Great Garden Giveaway. It has gardening tools, a ton of books (including some of my favorites), and even an app. I know because I've been spending a little too much time on their website recently.

Look at all that stuff. And even better, you get a free Grow Super Salad Greens ebook just for entering. Go sign up right now. Just promise that if you win you'll let me borrow some of your awesome books.

She's a Biped!!!

I had a blog post for today all queued up, but it will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Yesterday I told my mom that I post on the most interesting or exciting thing I've done in the last 24 hours. My project for tomorrow it pretty cool, but this blows it totally out of the water. To stay true to my word I simply must post this.

Yep. That's my daughter. Walking.

A Woodchuck!?! Seriously? Yep.

Yep. That's right. A straight up woodchuck.

In my yard.

I saw it yesterday when we let the dogs out and they chased it over to the neighbors. It ran under their deck. The whole thing happened really quickly and I wasn't quite sure what it was at the time. My brain said small beaver with a furry tail. I knew that wasn't a real thing, but that was pretty much what I saw.

My husband had said something about the pile of dirt in the front yard a couple hours before. He thought we had some moles. His parents have an army of moles in the yard of their house in the country. Honestly, I thought the pile was from a plant I dumped out a couple weeks ago, but if he wanted to blame a rodent that was fine by me. 

I didn't put the two together until I saw another pile in the yard on my way out of the driveway this morning. I knew what I had seen wasn't a mole so I thought...maybe a gopher?

Nope. That wasn't not quite it.

I was sure it had a furry tail, not a little rat one and it was WAY bigger than the description for gophers. Then I found this handy What's Digging Holes in my Yard? Extension publication from the University of Minnesota. 

Deep burrows with excavated soil spread around the entrance. Possible cause: woodchuck

Yep, that's it. 

Sidenote: did you know a groundhog and a woodchuck are the same thing? I didn't until the internet told me so.

I kinda hate to do anything about it. It is the cutest little guy. I'm sure it's a totally horrible thing to have in your yard, especially when you have an infant, but I'm certainly not going to poison or shoot him (or her). She could have babies. I'm not killing the mother of adorable little baby woodchucks. I mean, I have an infant. Moms have to stick together regardless of species. Plus, poisoning anything is a bad move when you have a little person who puts anything and everything in her mouth.

More googling.

Humane Society What to Do about Woodchucks

Apparently timing is crucial and I shouldn't evict it until mid-late summer. Since I've never seen this thing before and it certainly hasn't been burrowing in the yard for long I'm going to go ahead and say it doesn't have babies in the burrow so maybe will try to evict it.

Austin still thinks moles are making the holes so maybe we can just keep the woodchuck. What do you think? It is absolutely freaking adorable, but I don't really want to share my hard earned vegetables if I ever actually get up the gumption to plant a garden.

In Spring: Wall Art from Stickers and Thrift Store Art

A while back I was about ready to lose it if I didn't get to do just a little something creative so I took on a tiny project with a piece of thrift store art I bought a couple of years ago. Like thrift store art plus stickers tiny.



I had some sparkly pink stickers that came with one of the page kits I bought for my pregnancy scrap book, but hadn't used yet. The only problem was I had to decide what to write. Indecision kicked in and it took me a whole day to pick something.

Once I knew what I was writing I was feeling impatient and couldn't be bothered to take multiple shots or stand still long enough for a clear shot. Quick little projects like this get me way too excited. I didn't take any mid project either. Bad blogger. But seriously, do you really need pictures of how to peel off stickers and stick them on something?

How to Make a Sweet Blog Header (For Your Mom Even if You're Still Not Totally Satisfied with Your Own)

Hey guys! I miss you. Norie was sick all last week and I spent this week trying to catch up with life. I'm almost there and have several reasons to be extra motivated about life so expect a flurry of new posts in the near future. Anyway, back to the post.

I love my mom's new blog header.

I love it so much I went crazy and sized it for her facebook page and even made her business cards to match.

I have one too, but I'm not totally in love with it (thanks for the props though, Crystal!). It's definitely an improvement, but it's not there yet. I really think maybe I just made one for her that was a lot like what I really wanted and then didn't know where to go with my own. That and it's a little too crafty (as in it doesn't speak to the parenting, decorating, building, gardening, and cooking parts of what I write about). I hope to get it updated (again) over the weekend after I had some time to think about it.

Since Crystal thought it was great I wanted to tell you how I did it. You know, just in case you wanted to make yourself one too and had some crazy idea that I would do something super hard. 

I'd had this idea for a while and finally just did it over Craft Weekend. I sketched out a basic idea and made my mom pick out some scrapbook paper she liked (it's from My Mind's Eye Bramble Rose).

I'm obsessed with decorative tape so I made some faux decorative tape from one of the pattern she liked by cutting a 1/2" wide strip and tearing it. I used a random sheet of off white card stock cut down to 5"x11" so there would be come visually blank space for the lettering. I laid everything out on her kitchen floor and just took a picture of the whole thing from directly above.

Then I used Picasa to crop the image to the dimensions listed for her header.

And finished off by using the Add/Edit Text option to add her blog name and tag line. I highly recommend using a font with two versions since it lets you switch it up a little without making it look like you're a crazy font person. I used Niagara Solid and Niagara Engraved.


For her Facebook cover image I simply recropped to meet the cover image dimensions (851x315).

Easy peasy. Now if only I had my own thought out I would be set.