LIfe as we know it.....

Today you get to see some of what's been keeping me so busy! First of all, I am getting my garden started. Last year, we had some cucumbers and tomatoes, rhubarb and zucchini. That, along with some green beans that did nothing and some beautiful herbs, was all we had. Plants are getting so expensive that that was all we could afford last year, and this year isn't any better. So.......I am started my garden from seed! I have never done this before, and it is so much fun! I bought a little "greenhouse" kit, plus some starting pots and soil, and I'm doing it myself.

These pots are for the corn, green beans, squash and melons.

This is our little "greenhouse". I forgot to take pictures before I planted.

I planted the "greenhouse" late, late Saturday afternoon. You could even say Saturday evening. And by Tuesday morning we had sprouts! I had no idea it would happen so quickly! The cucumbers were the first to sprout and they are growing like weeds. :)

This is 8 am on the 24th. They are about an inch tall.

Here they are at 11 am!

And here they are at 11 pm! See what I mean? You can almost watch them grow! The tomatoes and gourds are coming up, too, but the peppers haven't peeked their heads out yet.

These are the tomatoes today.

These are the gourds along the right side. The others
are the peppers that haven't peeked out yet.

Now, look at this! This is the cucumbers on today!

Our little cucumber forest!

They are pushing up on the lid and I'm going to have to take them out and put them somewhere else! They may be ready to plant, I don't know. I'm going to do some research and see. If so, my son and hubby better get busy getting the soil ready! I think we're past the freezing point, so it should be okay to plant them, but I remember reading somewhere that they should have their first set of true leaves before you plant them, and I don't know if these are true leaves or not. So I have to go googling.

Anyway, that's part of what has been keeping me busy. I've also been making card and envelope sets for swaps and gifts, etc. Plus I've been doing a little painting and creating. Oh, yeah, and we're getting the motor home ready for the trip on Memorial Day! We're going back to the coast, only this time we're not sleeping in tents. We had a major leak in the roof and the guys have been replacing the walls and the roof, and all the framework and everything in the over-the-cab bed. Then I get to wallpaper and paint.

What's been keeping me busy for the last two days is a wedding guest book. A young couple in our ward at church are getting married, and they have nothing! They've both been married before, and neither one had an actual wedding, so we are trying to give them a nice, small wedding that they can remember fondly in the future. She just joined the church a few months ago, and he will be baptized right after they are married, so this will be their first experience with the sisterhood of Relief Society, and what can be accomplished on a shoestring! They are both really nice. She has a son and he has two daughters, so they already have a family. The wedding has only been in the planning stages for about two weeks! They have been waiting for her divorce to become final, and then they were just going to go to the JP. I just found out Wednesday that she didn't have a guest book, so I took on that project, as well as helping with the decorations on Saturday. So, here are some photos of the book.

I'm making the book in a slightly different way. There won't be many people at the wedding, and if they all just signed their names, it would probably only take a page or two. I want it to look like more, and to be a little more personal than that, so I am making little envelopes and cards for each guest or couple to write a message to the bride and groom. The envelopes will go on one side of a two-page layout, and on the facing page will go a photo of the message-sender(s). That way they will have a permanent record of who was at the wedding, and since they are so new in the church, they may not remember who all these new people are, so they will have a pictorial record, too.

Her colors are black, white, red and sliver.

This page will have the bride and grrom's names, the wedding date, etc.

Sorry this looks so yellow. When I have my camera on macro,
I can't use the flash, so the only light is from the bulbs in the fan.
I finally tried my hand at making those beautiful paper roses I keep
seeing on blogs all over the place. Thes are really tiny, and hard
 to handle, but I think they turned out okay.

These are two of the page layouts. They will all have tags in the photo-corner
pockets that the photos will be glued to. I used ten different black and white
papers throughout the book. I found a really soft, light patterned paper that was
beige-y in color and copied it in black and white for the pockets.

Well, that's it in a nutshell! I have been one busy gramma. Plus, I have to keep up with my swaps, too. I would rather be too busy than have nothing to do, though, so it's okay. I will try to be better about posting, and not get so busy that I forget. I need to have a dailyplan so I can get it all done. I told my hubby yesterday that I wanted to volunteer at the library, and he asked me when I would find the time. I told him I would just have to make the time. Isn't that the way it goes? We find time for the things we really want to do. Until next time,