Crafty Garden Mama

Things to Do Other Than Watch TV

2012-02-24T07:30:00.000-05:00

A lot of people say to me, "Your kid doesn't watch any TV?" I answer, "Yup, no TV." The next questions they often ask is "What do you do all day?" I think we do a lot of different things throughout the day and I would like to use the blog as a venue for sharing these activities. I'd like to make it a weekly feature on Fridays so that folks have some good ideas of different things to do on the weekend and for the week to follow. Our main reasons to not watch TV with the Tomato is so that she has quiet time to explore creative outlets, enjoy music and dancing and because years ago, in an Eric Jensen brain development book, I read about how delaying TV until 3 can help children to widen their vocabularies and build patience and communication skills.

I have been motivated to set up this type of blog post since I watched Oprah's Next Chapter about Hassidic Jews in Brooklyn, NY. It was a fascinating glimpse into a unique community who values family above all else. I was very struck by the initial conversation that she had with the family whom had volunteered to speak with her. They did not know who she was, as part of the community's practice is to not watch TV, explore the Internet or any other media. She asked them immediately about TV. She stated that other families in America watch Dancing with the Stars as a way to bond with one another, so what did they do instead of watching TV? The father's reply was elegant and simple. They dance with their children because they are their stars. It struck a chord and is still resonating with my weeks later. There will be plenty of time down the line to take in a decent TV show, but the most important thing that we can do now with our little one is to be there for her and take part in activities with her. One of those such activities in our house has become birding.

These little guys have been starting to set up shop in the bird houses that we cleaned and I talked about back in this post. We also set up a new house that I got for my birthday.

And we have had some browsers for that house too! I also installed a window feeder so that Tomato can watch the birds up close, but this guy has been our primary visitor.

Sitting in the room and watching him has led to different conversations than I expected to have with her about birds. But, she loves these guys and they are very patient with her when she presses her nose to the glass and waves hello to them. It's great to watch her enthusiasm for the outdoor world develop and she can be up close with these birds and animals and they know that she can't get to them, so she can really study them. We probably spend close to an hour total each day doing just this. She asks to see them after she wakes from her nap since she knows that is one of their feeding times. She eats her morning snack while they eat theirs. She asks to go get more food for them. It has been a great interaction and connection.

Sections

So, when I came across the Great Backyard Bird Count, I figured this was right up our alley. The folks at the Audubon Society and the Cornell Ornithology Lab have set up this annual event to help collect data about which bird species folks are seeing in their neighborhoods at this point in the year. You were able to print out a checklist, head outside, and count birds for 15 minutes. As their site states, your work can help in a number of ways.

Your counts can help us answer many questions:

How will this winter's snow and cold temperaturesinfluence bird populations?

Where are winter finches and other “irruptive”species that appear in large numbers during some years but not others?

How will the timing of birds’ migrations comparewith past years?

How are bird diseases, such asWest Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?

What kinds of differences inbird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?

Are anybirds undergoing worrisome declines that point to the need for conservationattention? 

It leads to great conversations to have with olderchildren, fresh air for the whole family and lots of giggles from a toddler whois running around trying to get the birds and squirrels to play with her. Youwere even able to head outside with your camera in order to capture images toupload to the main page. They also had a great resource of activities to dowith the kids. They can do some coloring activities,print out instructions to make their own feeder, do a word search and jigsawpuzzles. If you have children of varying ages, you can have the little onespoint out the birds and ask the older ones to look through an online resourceof birds or bring the iPad outside and download the Audubon Society apps to help you identifythe many different types of sparrows that seem to frequent backyards. What Ithought was one species of sparrows turned out to be two and perhaps three (I needto get my zoom lens out and get an up close look one more time).

Now, the data collection was for one weekend, but there is no reason why you can't print out several copies of the bird count and do it several times a year. So, turn off the television and head out this weekend if the weather is good. If rain abounds and you had plans, talk about where the birds may go when it does rain. Conversations about migration, eating habits and how the birds looks change as they move in and out of the seasons are endless. For a toddler, an activity like this leads to important outdoor exploration time and building the foundation of an appreciation of the world as a whole system. For school age kids, it can give them motivation to hit the library after they play outside to find books about birds and wildlife in order to expand their horizons and knowledge. For older children, it may give parents a rare opportunity to have a quiet 15 minutes that isn't filled with shuttling back and forth to a practice or game and the opportunity to just sit side by side with their teenager on a bench and talk. So, give it a try and let me know what you find, and thank you Audubon Society and Cornell Ornithology Lab for giving us a great starting point for spending time with our families and taking in a deep breath of fresh air.

Seed Catalogs 2012

2012-02-22T13:14:00.002-05:00

Let the brainstorming and browsing begin! I am very excited for our garden this year. Tomato is big enough that she can help water and pick the food. She knows all of the names for the foods that we like to grow, so I can't wait to show her the process of growing our own food. I need to think back through what organic foods I can get at the farmers' markets in our area and then decide what I want to grow.

We also have some work that we are doing on our garage and outside windows and we need to check for lead paint (we have an older home) before we start the work. That way, we can follow the best and safest practices for removing the old paint and putting on the new paint so that it does not damage our soil. I'll be making a trip to our Rutgers Cooperative Extenstion office in order to pick up a soil testing kit to check for any lead levels in our current garden spaces. If you need more information about how to test your own soil, click on this PDF link for a great article from the Rutgers Cooperative Extension office. More information is also available at this link, which lists all of the services for which soil testing can be done. If you are not in New Jersey, simply google your state extension office and see what they have to offer. I find them to be invaluable when learning about gardening!

Little Sapling Toys Peg Puzzle Toy Review

2012-02-08T14:07:00.000-05:00

We are huge fans of Little Sapling Toys, as is evidenced in an earlier post. They have recently launched their own website and store, so you can grab these great gifts and toys there or on their Etsy shop. Our newest purchase from them was for Tomato's birthday last fall. When Tomato gets new things, we put them off to the side and take one new thing out each week. We got this tip from one of our friends at Building Cathedrals, and it works wonders to keep kids interested in their toys and not be overwhelmed. We recently got the Peg Puzzle (ages 12 months and up) out of the "new toy" area and it has been a huge hit!

At first glance, this toy looks like a great way to build small motor skills since the kids have to line up the pegs with the holes and get them to fit in properly, and that is definitely true. But, it also is a host to a ton of other activities to do with your child.

Sort by color

Sort by size

Sorting - We have definitely entered the toddler phase of taking an item and moving it to a new location and moving it back, and vice versa. It is amazing how that can occupy a kid for 30-45 minutes. This toy is perfect for kids who love to sort and transfer. It has 10 different parts, including the board, and comes in a soft cloth bag that our little one loves to tote around and fill and empty, empty and fill and then repeat the whole process. The children and you can sort by color (walnut, cherry and maple woods lend gorgeous tones to the toy) and size. It leads to good discussions about similarities and differences and by handling the pegs, the child builds his/her small motor skills. Be sure to do it in and out of the board to practice practical skills.

Counting - Count up to 9 and then back down again in order to go over numbers with your little one. Keep them close together and then space them out to help them to develop a good number sense.

Sizing practice

Sizing - Organize the pegs in ascending and descending order both in and out of the board. Explore words like small, medium and large. This is a good spot to pull in a second language to play with as well.

ABAB pattern

ABCABC pattern

Patterning - Since there are three different colors and three different sizes, you can do a number of patterns. The above pictures show an ABAB pattern and an ABCABC pattern. Have a good time mixing it up and seeing what you can develop.

Little Sapling Toys has definitely struck gold again with this toy. It has a host of activities to explore, is beautifully made and will last a lifetime.

Putting Asparagus to Bed for the Winter

2012-02-07T06:25:00.002-05:00

I can't wait for organic asparagus this spring! It is one of the harder organic items for us to find in our area. So, last spring, we ordered organic Jersey Giant asparagus crowns, set up our first raised bed to be the permanent asparagus bed and planted. Over the course of the summer, we watched our asparagus ferns grow. We had heard that they could reach heights of six feet tall, but I think ours go to about 3 or 4 feet high.

When you first plant asparagus, you do not get any edible growth in the first year. So, last year was a watch and wait year. The rule of thumb is that this year, we will get 2 weeks of edible growth, next year there will be 4 weeks and the following year, we will have 6 weeks. I can't wait! Tomato loves grilled asparagus, so I will be so excited to have her go out to the garden to pick dinner or a snack this year.

As the fall approached, I sought out information about how to keep the asparagus safe over the winter. I visited our local Rutgers Cooperative Extension Office and picked up some articles about asparagus and discussed methods with the gentlemen who were volunteering that day. I also came across this video from Peaceful Valley. Their tips area insightful and Patricia, the company's co-owner, presents things clearly and patiently. It is well worth it to sign up for their weekly emails, which feature videos on a number of topics and information about their organic gardening products.

I trimmed the ferns back to two inches high and placed new compost and organic soil on top. I have not gotten the straw to put on top of the new soil, so I will need to see how this goes this year. The recommendation with the straw is that you could pull back one section and get 2 weeks of growth and then pull back the other section to get another 2 weeks. We're going to just give it a go and do the whole bed in one 2 week window. I would love to take some time this coming season and find out if I can get organic straw somewhere in the area. I may need to check with some of the organic farmers in the area to see what they do for this.

If you have not planted asparagus before and need a good reference point from which to begin, please check out this PDF file from Peaceful Valley. If you prefer a video format, the Peaceful Valley video below has some great tips to help you along with this delicious perennial vegetable.

Mimi the Sardine Spillmat Review

2012-02-03T06:44:00.002-05:00

When we began to look for a spillmat to place under Tomato's high chair, we had some specific ingredients that we wanted to avoid. Vinyl was at the top of the list. Vinyl releases VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) into the air in a process called off-gassing. Off-gassing affects our air quality and can lead to health issues such as headaches, respiratory problems and even some cancers. So, we try to keep these at a minimum in the house. We don't use air fresheners, we use no-VOC paints when we paint and we look for non-vinyl substitutes to common kid items such as spillmats. I can see where vinyl has its merits with an easy to clean surface, but luckily we found an alternative that is safer for our home and health and is still high quality.

Mimi the Sardine has been a great addition to the lineup of eco-responsible companies that we use at home. I came across their spillmats when I was browsing the offerings at giggle.com and when I read the description, I knew that I had found my product. The spillmats, along with the other fabric products that they carry, are made from organic-acrylic coated cotton, which is produced in Sweden and meets the Oeko-Tex 100 Standard. Their products are manufactured outside of San Francisco and so it has the added bonus of being made domestically. The designs are fun and kid-friendly and they will be rolling out some new designs this spring. The spillmat can be utilized as both a help under the high chair and also as a craft tablecloth when your little one transitions through his/her eating learning curve. We didn't mind paying the $40 price when we anticipated that it would last a long time. I am impressed by its durability and the ease with which you can throw it into the washing machine after dinner and then air dry it overnight so it is ready for breakfast. It washes up beautifully too and trust me, we put it through the ringer in the early and adventurous learning-to-eat solids time for the Tomato. Smooshed avocado, slimy banana, chicken curry, and beets have not been a problem!

My only drawbacks on the product were how sticky it was until after three or four washes and that the designs are often in low numbers or sold out. After washing the spillmat three or four times, the stickiness waned, but was still good enough to keep the high chair anchored in one spot. Also, doing some searching online helped us to track down a design which we really liked (the Cars one) and which was gender neutral (in order to further lengthen its usage). We ordered directly from their website, but you can also find them at their own store in Corte Madera, CA, at select Whole Foods stores and children's boutiques (via their store locator), on giggle.com, or on Amazon.

Placemat

Lunchbug

Apron

Take the time to look at their other items too. They carry bibs, placemats, backpacks, lunchbags, kids' aprons (perfect for those crafting years!) tablecloths and treasure bags for kids. In their home section, they have adult aprons, tablecloths, runners, and placemats. I have a feeling we will be placing a placemat order soon, since they are also an alternative to vinyl or other plastic placemats. It's great that we can continue to benefit from this company as our little one grows up.

Potato Bins Update

2012-01-30T07:08:00.001-05:00

It's been quiet in the garden for the last couple of months, but as the seed catalogs have started to arrive, I suddenly realized last week that I never gave an update on how the potato bins went last year. If you recall, we decided to plant potatoes in the garden last year and wanted to tackle them in two different ways. We put half of the seed ptoatoes directly into the ground using the hilling method and got these as a result.

And we put the other half into the potato bins that we built. I can't say that the yield was as much as the in ground ones.

The bins were built to their full heights and we had covered the leaves as they appeared. Sadly, I think I was a little overzealous in my covering and should have veered more towards the hilling technique of the potato care spectrum. For, as I dug deeper and deeper into the bins...

...all that surfaced were these little guys. (Starbucks cup can be used for size reference.)

So, it will be back to the drawing board with the potatoes this season. I have to do some more reading and searching for feedback from others who have used the bins. The leaves definitely need some sun exposure and I just need to add a little dirt at a time instead of dumping half of a bag in at a time. Has anyone else out there done potatoes in this form before? If so, I would love some tips and feedback.

Winter Water Factory Review

2012-01-26T12:52:00.002-05:00

Some companies offer beautiful solid color basics, but finding stunning modern designs made in organic cotton is not too easy. Enter Winter Water Factory and its clever graphics, bold colors and urban chic awareness. The clothing is made from 100% organic cotton and is made in the USA. Stefanie Lynen is the Brooklyn-based designer behind these gorgeous clothes and she creates fun and exciting designs.

The designs are available in a variety of styles and sizes from baby onesies to t-shirts to dresses in the baby and kids' sections. While we have been shopping primarily in the girls section, many of the fabrics are unisex and can be enjoyed by anyone. I can speak to the craftmanship that has gone into these clothes as well as their durability. They stand up to many, many washings and food stains from even the most enthusiastically eating toddler come right out. Plus, the prints are so bold as to invite you to pair them with boldly colored pants that allow your child's personality to greet everyone at the door.

The designs are also available in totes and dresses for women since you know you have those moments when you are really coveting your kids' amazing clothes. Plus, if you can't get enough of these fabrics, you can also purchase them for upholstery and sewing projects for the home and napkins are coming soon too! I already have some ideas for curtains in our kitchen, powder room and home office.

Napkins

Upholstery Fabric

Shopping with this company has been a delight. Shipping is amazingly fast and sales happen often. You may have to be patient for inventory to be available in every size for which you are shopping, but it is worth heading back to the site to look on a frequent basis. The line is also available in children's boutiques across the country, including Tippy Toes in Princeton, and in catalogs such as Garnet Hill and Land of Nod (where they have transformed the fabrics into kids' bedding!). Everything that we have purchased from this company has gotten great compliments and I am thrilled to pass on the information about where we have found it.

Taking Care of the Birds

2012-01-25T06:37:00.000-05:00

In a previous post, I spoke about how Tomato and I love to watch the birds at our house. We put up a window mounted feeder and filled it with our homegrown organic sunflower seeds. The birds and squirrels were quick to empty it, but I was not as quick to fill it. Sometimes when an activity or part of the day is new, I have trouble making it a habit, and filling the bird feeders has been one of those things that I am working to establish as an automatic part of our week. I bought thistle and Bird Lover's Blend Cardinal Buffet at Whole Foods. But, until yesterday, we did not get around to cleaning out the feeder and refilling it. So, now we are set for any finches that would like to come our way to get some great thistle.

In addition to cleaning out and refilling the feeders, we took some time to clean out the bird houses. Now is the best time to do this, since some birds will begin to look for new nesting homes in the coming weeks. I hadn't cleaned out the houses in the last few years that we have lived here, so I enlisted the help of my mom to do them in the most efficient manner. We have three bird houses in the big tree. These two snap open for easy cleaning.

Whereas this one remains a mystery to us, so we just left last year's nest in there for now.

My mom's tips for cleaning them out were great ones. First, wear gloves. Who knows what you will be cleaning out and there is no need to touch it with your bare hands. Secondly, try to attach a trash bag to a nearby branch so that whatever you do clean out falls directly into the bag. It makes for a lot less mess.

So, after pulling all of the old nests, we snapped the houses back into their latches, patched the back of one with a little duct tape since it had split and voila!

All set for new tenants this spring!

Our last avian addition to the yard was a bird bath that I had requested for Christmas. I love the simplicity of it. It's a low price for a bird bath and of course it hails from my favorite catalog, Gardeners Supply. It holds about two cups of water, which Tomato and I will gladly add each day and sits perfectly in front of the azaleas for now. I may have to find a more permanent spot for it later this spring or summer, but for now we can see it from the window. I can't wait to see which birds stop by for a drink or a quick rinse.

Quick Knitted Winter Hats

2012-01-24T06:55:00.002-05:00

We have had a fairly mild winter this year, but even a mild winter still cries out for knitted hats. So, I took to Ravelry and my newly organized knitting patterns binders to find a good unisex pattern and a good kids' pattern.

My new niece needed a winter hat in order to keep her new precious noggin warm on the days that it is warm enough to go on a walk. I had purchased the Blue Sky Alpaca's pattern for the Baby Beanie a couple of years ago at Loop. I had some Miss Babs Cumberland 2 ply sport sitting in my stash in this gorgeous Rainbow color. I had purchased it at Maryland Sheep & Wool (a bucket list wool festival for any needle arts folks) when I was pregnant with the Tomato. I wound the yarn into a ball, measured the weight, divided it in half and cast on with two strands and a few nights later....Voila!

The kids in this generation of our family tend to have round or small heads, so the 3-6 month size, on which I did get gauge, currently fits my 1 year old Tomato and we have to flip the rib in order for her cousin to sport it currently. But, that does mean that we have a hat for next winter too!! It fits tightly and is great for those days where you want a hat and the hood up on the jacket. A version in Miss Babs Cumberland Sport in Periwinkle is forthcoming for the Tomato.

In the just finished holiday knits column of my knitting to do list is a hat that I made for my father in law. I made him a Noro Scarf years ago that he adores, so I decided to go tweedy again for this hat. I used the Regular Guy Beanie pattern from Chuck Wright and Jamieson's Shetland Aran in Cedar. I know that this is a big go to yarn for Brooklyn Tweed, and now having knit with it, I understand why. This also only took a few nights of knitting and then it was off the needles.

You know you have found a good pattern when you consider making another one once the first one is off the needles. Check these out if you need a new hat for yourself or someone you know and enjoy the coziness!!

Organizing Knitting Patterns and FlyLady

2012-01-09T07:23:00.000-05:00

I do hope that everyone is having a Happy New Year, thus far! I am back from silence on the blog after being busy with the holidays. The decluttering efforts are continuing into the New Year. One of the areas that I have been tackling has been the office/sunroom where all of my knitting supplies, past classroom files and recipes seem to have come to roost. Last summer, I decided to go through all of my old issues of Interweave Knits, which I have happily unsubscribed to as the quality of patterns has taken a nosedive in the last few years, and any other knitting magazines that I had on the bookshelf. I ripped, copied and piled all of the patterns that I wanted to keep and set about putting them into the plastic sleeves that can protect them from wear and tear while I use them, categorizing them by style of project (hats, gloves, kids' wear, etc.) and putting them in alphabetical order and into binders. It was liberating to get it all condensed and filed. It went from looking like this:

Knitting patterns and recipes (only half of what I actually had!)

To this:

10 categories went into 2 binders and they now reside nicely on my bookshelf. My next step is to take a look on Ravelry and see if I can log these in, so that when I search for a pattern to use up my stash, then what I have in my library will pop up. I think it entails me seeing which issues of Interweave I did rip from and then logging those magazines in, but I am not sure about individual patterns that I have purchased.

Doing this decluttering was a great step with the FlyLady program too. I am trying to get back to that after falling off the wagon in the second half of 2011. I am trying to keep the sink empty, we keep going through our stuff and simplifying and I am now trying to do the 15 minute clean up in the assigned zone of the week. This will help me to not feel totally overwhelmed by the housekeeping. Anyone else following FlyLady? How has it gone for you? My next paper declutter area to tackle is the recipes and get them filed and actually start using them. Wish me luck!

Burp Cloths, Bibs and Meathead Hats Extravaganza

2011-12-14T07:09:00.002-05:00

This year, we had a very busy baby summer and fall for our friends and family. We were happy to congratulate all on the arrivals of seven new babies and one more on the way this January. With all of those babies arriving, I have been busy firing off bibs, burp cloths and hats galore. The patterns used below are great staple ones to have in your knitting arsenal as they each only take a night or two to complete. I've talked about the Mason Dixon Knitting patterns of the Baby Bib O' Love and the Baby Genius Burp Cloth before. When I knit for new babies, I have started to include big brother and big sister gifts. This is where the Meathead Hat pattern from Knitalong by Larissa Brown has come into play. A fantastically whimsical pattern is this! It takes one night of knitting to complete, is thick and comfy and will keep the head of the wearer super toasty in winter. Below are the incarnations of many of the baby and big brother/big sister gifts that were knit over the last few months. All packages should have been received by now, so hopefully I am not giving any spoilers away for the friends who read the blog.

Burp Cloths in Lily Sugar N Cream Faded Denim

Baby Bibs O' Love in Lily Sugar n Cream Swimming Pool

Bibs in Lily Sugar n Cream Patio Pinks and Meathead Hat in Lamb's Pride Bulky Grey Heather

Bibs in Lily Sugar n Cream Summer Splash and Meathead Hat in Lamb's Pride Bulky Frosted Periwinkle


Meathead Hats in Lamb's Pride Bulky Grey Heather and RPM Pink

Meathead Hats in Lamb's Pride Bulky Deep Pine and Aubergine

Meathead Hat in Lamb's Pride Bulky Grey Heather

Bibs in Lily Sugar n Cream Summer Splash

Bibs in Lily Sugar n Cream Summer Splash and Hats in Lamb's Pride Bulky Grey Heather and Regal Purple

All of the baby knitting has been a blast. It's fun to send something homemade off to a new little one's family. I still need to grab pictures of the ones that I knit for my sister's new arrival, but I will post those and the version of the Meathead that I knit for Tomato in the coming week. On the needles now are a bunch of different holiday knits and a pair of mittens for Tomato for this winter. Hopefully, I'll wrap up the mittens tonight or tomorrow. As for the holiday knits, they may be arriving half knit in the bag with the pattern for Christmas morning and will be finished at a later date. Luckily, I have flexible relatives!

Rent Mother Nature

2011-12-07T17:13:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite finds in the last few years has been Rent Mother Nature. Launched in 1979, Rent Mother Nature has supported small farms, in New England and other areas, to grow and deliver quality produce and products such as maple syrup, berry jams, apples and even different types of cheeses. The farms that they support "practice natural, chemical free, and self sustainable agriculture." While not certified organic, these farms are making efforts to be greener than other factory agribusiness farms.

The Rent Mother Nature concept is that you buy a lease of a branch or a tree. The lease helps to support the farm's financial needs and at the end of the lease, the product is delivered to your or the gift recipient's door. When you purchase a lease, a beautiful parchment paper with the description of the lease is delivered first (as pictured below).

Throughout the length of the lease the gift recipient receives progress reports on the crop and you can also pay for an optional photo of the farm during the time that the crop is being grown and harvested. Depending upon which crop you have leased, harvest delivery times vary throughout the year. In the past, we have given leases for the berry patch, which delivers three jams in May, tangerines, which are delivered in March and a cow, which delivers Brie or cheddar cheese between the months of May and September. All of the gift recipients to whom we have sent leases have loved the gift. It's something different, it supports small farmers and is a great talking point.

In addition to individual leases, they have a corporate gifts option. This allows you to buy for clients, associates and employees in larger numbers. Depending on the total amount that you spend, you can receive a discount on your purchase total.

Gift baskets are also available for purchase through the site. The baskets may be blueberry pancake or honey themed and the ingredients are sourced in the New England area. You can add a gift basket to your lease purchase as a peek as to what may arrive at the end of the lease.

If you are looking for a unique, small business supportive and interesting gift for any occasion, I would highly recommend Rent Mother Nature. Their strong ethics, swift customer service and great variety of products are well worth a look. Bon Appetit!

GoodiesN2Shoes Etsy Review

2011-12-04T07:04:00.001-05:00

I've become a much more practical shopper in the last few years. But, on occasion, I just have to buy something because it's so darn cute! That's what happened when I stumbled across Michelle McIntier's shop on Etsy. GoodiesN2Shoes is where Michelle makes and sells adorable seasonal and special onesies and shirts. She also crafts binky clips, shoes, car seat canopies, wipes covers and bath time puppets. She is a great person to work with to find something cute and special for your little ones. Before Thanksgiving, I put in a big order and Michelle shipped everything in two shipments in order to make sure that we got these adorable turkey onesies and shirts on time for Thanksgiving.

We got three, one shirt for my Tomato and two onesies for my niece and my friend's son. We loved them and they were a huge hit with everyone!! They do need to be handwashed and line dried. I must have missed that instruction slip in the first package that she sent me, but ours weathered through a full machine wash and dry cycle with minimal peeling of the appliques. Michelle is able to make the shirts in a wide variety of sizes and is great at keeping track of large orders. Her handwritten note, to let us know that the rest of the order would be on its way, was very appreciated and reminded me why I like to shop with small businesses. She had 200 orders come in for the turkey shirts and I think she'll have even more for these reindeer ones below.

We've got a couple of these for Tomato and her cousin to wear in the weeks before Christmas. They are adorable and I can't wait to see the kids in them. Michelle also has other holiday styles in her shop. Hop on over and check them out. She has a great store to support, reasonable prices and terrific customer service!

Lifestyle Magazines

2011-12-03T06:55:00.001-05:00

I currently only read two lifestyle magazines each month and I don't subscribe to either. My mom subscribes to both, reads them and then passes them along to me. They are definitely both subscriptions that I would happily maintain, and used to with Martha Stewart Living, but I don't need to when they are just a walk away. I will also be reviewing Bon Appetit below, which I adore, but no longer subscribe to because I feel like I need to actually cook some of the many recipes I have torn out of its pages before I go drooling over and tearing out more. So, I may come back to it in future years, but for now and for organization's sake, I'm taking a break. All of these make a great gift subscription to anyone you know who loves to cook or decorate their homes.

Martha Stewart Living

I love Martha Stewart. I have for years. I remember laughing with my mom and sister when I was a teenager and attempting to make a croquembouche for Christmas, which she had spotlighted on her show. Easily the most difficult thing we had put together in the kitchen, it made us giggle at the complexity of some of her recipes, but also marvel that the woman goes all in or nothing on everything that she does. So, it is no wonder that 20 years later, I still love watching her show, marveling at her ideas and wishing for a weekend away at any of her properties. Martha Stewart Living ends up thoroughly dog-eared each month, the website is great for pinning on Pinterest (where you can follow Martha, hello!!!!), and the recipes are delectable. It is definitely worth subscribing to, or sharing a subscription, for craft and home ideas. Their current deal is 12 issues for $24, which includes a free digital subscription for the iPad. Martha is very tech savvy and definitely puts her best foot forward when publishing digital issues and special digital downloads, such as her cookie app.

Country Living

One of my favorite magazines with which to curl up is Country Living. They do a phenomenal job each and every month to bring you featured homes, decorating ideas, bargain finds, and adorable monthly features like "Ask and Country Vet" and "What's It Worth?" I definitely get inspired by what I find in this magazine and dog ear and post to Pinterest with gusto. The website is very helpful when you want to store images and ideas digitally, and they also have a digital edition available for your smartphone, computer or iPad. They tell great stories about the people whose homes they feature and have spotlighted The Beekman Boys and their home and cookbook twice in the past year. This is definitely one that I ask my mom if she has gotten yet each month and it would make a great gift subscription to anyone you know who enjoys antique hunting, design and cozy recipes for the family. Their current subscription deal is tremendous at 1 year for $12, 2 years for $18 or 3 years for $24. Definitely worth a look!

Bon Appetit

I'm really going to miss Bon Appetit. I only unsubscribed because the recipe pile has gotten out of control and I want to start making things instead of just collecting recipes. So, as I leaf through many heavily dog-eared back issues, I can revel in the excellence that is this magazine. This is another that I couldn't wait to get my hands on each month. They do a wonderful job of spotlighting new and innovative restaurants in a variety of cities, and they provide the reader and cook with a bevy of scrumptious recipes. The Italy issue above was enough to make me want to hop a plane back to Florence and eat for a week. The magazine has a great website with an enormous database of searchable recipes and, as a subscriber, you can sign up for weekly emails with food trends and recipes. The recipes are straightforward and sound a lot fancier than they are to make, so don't get nervous about them. Their current deal is 1 year for $12. There is also a Kindle Fire edition and an iPad version is imminent.

I hope these magazine reviews help you with your holiday shopping or in finding a treat for yourself. Remember, stay green by going digital, recycling the issue when you are done, sharing a subscription or seeing if any doctors' offices would like a gently used copy for their waiting rooms or ask at your local school if the teachers would like them for their lounge.

Parenting Magazines

2011-11-27T07:13:00.001-05:00

In addition to my green magazines, I get a handful of parenting magazines that a new parent may enjoy as a stocking stuffer holiday gift. Some are consistently great, some are consistently okay, and one is consistently poor, but I wanted to review them all. We got several for free as gifts or when we shopped at a certain store or catalog. While only one has a green bent to it, most have some articles each month about being eco-conscious or using found items for crafts, so I don't totally rule them out as consumerist.

Parents

We received Parents magazine as a gift from a former coworker and it has been a good one. The magazines offers tips and advice for several different age ranges. They seem to be very current in their research when they talk about different dangerous chemicals, such as BPA, and they do good toys and gear reviews. They also have a recall page to alert parents to such events, and they don't seem to be too product driven. It's not published with a green focus, but they do have articles or product reviews each month that are for the eco-friendly parents. The website is easily searchable and has a great newsletter to sign up for to receive more craft ideas and Ages and Stages, which is their developmental milestones newsletter for each week of your child's life. It's definitely one that I will renew. The deal that they have going now is insane at 3 years worth of issues for only $12.

Disney Family Fun

Hands down, this is the best family crafts and activities magazine that we get. It has a ton of great ideas in every issue, many of which use found materials or recycle things like shoeboxes or milk jugs. We got our first year free since we ordered from One Step Ahead. The website has a ton of crafts and activities to choose from too, and you can pin the activities from there in order to keep your paper clutter to a minimum. I will definitely be renewing this when its time is due! There is a digital edition available for the iPad and the special that they are running now is 10 issues for $12. This is money well spent for the crafty families in your life.

Kiwi

I just started getting Kiwi magazine, so I can't speak to its consistency, but I can say that I was very happy with the first issue. Kiwi is a green-focused family magazine that aims to educate folks about living naturally and organically. I stumbled across it because Vickie Howell has done some craft articles for them. The crafts are cute, the recipes are much more adventurous than the other magazines, and they offer good challenges to follow online like cloth diapering and being TV free. It's a nice find for me and I look forward to getting more issues. There is a digital edition available, and you can purchase back digital issues as well. The current regular subscription is going for 6 issues for $11.95, to which you can add the digital edition for $3 more, and the digital only edition is $9.95.

Parenting

Yeah, this one has not been good...at all. Filled with ads and articles that are not well written or informative, this magazine seems to be catering to those who can't wait to get the next new thing because everyone else has it or wants to do things for their kids so that they are assured a spot in the popular crowd. It just oozes that vibe, which isn't one that we project here at our house. It's a magazine that tries too hard to be liked, and I just don't like it. Luckily, it came for free since I shopped at Motherhood Maternity during my pregnancy. So, if you shop there and they ask you if you would like the free subscription either in paper or on your iPad, say no.

Family Circle

Family Circle has a slow cookers suppers section each month. That might be all that I can say that is positive about this one. It is certainly not an eco-conscious magazine, as ads are very "Keep Up with the Joneses" and "Rat Race" driven and the articles tend to be on the other end of the spectrum of attachment parenting. They tend to be more about high tech gadgets and gizmos than homemade crafts and quality time with your family. Also, they seem to be favoring black page backgrounds, which I find distracting and confusing with the ads. This was part of what led me to cancel my Rachael Ray subscription. I was very disappointed with this one. Once the subscription runs out on this one, it won't be returning to this house.

American Baby

This is a sister publication to Parents magazine, but it is focused on the infant and toddler years. It's been okay, and has had some good info. But, it is neither as consistent in quality as Parents nor does it arrive consistently. I signed up for a free subscription, which is apparently 12 issues, but that detail is a little fuzzy on the webpage. I think only 2 have arrived in the last year. I signed up again, so we'll see if it shows up. Not one that I would pay for at first, but if it picks up in its quality, maybe I will.

So, that's my take on the parenting magazines that I get. I'm curious to know if anyone else has some good parenting magazine suggestions. Please feel free to leave a comment below or on the Facebook page. Remember, you can go green with your subscription by sharing it with a friend or family member, recycling your paper edition when finished, getting digital to start or seeing if your pediatrician's office would like a copy for their offices once you snip off the address label.

Green Magazines

2011-11-26T07:23:00.001-05:00

A friend posted on her blog, Building Cathedrals, about giving magazine subscriptions as a gift for the holidays for her kids. "American Girl and the Cricket magazines have been hits here, as well as Magnifikid, Which Way USA and Top Secret from Highlights." I thought it was a great idea that can also extend to adults. I've been meaning to write about the various magazines that I receive and thought this would be a great stepping off point. Today, I want to cover the "green theme" magazines that I get, what I like about them and how I find them to be helpful. I get a variety of ones as subscriptions. But, for a couple of these, I will just grab them at the store if there are enough articles or features that appeal to me in that particular issue. I am a consummate "dog-earer" with articles or pictures that I enjoy in each issue. I have become more adept at using Pinterest to tag pictures and ideas that I would like to use in decorating our home, planting our garden and playing in our kitchen. However, some articles are just too good to not rip out, pop in a PVC-free sleeve and place in my home binders (But, that is another post to come on how I am reclaiming my office space one knitting pattern, recipe or home tip article at a time). Below are my top favorite green magazines.

Whole Living

Whole Living is a Martha Stewart publication, which used to be called Body & Soul. It is about how to live a balanced life and offers tips on eating healthy, having a positive frame of mind, practicing relaxation methods, cooking fabulous recipes and using healthy and safe beauty products. This is definitely one that I look forward to getting each month. I find the articles to be well written and informative as well as being seasonally based. I feel like Martha has directed this magazine well since she acquired it. This is one that definitely has at least three earmarked pages each month. They are doing a deal now to get 10 issues for $10. The website also has a ton of extra info. I am not sure if there is a digital subscription for tablet computers, but I would imagine it is not too far behind in development if it doesn't already exist.

Hobby Farm Home

This is my newest subscription and also one for which I cannot wait for it to arrive! (Let's be honest, I'm excited for all of these to show up at my doorstep. I weeded out the ones that weren't all that great years ago or had gone downhill in quality - yes, I'm talking to you Real Simple). But, back to Hobby Farm Home. Such a cute name delivers a fantastic magazine. With great tips on cooking from scratch, canning and preserving, planting flowers to attract wildlife and glean your own birdseed, and well written articles about families who have made a go of living off of the land. It's not a hardcore, off-the-grid type of magazine, but instead offers great advice, information and suggestions on how to make your life simpler and more authentic. I definitely renew this one for a 2 year subscription instead of just 1 year at a time. Digital editions opf back issues are available at this time, and the current subscription deal is 6 issues for $15.

Mother Earth News

If I ever go totally off the grid, I'm taking this magazine with me. By far the most technical and informative of the magazines that I get, Mother Earth News is a go-to once we get ready to plan the garden each year. They have great monthly articles about one specific vegetable or fruit and how to grow it sustainable and successfully. I used to keep whole issues of this because so many pages would get dog-eared. But, in the great magazine streamlining of 2011, I've pared it down to articles to keep and tags on Pinterest. The magazine offers great information about how to live with solar energy, tons of DIY advice and generally makes you want to wake up at the crack of dawn to feed chickens. It's a powerful motivator and I love it. They are also doing a 1 year for $10 deal and you can get a mailed subscription, mailed and free digital or just a digital subscription.

Organic Gardening

Straight from some of my heroes, Maria Rodale and family, comes Organic Gardening. This is another great "how to" magazine that delivers the information is the most aesthetically pleasing way. Just flipping through it for the pictures is a real treat, and then you discover how well written it all is. Awesome! This is the most expensive of the bunch. It is typically 6 issues for under $24, but they are offering a Thanksgiving deal for 6 issues for $9.97. An iPad edition is available too. I never hesitate to renew, no matter what the cost is. The website and blogs are also great and they even offer a good online video series to help you learn about compost, crops, and cooking, among other things.

Natural Home and Garden

I've been getting Natural Home for about a decade. It is one of my favorite resources for being green in the home. They always have great features on how to clean green, how to find green paints, tiles, countertops, etc. and fabulous tours of homes that have done beautiful green renovations. They have a digital edition available and the current deal is 6 issues for $14.95 if you pay by credit card on the website, or $19.95 if you choose the Bill Me Later option.

Birds & Blooms

Birds & Blooms is a magazine that my mom will grab for me at Wegmans and we'll share the copy that she gets. It's got great little tidbits about what flowers to grow where and to attract which birds and insects. Cute pictures are a mainstay and they have cute projects to do with your kids, like bowling ball ladybugs for the garden. They have a digital edition for the Nook, which is available as a single issue ($3.99) or subscription ($1 per issue). The basic subscription deal that is currently running is 7 issues for about $13.

Urban Farm

Urban Farm is a sister publication with Hobby Farms and Hobby Farm Home. I'll leaf through it at Whole Foods or Barnes and Noble to see if I want to buy the whole issue. It hasn't had enough for me to garner a subscription, but can have some really good articles and how-tos if you are going green in the urban jungle. This is also available in a digital edition and the subscription offer is 6 issues for $15. Digital back issues are also available for $4.99 an issue.

I hope these magazines give you some ideas for presents for your friends and family or even for yourself. Keep it green by going digital, recycling your paper edition when you are finished, sharing a subscription with a friend or friends, or clipping off your address label and see if your doctor or dentist offices or school would like it for their office or the teachers' lounge.

Thanksgiving with Our Outdoor Friends

2011-11-24T06:09:00.001-05:00

In years past, my parents, sister and I had a tradition of heading down to the local pond to feed the geese on Thanksgiving Day or weekend. I would love to start a similar tradition with Tomato and this year, we are giving it a go with some of our homegrown treats for our own backyard friends. (An addendum note is that Tomato was asleep when I put this together, so maybe next year she will be aware and awake for the tradition.)

When Tomato was an infant last winter, one of her favorite activities was to watch the birds gather in our huge forsythia bush and feed from various trays and feeders that we had put out for them. One caveat from this experience is that I do not advise putting a tray of food directly by your windows on top of the hedge. While the child may enjoy this, the birds expect that food all year long, and when not presented with it, they may take it out on your windows screens. Just a suggestion.

One item that we got for Tomato for the winter holidays last year was a window feeder. I'm planning to mount it today on the window in the sunroom that faces our fig tree. We'll see if that ends up being a wise spot, but for now, it's the most reachable since we took out the hedges in that area. We got the window feeder from Gardener's Supply.While I don't think that they carry the version that we have anymore, they do have these two in stock.

It's a great opportunity to bring nature right to the window and have kids learn to identify birds and wildlife in your neighborhood. You can keep a bird book nearby, like the ones that the Audubon Society publishes, and keep track of what the kids see and talk about what type of feeds attract what types of birds. If your kids are of a tech savvy age, Audubon also has an app for different smartphones and an app for just birds or birds and butterflies.

So, as we mount that feeder today, what will we be putting in it? Homegrown organic sunflower seeds from our summer sunflowers. One of the best parts of growing different flowers in your garden is that when you let some go to seed, they become food. So, after reading several issues of Birds & Blooms, I tried out the idea of bagging our sunflower heads to catch the falling seeds.

We took the bags off this morning and shook out the seeds and got this as a turnout.

We'll be putting them out as part of the Thanksgiving feast for the birds as well as cracking open the pumpkins, which we grew and put on the porch, and placing them back in the garden for the squirrels to munch on and "plant" for us for next year. Starting this tradition already has me thinking of next year's garden and what other plants I can put in to attract different birds for next year's feast. I'll be busy pinning idea pictures onto my Pinterest boards in anticipation of the seed catalogs arriving (or arrival as the 2012 High Mowing catalog hit our mailbox this week). Do you have any suggestions for us in Zone 7? Do you have any other outdoor Thanksgiving traditions to share? I'd love to hear from readers in the comments area or on my Facebook page.

Small Business Saturday

2011-11-22T11:10:00.001-05:00

We have never been a Black Friday shopping house. The crowds don't interest me, the mania makes me nervous and when I shop, I like to take my time, do some research about what I am buying and then stroll through the store. So that doesn't fit in with the theme of the day. It's not like we don't shop at the big box stores form time to time. But, as I have discussed in my post about buying locally, I just think there is another way to spend your dollar to support your town and neighborhood.

So, something like Small Business Saturday appeals to me. It encourages visiting locally and family owned businesses, visiting town centers and downtowns and keeping your dollars in businesses that support your area. American Express is the sponsor for this event, which does tie it in to big business, but at least some large organization is thinking about the little guys. The event is a great way to support small, green friendly toy and baby stores like Nurture in Pennsylvania, Giggling Green Bean in Denver, Green Design in Princeton, NJ, Sweet Peas in Portland, OR or Granola Babies in California (several of which have been featured in Green Child Magazine). It's also a great way to shop for the adults on your lists. How so? Take a look at my suggestions below to get some great gifts and experiences for the ones you love.

1) For the foodie - Find a local cooking school or bakery that offers lessons or grab a gift certificate to a family owned restaurant. If you want to keep it green, talk to the owners or chef to see how much of their food they are able to source locally and try to find a place to which the gift recipient can walk or bike. Also, if you are someone who cans or cooks, think about visiting a local food market (they are still out there) and buy produce and ingredients that you can craft into something delicious!

2) For the pet lover - Hit up the local pet shop to find some gifts for the owner and pet or make a donation in their names to the local shelter.

3) For the gardener - Find your local nursery that supports organic and sustainable practices, like Terrain, and get a gift certificate for a class or items that can enrich their garden spaces. Also, online shops like Beekman1802.com are new businesses that are making it imperative to support their local communities.

4) For the crafter - Visit your local yarn shops, quilting stores, needlepoint shops and dollhouse or train stores. Many places, like Down Cellar in Basking Ridge, NJ offer the opportunity for customers to make a wishlist and then send their friends and families in to buy off of the list. Ask at your local places to see if they have a similar program.

5) For the athlete - Stop by your locally owned running store and see what new clothes are available in sustainable fabrics, like organic cotton or recycled fleece, or see if they offer a gift certificate for someone to use towards a new set of sneakers.

6) For the reader - Search well to find a good, independent bookstore. I know, it's not an easy one nowadays. But, if you can find a good spot, ask the bookseller for suggestions in the genre which your friend or family member likes best. Teachers also always appreciate a good bookstore gift card to use for themselves or to add to their classroom library.

7) For the sentimentalist - Contact a local photographer and book a session for family portraits. Many of the folks who friends have used and recommended for this are moms who are finding second careers and ways to support their families and be stay at home moms at the same time, like Joei Brock in the Philadelphia area.

Lots of small towns have also started to sell town gift certificates that you can use at their downtown shops. Contact the local borough or town halls and ask if they have such a program and how you can support it. I hope that everyone takes a moment to enjoy this new tradition, get back to their downtowns, find small businesses to support online and enjoy the holiday shopping season. Have fun shopping small!

Orange Rhino Kids Etsy Shop Review

2011-11-21T12:14:00.001-05:00

Etsy has been a great site for us to find organic clothing for the Tomato. We came across Orange Rhino Kids about a year ago and got some gorgeous, well made onesies and a shirt. The clothes made it through a lot of wear this past summer and spring and cleaned up beautifully each time. The designs hung in and I was very pleased with the compliments that Tomato got when she was wearing them. While our order had some delivery delays, we were totally taken care of with great customer service in order to make sure that we were satisfied customers. These are definitely folks who want to take care of their customer base and make sure that positivity is spread out into the world.

Orange Rhino is another husband and wife team, this time out of Minneapolis, who seek to design hip and comfortable clothes for kids. By using organic cotton shirt bases from American Apparel, they are offering some great green choices for dressing your child. The designs are fresh, whimsical and even a little modern. Check out the options below and head on over to the shop to grab some great gear for your holiday shopping!

Manzanita Kids Etsy Shop Review

2011-11-20T15:51:00.001-05:00

As we start nearing the holiday shopping season, I thought that I could take some time over the next couple of weeks to highlight some great folks and companies for green and eco-friendly kids' toys, gear and clothing. I have already highlighted our love for all things Little Sapling Toys, oompa, and boon , but I have a few new spots to laud. First up is Manzanita Kids on Etsy.

Similar to the folks at Little Sapling Toys, the couple that runs Manzanita Kids, David and Adrienne, is very aware of the types of products that they are using to make and finish kids' toys. They strive to be eco-friendly and creative and have done a marvelous job. We received the owl puzzle, pictured above, for Tomato's first birthday and she loves it. At her age, she is learning how to put puzzle pieces back into the right spot. Also, she often just carries the owls around as her buddies and picked up how to say owl, moon and knows what the stars look like because she plays with it so much. It's a great toy because it promotes problem solving and doesn't require batteries, so the creative play is left to us. Music to my ears.

On the eco-friendly front, the company finishes their products with local beeswax and/or organic safflower oil. They also wrap the gift in biodegradable paper and teach you how to care for the product so that it lasts through several kids playing with it.

They offer great stackers, classic building blocks, wooden trucks, many other puzzles, and teethers. Kids can have a great time with these toys as they explore cause and effect, develop their fine motor skills and expand their creative thoughts.

Bird Stacker

Classic Building Set

Modular Set - 4 Vehicles in One

Gorgeous Puzzles!

Bird Teeter Grasping Toy

If you are unsure of what to get for a friend that loves these types of products, you can also buy gift certificates for the shop. We will definitely be shopping with them in the upcoming years as we strive to provide our little one with safe, creative and quality toys. Keep up the great work, David and Adrienne!!

Twist Collective Winter 2011

2011-11-17T07:16:00.001-05:00

The new issue of Twist Collective is out and as usual, I am feverish with excitement over several patterns. Since Kate Gilbert and company launched Twist Collective a few years ago, I have felt that it has become the best of the online magazines for knitters. Interweave and Knitty have really fallen off in the number of patterns that I really like (I even canceled my subscription to Interweave) and I have to think it has something to do with the ease with which designers can sell their own patterns and the plethora of online pattern magazines. But, even with a ton of venues out there, Twist seems to score the most "winners" in my book. So, what am I coveting in this issue?


Barolo

Yukimi

Bellevue

Socks, a hat and a sweater. Sounds like a good post holiday knitting lineup. Now to get through the last of the baby knits and the holiday knitting and maybe I will do a project for myself. Here's hoping we actually start to get some good knitting weather in the Northeast. I am happy to say farewell to 70 degree weather in November.

End of the Gardening Season

2011-11-05T10:33:00.001-04:00

I was remiss in posting about how the end of the gardening season went for us. We had some good successes and some good learning opportunities. I will be putting the garden to rest this week as we get closer to colder weather, but I thought that I could share some pictures of what we garnered in September.

Green beans were a big score this year. The Kentucky Wonder beans that we planted yielded a ton of green beans. They tasted great and we froze a bunch for the winter. I learned a bunch with them this year too. First, the obelisk was a great spot to grow them. They went all the way to the top and made for a beautiful plant in the garden. Secondly, I need to check them every day. They grow so quickly that I missed some thin bean windows, and so we got stuck with some larger ones that weren't as sweet when cooked. I'll have to incorporate this into next year's morning routine a bit better. These will definitely make a repeat appearance next year. As with all of these veggies, I will need to see which have leftover seeds from the packets that I ordered this year and contact the companies from which I ordered them to see what lasts. I smell another post in that adventure.

Mmmmm, sweet Scarlet Nantes carrots. These will also be repeating next year. We harvested so much more than we did last year. Once we cut out the zucchini plant, these buggers took off. They really need a ton of sun and they will be in their own bed next year, perhaps with parsnips. We sliced these up and served them at the Tomato's birthday party with hummus. Yum!

Sunflowers are just so happy. They make you smile no matter what. We had several pop up and I think we may do a few different varieties along the long fence next year, even though I love the contrast against the brick garage. I will also be posting about how to save the seeds for your own birdfeed. I'm not ambitious enough to shell them all and make sunflower butter from scratch.

Our asparagus continued to flourish. I think we got 7 to go to fern, if not to seed, out of the 10 that we planted. So, successful!

These were the last of the tomatoes. I love the contrast of the one red against the greens.

The potatoes only came out of the ground planted ones. But, that's a whole other post!

An Organized Pantry is a Green Pantry

2011-10-30T20:30:00.000-04:00

Part of our goal in living greener is to be less wasteful. I think we do well when it comes to recycling, figuring out where to consign clothes, having Pickup Please come and get unwanted household items, and growing our own food. However, this has not been my forte when it comes to grocery shopping, especially when our pantry looked like this.

Yeah, I didn't know what was in there either. No wonder I kept buying maple syrup, oatmeal, and peanut butter when we already had plenty. When we moved in about three years ago, we just unpacked the food boxes and placed stuff in the pantry. As you can see, the system hasn't been much better for a while. However, now that I can take advantage of nap time, I suddenly had an hour here or there in which to tackle this beast. My goal was to put the items that we use regularly at eye level and make the pantry layout something that could help me when I made our Wegmans, Whole Foods and farmers market runs. So, after some finagling, I got it to look like this.

Pantry

Spice Cabinet

Our go-to items were at eye level, pasta and related cousins like couscous and quinoa have a shelf, cereals and baby food items are on the bottom and dried fruit, cream of wheat and Nutella take the top shelf. The spice cabinet even got an overhaul as I tossed items and reorganized where I keep the baking ingredients. Ah, sanity.

But, wait, that doesn't look like all the stuff that was in there, you might say. Nope. There was a very large trash bag of expired food, which made me feel terribly wasteful for a few reasons. First, it's wasted money. Part of our living green and simply mission embraces the goal that we can live with less. Clearly, those end of aisle displays caught my attention a time or two and I did some impulse buying. Secondly, we also had foods that we had received as gifts that we didn't like. In retrospect, we should have passed those on to other friends or family so that someone could use it or paid more attention to when the post office does their canned goods and other foods pickups. Thirdly, I became very accustomed to eating something different each day when I was in college. We had a great place to eat in my last two years and I became spoiled. I continued to live like that for many years afterward. I shunned leftovers, threw food out all the time and generally, didn't think of the global impact that it might make. If I consume less, and I consume more wisely, maybe there will be a small effect on the way that we produce food in this world. Living locally, living simply and buying less packaged goods is a good start to show how I choose to spend my dollar.

One area that still remains a spot to simplify and organize is the countertop. I have some good canisters for pasta, flour and sugar. I need to reassign the brown sugar one to be one for the regular sugar and pop rice into the current sugar one. We've been eating it a lot lately, so that could keep it more readily at hand by the stove. We have another pantry directly across from the reorganized one. Hopefully, I can take a look through there and figure out what small kitchen appliances I can store in there and which we really need out on the counters. I have a good feeling that we may be able to be microwave free.

As we aim to be better about expiration dates on the few canned and packaged goods that we buy, I put some to use this week. While the mix is not organic, the celery, carrots and ham that I added were. The soup itself will last several days, so we can stretch a dollar. I would like to use the slow cooker at least once a week in order to make a few lunches. I'll have to dust off my Fix It and Forget It cookbook, explore some good recipes, and dive into being less wasteful with our food.

A Good Autumnal Porch

2011-10-23T06:52:00.000-04:00

As the leaves start to change, the wind picks up a little and the smell of Pumpkin Spice Lattes hits the air by Starbucks, I start to get excited about my porch. I don't dress up my porch in spring or summer, and winter really only sees the addition of lights in the hedges near the porch. Yet, when fall starts to arrive, I get giddy at the opportunity to fetch pumpkins and mums and put a little pep in my porch.

The small sugar pumpkins in the picture to the left are the ones that we used at Tomato's birthday party, which we grew in the backyard. The large white, blue, cheese and Fairytale variety ones were purchased on a fall girls' day to Terrain. My mom and I took Tomato to be ladies who lunch at their amazing organic and local foods-centric cafe and picked out some pumpkins. I stopped by a local little market, Gifts and Gardens, to grab the mums. I do gravitate toward the reds and purples, but appreciate the yellows too. I like alternating the colors to break symmetry.

Our neighborhood seems to really get into the autumn porch decorating too. Burlap is used to cover mum pots.

Scarecrows arrive and mums are scattered along walkways too.

I love the addition of seasonal greens and pumpkin stacks on this porch too!

It's a time of year that really makes me smile. The garden gets put to sleep (an update to come on the final pickings), sweatshirts and sweaters get pulled out of the closet, thoughts of next year's garden begin to be written down, and the knitting mojo is back in full force.

International Babywearing Week

2011-10-13T11:39:00.000-04:00

I was pleased to see on the web that this week is International Babywearing Week. It also happens to be Attachment Parenting Month, so this post fits into two notches, I guess. We have definitely leaned toward the Attachment Parenting methods in our house and babywearing has been a wonderful part of the experience. The philosophy behind babywearing is that you are close to the child, they are at rest and peace by being near you and you continue to build a bond. This is not to say that we don't use a stroller or that she doesn't run around the house all day. But, we have enjoyed wearing Tomato as an infant around the home and on walks, and I continue to wear her while running errands. I do have a cart cover for stores where I can use a cart, but I prefer to use my Ergo carrier. Is there anything better than being able to cuddle with your little one? Wearing her for the hour or so that we are out and about keeps me calmer too and I love being able to lean down and kiss her head and talk to her while we shop.

We have two different carriers, the Ergo and the Baby Bjorn. When we were first doing a baby registry, I asked around to see which one everyone liked best and the results were split. We registered for the Ergo, but also bought the Bjorn after we delivered Tomato since we discovered that she was a kid who liked to face out and be part of the action during the witching hour before dinner and bed. Both are easy on my back and I am happy that we have the option for her to face out with the Bjorn. I have really only carried her in the front with the Ergo, but the videos below, from the Ergo website, are a great resource for figuring out how to wear your child on the side and on your back.

One of the reasons that I like using the Ergo the most is that it folds up easily to toss in the car. It's very lightweight and the model that we have is made of a breathable, organic cotton.

Ergo Organic Cotton Carrier

Organic Newborn Insert

Also, it has a newborn insert to help support little necks, which is great when you want to do somethings around the house and still have your little one nap with you. Finally, it's just plain comfy. I've worn Tomato for three hours at a time and seen friends nurse their babies in them while on an art museum tour for new moms.

Overall, we like the Ergo best out of the two. We were first introduced to the Ergo by a couple of friends who used it with their child. The joy that we saw on the K's face as she carried E was touching and sweet. It made me immediately want to do the same with the Tomato when she arrived. Sadly, we lost K this past spring to cancer, but I think of her each time that I wear Tomato and miss her spirit and smile very much.

A Child's Birthday: Local, Simple, Crafty and Green

2011-10-08T07:03:00.002-04:00

When we started to think about what to do for the Tomato's first birthday, we talked about keeping it simple and tried to figure out how much we could do on our own before we looked to buying new items or prepared foods. Below you will find the details of what we did (I was remiss in taking photos of the items without folks in the pictures that day), but the short list is:

1) Design and locally print your own invitations.
2) Research the best main course deal at the restaurants that you love and frequent.
3) Figure out what foods you can buy premade to save time and what you can make to save costs.
4) Buy as many organic and ingredients as possible to keep the food healthy and pesticide free. It's not just good for the baby, but for everyone and the planet.
5) If your farmer's market is still operating, buy seasonal flowers and support local farmers and businesses that make an impact.
6) Support the little local party store and not the big box party places for balloons.
7) Buy biodegradable disposable plates and utensils.
8) Use linens for your tables instead of buying disposable tablecloths.
9) Use family manpower and general craftiness to highlight your garden as the backdrop and paint banners instead of buying a disposable one at the store.

We are lucky to have a big backyard, so hosting the party at our house was a no-brainer. We also lucked out with the weather that turned sunny after many rainy days in our area. As we planned the event, we discussed keeping costs down and the first area in which we were able to do this was with the invitation.

Initially, as I trolled through Etsy and looked at other online invitation options, I was a little taken aback by the costs. I don't know why it surprised me, as we have done holiday cards and birth announcements through similar venues before, but maybe I was expecting more than I should have. After realizing that $50-100 invitations were not part of our budget, my DH took to Photoshop. After a couple of days of tinkering with a great photo of Tomato and refining the word and color choices, we had a stunning invitation, about which we have received many compliments, and we were able to print it through our local camera shop for $9 total. Throw in a box of plain white envelopes and we reduced our costs on the invitation by over half. You'll have to take my word on how good it looked, since we don't share pics of Tomato on here, but believe me, it was worth the couple of tinkering hours to make our own.

So, we conquered part of the "being crafty and homemade" category with the invitation and set about planning the menu. We researched the cost of getting some sandwich platters, but the local place would have cost us over $400 just for sandwiches for 40 attendees. "I think not," escaped my mouth like lightening and we checked out our favorite pizza spot. Tutti Toscani has the most authentically Italian pizza that we have found locally and the Tomato, DH and I dine there or do take out at least once a week. The restaurant is courteous, has delicious food, which Tomato has been hungrily eating, and maintains their own vegetable and herb garden just off of their terrace. They are making great strides in the area for keeping their customers aware of great and local foods. We ordered about 10 pizzas through them and cut our main course costs by over half of the sandwich shop. We ended up with delicious pizza with yummy ingredients and no nitrates in the lunchmeat that we almost ate.

Gorgeous table top dahlias from Muth Family Farms

In thinking of sides, we discussed what we could make at home on the day of the party and what we could score at Whole Foods. Potato salad, pre-cut fruit (a good simple time saver when hosting your own party), and guacamole were all easily found and prepared in house at Whole Foods. I also grabbed as many organic ingredients as possible for a 7 layer dip, antipasto plate of mozzarella, olives, prosciutto and tomatoes, hummus with celery and carrots (from our own garden) and the birthday cake. I strolled down to our local farmer's market the day before the event and bought gorgeous organic flowers from Muth Family Farms. Mary Ellen has gotten to know Tomato and I this summer, as we purchase flowers from her weekly, and her beautiful flowers and caring nature keep bringing us back. Her family also runs an organic farm and CSA, where we score divine strawberries each spring.

Our market also just added a group called Respond, Inc., which brings baked goods each week. Thank goodness for these guys since we have been missing a good bakery at the market for the majority of the summer. Respond, Inc. is a non-profit organization in Camden, which provides job training for area homeless people in an effort to help them improve their situations and lives. The folks are friendly and man, can they bake. We bought two focaccia breads and some chocolate chip cookies. I've also become a bit obssessed with their homemade kalamata olive taponade. Buy it and put it on grilled cheese. You will thank me later. Yum!

In the final food preparations, I decided that I wanted to make Tomato's birthday cake. I followed the recipe for the Applesauce Spice Cake and Whipped Cream Frosting on WholesomeBabyFood.com and it was met with rave reviews. I knew that she had eaten all of the ingredients prior with no allergic reactions, I bought all of the ingredients in organic options and I have the great memory that I made her first cake for her. It actually turned out to not only be the first cake that I made for the Tomato, but my first foray into cake making period, hence the slightly lopsided top layer in the picture below. But, hey, doesn't that make it all the more charming.

When it came to thinking of decorations, we wanted to keep it simple and not have a lot of trash to throw out later. If we're going to talk the talk about keeping the planet as trash free as possible, then Tomato needs to watch us walk the walk. So, we bought the flowers from Muth at the market and borrowed folding table and chairs from my parents, DH's parents and my sister. These were set up alongside of the picnic table that DH built last year and a picnic table that my BIL dropped off. We needed seating for 40, and my mom even bartered some adorable toys leftover from my baby shower for some teak benches from a friend who was cleaning out her mom's backyard.I already have ideas about how to repaint the benches a vibrant red and yellow to really pop in the backyard, but that's for another post. To serve the food on the tables, we bought biodegrable plates, bowls, cups and utensils from Whole Foods and Wegmans.

We used Terraware brand utensils

Ultra Green Cups

Stalkmarket bowls and plates

For tablecloths, we used all of my Nana's linens instead of buying disposable ones at the party store and we only bought three Mylar balloons (Mylar balloons are safest as latex balloons are a choking hazard for kids) and the number 1 candle at the local mom and pop party shop, Westmont Party, which has been in business since I was a kid. The final touch for the tables was to anchor the linens down with the butternut squashes and pumpkins that we picked from the garden. We had 4 and 15 of each respectively. Simple, homegrown and very little trash.

Homegrown sugar pumpkins and Waltham butternut squashes

So, with a little planning, I think we executed a low-impact party. We kept our costs down, fed our family and friends yummy organic and local foods either made by us or in support of sustainable practices and good causes, didn't throw away a lot of things and had an intimate and happy event right in our own backyard. Overall, we had a fun and successful first birthday party, and I hope these tips can help you to have future successful parties!

oompa Company and Purchase Review

2011-09-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

oompa is a good site to find eco-friendly toys for kids. I found it shortly after Tomato was born and it has been a great resource for us to order gifts for her and other children. Their mission is to provide buyers with simple, imaginative toys that are made of natural fabrics, fibers and other materials. Many of the products are made in Europe, but some are made in the USA. You can even choose to shop by country on their homepage. The store can also be searched by company, developmental age or toy category. They often update their stock with new toys and will allow you to place items on a wishlist for others to purchase for baby showers and birthdays or even if you want to maintain an idea list for yourself. They also have a points program where you can earn money off your next order based on the points that you have accumulated shopping and writing reviews. Also, if you recommend oompa to a friend, you can also earn points when they shop there. It's a simple and easy to use website that has garnered a lot of great toys for us. oompa is currently moving and the website suggests shopping at Julabug until the store is settled and running again on September 15th. So, while we have been happy with the site, it is in transition and may need some time to restock and be fully functional in the next week or so.

So far, we have ordered the Manhattan Toy Skwish in the Natural Color, Skip Hop Farm Build a Blocks Set, Haba Magica Clutching Toy, Plan Toys Clapping Roller, Haba Cozy Pet Chicken, Haba Hablinos Fabric Book, Noted Handmade Felt Puppet Frog and Chicken. Unfortunately, not all of these are still available on oompa, but since I am reviewing both the site and the products in this post, I have provided you with other purchase locations below if it is not at oompa.

Manhattan Toy Skwish

The Skwish has gotten a lot of use in our house. Tomato loves the gentle clinking sound and also like to see how far she can throw it. I chose the natural just because I thought it would be nice to have something simple since the other toys would have a lot of color.

Skip Hop Build a Barn Blocks

These blocks match Tomato's Skip Hop Playmat. Unfortunately, they are no longer available on oompa, but are on the Skip Hop site. We have enjoyed the various sounds and textures that the blocks offer.

Haba Magica Clutching Beads

As always, Haba comes through when color and dexterity development are in mind. These clutching beads have been great for Tomato to play with, manipulate and demonstrate how sound travels when they are rapped on different surfaces. This too is currently out of stock on oompa, but is available on Amazon.

Plan Toys Clapping Roller

This guy might be the most fun! He never goes where you intend him to roll, which keeps both you and your baby on your toes. It makes a soft clapping sound and Plan Toys always uses non-toxic paints and finishes on their products. It is no longer on oompa, but is available on Amazon.

Haba Cozy Chicken Clutching Toy

I love the look of this guy. Tomato has been playing with and shaking him around to make the sound and she has just started to put him in the nest and take him out. Again, no longer at oompa, but follow the link to Amazon if you think you'd like to have one as well.

Haba Fabric Book Habalinos

This has been a great find to have Tomato play with on the changing table. The fabric crinkles, the illustrations are bright and colorful (although a bit bizarre like the horse with the fishing pole - not quite sure where he's going with that), and there is a squeaker in the center. It must have also been a winter 2010 item from Haba, so oompa does not carry it right now. It can be found here on Amazon.

Noted Felt Chicken Puppet

Noted Felt Frog Puppet

These are the final two items that we have purchased from oompa as of today. We sent them off to friends whose daughter had turned 1. We understand that they have fit in well in their puppet theater. In what must be a shop transfer issue, these are not at oompa currently, but were right before the move. If you can't wait until the 15th to have them, check out Brooklyn5and10.com.

In the end, we have been happy shopping with oompa. I am curious to see how the shop move goes and what comes of the inventory stock once the move is done. Hopefully, they will have more things in stock and we will look forward to continuing to shop with them as Tomato grows.

Do any of you have some online green toy resources to share? We are always looking for more to know.

We Love Boon Review

2011-09-08T11:09:00.001-04:00

We are big boon fans here at Casa Crafty Garden Mama. Not only do we like the design aesthetic of this company, but we also like their efforts to be a green and safe company for kids. We first found boon products when we were doing Tomato's baby registry at Buy Buy Baby (an incredible chain store that actually carries a large number of green products). The first product that caught my eye and said, "Please buy me. I am cute, modern and BPA, PVC and Phthalate free!" was the Grass drying rack.

It comes in two sizes, Grass and Lawn. I love the names and it works wonderfully. This has been where my pumping accessories and cups have been residing for the last 12 months. It also pops easily into the top rack of your dishwasher to be cleaned itself. It's a great product that is both chic and functional in your kitchen.

The next great boon item that we have is an Odd Duck. Don't you just love the names?! This odd duck is also BPA, PVC and phthalate free. So, while Tomato plays with it in the tub and puts it in her mouth, I am not worried about it.

Plus, he's adorable and a little left of center. Perfect for us and our house. I love the bright colors and pictured below are the other unusual suspects in this line.

We also have their Scrubble squirter toys for the bath and the Trace bath appliques. Tomato loves playing with the squirters, but doesn't yet have the dexterity to make them squirt. She also enjoys putting the appliques on the side of the tub and taking them off. It's the best to watch her then try to put other toys on the tub surface and wonder why they don't quite work like the appliques.

So, where do we keep all of these bath toys? I have spent too much time in the last year organizing to let them just sit around the bathtub area. Enter the Frog Pod.

He sits on our shower wall and not only holds everything, but you can take the carrier out to scoop and rinse all of the toys at once. When we put him up a few weeks ago, I thought that he officially heralded the presence of a child in our home.

The other area of our lives for which we have purchased boon products is for the pool. We are lucky to have a town pool, to which my sister belongs, and we have visited the baby pool a few times over the summer. For the pool, we have two great toys. We bought the Splat floating ring toss and the Water Bugs.

Tomato loves them both and chases them around. She is starting to realize what to do with them and other kids at the pool enjoy playing with them as well.

We looked at the boon feeding dishes and spoons and found that while stylish and safe, they were just a little too modern for us. Hence, the OXO purchases and review . Overall, we have found boon to be a great company with a fun aesthetic and a mind towards keeping kids safe and healthy. Their products are available at Buy Buy Baby, Babies R Us, Amazon and Target, among other online retailers and boutique shops like Nurture. Have fun shopping!

Cozi Calendar Saves the Day...

2011-09-06T10:56:00.003-04:00

...and the week, the month and possibly our year. Cozi Calendar is an online calendar, to-do list, recipe file and overall organizational wonder. We have been using it in earnest for the last two months and it has been awesome. Yes, I said awesome and I really mean it. It has taken this family from saying "What do you have today?" to knowing what we have today.

I happened upon Cozi through FlyLady almost a year ago. At first, I looked at it, made a to do list or two. downloaded the room by room cleaning lists from Fly Lady and then forgot about it. A few months passed and my tutoring schedule ramped up for the summer and with my DH now watching the Tomato during the day, we needed something more than the old paper calendar to help us out. DH had recently gotten the iPhone and I mentioned that I thought Cozi had an app (it does!!) and we set about putting our calendar to work.

What I like best about the calendar feature is that I can set things to repeat each week. With my part time job, that is such a time saver! Even with this feature, they allow you to delete an appointment for one week only, but keep the rest. It makes everything very manageable. I can also choose who is involved with each event that we put on the calendar and can even send a text reminder to a designated cell phone. Pretty cool! I also enjoy that you can look at the year before and the years ahead, which will be great to help plan the garden next year. I will be able to see when I planted things and I can make notes as to whether or not those days or efforts worked. With the iPhone app, it is also easy to check the calendar on the go and to add or delete appointments and events. This may actually lead me to getting an iPhone, but I'll wait to see when the new one is coming out this fall.

In the To Do List section, you can add your own lists or use some pre-made ones. Some of the pre-made ones include School Morning checklists (great for an iPad or other tablet on the kitchen counter), an Emergency checklist (for those earthquakes and hurricanes that we recently had) or a kid's birthday party list (which we may have to consult with Tomato's first coming up). I haven't used any of these yet, but did download the pre-made FlyLady ones for when I am ready to tackle our house by weekly zones. I have made a general knitting to do list, which is a must with all of the babies coming this fall. I also made a to do list for each room in our household. It was great to do a brain dump of all of the little things that I know need doing and now we can all see what is on the list. Once the Tomato is older, we can also give her a helping chore list. You can download Kids' Chore Lists to your family organizer and customize them for your own household.

I can also make a shopping list, which is great since Whole Foods does not have that feature on their website. I tend to do the Whole Foods run, so this will come in handy in time. We don't use this feature for our Wegmans list because we use the Wegmans online shopping list to manage those items. The Cozi Family Dinner Club looks like a great feature too. You can plan weekly meals and think ahead on the grocery list. They have several recipes available and once you view a recipe, you can click on items and have them transferred to your grocery list for that week. You can also schedule the recipe to your calendar so that your family can know what you are having that evening.

There are a couple of areas that we have not yet used. One is the samples and savings page where you can get free samples and find out about great deals. We haven't had any interest in using the Journal section, but could see how some folks would like it to share good news and milestones.

Overall, we are very happy Cozi customers and have been thrilled with how it is helping us to organize our lives. Thank you, Cozi! So, does anyone else use this program? How has your family made it work for you?

The Harvest Before the Hurricane

2011-08-28T15:28:00.000-04:00

With Hurrican Irene bearing down on the East Coast this weekend, we chose Friday to haul in some of the veggies that were ready to be harvested. We had a good start to some carrots and now know that we can let them stay in a little longer barring any other natural disasters.

Scarlet Nantes Carrots

I left a few more in the ground and we can see how they turn out in another couple of weeks. We also pulled all of the onions.

Mustang Hybrid 1 Onions

Not tremendously huge, but we'll take 'em. I definitely need to read up on how to better support and encourage these for next year. Next up were the green beans and as you can see in the veggie carrier, we had a few.

Kentucky Wonder Beans

I also picked two more eggplants. But, can someone please tell our plant that it should only yield 3-4 per year and not be starting on its 12th and 13th of the season?

The potatoes were the piece de resistance. We unearthed all of the ones that were in the ground since we thought their drainage would not be as good as the ones in the boxes. We'll have to see how that theory pans out. So, out of the ground came 8 plants worth. We seem to have gotten 3 or 4 potatoes per plant and these could have definitely kept going as we found the beginnings of others on the roots. I also need to get on the weeding in this area a lot better next year. We are definitely enjoying our learning curve!

Katahdin Potatoes

Those pictured above were the "market ready" type potatoes. We also have about half of another cookie tray of ones about which we were uncertain. So, I took a couple with me to our farmer's market to ask Barry of Savoie Farms. Turns out they are fine. They have some grooves in them from all of the water that we have had, but they are edible. Yay! I can't wait to see how many we get out of the boxes. It should be interesting to see.

Finally, in other parts of the garden, the sunflowers have really come into their own.

Jerusalem Gold Sunflowers

I love the contrast against the brick. I have to read up on how to save the seeds for some free bird seed this winter. I'll be moving them against the fence next year and putting hollyhocks in here to attract some bees and to alternate what is in the soil. The stalks have really withstood a beating in the rain and the unfortunate tumble of another neighbor's tree into our yard. Thankfully, no one was hurt and the garden sustained minimal damage.

Finally, the pumpkins, butternut squash and watermelons are continuing to grow. At last count we had 15 pumpkins, 5 squash and 3 watermelons. But, as you can see from our "no spray" approach, there could be more lurking in there.

So, how did your gardens do with all of this crazy weather?

Pinterest Time!

2011-08-22T11:01:00.000-04:00

I stumbled across Pinterest a few months ago when some other bloggers began talking about it. After getting and invite after a couple of days, I was ready to start! It is a phenomenal website that is slowly helping me to convert my large "idea files" into paperless online pinboards. This is helping me to declutter in so many ways. I have been sitting down to edit through my Travel, Home Ideas, Clothing, Health and Beauty and Baby/Kid folders for the last few months, and I feel a weight being lifted. No longer are my file drawers as crammed nor my folders busting at the seams when I pull them out. Instead, I am able to link pictures from websites to my boards and organize my thoughts and inspiration for what I want to do in my life.

You can create any number of boards that you like and organize in any fashion. I chose the following categories:

Spinning
Favorite Places and Spaces
Books Worth Reading
My Style Pinboard
For the Home
Sewing
Great Ideas for Kids
How My Garden Grows
Yummy Goodness

These are just some samples of what I have started to pin. One of my favorite features of the website is that you can follow boards and people. I have found a few bloggers that I read and started to follow their boards (like Adrian B. and Julie Frickert). It's also exciting to watch which ones of your pins are being repinned and I like the community aspect of sharing ideas across the globe. So, if you are a visual thinker and someone who loves to play with ideas for your home, garden, kitchen or life, I would tell you to follow the link above as quickly as possible and start pinning! You can follow my boards by using the new "Follow Me on Pinterest" button that I added to the top right of the blog. Enjoy!

Snow Cowl

2011-08-15T11:43:00.000-04:00

Earlier this summer, I posted about starting the Snow Cowl by Margaux of tentenknits. Almost a year ago, I knit the Luxe Cowl that she designed and loved the simplicity of the pattern and the pace at which it can be knit. This pattern lived right up to my expectations of the last. Margaux has a great sense of style and I would recommend her patterns and blog to any knitter.

This cowl is worked in a great ribbed pattern and it is speedy! I used 2 skeins of the Rowan Plaid in Sea Thistle that have been sitting in my stash for about 6 years (gasp!). I bought them as the yarn was being discontinued and have been waiting for the right project. I am glad that I did as I think the colors work well with this pattern. Now all that I need to do is wait for some cooler weather to bust it out and wear it about town.

A Bevy of Bibs

2011-08-13T20:29:00.000-04:00

It seems that every time that I have sat down in the early morning to write a post, the Tomato wakes up to start her day. So, I'm tempting the fates just by writing this now.Wish me luck!

It has continued to be a busy and fun summer here. Watching Tomato grow and expand her skills, all while giggling and smiling up a storm (which includes her doing it and everyone around her), has been wonderful. Somewhere in the nights after she has fallen asleep and during the occasional nap that I haven't been out at tutoring, I finished some bibs for her and two for a friend expecting her first little guy this fall.

These are the two bibs that have made their way north to serve as extra heavy duty shields for all of those cute outfits and onesies that my friend got at her shower. I used my tried and true Mason Dixon Baby Bib O' Love pattern and Lily Sugar n Cream in Sunkissed Ombre.

I also had the opportunity to use up a lot of scrap yarn when making some bibs for Tomato.

I used some Yellow, Soft Violet, Hot Purple, Playtime and Ecru from Lily Sugar n Cream. It was a great way to use up some stash and now she's got a bundle of bibs that can withstand even the strongest onslaught of bananas and avocados. I may have another craft post to follow this week and then I'll be posting some more eco-friendly kid product reviews. Oh, and if you are wondering, yes, she woke up and so I am now sitting down to finish this post 14 hours later. Have a great night!!

...and this is Now

2011-07-25T11:29:00.000-04:00

So, July has been an amalgamation of weather to say the least. We've had some major rainstorms and we have had a heat wave in the last week that is the worst that I remember. When I go to Whole Foods at 10 in the morning and the car says 102 degrees Fahrenheit, it's bad. But, the garden seems to have faired ok. The cucumber leaves are a bit dry, and I have to do some investigating to see if I had some bugs there. But, they are climbing readily.


Unknown pest assailant?

I've been able to pick 3 so far and they are making a very delicious addition to dinner as I slice them thick and dip them in ginger dressing. The pumpkins continue their march forward across the large space and we have at least 4 butternut squash on the vine. This makes me very excited as I and the Tomato are huge butternut squash lovers. Steamed or baked in the oven, passed through the food mill and mixed with whole wheat pasta definitely leads to yumminess!

The Kentucky Wonder Beans have been a joy to watch grow and creep up the obelisk. I picked our first few and will be making them for dinner tonight. If I pick them often, as they are ready, I can up our yield quite a bit.

The blackberries are continuing to flourish. I've picked about 3 quarts so far and need to head out today to get some more.

I read somewhere the other day that eggplants can yield 3 or 4 veggies per plant. We've got 8 and they are particularly long. I had to look up how to know when they are ripe and these just might be.

The Rosa Bianca variety is also beautiful and I can't wait to bring all of them in to cook.

Our tomatoes and peppers are plugging along as well. We have a lot of tomatoes. So, losing a few to blossom end rot was not a complete loss.

We said goodbye to the zucchini plant this week. It was the end of his season and it was just way too hot. But, it may give us some sunshine back for the Scarlet Nantes Carrots.

And the figs keep on going. I will be excited when they are ready to pick and perhaps make some jam with them.

We are luckily getting some rain today and hopefully it will perk everything back up. I'll be pulling out the peas this and moving some weeds around as it cools off in the next couple of days.

That Was Then....

2011-07-24T11:49:00.000-04:00

Cough, cough, sputter, sputter, Excuse me while I dust off the blog here. Suffice to say, I have felt like a bee and beaver combined this summer. Busy, busy, busy. Tutoring always kicks up during the summer as I and students have more available hours and caring for the house, the Tomato and the garden have been keeping me occupied. I have also been crafting a bunch in regards to baby knitting. So, hopefully there will be some finished object posts to come in the near future. I am spending some time today organizing my thoughts for the blog and making a "to post" list of topics that I would like to share or discuss. It's a lengthy list as I feel like I get a new idea each day that I would like to put out into the blogosphere.

So, for today, let's play a little catch up on the garden. It has been a good year! We are battling a heat wave in our area, and pictures of how the garden looks this week will be posted later this week. But, I wanted to show folks what we were looking at in early July.

First up is the large plot. We have pumpkins popping up and flowering.

We have watermelon beginning to creep alongside of flowering butternut squash.

Sunflowers are starting to stretch toward the sky.

Green beans and peas are climbing the obelisks. I definitely felt that the beans were the best for this type of trellis and may have to buy another cucumber trellis for the peas since their height would be more appropriate for that. I would love to find organic scarlet runner beans for the second obelisk for next year. It would bring a great punch of color to the garden.

The potatoes continued to flourish and the cucumbers began to climb.

I thought that I was having a bumper crop of onions this year, but it turns out I was growing some lovely green grass in this bed. We do have five onions for sure now, but there has been a lot of weeding in this patch this summer. Definitely a learning curve moment. Below is the beautiful grass. If only it grew this nicely throughout the yard.

The potatoes in the box continued to move onward and upward.

The blackberries were going crazy and I can't wait to recane some of the creeping canes in order to make more bushes for next year. I will be sure to do a step by step post of that when we get there. But, in the meantime, I have been enjoying fresh berries for breakfast for about three weeks now.

The eggplants, tomatoes and peppers have looked great. Our only casualty has been some San Marzanos to some blossom end rot. It's my fault for not watering that bed with a watering can right at the soil. But, when I am stealing moments during naps to run outside and water, it was something I was prepared to see and not surprised by this summer.

What has proven to be our best crop so far has been our zucchini. In fact, I think I can dub this the year of the zucchini. We have easily gotten 10 off of the plant and most have been quite large, despite the fact that we bought a baby zucchini plant. I am making my first batch of bread today (a recipe post to follow) and think I have a few more batches to come.

Finally, the asparagus and the figs keep on trucking.

The most exciting garden development of the summer has been our huge "spring" cleanup. We had hedges trimmed, the area under the hedges cleaned out, trees ripped up and cut down, forsythia trimmed back (but not removed as that is where Peter Rabbit and friends have their living space) and lots and lots of weeding. We are very grateful to the guys that came and did it for us. It was well worth it. We now have some space to think about larger flower and herb gardens, adding a peach tree next year, and designing a play area for Tomato. Here are the before pictures....

And here are the after....

Ahhhhh...potential!! So what is happening in your gardens?

Farmers' Markets and Local Foods

2011-07-01T07:05:00.000-04:00

Farmers' Market season is in full swing around here and I could not be happier. We are lucky enough to have several nearby and it's nice to see that more and more organic growers are arriving at them with their wares. We have some house favorites that are back and I have been happy to find some new vendors this year too.
So far, we have been privy to young potatoes, zucchini, summer squash, mixed greens, raspberries and black raspberries. The two raspberry finds have been the most exciting since I have been on a quest to find organic berries in the area. So far, we have found a roadside organic strawberry stand at Muth Family Farm, a pick your own blackberry place at River Side Homestead Farm, and have driven past a pick your own blueberry spot on the way home from the shore. I didn't catch the blueberry place's name, but remember where it is. When we take the Tomato next year, to add to what we grow in our yard, I'll be sure to post about it.

The raspberries were new to one of our markets this past week. The black ones come from DanLynn Organic and they were heavenly to say the least. I am thrilled that I bought 4 pints and froze 2 of them, so that I can either eat them whole later or make a jam or cheesecake with them. The red raspberries pictured below in the adorable wooden flat (which I can take back to the farmer this week when I go get more) are from Brookeberry Farms. Yum! They were delicious with yogurt this week and so many are in the freezer already. A flat gets you 12 pints, and I'll be getting another one this week to freeze and store in my mom's extra freezer to make jams and eat fresh later this year.

In addition to being able to buy quality, local, fresh and organic foods, it is a joy to take Tomato with me. She is able to hold the zucchini that she will eat later that day. She sees food in its full form and not as a processed item. Markets are a great place to take kids to and show them the variety of foods, colors and people that are there. It's a stimulating place where people are happy and stroll, which tends to be the opposite of some supermarkets where everyone is in a hurry and grumpy about the person whose cart is in the middle of the aisle. You also get to establish a relationship with the farmer who grows your food. Our potato guy knows us by name and was able to talk to Tomato this year and swap baby food making tales with me about his own kids. I appreciate and value that we have so many great markets nearby.

In order to find a market near you, you can visit Local Harvest and type in your zip code. In addition to farmers' markets, you will find pick your own farms, CSAs and other local food venues in your area. It's a good list, but not a complete one, so you may also need to find a site like NOFA-NJ, the Northeast Organic Farm Association, in order to search for more. They list the farms in the association and also sponsor information programs for farmers, gardeners and consumers. Have fun finding a good market by you and if you have any good market tips, please leave a comment to share them. Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Blueberries for Breakfast

2011-06-15T10:33:00.000-04:00

I get a lot of joy out of heading to the front yard to pick blueberries for breakfast. Smelling the fresh air in the morning, watching and listening to the kids in the neighborhood head to school and carrying the Tomato at my side, so that she sees where our food originates, is a great mix of senses and feelings. We currently have three blueberry bushes on our front lawn and I think it's all that we can accommodate. We bought and planted the bushes two years ago. Originally, they were in with the blackberries in the backyard, but after doing some reading, I realized that they needed to be spaced apart more for better growth and pollination. So, in the fall of 2009, I transplanted them to the front yard. They are the only edible that I have out front and since they are on their own, spaced 5 feet apart, I put up some chicken wire around each to deter our rabbit friends from eating them to the quick.

When I was preparing the garden this spring, I would have sworn that one of the bushes was dead. I pruned the horizontal branches back in March and the one little bush just looked to be kaput. But, somehow leaves have sprouted and it seems to be fighting its way through the season. It doesn't bear any berries, so I may have to read some more about how to help it along with that. Another bush does well with leaves too, but is currently living amongst a plethora of weeds. Luckily, my parents live nearby and my mom will be coming over to rescue him from the jungle that plagues his growth site while I take care of the Tomato today. So, that leaves one more bush.

Oh, what a beauty and joy this has been over the last few days. I think I've even been good about beating the birds to the ripe ones. I don't use brid netting to deter them because they can get caught in the netting and that just upsets me. So, we just race to get the good ones. Nothing like a little healthy competition for breakfast. Speaking of which....yum!

Loose Ends and New Projects

2011-06-14T10:44:00.000-04:00

There has been a flurry of bib making around here. This also means that there will have to be a flurry of end weaving and button sewing, which will follow soon. I have been trying to use up scraps from other bibs that I had made and I am pleased with the color combos that resulted. Four of the above bibs are for the Tomato and two are for a friend who just had a baby boy. The pattern is the Baby Bib O'Love from Mason Dixon Knitting. This is my go-to pattern for bibs and I have it memorized now that I have knit over 30 of them for friends and myself. I used Lily Sugar n Cream cotton yarn for all of these. I think this is a great workhorse yarn for any dishcloths, burp cloths or bibs that you need to make.

So, after knitting a bunch for the Tomato, I feel a need to knit for myself a bit. Enter the Snow Cowl from tentenknits. I have said before that I love Margaux's patterns and this one looks to be a good, simple knit that I can do while catching up on So You Think You Can Dance during nap times.

The yarn that I will be using is amongst the first yarn that I bought as a knitter. That means it has been in the stash for over 6 years! I had bought four balls of Rowan Plaid back in 2005 (2 in Sea Thistle - above and 2 in Creeper - which I used for the Luxe Cowl that I made last fall). I was thrilled to find this pattern, which would use up both skeins. I love using up my stash. It coincides with all of my other efforts to simplify our house and space and I end up with a beautiful piece in the end. I cast on four days ago and may actually wrap it up today. I will post pics as soon as it is complete. Now, what to stash dive with next??

Weeding

2011-06-10T06:32:00.000-04:00

Now that I have all of the plants in the ground, the arduous process of weeding can begin. Since the beds are lined with newspaper on the bottom, this does help to keep the weeding in those areas to a minimum. The occasional grass pops through and the maple tree saplings are abundant at times, but so easy to yank out. What is proving to be a learning exercise is weeding the large tilled area. If you looked closely in the Green Arrow peas picture from the last post, you could see new wood fencing around that area. Here's how it looked at the beginning of the week:

We decided to add fencing, in the same style as the raised beds, in order to keep the very curious family of rabbits out of my food. We love watching them hop through the backyard, but don't love them chewing the green beans down to the quick. The plan is to surround the wooden pieces with chicken wire and add some posts inside the wood in order to support the wire. We just need a day that doesn't feel like we are living on the surface of the sun in order to do so.

The cute little blue wagon in the shot was originally trash picked by my BIL, a master trash picker, for the Tomato to use in the garden. But, she's about a year away of having true command over it. So, it has been claimed by me as the "weeding wagon." It's been a great little container for the weeds as I pull them out of the ground one by one. Hand pulling and getting to the roots is my preferred weeding method. I don't like to spray and I've even been cautious with organic sprays this year since the Tomato is still nursing. So, I don this gorgeous hat that I got at Terrain and off I set into the sun for however long the morning nap is and I tear and toss and tear and toss.

I've been able to keep up with the little weeding in the beds just fine. But, this past week, I needed to tackle the large tilled bed. My three main pesky weeds are the grass that we turned over, some awful creeping vine of unknown origin and a plant that looks like it came out of the rainforest. The last one pops up out of nowhere and seems to grow at rapid overnight paces. It's one that I need to get the trowel for in order to get it out at the roots. This is the weed for which a Hori Hori knife would be great. But, I am holding off on getting such a sharp knife until I get a potting shed put together and it can be put away up high and away from curious little hands.

So, before I tackled the space with my bare hands this week, it looked like this:

I was definitely in for some work in order to relieve the pumpkins, squash, watermelons and sunflowers from the nutrient grabbing weeds. It took a couple of mornings, but the end result was a good one.

Now, I just need to make my way down through the rest of the bed. After I remove all of the weeds, I am going to give some OMRI listed weed blocker paper a try. I found this at Home Depot last year.

You can lay it down in the garden, much like the lady pictured below. Then, when the season is over, you just till it under and it is biodegradable. Since it is OMRI listed, it is also safe for our organic gardening efforts.

I will probably get to this in the next week. I also need to turn over the extra bit of grass at the end of the tilled bed since we extended the space by three feet. Now that the crazy temperatures seem to be behind us for a bit, I'll be able to get out and do a little more this weekend. Wish me luck in the battle against the weeds.

Let the Bounty Begin....

2011-06-05T10:41:00.000-04:00

Over the last couple of weeks, I have maximized nap time and a tremendous range and volume on the Summer Infant Monitor that we own and planted our garden for the season. Below is what is popping up already. I am very excited for what it may all bring. This coming week will be a big one in thinning and weeding in order to get everything all set for the season.


Green Arrow Peas

Dill

Cilantro

Year One of the Asparagus

Baby Zucchini

Scarlet Nantes Carrots

Poblano Peppers

Rosa Bianca Eggplant

Jalapeno Peppers

Fig Tree

Blueberries

Italian Large Leaf Basil

Blood Orange Tree

Mustang Hybrid Onions

Katahdin Potatoes

Blackberries

Kentucky Wonder Green Beans

Spacemaster Cucumbers

Pumpkins

Waltham Butternut Squash

Moon and Stars Watermelon

Little Sapling Toys Review

2011-05-29T06:54:00.000-04:00

We have made a conscious effort to try to provide the Tomato with as many non-plastic toys as possible. I have searched high and low over the last year to find retail outlets and online sources for wooden toys. We like to supply Tomato with safe, wooden options that have non-toxic finishes and one of the great vendors, who provides such toys, that we have come across is Little Sapling Toys on Etsy.

I found Little Sapling Toys about two years ago and have enjoyed shopping with them ever since. Originally, I purchased the the tool box and peg board, pictured below, for the son of two of our close friends. The young man loves playing with them and when they arrived, I was impressed with the workmanship and the beautiful natural colors. The company uses FSC-certified maple, cherry and walnut woods and finishes them with organic jojoba oil and local beeswax. These materials sets this eco-mama's heart aflutter!

Handmade items really tug at my heart and these are no exception. Nick and Kimber Christensen have truly infused their products with a passion for woodworking and a joy of children. So, when the Tomato arrived and it was time to purchase some wooden toys for her, I headed straight to this shop. I bought our first round of toys for the Winter Holidays. Nick and Kimber offer personalized wooden tree ornaments and I instantly scooped one up as an heirloom gift to pass down to the Tomato when she has her own home and tree. Little Sapling Toys kindly engraved her name and birthdate and we hung it with excitement for her first holiday this past winter.

In addition to the ornament, I purchased a gorgeous set of alphabet and number blocks, with which she has just started to play. While suggested ages are not listed with each toy listing, Nick and Kimber quickly respond to any email inquiries about this topic. They suggested that these were a 9 months and up toy and so we followed their lead on that. The colors are gorgeous, the craftmanship exceptional and the fun to be had with them is endless. We stack, knock down, slide, tap and crawl with these guys and they are no worse for the wear.

We also purchased a wooden teether shaped like Antarctica. Yup, Antarctica. I love that the shop carries a variety of teethers that are a strong, wooden option to the many plastic ones that are on the market. I just prefer to not have her sucking on plastics and this unfinished wood option is a great one.

I have many items on my wishlist for the coming year. These bowling pins and ball are divine!

The rocking horse looks so cute and sturdy.

The lacing toys make my Montessori-education-loving self excited.

Finally, these stacking nesting arches look like they could provide strong entertainment and imagination fun for Tomato.

In addition to producing high quality, wooden toys, Little Sapling Toys has found some great ways to give back to the earth and help promote green practices. According to their website, for each item that you purchase, they donate enough to plant a tree with Trees for the Future. Also, their packaging is recycled and recyclable, and they participate in green energy programs in the state of Idaho.

I look forward to being a patron of theirs in the years to come and hope that you give their shop a look too. I will be reviewing several more wooden toy product lines in posts to come. We have been lucky to find many that we are happy with and comfortable with for our little one and I look forward to sharing them with you.

Homemade Baby Food: Part 2

2011-05-18T14:31:00.035-04:00

A couple of months ago, I wrote about making baby food at home for the Tomato. I have enjoyed doing so very much and in addition to using the Beaba Babycook, I have been utilizing a huge steamer pot from Martha Stewart.

It's an 8 quart pasta pot/steamer and works wonderfully for making applesauce and any dishes that include sweet potatoes or potatoes.I use this pot for those dishes because they are best blended in a food mill, like the one that I have from OXO.

I just ladled the steamed food into the mill, which sits atop a bowl. Then, I use my own brute strength to turn the handle and pureed potatoes emerge.

I like having the steamer pot for this utility in addition to the fact that I can make two baby dishes at once. I often have applesauce going in this set up and pears or mango going in the Beaba. It helps to get things done efficiently and in an organized fashion on any day of the week.

So, what has been created for the Tomato in our homemade endeavors? She has had a variety of fruits and veggies and even a couple of spices and we are about to start chicken and beef. We've been following food suggestions form our pediatrician, but I have also had help from some other friends who have made baby food. One of those friends suggested a great website called Wholesome Baby Food. I highly recommend it for recipes and guidelines. Below is a list of what she has eaten (not in any particular order). She loves everything, particularly rutabaga, mango and butternut squash and has really only been picky in the fact that she prefers Gala and Fuji apples over Golden Delicious. A foodie in training!

Veggies
Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Butternut Squash
Broccoli (mixed with Sweet Potatoes)
Potatoes
Leeks (mixed with Peas and Potatoes)
Rutabaga
Peas

Fruits
Bananas
Apples
Mango
Papaya
Pears
Avocado

Spices
Ginger (mixed with Carrots)
Cinnamon (with Apples and Pears)

Potatoes Brumbaugh

2011-05-17T11:57:00.004-04:00

As a child of the 80's, I definitely watched my share of television miniseries on TV or on VHS tape. My all time favorite of those miniseries is Centennial. I dreamt of being Elly Zendt and running away to the West with Levi Zendt. I didn't want it to end in a snakebite like her journey had, but I loved the idea of the new frontier and making my way to a homestead. One of my favorite characters in the miniseries was Potatoes Brumbaugh, a hard working potato farmer played by Alex Karras, of Webster fame. When I mentioned to my parents that we were going to be planting potatoes in the garden this year, my dad asked if I remembered Potatoes Brumbaugh. Of course I did and I hoped to channel his enthusiasm for the crop as we planted our Katahdins this year.

In order to conserve space in the garden, my brother in law and I built potato boxes according to this plan that I found on the Denver Post website.

Our first step was to hit Home Depot to buy untreated lumber to make the boxes. I always choose untreated wood so that I'm not adding any unnecessary chemicals to the garden. Once we had our supplies, my BIL cut the wood and built the first layer of two boxes for me.

An established bed, a new bed and the potato boxes in their places

The theory with the boxes is that we add a layer of wood planks as the potatoes grow and we add dirt on top of plant as it emerges throughout the season. So, I will be adding planks until each box gets to be six layers of wood in all. The possible yield with these boxes is 100 pounds of potatoes. Yes, I said 100 pounds and yes, I said that we have set up two of these boxes. So, if we get a good yield we could stand to see more than 200 pounds because these boxes didn't fit all of the seed potatoes that I ordered and so 8 other seed potatoes were planted in troughs in the big veggie patch. I foresee a great deal of latkes, mashed potatoes, potato bread and potato soup in our future this winter.

Once we laid the boxes near the raised beds, I turned over the soil, said goodbye to more grass in the yard in honor of Operation Less Mowing, laid newspaper to deter weeds and added Organic Mechanic Planting soil and Frey's Mushroom Compost. I added enough extra soil to get to the top of the first layer of wood planks.

Newspaper layer

First layer of Organic Mechanic soil

After doing so, I realized that I needed to add the second layer of planks. This required a drill. Prior to last week, I had never wielded a drill in my life. So, in the ever dynamic learning curve that is my gardening knowledge and skills, my husband taught me how to use the drill so that I could keep building the boxes during the week. I am proud to say that I did a fairly good job. Not union work quality, but good. Once the next layer was on, I added more dirt and was able to plant the potatoes.

In order to prep the potatoes, they need to be sliced so that there are at least two eyes on each piece to be planted. Then, let the slices dry so that you reduce the risk of bacteria once you plant the potatoes. I planted four pieces in each box. I planted them about six inches from the center and four inches deep. The trough potatoes were planted about six inches deep and six inches apart in two rows.

I am eagerly anticipating this vegetable this season. We chose Katahdins because they are a good basic, heirloom variety. Also, they are not a variety carried by our "potato guy" at the farmer's market. Barry, from Savoie Farms, does grow Yukon Golds, Onaways, All Blues and Red Clouds, among other varieties. So, I can get those flavors from him. In addition to purchasing from him this year, I am sure that I will be asking questions about how to grow potatoes successfully and organically in our garden. Have any of you grown potatoes? If so, what tips and suggestions do you have?

KidCo Go-Pod - Oh How I Love Thee!

2011-05-13T14:13:00.001-04:00

Every time that I use the KidCo Go-Pod, I think that it is the most wonderful baby thing that I have purchased. I will try to put into words how much I love it.

First of all, I can use it everywhere! It goes in the kitchen for the Tomato to jump, stand and play in while I do the dishes. It goes by the computer if I have paperwork to do. It goes in the garden while I shovel and water and plant and Tomato soaks up some Vitamin D. It can go to the park or the shore because it folds up beautifully and has a little travel bag to pop it in and go.

In addition to its portability, the Go-Pod has just a few loops to which I can attach toys. Tomato has the lamb and the bunny from her Skip Hop Playmat and the cup and snack cup holders currently house a teether and a rattle for her to play with while I tend to the household activities.

I also love that it is a soft seat. It is the same type of material as the chairs that folks take to soccer games or camping. Tomato can move, jump and strengthen her legs while she is playing in the seat. We chose not to buy a Bumbo or Exersaucer because I wasn't a fan of the hard seats that they have or of the many, many toys that the Exersaucer has. I can see how some people may like them, but they just weren't for us. I wanted Tomato to have mobility and learn how to use her legs. Plus, when talking with the physical therapist at my old school, she recommended not using them because they can be detrimental to gross motor development. Also, the Go-Pod only allows for a few toys, so it's not overwhelming for me or for Tomato.

This is definitely one of those items that I could end up purchasing for folks who are expecting and would like a simple, go to baby "chair." I am thrilled to have stumbled upon it on the Target website. You can also purchase it through One Step Ahead, Amazon or Buy Buy Baby. I already think that we have gotten our money's worth out of this one and it will definitely be getting some mileage in the garden this summer.

Smallville Tribute Peas

2011-05-08T20:34:00.000-04:00

This year, we are adding some new foods to our backyard garden. Among those newbies are peas. I love peas and the Tomato eats them up. When I was deciding which type of heirloom peas to grow, I came across the Green Arrow peas in the High Mowing Seed catalog. Since DH and I have been avid fans of Smallville and the show is leaving the air this season, I couldn't resist ordering them to pay tribute.

In order to grow peas, I needed some trellises. I went back and forth over which type of trellis to order. I love my cucumber trellis from Gardener's Supply, but also thought about doing an arbor as an entrance to the large tilled space pictured below:

As I flipped through the GS catalog, I found these large obelisks that can be used to grow flowers or veggies. They are good for pole beans and sweet peas, so I bought two. One for peas and one for beans.

The obelisk comes with some assembly required, but can easily be pieced together in about 20 minutes and put into the ground. For planting the peas, I waited until the soil temperature was between 50 and 70 degrees F. I used this soil thermometer from Seeds of Change in order to check daily over the last month.

In order to prepare the ground for seeds, I turned over the tilled dirt one more time, laid down 4 layers of newspaper in order to block weeds, soaked the newspaper in order to anchor it and then laid on a few bags of Organic Mechanics soil and 1 bag of Frey's Mushroom Compost (bags pictured below).

I can't say enough about this compost and soil. It is truly beautiful dirt! I've been getting it at Terrain and Whole Foods for the past couple of years. Terrain carries the big 2 cubic feet bags, but I can get 1 cubic foot bags at Whole Foods each week when I do our weekly food shopping. After I put the dirt down, I built the obelisk and put it into the ground.

The Tomato joined me in the Ergo carrier in order to plant the pea seeds and a couple of weeks later, we are now happy to see some shoots coming through the ground! I encircled the young pea shoots with chicken wire and the tomato cages that I ordered. This way, our own Peter Rabbit family will be diverted from enjoying our fine organic peas.

Two Week Old Peas

While I will miss Justin Hartley as Green Arrow on Smallville, I can't wait to watch these Green Arrows grow and have our family harvest them together!

Babyproofing and Simplifying

2011-05-06T06:34:00.000-04:00

It has been a busy last two weeks here at Casa Crafty Garden. The Tomato has learned to pull up to stand, crawls like the wind and is even starting cruise on some items in the household. This can only mean one thing...Babyproofingpalooza! I have been working diligently to try to stay one step ahead of her and door knob covers, outlet covers, power strip covers, wire bundlers, door latches, toilet locks and appliance locks have descended upon the house. She has been spending a little more time in the Pack n Play than usual as I work in the room to install gates and creep around on her level to see what she might get in to. She is a very curious baby, so we actually need to babyproof it all instead of waiting to see what she might get into. This has led us to continue to declutter and simplify our existence in order to keep things safe and secure for her.

One area that I knew we needed to address was wires. We are a technological house and so we have some areas in the house that have a bunch of wires that need to be bundled and power strips that need to be covered. There are several different brands out there for babyproofing, but we mostly bought KidCo and Safety 1st items. The KidCo brand power strip cover was super easy to install and keeps everything orderly so that a baby cannot open it and pull cords out to expose outlets.

KidCo Power Strip Cover

For the regular outlets, I ordered the Rhoost brand outlet covers from giggle.com. Rhoost manufactures BPA free plastic outlet covers that you really need to work to get out of the outlet. They are the individual outlet covers, which worked for us.

Rhoost Outlet Covers

Another area that needed our attention was cable wires. We have always been fairly basic about TVs in this house, and by basic, I mean we have one. We've only ever had one in the last 12 years of my single life apartment living and coupled home living. Luckily, DH and I enjoy many of the same programs, and I watch my guilty pleasure shows (Bethenny Ever After, Oprah and Martha, to name a few) when he is at work and the Tomato is napping. As an aside, we're doing"No TV until age 3" with her and it provides a nice, calm existence for everyone when she is awake and active as well as letting us focus on interacting with her. Plus, we like the simplicity of one television. It allows us to watch something together as a couple and it keeps the cable bill low since there is only one connection. The previous few owners of the house had about 5 televisions. So, throughout the house, we had loose cables like these:

Coaxial Cable Wire

Knowing that we didn't have any TVs attached to these four loose wires, I committed to getting them out by calling our cable provider and asking for a service call. They set up an appointment within two days, sent someone out, she removed the wires from both inside and outside the house and filled in the holes with silicone. Excellent! No more worries for mama on this front. The pointy wires at the end of the cables and the cables themselves were gone. Plus, we have committed to living a simple entertainment life by only having the one TV connection.

Another safety precaution in the TV area was to secure the cabinet that the TV is on. This time we used the Safety 1st latch pictured below since this cabinet has two pulls next to each other. By installing this lock, it may eliminate a need for us to get a DVD cover and I like this style latch because it has the display to show you that it is locked.

Safety 1st Cabinet Latch

We have a few more things to do in the living room to finish babyproofing. As we wrap it up, I will post some more tips and pictures of what we have done and why. Next up will be anchoring the flat screen TV, installing magnetic drawer latches and anchoring some furniture to the walls. We have a climbing Tomato and we're going to be super cautious about what can tip or fall if she pulls up on them.

Cloth Diaper Adventures Begin

2011-04-23T11:07:00.000-04:00

I had originally intended to start cloth diapers with the Tomato when she was born. But, the learning curve of being a new mom and adjusting to life as a stay at home mom has staved off that effort until now.

Last summer, I purchased about 2 dozen bumGenius 4.0 diapers at Nurture in Ardmore, PA. It is our closest green baby store and I love it! They have a ton of wooden toys, BPA free items, beautiful clothes and everything you need to do cloth diapers. The folks at the store were extremely helpful with any questions that I had and got me set up with the diaper sprayer that bumGenius suggests using for messy diapers. I was able to install it yesterday and can attest that it is quick and easy and only requires the sprayer package and a Philips head screwdriver.

They also suggested the odor spray that bumGenius makes and Charlie's Soap Detergent. Charlie's soap leaves no residue on the clothes that it washes, which makes it the best for cloth diapers. One large jug lasts through 6 months of baby clothes, so I would highly recommend it.

They also had the FuzziBunz wet bag for a diaper bag and the Wahmies large wet bags that can go in a trash can for the diapers that accumulate at home.

Wahmies diaper pail liner

FuzziBunz small wet bag for the diaper bag

I am very excited to start cloth diapers today. It is the Great Cloth Diaper Change at 9 am PDT. Folks around the world will be meeting at designated spots to see if a Guinness World Record can be set for the most cloth diapers changed at once. It's a great movement that has begun and a great message to send out on Earth Day Weekend. Since cloth diapers have become easy and simple to do at home or with a service, I would highly encourage it. The bumGenius 4.0 diapers are an All in One diaper that has a vertical and horizontal snap system that will allow the diaper to grow with the baby. I am so excited to begin this transition and lessen the amount of trash that we send to the landfills. For those of you participating in the Great Cloth Diaper Change at Nurture today, have fun! We wish we could join you, but we'll be participating from home. Can't wait to see what the record is today!

Loop's Daria Cowl

2011-04-20T07:07:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Daria Cowl
Yarn: Imperial Stock Ranch Bulky 2 Strand in Indigo Heather and Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia in Wild Iris
Needles: US 10 Circulars

I saw this project on Loop's website a couple of years ago and when I was at the store last winter, I grabbed the yarn I needed to complete it. I love Loop! It's a gorgeous store that I am lucky to have nearby. The yarns are all high quality and so is the staff. It is my favorite yarn store in the area and I look forward to each trip that I take to get yarns and explore what they have in the store.

The Daria Cowl is the project that I was working on the day that I went into labor. In fact, all that I had left to do was bind off. This is a fact that would leave most knitters frustrated about being away from a project for a few days. When I got home from the hospital, it was something that I took care of in about a week. We know that I like to cross things off of lists, and this was on one of those lists. I am trying to manage my knitting projects better, and I am vowing not to have any UFOs in my project list by the end of the calendar year. That Minimalist Cardigan that I started 4 years ago may need to be ripped out and restarted, but I will finish it. There is also the Tapestry Cowl, a Market Bag and several baby projects that need to be organized and created. I am happy to say that I am getting my mojo back and have been knitting the last few nights after I put the Tomato down to sleep for the night. Baby bibs are being created for her and I am having fun relaxing at the end of the day.

Soft Tiles Review

2011-04-18T11:31:00.000-04:00

As our daughter, the Tomato, has become more and more mobile, rolling, sitting up on her own and now standing, we have needed some floor coverage that is a softer landing than our wood floors. I looked at several different brands online and consulted this article on Inhabitots in order to find soft tile flooring that is eco-friendly and affordable. I decided to buy tiles at Softtiles.com. I liked that I could order from a variety of colors and that I could buy border tiles. The border tiles allow the configuration of tiles to look clean, smooth and modern. It makes it also feel a little less baby and a little more homey. I chose the blue and green tiles because they are my favorite colors and because I figure that we can move them around to play land and sea on them at a later time. The black border tiles compliment the colors nicely.

My two favorite aspects of these tiles, outside of the piece of mind when the Tomato is playing on them, are the affordability and the durability. They cost $5.80 per 2 x 2 (5/8" thick) square and it is so easy to run the vacuum over them in order to clean them up once or twice a week. Even if they do get beat up over time, we can always order a replacement tile.

I would highly recommend these tiles for you living room space or wherever the kids may play. I have a friend who was thinking of what to do with her semi-finished basement floor and I would say go for these. It would make for a great winter indoor play space on which the kids can tumble and explore. Also, the company has solid colors, designs and alphabet tiles, so there is good variety from which to choose in order to fit the space and design theme for which you are ordering them. Definitely, check them out if you are looking for some softer landing space for your little ones.

Knitting Mojo

2011-04-12T11:20:00.000-04:00

I've been struggling to find my knitting mojo lately. I really need to find it so that I can get some projects completed and some started. I need to make a conscious effort to sit down with it at night and work on my projects to get back into the groove. I have several friends who are having babies this fall and I want to bestow handknits on them for their little ones. In the past, I have made burp cloths and bibs for many, many babies. Below are those that I made for the Tomato before she was born.

For most burp cloths, such as these, I use the Mason Dixon Knitting pattern called Baby Genius Burp Cloths. It's a quick and easy pattern that I have memorized at this point. Each of the cloths is knit with Lily Sugar 'n Cream Cotton, which I buy at our local Joann Fabrics store. I love this yarn. It's a great workhorse yarn that holds up well to being washed and dried over and over. It's also super absorbent and we have certainly put it to the test this year.

So, I'm going to dust off the old knitting needles, bring out the rest of the cotton collection and get started on making some more. I have one bib on the needles for our little one and want to complete that and a few more since we're in the solid foods zone now. I'll post as I finish them. I also have a pattern of my own for a burp cloth that I made last summer. I'll be posting info on it here and the free pattern for downloading on Ravelry. Look out knitting mojo cause here I come!

Decluttering Rush

2011-04-11T19:47:00.000-04:00

When I used to run, before the Tomato arrived, I was one of those folks that would get a runner's high if the distance was long enough. I would feel euphoric and ready to take on the world. Hopefully, when the Tomato is big enough for me to run with her in the BOB stroller, I will have that feeling return. But, for now, I think I get that feeling from decluttering.

My friend, Caitlin, at Honeycomb Originals, has launched an Industry Project for herself. She is unloading her unwanted books, taking all of her store bought sweaters and skirts and donating them, while replacing them with items that she has knit or sewn herself. It's inspirational and impressive to read and watch as it unfolds. I had started to declutter before she started her project, but it has really pushed me to do more.

I have an affinity for books. Until recently, I had not unloaded any... ever. I had all of my childhood books, all the books that I bought and read through high school and all of my textbooks from college and graduate school. I have listed those in good condition on Paperbackswap.com and have had a good amount of success finding books for my classroom to trade for credits that I earn when I send out my own books to those who request them. But, since I have left teaching to be a mom, I no longer have a classroom. So, the credits amass on the site as I send out books more often than I request them. I wondered if there was another way to help move the books along from my home. Caitlin spoke about using Abebooks.com on this post. I set about collecting my textbooks from the attic and sorting them into ones to keep (because they were from a favorite class or had something to do with my thesis) and ones to purge. In my first go around on Abebooks, I sold about 10 books. The site makes it easy by paying for shipping and giving you the option of sending the books from a FedEx location or the post office.

When I was telling my brother in law about my excitement over simplifying the attic, he told me that he had sold books on Barnesandnoble.com. I checked out the next batch of books on both sites and found that B&N gave me much more per book than Abebooks did. Some books showed up on both sites to sell and some showed up on just one. I also had a growing pile of books that were on neither. I asked Caitlin what she had done with the books that weren't able to be sold, and she said that she took them to her local library to add to their book fair donations. I emailed my library and while they said that they did not take textbooks, I could drop off any paperback and hardbacks that I had annotated. Excellent!

When I went to the attic for a third trip for books, I sat down at the computer to see if I could find any other sites that bought back books. I wanted to see if any that were going to library had any more spots to which I could sell them before finally dropping them off. So I Googled it and found Bookscouter.com. This site is awesome! It allows you to enter the ISBN number for the book that you would like a price on and it compares prices on over 40 buy back sites. It helped me to find some more sites such as Powell's, Valore and Bookbyte. I've now sent out a ton of books and have made a good chunk of change from them. The attic is emptying, I've made some money and I feel better by having less and simplifying my life. Thanks for the inspiration, Caitlin!

Seeds, Glorious Seeds

2011-04-10T07:31:00.000-04:00

Well, we are inching closer to the gardening season here in 2011. I ordered seeds from a few different seed catalogs and all have arrived except for our asparagus crowns and seed potatoes (which will be arriving later this week). I have ordered primarily heirloom and organic seeds and was very pleased with the shipping, prices and customer service from the companies from whom I ordered. So, what do we have going in and where did I find the seeds?

For veggies and fruits, we have the following...

From High Mowing Seeds, I ordered Mustang F1 Onions (to be planted this week), Green Arrow Peas (also going in this week), Scarlet Nantes Carrots, Waltham Butternut Winter Squash, and Moon and Stars Watermelon. From Comstock, Ferre & Co., I ordered Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans. Finally, from Botanical Interests, I bought Spacemaster Cucumbers. I had Straight Eights cucumbers last year, which were fabulous, but I couldn't find them at Whole Foods this year. So, I will have to try this variety.

For herbs....

I bought Dill from Comstock Ferre. This will help to protect the potatoes, as will the Cilantro that I ordered from High Mowing. I also ordered Large Leaf Basil from High Mowing. I am vowing that this is the year that I am successful with basil. I never seem to water it enough, but this shall be the year that I am on top of it.

For flowers....

I have an "along the fence" area that is going to be dug out and have a ton of brush removed in the next two weeks (photos of before and after shall follow) and I will be putting several flowers in its place. From High Mowing, I ordered Strawberry Blonde Calendula, Red Scarlet Zinnias, Electron Sweet William, Echinacea and Jerusalem Gold Sunflowers. The sunflowers will actually go along my brick garage. I love the contrast of the brick against the gold of the sunflowers. Finally, from Seeds of Change, I ordered Hollyhocks. They are great for attracting bees, which we need to pollinate some of the veggies and fruits that we have in the garden.

I have a few plantlings that I will be buying when we get closer to our last frost. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and zucchini are all items that I like to buy already started. I don't have room to start seeds indoors, so the packets that I have will all be direct seeded in the coming weeks. I'll update as things go into the grown to talk about spacing and depths of planting as well as which beds are being used for which plants.

So, what do you have going in the ground this year?

Now Where is That Card?

2011-04-09T07:22:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it the little things that put a spring in your step. For me, it was organizing my stationery drawers. Yes, I said stationery and yes, I said drawers, as in plural. Over the years, we have given to various charities and in return those charities have sent us cards and envelopes and notepads. I also used to frequent Home Goods a little too much and buy cute notecards and thank you cards because I thought that I should have them on hand. I have always just shoved them in a drawer and I guess hoped that they would organize themselves. There are such things as Stationery Elves that come in at night and do that, right? I'm sure they are great friends with those Laundry Elves and Vacuum Elves that I keep hoping will arrive some dark night and complete those tasks.

Well, now that I am home full time, I am finally able to start crossing things off the big "To Do" list. Organizing the stationery has been one of those things. It really doesn't take long. But, in the back of my head, I kept thinking that it would. So, I unloaded all three drawers (yes, 3) and put them on the floor next to the coffee table and started sorting. I put them into piles by occasion and matched each card up with an envelope. This helps me stop the "Which envelope goes with this card?" game once and for all. I also made a pile of cards that were blank on the inside and could be used for any sort of correspondence. These came in handy this week as I unearthed pictures from our wedding that I had developed 4 years ago and had never sent out to folks. Another task that got crossed off the giant list.

Once I had things sorted, I put cards into ziploc bags, labeled them and consolidated it down to 2 drawers. I also organized our various manuals for the house and put them in the bottom drawer of this piece. Sanity all around this week!

One drawer is for cards already in boxes and one is for the ziploc bags and the large notepads. As a former teacher, I have received a fair share of notepads and now that I know where they are, I can start using them for grocery lists and whatnot. Part of the FLYLADY program is that you keep a list for the grocery store throughout the week. Having a pad readily available has helped us to stay organized with that and jot down what we need as we run low or run out of it. It saves us a tremendous amount of guesswork when we get to the food shopping day. Putting all of the paper into two drawers now leaves me with one empty drawer in the secretary piece that houses the paper. So, what to do with that empty drawer? Here is the next task on the big list:

As we are babyproofing the house now, I am noticing more things that need to be put away or locked up. I'll be going through this plastic wonder in the next week and probably ordering some organizer containers like these from The Container Store.

I already have a few of these for another drawer in the house that houses pens and pencils (which I don't think we will need to restock until the next millenium due to the perks of being a "retired" teacher). They have been super helpful and I just have to measure and see what fits and which ones I like for post its, markers and whatnot for the empty drawer.

This accomplishment does make me feel a little at peace this week. It's fun to cross things off the list and feel that when I need to find something there will be less frustration and stress in finding it. It's the little things sometimes.

The Beauty of Baking Soda: Part 2 - Sink and Shower Declogger

2011-04-04T06:42:00.000-04:00

A few weeks back, I extolled about the wonders of baking soda when it came to cleaning our stovetop. Today, I'd like to share my favorite use of it for unclogging slow or stuck drains. I was a user of Drano and Liquid Plumber for years until we had to have the drains snaked at our rental place a few years back. The plumber who did the work told us that he advocates not using commercial drain clog removers because they are so corrosive that they damage your pipes. So, I wondered what we could do to find an alternative solution. Around the same time, one of the magazines I read (it might have been Real Simple, which sadly has tapered off in its quality over the years) had an article about green cleaning and this baking soda tip was amongst the gems that they shared.

I use this method in our shower drain every other month whether it's a slow drain or not in order to keep everything moving. The pictures below were taken a month ago when we were having issues with our sink drain.

Step 1: Remove the sink stopper or the plate on your shower drain and try to get any gunk out that you can with a tissue or the end of the screwdriver that you used to open the plate. Put the bathroom fan on or open a window because the vinegar smell that is to come might be a bit strong.

Step 2: Put 1 cup of baking soda down the drain. It is okay if it makes Mount Baking Soda. It doesn't have to all fit down the drain.

Step 3: Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil.

Step 4: Heat 1 cup of white vinegar in the microwave for 1 minute. It should be hot, but not boiling. (This and heating up caramel sauce are really the only reason I keep this appliance.)

Step 5: Pour vinegar down the drain and revel in your third grade science class memories.

Step 6: After 15 minutes, the large pot of water is probably boiling. When it is, pour it down the drain over the baking soda and vinegar mixture and let settle.

Step 7: Give it a couple of tries with your standard plunger and run the hot water down the drain for a bit. Turn off the hot water, see how it drains. Repeat the plunger if need be.

Sometimes, a drain can be so bad that you have to repeat the process twice. But, we've been lucky to only have that happen twice in the last 5 years.

I like using this method because it's less corrosive on the pipes, I know I'm not sending any more bad chemicals into our water system and there are no dangerous fumes in the house anymore. In addition, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a commercial drain clog remover. You can't beat that.

Great Green References

2011-03-30T13:23:00.000-04:00

In my search for green info for raising kids and maintaining my home, I have come across several helpful websites. The top three that I enjoy are Inhabitots, Treehugger and Green Child Magazine.

Treehugger and Inhabitots are related sites with blogs and weekly e-newsletters. I follow them on Google Reader and appreciate the tips and product reviews that Inhabitots offers and the news articles that Treehugger shares. I can keep up with world environmental developments and news and Treehugger has even started offering vegetarian recipes for those trying to follow the Meatless Monday efforts.

Green Child Magazine is a digital magazine, which has a free subscription service. I am new to the world of digital magazines and they are swiftly becoming the reason why I may get an iPad down the line. The ease with which you can read the articles and scan the ads and then bookmark the webpages where items are located makes the digital magazines so easy to use. Plus, I don't have to rip out pages to save for ideas that inspire me and fill the filing cabinet with folders upon folders of paper clutter. Green Child Magazine has a blend of articles on how to be eco-friendly in the activities that you do with your children, such as dyeing easter eggs and other craft ideas. It also has great ads for green friendly products and, in the inaugural issue, a nice article about a cute organic kids' shop in North Carolina. I also enjoy finding out about more organic fabrics and clothing lines. I don't remember how I found Green Child Magazine, but I am glad that I did. It's nice to click on an item I like and be taken to the website where I can purchase it or bookmark to think about it for later. It has good insight and I will enjoy checking out future issues.

Are there other great green resources out there? If you know of any that I have not yet mentioned, please comment below.

The Fabulous Beekman Boys

2011-03-29T10:33:00.000-04:00

Over the years, I have read my fair share of memoirs of folks moving out of the big city and buying a farm and the antics that follow. It Takes a Village Idiot by Jim Mullen is by far my favorite. He used to be a columnist for Entertainment Weekly, and much like the recent departure of Stephen King from that publication, I think the magazine hasn't been the same since he left. Others that I have read that have left an impact too. They just seem to reinforce my "win the big lotto" dream to run away to the Catskills and buy a farm and bed and breakfast. Most recently, a book to do just that was The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell.

Josh is a former drag queen and current advertising exec who purchased a farm in upstate New York a few years back. He is one half of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, which airs on Planet Green on Tuesdays at 10 pm. Brent, his partner, is a former Martha Stewart employee and doctor, who has started Beekman 1802, a business based on the farm that makes goat's milk cheeses, soaps and has dipped its toe into the seed business.

My sister-in-law used to work for the publishing house that produces this book, so I was able to be gifted a copy last summer. I had already begun to watch the show, which is hilarious, and wanted to read the book in order to better understand their motives for buying the property and to read about what happened in the year before the show began production. The book is filled with great vignettes about how over their heads these two were with the purchase and the people that they have met along the way in Sharon Springs, NY. Brent's idea for the business is a good one, but getting a business off the ground can always be rocky and Kilmer-Purcell is honest in his portrayal of that in the book.

In addition to enjoying the book and laughing out loud at parts, I can attest to loving the show. I don't watch a lot of TV anymore since the arrival of the Tomato, but this is one show that I have kept in the DVR lineup. Season 2 started last week, which I forgot to tape, but Planet Green reruns old episodes before new ones on Tuesdays, so it is easy to catch up. Season 1 is rerunning on the channel as well and is available for download on iTunes. The show is filled with characters, from the gay couple who own the American Hotel in downtown Sharon Springs to Farmer John, the goat farmer that raises his goats on the Beekman land. Brent and Josh do bicker a bit, but most of the show is interesting to watch in order to see how they transform the property and build a brand. Clearly, Brent has a good base for building a brand since he worked for the all powerful Martha. But, they show the negatives and positives to launching a new product and the work that goes into such an endeavor.

I have purchased their homemade soap, which is made using the milk from Farmer John's goats, as a gift for my sister this past Christmas and she said that it smells divine. I would love to stop by the store that they have opened in Sharon Springs when we make our yearly pilgrimage to Cooperstown this summer. The town is adorable and I'd like to pop in and tell the guys how much I enjoy the show and sample the goat's milk cheese that I wasn't able to try last year while pregnant. The company has also started to carry linens and other household items that I'd like to see in person before buying.

The newest part of the company is a partnership with D. H. Landreth Seed Company (whose owners happen to be the boys' neighbors). Along with Williams-Sonoma, Beekman 1802 is now marketing an heirloom seed collection that contains a variety of heirloom seeds to help anyone start a garden in their backyard. They have started a program for gardeners to share their experiences with the different seeds in the packet and I am curious to follow along this year. I didn't purchased the group of seeds because it contained some vegetables that we have no interest in growing (I'm talking about you radishes) and while they are heirlooms (which I love to grow), they are not organic. But, if being organic is not a requirement for your garden, I would highly recommend this line. Landreth has done a great job of preserving American heirloom vegetables and its fun to choose heirlooms and see how you enjoy them compared to the traditional or hybrid varieties to which we have grown accustomed.

Overall, I think this brand is off to a good start and I look forward to the show each week. I would highly recommend the book. It's a light read and one that I finished in about a week. Also, look for Josh and Brent as they tour the country marketing the brand and doing book signings. They often pair with great shops, such as Terrain, so the trip to see them may bring you to some other gardening, culinary or literary gems that you weren't expecting.

OXO and Anka

2011-03-27T13:11:00.000-04:00

Anka....OXO....OXO....Anka. Yep, everytime that I sit down to feed the baby, I channel Dave Letterman hosting the Oscars. It makes me giggle. I enjoy the unusual names and I love the products themselves. After much deliberation, we settled on getting the Anka Highchair and the OXO tot brand dishes, bowls and spoons in order to aid us in our solid foods adventure.

The Anka highchair was not the first one that we fell in love with, but it was the most practical of the wooden highchairs that we researched. I was dead set on getting a Stokke Trippe Trappe, but that model, while sustainable because it grows with the child, does not have a tray. In the end, I wanted a tray. It gives us an easy clean up option and Tomato is still level with the table, which helps her to feel a part of the meals that we share. Below is the model and finish that we bought. We purchased ours through Amazon, but it can also be purchased through the Buy Buy Baby website and in some stores. I love the use of wood as opposed to entirely plastic, and the tray, while it is plastic, is super easy to clean and maintain. I haven't yet machine washed the cushion, but it can be thrown in the wash for a good deep clean each week.

So where she eats has been successful as well as the tools with which she has been eating. We went to Buy Buy Baby in order to scope out the plate, bowl and spoon options and boy were there a lot. I do feel a bit overwhelmed when I go to this store. It is my favorite baby store, but the high shelves and the vast amount of options that they have can sometimes be a bit much. Luckily, my DH went with me and helped me walk through the options that we laid out before us. I definitely wanted to avoid any plastics with BPA, and when I can find ones without phthalates and without PVC plastic, I am thrilled. So, when I checked the packaging on the OXO tot products and saw that they are free of all three of the "bad" plastics, I was excited. Of all of the options in the feeding section, this was the only line that was free of all three plastics that we wanted to avoid. We purchased some of the plates, the small and large bowls and several of the silicone coated spoons. I like the silicone coated spoons because they are healthy for the her too.

In addition to the bowls, plates and spoons, we also have the OXO tot sippy cups. Tomato never took a bottle, so she has been using the sippy cup when I am unavailable since she was 5 months. We've just been taking the valve out so that it flows a little easier for her. But, I'll be trying to put it back in and see how she does in the next month. The cup is also BPA, PVC and phthalate free so the quality of the products continues..

All of the OXO products wash up beautifully in the top rack of the dishwasher. The spoons can go in the standard utensils caddy. So, not only are they safe, but they are also easy to maintain.

Next up for the feeding routine is a spill mat. We just had the Mimi the Sardine one delivered, but I need to set it up. I will let you know how it does and how it washes in the near future.

Homemade Baby Food

2011-03-24T07:19:00.000-04:00

You know how I said I was a little in love with Bon Ami Cleanser a few posts back. Well, shhhh, lean closer to your screen so I can whisper something so the Bon Ami can't hear me. Ok, so here it is. I think I may have a little more than a passing crush on my Beaba Babycook. Yup, it's my new favorite!

In keeping with my desire to live life simply, I have taken on making my own baby food and boy do I love it! It's super easy. I know what the ingredients are. I can shop my little organic heart out at Whole Foods and know that at the end of the day, I have given the Tomato the best that I can. I am a stay at home mom, so I do have time during the weekdays to make food as I need it. But, that should not deter those working moms who wonder where to find the time. It just takes an hour or so on a Sunday to whip up the week's meals. I have a friend who juggled a full time teaching job, a PhD program at the top education graduate school in the country, breastfeeding and made her own meals. It can be done!

So, how is it done you may ask? Well, I've made 3 different foods so far: carrots, sweet potatoes and pears. For the carrots and pears, I used the Babycook and the steps are the same. First, fill the clear cup with water to the level indicated in the instruction book. Next, put the water into the steamer section of the Babycook. Peel and chop the carrots (or pears) and put them in the steamer basket.

Put the basket in the clear cup, click the top on and turn the dial to steam. The different types of foods take different times to steam, but the longest time so far for us has been 15 minutes. After steaming, transfer the food to the clear cup while keeping the water in the cup. Puree and serve!

With the leftovers, put them into sections of ice cube trays (I have the Beaba and Fresh Baby ones pictured below) and them put the ice cube trays into a freezer bag. Freeze and then transfer to a new freezer bag and mark the type of food and the date. The rule of thumb is that the food will last 6 weeks in the freezer.

When I serve the frozen servings, I just heat them up in a pan or small pot on the stove, let it cool and serve. I don't microwave her food because I try to use the microwave as little as possible. In fact, I only use it to heat up my caramel sauce for ice cream. I even debate why we have the machine most days. Maybe that will be a goal to declutter and oh the space I would regain on the countertop!

I have been a bit surprised at how easy this has been and am excited that I am doing it. I have a few books that I am following to help along the way. Annabel Karmel seems to be the baby food guru, so I have her Top 100 Baby Purees and her First Meals books.

I also have Feeding Baby Green, which is a great comprehensive guide to eating healthy during your pregnancy and how to help shape healthy eating in your children. The author is a pediatrician and the book is well researched. I would highly recommend it to folks who already eat organically, locally and seasonally and those who are looking to learn to eat that way.

The next few foods that Tomato will be trying are papaya, green beans and peas. Papaya is a no cook food. Just smash and serve! We've got a couple of weeks until chicken. I will have some product reviews for you in the next week about the OXO tot products that we bought for her plates, bowls and spoons and the Anka high chair that we use with her. If you are making your own baby food, please comment below with your favorite recipes or go to supplies.

Shop Local

2011-03-15T14:11:00.000-04:00

We eat as locally as possible in this house, but we also like to shop locally. I have been happy to see more of these signs popping up in the downtowns that we have easy access to as well as in Philadelphia, our nearest major city.

In addition to local shopping being good for the local economy, you can't beat how it feels to walk into a store and have the owner greet you by name and ask how your family is doing. We are fortunate enough to live in an area that we are able to walk, take a train or drive a short distance to reach many "mom and pop" shops. It's enjoyable to go to a running store and know the employees and have them remember what your running needs are as opposed to buying sneakers at a large, anonymous sports store. It's enjoyable to go into a small shop, such as one that specializes in olive oils or comic books, and have the owner ask you how your last purchase tasted or what you thought about the last issue. It's enjoyable to dine at a local, non-chain restaurant and have the chef take the time to prepare a meal around your dietary needs or support a new place that sells delicious Indian food, the likes of which you've never had in your area before. It's even more enjoyable to have gone to shops or a family owned gas station that they not only know you, but also your parents and grandparents because that's how long they have been there. I just don't get that positive vibe at the majority of chain stores that I have visited.

That's not to say that I haven't been to the local Buy Buy Baby often enough in the last 6 months that the word "Norm!" shouldn't be shouted by employees when I enter. There are just some things that I can't get locally at a small business. But, for those items that I can and when the opportunity to frequent a baby boutique is possible, I choose the boutique. I also feel that it's better for the psyche to have the chance to take a stroll to go shop and get the endorphins going. You get fresh air, some Vitamin D and most probably a smile on your face in the process. So, take a look around your immediate neighborhoods. Could you get a local, artisanal gelato instead of a supermarket box of ice cream shipped from who knows where? Could you pick up some handmade soaps instead of grabbing a pack at the chain pharmacy? If so, maybe it's worth the extra time to walk to that shop or the extra cash that you may have to spend to support small businesses and the families, artisans and businesspeople who run them. I know that I look forward to my next trip to the bike shop where our tires get filled for free because the owner knows my sister or to the dress shop, where I bought both my prom and wedding dresses, and the owner asks how those dresses looked on those special days.

The Beauty of Baking Soda: Part 1 - The Stovetop

2011-03-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

It has been at least 10 years since I last bought conventional cleaners like Comet, Lysol or Windex. Instead, I've adopted some products from the Seventh Generation line and I am a little in love with Bon Ami cleanser for the tub. But, the majority of cleaning that I do in the house follows the "How Would My Great-Grandmother Clean?" philosophy. Much like the "Would My Great-Grandmother Have Eaten That?" philosophy that approaches a desire to eat unprocessed foods, this cleaning philosophy looks at keeping cleaning simple with basic ingredients like lemons, white vinegar and the workhorse of it all....baking soda. We buy a lot of baking soda in this house and use it in a variety of ways. Yes, we put it in the fridge and the pantry to absorb any funkiness that may occur, but mostly I use it for cleaning. In the next few weeks, I'll be posting a series of ways that you can use it in your house to simplify and green your cleaning. First up is it's function as a cleaner for your stovetop.

We like to cook, and so by the end of the week our stove can look like this:

Pasta and rice water overflow (which I now have a tip for dissuading - coat the rim of the pot with olive oil before cooking and overflow be gone!) and the various sauces that we concoct can build up and seem a little daunting to clean without using some processed, mass produced and fume inducing product. But it can be done in a simpler and healthier fashion. In my opinion, if it's something that you shouldn't have used while you were pregnant or breastfeeding, then it's probably something you should never use for cleaning. So, what is the solution to this cleaning problem? Enter baking soda, a damp towel and your new best tool....elbow grease.

The first thing that I do to clean is take all of the covers off and make sure the stove dials are in the OFF position. Next, I dampen the corner of a dishtowel and fill a small bowl halfway with baking soda. Dip the damp part of the towel in the baking soda for a coating and then start wiping down the stove top and scrubbing the caked-on spots. You can even use the baking soda on the top of the silver discs where the flame comes out on a gas range. Each week, this probably takes me 5 to 10 minutes to do, based on how "passionate" we were in our cooking. The end result is this:

Bright and shiny and ready for the next meal! It's a quick and easy way to clean. Plus, it doesn't reek like commercial cleansers so the aromas in your kitchen are left to be the ones that you create with your meals. Next up in the baking soda series will be how to use it as a Drano or Liquid Plumber alternative. Stay tuned!

Darkside Cowl and Toast

2011-03-07T14:10:00.000-05:00

Cowls and fingerless mitts are two great ways to use those beautiful single skeins that you purchased just because you loved the color and not because you had a project in mind. I think I fall for the single skein purchasing every time that I come across Mountain Colors. This company makes beautiful, hand-dyed colorways in a variety of weights and fibers.

Mountain Colors 4/8's Wool in Red Willow

I bought this particular skein at The Lamb Shoppe in Denver, CO in the fall of 2009. Not only did I fall in love with the store, which was so cozy and beautiful, but also with these fall colors. I just had to take it home. But, what to do with it other than stare at it on the shelf?

Last summer, I looked through the patterns section on Ravelry to see if I could find more than one project to do with it since the yardage was more than enough for a cowl or a pair of fingerless mitts alone. I made the Toast pattern in a Plucky Knitter cashmere before, so I knew that would be a quick way to utilize some of the yardage. Also, I had the Darkside Cowl pattern in my queue. So, I paired them together and knit both in about two weeks. I wear the mitts constantly when I head out in the cold for a stroller walk, and I rotate the cowl with the other ones that I have in my repertoire. Both are very soft and warm and I love the way the colors play in the sun.

Toast Mitts

Darkside Cowl

Cowls have definitely been the "hot thing" in the knitting world, much like socks were a few years back. I have knit 3 or 4 now and enjoy the versatility of them and the ease with which I can throw them on and head out. I am curious to see what the next "in thing" turns out to be. Hats perhaps? If you are knitter, what do you think the next trend will be?

Romina Furniture Review

2011-03-06T10:21:00.000-05:00

When we were looking for furniture for Tomato's room, we did a lot of research to find a sustainable furniture line that used non-VOC paints or varnishes and did not have a drop side. Finding cribs without a drop side won't be as difficult for future parents since, as of June 2011, they will no longer be produced or sold in the US due to safety concerns. On a side note, daycares and hotels have 2 years to phase them out. So, if it's a concern for you as well, be sure to ask about which cribs are used if those are places that you partonize.

No matter where we looked for cribs with the requirements that we had, the name Romina kept appearing. So, we ventured to the nearest baby store that carried the line in order to check it out. Romina furniture is made from hardwood beech, the European kind of beech that is a strong, sustainably harvested wood, and is finished with non-VOC paints and waxes. It is an Italian company that manufactures the line in Romania. We looked at a few designs that we had and spoke with the furniture store owner. He raved about the line's quality and customer service and even called the company's US manager with questions while we were there. We appreciated that someone was taking the time to respect our views. We ended up deciding on the Karisma line since it has clean lines and is similar to some Mission style furniture that I have liked before. We toyed with the idea of the beeswax finish, but if it does get scuffed up, it takes a lot to refinish. So, we went with the natural finish.

Sample room with two dressers, crib and standing closet

Another green plus to this line is that it is convertible. So, we are making less of an impact because we won't be buying a crib, then a toddler bed and then a regular bed. Instead, it is a one time purchase with a conversion kit. The crib has three mattress settings, converts to a toddler bed (with a separately purchased toddler rail) and then converts to a full size bed (the conversion kit is also a separate purchase).

Toddler Bed with Toddler Rail

Full Sized Bed

We purchased the crib and a dresser at the local store. Unfortunately, that store closed due to retirement, so we had to find another in order to purchase another dresser and a nightstand. Luckily, the Romina website has a dealer locator feature and we found another store in the area.

Overall, I am very happy with our purchases and recommend Romina to anyone looking for a high quality or eco-friendly furniture line. I enjoy the sturdiness of the furniture, the design and the safety features, such as the slow close drawers on the dressers and nightstand. They will help to keep little fingers from getting squished at a later date. Even though the line is not sold at a large number of stores, I feel like it is worth seeking out. If a store is not within your driving range, you can email the company and ask about shipping options. Also, keep in mind that since the line is manufactured in Europe and each piece begins production when ordered, it will take about 2 to 3 months for delivery.

Kitchen Garden 2010

2011-03-03T06:37:00.002-05:00

I try to shop as locally and as organically as possible for our food. We have three great farmers' markets within a 20 minute drive, including one that is a ten minute walk from the house. I am able to get a variety of foods at all three, but have wanted to grow as much as we can at our own home. It's part Operation No Lawn and part Operation 0 miles Foods. I've been influenced a lot by books such as The 100 Mile Diet, This Organic Life, and everything that Michael Pollan has written. So, I try to make wise and healthy decisions about what we eat and how we source it. I'm lucky to have local access to honey, eggs, meats, tons of veggies and fruits. Many are organic, but we do struggle to find things like apples and berries that are local. As we get closer to the summer, I will be looking in earnest to find local pick-your-own farms that are organic in the area. Fingers are crossed to find them!

In that effort to live organically and locally, we have started a kitchen garden at our home. Last year was our second year and we definitely expanded from the first year. We went from one to two raised 4 x 8 beds, continued our pumpkin patch and maintained our blackberry and blueberry bushes. In the two beds, we had a variety of heirloom tomatoes (Romas, Japanese Black Trifeles and Mortgage Lifters), Rosa Bianca eggplants, a variety of hot peppers (from Pepperoncinis to Fish), cucumbers, zucchinis, bush beans, and Scarlet Nantes carrots. In the pumpkin patch, I just threw whatever pumpkins and gourds we had from the front porch fall decorations against the garage and let the squirrels do the planting. So, we ended up with some Cheese and sugar pumpkins and many, many bottle gourds. Overall, the yield was okay.

We had some setbacks that were out of our control, like this tree that crashed in from the neighbor's yard.

Additionally, I purchased a great cucumber trelllis from Gardener's Supply. While it was great for our cucumber yield, it definitely dwarfed the carrots' sun. I also was overzealous in how many peppers and tomatoes we planted in the one bed, and we ended up with some fungus that even took the Master Gardeners at the Rutgers Co-op Extension a while to diagnose. It's a all a learning curve though and I take my time with the garden and work from my mistakes.

We have a lot planned for this year's garden. I will be adding three more raised beds. We are going to be planting a greater variety of foods and I even researched what the Tomato will be starting to eat in the next six months, as she begins her foray into solid foods, so that I have those veggies planted in order to make her baby food at home. We yearn to add some fruit trees, but also need to plan out a fence for the backyard so that the Tomato can play safely in our space. So, I may have to wait on those trees for another year. Oh apples, figs and plums, we are ever hopeful that you will join our garden!
Below is our wishlist for our 2011 garden. I will be combing through the seed catalogs this week and plotting distances in order to see what we can achieve. I am very excited to place our orders and get things moving for this year!

2011 Kitchen Garden Wishlist:

Butternut Squash - Pumpkins - Zucchini - Heirloom Tomatoes (definitely Romas for sauce) - Hot Peppers (Pepperoncinis and Jalapenos are definite) - Eggplant - Cucumbers - Carrots - Potatoes - Sweet Potatoes - Apples - Plums - Figs - Watermelons - Onions - Asparagus - Edamame - Pole Beans - Peas - Garlic

Decluttering

2011-02-28T20:32:00.000-05:00

As I have been home since the fall, I have finally had some time to tackle the decluttering and organizing of our home. I have always struggled with staying on top of our housekeeping in quite the way I wanted. I no longer want to spend all day on Saturday trying to catch up and I'd like to have some routine as well as start to minimize the clutter and things that we have in the house.

Enter FlyLady! I picked up the book, Sink Reflections, a couple of years back, but never got around to reading it. I finally sat down with it this November and began to come up with a plan of attack. According to the FlyLady, the first thing to do is to shine that sink. Mission accomplished (on most days). Also, rooms need to be decluttered before you can really deep clean them.

So, I set about trying to find some ways to donate or exchange items rather than just trash them. Two resources that have been invaluable for us have been Paperbackswap.com and Goodwill. On Paperbackswap, you can list all of the good condition books that you would like to be rid of and folks can choose your book. You mail it to them in exchange for a credit for a book that you would like. I've listed over 150 books and have seen at least 50-75 go out the door in the past few months. I use the service to get books that I know I would like to read and then relist and those that I would take too long to get back to the library on time.

Goodwill and other organizations will take donations of clothing and other household goods of which you are no longer in need. You can either drop off donations at a specific location or some charities will even pick up from your home. In the last three months, I've happily unloaded 4 large trash bags of clothes that we no longer need or wear.

I still have some areas to conquer in the house, but feel like I'm off to a good start. Next up will be going through all of my college books to see what I would like to keep and what I would like to sell on Abebooks.com. I also would like to organize and file my loose knitting patterns in a binder, and do the same with recipes that I have pulled from magazines or online sources. The pantry also needs to be pulled out and checked through and finally, all of my classroom materials need to be reorganized in the attic. I'm sure there are other projects that are lingering around the house. I'll keep you posted about how it all goes.

Luxe Cowl

2011-02-18T13:33:00.000-05:00

Since the birth of our daughter, the Tomato, last fall, I have not had a terribly large amount of time to knit and pursue my favorite hobby. When she first arrived, she took much longer and more frequent naps and so I was able to complete some projects. One of the most fulfilling and fun of those projects was the Luxe Cowl designed by tentenknits. I had purchased two skeins of Rowan Plaid almost 6 years ago when I first starting knitting. They have looked very pretty sitting amongst the stash in our sunroom, but I could never find the right project for them. I didn't want to just use one skein and not the other, so I was pleased to find this pattern on one of my favorite knitting blogs that would use both. Margaux has a great variety of patterns that she has designed over the years, and I will be curious to see how her cross country move from North Jersey to California will or will not affect her aesthetic. I have worn this cowl repeatedly over the winter and find it to be my go to item to wear with my long, puffy black coat. It was a super quick knit and I think I had it done in under a week's worth of newborn naps. Which, if that is converted to normal people hours, should take a couple of nights of tv knitting. The specs are below. Be sure to check out Margaux's blog and the other projects that others have made for this pattern on Ravelry.

Pattern: Luxe Cowl
Yarn: Rowan Plaid in Creeper - 2 skeins
Needles: US 13 Circulars