Inspiration + imagination = WOW!

I am going to call this my WOW... the Wheelchair of Wonder.

I try not to be vain, truly I do. But with multiple weddings and other special events in my very near future, I have been feeling rather self-conscious about the fact that I may need to use my chair. It's functional, but NOBODY could call it attractive. Ashamedly, this bothers me more than I'd like to admit.

The other day I was browsing Pinterest, when I came across THIS decorated chair. My initial thought was how LOVELY and thronelike it looked! With a chair like that, while I would still stick out like a sore thumb, at least it wouldn't be because of how ugly my chair was. (Told you I can be vain!)

I got to thinking about how to recreate something similar with items I have on hand, that wouldn't require a visit to the florist. After raiding the holiday decorations for chair ribbons, my jewelry drawer for a brooch... and a $9 order for a pashmina scarf via Amazon... my chair has been beautified.




Rather than THIS


















I can now wheel myself about in THIS!












This may need a bit of tweaking; keeping the tassels out of the wheels and the scarf from bunching up are a few issues I'm working out right now. But isn't it so pretty? And it is SO easy to pull off that ANYONE could do this!

I am still working on my self-esteem and my struggles with vanity, but at least for the moment - I think this will help me feel less awful on special occasions.  

2015 Garden - Part 3 (photo heavy)

There's something surreal about how quickly the garden grows in July. Two weeks ago, I had cute little plants. Today? It's a jungle out there!

From the street, our garden has finally begun to take on a jungle appearance. It's still filling in, but the dinner-plate sized zucchini leaves, intermingling with the twining melon and  cucumbers - all in beautiful golden bloom right now, is quite the sight. I can ALMOST sit at the bistro table hidden from view right now!

The inspiring part of our garden right now, is the close-ups. I love a photo of tangling twining vines, but let's see some FOOD already!  Here it is! 

There are dozens of peppers, hundreds of tomatoes, and I counted a dozen "fingerling" zucchini this morning. I have at least 50 cucumber blossoms, but I haven't seen the telltale swell of fruit just yet. The same is true with our melons. But our garden is SO pretty right now!

The rest of our yard is also in full bloom right now. The lilacs & rose have long since spent their blossoms, but July is lily-season here. All of the lilies from my mother's garden are up and in their full beauty right now. I don't often share flower photos, but please enjoy a walk through my front yard.

We have had so many struggles over this past year, and there are several new struggles vying for our time right now. By this fall, we are hoping to have the finances together to start building a wheelchair ramp to our front door. I will be landscaping the side-yard at the same time into a pretty contemplation-garden in blues and whites... but our spirits are low.

At least for a moment, while the lilies are in full bloom, I can sit and contemplate the beautiful things in life.

2015 Garden - Part 2

The Great War has begun. I'm talking about an all-out, no holds barred, war. It's the 9th annual battle between me... and the squirrels.

Forget all those fluffy squirrels you've seen on television sweetly dusting furniture with their tails, because it's all a lie. Squirrels are evil. They NEVER offer to help with the housework, and they destroy gardens. They dig up my plants. They plant trees in my beds. And... this is the reason I fight... they take ONE MEASLY BITE out of every vegetable in the garden, and then toss them aside. Spoiled for me, and uneaten by them.

This is what makes my blood boil. I wouldn't mind sharing with the local wildlife, but if all they're going to do is waste my organic produce - the gloves come off.

In past years, I have created "Squirrel jails" out of PVC and pest-netting. They chewed through it. I tried vinegar. They loved it. I sprayed the plants with cayenne and water, and was treated to an exotic dance as the squirrels thanked me for seasoning their dinner by running up and down the screen, creating holes as they chattered their thanks. I've also planted enough mint and pest-deterring flowers to prove that the squirrels are secretly working in seed-factories, creating labels for plants they WANT humans to plant, just so they can destroy them. I have even seen their sentries running ahead to warn the soldier-squirrels to flee, as we've come home from church. This is obviously an organized operation.

Our dog sits as garden-sentry, waiting to sound the alarm so we can let her out to chase rogue squirrels away from the garden. She takes her job VERY seriously, but these are ninja-squirrels who sneak up while she's snatching a sip of water or checking the front door for wayward mailmen.

Earlier this spring, I tried garlic. While I do feel an incredible urge to consume pasta every time I step onto the deck, spraying the deck rails and planters with garlic seems to have done nothing to deter the devil-rats as advertised. Perhaps they're Italian seed-factory working ninja mafia squirrels.

Now I'm going for cayenne. TONS of cayenne. Enough cayenne that I'm being reduced to sneezing fits for daring to step out onto the deck at the moment.

Here is how our garden is doing this afternoon. Please note the liberal application of orange cayenne, dusting EVERYTHING!

In the Southeast corner, the strawberries have been completely uprooted. Multiple times. I honestly think they're damaged beyond recovery at this point, I'm just too stubborn to give them a proper burial. Those Italian seed-factory working, ninja mafia squirrels really love their berries. In the back however, the tiniest of my tomato plants are already more than 3' high. Note I said - the TINIEST! More to come in a minute.

In the Southwest corner our chives need to be pruned before they start spilling onto the floor, and the marigolds are amazing. The peppers? I see flowers and the tiniest of peppers beginning to grow... but the darn squirrels are uprooting them every other day. The Italian seed-factory working, berry-nibbling, ninja mafia squirrels obviously adore Mexican cuisine.

The herbs, as always, are amazing. My lemon basil is spectacular at the moment... it's nearly 2' tall. Cowering below the herbs however, are my much-abused leeks. Whoever said that squirrels hate the allium family, obviously lied.

This is proof-positive that Italian seed-factory working, berry-nibbling, Mexican-munching, ninja mafia squirrels are working in the onion and leek department at Baker Creek Seeds. I will be lodging a complaint with their HR department later this week as this is an obvious and blatant violation of rodent working conditions. Perhaps this is the very reason that the group unionized in the first place.

Along the Northwest corner, our climbing plants are also having mixed success. The melons (blue bins) are being completely decimated by the squirrels.

The cucumbers are growing painfully slowly, but they have always tended to be my slowest plants to grow, so I'm still confident with them. The zucchini on the other hand, are growing amazingly well! Look how they're already starting to climb the trellis!

Just a few more weeks, and I'll have a green screen
hiding me from the street while I sit at the bistro table. I am contemplating using it for top secret guerilla purposes in my rodent-battles.



















And in the Northeast corner, my tomatoes are once again becoming behemoths. I see dozens of beautiful parsnip heads starting to peek through underneath the nearly FIVE FOOT TALL tomatoes. Flowers are appearing all over the place, and they're starting to overhang the door!

My carrots however, have also been attacked by the squirrel footsoldiers. I am hoping that they'll be okay, but - *shrugs* It's up to the cayenne at this point.

I'm just praying that the unionized, biracial factory-working, fruit-salad munching, carrot-shredding, exotic-dancing, vandal ninja mafia squirrels don't happen to be from the hot pepper festival I hear is held locally. If they are, I may need to reconsider a pet cougar.

Pride Goeth... Before Pain?

“Some people believe holding on

and hanging in there 

are signs of great strength.

However, there are times

when it takes much more strength

to know when to let go

and then do it.” 

~ Ann Landers ~

I was told when I was 12 years old, that it would be a miracle if I could see past my 20th birthday. That same year I was told I would NOT be walking past my 25th. Well I turn 40 this year. I can still see, and I am still walking. This has been a source of pride for years; that I am still beating the odds. But that's only part of the story.

Over the course of the past 16 years, I have been capable of increasingly less. First I gave up cycling. Then it was running with my children. Sledding, picking up preschoolers, hiking anything but a paved trail - they've all slipped away, along with countless other things most people take for granted. This month, it was my sewing machines. Every year another sacrifice is made. With each loss, my pride has reminded me that at least I didn't need to use the wheelchair - yet.

Last winter, I spent nearly half the season wrapped in a comforter, homebound, because it hurt too much to walk. The wheelchair sat just down the hall, shunned, because I didn't need it - yet.

For 28 years, I have known that the wheelchair would be a necessary part of my life. For 28 years, I have fought with increasing degrees of failure, the concept that if I just work a bit harder, lose a bit more weight, become a bit stronger... I won't need the wheelchair - yet.

This week, for the first time in years, I allowed myself to go to the store in the wheelchair. I wheeled the aisles, faced the curious stares, asked for help reaching things on higher shelves, (which SHOULD seem like a small thing, since I'm 5'1" tall... and shrinking) and - didn't hurt when I got back into the car.

Such a simple thing really, not hurting after purchasing toilet paper and lemonade. THIS is what I have been fighting? Why? Do I enjoy pain? Did I honestly believe that somewhere, there was a man handing out badges for hurting when it's not necessary?

Pride. My ugliest stumbling block, has earned a serious chip in it's slowly decaying facade. May I live to see it crumble completely.

In the meantime, over the next few months, I shall slowly be working on a small but fun project. I am going to "steampunk" my wheelchair. If I'm gonna use it, I plan on having FUN with it! Bring on the bronze spray paint, and the velvet cushions... I'll be riding in STYLE this winter!

2015 Garden - Part 1

Wow, I can't believe it's June already, and I haven't shared this year's garden! I have had nearly 700 visits to LAST YEAR'S garden post - and nearly 100 of those were from this past week alone! If you're visiting from Pinterest, Hello and welcome!

What are we doing on our deck this year? Big things. Many big things.

To start with, my son took the leftover decking and lumber we'd been saving to build steps, and built two raised beds for me!!! Each one holds TWO of my 2'x3' cement-mixing bins, so I have 24 square feet of RAISED bed this year! I couldn't be happier.







The dog thinks that we built these just to give her a shaded walkway with which to patrol the deck looking for rogue squirrels, and I'm in no hurry to tell her otherwise.

We are also adding melons, zucchini, leeks, and parsnips to this year's garden - AND switching from pole beans to Chinese longbeans... just for fun.

Our other BIG change? We took the bamboo poles from our tepee system last year, and turned them into a corner trellis! I can't wait to see how this looks completely covered with the vines from the beans, zukes, melons & cukes! We're hoping it will actually provide a tiny bit of shade to our little bistro table - as well as adding an element of privacy!

So far we've had some pretty strange looks, and dozens of thumbs-up from the neighbors. I think they're getting used to our ever-changing garden; as we were putting the trellis up, we had dozens of people coming by to ask what was going to be grown on it, and what our plans for NEXT year were! I'm starting to see tiny glimpses of contagion in the neighborhood too. There are four tomato pots on the deck two doors down, and I can see FOUR cement-mixer beds in a yard one block away with what appears to be herbs & tomatoes set out in a pretty square pattern!


This is what our garden looks like as of today.

Running alongside the wall to the right of the door, are our tomatoes and carrots. You can see my mint in the strawberry pots, in a tiny niche along the deck rail as well. Our 8 tomato plants are about 2' tall right now, and are underplanted with parsnips. The carrots are in the orange pots in the middle (creating "breathing space" between the tomato pots, since we had issues with crowding last year) and are about an inch tall right now.

My favorite seed company was sold out of our beloved Bumble Bee cherry tomatoes this year, so all of our tomatoes are Ananas Noire. We're crossing our fingers for a bumper-crop, as traditionally our cherry tomatoes do much better than fullsize for some reason.

In the raised bins, our peppers, marigolds, and herbs are doing amazing! The chives are of course growing like mad, having come back yet again, and our leeks are starting to bulk up and look like more than just green hair sprouting from the ground! We're quite excited about the leeks, as they are VERY hard to find in stores - and extremely pricey when we DO see them!






And in our trellis bins, we have seedlings! They all look pretty much the same, but we have a small army of little bean, cucumber, zucchini, and melon seeds proudly standing at attention in the six bins surrounding the bistro table.

It's "monsoon" season here, and we're expected to get another 1-3 inches of rain within the next 48 hours, so we'll see how our tiny garden does. But so far everything is growing amazingly quickly, and looks oh, so promising!

I can't wait for my first zucchini fry-up. Or warm-from-the-sun tomato. Or potato leek soup!

Of all the things I learn from my garden, patience is probably the biggest lesson in which I need constant refresher courses.

A Very Merry Unbirthday

I just HAVE to share our latest adventure!

For my daughter's 13th birthday, we had planned to throw a springtime UN-birthday tea party in the garden - Alice in Wonderland style. She came down sick with the flu, and we had to cancel at the last minute. This spring - the party was happening, no matter what it took.


My daughter begged to help with every element of this party. It was fun to put our heads together, and combine our ideas into one awesome party. Several of her ideas ended up being nothing like I would have imagined, but perfect! For starters, she created this adorable vignette inside our enormous lantern from goodies around our house. It sat as a sweet decoration in the dining room. We also strung my mother's hankie-collection as a garland from the wall between our living & dining areas, and created a "steampunk Alice" chandelier decoration with metal keys, feather birds, and mushroom Christmas ornaments.

The invitations to her four besties and her auntie, were hand cut and hand written to look like mismatched teacups & saucers. We purchased an Alice in Wonderland rubber stamp set, and the stamps were used ALL over the place. The first place was here, on the invitations.

In our front yard, our lilacs were in full bloom. Due to a threat of weather, we ended up setting up our sun-shelter to keep rain from bay, but it ended up staying dry until JUST after we brought everything in.  So our lovely tea table was set up in our "secret garden" surrounded by the lilacs.

We decorated the shelter with bright green tulle, fabric butterflies, and a paper lantern "chandelier". There were two plastic flamingos, a vintage croquet set, and crystal "mushrooms" (glass bowls overturned atop vases) in the front garden adding just a bit of whimsy.

For treats, we had: three types of finger sandwiches, fresh berries, two types of scones with apple butter, cocoa-molasses teacup & teapot cookies, and almond meringues alongside fresh strawberry lemonade, and an assortment of teas.

The meringues were actually a failed attempt at making French macarons, and were a complete hit! We will be making these again, and again, and again... 

For the tea, we found vintage teacups at the thrift stores & via Craigslist, and each girl chose her own teacup - which she was took home with her. The drink-me bottles for lemonade were Frappuccino bottles - scrubbed out, with paper straws & labels on ribbon.

The girls sat and happily chattered in the lilac-scented yard for a few hours before it started to get dark.

Inside the house, we had set up a fascinator-decorating station at the dining room table. It was almost as much fun to put everything on the table, as it was to watch the girls sit and carefully decorate their own tiny hat to bring home.


Two of the girls actually wore their hats to church this morning - and were WELL received! Ladies were complimenting their lovely hats, and the girls were beaming.

 After decorating the hats, my little sister headed home, and the girls curled up in the living room to watch a version of Alice in Wonderland. Nobody was awake by the end of the movie.

To take home, along with the teacups and hats, each girl was given a tiny bag with a tiny notebook, (recovered & stamped with Alice stamps) a googly-eyed daisy gel-pen, an itty bitty flamingo that my sister found, and the sweetest of tiny glass "drink me" bottle necklaces that were inspired by Etsy. 




















This was one of the easiest parties we've put together in awhile, but it was a ton of fun. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, and we're all ready for a long nap this afternoon.

I can't wait for our next party... I'm actually throwing one for MYSELF this year!

Word of the Year

Happy New Year!

I have NEVER been more ready to turn over a new leaf and start over again. Last year seemed like one loss after another, with precious few blessings. I am NOT sorry to see the end of 2014, as 2015 MUST be better. It just must.

The best summary of last year I can give, is to quote the one TV show I've been watching since I was three. Matt Smith (Doctor Who #11) said, in Vincent and the Doctor, "The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and... bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant."

That was last year.

This is now.

Several of my friends choose a single word to encapsulate their intentions for each year. I love the idea, and as I was thinking about 2015 and what I wanted from this year, a single word kept coming to mind. So this year, I too will be living this year with a single word as my focus rather than a list of goals.

This year, I will PERSEVERE.

Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines persevere as Latin, deriving from the word persevero. It says, "The last component part of this word, severo, must be the same as in assivero, with the radical sense of set, fixed or continued. So persist is formed with per and sisto, to stand. Constant and continue have a like primary sense. So we say, to hold on." The Free Dictionary defines persevere more simply, as: "To persist in or remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement."

Either way you look at it, this seems like a great word of intention for this year. Many of the struggles we dealt with last year, are still with us. We will have an uphill climb, but we ARE climbing back up. So this will be a year of "holding on" and persisting in the face of discouragement. 

Or, to quote the good Doctor once more, (Doctor Who #10 this time) "Allons-y!" 

(For any other blogging geeks out there, I also just realized... this is my 100th post! Wow!)