Thursday, July 30, 2015
Escape Down Under Giveaway
I have to make this quick or I'm going to be late for work, but I wanted to share about this giveaway. There's only eleven and a half hours left so don't wait to enter! The author is HY Hanna, better known as Hsin-Yi from the Big Honey Dog blog where she wrote about her Great Dane Honey. I've been following her blog since 2008 or 2009. She's an awesome blogger, dog owner and trainer and now author! I've loved every single one of her books that I've read so far. I'll be doing a review on this book when I finish it in a couple of days on my other blog. To enter go here (http://www.hyhanna.com/giveaways/escape-down-under-gift-hamper/?lucky=22).
Monday, July 27, 2015
30 Before 30 - #1 and #26 Complete
I'm lumping both of my plant goals together. :) First up is indoor plants I can't kill... so far so good, but I won't promise I won't kill them eventually lol. I'm trying really hard though. Lots of research! I did a post with more information on these plants along with pictures from Google here, but finally here are pictures of my actual plants. :D
I've almost killed my aloe by over watering and by putting it under direct light too quickly causing sunburn, but this survivor has come back better than ever after each mistake. Love aloe!
The tips burned from not letting my water warm up to room temp, but now that I fixed that it's doing well. I still need to repot it into a terracotta pot.
I've had the peace lilies for over six months now and they were doing fantastic, but after repotting them I'm having trouble with wilting... even after watering they don't stand all the way back up. Not sure if it's the soil, too much water, too little water... working on it. Hope I can save them.
The only one I totally failed on was the Jade plant... I still have pieces of it that I'm trying to root, but it's not going well. It makes me sad because it was one of my favorites. I might try again later.
Next up is my garden. It's actually part vegetable garden and part flower garden all thrown together. I love it! Since the front of my house is parking and the tornado shelter we decided to make the side yard our garden area.
We marked out where the fence will go with landscape paint. It's a weird angle because of the shop building across from our house. Also yes we still have to paint the rest of our siding dark brown lol.
Our peach tree is several years old, but it's only been in the ground about two years. It put on a ton of peaches this year, but they didn't get very big and one limb even snapped. Oops.
So obviously my garden isn't fully grown, but since my birthday is in the middle of summer it will have to do for my list. There are more peppers and eggplants, but I forgot to get specific pictures. I'll update again when we get the fence up around our yard and when the plants are mature. :) I almost forgot to say.. the other flowers in my garden are Shasta Daisy, Butterfly Bush, Lantana and Delphinium.
Hubby got me a plant light with a timer! It's awesome!
My aloe in the foreground.
I've almost killed my aloe by over watering and by putting it under direct light too quickly causing sunburn, but this survivor has come back better than ever after each mistake. Love aloe!
My assorted succulents. Not sure what they are besides the Jade.
There were others, but these are the ones that have survived.
Fingers crossed they last hehe.
My hens and chicks! I have to figure out how
to repot the chicks... I'm scared of killing them!
My Spider plant.
The tips burned from not letting my water warm up to room temp, but now that I fixed that it's doing well. I still need to repot it into a terracotta pot.
This is a cutting from the cactus I've had for six or seven years.
I don't know what kind it is. Those other pieces are Jade plant
leaves that I'm trying to root.
My short snake plant, Peperomia and peace lily.
Peace Lilies
I've had the peace lilies for over six months now and they were doing fantastic, but after repotting them I'm having trouble with wilting... even after watering they don't stand all the way back up. Not sure if it's the soil, too much water, too little water... working on it. Hope I can save them.
Peperomia! Love this thing!! It loves low light and neglect. :)
Snake plant also loves low light and neglect.
The lighter part wasn't there at all when I got this one.
It's doing so well!!
The other peace lily... I hope I can save them...
Cast Iron Plant. Loving this one!
It also love low light and neglect. :)
My tall snake plant. I love these!! It's taller than my drawing desk. :)
My indoor hanging succulent that is on my porch right now.
It's doing great! I've had this one almost two years.
I have no idea what it is!!!!
The only one I totally failed on was the Jade plant... I still have pieces of it that I'm trying to root, but it's not going well. It makes me sad because it was one of my favorites. I might try again later.
Next up is my garden. It's actually part vegetable garden and part flower garden all thrown together. I love it! Since the front of my house is parking and the tornado shelter we decided to make the side yard our garden area.
We marked out where the fence will go with landscape paint. It's a weird angle because of the shop building across from our house. Also yes we still have to paint the rest of our siding dark brown lol.
Then we brought in topsoil and aged horse manure as a base for...
... some leftover sod that was given to us. :D
We put out as much as we had and decided to make the rest a garden for now.
This is a few weeks later showing how much the sod has grown.
We planted our gooseberry bush that we've had for years in the corner.
Then we planted all of my flowers and veggies that have been in pots on my porch all spring.
Notice how small the tomatoes are so you can compare it to later pictures.
Ornamental peppers are pretty, but also edible and very HOT!
My Salvia loves being in the ground and has grown a lot!
This is a really cool flower from my mother in law. I forget what it is but it's so pretty!
Hubby tied up the gooseberry so we could mow around it.
I liked it when it was sprawled out better...
Jackal posing in front of the garden a while later.
Look how much the tomatoes have grown!
My pretty Vinca love our hot, humid weather!
The tomatoes have gotten taller than the peach tree!
My geraniums that I had in pots for a couple
of years are doing great and about to bloom!
This is my first time growing Vinca. It's so pretty!
Look at how much my flowers from my mother in law have grown!!
I love the colors!
The purple sweet potato vine has gotten huge too.
Here are some of the ornamental peppers turning purple.
Tomatoes! Our first ripe tomato got eaten by a box turtle on the fourth of July hehe.
Some of the tomatoes are shaped really weird!
Our peach tree is several years old, but it's only been in the ground about two years. It put on a ton of peaches this year, but they didn't get very big and one limb even snapped. Oops.
Jackal photobomb!
So obviously my garden isn't fully grown, but since my birthday is in the middle of summer it will have to do for my list. There are more peppers and eggplants, but I forgot to get specific pictures. I'll update again when we get the fence up around our yard and when the plants are mature. :) I almost forgot to say.. the other flowers in my garden are Shasta Daisy, Butterfly Bush, Lantana and Delphinium.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
30 Before 30 - #29 Complete
I finally found time to sit down and write my 40 Before 40 list and it was fun! Aging is often not very fun, but I'm excited about this list so that makes it something to look forward to instead of something to dread. :)
First I want to say eventer79 made me laugh with the comment about putting "make a list" on my list. You just don't understand how much of a list addict I am! I love making lists. I'm one of those people who writes a "to do" list and then when I do something that wasn't on the list I add it just so I can mark it off lol. I have post it notes full of lists stuck to the wall next to my desk. :) So thanks for making me laugh eventer79!!
For my 40 Before 40 list I decided to break it up into categories. It helps me stay organized and helps keep things diverse because all of my lists tend to be very Chrome oriented to the point of excluding other things. So without further rambling, here it is.
Travel
1. Visit the Grand Canyon
2. Ride on a sailboat
3. Visit Canada (do you need a passport for this?)
4. See, pet or swim with dolphins
5. Ride a train on a multi day, multi state trip
Try New Things I've Never Done Before
6. Ride/drive a jet ski
7. Try Paintball
8. Become confident driving a standard on the road (because I still haven't......)
9. Go kayaking on a river instead of a lake
10. Donate blood (yeah haven't ever done this... always been afraid of needles, but I'm getting over it with my annual blood work)
11. Ride in or drive a convertible
12. Get a massage
13. Do a color run 5k
14. Drive a horse in harness
15. Try something new that hubby has never done, but always wanted to try even if I've done it before so we can do it together (thought that sentence would never end huh?)
Hobbies/Art
16. Learn 1000 ASL signs (100 down, 900 to go hehe)
17. Own and learn to use a DSLR camera
18. Relearn how to play piano (especially Fur Elise and Disney songs) and play grand/baby grand piano
19. Complete the 2015 Reading Challenge and read 500 books between my 30th and 40th birthday
20. Take my art to a show of some sort, like a fair
21. Paint a picture of Chrome, Jackal and Storm (separately, not one big picture)
22. Learn to draw humans!
23. Learn more about illustration and possibly do the illustrations for one of my own stories
24. Complete a whole sketchbook and participate in challenges (such as 365 challenge or 30 day challenge or a sketch a week for a year or draw the first thing you see on Pinterest)
25. Have someone other than family read/review one of my completed novels
Chrome/Jackal
26. Take Chrome and Jackal camping (together or separate)
27. Reach Jackal's goal weight (50-55lbs)
28. Haul Chrome in a trailer to someplace other than the vet (separate from the camping trip)
29. Teach Chrome to neck rein
30. Take lessons on Chrome (doesn't matter what discipline) or go to a clinic
31. Teach Chrome to bow
32. Gallop Chrome
33. Photo shoot on Chrome in a dress
34. Compete Chrome in something (dressage schooling show, trail challenge, anything I want)
35. Teach Chrome and Jackal 5 or more new tricks and get a video of them all
P.S. All of those apply to Rocky too if hubby is interested in doing any of them. :)
Miscellaneous
36. Finish our house
37. Have a new horse trailer
38. Build a horse barn!
39. Buy/adopt or rescue a Papillon
40. Have my own miniature horse!
Something I thought was really cool is that I wrote a list in September of 2013 and just now when I looked back over it I realized I completed some things on it already! I walked a half marathon, visited the Kentucky Horse Park, took a tour through a cavern and learned calligraphy! Two of those even got added to my 30 Before 30 list hehe.
So there's the list! I'm really looking forward to checking them off! ;)
P.S. I almost forgot to mention I reorganized my bucket list page (link here) and even put up a video of me petting a shark that I've never shared on the blog. :D
First I want to say eventer79 made me laugh with the comment about putting "make a list" on my list. You just don't understand how much of a list addict I am! I love making lists. I'm one of those people who writes a "to do" list and then when I do something that wasn't on the list I add it just so I can mark it off lol. I have post it notes full of lists stuck to the wall next to my desk. :) So thanks for making me laugh eventer79!!
For my 40 Before 40 list I decided to break it up into categories. It helps me stay organized and helps keep things diverse because all of my lists tend to be very Chrome oriented to the point of excluding other things. So without further rambling, here it is.
40 Before 40
Travel
1. Visit the Grand Canyon
2. Ride on a sailboat
3. Visit Canada (do you need a passport for this?)
4. See, pet or swim with dolphins
5. Ride a train on a multi day, multi state trip
Try New Things I've Never Done Before
6. Ride/drive a jet ski
7. Try Paintball
8. Become confident driving a standard on the road (because I still haven't......)
9. Go kayaking on a river instead of a lake
10. Donate blood (yeah haven't ever done this... always been afraid of needles, but I'm getting over it with my annual blood work)
11. Ride in or drive a convertible
12. Get a massage
13. Do a color run 5k
14. Drive a horse in harness
15. Try something new that hubby has never done, but always wanted to try even if I've done it before so we can do it together (thought that sentence would never end huh?)
Hobbies/Art
16. Learn 1000 ASL signs (100 down, 900 to go hehe)
17. Own and learn to use a DSLR camera
18. Relearn how to play piano (especially Fur Elise and Disney songs) and play grand/baby grand piano
19. Complete the 2015 Reading Challenge and read 500 books between my 30th and 40th birthday
20. Take my art to a show of some sort, like a fair
21. Paint a picture of Chrome, Jackal and Storm (separately, not one big picture)
22. Learn to draw humans!
23. Learn more about illustration and possibly do the illustrations for one of my own stories
24. Complete a whole sketchbook and participate in challenges (such as 365 challenge or 30 day challenge or a sketch a week for a year or draw the first thing you see on Pinterest)
25. Have someone other than family read/review one of my completed novels
Chrome/Jackal
26. Take Chrome and Jackal camping (together or separate)
27. Reach Jackal's goal weight (50-55lbs)
28. Haul Chrome in a trailer to someplace other than the vet (separate from the camping trip)
29. Teach Chrome to neck rein
30. Take lessons on Chrome (doesn't matter what discipline) or go to a clinic
31. Teach Chrome to bow
32. Gallop Chrome
33. Photo shoot on Chrome in a dress
34. Compete Chrome in something (dressage schooling show, trail challenge, anything I want)
35. Teach Chrome and Jackal 5 or more new tricks and get a video of them all
P.S. All of those apply to Rocky too if hubby is interested in doing any of them. :)
Miscellaneous
36. Finish our house
37. Have a new horse trailer
38. Build a horse barn!
39. Buy/adopt or rescue a Papillon
40. Have my own miniature horse!
Something I thought was really cool is that I wrote a list in September of 2013 and just now when I looked back over it I realized I completed some things on it already! I walked a half marathon, visited the Kentucky Horse Park, took a tour through a cavern and learned calligraphy! Two of those even got added to my 30 Before 30 list hehe.
So there's the list! I'm really looking forward to checking them off! ;)
P.S. I almost forgot to mention I reorganized my bucket list page (link here) and even put up a video of me petting a shark that I've never shared on the blog. :D
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