Well, it's been awhile since I blogged regularly. Mostly I blame Twitter, but I had a busy week. Several custom orders hit me at once (yay!) and I finally finished the watermelon zebra sandals!

And my mad gardening skills: These ones are cherry peppers. The larger one is about the size of a golf ball.Bell peppers. Two different plants.

My Cosmos have finally started to flower:Unfortunately, I'm having trouble with my lemon cukes. They form small buds like these:...and then they fall off and die. From what I've read this should be the perfect time of the year, but it's not fruiting :(
Is it not getting pollinated properly?
Also, my sugar snap peas are being the wusses of my garden. they seem to adore full sun but can't stand the rain. One of my biggest plants has started to turn yellow and brown and shriveling up, and the only thing I can attribute it to is the wet weather.
Darn it.
Ah, well, I did manage to gather enough leafy greens this morning to make myself a salad for lunch. Woo-hoo!Eating my veggies!

vegetables

So, my garden has been growing...

My bell peppers are coming in:
And what is (I thought) a banana pepper, but I just picked it and fed it to my cousin and he says it's defintily not a banana pepper, so I dunno. I planted a variety, so I'm not sure what's what.

And some artichoke:
My cherry tomatoes!
AND.... guess what?? My Mr. Stripey transplants have sprouted their own tomatoes! I have two Mr. Stripeys!!

bleh

The past couple of days have been a total downer.
Even though the ducklings from the last post are super adorable, we've been trying to keep them out of our yard. Mostly because they need to learn to be ducks, the way ducks should, and also because we have four dogs. Well, Friday afternoon, we thought all the ducklings were gone when we let the dogs outside. One little duckling didn't make it. The other five were gathered and taken to a wildlife refuge, where hopefully they'll have a chance to start fresh.

The second piece of horribleness is that one of our dogs (not the duck killer) fell ill the same day. he got progressively worse and was taken to the vet Tuesday morning. The diagnosis wasn't good. the vet is scheduled to make a house call today at noon and we have to say goodbye to our little Tiger.

Stupid week.

Omigosh

Sunday!? Where has the week gone?
Well, since I slacked off yesterday, today I must head into the shop to work a bit. No one else will be there so I should be able to get some uninterrupted work done.

I checked on my plants this morning to find a lot more yellow blooms on my lemon cucumber:

And my cherry tomatoes have grown!
My sugar snap peas have more flowers (but only the one pea pod)And..... Introducing.... The 1st BELL PEPPER! WOO!

wildlife

So, this morning I went out to water my plants and was startled by a black racer slithering across the porch. After he left, I continued to water my plants, turned around, and was surrounded by DUCKS!

They've been wandering around the neighborhood and yesterday appeared by our pool. They look sort of small, compared to the huge monster-sized ducks that live down here, so I'm wondering if they lost their mother duck.

Here's my mom, trying to lead them out to the canal:
Well, they're back today and cute as ever. So, I guess we have ducks.

Friday Gardening

My plants are getting HUGE! My lemon cucumbers are quickly growing up the little trellis I set up for them. And today the first yellow flower bloomed! Cucumbers can't bee too far off...My cherry tomatoes are also proving to be quite fruitful - I already have 12 little buds!

thursday madness

Double News Updates!
First off, I wanted to showcase one of my lovely Etsy purchases.This fabulous lemon-Mint soap from NickiLeigh!
I purchased this bar of soap some time ago, but only recently got around to using it.
It. Is. Amazing.
I love the scent, especially. A perfect pick-me-up in the morning!

And I did say I had more news.....
Check out these watermelon sandals:
I have to make 17 of them. Like, now.

Fun with Wednesday

I've been featured in treasuries! These are always exciting moments, so i'm anxious to show them off! Here's the first one by DCBaby:
And another by ginghamgrlva!

tuesday Tadpoles

in other news....

My tadpoles have legs!!

More Tomato News

So, here are my tomatoes...
This one is the transplant (please grow roots!)

And here's the base, which I'm sure has a good chance of surviving.
Either way we'll be starting from scratch, so to speak.

Tomato Trauma!

OMG.

Today's 4 o'clock rainshower have taken out my beautiful Stripey Tomato! Here's a picture of my beautiful fruit this morning:

Well, I was JUST contemplating how to make a cage for it, pruned off some lower stems and noticed the storms approaching. The wind was blowing so hard that Allen and I heard a loud "CRACK" from outside. When we looked out the window we saw that the tomato had collapsed!
It snapped at the base so I'm going to try a couple things to salvage my dear Mr. Stripey (I'm so attached!)
First I'll make a clean cut on the stem and hope a new sprout begins. Then I'll take the top half and put it in soil - maybe with luck and attention it will grow some new roots.
I'm so sad :(

Rain Rain Friday

It is...... raining. Again.
It will rain almost everyday around 4pm from now until September. That's the kind of fun, Florida weather we have.
Yesterday I didn't manage to get much gardening done but check out my pepper buds:

hmmmm

Boy, does my head hurt! I apparently can't have the beers I used to... Ah, well. I guess I should go find some juice.

You know what I was thinking about this morning? People's homes shown through blog pictures. I'm sure you've seen a blog post with some "random" picture the person took of their kitchen, their soup bowl, spoon, doodle, whatever. Why does it always look like they're living in Martha Stewart's house? My house does not look like that. Is it a photography trick or am I living in squalor?
Odds are good that I'm simply not capable of interior decorating and everyone else's house looks like an IKEA showroom.
*sigh*

Want to see a fancy treasury I'm in by moonovermaize?

tuesday tuesday

Tuesdays simply have not been the same since the hiatus of Tuesday Night Movie Night began. See, my buddy who hosts it, TIII, has been working in Freeport for the past couple weeks for a job. After a few lame Tuesdays passed, my other buddy, Mr. Bell, volunteered to host it at his place, which is great, however, it's a good thirty minute drive away. So Allen and I have lazily treated Tuesday as if it were any other day, waiting for the moment when TIII will be coming back from the Bahamas.....

In other, non-Tuesday related news, here's some more garden pics:

This one is the bulk of my garden. Spinach, cucumbers, peas and peppers...
My stripey Heirloom tomato has it's first fruit!
Some of my lettuce mixture: