Wednesday, June 29

Little Green Bug

The title of this post sounds like a cute little children's book. It probably is.

However, that's not why we're here! I'm still on my green thumb kick and FMIL took me on a quest around town today. This will be pretty picture heavy but looking at those tell a much better story anyways. :D

This is what I got in the past day.
(I'm not affiliated with any of these companies!)
I started off by watering the peat pellets. 
They are floating all over the place here and I tried so hard to tuck them back into their spots.
I filmed a short video because I expected these to explode like the dirt cookies from other stores. Then, I realized that there were cracks on either end because of being warped by the hot desert sun and I almost dropped the camera before everything was sitting in a pool. Darn you!
They mostly expanded. There's a thin net pouch around each to help maintain shape while still encouraging root growth later on.
During the fifteen minutes it took for the pellets to fully expand (I should have used warmer water), I took the tomato plant food stakes and broke them in half. The directions say to use two in each plant, opposite of each other, and about 6-8 inches from the stem.
Well, my pots are barely 6 inches in diameter at the top so... I'm hoping that halving everything will suffice. They can feed my pepper plants for up to 8 weeks according to the packaging. Each have their food in the east and west.
Kitty loves tomatoes. I'm hoping to grow them for him and for FMIL's school salads. I'm a little apprehensive of how many will sprout! There were hardly any seeds in this packet.
Half of the twelve peat pellets have two hybrid tomato seeds in them now. I'm not planting all of my seeds, just in case I really suck at this. :D
Next is the Parsley. I've taken a liking to using parsley with all the pasta I try to cook nowadays. That reminds me that I have a new cookbook on its way to me. I can't wait!

Half of tray has three to four of these straight intense-flavored parsley. I could not believe that even the seeds smell like fresh parsley already!

The left side has parsley and right side has the tomatoes. This could get very interesting in the next couple of months!

This is their new home until we see seedlings. Receiving light but not directly in the corner.

"What on Earth are you doing over here with all these plants?"
He recognizes foliage and went after the dead baby sunflower and Lucy the Lucky Bamboo. What a little spoiled stinker! I'm making some garden decorations, kitty!

They're all snails. FMIL and I went to several places in the past two weeks to try to find more friends for Sheldon but they seem to be sold out everywhere. I took it as a sign to make up my own using the same kabob skewers.

 This first one mimics the original Sheldon, whom I returned to the kind and generous FMIL, who I am a horrible influence on in terms of shopping. This plant's stem is now just over 7.5 inches.

I haven't named them yet, but I'm thinking very hard. I'm running out of ideas with all the cute things that I'm making now. Sigh. This plant's stem is 7.5 inches.

They all have the original Sheldon's bright blue eyes as homage. I actually held the ruler properly this time! This plant's stem is 7 inches tall.

Also facing a wrong way, this is the little one. The plant's stem is about 3.5 inches.

I made a key to avoid using and dirtying up my labels that coordinate with my new garden charms. 
  This has a red swirled with brick red and black shell and a green body mixed with lime green.

  This has a brown shell with a super dark brown and maroon with a pink and magenta body.

 This is a yellow snail shell with teal and a highlighter yellow and the body is aqua with other blues in it.
 This little one has an orange shell swirled with peach and red. The body has various purples with a hint of magenta.

 Lucy the Lucky Bamboo hasn't been doing all that well. She lost one of her little friends and I recently redid her home to something much smaller that would allow for her roots to breathe and be seen.

Look at my little garden corner now! This is after I've added the food, made the new charms, watered everything, and repositioned everyone for the night. The snails are in the south now, in about two days they'll be facing north. The food chunks are in the east and west parts. 

Phew! I think that covers it. It took fifteen minutes to make each snail, roughly ten minutes to bake, spent about ten minutes in the freezer, and a few minutes to wire to the stakes. Such a quick project and I'm so happy that I have been able to collect so many supplies over the years to be able to make so many kinds of things at a whim. I can't wait to show you any progress these guys make in the next couple of weeks!

I really need to go clean up said craft collections... Lol. Another sigh. XD I'll see you soon. <3

Monday, June 27

Bird Stalking

As much as Mr. Fuzzbutt was chirping at the birds and ducking under the houseplants, it was me who went on a mini hunt today. FMIL and I wanted to check on the dove baby and kitty just wanted to be outside. Badly. Unfortunately for him, no amount of buttering us up would make us let him come along.

Look at how big this kid is getting! We got a good look at its signature white wing tips today.

I love how this little family gives us the same bewildered look.

Baby looks half the size of mom! Good gravy.

This could possibly be the dad, I think.
He has those white wing tips too.

We've been spotting this guy in front of the house lately.

It's a pyrrhuloxia non-breeding male.

He and I did a little dance around the mesquite while I tried to get a better picture without the backlighting.

They are also known as the Desert Cardinal.

Yes, I was crouching all over the front yard and doing my best to zoom in.

While he never yelled at me, it got to 112 degrees today and he had his mouth open to cool off.

What are you doing, my good sir?

Protecting (this) my baby while it learns to fly of course!
Oh. Whoops. Sorry!


I don't know why, but I had a lot of fun checking out the birds in the front yard today. There are just so many critters out and about now during the daytime that it's fascinating. There are quite a few finches but the only pictures I could capture were of blurs or recently vacated branches. Ridiculous, lol. There was also something else that I was up to today that was pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.

 It's my pleasure to introduce you to, Miss Beary Valentina!

She's enchanted to meet you, obviously. From my Amigurumi World book, I made the boy bear's scarf and changed the color of the girl bear's dress. She's not perfect, but she's mine, and I think that she's awfully pretty. Especially because this is my first crocheted animal critter. Her arms are angled a bit backwards and her legs were sewn on all wonky, but she looks like she's just mid-frolic. Lol. The scarf is removable and I'm thinking about giving her a hair accessory of some sort. 

I'm so glad FMIL and I decided to grab the doll eyes. They are so worth it! Our colorful yarn collection is reaching scary proportions. Luckily, these toys don't require too much yarn, we can use the scrap from our past projects, and if the yarn we've gotten is exclusively for these critters, we have a solid few years supply. XD Oh dear.

I also started the next creature in the book, but only finished his widdle head before I started not to feel well.


It's a little baby male lion cub! I didn't see my big mistake with this until I had finished sewing on the mane. I put it going around the middle of his head instead of farther forward and now there's not a good spot to attach his body when I make it. Whoops! I'll figure something out. Hopefully. XD

I already had the embroidery floss from my friendship bracelets, we did have to grab some more needles, and we got some felt when we hunted for yarn. I'm happy my heads are becoming rounder! FMIL and I havent' quite figured out what we're making screwy, lol. I'll get a picture of her bear once she's done accessorizing it. It's also a bear. 

Alright, I need to go lay down. My head is killing me and I can't dim the lights any further and still avoid running into furniture. :P See you soon! <3

Saturday, June 25

Animals on Parade

How is it that all the critters are coming out all over the place now that it is officially summer and we're regularly reaching past the century mark? Where were you in the spring when it was bearable? Even though we haven't had any significant rain in the area since November, these skinny guys are pulling through somehow. You have got to admire the resilience of nature.

Here are some more pictures of the wildlife!

I'm not fast enough to catch a picture of the hummingbirds,but we did see this woodpecker awkwardly helping himself while the sparrows and finches looked on incredulously.
 
 It's through the window screen, but that's a quail parent and its babies.

Of course I would try to get a better picture than that!
Can you see them now?

Suddenly, the babies took off towards the big bush, one parent instantly followed, & then we discovered that the other parent was right behind the palo verde trunk. What a blur of legs!


This is what I found outside of our front door this morning.

 
 The baby has hatched!
What a striking family resemblance.

I love zooming in.
Such a startled look!

There was also a minor scorpion incident this evening but I'm not going to show a picture of that. >_< The ants and roaches have started up again in full force and I'm crossing my fingers that we don't have any more assassin bugs in the house. Regardless, wasn't I right about all of the sightings? It's one of the things I love the most about living out here (and one of the heart-stopping qualities).

Alright, I took a break from my break from crocheting a baby afghan blanket and now need to get back to scrapbooking. See you soon! <3

Thursday, June 23

Cravings

I have been having some pretty bad cravings for the past two weeks. I've been annihilating shredded cheddar cheese (two bags down, I don't even know...) and chocolate. Today, I bought two more bags of shredded cheese (it was half the price of getting cheese sticks or cubes) and some chocolate-vanilla pudding. I am just hunkering down like whoa.

A few weeks ago, FMIL, the SO, and I were watching America's Test Kitchen and saw them test for the best overall chocolate chips and then modify Toll House's chocolate chip recipe to make their own Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie. We just tried it and wowza. I don't know if they're the best I've ever had, but they are certainly darn good.


Before I made them rounder.

The first batch, fresh from the oven.

Some of the cookies from the second batch abandoned ship coming out of the oven and were shredded as they fell through the oven rack grate.
:( Sadness.

They turned out just like they said they would in the episode and recipe. How often does that happen? I love how they included sections in their recipe that explain why they altered certain ingredients or steps- just like in the show! I highly recommend them. We added walnuts to ours.

Right after we finished baking some pizza in the oven, we got a call from the other household about a bobcat sighting in the backyard. So, a few of us drove over to go check it out. We crept into the house with our phones and cameras ready. We're not very convinced it was a bobcat and we're thinking lynx of some hybrid. It definitely looks like an adolescent whatever it is though. These are not the best of pictures but we didn't want to bother it too much or endanger each other by getting close. All through various windows and a distance of at least five feet away.

This is next to a small patio right off of the master bedroom.

The noises we made stirred it. What a skinny kitty. :(

 *Strrretch!*
See that tail? Doesn't look like much of a bob.

It came up in front of the master bedroom window to look straight at one of the guys in a show of dominance.

"Alright, nap time's over. Time to get out of here."

*Hop!*
"Just gonna hang out here for a second. You're not making me leave. I'm choosing to leave."

 Cat butt. 
Just like any other cat would to do you.

How cool was that?! That was my personal first sighting of a wild feline in the semi-wild since moving here. Very thrilling. Neighbors and the real estate agent had said there was a bobcat that hung around this former vacation home by the pool in the shade on lounge chairs that the previous owner had in that area. It's been a full year, but I think its back! It worries us a bit that it's accustomed to the area but we don't have small pets of children running around right now, so we're all going to cautiously co-exist. 

We're assuming it was waiting for this to happen before heading out:

Softer and hazy sunset due to all the smoke in the air from the local wildfires. X(

Sigh, I need to get back to work. I've been awfully distracted today by the weight of thoughts that have been on my mind. I'll see you soon! <3
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