Keeping Busy

A few month after we started TTC, I decided that I needed a hobby to help keep me occupied so that I didn't spend all of my time thinking about babies. Whenever someone is stressing about the 2WW, people always make the suggestion to find a hobby. So that's what I did. I decided that it would be fun to learn how to crochet. I thought it would be a good hobby for me because 1) it's cheap, 2) I could teach myself how to do it and 3) I could make things for my dogs! It was a good choice for me. I think it really helps with my general anxiety because it's pretty mindless, but you still feel like you're getting something accomplished.

For my first project, I made holiday scarves for Binky and Bear. They were pretty cute and we used this picture for our Christmas card (don't worry - I only sent it to my parents, niece, and godson).

Then I made a scarf for my godson, Brian. Then another for my dad. And one for my mom. Then I thought - hey, it might be time to try a new project. All of my scarves were done using the afghan stitch because that's all I'd been able to figure out (thanks to my "Learn to Crocket" book and my friend E). Luckily, I found a video online and finally figured out how to complete more than one row of the single crochet (thanks people of YouTube)!

My first non-scarf project is still pretty basic. I'm just making small blanket made up of a bunch of single-crochet rectangles that I'll stitch together at the end. Here is the "official" pattern.

It took me an unreasonable amount of time to come up with that. I chose Hogwarts colors for obvious reasons. The colors in the pattern aren't accurate. This is what the yarn looks like:

I had a little bit of trouble keeping the gauge consistent at the beginning, so the first one or two squares were a bust but I'm getting better at it. Out of 49 squares, I think I have maybe five decent, usable ones. I may have started this project in February or March, but progress is progress, right?

I'm not going to lie - I'm (not so) secretly hoping that I'll get to use this blanket to decorate a baby's room. And let's face the facts, statistically I'm probably more likely to get pregnant than to finish this blanket within the next year so I probably won't be disappointed. If not, I'm sure that Binky and Bear would love to have it!

How Our Garden Grew

Seth and I like to cook and we try to use as much fresh food as possible. It can get really expensive. We already have a few fruits trees in our yard, so we figured it would be a great idea to try growing our own vegetables and herbs as well!

Our two huskies love to dig in the mulch, so a regular garden wouldn't work for us. I had seen plans for raised gardens all over Pinterest and Seth agreed that it looked like a simple, fun project for us to work on together. We measured the area we planned to use for the garden and headed off to Home Depot.

We wanted to have two 4 x 4 or 4 x 5 beds and we spent a good amount of time browsing the lumber aisles to see what types of wood and cut would work for us. Admittedly, we took the easy way out. We found pre-cut 1 x 12 x 4 pieces of pine board for less than $7 a piece. Not too bad. We already had all of the tools - hammer, nails, screws - that we needed to build the boxes, so we moved on to the garden center. In order to keep our dogs out of the beds, we also bought some garden fencing (something like this). Finally we grabbed some river pebbles to use as ground cover around the beds and picked out a selection of herbs and vegetables, both potted and seeds.

Seth put the beds together (with a little help from me), first using nails but then switching to screws. The ground isn't really level so the beds tilt and it was putting some pressure on the front boards. The screws do a better job of holding it all together. Brackets would work well too!

You can see that we underestimated the amount of top soil we would want at first, so we had to head back to Home Depot for more.

All finished! On the left we planted two types of tomatoes, jalapeños, green peppers, and two rows from carrots from seeds. On the right we have basil, oregano, chives, cilantro, lemon thyme, spearmint, and chamomile from seeds.

Binky and Bear love their new garden. The potted plant in the middle is a lime tree that has been planted to the left of the garden. I'm so excited for that - I can make limonada con soda and fresh margaritas whenever I want!

It's been almost two weeks since we planed everything and you can see the carrots starting to come in along the front of the left bed! Bear approves of the progress.

All in all, I think the gardens probably cost a bit more than we expected but like I said we took the easy way out. We're really happy with how they look. We might choose to stain and seal the wood or use cedar next time, but we'll see how these hold up through the hot, rainy summer. Yard work is a whole lot more fun now that we have something to look forward to. We already enjoyed our first garden meal - homemade pasta sauce made with fresh basil and oregano. I can't wait for the jalapeños and the limes!