See you Next Year!

Well, this Christmas was great, once again! Thank you so much for our beautiful gifts! Even better than presents though, was spending time with our wonderful families. We love you! Check back in the spring for garden updates, and then....after Thanksgiving 2011, we'll be back telling you about all the cool stuff we love!

They Put The Internet On Books Now?!?

Penny Arcade is a comic strip about video games that gets uploaded to the Interwebs three times a week, and can be read there for free. But I would totally pay real moneys to have the strips collected in book form. Why would I be so stupid? Well, Jan got me their first volume for my birthday this year, and I loved reading it. It's annotated, and hearing the authors talk about their writing process is just unbelievably fascinating. Plus it's a fun stroll down memory lane for me, revisiting the state of the video game industry as it was ten years ago, when the strip began.

The picture is of the book that Jan got me. I would like to have any other book than this one. Barnes and Noble totally carries them, sometimes even in physical stores.

Read my Shirt

I ran across these shirts and they are adorable! I'd love to wear them to school and impress all my little friends. They are sorta expensive, for a t-shirt...maybe you can find them cheaper elsewhere?
They can be found at this website: http://search.80stees.com/?category=Childrens+Books&i=1&q=Junk+Food&u1=q&u2=category and I wear a size Large.

Is That A Joystick In Your Pocket, Or...?

Look at this freakin' thing! Isn't it cute? It's a keychain shaped like a tiny joystick, with a special surprise... it actually contains 5 classic Sega Genesis games that can be played when connected to a tv!
http://www.buy.com/prod/official-sega-arcade-nano-vf2-plug-n-play-keychain-featuring-virtua/q/loc/108/218054716.html

Sew Cool

Hi! As I was mending a hem on some pants this evening, it struck me that I'd love to have a real, grown-up sewing kit. (Simple simple! Not for a sewing machine or anything!) We have a great little sewing kit that Gram made us during college out of a margarine container. :) Its come in very handy over the years! But I'm starting to run low on thread, and it made me think it might be nice to have a kit with different colored threads and needles. Nothin' fancy...we don't sew very much, but when we do, it would be great to have a sweet kit!

They're not gift cards, they're "cards" that are "gifts"!

Do you know how much it costs to make and sell a video game? Millions. Seriously, millions. But, if you don't have to put it in a box and ship it to stores, its a lot easier to get your ideas out to the public. That's why there are so many brilliant, imaginative and innovative games that you can only buy as a digital download. I wish, I wish so hard that you could give me these games wrapped up in a box. But you can't. But I still want them! These cards are the key. Buy them anywhere. Seriously. I think they sell these at gas stations now.

Pop-this-Up into my Christmas Stocking

I love the Robert Sabuda pop-up books that you gave me last year! (Wizard of Oz and Alice and Wonderland). I'd like to continue growing my pop-up collection. Here are a couple I'd like to own:
Beauty and the Beast
Peter Pan
The Night Before Christmas
Also, remember if you shop at Borders on Dec 4 or 5, you will get a $15 gift certificate that you can donate to my school. Just sayin...its like two gifts in one.
Thanks!

Homer: "I'll never drink another beer again." Vendor: "Beer Here!" Homer: "I'll take ten!"

This is Tactical Nuclear Penguin, and was, earlier this year, the strongest beer ever brewed, until it got caught up in an arms race with a rival brewery. I'd love to try it, but it's stupidly expensive (it works out to almost $120 after shipping from the U.K.). Fortunately, we make a ton of great craft beers right here in New York State.

My favorites are from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, and they have a couple great-looking seasonal limited editions this year, but I'm game to try any craft beer (bonus eco-points if it's local!). I'm not a huge fan of light, thin beers, like pilsners and pale ales, but if it's thick (wheat ale, stout) or malty (porter, nut brown), then Bob's Your Uncle, I'll take it!

Ooh! Sparkly!

I LOVE these earrings on Etsy. They are a little pricey, so maybe you could find a similar pair elsewhere? How pretty are these?!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62013143/sparkly-white-zircon-dangle-earrings?ref=tre-4cf28c6ed3176d9192028afe-2

Cans!

I'd love a pair of good-quality studio headphones. Since I've been recording music, first I used earbuds (which let a lot of sound bleed through), and then I tried some industrial government-issue headphones I found at the Salvation Army (wonderfully soundproof, but very poor sound quality). I've read that these are great headphones for the price, but I'm open to suggestions:
http://www.buy.com/prod/audio-technica-ath-m40fs-precision-studiophone-headphone-audio/q/sellerid/16176172/loc/101/203325391.html

"Hands-off" the Hair!

For my birthday this year, Dave gave me some awesome curly hair products that I love! The products are called "Deva Curl" and are only available at salons. Anywho, I'd love to have their special diffuser. It looks like a hand and is supposed to work really well. Here's a link: http://www.overstock.com/Health-Beauty/DevaCurl-Diffuser-Kit/4845063/product.html?cid=123620&fp=F&mr:trackingCode=7B21CA3B-52C1-DF11-98FF-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

Stoner Food

So yeah, I bake things now (It's me, Dave). Been trying out some different breads and pizza doughs lately. I hear that crust gets a lot crispier when you use a pizza or baking stone. The thicker the better!

K-Cup (No....that is NOT my bra size!)

The thing with the Keurig Machine is... you always need more K-Cups. Thanks Jackie for it...we love and use it practically every day! (but those K-cups are expensive) :)

Our favorites are:
Green Mountain Wild Mountain Blueberry
Green Mountain Nantucket Blend
Green Mountain Caramel Vanilla Cream

We are also open to trying new flavors! Sometimes they have cool variety packs with deliciousness. PS- we haven't tried Green Mountain Mocha Nut Fudge, but it sounds good, doesn't it?

Do these pants make my glass look big?

You know how sometimes you go to a restaurant and they give you a wine glass and you go "Whoa, that is a huge wine glass!"? Well, I love those big bubble glasses! Dave actually got me one from Ikea (just one glass), and it broke, 'cause it was from Ikea. D'oh! I'd love to have 2 or maybe even 4, so I'm not the only one with a huge glass! :)

Body Butter

You know me (Jan)...I love body butter and can't get enough of the stuff!! I love the kind from Body Shop, but I know they have it lots of places. If you know of some lovely body butters, I'd love to try them. Thanks!
http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/body-butter

Lock and Love

This one's a Dave choice, but Jan will use them too. Do you know about Lock and Love? They are really called "Lock and Lock" but Jan calls it "Lock and Love." They are plastic storage containers with clamp-on lids. What could be better? I'll tell you what could be better. Glass storage containers with clamp-on lids. Microwave and dishwasher friendly.

http://lifehacker.com/5685412/snapware-glasslock-might-be-the-last-food-containers-you-need-to-buy

Christmas 2010

It's Christmas time again peeps. We know how much you've missed the blog, since we stopped reporting on our garden. But don't worry! We're back to tell you about all kinds of stuff. Stuff so cool, you should want it too!

Merry Christmas!!!

Random Pics

Here are some random pics. Come visit us for the live version!

Teepee

We also made a teepee from bamboo poles to cover the septic tank cover. We planted the Italian flat beans and moon flowers so eventually, hopefully, the plants will grow up the poles and cover the ugliness.

Things are Growing!

Check it out everybody! We can't believe things are growing...maybe we are kinda good at this!

We ate stuff from the garden today for the first time. Some spinach and 2 of the sweetest

strawberries we've ever eaten. (Two bad there are exactly two, haha)

Check out the adorable chairs and table we got at a yard sale in Rochester yesterday! Its a perfect place to chillax!

Frozen Veggies

It snowed today. In May! Man! So much for the "April 28th=last frost date". We're keeping our fingers crossed that nothing croaks. My dad called and said the weather report is calling for a hard frost (what's the difference between a hard frost and a soft frost?), so I went out and covered the boxes with tarps. I whispered "keep warm!" They all looked pretty good, but the tomatoes look depressed.

Meanwhile....Dave's soakin' up the rays in North Carolina. Its 80 there!

Seed Markers

With square foot gardening, its important to keep track of what you plant where. Especially for us novice gardeners...we don't know a carrot leaf from a pea sprout! (Well....we do now ;) When I first planted everything, I wrote the seed types of popsicle sticks with Sharpee, thinking it would last forever. It washed off after the first rain! So then I wrote in pencil. That lasted a little longer, but pretty much faded away after a couple of weeks.

Then today at my ma's, we were browsin' around Etsy as we're known to do, and somebody was selling plant markers made out of old silverware! How cool is that?! (And expensive...she was chargin' like, $40 for 12!)

So, who has the supplies to make anything? My ma! She had a bunch of old spoons and forks (need to use silver plated for this...stainless steel won't pound flat...believe me I've tried). Using a hammer, we pounded them until they were totally flat, and then used metal letter stampers (they were all greasy, so they don't rust) and pounded letters to spell the different veggies. It was difficult to line up perfectly, and sometimes didn't come out the first time, but I kinda like that they're not perfect! And they will last forever!

Flowers too!

We've also got some flower action! Check it out!

Salvia

Butterfly Bush

Beautiful Flowers from Danny and Sara!

Tulips!

Fence

Our garden is hummin' along. Things are blooming and popping up in the soil. But not everything is so cheery. Guess who's living under the garage?

That's right. Bun Bun. And the neighbor kids have reported seeing him nosing around in the garden, early in the morning. So, we had no choice but to take action to protect our precious produce.

We built a fence. That's right! Me and Dave, all by ourselves! But it took some doin'!

Here are some pics:

Notice that we lined the fence with chicken wire. Sorry Bun Bun, no free food for you! Stay out!

Raspberries

Thanks for the raspberry bushes Dad! We'll be eating cobblers in no time.

Dad bought several raspberry and blackberry "bushes" for my birthday last year, and they finally arrived this March. A couple of weekends ago, he came and we planted them. It was a little worrisome because the ground was REALLY wet, and we thought it might be a leech field or something. But it dried out, and Dave carted 3 carloads of mulch from the dump to pretty up the rows. As you can see from the closeup shot, they have buds...but it'll be at least a year till they bear fruit.

Greenhouse Magic

So, we were standin' in our garage today, lookin' around and Dave noticed the old corner cabinet we picked up on the side of the road a few years ago. It was a little broken, but we had always planned to fix it and use it in the house somewhere, but it never fit anyplace. Then Dave had a genius thought...."Let's make a mini-greenhouse!" So thats what we did! In it, we're growing seeds that have to be planted in May, hopefully we'll give them a little head start.

We're Gardeners!

Hi loved ones! We were worried our lil' blog was getting lonely since we've only used it at Christmastime, so we decided to bust it out to keep you all informed on our garden happenins!

We decided to start a veggie garden. My dad bought us a copy of Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening because the method is supposed to be fool proof (which is what we need!).

At first we decided to build one square foot garden....

.....but quickly decided to go big or stay home! So we ended up with 3 gardens.

Then the project grew from there. We realized that we needed to protect our precious produce from the rabbits with a fence. So we bought a picket fence, and our next step is to fashion a cute, yet functional barrier between our veggies and hungry critters.

Here's what we're growin':

Veggies: Peas, carrots, onions, spinach, swiss chard, various lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries, melons, squash, peppers.

Also: Herbs- Cilantro, basil, chives and oregano and lavender and lots of flowers!

Check out the beautiful bird bath that Dave bought me at Lowes!

Be sure to check back to see how our garden's doin!