Spring Clippings = Free Statement Decor

Of course, I love Myquillyn Smith's advice (The Nester!) to bring branches and free bouquets from your yard inside your home.  Her most recent Instagram posts have some beautiful photos showing what she brought indoors.  And her statement about azaleas {here} had me laughing!  Their blooms sure are gorgeous, but as she said... "It's their one week to shine before they go back to looking like shriveled burnt bushes in my yard." Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this :)

Have any favorite branches or spring flowers in your own yard? (or a kind neighbor?!) Take a photo and share with us! Comment below with a link to your Instagram photo or blog post.

Every Spring is the Only Spring

“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” - Ruth Stout

“Every spring is the only spring — a perpetual astonishment.” - Ellis Peters

Most of my veggie gardens are planted, so now we wait!  And hope that I remember to water and the puppy doesn't dig.  :)

Welcome Spring!

Garden Party 2017- Spring Seed Planting

"I must have flowers always and always."

-Claude Monet

Starting a garden from seeds can seem a little daunting.  Honestly, most of the time it's probably not any more expensive to go ahead & buy the $2.50 Home Depot plant, rather than hassle with peat pots and seedlings hoping they survive to be transferred to your garden.  Most people do not have a garden large enough to use up all of the seeds in one packet.  So that's why I decided to have a seed planting party- to learn from friends who had done this before and share the rest in my seed packets that would have been wasted!

Last year, we had our first seed planting party {here} looking a little different than this year's brunch without kids and forecast for snow flurries :)  While I'm hoping for successful seeding again this year, truly it's more about spending time with friends and meeting new ladies in the community.  My friend, Deanna, and I invited a few friends and then they invited others... I highly recommend mixing up party guests like this.  I love watching two friends connect with each other that might not have ever met.  Or looking around my home seeing lots of new faces and everyone laughing and eating and planting!  They might have thought I was crazy serving up brunch on a mix-match of my grandma's china and then passing buckets of soil inside the house, but cleanup still was faster than lunch with my 3 kids!

I highly recommend finding a sweet friend to host parties with you! Makes it more fun and enjoyable, but it's also a major plus when she can bake like a professional :) How cute are these cookies?!

Want to host your own Seed Planting Party? Text all of your friends, have everyone bring a snack and get to planting.  Here is a good list to get you started...

-Seed Starter Soil & Spoons/Scoops
-Peat Pots or have each person bring a dozen empty egg shells in a carton
-Popsicle Sticks & markers so you can remember what you planted!
-Spray bottles (so you can mist the soil as you plant)
-Seeds! (We had each person bring 2 packets and we assigned categories like herb, veggies, etc.)

Also Kari Jobe's new album The Garden is the perfect background music!

Now we will wait and see how many of our seeds actually grow well enough to plant in the garden, but at least we had a fun ladies' brunch!

Let me know if you have a garden party with your friends & send me some photos at everydaypitpat@gmail.com. I would love to see your party and garden ideas!

Gardens Past & Color in the Future

The past few days I have been scrolling through old photos looking at our garden and backyard.  These are from our old house, but I'm finalizing and planning the garden at our new home and needed some ideas.  I have a seed planting party this weekend (looking like it might be moved indoors- darn!) and these photos have me excited to add some color to the yard soon!  This rainy day makes me want all the spring colors!

and here's to hoping for some bunny friends in the garden again!

New Furball in the Garcia Yard

So I realized our newest pet had not been formally introduced here on the blog...
Meet "Cheer" our new kitten!

I almost made the title of this post "I hate cats." Haha! I am horribly allergic (really, everyone but Vera is allergic) and, to be honest, cats kinda freak me out. But when we moved into our new house, Patrick and JR convinced me that an outdoor cat would be great for catching mice :) I told them if I didn't have to do a thing with her then I would consider it, but it had to be a kitten or else I would never like it. (that sounds so mean!) Of course they found a 14 week old kitten and the kids fell in love... so I was peer pressured and we are now cat owners.  JR and Vera came up with the name "Cheer" together and I have no idea how they decided on that name.

We have a potting shed off of our detached garage and that is where she stays.  She puts up with Vera trying to carry her awkwardly everywhere and is super cute playing with Vali.  I like her because she keeps her distance, she is outdoors so no sneezing & no litter box, and Patrick and the kids really do love her :)

Pretty sure I thought we would have chickens before a kitten! 
Cheer, welcome to the Garcia Farm. Don't be offended that I can't hold you. I think you're cute & I'm thankful for the entertainment you provide JR and Vera ;)

Mother's Day & End of the School Year

Vera made the cutest flower pot in her Mom's Morning Out class!  The flower has already died but I'll treasure that colorful art forever :)  And I hadn't even seen her gift to me when I dressed her that morning- maybe it was her inspiration for the art haha! (This is our favorite reversible pinafore from {junebugtennessee})

JR and Vera were both in MMO one day a week this past year.  Even though JR started out pretty quiet and observant & Vera struggled some days during drop-off, they always came home with lots of fun stories wishing they could go back the next day!  They both had the sweetest teachers and learned so much this year!  It's amazing to see how much they have grown since their first day in the fall. 

 (above) first day right after getting home from Sadie's Wedding!

(below) last day of school...

John Ryman painted me a beautiful pot with a handmade flower- I just don't have a photo.  He also filled out this classic paper that I especially loved :)

Last Spring

 I just came across these two blog posts from last spring {here} and {here}.  Vera has grown so much :) and we are all hoping mama bunny picks our yard again for her new babies.  John Ryman asks about our baby bunnies more than he does his baby brother's arrival!

Seed Planting Party

 This past week I had some friends over for a little Seed Planting Party!  I usually buy all of my plants at Lowe's or a local nursery and put them straight in the ground, but I've always wanted to start from seed.  Several friends had shared an interest in gardening & I figured it would be more fun to try it out together and not waste all of those extra seeds that come in a package. 

We all brought a different category of seeds (veggies, fruit, herbs, salads, flowers...) and I had a mixture of peat pots, starter kits, egg cartons/eggs, & dixie cups to fill with soil mix.  My starters were not as cute as Joanna Gaine's egg starters {see here} but those eggs are supposed to be good for your plants if you put them straight in the ground!  And if you're feel real crafty, try out her adorable DIY plant stakes {blog post here}.  We just used permanent markers on popsicle sticks or directly onto the cup/eggshell. 

It was pure chaos and SO much fun!  The temperature got up to 80 degrees- we most definitely could have turned on the sprinklers!  There was dirt everywhere, the kids had a contest digging for the best worm and I'm pretty sure I'll have random plants growing throughout our lawn from stray seed packets I found in the yard :)

 John Ryman added jelly beans to his watermelon seeds :) And how cute are those dirt cups a friend made for the kiddos!!

 Now here's to hoping our little seeds start to grow and we can plant them in the ground later this spring!  If not, at least we had a fun day with friends in the sunshine and could share a few gardening tips with each other along as well!