Garden! And some new friends.

A few shots of our garden this year. It's coming along slowly, but surely.

And we got two new hens! Meet Agnes (aka Mrs. Miyagi because she can catch flies with her beak) and Loretta. Don't ask us which one is which. They are a little skittish as you can see from the photo, but are settling in nicely. 

Taking the day off tomorrow to go canoeing and swimming. It's been HOT here and we are itchin' to get the boat out and feel some cold water on our skin. Til' next time!

What I Have Been Up To

It's been busy over here! I've been making soap like crazy for the holidays and doing various experiments creating other products. Here are some of the highlights:

Beeswax container candles. Did some burn tests to figure out the right wick size. Think I got it.

Created my first shampoo bar and it has been selling like hotcakes in my Etsy shop. I love this one-it smells so good! Great shaving soap too.

Whipped Shea Butter. Still a few kinks to work out with this one, but the feedback I have got on it has been super positive. 

Felted soap. 

In other news, I turned 30! It was awesome. Matt and I went here for the first time to celebrate and had a blast.

And the last of our garden got dug up this week.We got a small, but mighty carrot and beet haul. Seriously, they taste like heaven.

And I will be here in a few weeks. If you are in the Phoenix area-please come! It looks like it will be super fun. My first craft show...I'm really excited! 

Our Backyard. It Makes Me Happy.

Garden update! Remember what it looked like back in May? Matt's dad (upon seeing that post) thought we might be trying to grow food on a concrete slab.  Well, it's amazing what a shovel and some compost can do for your soil. Dig deep as they say.

Note: These photos are a few weeks old so some of the plants are a bit farther along and some have well, um, crapped out. Our pattypan squash has succumbed to powdery mildew and looks real sad. But, at least we got one squash from it! If anyone has any advice on that disease, fee free to let me know.

Oh! And if you're a garden/book nerd like me I highly recommend reading this book! I checked it out from the library a while back and loved it. It's part gardening how-to, part spiritual memoir, part poetry. Really great stuff. Yeah, I might have teared up multiple times while reading, but I'm a giant sap. But, regardless, it's a good book to curl up with and daydream about vegetables. Cup of tea optional.

Okay, without further adieu, here's some shots of our humble garden. I'm proud.

scarlet runner beans flowering

sad. the fruits never got bigger than this.

tomato flowers

bright lights chard

basil. how i love thee.

little baby cuke

hoop house transformed!

Christmas in July? Sure.

It's been a big week in my world. Here's the run down...

To begin, our Christmas cactus that almost died when we were on our trip, got better.
And it flowered. In July.
I took it as a good omen.

Secondly, Sweet Pine Soaps on-line shop is open! Check it out here. And, now I give you, soap porn.

lavender orange soap

lemongrass eucalyptus soap

lavender soap

fir needle and spruce beer soap

Thirdly, I might have bought a cat. Okay, I definitely bought a cat. And technically, he is more kitten than cat.
His name is Stu.

And, finally, this popped up in our garden. I could have almost cried when I saw it, it was that damn perfect. Like a kid on Christmas morning, in fact.

I hope your week was full of gifts too!

Look what we built!

Our very own hoop house!

We're excited.

Matt and I built this together on Sunday morning and it only took a few hours. Materials cost about 60 bucks which we grabbed at Home Depot that morning. We plan to fill this bad boy with dirt, cover it with plastic and get our starts in the ground before we leave on our month long road trip. Hurray!

In soap news, I've been busy  trying to get as much cranked out before we leave so it will be all cured and ready to go by the time we get back. Check out some of the goods...

From left: (orange grapefruit clove, lemongrass eucalyptus, spruce and fir beer, mint spruce, lavender)

And maybe you can see the alpine strawberry plant in the background?  They are just starting to flower and I am giddy thinking about the sweet, delicious berries that we will be lucky enough to eat.

So, it will be pretty quiet in Sweet Pine blog land for awhile as Matt and I visit our friends and family for the next month. After we get back to Flagstaff, I will be busy setting up my Etsy shop which I am incredibly excited about!. In the meantime, if you live in Flagstaff, my soaps are available for purchase at the Flagstaff CSA.

See y'all in a month!

Small Pleasures

This is the first year Matt and I have lived in this ol' house and we're finding all sorts of sweet surprises popping out of the ground. Like rhubarb. And garlic. And these guys...

Anybody know the name of these? 

And these tulips just opened the other day. That made me smile.

And then they kinda closed when the sun moved

Speaking of smiling, I finally figured out a use for a lunch pail I had picked up at an antique store years ago. I just loved it when I saw it, but didn't really know what to do with it. So, there it sat in a closet. Waiting.

I had some ideas for it--I thought I might put some of my art supplies in it, but I never moved past the thinking part on that one. I also thought I might use it for an actual lunch toting device, but it didn't seem practical. And so it waited.

It's waiting.

A few days ago, I went to grab some of our seeds out of our kitchen drawer. They were kinda shoved haphazardly in there with cheesecloth, straws, dried mushrooms, popcorn kernels and a bunch of other random stuff.. It seemed like the seeds needed a better home. Light bulb moment! I knew where they were meant to reside.

And that made me happy.

seeds + lunch pail = home

And since I pulled out my seed stash I couldn't resist looking at my scarlet runner beans. What beauties they are! And they hold such lovely memories for me.

I harvested them while I was working and living here in the San Juan Islands and the whole experience was just, um, in a word, amazing. So much laughter are in these here beans.

And speaking of seeds, ours have been taking off! I love waking up in the morning and going to check on them and see how much they've grown in a day. Tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers and peppers await us this summer. We're already salivating at the mere thought!

Three cheers for small pleasures.

 Update: In soap related news, my soap is for sale at the Flagstaff CSA! Go on down and get yourself a bar of goodness. And thank you, thank you, thank you for your support.