Crochet Headbands!

A few months ago a friend of mine pinned this.  I've been trying to think of ways to make a little extra money while I put in applications and wait for a call so I thought I'd try to make them.

Success!

(and that's my sister in the background and she's not asleep, just blinking.)


(and a little dog, who was asleep!)


This one has a sparkly white center and bright pink petals.

I have a bunch! And they're pretty easy to make.  If you'd like to find the pattern, look here.  If you'd like to buy a finished product, look here!  I will make custom orders as well, just tell me what color(s) you'd like.

*~Bri~*

Growing Pomegranates From Seeds (failed attempt #1)

Over the weekend I remembered that I had a pomegranate in the fridge that I got while I was in Northern California.  It was delicious! When I took the photo I had been working on it for a few hours (I needed to savor it) so the skin turned a little brown.

The reason I hadn't eaten it sooner is because I wanted to plant the seeds and see if I could grow my own pomegranate tree!  Unfortunately, I couldn't fine just one sure fire way to grow them from the seeds.  There were very different opinions on how to germinate the most seeds, so I tried the two methods that kept popping up in my searches.  Here are the two methods.  Note: I have some steps listed as a and b, each representing that step in their respective methods. Ex: step 2a: place fresh seeds on a napkin.  step 2b: remove all fruit juice and flesh from seeds.

Step 1: Gather materials. You'll need a pomegranate, a napkin or paper towel, a pot, soil, and water.  Since I used two method, I needed double the materials.

Step 2a: Place fresh seeds on a napkin or paper towel. Crush the juice out of the seeds.  Then leave them out to dry for a few hours.  I placed my seeds on the napkin, folded it over and squeezed the juice out.  The articles I read said to do it in a napkin or paper towel so the juice get's soaked up immediately, to prevent the seeds from molding.  I have to say I was very sad to do this step because it meant I wouldn't get to enjoy the juice from these seeds.  I really hope this method works or all those delicious seeds will have gone to waste!

Step 2b:  Remove all fruit juice and flesh from seeds.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of these guys.)  I removed the juice and flesh the old fashioned way:  I ate it off!  I'll admit, it was a little time consuming and I crushed more than a few seeds in between my teeth while trying to scrape off every little bit of the fruit.

Step 3:  Fill your pot with moistened soil.  I filled the pots with soil and added enough water to ensure every part of the soil was wet, but not puddling at the bottom.  (These pots don't have any drainage holes)

Step 4: Plant seeds. Below you can see that I planted the seeds on the top of the damp soil and then added a thin layer over them.  In the pictures, the pots on the bottom and to the right are the ones with the dried out seeds.

Step 5: Create a greenhouse.  Again, there were two different methods that seemed to be popular online, one where you poke holes in the top and one with no holes.  I gave the dried out seeds the greenhouse with no holes.

And lastly, I placed them in the window sill.  Now I wait.  In the articles I read, two to four weeks was the typical sprouting time.  We'll see!

Oh, also.  I saw this cat outside my window. 

UPDATE 2/11: My seeds got moldy just like the lemon seeds did.  Any tips or tricks are welcome, I would love to try again.

Growing Mint

I have a few "just add water" plants around the house and this is the first one to sprout!  I planted the seeds on New Years Day and just ten days later I noticed these itty bitty sprouts!

It's mint!  I don't really use mint for a whole lot, but I hear it smells nice and you can make tea with it.  I've heard of people adding it to their lemonade which sounds interesting.  

After I took those pictures, I left for the weekend and when I got back I was shocked to see this:

They've almost doubled in height!  I have read that mint is a very aggressive plant and I don't think I'll ever plant these into the ground, just a larger pot. But until then, I'm so excited to see how quickly these little seedlings grow up!  

I have looked online to see what older mint plants look like and it seems there is a wide variety of types and flowers.  Since I don't have a big need to harvest the mint leaves I think I'll try to grow these without pruning them and maybe I'll enjoy the flowers when they bloom.

If you know any good uses for mint leaves, please leave them in the comments section.  I'll be very interested in experimenting.

Bri

June Bearing Strawberries

                    Before                                              After

 

Last weekend I bought some strawberry roots at the garden center down the street.  Just plant them, water them, and bam! Strawberries!  We'll see how this goes.

I potted these a little differently than I did the Lemon Tree.  

I filled the pot 1/3 with soil and watered the soil to get it nice and moist.  

Then I placed the roots in the pot and filled the soil around them loosely.  When I had enough soil to hold the roots up I gently watered the soil and the roots to get this layer damp as well. (I could almost hear the plants say thank you.)  After that layer was nice and damp, I filled the pot up to cover the roots so that only the stems and the leaves were above ground and I gently watered the top layer of soil. 

My baby strawberry roots, fresh out of the bag and finally getting some sunlight!

Cute fuzzy little sprout.

All in all, they didn't look too impressive and I was a little skeptical on if they'd make it.  I've been bringing them in at night and watering them twice a day, same as the Lemon Tree. I haven't been noticing any changes, but when I water I usually just check to make sure there's no mold and that the water isn't leaking out of the drip tray.  So this morning when my grandma told me she thought she noticed a few new shoots I thought she was just trying to be encouraging, but lo and behold:

Remember that cute fuzzy sprout?  It has three full leaves now!  It looks like he may have a friend joining him soon, too.  (You can also see my lemon tree back there on the window sill with a make-shift greenhouse on top)

These little guys have grown so much!  They weren't even touching when I planted them!

These guys have let their leaves fan out as well.

Look at those beautiful leaves!  (back there you can also see one of my two avocado pits I placed in water last night.  I was going to wait a few more days, but midnight guacamole cravings kick started that plan)

I'm so proud of these little strawberry plants!  It hasn't taken very long to see some change, I can't wait to keep my eye on them and watch them grow! 

Check back later in the week when I'll plant some Everbearing Strawberries and talk about my DuneCraft plants.

Bri

How to Grow A Lemon Tree From A Seed (I Think) (failed attempt #1)

I've recently been introduced to a blog that has given me a MASSIVE amount of inspiration.  I have *just* ended an almost 4 year relationship and moved in with my grandmother.  And since I hate to be alone with my thoughts, I am going to need some long term projects to keep myself busy.  So welcome to my blog: Repin in Real Life.

I've seen this pin come up again and again but it never leads to a link with instructions, but I've been dying to try it, so I decided to just wing it based on the pictures.


The following is my interpretation of the photos with a little help from online lemon tree tutorials.  Keep in mind I have little to no gardening knowledge or skills.

Step 1: Take seeds from lemons and place in warm water overnight.  According to my research this helps the pulp and lemon juice to separate from the seed which helps prevent seed rot after you plant them.  I let my seeds sit for about 20 hours while I planted strawberries (which will be blogged about tomorrow).
Now here is where my lack of gardening know-how kicks in, as I was about to plant the seeds I realized I didn't have as many seeds as were pictured on the pin so I cut up three more lemons right then, stirred them around for a bit and proceeded to step 3.

Step 2:  I have no idea what is going on in this photo.  It looks like someone with sharp tools and a steady hand was able to peel back the outer layer of the seeds.  I attempted this and what happened was similar to a cartoon character trying to grab a slippery bar of soap.  If you have luck with this, or know how it was done or the benefit of doing it, I'd love to know.

Step 3:  Plant seeds.  I did not plant the seeds in a mug.  I wanted to, I even have a few mugs that would be so cute for it, but since I'm new to gardening I don't have a watering technique down yet and I decided that a pot with drainage might give me a better chance at getting one of these seeds to actually sprout.  I tried my best to plant the seeds in a beautiful pattern as pictured above but since the last three lemons worth of seeds had only soaked for a few minutes, they stuck together in clumps. I recommend getting everything ready (pot, soil, seeds, etc.) before you begin, that way you don't do what I did and skimp on time.  I left a small layer of skin around some of the seeds.  We'll see how they do.  I filled the pot most of the way full with an organic fertilizer, sprinkled the seeds around a bit and then continued to step 4.

Step 4: Cover seeds.  Since I just wanted to get these seeds planted, I didn't take the time to find enough small pebbles to cover the seeds even though in the picture it looks adorable.  I covered the seeds with more potting soil until they were under about about 1/2 an inch of soil. (If any of them sprout, I'll move a few into a new container and cover the dirt with rocks as pictured above.)

Step 5:  Water.  According to the internet, lemon seeds need a lot of moisture.  I watered the seeds and soil until the water ran through the drainage on the bottom.  Everything I read said to water 'gently' with a spray bottle and not to let the soil or seeds dry out at any time.

Step 6:  Build a greenhouse. (not pictured) When I read other "grow your own lemon tree" articles I found that lemon seeds need a lot of sun and warmth to sprout and since this is January and I've seeded them in a container, I might be able to get away with this!  I placed a plastic bag over the top of the planter and used a rubber band to hold it in place.  I poked a few holes in the top and presto! A tiny breathable greenhouse.  I'll be keeping the plant indoors for now to help maintain a stable temperature until the low of the day is consistently above 50 degrees.


Hopefully by keeping these little guys watered and warm they will sprout in about two weeks.  Photo updates to come.

Bri


Update! 1/31 The seeds didn't make it. :(  They molded and died.  I'm disappointed but definitely looking for advice.  If anyone has any tips on germination or any suggestions, I look forward to reading them!