Last year I stumbled across this advertisement for a hanging tomato planter (”Topsy Turvey,” or something like that). I thought it was ingenious! My tomatoes always end up with some funky disease or bug that might have been prevented if the plant was able not to touch the ground. I don’t know what it is about tomato plants but I just can’t keep them healthy.
But when I saw how much those upside down hanging planters were ($20 each), I knew I wasn’t going to be hanging any of my plants anytime soon. Of course, that was until I decided to make my own upside down hanging planter! I mean, if you can sew AT ALL, you can sew a simple bag. That’s all these hanging planters are. And you could even fashion some reusable grocery bags while you’re at it.
I bought the materials for about 20 of my own bags for the price Topsy Turvey wanted for ONE of their planters. I bought a nice sturdy outdoor fabric in the remnant section at WalMart and sewed up 2 of these in a few minutes. I fashioned one with a regular bottom and the other with a drawstring-like bottom. I think I like the drawstring best.They are really fun to make and wouldn’t they be great gifts!? Everyone loves plants, especially the ones that bear fruit! I made one bag for my jalapeno plant and one for my cherry tomato plant. I have about 50 more plants that will need planters soon– so I’d better get to sewing!
Anyhow, here is a video of the process. It’s not in depth about sewing– I guess this might be a good tutorial for someone who already knows the minimal basics to sewing.
I’ve had a funky day and thought I’d come and air it out here; I know you guys are all dying to hear me whine. Lol!
About a month ago I was driving home in Jeremy’s truck from the grocery store. Jeremy was at home with the kids. Apparently one of Jeremy’s headlights was out, so of course I get pulled over. I searched all over his truck looking for his insurance card and couldn’t find it. So she writes me a ticket for not having proof of insurance. The catch is that I have to go to court and prove that I have insurance. And I have to PAY court costs for that. In the olden days, you just had to go and show an officer your insurance card within so many days and they would document it for you. That was that. No fines, no court appearances, etc.
A week later I get pulled over AGAIN because the license plate is missing from the front of my car. It must have fallen off, but there was still one on the back. Well, when the cop pulled me over I was a little “perturbed” because I had JUST been pulled over the week before over some menial, trivial crap and I was already late for an appointment on top of it. So when he pulled me over, I took my seat belt off, reached into my glove box, and got my insurance and registration out. Well when he approached the window, I was short with him because I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong and I was irritated he pulled me over at all. So I guess he didn’t like that I was being short with him. Compliance wasn’t enough for his massive ego, he wanted me to lick his badge while I was at it, I guess. So he leans back, looks at me, and says, “Mam, you aren’t wearing your seat belt. I’m going to let you go for the license plate issue but I’m going to have to write you a ticket for not having your seatbelt on.” I told him that I had taken it off to reach into my glove compartment for my papers. He handed me the ticket. I proceeded to compliantly tell him the hell off. I said, “I hope it makes you feel good about yourself pulling over a mother with a car full of kids that she obviously has to feed and giving her a $90 ticket over nothing at all. And in this economy! Oppress the Oppressed, Buddy. You’re doing a great thing here. You’re some kind of public servant!” He’d already given me the ticket so it didn’t hurt anything to tell him off. Fudge it.
So today I had to go to court for the headlight incident, and I have to go back again next month for the seatbelt incident. WTF! Did I mention that you have to wait in this LONG, drawn out process in the courtroom!? Did I mention that I didn’t have time to take the kids to school before I had court? Yeah, me and 3 kids sitting in a courtroom for hours. FUN! There were no seats in the courtroom (which smelled of alcoholics and unbathed bodies) and, get this, NO ONE OFFERED ME their seat. Pregnant as I obviously am, no one was noble enough to offer me a seat! I started having contractions while I was there. You can’t leave the courtroom to go and drink water and I was sure that’s really all I needed, I was needing some fluids. And? You have to park a mile away from the courthouse because there’s no parking. So, yeah. Contractions from walking a mile with 3 kids to go to a court and pay money because I didn’t know where Jeremy kept his insurance card. That’s some f’ed up shit right there, ain’t it?
I got the kids to school, came home, laid down, drank a lot of water, and I’m ok now. But I cannot fathom that I have to do this again next month. That’s really unfair… And they wonder why people have a bad impression of police officers? I know that somewhere in that town there was a wife getting beaten or a teenager driving 50 miles over the speed limit. And they are worried about giving me false tickets for seatbelts!? I could understand if I was some kind of drunk vagrant– those guys belonged in that courtroom for hours today. The innocent pregnant gal didn’t. It was really unnecassary and unfair.
Anyhoooooo… Life is weird sometimes.
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You didn’t think I was done, did you? Oh no. I have some other complaints too.
I HATE COLORADO. I hate it. I loathe it. I want to move the fudge away! I love being able to live somewhere where the crime rate is low (HA! You just don’t read about crimes in the newspapers because we wouldn’t want to scare our tourists off), my kids are safe from racism (From whites anyhow. Native Americans are another story.), and where the air is still clean and untainted (Hmph. Our snow is black though.). But could we not have found a beautiful, safe, quiet place to live that doesn’t have 8 month winters!?
I HATE IT! I’m a little bit bitter about it. Especially since homesickness would be bearable if I got to go home more than once every few years. My sister’s baby is a year old now and I’ve never even gotten to see her. I miss my grandma, my sis, my dad, my best friend, my cousins…
And did I mention the EIGHT MONTHS OF WINTER!?
People are all so happy about this crap, bullshit weather. They are all, “Oh, Frank, isn’t this weather wonderful? It’s Springtime!” BULLSHIT! It’s not Spring if its 57 degrees, ya’ll! It’s not Spring if it’s too cold to be outside without a few layers on! If the trees and flowers ain’t bloomin’, it ain’t Spring! And if it’s 30 degrees when you leave the house in the morning, it ain’t Spring. If you can’t safely grow anything outside until June, well, that means THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPRING IN COLORADO…
I guess this frustration is coming from somewhere… And I’m ashamed of myself, this frustration is just as much with myself as it is the weather………… I put my baby plants from the garden seeds I started outside for some sun yesterday… And I accidentally left them outside last night… The frost killed them completely… And I’m sad because I don’t get enough sun in any of my windows to skip putting the plants outside for sun, but I obviously can’t handle bringing them in and out of the house every day. I’m really flustered with myself over my murderous ways. But if it were a South Carolina Spring, it would be a true Spring. And I could plant the fucking seeds in the earth, not in pots, in April.
I pray many days to God. For him to help me find peace and contentedness in Colorado. I try to wrap myself around things to distract me. I also try to just be thankful that we’ve been blessed with SOOO much since we moved here. Life has been good to us here. And maybe I need to just learn to bloom where I’ve been planted. The frost won’t kill me. I’m tougher than that…
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One last thing… I went to the doctor yesterday who decided that, since I had been doing great for the last 2 weeks, that I don’t need to be seen for 3 weeks this time. Which means I have to wait THREE weeks for my big ultrasound! I’m almost 20 weeks– so much for that whole “20 week ultrasound” rule! Ughh. Jerk. I can’t see what’s going on in my womb, ya know? There’s no windows to the womb or anything. I need the ultrasound to tell me that I’m healing and that things are going well. And after 8 miscarriages, you would think my doctor would understand that more than most. I hate their desensitized approach. I bet he’d want to ultrasound his balls every day if he had a massive clot in there. Much less if that massive clot was threatening the baby he was growing in his balls. Just because it’s impossible to grow an infant in your balls doesn’t mean I don’t deserve some peace of mind, Buddy! It’s now been 5 weeks since my last ultrasound– it’s not like I’m being unreasonable and asking for one every week!
This is what happens when you don’t have insurance. Hello, Obama? Where’s my insurance card, Buddy?
Anyhow, before I turned into a complete grump monster today, I made this video yesterday. But don’t listen to any advice I ever give you on growing a garden because I’m a sucky gardener who murders baby plants like a heartless villain. Don’t watch it. Don’t. And try to ignore that I’m starting to grow my 5th chin again. The camera does not like me.
I went and ordered my chicks yesterday from the feed and seed place here. They were only $3 each and I got four. I wanted one Ameraucana chick because they lay really pretty colored eggs. They are also called Easter Egg Chickens because they lay an array of colored eggs. And the other 3 chicks I got are Buff Orpingtons, which are a really pretty chicken that lay brown eggs and are said to be very winter tolerant, friendly, and curious.
Poor Jeremy, he’s got to build the coop now. I don’t think he minds though– he loves to build and create. Considering we eat nearly 18 eggs per week, he sees the reason behind going through the initial trouble.
My Buff Orpington which will be named: Blue (Noah’s pick), Princess Barbie (Bella’s pick, obviously), and ????? (Austin’s pick)
My Ameraucana will be named Suzie, after my Momma.
We hope to have some nice weekend weather to work in the yard and build the coop. We are extending our garden quite a bit this year. I’m planting much more tomatoes (in upside down planters) and corn (along the side of the house in full sun), using more of our yard for food production and less for lawn. I’m also going to finally plant some perennial flowersa to help with the look and erosion on our front yard. There’s so much to do and it doesn’t help that I can’t lift anything heavier than 10 pounds or do anything “laborous.” I don’t like being limited– I ENJOY breaking a sweat and watching my muscles grow in the summer. It will be interesting to see how things develop this summer with one less person to labor. My fellows are tough; I bet they can handle it. They do the preparation, I do the planting, growing, harvesting, canning and cooking. Sounds fair, eh?
I was researching how to distill liquor. I mean, if I can make soaps I could make some moonshine. It’s really not very difficult. I may still give it a try down the road, but with new baby in 2009 and a bigger garden, we’ve got enough going on. Until then, I thought it would be fun to grow some grapes. We live in an ideal area for growing grapes and they can be used for food, juice, and WINE! Yahooo!
I’m not good at all with video blogging. What a dork. There’s a reason or two I write rather than talk, and this video sums those reasons up. I also have a hard time with the video software. Anyhow, I thought it would be fun to vlog my garden progress throughout the summer. We’ll see how much of a dork I can be over the next few months!
"She fearlessly defeats monsters hiding in closets and under beds. She bravely conquers vast worlds of laundry on weekends. And she painstakingly protects her young with her nurturing love and her mighty mommy muscles..."
