Growing Things

At last!  The  sun is shining!  Hopefully it'll help some of the seedlings I have growing to have a spurt.  Today has been a great day for getting a few things planted out at last and now I have a large planter full of runner bean sprouts with some Black Eyed Susan plants and some pea sprouts that'll be tarted up by the sweet peas I put in the middle.

Unfortunately I've now run out of pots so I'm scratching my head about what to do with my tomato seedlings....I've got one tomato tumbler plant growing in a hanging basket but I've at least another 8 plants with no homes to go to.  Last year I grew some tomato plants in hessian bags but this year I don't have any so I really don't know what to do.

I've a couple of pepper plants that may or may not bear fruit at some point and I recall reading that they do better in smaller pots but again, I don't actually have anything to put them into at the moment.

I had some flower seedlings too that were potless and then after weeding my front garden I decided this evening to put the growing seedlings into the soil in the front garden in between the shrubs that are there.  And as I had a few bean seedlings left over with no-where to go I've stuck them into the front garden too.  If they take hold properly I'll put some sticks in next to them for them to grow up and they'll probably find themselves growing up the iron railings too.

So now I have potatoes, chard, carrots, spring onions, radishes, peas, beans, peppers, tomatoes and herbs growing in the back garden with edible flowers violas and nasturtiums growing too.  I've a couple of recycled containers ready to sow some salad seeds into as well tomorrow.

At the allotment I've planted potatoes, onions, carrots, chard, beetroot, radish, courgettes and some flowers.  And I've some space for a few other things so might do some secondary sowing and put some peas in up there as there are plenty of tree trimmings to use to protect them from the deer and to give them something to grow up.  As this is the first week for about a month that it hasn't rained for 72 hours a trip to the allotment is on the cards tomorrow afternoon.

Crafty Catch-Up

Well, I think it's been a good three weeks since I last blogged and I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get back here.  No, that's a fib - I do know why, it's because I have been feeling over-whelmed by something and the urge to write about it was very very strong but I couldn't at the time.

This week I shall be mostly applying for a job.  Before anyone jumps to an assumption about what I do at the moment I should make it clear that I do work, in a self-employed capacity teaching belly dance and selling the things I make, and I have been able to work around my young family without incurring child-care costs.  As my family all live about 100 miles away I can't call on my mum to help out and my son, although now three and a half, isn't due to go to school full-time until September 2013 (as his birthday is mid-September and they now only do one intake per year).  So my plan was to continue to struggle along self-employed until then, and then once he was at school look for some extra work.  The children have had a lot to deal with in the last 18 months since their dad and I split up and their emotional well-being has been top of my list of priorities.

Then three weeks ago a friend threw me a curve ball.  A potential job, back in the field I used to work in before becoming a full-time parent eight years ago.  It was finally advertised last week and between her telling me about it (with the instruction to apply once it was advertised) and today I have been hunting out childcare. Childcare that I feel happy with, with someone the children are comfortable with.  I think I've got that one as sorted as I can now and so I can focus on something else for a little while.

Now all I have to do is make sure my CV reflects my experience and skills correctly and write a covering letter.  Harder than you'd think when you know it's going to be read by someone who knows you well, but I have to forget that and write the letter as I would for any other application.

In the meantime I've been working on some commissioned headdresses and adding at least one listing a day to my Etsy shop - I've gotten a bit behind with that so need to ramp it up and make sure I at least get all of the descriptions drafted out properly.

Oooh, and my new love is digital scrapping - why on earth it's taken me so long to get my head round using layers and masque tools and such in Pixlr is beyond me but now I do have an understanding I can't find enough time to play around with images I have and have found for free on the net.  Here's a pic to show you what I've been up to:

And on that note I shall leave you with a link to 1st Unique Gifts and the Handmade Monday blog.  If I'm a good girl and finally sort out my application letter I shall sit down this evening with a slice of cake and a cuppa and make sure to catch up with what everyone has been doing.