Young Seamstress Would Like Your Vote

Our daughter Naomi has been sewing since age 15(4 yrs.now) when a family friend offered to tutor her in the art of sewing for 6 months for free. The family friend taught our daughter so much about  sewing. From different seams, different types of fabrics and their uses, to diffferent types of needles to use, and so much more.
Our daughter was hooked, and she has been creating sewn items ever since. She loves to participate in online challenge  swaps with other sewers where they create miniature quilts and other items to exchange with each other.
Our daughter recently entered a challenge on Burdastyle.com. The challenge was to remake a basic apron from a pattern provided by the folks at Burdastyle. Our daughter's creation is now in the top 50 entrants...but she needs your vote to win.
If she does win she will receive a new sewing machine and a cash prize.
To vote for her creation stop by this link:http://www.burdastyle.com/albums/149/images?page=4&size=small
In order to vote you will need to sign up on the site. ...but a young seamstress would greatly appreciate your vote ...and so would her proud mama.
Thanks ever so much!

Oh..and I have a thank you to make..and a bit of an apology too..

I wanted to say a great big "Thank you" to all of the gals from whom I won an item from during the OWOH giveaway. I did receive the items I won, but need to apologize sincerely for not having posted photos here of the winnings. I simply have not had the time to do so. But do know that I absolutely adore all of the handmade items I received and sincerely love all of them. You women are all so talented! I have emailed all of you personally to thank you, and I do hope that you all have received those emails.
Thank you so much!! You all are angels. And I so very much appreciated the items in my mailbox.
  ~Tina/ ~The Garden Goose!~

Some great Giveaways to tell you about..and more

Hi there folks! I have some great giveaways to tell you about that you will NOT want to miss..trust me on this.


Over at the "Small Town Living" blog we are featuring a Coffee Flavor a day..for a week! Courtesy of the folks at Coffee City USA. We jump started the giveaway feature this morning with a coffee flavor called "Sinful Pleasure", and let me tell you!...it is good coffee! 
http://stliving.com/?p=1465


Also at the "Small Town Living" blog we have recently featured the art work of artist JoEllen Laurita. JoEllen will gift one of our lucky readers with a Primitive Cat Ornament...it is really adorable and you'll want to join in on the fun of that giveaway as well.
http://stliving.com/?p=1432

So stop by and join in the fun!
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I wanted to tell you about my friend Susan's giveaway over at "Not Quite June Cleaver." Susan is hosting a darling giveaway of a super cute coffee mug..(gosh we must all have coffee on our mind lately..ha.) A bit of her special coffee blend, some home made granola, and a wonderful vintage apron! So stop on by her giveaway at:
http://www.notquitejunecleaver.com/2010/03/notquitejunecleavers-spring-fling-giveaway-and-so-much-more/
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And another giveaway is from my friend Debra over at Vegan Family Style. She is gifting one of her lucky readers with a copy of the movie Food Inc.
http://veganfamilystyle.blogspot.com/2010/03/food-inc-and-giveaway.html
 So stop by and check out her giveaway too. 
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Wow..it has been a busy couple of weeks. The days are just zooming by it seems.
 I'm having loads of fun on the Small Town Living site..we feature farmers, artists, wineries, bed and breakfast Inns,book and food and other product reviews, and so much more. I stay busy networking with folks and bringing interesting information to our readers. I love it though, but I do stay quite busy with it too. 
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Oh, let me tell you about our little garden!...the kids and I planted Oregon Giant snow peas and bush bean seeds about a week and a half ago in the raised beds out back. We now have little bean and pea plants that are about 4 inches tall. Yay!
 Hopefully soon we'll be gathering some produce from those plants..or if someone buys this home soon... they will. :0) (Yes, our home here is still for sale and we are hoping it will sell soon.)
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Oh, I wanted to share with you this photo of a sandhill crane that I took back in December when we made a fast trip down to Ocala, FL. I was so delighted to see this bird in a field in Dunnellon, FL. on our way back home.
And this was the first time I have ever been able to capture one of these magnificent birds on camera!
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Well..that's all the news today..oh I'm sure there's more really, but I don't want to have to write a book today, so I'll save some of it for a later date.


"Ya'll come back now ya hear" :0)


Thanks so much for stopping by!


~The Garden Goose!~ 

Spring is on its way!...and a giveaway to tell you about...and more.

Today I saw a few Robins hopping around in search of bugs and worms. Robins are a migratory visitor here, and once they arrive  we know that Spring is right around the corner.

 The grass has begun growing again in our backyard, another sure sign of Springs arrival.

 The doves have begun flirting with each other..yes, another sign of  Spring.

 Oh, and more bird song...ahh ....I love it..hearing the birds singing a good bit more now that Spring is about to burst forth in all of its glory!

I mentioned having sent all of my potted plants South the other day. Well...I had a major plant relapse. I cannot stand not having something green around me..somewhere..anywhere. So I asked my husband to take me by a local nursery to check in and see if they had gotten in any mint plants. I was looking for varieties like apple, or pineapple, or chocolate. I found spearmint and pineapple. 

I also found a tiny air plant, and some succulents that I'll create a dish garden with. I also found some elfin thyme, some lemon balm, and rosemary.  I know, I know... oh and hubby bought me 3 gorgeous rose bushes. 

I know...relapse..but hopefully the last relapse I have before we get moved. As I don't want any movers to have to move a lot of plants.

Oh and I learned something very interesting today about the pineapple mint plant... apparently the pineapple mint plant is also the apple mint plant... seems that the pineapple flavor variation is concentrated into the variegated leaves of the plant, but if the plant is allowed to develop solid green shoots on the same plant...solid green leaves...those leaves will be of an apple mint scent and flavor. So it is encouraged to snip off any wayward solid green leaves or stems to maintain the variegation and thus the "pineapple" flavor and scent. Strange huh? I found it rather fascinating. Something to do with the hybridization of the plant. So interesting.  Plants always fascinate me!

Oh wow! I almost forgot!! Head on over to www.stliving.com to enter the drawing for a gorgeous Vintage tablecloth..courtesy of one of the artists we have profiled on the site this week. (The Pink Rose Cottage) You won't want to miss out on your chance. Contest lasts until  March 9th.

That's all the news today folks.

 Thanks for stopping by!

  ~The Garden Goose~

Potted Plant Clean Up and more...

So...the other day I spent time hoeing out the raised beds, then raking them out, and then sowing garden seeds with my 2 youngest children.

Today found me cleaning up all of the potted plants I had in my courtyard area. I shoved huge terra cotta pots around. Cleared the debris out of the pots that had leaves blown into them and trimmed off any dead leaves.Shaped up the potted climbing roses and trimmed off any dead canes on those.Condensed together some of the plants that could do well being grouped together.Made a pile of the old plastic pots I no longer wanted.

I think I made some progress.:0)

I then gathered the empty new pots into a pile along with my garden decor items, and some large wind chimes. Why am I doing this?

All of these garden items and plants will soon be taking a trip further South to await the day when I'll hopefully be joining them soon. To begin new gardens in a new town.

I just hope that I won't have to wait too long. I'm also sending along some of my houseplants..but not all of them..I must have something green around to enjoy!

In the meantime I hope that the little garden that I planted with my kids will grow and produce something for us to enjoy.

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I have been getting ready to do a few book reviews for the "Small Town Living" blog. One is on gardening, and the other is about chickens. Both great topics, and I can't wait to share the titles of the books with you all, and what I liked about the books. I am so enjoying the work I am doing with that site.

Do stop by if you get a chance and become a follower of the blog. The link is www.stliving.com

I really love "Small Town Living" and sharing the information with folks. We cover so many fun topics...from farm profiles, to artist profiles, crafts, cooking, DIY, humor, and so much more.

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I do hope that you all are having a most wonderful week thus far.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

~The Garden Goose!~

Played in the dirt today! Yay! Spring is right around the corner.

This morning and afternoon I had fun playing in the dirt. Oh I had missed it so!
That feeling of the soil on the palm of my hands, and tugging at a weed to remove it from the raised bed area so that I could sow a few heirloom vegetable seeds. Ahhh! Today was sheer bliss!
The weather was absolutely gorgeous, a slight breeze upon the air, not too hot, not too cold.... the birds were singing... A perfect sunshiney day!...and absolutely perfect for playing in the dirt.

I had hoed up the raised beds yesterday afternoon, making sure to loosen all of the weeds left over from winter,( there weren't very many thankfully)...but this morning I could not wait to get outside on such a pretty day, and rake all of the weeds out of the beds.
My two youngest children soon joined me, and we sowed the following heirloom vegetable seeds into the raised bed garden area.
Blue Lake Bush Bean, Provider Bush Bean, Goldcrop Wax Beans, Royal Burgundy Bush Bean, Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Peppers, Swiss Chard, "Palla Rosa" Radicchio, Chantenay Carrot, Oregon Giant Snow Pea

After we sowed the seeds I gave them a nice little shower of water...let the growing begin!
I cannot wait to watch them grow. Oooh yummy veggies are right around the corner!( I'll be planting even more vegetable varieties soon into pots..I hope to start a variety of lettuces and herbs real soon too.)

If you'd like to plant an heirloom vegetable garden this Spring visit: www.myvictorygarden.etsy.com

Busy Days..and Small Town Living..and more

Wow! The days lately have been busy ones.

I have spending quite a lot of time on the new "Small Town Living" blog.

If you haven't heard, we have moved from an e-zine format over to a community blog.

The new website is at www.stliving.com

I keep rather busy with networking, product reviews, book reviews and so on.

But I really enjoy what I do, and I know you'll love the new site also. So stop by www.stliving.com and become a follower if you enjoy topics like- gardening, cooking, farm profiles,artist profiles, and so much more.

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On a different note, I have been thinking about this personal blog, and bringing about a few changes.

You'll just have to stay tuned to see what transpires along the way. :0)

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Oh, and it looks like the cold weather here is slowly drifting away..I'm starting to get a bit of "Spring Fever", and hope to get the 2 raised bed areas in the backyard cleaned out and prepped for seeds really soon. I'm thinking that I'll use one of them totally for a blend of lettuces. Not quite sure what I'll use the second one for just yet. Maybe a mix of herbs, and perhaps a tomato plant or two, and some flowers. We shall see.

I don't want to put too much time and effort into it with the house being on the market, but in the same regards I want to utilize this growing season as much as I can while I'm here in this home,and be able to have fresh, home-grown produce available. So I will be doing some gardening this year, and very, very soon at that.

I have sorely missed digging in the dirt and growing things.

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Oh, I had fun today reviewing a book . The review will be posted tomorrow over at www.stliving.com It is a book, that if you enjoy collecting vintage items, you will want to get your hands on. You'll have to stop by the site to see what it is though. :0)

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Here's wishing you all a lovely day, and thanks so much for stopping by to visit.

~The Garden Goose~