Look, it's dirt!

Gardening season has officially begun!

Yesterday morning we planted the seeds for the things that need a head start here in our short growing season.

We got this lovely faux greenhouse that has 72 spots to start things in

On Wednesday we had filled it with soil and wet it down to soak up the moisture so it would be ready for the seeds

The planting was done by poking a hole in the center of each little cell with a bamboo skewer then the seeds were carefully put in with tweezers.

You'll notice on the top left corner there is a little white sticker. That's so I can tell which one is the top left corner!

And here is the planting chart. It has a circle drawn at the top left too --- just so I can remember which end is up -- so to speak.

The chart tells me what got planted where so when they start coming up (those little pilot leaves on a lot of plants look very similar) I'll know what I've got.

Oh yes, those cells that are highlighted in yellow? Those are starts for our kid's garden --- they're getting tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. We've agreed that the mild peppers (bells and pasillas) will be grown in our garden and the hot peppers (jalapino) will be grown in theirs ---that way there will actually be both kinds and not just a whole batch of "wonder what this will taste like?" as peppers readily cross pollinate.

The little green house has been transported upstairs to the spare bedroom where we have a light on them to warm the soil. Now the trick is to keep the very interested labrador out of them!

Under the catagory of "third time's the charm", I was notified via email this morning that we actually passed the jury on one of the last applications I sent in, so we do have two shows to take our latest mixed media items to. Hurrah!!! Our show dates are May 15 through 17 and September 18 through 20. I'll be posting further details as we get closer.

Remember this from yesterday?

During his "putter in the garage" time yesterday, the DH created the little platform inside the cart that I needed to raise the floor so the pots will actually be visable.

He also brought in some sandpaper and I've started sanding the pots so they are all nice and smooth for the first coat of paint.

I loaded up the tumbler yesterday with pieces from both of these "gift glass" pieces. (For the first time on this project I forgot to take a "before" picture --- OOPS!)

Anyway, along about Mother's Day there will be "after" pictures and I'll have a whole new batch of glass to make pretties out of!

I've been working on a necklace from the last batch of glass, and it's coming along nicely. Because each piece of glass is so unique and individual, creating the bezel for each one has required some real "thinking out of the box". I've done various types of netting around the ones that are curved or have gentle angles, but for the very sharp triangular pieces, netting doesn't work so well.

After several attempts on the current one, I made a peyote band to run all around the edge then used smaller beads to make the "prongs" on the front and the back to keep the glass from slipping out of the band. I'm working on the chain now --- almost ready to zip it up.

It's progressing nicely.

time for some breakfast!