BEACH WEATHER STAYcation: day2, post1

9:05a.m.
So far I have noted the beautiful beach weather (bundle up... it's not Laguna, but moreso Bodega), balanced the checkbooks, chatted with my mom on the phone for 30 minutes, updated the family calendar and had to peel myself away after 25 minutes from the Susan Branch website when, after pouring over it for 20 minutes I finally found THE BOOKS!

 Bliss in a binding...

I seriously couldn't handle just looking at the ones I don't have in my collection!  But, alas, the budget (aforementioned balancing of checkbooks) said a firm and clear "no".  Today.  (teehee!)
The refrigerator/freezer repair guy is going to be here between 10a and 12noon, just in time for Cap'n Jack to make it home from his early morning run to Home Depot with all things KITCHEN GARDEN BUILDING WORTHY!  So stinkin' excited I can hardly stand it!
Once it is built, I can start participating.  I have to give Cap'n Jack his space.  That is, AFTER I've given him the plans to my vision!  I generally pop in now and then to refill ice water and coffee, find out if he's hungry and make sure he is still sticking with "the plan".  Sometimes, here and there, he finds a "different" way to make my vision happen and those are the times I am thankful I have been popping in and out.  It's my own fault... I can only draw to a certain level of mediocrity and the plan gets a little hijacked in translation!
Stay tuned for more pics and progress... FOR TODAY IS THE DAY GOD HAS MADE AND (the Kitchen Garden) WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!

STAYcation - day 1, post 1

I'm back and I'm at it again! So, no store to sell wares... whatever shall I do with my time?  DECORATE!  REDECORATE!  JUST GENERALLY CREATE!

The Homemaker has left the buildings... the merchantile, the house and is now taking on

The Great Outdoors!

We were watering weeds.  Really?  (totally different post)  That just needed to stop.  The city is putting in meters and while I completely agree with supporting my community, I'd rather donate to a cause than to pay for wasted precious resources like H2O.  However, I can't just have a giant patch of dirt.  That would be dumb.  And a flood hazard since our soil isn't really soil, its more like playdough that has been left with the lid off.  No absorption properties whatsoever and hard as a rock.

I know!  A POOL!

Yeah, that's gonna cost ya.  No pool?  Crud.  Maybe next year... or the decade after that.  (the plans are dated July 5, 2007)   

Have I mentioned I love all things Susan Branch?  My wonderful Aunt Sharon, who went on ahead of us to share her beaming personality with God several years back, introduced me to Susan Branch's line of cookbooks.  A few years ago, Cap'n Jack (Lt. Dan got a promotion! yip yip hooray!) and I were in Cambria, CA at "Antiques on Main" (what a fun shop! 3 stories of non-stop antiquing heaven!) and I caught a glimpse of that wonderful watercolor-looking art I know and love sitting on a shelf!  It was a perpetual daytimer!  "Days from the Heart of the Home".  (By the way, I am the mouse in "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"... I just stopped all that I was doing to go find the Susan Branch website and "liked" it on FB!)  Each page lovingly penned and watercolored with amazing little trinkets and treasures of thoughts and wonderfulness.  In the page adjacent to May 19-23 there is a garden plan... More accurate, *THE* garden of my dreams!

That was the start of this latest and greatest project!

So here it is Day 1: the inspiration piece and the beginning of my vision... Un petit jardin.

Stick around!  There will be many more posts to come in the next handful of days of our STAYcation!