Jenny Wren Studio

Our plan for the last year has been to move this July. Originally we hoped to buy, but that isn’t quite in the cards yet. Then we pivoted to renting a larger place, perhaps a house even. It’s pretty cramped in our small space now holding four adults (my wife, myself, a 19 year old, and an 18 year old. It’s a two bedroom, one bath apartment and only 830 square feet.

Unfortunately, as I began to search rentals I realized something. Houses under $4000 a month were rare, and those that were in budget were located on “party row” near the university.So I pivoted to look at two bath, three bed apartments. Also out of budget. Hmm, well, at least an extra bath in a two bedroom would be nice…

Nope. Those were in budget, although the least expensive I found was still $300 more a month. Then I looked at the square footage. Every single one was the same square footage or less as our current place. Plus, we’d have to fork over first and last month’s rent, along with a deposit. Add in moving and cleaning costs, and we’d be out $5k to move! And sure, we’d have an extra bathroom, but less overall living space — which we’d pay more for that privilege.

Our lease renewal expired May 1st, so I quickly made a phone call. They had listed our apartment but no one had rented it yet, so I was able to renew the lease. Whew! Even better, they didn’t raise the rent! We made an executive decision to rent a nearby storage unit for $75/month (which still keeps our overall rent less than renting a new place).

We have moved over seasonal items, like camping gear, the kayak, and canning supplies, along with things we have been collecting to use on the eventual homestead (tools and similar). This emptied out our closets, outside patio, and the nooks and crannies where we had been stowing this stuff. The place already feels bigger! The only challenge now is the single bathroom, but we’ve made it work this long. With both kids getting work outside the house this year, it should be easier going forward.

Even better, we won’t need to cut into the home purchase fund to move!

In My World

No play by play updates this week! We’ve been too busy with work, packing, and reorganizing.

I did get my tomatoes and ground cherries transplanted. I’ve also added a dwarf meyer lemon tree to our little apartment “cottage!” It has baby lemons on it and I am so excited!!!

The indoor greenhouse is in storage, as the last seedlings, some herbs, cucumbers, and zucchini, are now hardening off for transplant. I really need to do a heavy weeding in the garden, which I hope to get to this afternoon or tomorrow after work.

I’ve started a new knitting project — a gift for my adult son’s birthday in September. We are further tightening the budget because we are devoted to being in our own forever place in 14 months (when the new lease expires). Our friends and family know our goals, and are supportive!

If I begin focusing more of my downtime on my craft and writing, we can easily double our savings rate. This is in combination with Mo upping her income with a new project she has just launched, as well as the kids will begin paying $200 each in rent beginning in September. They are both out of high school come June, but there is no way they can fully launch in the current economy without saving up a decent nest egg. We’ve added them to the lease so they can start getting a rental history. Their rent to us isn’t much, but it covers housing, utilities, phones, and food (although they can buy their own treats).

Being Frugal

Now that we are past Mother’s Day, my work load at the plant nursery slows down so I can focus on other things! Meals have been simple these past couple of weeks — lots of pasta salads, sandwiches, and tacos.

We are dedicated to disconnecting from the world of highly processed food and keeping our food local. I’m making our mayo now, and all bread but sandwich slices (I still haven’t found a recipe the spouse likes…). I know how to make pasta, so I am going to start working that into my weekly Sunday kitchen routine.

So for today, I’m making mayo, cream cheese, pasta (fettuccini style), nettle pesto, candied orange peels, and cookies. I hit up the farmer’s market yesterday, which provided our veg for the week (well, some is starting to come from the garden already, mainly salad greens and radishes).

The menu this week includes veggie frittatas for breakfast and sandwiches with fruit for lunches. Dinners will be a leek potato pie (with leftover homemade french bread), a ham-mozzarella pesto pasta salad, beef and broccoli rice bowls, Alfredo with bacon, Chicken-broccoli-rice casserole, a homemade pizza, and green chili casserole with a salad.

We buy our meat locally and use it sparingly because local, humane meat is pricey but worth it to us ethically. I’m slowly learning to make our own cheeses, as well. Lunchmeat (ham is the preferred option here) is still a conundrum. Once I have the cheese and bread sorted, I think processed meats like ham and bacon will be our only remaining challenge in getting off the industrial food train! At least those come from a local farmer-producer, I guess.

Otherwise, we are simply staying frugal. Picnics and coffee dates instead of meals out. Evenings at home with darts and beer, or evenings on the beach with a beer, instead of bars and pubs. Making, scavenging, and borrowing instead of buying.

We’ll chat again next week!

It is quiet in our home now. Our Kouga didn’t take up much physical space, but his personality and constant mewing conversation filled our home. Now it is quiet and I am still sad. I miss our boy deeply, but we are recovering. Grief cannot be rushed.

Beyond the confines of these four walls it is very much spring outside. Juncos and chickadees are competing for mates or already shepherding their new hatchlings. Everything is green and new again. Life goes on, beautifully, feverishly, vibrantly. We go on.

Cottage Plans

Although we are grinding toward our number one goal of securing land and a small cottage, we must set that aside for a couple of months to focus on a more immediate issue — we need new housing.

Our lease is ending on our small apartment and we must move, as the space no longer works for us now that we are a household of four adults. So for the next two months we seek a rental, preferably a house with a small yard but we will see what we can find.

The plan is not complicated. We will move in July and continue as we have been — living thriftily and saving mightily. With a house, the (now adult) kids can hopefully enjoy more independence since we won’t be under each other’s feet all day. We should also have a bit more space so we can begin acquiring, cheaply or free, some of the items that will aid us with our future cottage.

By mid-winter we hope to have purchased land. Of course, if an actual home comes onto the market that fits our needs and is within our budget, we will pounce on the opportunity. But we are moving forward as though that won’t  be the case.

Once we have the land, we will clear a small homesite ourselves. We will then purchase a shed “cabin” and put it on a simple foundation, like a pier foundation, and begin to finish out the inside.  The plan is to be move-in ready by next summer.

We will have to put up a second shed “cabin” if the kids decide to continue our multi-generational living arrangement.

Current Happenings

We have eschewed dining out this month, and generally hope to avoid it except as a celebration going forward.

This means simple dinners, like cheese toasties, homemade fettuccini (with nettle pesto!), and cottage pie.

Too tired to cook some days, we have back-up plans. I tend to throw leftovers in the freezer if I know we won’t eat them for lunch. This means we enjoyed things like leftover pickle soup and leftover green chile casserole this week. I also try to bake once a week so we can have treats like homemade bread or carrot cake.

One of my goals is to phase out nearly all packaged food. There are only a few items I still buy pre-made — pasta, most of our bread, mayo, and things like butter and cheese. I’m starting to slot in homemade alternatives by starting with the low-hanging fruit, like making our own mayo and butter. I’ll eventually gain the skills for the more challenging items, such as replacing all of our bread and pasta, as well as cheese, with homemade versions. The idea being that once we have the cottage, our rural life will be easier if we only need to store ingredients rather than pre-made food items.

I hope to write more about my journey into developing these necessary life skills.

Our entertainment has also been simple. On Saturday last we decided a day out was deserved. We drove across the border into Canada to visit the quaint little town of Fort Langley. We live 30 minutes from the border so this isn’t as impressive as it sounds! We brought our own picnic lunch and enjoyed it in a pretty little park. We followed this up with a day of “antiquing.” We brought home nothing, but enjoyed strolling the quaint town and window shopping.

There was only one splurge — $7 USD for two iced coffees. Fortunately, two cost as much as one does in the States, so it was technically thriftier to enjoy iced coffee in Canada compared to back home!

I also made it back to the farmer’s market for the first time this season! It was wonderful to pick out fresh vegetables and support local farmers.

The last few years our goal has been to enjoy produce seasonally and relatively locally, with a few exceptions like oranges and avocados. We are excellent at seasonal eating and preserving, but every year in late winter I tend to give up on locally and purchase a few things that are shipped in from great distances. This is usually for the sake of simplicity and thrift.

For this reason, I forget how juicy things like onions are when you are getting them from a nearby grower, as opposed to a conventional farm that has stored them for months and shipped them for hundreds of miles!

No more of that, though, as now the farmer’s market is back to being a part of my usual weekly rotation.

This week is our busiest week of the season at the nursery, culminating with Mother’s Day weekend. This is because Mother’s Day is the traditional “last frost” or “spring planting day” for my climate region, so everyone is purchasing their starter plants! I’ll be putting in a bit of overtime, which is fine since it is only one week!

This will be a short post this week. On Friday, April 26 at 10 am we said goodbye to the best damn cat that ever graced this world. Our beloved Kouga, companion for over 18 years, succumbed to the long sleep. He was the most wonderful little furball anyone could hope for.

In many ways, Kouga was a brother to my youngest son and he was definitely my boy’s best friend. They grew up together, and the passing of Kouga is all the more poignant as it also marks the passing of the last of a young man’s childhood. My boy is taking this hard, and most of our energy is needed to help him through this very tough time.

Kouga did go peacefully, surrounded by those that loved him most. He will always be a part of us, and one day our tears will dry and we will be able to smile at the memories. Sadly, that day hasn’t yet arrived.

Oh, dear Kougie. My heart is broken now that you are gone, but it is full because I had the chance to love you. Sweet dreams, little guy.

It’s been a lovely week with more sunshine and even warmer temperatures. Although I put in a full 40 hour work week, we did have time to enjoy ourselves a bit.

We visited the free home & garden show, which resulted in getting some free insulated grocery bags and lots of candy from the vendors (much to the teenager’s delight).

In the garden

We only made one quick visit to the garden, primarily to drop off the week’s compost and check on the young plants.

All is doing well! My pea vines were climbing, the corn salad and radishes are thriving, the carrots are sprouting, and most of my perennial herbs have returned bigger and healthier than before. Something stole a few developing garlic bulbs, though. All of the gifted strawberry runners from last year rooted and are putting on new growth so it isn’t too bad.

This next week will see me in the garden more often!

In the kitchen

We splurged on Sunday and picked up some fried chicken for an impromptu picnic. It was just so beautiful out and we wanted to keep enjoying the day after the home show!

In the future I am going to keep some quick picnic foods in the fridge or freezer so we can enjoy these spontaneous picnics for a lower cost.

On Monday I made pickle soup, which is one of our favorite spring soups! It fed us for two meals — first night with garlic bread and the second night with grilled cheese sandos. There was enough for one more meal, so I stuck it in the freezer for future me to thaw out when I am too tired to cook.

I also planned ahead and made a big pot of rice and steamed/shredded a chicken breast. Half of each was used to make a quick wok of fried rice one night. The next night I added broccoli, cheese, and a few other things to make a chicken and rice casserole.

These leftovers provided yet another meal, so I didn’t have to cook too much this week!

Mild hay fever has been bugging me. Nothing severe, just a bit of a dry cough and a sneeze here or there. I made a big gallon jar full of a nettle tea infusion. I’ve been drinking a couple of cups daily, which seems to be really helping. If nothing else, nettles are rich in vitamins and nutrients.

Part of my plans today include harvesting more nettles.

In the studio

No pictures this week, but I have been busy. The journals just need to be photographed and listed, and I have begun to work on some hand embroidered buttons.

On a more personal level, I keep chugging away at my quilt. I also tackled quite a bit of mending– I repaired some pajamas and hoodie cuff, altered my work vest so it has some air-flow panels on the side and a divided tool pocket, and hemmed a pair of pants. These pants also didn’t have belt loops, so I added a loop so I can attach my keys.

In my world

Mo and I have decided we will be looking for raw land instead of a fixer manufactured home. The place we viewed last week was, well, bad. Hundreds of abandoned cars on and around the property, several decaying structures, and squatters.

We can purchase raw land for less, and possibly in cash. So we are pivoting to a new directive — find and purchase land, continue renting for another year, and build something to live in on the land. We’ll start with the basics so we can ditch the rent ASAP.

We were planning to be off-grid for power, sewer, and water anyway, so why not simply start as we mean to go forward. If we do a lot of it ourselves, we can likely pay cash as we go and then own the place outright. With no rent or mortgage, improvements can then occur even more quickly.

There will be a lot more details about this plan in the coming weeks. I may be getting a big raise at the plant nursery, which would help to speed up these plans!

My youngest son turned 19 yesterday! Although I miss the child that he was, I love the man he is becoming. Parenthood is bittersweet, isn’t it? We say hello and goodbye a million times to our children.

Today the sun is shining and we have a property to go look at. I don’t have a lot of hope for it, but we shall look anyway. After, we are going to visit a free home and garden show, which should make for an all around nice Sunday!

In the Garden

My peas didn’t fall prey to slugs and they are happily climbing the trellis I cobbled together from a broken laundry drying rack and twine.

Even better, the corn salad, radishes, and carrots have sprouted and are putting on plenty of new growth! I will need to get out to the garden to thin them out and to do a bit of weeding this week.

Indoors, my broccoli and kale are hardened off and ready to transplant, as are the lettuce greens. Tomatoes and ground cherries are just about ready to transplant into bigger pots, although I may give them another week or so.

I do need to sit down and work out my garden plan for the rest of April and into May!

In the Studio

Once again, it has been a busy and exhausting week so I haven’t spent as much time in the studio as I would like. Much of it was helping my son’s girlfriend complete her present for him — a photo quilt.

I also cut a bunch of squares for my current quilt, but I didn’t make much headway sewing them together. My journals are still sitting there sadly, as well, waiting for the last necessary bits for completing them.

Although this week promises to be a busy one at work, I am definitely going to carve out more studio time!

In the Kitchen

Some of my laziness extended to the kitchen this week. I actually, gasp!, purchased an ice cream cake for the kid’s birthday instead of making a cake.

I did score an amazing deal on a spiral cut ham from a local ethical farm — it was 50% off as they had a glut leftover after Easter! I portioned it out into six two-person servings for the freezer.

We enjoyed a couple of slices with baked potatoes and asparagus, and I used a couple of slices in a pea risotto and a pizza. We also had a lovely chicken and broccoli stirfry one night, and Mo made perogies and a salad on another.

On Monday I wanted to work in the garden after work, so we made due with some leftover veggie chowder I had tucked into the freezer.  We also splurged and ate out on Saturday for the kid’s birthday. There was a new local Mexican food restaurant. Suffice it to say that it was as amazing as the reviews said it was!

In My World

Life is quiet, mainly work and homebody sort of things. I’ve been saving the broken flowers and stems from work. These are normally destined for the compost pile, so no one minds if I take them home to experiment with cut flower arranging. I appreciate having the beauty in the house.

My eldest took me out for coffee on Sunday as a birthday treat. He also gifted me with a gift card for our favorite thrift shop, which we visited. I found two new shirts and a nice pair of pants. Plus, there is still some money left on the card for my next visit!

Mo and I have been looking closely for properties on which we can create a forever home. Not much luck, as our financing options are slim until I have been at my job longer.

Regardless, spring is here and I will only feel hopeful!

I turned 48 this last Wednesday. I like to think I am no more than half way through my life here and the best is yet to come 🙂

Although we have been under cloud cover for much of the week, it has been relatively dry by western Washington standards. That means that although we have had rain, it hasn’t rained all day, every day.

In the Garden

The tomatoes, chives, and ground cherries are sown and sprouting. Well, everything but the ground cherries. It’s been six days since they were sown, so I am starting to get a bit concerned. Time will tell!

I also managed to get the pea starts into the garden bed. I need to get down there today to make sure they are thriving, otherwise I shall have to sow more. Some years I have problems with pests getting to my pea starts before they can really get going.

Fingers crossed that all will be well when I check on them in a little bit.

In the Studio

There’s been a bit of a delay on the journals I am making, which means they likely won’t  be in my Etsy shop until the end of this week.

I don’t just make the covers, I also make a small journal and a note pad that goes into the covers. These are decorated with pressed flowers. Well, the last batch of pressed flowers required a bit more drying time than I had planned for. Live and learn!

Otherwise, much of my creative work has revolved around writing over on Medium and working on my scrappy quilt.

In the Kitchen

The star of this week was my birthday cake. My most favoritest cake in all the world is Strawberry Shortcake (the sponge cake style, not the biscuit/scone style).

I usually make an angel food, but this year I decided to try daffodil cake. This is basically half angel food, half yellow cake. You use six egg whites for the angel food, and the six yolks for the yellow cake. It’s poured into a tube pan in layers — 1/2 the angel food batter, all the yellow, then the other half of the angel food. The cake has a yellow center in the sponge, thus the name daffodil cake.

Combined with strawberries and homemade almond-flavored whipped cream, it was the star of the meal!

Other meals this week included croquettes and pasta salad (the croquettes were made from that leftover barley soup that became gummy). We also had peanut noodles one night, a southwest-inspired potato and egg scramble, and fried rice. We ordered pizza for my birthday, which supplied leftovers for the rest of our meals!

Of course, I had to make some treats, so a batch of snickerdoodle cookies kept us in sweets until it was time for cake!

In My World

We are still trying to figure out housing. I am determined to find a forever cottage, regardless of what the bank thinks about our finances.

We are exploring a couple of alternative loan programs, as well as developing another plan if that falls through. We aren’t destitute, but the traditional housing market may not be the right answer for us. We shall see what comes of it all, but we aren’t giving up!

Kid and girlfriend went on a camping trip in the latter half of the week, which was a frugal way for them to enjoy spring break. They packed their own food and we had all the equipment for them to borrow.

Of course, thrift is what will win the day. All of my earnings and some of Mo’s are definitely going toward savings. We celebrated my birthday quite thriftily, as well. We had a family game night (Yahtzee!) and ordered pizza, which is cheaper than a restaurant meal and just as enjoyable.

Mo gave me a beautiful vintage Irish milk crockery she picked up for $2 at a jumble sale that was raising money for our local Celtic arts foundation. I adore it! My younger son’s girlfriend painted me a wee gnome picture that I love. The kid himself provided a wildflower bouquet, and my adult son is taking me out for coffee and a day of thrifting this afternoon. All together, a lovely way to celebrate a birthday!

Until next time, friends ❤

We are enjoying a sunny and mild weekend, the best of spring still ahead of us.

Although I have been quite busy this week, I don’t have a lot of photos to show for it! part of this is that I put in longer than usual hours at the nursery, even getting a bit of overtime on Saturday. The plants are coming in fast and heavy this time of year and my new assistant won’t start until next week.

Such is life!

In the Garden

As usual, there is not much to report here. The kid and I did manage to get the beds repaired sufficiently so that I can begin planting in earnest.

We also erected a pea trellis, making use of a broken old wooden laundry drying rack I had trash picked last summer. I partially opened it, laid it on its side, then created a climbing trellis by weaving twine between the top and bottom rails.

My seedlings are doing well. Most of them are slated to be transplanted into the garden this afternoon!

In the Studio

Journals are done and I need to get photos taken this week. That’s right, we are very close to the grand opening of my new Etsy store!

I will be launching on Wednesday with 10 new “Fauxdori” style journal covers. Each will include a small handmade journal featuring a pressed flower cover, along with a refillable notepad. I also hope to get some handmade embroidered buttons up late in the week.

Of course, I have also been up to more in the studio, mainly working on my quilt. I am sewing and quilting the entire thing by hand, using small scraps that would otherwise be wasted.

In the Kitchen

Of course, the kitchen is where I really shine 🙂 One of my goals for 2024 is to avoid food waste, and thus far I haven’t thrown away a thing!

I made a biscuit topped pot pie using leftover potato soup from a few weeks ago. I had frozen it for future use. This served for a couple of dinners and a lunch. We also enjoyed a big pot of veggie chowder this week. Other dinners included beef and broccoli rice bowls, a cabbage and sausage fry-up, and a simple dinner of egg salad sandwiches and pasta salad.

We did splurge on takeout from Dairy Queen one night, which put us a bit over budget for March (although not enough to cut into our savings rate).

As for baking, I did very little since I was so busy with work at the nursery. In fact, other than dinners I think the only baking I did was to make a chocolate coffee cake!

In My World

We did get some disappointing news this week. The lender cannot count my income from the garden nursery as I haven’t held the position long enough. This means we don’t qualify for a large enough loan to purchase a home in our area.

Not to be outdone, we are simply buckling back down on savings and working on maximizing earnings without giving up quality of life or compromising our values.

For me, this means dedicating more time to my essay writing over on Medium, as well as working to get my Etsy going and to get enough stuff made for a festival or three. Mo has been working on getting a podcast started to complement her other online work, so she has decided to prioritize getting it fully launched.

Our hope is to resume our home search in mid- to late-summer, when I have been on my job longer. By then we should have doubled or tripled our down payment savings, and we should have received an inheritance that is in the last stages of probate. With luck, those three things will come together to allow us to find our little cottage.

This also means we have rededicated ourselves to living that thrifty life! Mo 3D printed some tools she needed (we already own the printer and the filament, so why not?).

We are desperately in need of a quality bristle dartboard, as we have been making due with a crappy plastic hole style one we thrifted a few years ago after our old board and cabinet didn’t make the move with us. We enjoy playing darts a few times a week as a free at-home date night, so a good board is a sound investment. We are hoping to thrift one, though, as they can cost $100+ with a cabinet, and our current cabinet is too small for a bristle dartboard. We’ll make due with the subpar board, though, until we can find a good one for cheap!

This upcoming week is spring break and my birthday is on Wednesday! I have already planned out a frugal but enjoyable birthday for myself. The kid and his girlfriend are going to go camping in the second half of the week, which is a thrifty way for them to entertain themselves since we already have all the supplies.

Outside of work, I plan to occupy myself with sewing, writing, gardening, and kitchen tasks. if the weather holds I also hope to do some foraging for a few spring greens and medicinal herbs!

What does April have in store for you?

The equinox dawned cloudy and wet, but the preceding few days were beautifully sunny so we still had a taste of spring.

It has been a fairly active week, with all of us spending extra time outside of the home. After a winter spent mainly indoors, it was nice to get out and blow the dust off ourselves.

In the Garden

My garden work has been non-existent. Not due to laziness, nope! Between the weather and a busy week at work, I didn’t have a chance to get down to the allotment. Further, there just isn’t much to do at the moment.

My hope for today is to get down there to drop off the household compost and to erect a pea trellis. If I can get the boy to join me, we will also fix the raised bed frames where they have come loose. 

There has been some gardening at home, mainly in the form of tending to the starts in the greenhouse. I’ve also moved some of the spring starts to the balcony to begin hardening off for this week’s planned transplanting.

In the Studio

I’ve been much more active in the studio, though! It’s time to get ready for summer (and perhaps a few spring) markets. Plus, I am preparing for my Etsy launch on my birthday, APRIL 3rd. 

I’ve finished stitching up the journal covers and will be doing the finishing work on them today. 

I also loaded up the flower press with a bunch of new blooms. These are destined to be used in a paper making project for the journal cover inserts. i’m quite excited!

I’d like to note, that handstitched these journals are sustainably produced. The fabric is repurposed cotton scraps that would otherwise be landfilled. I make the covers for the inserts using junk mail and paper scraps that would normally be considered garbage. The pressed flowers come from my work, where they would end up in the garbage or compost. Other than the insert elastics I try to work only with natural materials.

I’ve also started cutting out small squares from my fabric “cabbage” (small scraps). These are destined to become a quilt for our bed. If I enjoy the process enough, I will begin adding quilted journal covers and other small items to my product line 🙂

Of course, the week also included some mending. I repaired a hoodie sleeve, a torn robe collar, and replaced the binding on a tank top. These repairs take only a few minutes but can add years of life to a piece of clothing.

In the Kitchen

It was both a busy week in the kitchen and a lazy week. I did a bunch of baking on Monday, so we had lemon bars and chocolate chip cookies to treat ourselves all week.

Sunday was a nice dinner of bangers and mash with asparagus, in observance of Paddy’s Day. Sorry, everyone, corned beef and cabbage is an American dish, not an Irish one!

On Monday I made a huge pot of barley soup and a batch of rolls. This provided two dinners, but then the barley absorbed too much liquid and became glue-like. No worries, the last two servings are in the freezer. In a couple of weeks I will add an egg and breadcrumbs and turn them into croquettes. This will provide a cheap and quick dinner.

We also enjoyed some homemade fettuccini alfredo. I use cream cheese to make my sauce, and this time I experimented with homemade cream cheese. It was excellent and cream cheese is now one more thing I don’t have to buy!

Other dinners included homemade pizza and taco salad (in tortilla bowls I made in the oven).  We did have a dinner out this week. Not really in the budget but much enjoyed, so we will make it work!

In My World

Sunday was the best! The whole family went down to the St. Paddy’s Day parade downtown, which was a fun few hours that cost nothing and got us out in the sunshine. Afterward we thrifted. Only my son’s girlfriend made a purchase, an item for the birthday gift she is making my son.

Mo and I met with the loan broker. All looks well, as long as the underwriters include my income. It’s an issue since I have only had my job three months, but the broker thinks they will count it as it is related to my previous copywriting position (I wrote for garden nurseries as a freelanceer, now I work for one). We will know in a few days whether we can start our cottage hunt in earnest!

Otherwise, this was a week of work. Spring is arriving at the nursery, so we had racks upon racks of plants that needed put out and cared for. My helper lost her position due to some unfortunate decisions she made, so I was alone. My supervisor did come and help me for a couple of days, which was much appreciated! I won’t complain, though, as I really do enjoy my job. I’d rather be working outside all day with plants compared to some of the other alternatives!

So that’s another week here in our apartment “cottage.” Fingers crossed that we are getting closer to finding and moving to our real cottage!

The week started off dreary, cold, and rainy. On  Tuesday I came home soaked from moving flowers all day during downpours.

But then…spring arrived! By the weekend the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky. Temperatures are in the 60s and I am in summer wear. It’s lovely!

In the Garden

This was another minimal garden week, but we are slowly ramping up. My seedlings  have sprouted under lights and are growing stronger by the day. Soon the cool weather ones will be on the patio hardening off to prepare for transplanting!

I also took the time to clean up the patio and get it summer ready. The planters have been filled with sifted and cleaned up potting soil. I’ll dig in a bit of compost and comfrey tea to rejuvenate the nutrients before planting. I did put in a bit of annual spring color, just to brighten up the patio until the lettuce and herbs go in.

Tomorrow is a big gardening day. We’re going to repair the raised beds, compost a couple of beds, and erect the trellises and hoop houses. A few veggies, like the carrots, will be direct sown inside the hoop houses.

In the Studio

I have a few things to show, namely the completed mushroom jars! These will be making their way into my Etsy shop in the next few days.

Although I don’t have photographs yet, I do have several journal covers ready to go. I just need to put together a few small journals to go inside and these will also be ready for Etsy and summer markets.

I’m excited!

In the Kitchen

Of course, the kitchen gets a lot of my attention. This week we had a pretty laid back menu — bubble and squeak (served with buttered homemade bread), a potato soup with garlic toast (homemade bread, plus this served us two nights with some leftovers moved to the freezer), perogies plus asparagus, Pad Thai, cheese toasties and salad (prepared on the last of the homemade bread), and loaded nachos. Lunches, of course, were comprised of sandwiches or leftovers.

I didn’t have time for baking, but I am planning to make some chocolate chip cookies and lemon bars either this evening or tomorrow.

Once again, we didn’t have any food waste. There was some potato soup that became unappetizing as the weather warmed, so I tucked it into the freezer. I’ll turn it into the filling for a pot pie in the next week or two. It’s simple to do — add a few more veggies and thicken the soup with some cornstarch, then add a biscuit topping or pie crust, as the mood strikes. It’s my favorite way to makeover leftover soup into a new meal. You can add meat, if you like. This soup had some irish sausage crumbled in it, so that will be enough.

In My World

This  was an exciting week! Yesterday we met with our real estate agent for the first time, and on Monday I will be getting our mortgage pre-approval. We have an idea of the amount we can afford and will be approved for, of course, and our agent is pretty sure she can find us something we will like within these rather tight budgetary restrictions!

It will be a fixer upper, of course, but we knew that and that’s really what we want. We are more concerned about the property than the home, after all. Homes can be improved over time!

This all developed into a nice Saturday that didn’t cost anything (other than a couple gallons of gas). After the meeting, Mo and I explored a street fair we spotted near the meeting place, which was lovely. Then we went on a long country drive, stopping by the house to grab sandwiches and beverages first. The drive was simple to check out some areas out in the county where our agent thought we could find properties in our budget. It was wonderful!

We kept the fun alive at home. Since I had cleared off the patio and prettied it up that morning, it was the perfect place to enjoy a beer and a casual dinner of pub-style loaded nachos. We moved inside when the sun set for a couple games of darts and another drink.

I am proud of how frugal we can be when needs must. Of course, we already have so many frugal habits that adding in new ones has become second nature. For example, every week I do our laundry in the pay machine in our building, but I dry it on a rack on the patio (or by the heater in winter).

I’ve also made our own laundry detergent for years, which I had to do this morning. My recipe is simple — equal parts grated soap (I use Kirk’s), borax, and washing soda. Two tablespoons per machine load. I have a wringer and wash tubs, which I used to use, but there really isn’t enough room in the apartment so for now we are using the machine to wash and the sun to dry.

Today we are off to the Paddy’s Day parade downtown. Wish us luck on our search for the perfect cottage!

Sun, rain, wind, snow — we have experienced all four seasons this week! What that tells me is that spring is more or less here.

Our March is marching along. We continue to live our slow, simple life. I don’t think we are boring, though. We find plenty to fill our days and evenings with.

In the Garden

As mentioned in last week’s update, the kid and I headed to the garden last Sunday to harvest the last of the parsnips. We also took some time to clean out the winter-killed plants from the beds.

The city had dropped off mulch recently. As a community garden, we get one free mulch drop-off from the city every year. It’s first come, first serve. It goes quickly, so I was ecstatic to be there for it! The kid and I mulched all of my garden paths. This is an annual task, which can cost $30 or more if I have to buy the mulch so it was well worth the unexpected effort. I hope to find a source of free compost in the next few weeks. If I can pull that off, then I shouldn’t have any garden expenses this year (other than the seeds I purchased back in January).

I also dragged out the indoor grow shelves so I could set up the lights and grow mats. One of my fixtures needs a replacement bulb, but I am going to see if I can manage without it this year.

I had sterilized old potting soil last week, so I had that ready for seed starting. I washed out my starter pots and flats, then sterilized them in a bit of bleach water. It may seem odd to dedicate storage space to these items that are only used for a few months every year, but I think it is well worth the effort. Reuse is good for the environment and for our wallets!

So raab, celery, kale, two types of lettuce, parsley, two types of peas, and sorrel seedlings are under the lights. Next weekend I will get the cloches set up over two of the outdoor beds so I can direct sow carrots, corn salad, radishes, potatoes, and chervil. I’ll also be starting tomatoes, ground cherries, cabbage, and scallions indoors within the next couple of weeks.

Not gardening per se, but food related! The kid’s experiment with tapping bigleaf maples was a success. He only got a few cups of sap from the one tap he set, which boiled down into a single serving. Still, he was more curious about whether he could successfully tap the trees. He plans to extend his operation next year, particularly if we get a property with maples on it.

In the Studio

I am excited by the mushroom jars! They finished drying and I managed to get them sanded and prepared for painting, a task which I hope to do today. They will soon be ready for my Etsy shop!

I also got a bit creative and made a card for a dear friend, who has a birthday this month. Nothing fancy, just a bit to show them I care.

Another task I finally attended involved putting the interfacing into the 8 fauxdori journal covers. I just need to finish stitching these and then add the finishing hardware. I expect to have these done by the end of the week.

I have a few more projects I plan to embark on, either this week or next. These mainly involve using cabbage (small fabric scraps) and orts (orphaned random thread scraps) to create old-fashioned fabric buttons and quilt squares. The squares will go into various projects, where the buttons will be a stand-alone festival offering.

To that end, I re-purposed an old basket into a work basket so I could cart my ongoing projects with me around the house or even out-and-about. With spring arriving, I plan to be out-and-about more, which means crafting in parks and wild places 🙂

In the Kitchen

There was no food waste in the kitchen this week — exciting as there has been no food waste in the kitchen at all this year and I would like to maintain this streak!

We had a zucchini meatloaf with mashed parsnips and green beans one night. The zucchini (which replaced half the ground beef in the recipe) and beans were dehydrated from last year’s garden, while the parsnips were freshly harvested.

Another night we had split pea soup and molasses brown bread rolls. The best part of this dinner is that there were sufficient leftovers so I was able to skip cooking for two more nights.

Other meals for the week included chicken paprikash over egg noodles, a homemade pizza, and chicken tacos served with salad.

I also was craving something sweet, so I made a simple but lovely coffee cake.

In My World

Mo and I ventured out one evening, to enjoy singing, beer, and community at our local pub. We would love to go once or twice a week, but the budget doesn’t allow it so we go every other week. The lovely thing is that the pub recently lowered the cost of a pint, so now our twice monthly treat will cost a bit less!

Otherwise, we relaxed simply at home. We spent a couple of nights enjoying evening games of darts over a pint (much cheaper to do at home compared to the pub). We also worked on projects or simply read on some evenings.

In cottage news, I am in contact with a real estate agent now. We will be meeting in a week, after we get our pre-approval information from the lender. I am nervous. Although our credit is excellent and we have a small down payment saved up, our income is considered low. I am hoping we can find something that meets our needs and is in our price range.

That wraps up another week around our little cozy home. How is spring looking in your neck of the woods?