Tomatoes anyone?

Have you ever grown tomatoes? Usually they need a lot of son, a lot of watering, but at the same time they can't stand water on the stem and leaves.
So, with the desire to create some type of flexibel structure my dad created a little cart a few years ago:

This is kind of what it looks like. It's a slatted board on wheels. Each spring my dad plants his tomatoes in buckets that fit on the base. In those buckets he puts spiraled metal sticks that assists the plants in growing.

Above you can see the base with its buckets and below you can see the spiraled metal sticks.

This simple structure has proven itself time and again. Whenever the sun comes out my dad can push the tomatoes out onto the terrace where they grow best. If he knows it is going to rain, he can quickly park the plants under the porch.

Source

*BTW, still no camera here. I am using the camera that is on my laptop, so my angles might be a little off
* Also that's not a corner of my face on the second photo trying to see if the computer was getting a good picture ;)

How to make a blog header

Right now, our living conditions are still rather messy. We also had to mourn the loss of our camera on the flight over to Germany, which means I'll have to get a new camera soon to start taking pictures.

At a loss of what else to write about, I started playing around with my blog design and layout and ended up with this new header:

Together with some color scheme experimenting, I think I am pretty satisfied with the new appearance.

Altogether, I spent about 2 hours trying to figure out how to create a consistent design. If anyone is still in need of a new blog header, here is how I got to the above picture (which can be adjusted to your own preferences as necessary).

Word

1) Open a blank document in Microsoft Word. Go on Insert - Picture - Auto Shapes and you should get the auto shapes toolbar. Select a shape you like (I used one called Opaque) and then insert it into your word document. Then increase the size to sort of an elongated shape.

2) Now, when you move the mouse right on top of one of the shapes lines, you will see a little hand. Right click the mouse and a small window should pop up. Choose the option that states Format Auto Shape. 

3) In Colors and Lines, change the Style of the Line to 6 Pt and change the Color of the Line to anything you like.

4) If you left the Format Auto Shape to take a look at what you have so far, go back now and click on the Down Arrow of Fill Color. Click on Fill Effects and then Pattern. There are quite a few to choose from, but I went with a diamond pattern. In the same window the program should give you the option to select which colors you want to use for the fill effect. I would suggest going with a very subtle contrast, so that your background pattern won't overpower the entire header.

Here is what my demonstration header looked like after making these changes:

5) Now save your header, and after that go on File - Print. You will want to open this beginning of a header in Picasa, so you'll have to transform this into a JPG file. I am sure there are easier ways (although I haven't found them yet), but here is how I get to this point.

6) Once you click on Print, there will be a new window which has an option of PDF. Now save your work as a PDF file.

7) Next, use a free online converter for PDF files to JPG files, such as this one. Save the converted document.

Picasa

1) Open Picasa, and import the freshly converted JPG file. Double click on the image to get to the Edit function on Picasa.

2) Crop your image as close to the lines as possible (use the manual setting for this).

3) Select Text, then any type of script you like (I used Lucida Calligraphy in Size 96) and type the name of your blog. Just start writing, as you can then move the writing to any place you like on the header. Play around with bold and underlined script, change the color of the text until you feel happy with the results.

4) Once you apply the text to your header, click on Edit in Picnik (you might have to download the program, but many of its functions are free).

Picnik

1) Once your header has loaded into Picnik, you can click on the Stickers tab and decorate your creation. Many of the sticker categories are for free, such as Floralia. Select a flower type, and drag several of the same design onto your header.

2) Now, you can select each flower, change its size, rotate it a bit, and adjust the color. Here is mine in the middle of adjusting colors and layout of the stickers.

3) Once you're happy with the results, click the Save to Picasa Tab in the top right of the Picnik screen. Now, the only thing that's left to do is to click on File - Export Image to Folder - Resize Image to 1000 Pixels (for blogger).

Blogger

1) In Blogger, you can make changes to your header in the Design tab. Click on Edit Header and then Remove the previous image and Browse your new header. Once you click apply to blog and view blog, you should see your nice new header at the beginning of your blog.

Please let me know if I need to edit something in my instructions, or if you have questions. I did my best to make this explanation as clear as possible and I hope this could benefit your blog too.

Linked up here:

Metamorphosis Monday 
Tuasday´s Treasures
Show and Share Day

Quick Update

After 20 hours of traveling last week, we have made it well to Germany. By now, we are pretty much adjusted to the new time zone and we are feeling more like ourselves.


Our son is loving the time he gets to spend with his grandparents and aunts and uncles and my husband is taking the days to discover the town.



On Monday, we rented a tiny car to drive 300 miles to Leipzig, a larger town located in Eastern Germany, were I had my first job interview.

My husband is registered with the town (which is obligatory in Germany) and tomorrow we will also start the process to get his permanent resident card.

As you can see, we had quite a few things on the agenda already, but we are moving along.

Tomorrow or so, I will post pictures of our cute little guest room, so that you can get an idea of how our stay is.

24 hours ...

I a little more than 24 hours we will be on the plain to Germany. Are we excited? Absolutely! Scared? Yep! Just the thought of carrying around a whole bunch of bags, car seats, toddlers, strollers leaves me nervous. Last night I couldn't really sleep trying to figure out how we would carry all of our hand luggage.

Source

We are right in the middle of our last preparations.Our apartment feels kind of empty. My brother-in-law will continue to live here, but we have sold quite a bunch of furniture, toys and baby items in the last month. Actually, the entire space feels large now. It's easier to clean too. Kind of like a house staged to sell. With the exception that we have half packed suitcases lying around in every room.

Depending of how things go, I might post tomorrow. If not - you'll here from me in Germany.

The hardest good bye yet ...

About an hour ago, someone came to pick up our chocolate lab Shira. For several reasons, we are not able to take her with us on the big move, so we were trying hard to find a good home for her.

Yesterday we found a family with dog experience and a huge yard. They really liked her, and so today they came to give a new home.

The last hour my son kept having moments looking for the dog and I keep getting tears in my eyes. This is so hard.

I love you Shira!

Bittersweet ...

As part of my "cleaning" for our international move, I decided it was time to let go of my son's preemie clothes.

In the morning, I went through the neatly folded stack of tiny onesies and pants, moved my 2 or 3 favorites to the side, and put everything else in a bag.

Next I called up my son's former NICU and asked if they accept donations. I never thought how hard it would be to let go of these first items my son ever wore. Looking at these pieces now, they look very small to me. Two years ago, even the Preemie-sizes items were far too big on my son.

Anyway, the NICU's social worker confirmed that in fact my donation was very welcome. And as hard as the thought of letting go was for me, I knew that there were families out there, with a baby in the NICU, who could make good use of my donation.

Here are my items all freshly washed and ready to be dropped off at the hospital.

In the afternoon, I took my son, the bag, and off we went to deliver our donation. I think, this must have been the single one donation of clothing I ever made that left me most content and the most bittersweet.

I talked a little bit with the social worker, who actually remembered us from 2 years ago. And then
before leaving, I grabbed a pecan danish (which I used to buy pretty much every day at the hospital's bakery, while my son was still in the NICU) and then I said good bye to the place that did so much for our family.

Thank you so much for taking excellent care of my baby!

On a happy note: I had the danish for my afternoon snack:

And another Canvas

iI guess by now most of you have seen the toilet paper canvases many bloggers have created the past couple of months and last week I decided I was going to make one for myself.

By the way, the one below is a creation of Chris from 'Just a Girl'.

Source

I started out as previously with two old canvases that I covered completely in Glidden's Barely Jade:

This color seemed to be a beautiful gray with just a hint of green/blue. I had a tester at home, but had yet to test the color on a larger surface. Painting the canvas was the perfect opportunity that enabled me to "get to know" the color without making immense changes to our walls.

Here are my canvases in the middle of being "primed" with my selected color:

For those of you with an eye for details - the canvases used to hang above our bed but they were just too small scale to really make an impact.


The entire process took about 3 coats. Then I put the frames aside and cut a toilet paper roll into small 1/2 inch wide pieces and started painting them a dark blue.

Trying to avoid big messes, I worked on one section of a roll at a time, and once through the entire set, started with the next section.

I covered these with 2 to 3 layers of paint as well. Since I didn't have enough pieces to create a sufficiently large pattern on my canvases I thought about what I could do to achieve the desired impact.

Here is what I came up with:

I simply used a brush and some white acrylic paint to replicate the pattern of the toilet paper rolls. Then I added the toilet paper roll pieces with some glue.

Here is the other canvas:

And now, both canvases together:

And one more picture:

I haven't found a spot for them just yet, but for now I am excited to have found another potential paint color for future use.

What do you think of my little afternoon project?

Edit: I found a spot for my canvases. After removing all of our pictures for the big move, I had an empty spot for my canvases "available":

Here are both of them together:

Linked up here:

Between Naps on the Porch - Metamorphosis Monday
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Tuesdays Treasures 
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays 
The Shabby Nest - Frugal Friday 
Just a Girl - Show and Share Day