Category: Life

The Couch

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I passed by bargain fabrics at Walmart and ended up with 10 yards of a green knit material. The goal was to make a cover for my comfortable, but pink-floral couch. And I did it! I’m very pleased with how it turned out. Especially because it didn’t take me near as much time as I thought it would. (Probably because I made lots of shortcuts. And I love knits because you don’t have to hem.)

Here’s how I did it:

  • I measured from the bottom of the couch clear across underneath the cushions, along the back, and back down the other side to the bottom. Cut a piece of fabric a little longer. Luckily my fabric was pretty wide, so I didn’t worry about width.
  • Cut two pieced of fabric the width of the arms. Started tucking it all together and holding edges to make sure it would all work.
  • Then I cut fabric to go around the cushions. I folded it around, pinned it to fit, and sewed the two side leaving the back open.
  • Then I pinned the other three pieces together while the fabric was inside out on the couch. I only did four seams: one at each bottom corner of the couch. I was going to do more but discovered I could simply tuck the fabric and used a staple gun to secure other portions.

That is all (with lots of adjustments along the way). I’m really glad I had the fabric I did: the stretch made it easier to adjust and pull where I needed. And I love not hemming. I have about 3 yards of extra fabric. The total cost of the slipcover was $7. Very, very cheap due to bargain fabric. I want to make a skirt and pillows out of the extra fabric. Then I will match my couch when I wear my skirt.

Here’s the lovely couch before the cover:

Note the pillows that don’t match as well. I redid those last March. Here is the couch now with matching pillows:

It’s not perfect, but I’m happy with it. Got to be better than pink floral. And it cost $7. Can’t complain.

Optimisim

It’s been a while since I posted. The weather is cold, and my thoughts have turned away from gardening a bit. But on a related note, I’ve been thinking a lot about the seasons. It’s fall now. The leaves are all senescing and everything is going dormant for the cold of winter. Lots of people around me are complaining about it. I have found myself complaining in other years. But this year I’m  loving fall, and looking forward to winter.

It’s wonderful to have all the changes in weather. I love living in Utah, where we have four distinct seasons and lots of snow in the winter. This year, I’m excited to take my toddler out to play in the snow. He has no idea what snow is. One morning it was raining dip-in-dots (not quite snow–that’s the best I can describe it), and we went out in our pajamas. He was captivated by the strange, small white balls. Winter means sledding, snowshoeing, hot chocolate, Christmas, and more laid back days without so much to do. Sometimes its a little too cold and long, but I don’t need to worry about that until January. Maybe this year I can actually learn how to ski too. (I’ve lived in Utah my entire life and never skied. It is something I need to change.)

But its not quite winter yet. It’s fall. Oh glorious fall that has always been my favorite season. It’s beautiful. The air is so crisp, and I get outside more (or at least feel like I do) than any other season. The leaves are falling off trees, and there is snow in the mountains. I’ve gone outside and played in the leaves with my family. I love the sound of them when I walk through. I even like the cold air, and bundling up myself and toddler so we don’t freeze. Thanksgiving is next week, which means great food and family. Fall is just a wonderful time to be grateful for all I am blessed with.

I’m actually grateful for the break in gardening as well. I can catch up on other projects, like a box full of sewing, and get my business more grounded before the rush in spring. I’m currently working on a sortable list of perennials I like, and I’m re-remembering all the ones I’ve forgotten. I am happy right now with the weather and everything else in my life.

*I feel stupid. The title of this post was misspelled. I rely on spell checker too much.

Outside

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The great find of the week, hiking wise, was Summit Post. And it seems to have brought some more visitors as well, since I put this website up. If you are intersted in hiking, go check it out. It has tons of information on hiking areas across the world. Locally, it had trail information for all the destination hikes–summit of mountains, lakes, etc. I can also sign trail logs and keep track of where I’ve been, and even add about anything I would want to.

It’s getting colder now. We took a short hike on Saturday and found snow on the trail. I’m actually surprising myself by being quite happy about the change of seasons. Winter is just more laid back. And I’ve always thought fall was the prettiest time of year. I really enjoy going outside in the fall, even when it is cold. (I think its easier when its cold instead of too hot. You just bundle up, and don’t have to stay out that long.) Last night, I took Peter out before dinner. He kept going to the door, poor kid hadn’t been anywhere all day. We played on the playground out back–he loves to swing and go down slides. There’s so much to explore too. I love watching him enjoy life and figure out new things. He kept pointing to the trees or sky, and I was trying to figure out what he wanted explained to him. He has this “oo-daa” he says, which is his “what’s that?” It’s so cute.

Then later on, I went to put something on the window sill and was surprised by a cat at my window. Pete and I went out and played with her a little. I wish I could have a cat, but in the meantime it was fun playing with the one we found. It was fun to see them interact. Peter would crawl after her, and she wasn’t timid and let him pet her.

Hiking

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I went to Curly Springs on Friday with the fam. And it is way warm for November. We were both sweating. For our hike, we started at the Dry Canyon trail head in Lindon, than hiked clear over to Battle Creek. It was about 5 miles, with 1000 ft elevation change.  The hike wasn’t gorgeous by any means. Great views out to the valley but devoid of much vegetation at first, and than it was more woodsy and nice over by Battle Creek. I just wasn’t much into it though. I think I was working a little too hard, took me forever to feel recovered.

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Battle Creek is nice, because it usually involves a trip to the Grandparents. They even had pizza waiting! I love my grandparents.

Headboard

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I sewed this a while back. It is not a professional quality headboard. But hey, it only cost me $6. Good enough, and better than nothing. It’s fabric on top of cardboard, mounted on Styrofoam. I think Just one background fabric would have worked out better. But I like it well enough.

Diamond Fork

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We decided to go up Diamond Fork canyon to go hiking this week. The trails are a bit confusing and not clearly marked at the beginning, but I think we ended up going up Brimhall canyon road several miles up the canyon on the right. There seems to be a lot of private land intermixed with the national forest which was why I was confused. We didn’t have a whole lot of time anyway and just went about a mile or so up the trail. It was quite a nice autumn hike. It would have been terribly hot in the summer, but was a nice hike now with more range type vegetation and hills not mountains.

So do you always stick to established hiking trails? How about one marked on maps with with little signage or upkeep? Or ones used for purposes other than hiking, like ranching and hunting? I’m still generally don’t bushwhack, except in the winter snowshoeing. There seems to be more possible hiking trails than there are established ones, and I like to hike new places. Sometimes finding the new places is the hard part. Up in Cache Valley, they have a wonderful guidebook you can buy that has all the trails around, with lots of great information. I have not found anything remotely similar down here. I usually get trails off of USGS maps which is not as good as a good trail guide. I’m also writing about all of them, so I can make a guide of sorts for future reference. Any resources I haven’t found yet?

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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  • Cream:
  • 1 lbs butter softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • Mix in:
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 cups oatmeal
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon soda
  • 6-8 cups flour (stop when it gets stiff and crumbly. I use 100% whole wheat flour too, and don’t even notice the difference)
  • 1 package chocolate chips

 

Bake 375F for no longer than 10 minutes. (if you do it longer shame on you and enjoy your not so great cookies)

Best cookie recipe ever, that I grew up with. I took dinner to a neighbor’s house and she asked for the recipe. (Which, by the way, never experiment when you have to take dinner to someone. Didn’t turn out great, but I took it anyway. I really just don’t have the patience to do everything right, so I approximate measurements and take shortcuts. Doesn’t always turn out good.) I thought that everyone should have it. So here it is.

Hike

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We meant to go here a few weeks ago. But we made it Tuesday night. It was a great little afternoon/evening hike, and the fall color was gorgeous. Better, I think, than a few weeks ago. The colors are more vibrant: the reds are deeper reds, there was more yellow, and it all sticks out more. The oaks are turning brown. Not that pretty, but marking the further growth of fall. This fall has been long and warm: it looks like this week it’s time to bring in the tomatoes. But not having to do that until the end of October? Awesome.

Back to the hike. It seemed to be mostly a cattle ranch trail: we even met a group of cowboys herding down the cows for winter on our way up. That had us trying to get Peter to say “moo,” unsuccesfully. (But he does say “up” and its adorable.) The trailhead was a few miles up the right fork in Hobble Creek canyon, right next to a large corral. Besides the cowboys down the road, we didn’t meet a soul. I love Hobble Creek because of that. The hike was pleasent, minus the missing jackets. (I forgot it was fall, and fall means jackets. It’s just been so warm.) We took the right side of every fork, and our trail dead-ended at a spring about a mile and a half up.

I love hiking in the fall. Best hiking season ever. Minus the deer hunt, but that was easily avoided this year. The color of the leaves, the cool air. It’s wonderful. This time of year is also when I had baby Pete last year. I enjoyed that time, and took lots of walks out in the leaves with my tiny infant. I’m even looking forward to the snow this week. (If you include snow in fall and spring it greatly extends those seasons. Isn’t part of fall waking up to snow on the ground, only to have it melt away in hours?)

Disneyland

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I went to Disneyland on vacation. I ended up admiring plants. Plants aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Disneyland, but they are there and thriving. I’m impressed at the amount they have, even with millions of people going through every year. I didn’t see a single gardener either. (Does this mean they are out there with flashlights?)

The gardens are definitely formal gardens. There are tons of hedges, topiaries, annual plantings in the shape of Mickey Mouse, even a knot garden. Not always my style. But that trip, combined with this post has me thinking that maybe I should give hedge pruners more of a chance. (Sidenote: hedging is a good horticultural practice, but it can’t replace regular good old pruning and should be attempted after someone knows how to prune with a pair of loppers. I’ve seen a lot of butterball figures that are ugly and not healthy for plants.)

My favorite was the Storybook Canal. I went for the enjoyment of my one-year-old son. The rest in my group had very little desire to go on the “boring” ride. So, not expecting much, I found myself in the midst of wonderful miniature gardens. The ride ended up being one of my favorite just because of the cool plants. The guide mentioned that some of the trees (at least one bonsai) were actually planted by Walt Disney himself.

Utah Botanical Center

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I love the UBC. I caught on to their vision after working there one summer, and I love to go back and see all the progress they’ve made. I keep blogging about them too. (I just checked and I really haven’t: one post and mentions elsewhere is not constantly blogging about them. So this post is muchly needed.) I love it there. Not saying it’s perfect. There’s around 100 acres, and a lot of it is mowed weeds. Another good portion is under construction, and there are also experiments that didn’t quite work out as planned. (Including a naturalized planting that had me weed whacking for weeks. I’m not kidding. Weeks. Good old internships.)

But here is one thing I love about them, that has not yet received a lot of attention by me. I love there perennial gardens. Anne Spranger is the one behind them, and she does beautiful work. She can also be found in work boots bailing out irrigation leaks, and doing all the dirty jobs as well. Anne was my boss when I was an intern, and she was also my design teacher in school. Here is some of her work:

The UBC has influenced me to focus on regional-specific landscaping. Use the climate, soil, and surroundings to create unique gardens for the area. The UBC creates unique gardens that mirror the needs of the Utah area–lots of water-wise plantings, use of native plants, not a lot of lawn, tons of plant material etc. But it’s a good idea for anywhere: don’t fight your surroundings, embrace them.