Community Garden: Our Mini-Farm

I cannot seem to keep my manicures nice this summer, and it is for the absolute best reason.

Back in December, I did some research and found a community garden program in our area. For those of you who don't know, M and I bought a house back in November. We love it! The house, the neighbors, our neighborhood and the location are all we ever could have asked for. Since we live in the DC area, space is at a premium. We have a small yard, but it is landscaped and it isn't the kind of space we would need to have the kind of garden I wanted, so I found the community garden closest to us and put our names on the wait list for a plot.

I was assured that it would take at least a year until we were called, so I started planning on having an awesome garden in the Spring of 2016. However, several plots came available in May!! We went out, chose our plot, and waited to see if we got the one we wanted. Seriously. It almost killed me waiting. And I am sure that I annoyed the coordinator, because I am ashamed to say that I sent her several mildly-obsessive emails telling her how much we wanted that specific plot.

It worked! M and I were now the "owners" of a very overgrown, weed-covered, unfenced (at least on one side) community garden plot. We saw all the potential, and the fact that it is prime real estate because it is close to the water source.

It was time to get to work! I spent many hours out there, pulling up the weeds by hand and piling them up into huge piles. It was back-breaking work and I was so sore afterward! I found so many interesting bugs hiding under all those weeds too, and I love bugs. A few days later (on his birthday!), M went out and constructed the fence.

Weed-free and fenced, we were in business!

Here is a picture of the plot before we started weeding.

And during the weeding... 

Of course it is still a work in progress, but we are so happy with our little mini-farm! 

We were so pleasantly surprised to find this amazing community garden so close to us. Do you participate in a community garden? If so, I would love to hear about it!

Baby its NOT cold outside... My DIY fail.

So let me begin by saying that I cannot believe how fast time is flying! So much has happened, as I have previously written about. Now, my adoring husband M is here in the DC area (we were living apart for a while due to our desire to both remain employed through the transition for me from student life to working and our relocation to the expensive DC area from Georgia), and it is his turn to go to school while I work. I hardly ever have time to post anymore, but I am trying to get better about it!

Anyway, one of the items on my 14 Before 2014 list (that I completely failed at, by the way) was a DIY Cooling Spray. I wanted to make this mostly for my mother, as she is having some trouble with hot flashes and I hate to see her uncomfortable!

Now that it is actually hot outside, I thought I would make some extra.

I found a recipe for DIY cooling spray here, but decided to change it up just a little bit. I did not have cranberry juice, so instead I used more water and more witch hazel. I did not want the aloe and the glycerin to make it more gel-like than it should have been, so I had to make sure the consistency was the same. I also did not have ginger essential oil, but instead used peppermint. I like a minty finish to things like this, so I thought my mom would like it too.

Here are all of my ingredients:

This recipe only makes enough for one of these little spray bottles, so I

The verdict after using it? A very disappointing sticky feeling. My mom definitely won't like this!

Wahhh. I hate wasting my time on DIY fails! Have you ever had a DIY fail? I would love to hear about it (misery loves company, haha!).