two straight lines

I've been meaning to set up a compost been for a million years, but at our old home the prospect of a move was always looming on the horizon, so we held off.  I always thought I'd do one of those tumblers just because it seemed the easiest to keep up without ending up with a rotting mess on your hands and having your neighbors hate you.  After some research and polling of a local online parenting group I belong to, I decided that the tumbler was not for us and focused instead on a regular old open compost bin, or a worm bin which can be kept inside.

About this same time, Elliot's class had a unit on recycling and they had a worm bin in their class.  One of his teachers made it look so easy and sort of fun too, so we decided to start with a worm bin.  Last week we drove out to the headquarters of wormwoman.com (who knew I lived in the epicenter of vermiculture?) and bought our bin and little wrigglers.

The next day we raided our neighbor's recycle bins until we had 7 pounds of newspaper and then shredded it...  

...added a little dirt, a little water and then our new wriggly pets.  Elliot decided to add them one by one (there were probably a thousand of them) but who am I to argue with an activity that keeps him happily busy for a long time?

We then added our first batch of worm food (our kitchen scraps) and then placed the whole bin in the basement.  Now we are on our way to worm poop, which can be applied to our garden.  Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

For a DIY version, there was nice simple one in the March 2007 Martha Stewart made by drilling holes in a white IKEA plastic bin.  We were having a hard time making it to IKEA and I got impatient and just bought our bin locally.  I do like to support businesses that are promoting a more natural approach to gardening anyway.  The worm bin I bought can be found here, and the most lovely open compost bin I've seen is here.  That one may make an appearance at a later date.

Also-

We've been adding to our fairy garden, thanks so much for all of the great recommendations!  And a little book fairy stopped by, actually the owner of our fabulous local children's bookstore dropped off a few books, including Fairy Houses...Everywhere that was a great source of inspiration for Elliot.  We'll post some photos soon.

Elliot went back into business this week selling some potted lilies that the former owner of our home left in the garden.  It was slow going, but then he sold them all to one person who is going to use them for a lily garden at a church downtown.  He's becoming quite the entrepreneur. 

On a totally unrelated note, what a weird week, right?  I have to say both Farrah and Michael Jackson were major parts of my childhood, so I am a little sad to see them gone.  Both sort of heartbreaking stories, really.

 

 
Elliot decided to kick off the beginning of summer break by having his first ever lemonade stand.  Cookies and lemonade to be precise-- that's what his friend Henry served at his, and Elliot thought it was the way to go.  We used one of our playstands as the base for the lemonade stand, and just painted a paper sign to go on it using IKEA paper and tempera paints from Stubby Pencil Studio.  It was the first time we'd used the paints, and I have to say they were very fun to paint with, rich and creamy.  Elliot art directed and I painted.  He declared it "the most beautiful painting I ever saw."  That's a lot coming from the mouth of a little boy who doesn't often dole out compliments.

My first try at snapping a photo turned out like this, that is until I told him I'd put his photo on Facebook to get him some customers.  Then he was all cheesy grins.

It was a cool and rainy day, minutes later you would have found us in raincoats and hats hoping for customers.  Luckily, they came, and we worked until we sold out of lemonade, keeping more than a few cookies for ourselves. 

Even though activities like this sometimes inspire dread in me, I'm always glad I did it.  I visited with neighbors I'd never met, and even learned some really cool details about our home and one family who had lived here.  And I was really proud that Elliot wanted to follow through on his plans even though it rained.  He is very persistent, and while that can be trying at times, I can also see how it can be a very good quality.  Indeed.

Elliot decided that we should make a fairy garden under a pine tree ringed with stones.  We weeded, we planted a few fuzzy plants to go with the existing blue hostas (aka fairy roofs, so I hear) and we scattered cocoa mulch about (fairies love cocoa, of course).

Now we sit and wait.  If you build it, they will come, right?  More photos of our work-in-progress are here.

Any good fairy garden resources online that you know of?  Or fairy books?  I googled it and was a little frightened at how overdone many of them were.  I'd love to see some simple examples.  And we need a fairy door, I think.

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I always see cute kids' items online and in catalogs, but am hesitant to order them and pay shipping for a fairly inexpensive item.  Lately we've found quite a few summery items in surprising places, from our local hardware to big box stores and we wanted to let you know that the items are likely available in your area too.

This shovel we bought for the beach came from our local Menard's for just shy of $5, available online for a little more here.  We started off with just one, an orange one, but after a few days I decided that I'd be willing to pay $5 more to stop them from bickering over who got to use it, so back to the store we went so Lucie could pick her color-- "Pink!"  It has a plastic grip and spade, but the handle is wood.  It's called a Dune Spoon.

We're loving this Fire Hose Nozzle that we picked up at Lowe's because I can turn the hose on, set the flow to a reasonable rate and then set the kids free with it.  We used to only have the trigger style which was too difficult for little ones to turn on, so I ended up standing there holding it for them which was a drag.  Available online here, but I got mine for a similar price at Lowe's.

This butterfly net was picked up at our local True Value (Gale's for any locals) for around $4 and we've already put it to use quite a bit.  Bug catching is a favorite pastime around here.  Elliot was even interested in catching an injured robin in it last night.  Of course, that was a no go.

I've eyed child-sized gardening tools a thousand times in the Montessori Services catalog, but I picked up this shovel along with a hoe and rake (in purple and yellow) at Lowe's for about $4 apiece.  The have a metal grip and tool, but the pole itself is a thick plastic.  You can see that it does double duty in our sandbox.

And everyone needs a sprinkler, right?  We have two kinds-- the old fashioned twirly yellow type by Nelson and this large beach ball variety by Little Tikes.  We got that one a few seasons ago at Target, but Amazon has it online for just under $16.  Lucie loves to roll it around the yard when it isn't attached to the hose.

Stock up now so that you're prepared for the upcoming long summer days-- then you can sit back and sip lemonade as they get busy.