Use old political sign stakes to trellis your peas

After my husband's campaign for city councilman last November, we were left with a bunch of political lawn signs. I dumped the plastic signs in the recycle bin, but kept the metal stakes knowing I could put them to good use in my garden. I have used them in the past and found they work well hold up peas so they don't have to grow along the ground. I am not only recycling those stakes, but ensuring a better pea crop this year from my garden. :)

Here's how you do it. Before the peas get too big, simply push them into the soil in a zig-zag pattern along the length of your row of peas.

You'll have to squint hard to see the stakes in the picture below. That's another good thing about these stakes, they are barely noticeable in your garden.

Create a Toy Box/Coffee Table

This week I want to share my creation of a toy box/coffee table I created out of an old cedar chest with a broken leg.

After I reattached the leg with glue and new screws in new holes, I stripped the finish, sanded the old piece of furniture, and gave it a new coat of polyurethane. I didn't add stain, just let the natural color of the wood show through. It makes not only rustic-looking coffee table, but hides my grand kid's toys when they aren't there. I also made a table decoration that is kid-proof and they can actually play with. That's an entry for another day. :)

I Love Picture Books--I just wish I had time to create them

I loved reading picture books to my children as they grew up, and now I love reading them to my grandchildren. I also love creating them. I found this old blog post and thought I'd share it with my new followers. Unfortunately, my writing career took me away from working on my illustrating skills, so I never completed my picture book Crook and Nanny, as I had hoped. Sadly, I can't even find it on my computer. Somehow the manuscript got lost as I transferred my files to a new computer. Luckily, Hunter is on Amazon so I'll always have a copy of it regardless of how scatter-brained my becomes.

The following is taken from my blog in December of 2012

I just finished uploading my first picture book onto the web for sale and ordered me a few copies to give as presents. It feels great. Now I can begin my Christmas shopping and housecleaning.

I have written several manuscripts for picture books, but they have remained untouched on my computer collecting cyber dust for a number of years. It seems the publishing world doesn't have a big demand for picture book authors, especially ones who don't illustrate their own work. Because I really wanted to get my picture book stories out there, a few months ago I began learning how to use Adobe Illustrator to help my marginal sketches come to life.

After I created the first few pages of one of my favorite stories, Crook and Nanny, I decided it might be best to test the POD waters by creating a personalized picture book for my grandson for Christmas first. This way I could work out the kinks before I got serious about picture book publishing. I really had fun making it and I learned a lot. I plan on having Crook and Nanny out by next Christmas.

I hope my grandson, Hunter will enjoy it.












If by chance you'd like to buy a copy, it is available on Lulu  (I found Amazon/Createspace was not as conducive to printing picture books as Lulu).