container gardening

i'm not sure about my green thumb. i wanted to try growing some of our own food this year but my gardening record is not exactly stellar. plus we have two black walnuts on the edge of our property. wanna know what grows under a black walnut? not a whole lot.

the solution? containers. i hauled out all of planters and hit the garden centre this morning with betherooni and amy. i came home with cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, red peppers, snow peas, basil, parsley, rosemary, coriander, and a few flowers for the planters out front. i'm excited to see how we do.

i made this!

i get most of my inspiration online and my latest adventure is no different. artisan bread in 5 minutes a day? sign me up! i ordered the book weeks ago and we finally found a weekend to give it a whirl.

5 minutes is a bit of a stretch but i do agree they've taken the fussing out of making bread. mix your ingredients (with a spoon, for only a couple minutes), let it rise. shape it on a peel, let it rest, heat up your stone and with a quick sharp snap of the wrist, you're 30 minutes away from mouth watering goodness.

my first loaf is rather small. it was tricky to grab a large glob of dough. next time i'll be more aggressive. but oh it was tasty. and there's loads of dough left in the fridge, just waiting for its turn on the stone.

we slathered our slices with butter and ginger jam. yum.

so sensitive

i'm finding as i get older that i am more and more sensitive to various dermal irritants. when i was pregnant, i had the most horrible rash dotted over my body -- legs, arms, breasts, butt, stomach. my gp prescribed steroids and a skin-thinning cream(!). i was going crazy. i got no help determining the cause so i started a vague elimination plan and luckily hit on the cause almost immediately: dryer sheets.

lately it seems that i cannot wear eye makeup. i tend to buy eye makeup from the same manufacturer (l'oreal, because i'm worth it) and have been using it for years, but for some reason, i'm reacting. time to research hypo-allergenic products. i hope i can find some that are reasonably priced, wear well, and easy to find. i hope this doesn't mean i'm done wearing makeup for good. 

maybe i just need to embrace the au natural. 

btw, we are on day 3 of potty bootcamp and (fingers crossed) it seems to be working. i'll post more after the day is done.