May Photo Challenge

I am challenging my fellow Tidbit contributors to a photo challenge for the month of May. When you make a post, label it with the tag "May Photo Challenge". I look forward to seeing how you interpret each of these categories. 

You'll also notice that three of the days are free days; those are the days that we are camping together and won't have internet access. As always, if you get behind, feel free to play catch up.

Also, fun fact, you can actually schedule posts in advance. For example, if it's the weekend and you know that you have a crazy couple of days coming and you already have pictures ready, schedule the photos to post themselves.

Plant Lovin'

I'm really loving all the plant tidbits by my fellow Twenty-Somethings. I too have been planting and enjoying seeing all the green inside and outside of my apartment. I mostly have flowers and succulents but I now have one herb (oregano) and a pot of lettuce that has been planted (the seeds haven't sprouted yet). My Mom has been helping me transplant and re-pot things. On my short trip home last weekend Mom and I went to a locally owned greenhouse in my hometown. I found several pretty plants there. I'm becoming worse than my Mom, she has a huge collection of plants. Anyway I bought three plants that got put into a hanging basket. It will look really pretty when it has filled out. I'm going to give it to my beau, he expressed some interest in having some flowers at his abode, so I'm going to help him out! I also got a pretty licorice plant that's really unique. So...want to admire the plants now?

I'm proud of my upcycled rainboots..they're adorable

My window-sill plants..ivy, shamrock, and a succulent 

                                                                                                                     -The Farmer's Daughter

Garden Update #1

I am at work, so this post will have to be short.

Here is a current picture of what my squash looks like now:

 

This is the only remaining squash that I have left from the 15 or so that I started from seed. I shared the majority of my plants with friends and family, but lost a couple plants due to planting them outside too early. The frost killed them.  

My next door neighbor gave me three cucumber plants and a couple tomato plants that are also doing well. And I have transplanted several bell pepper plants outside, that are doing okay, but not growing as fast as the others. 

As far as my herb garden goes, I currently have basil, rosemary, chives, and some catnip. Of all these, the chives are the only one that I started from seed. The others were either given to me or purchased. I have also planted several flowers around the house that I may share in an upcoming post. 

-Miss Ellaneous 

Chacos

Chaco sends me e-mails every day almost advertising for their shoes and sales. Even though I don't plan to buy a pair anytime soon and definitely won't pay for the customized shoes, I was playing with the customizer this morning. Here are the pictures of what I created.

I like these straps.

This is when I started playing with making all of the straps different.

These really appeal to me. Although now that I look at them, I think I'd make the two solid purples the same color.

These might be my favorite.

Pure crazy!

I like the brown bottoms.

Which is your favorite?

Cheers!

Captain's Party

Saturday we celebrated Captain Something Fun's birthday with a Captain America themed party. I'm just going to leave a few photos here for our avid followers. Thanks to The Farmer's Daughter for taking beautiful photos and sharing them with us.

We had a photo booth, played games, danced to some old dances, drank coffee/tea, and ate way too much. It was fun party.

Waiting on the photographer to adjust the settings. We were all kind of in our own world.

We were fighting against the wind and the intermittent sun.

Sunshine attacks and disorganized.

Someone missed the pretty smiles memo.

Oh finally, a decent photo where we all are smiling.

The Cake and Candles

Gotta get all 24 (er 25) of those candles.

Tea All About It

It's tea time! Go out in your yard, pick some of those abundant yellow dandelions, boil some water, and sip. Oh well, wash the flowers off first.

No this is not an April Fools' Day prank. Dandelion tea is actually quite scrumptious and basically free! It reminds me of summer in a cup: warm, sweet, vibrant, and green. Apparently the flowers also contain Vitamin A and Vitamin B12, which are both good vitamins to have I suppose. You can make tea from other parts of this flower, but so far I have only tried the flowers. It sure does make for a pretty cup of tea.

Other types of tea that I have been drinking include Pomegranate, Pear, and Ginger, Earl Grey Bravo (extra bergamot), Dragon Well (totally unsure what's in this one but I think it's green), VitaWell (still unsure what's in this one), Lemongrass and Ginger (yum!), Yellow and Blue (chamomile), and good old English Breakfast. Most of my teas come from the local tea shop or Harney and Sons online. I drink mainly loose leaf and I try to let the tea leaves float as much as I can, but sometimes I do use a tea ball or some sort of contraption like that if I'm on the go.

Just recently I purchased a nifty little contraption called Mrs. Tea. Apparently the product's production was discontinued, but The Farmer's Daughter found it at a Goodwill for $5. Worth a try right?

This morning I enjoyed three cups of English Breakfast all by pushing one button. I think the thing I will like most about this is that I can prepare the machine the night before and then let the tea brew and steep while I get ready. It takes about 10 minutes to steep an entire pot. I was skeptical that it would not be as strong as I like since the water drips over the tea rather than the tea sitting in the water, but I didn't notice a difference. Another plus is that it's an easier mess to clean that tea leaves floating in a pot or crammed into a tea ball. Since it uses a filter, I just grab the paper filter and throw the whole bit away once I've used all the goodness in the tea leaves. I also really like the cute design although I do wish it wasn't entirely white (that may be changing soon). I will still probably do some tea by boiling water in my tea kettle and then steeping in a teapot or mug, but some mornings it will be nice to have the convenience of pushing a button just like all of those coffee drinkers have.

Cheers!