Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Memorial Day



Its Tuesday!!!!  Back to work/school!!!!!  I hope you guys had a great long weekend.   It was a busy weekend for us Keck's.  West Point had graduation on Saturday, so the post was basically locked on down.  It was raining on and off during the ceremoney. I opted out and watched the graduation on TV in my own home :)    Yesterday, I babysat most of the day, but I finally toured the West Point Cemetery  I been wanting to since I got here, but I felt weird doing so.  I walked down to the Cemetery and checked about every inch of the property.  I didn't bring a map of all the famous headstones/graves but I did come across some. If you ever in the West Point area, you should check it out.  Over 8,000 souls are buried here.  There are weeping willows in one of the oldest part of the cemetery  They looked like they were just hugging the graves.  It was a wonderful site to see. 


Map of West Point Cemetery

I am gonna go back and see if I can find the rest of the graves that are on the map. 

FYI: Stormin Norman is buried here, he is sadly was a new addition to Cemetery a couple mos back. The map hasn't been updated since then, but he is buried near is father.(From my understanding about two rows away from each other.  If you go to the Cemetery Caretaker's home, there is a electronic grave finder.  (I haven't found it yet)  They will be able to help you find it. Also, check out the old Cadet Chapel, this was deemed to be destroyed instead they moved it brick by brick, now in the entrance way to the Cemetery. 



God bless those who made the Ultimate sacrifice. And God hold those love ones that lost a friend,spouse,and family members. 


Under the Willow. 


Gorgeous huh?


Unknown graves, due to poor record keeping, destroyed headstones which has been replaced with "Unknown"  on them. They were found in the oldest part of the cemetery  some have been buried long before West Point Cemetery became a Military Cemetery  So sadly, their graves will probably never have a  name attached to them. 


These Weeping Willows were found nearby the oldest part of the cemetery. 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Spider plant




Looking for any easy to care for houseplant. Don't looking any further. I got what you are looking for. SPIDER PLANT!!!! Okay now I promise they don't produce any spiders. I grew up with these all over the house... well maybe not all over but they were apart of my childhood memories. Now that I have moved away, I noticed that I draw towards anything that reminds me of home, family and friends back in Michigan. Of course I have three of these plants in my home. I love them cause they are so easy to take care of. You going on vacation for a week, no problem these plants will be just fine. Two weeks??? No problem. They might look a little droopy when u come back but just water them really well for a weekand they are back to them ole selfs again.  Have pets??? Thats okay, it isn't harmful to those critters. You may have to train your kitties to leave it alone. That will take a good three days using the spray bottle. (Heheheh, of course I didnt have to resort to that, yelling it them will work too)

Spider plant info

Of course I am having a tough time uploading my pictures on to the blog of my spider plants.  Looks like I need to stay with the niffy camera rather than phone. You think I learned my lesson by now. Well anyways I have a bunch of babies growing off my plants :)  Already have given some away to make homes else where. If you move around as much as I do. I am sure you can steal some babies put it in a ziplock baggie with wet papertowels for the move. As soon as you get there. Put the baby in a cup full of water and put it in your window. Once it has been in the cup for about a week, you should see roots growing off the plant.  Then it is time to put it in a pot. They grow fast but you generally dont need to transfer the plants to  new pot as you would with other houseplants.  :)


My plants:


Flower that blooms before starting a new baby spider plant. 

Baby spider plants.. on my green and striped Spider plant. 


My small green leaf Spider plant, no babies yet. 

Enjoy... the fresh air that the Spider plant will help produce. What plants do you have in your house? ?

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Oklahoma

Prayers for those who are involved in the twister in Oklahoma.  I pray those who are trapped will soon get freed. And I hope the nightmare for those children will end soon, so the healing can start.  If you have any family/Friends in that region, I pray that you hear from them soon.  God bless 



God please hear our prayers!!! <3 

Friday, May 17, 2013

Allium Pictures

I am literally running out the door after this quick blog.

I went outside to check on my flowers and I snapped some wonderful pictures that I just got to share with you.  This week as been crazy week. Past two days I have logged over 18 hours of babysitting and I have a lot more hours today.  





Good Morning from Saria!!! 

I love how in between the greens are just breath taking purple. They have been attracting bees, and I snaped some amazing pictures with my cell phone and of course they are soo small on here. I am gonna try to work with it and see if I can do something about it.   Thankfully the Alliums are far away from the porch area so it hasn't been bothering us. 



Morning!!!! :) 

This is what the plants look like as they are about to bloom. The green starts to turn into purple as you can see here. and then.. 


And as they are blooming more purple will pop out. 


And eventually you get this amazing  flowers!!! I am so proud of myself.. And they are a lot taller that I thought they would be.. I must have planted them in the perfect spot. :) 


Sorry for such a short blog, but this weekend I have plans to make it up.  When life gets crazy.. hold on and ENJOY the ride!! 


For you Miss Kate. (miss you)

She is also an army wife and she graduated from same High school as Spencer and I. Her and I have gotten close over the years. She of course is where I want to be right now.. Ft. Carson. Beautiful place, if you have a chance to be station there or visit Colorado Springs.. DO IT.. And go see Pikes Peak!  

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Mason Jars for Bathroom.






After I posted the plant update for some reason, my motivation kicked into high gear and I made two mason jar for the bathroom.  The Jars now are a home for my cotton balls and Q-tips.. :)  

And the hubby loves them.. I spend no money on this project, I already had everything I needed and it look less than ten mins to complete on jar.. 



I got the knobs from Hobby Lobby for less than 3 dollars each. 




Items
* Hammer
* Nail (thickest you can find)
* Mason Jar
* Knob


First -  Take the round ring off (I don't use it) 
Second - Mark the middle of the plate.. ( I dont know what is called : )  ) 
Third - Make a hole with the nail, for where the knob can be put through plate. I took it outside so the nail just went into the ground. 
Fourth - Make sure the hole is thick enough. It isn't gonna look pretty.. but you wont see it when the knob goes through it. 
Fifth - Screw the knob on it. 
Sixth - put the top on the mason jar.. You are have now completed the project.  

After making my two jars for the bathroom, now I have another for my side table. It holds my bobby pins and hair ties. Now, they have a home. And maybe my husband wont find them on the floor anymore :)  Here to wishing! 


Looks great next to the mirror doesn't it.  Finally used the knobs that has been sitting in my drawers. This project is great for anyone that needs to find storage for the small things. And if you want to upgrade to a bigger mason jar just make sure you find the same size lip, and you shouldn't have any problems putting top on the new mason jar if it is bigger.  Now, I am having motivation to use the rest of knobs. 




Monday, May 13, 2013

Flowers/Plant Update


Been a week since I planted the flowers and of course below freezing is expected tonight.. ughhhh. But I am prepared with lots of tarp..  Below are some pictures, thought you would enjoy them as much as I do. 



This plant is sitting out on my small (very small) porch. It gives just enough color to the porch and will look great once my morning glory start to crawl on my railing and blooming. 


The begining of my morning glory.  Less than a week later it is already about 1/2 inch tall. They grow SUPER fast. 



My Forget-me nots are doing great.. They are a slow grower wished I started them earlier.. oh well. 


My little plants that have taken home in my dining room. Yes I am going to bring in my Gerber and my morning glory in tonight. I put them back outside cause they are sun loving plants and need to get about six hours of sun. Even though it was cooler today, there was lots of sun.  


These are those white flowers that are trialing out of my new bucket. They are doing great. 


My Alliums are really blooming.. They are not fully bloomed yet but I love the beatiful color.  Some of them are super tall, which is not what I was expecting. 


Saria (pronounced like Sara) was enjoying the sun with me while I was taking pictures. She is my baby. I come home with my husband, she will completely ignore him no matter if I or him was opening the crate. She will tackle me. 



I used Saria to show you how tall these flowers are. 



What a great model, she is??  She is like I want to chase things... mom... can I go now??  <3 her


Have a great monday evening. 









Frost

Hey y'all!!! 


Sorry there hasn't been any post lately.. Not a whole lot has been occurring. I have been working on my big project. Not making as much progress as I wanted. But I am gonna post another picture hint below. I have been working with my plants the last few days. We were suppose to get frost overnight last night and thank goodness it didn't occur, but I was still prepared for it. Tonight, they are giving us a below freezing warning for tonight.. Ughhhh so all my potted planted have been making home inside our house.  Morning glory has been sprouting. Those don't take long at all. Last year I planted them really late and they still did awesome.  I been covering my outside plants with newspaper and tarps.   Hopefully it doesn't get below zero tonight.. Cross your fingers and toes for me. 




What do you think it is??


Friday, May 10, 2013

Biggest Project to Date


Hey guys, How was your week??


Mine was great busy doing my biggest project to date.. and NO it isn't from pinterest..  It was my husband's idea but of course who is actually breaking a sweat and doing the labor portion.  Of course I can't tell you.. Really think I would spoil the surprise .  

But I am gonna give you a picture hint.  Hopefully, my plan is the farther I get into the project the more hints, Ill give. :) 


Here is your first one, 

It is a little blurry, but I can't just give it away now.  Any ideas  comment below :) 


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Wreath Coupon!

Good Morning Everyone,


I have some news, it has been announced that the crafter of The Land of Craft is moving :(  So she is having a sale. 25% off ready to ship items. I thought I would let you guys know.  If you were on the fence about purchasing a wreath... Get off the fence and take advantage of this moving sale.  The code that you need to use is 2013MOVING .   It sounds like she will continue to craft, but due to the cross country move, she like to reduce her inventory.  


The Land of Craft Etsy

Sounds like I got to talk the hubs into letting me buy another :) 


Taryn 








Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Flowers, Seeds, Dirt Oh My!


I hope everyone is looking forward to the warm weather as much as I am.  Thankfully, it has been in the 70's here for a couple weeks now, but sadly.. NO RAIN... ahhh It is only spring and I am watering the grass.  Tomorrow sounds like we are gonna get about 1 inch of rain.  

As I said last post, Yesterday I went plant/flower shopping with my neighbor Jessica. (and bought too much :D, but I found a home for them all) 



The pictures of them it isn't all perfect, Some were planted today and and of course I took the pictures after I watered them. But hopefully in a week after the roots start growing and the plants start growing Ill take more pictures. 





This plant is called Rhododendron, this particular one will have beautiful, large light purple blooms. I never really liked the look of the plant without the blooms. I love the blooms so much I am willing to wait all year to love the plant for a month or so. :)  Underneath since this is a very shady area I planted some Coleus seeds.  This is just foliage, but some of the plants will have red, green leaves.  I am hoping they come out good. Last year I planted some flowers there that were suppose to come up every year.. yahh FAIL... they didn't survive.. I had some extra Petunias, so I planted five near the rocks to give it something while I am waiting for the Coleus to come in. 



Close up view. 




This flower bed is under my kitchen window.  There is two rows of Petunia :)  I love them.. I need to get mulch though. It would look soo much better.  But in the middle I planted some seeds of a mix batch.  They include many different types of flowers. Below is the batch I used.   I used one package here and I actually used another around the tree in the back with all the Hostas. These plants should grow about 2-3 feet tall so they will be able to stick our in between all the Hostas.  :D






I bought a wooden bucket pail.  :)  I am a country girl at heart. I just couldn't walk away from it. :D  I used three  Snowstorm Giant Snowflake to trail out of the bucket.  They are trailing plants. and they have nice white blooms on them.   

This pail really works really well with my half wine barrel I have. Yes, I am missing a picture of that. But I planted seeds in it, so not much to see right now. I planted California Poppy in them.  I said this year was the year to experiment. So I am going all out. :D 


(After) 


This is my hosta plant that I transplanted a couple weeks ago, I added one of the trailing Giant Snowflake plant. It really pops!!  Big difference from last picture Huh?  

(Before)




The two small pots and the big black pots were filled with Petunias. 

The middle is actually a sweet Mint plant.  No I don't use it for my cooking.  Okay so a little side story. My husband and I grew up in a town of St. Johns; It is a small town, with mint/corn/soybean fields surround the city portion of the town. Well our town produces more than 50 percent of Michigan's mint. So of course at peaks of the mint crops, you can smell it for miles. If you don't live near where you grew up, something will always take you back.   No matter if you left by choice or not.  Me it is the smell of fresh mint. Well, I love anything that has mint. Takes me back to me being a careless girl growing up in this town.  I love Girl Scouts thin mints, mint ice cream, literally anything that has mint won't survive a couple days in my house.  :D  Make sure you surround you with sights, taste and smells that takes you back to good memories.  As much as I love being in New York, I miss home at times. I saw the mint plant and I couldn't resist. I thought my husband would make fun of me.. Nope. (shocked) He totally understood. Well I had three Petunias left over so to give the pot a little color, I planted those in with the mint as well. 




These are my little seedlings. Each day I am seeing a cup with a little big of green in the black dirt. :)  So excited for them to put in the grown when big enough.   Once they are big enough Ill probably just put them in the flower bed under the kitchen window or around my Rhododendron and any dead spots that flowers didn't survive. 

I also planted morning glories in a small pot.  They are a viney plant. And hopefully they will do great like they did last year and attach itself to the iron poles which is on our front porch. Ill add a picture of that later once they start growing.

For the front I planted a purple Gerber Daisy plant in a ceramic pot for a little something for the front porch.  


Have you planted your plants yet??


T

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Backyard Landscaping Tour


Since I was doing a lot of outside work, I thought I show you some pictures of my backyard and give you a quick tour.  


I have not planted any flowers this Spring yet. I was just worried the temperatures  may drop down again. But after about 2 to 2.5 weeks of steady temperatures, I am not so worried anymore. My neighbor and I are planning a little flower/plant trip on Monday. :) So excited to hang out with Jessica and of course get stuff done in the meantime. 


Remember while looking at the pictures, the backyard isn't complete yet. 



Round my tree are Hosta plants, there is about six of them, one more then last year. There was seven, I found a baby one, growing in the rocks around the trees and I transplanted it while it was small in to a ceramic pot.  Picture of that is down below a bit.  In between the Hostas are Purple Allium. They have not bloomed yet. Once they do I'll show you some pictures of those. I got the bulbs from my father in law, who has multiple flower beds surround this house.  It is best to plant in the September time frame for them to be already to grow in the spring. 


A closer look at the Hostas;  They were here before we moved in, I just used them to my advantage.  
You see the tall green stalks, those are gonna be Allium.  Below is a close up to the Allium once it blooms. Gorgeous flower huh?




Saria's dig pool!!! The dog favorite part of the backyard. She loves it. Saria is part terrier, that means she has LOTS OF ENERGY!!!  She was so easy to train, but we couldn't get rid of the digging tendency.  So I bought the pool at a garage sale. The husband nailed holes to the bottom, so when it rains it can drain.  All the dirt came from friends.  Every once in a while I put a toy in there, so it is basically a treasure hunt for Saria. 


Here is the baby Hosta that I transplanted it. These plants are very easy to transplant and even split apart.  This was a lot smaller. In this pot, I actually had a mum plant. It has gotten so big that I needed more room. So I also transplanted that near the front of the duplex.  


Here are the seeds I was talking about in a post about a week ago.  I lost six of them earlier today :( due to Saria playing with Bailey (Jessica's dog) oh well. I have plenty more. I did notice a change in one of the Forget Me Not plants..  It is sprouting :)  

That's all for the Backyard tour. Once flowers get bloomed and planted, I'll have more pictures. 


Have a great weekend!!!