summer | kimberly ah

Jun 26 2014

Plot #6: Rapid Rain, Rapid Growth

Naoto and I went to the garden last night for the first time in a week. It’s been raining every day here since my last visit and while I should have popped over between rain storms, I didn’t. I’m kind of glad I waited though…I almost didn’t recognize the garden when I saw it! The peas, which were only about three inches tall last week, are now at least a foot tall. I couldn’t believe it! There are plenty of flowers but no pods yet…soon! I “built” my pea teepee and untangled the pea patch. Hopefully the bamboo stakes will promote better growth and less of a pea jungle. Remember the lima seeds I carelessly stuck in the ground last Tuesday? I think most of them came up and they are about three inches tall now. They are kind of…rough looking…something is eating them. We had a similar problem last year, but we still had limas so I’m hopeful for this season’s crop, too. The loofah are really taking off, too. This is causing some anxiety. What to do with those crazy vines? Our tomato plants are kind of hit or miss. The ones we planted right away are all looking good and have flowers or tiny tomatoes on them like the baby Brandywine above. And our Juliet has a lot of blossoms and tiny tomatoes growing as well. But the two Juliets we planted last are looking pretty weak. The rain and wind seemed to beat them down. We caged them and tied up the other plants to the big bamboo stakes and are hoping they all come through in the end.

But maybe I won’t have to open a roadside stand after all.

Tagged food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jun 23 2014

June Paper Parcel

June’s Paper Parcel was another stunner–the theme was “Farmers’ Market” and every little bit was better than the last. I am really excited that Naoto renewed my subscription for the rest of the year because it has been such a treat to get these in the mail every month. This is how it arrived…sweetly packaged in brown paper with a fruit label and sweet gingham fabric ribbon. (Sorry for the weird foot picture. I tore open the package before taking a proper picture.) These are some of my favorite bits: milk and juice caps, milk tickets, stamps, a Dennison orange seal and tiny Dennison labels. And I love these red fruit and vegetable labels. The “big pieces” this month consist of ledgers, cookbook pages, gardening book pages, fruit & vegetable delivery receipts and dairy receipts. A Florida orange grove postcard, a recipe card and two seed packets were other vintage treats. There were lots of little price tags and fruit and vegetable crate labels. I love the graphics on those labels and the “Fruit Cup” one is making me crave a can of fruit cocktail. I’m going to use the pea label in our garden journal. And as always, Xenia can find a playing card for every theme. The rooster and the pear are wonderful, but the soybean and oat cards (both from different Pit games) are so unique and have the best graphics. And of course the Florida orange round card takes the cake…round cards for the win every time!

To see more Paper Parcels from my subscription, go here and for more information on Saturday Morning Vintage’s Paper Parcel Subscription, go here.

Tagged crafts, mail art, office supplies, shopping, summer, vintage

Jun 20 2014

3 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

Plot #6: Let There Be Loofah

We neglected the garden last weekend because of false rain predictions and unexpected schedule changes. I thought by the time I visited Plot #6 on Tuesday that everything would be dead. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Some of the tomatoes were a bit droopy, but nothing a little shot of water couldn’t fix. And our peas and flowers looked great. But who cares about all that… WE HAVE LOOFAH!!! I wasn’t expecting to find anything on the loofah mound and I yelped with delight when I saw these. Then I yelled “LOOOOOFAHHHHH!” in the middle of the empty community garden. We’ve never gotten to the plant portion of loofah growth before! It seems that allllll of the loofah seeds I soaked and planted came up…which means I might have to thin them a bit. But I’m really excited. And worried. We didn’t think anything would happen, so I’m not really sure we left enough room for an actual vining plant. Details, details…I’m just going to bask in the loofah celebration for a little longer and worry about building a loofah trellis when Naoto gets home. (Oh and any loofah advice you may have is completely welcome!) Our crazy pea patch is growing nicely. I planned to build our pea teepee on Monday, but I forgot the twine at home. Instead of building, I found some leftover lima bean seeds in the bottom of my gardening bag and planted them next to the peas. I might regret that decision later. Maybe I’ll just name this gardening season Planting on a Whim.

Tagged food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jun 19 2014

1 Comment

Japan Does It Better

Japan Does It Better 15: Powder Sheets

Let’s talk for a moment about showering, shall we?

Have you ever showered in the morning, then realized that the weather reports are all wrong again and it wouldn’t be raining yet again, in spite of all the warnings from the weather person and your iPhone? So, you put on your gardening clothes and pop over to the garden to water your poor, thirsty tomatoes that you’ve neglected because of said weather reports. You water the plants in the hot sun and try to get on with your day (which involves seeing more people than your cat at home), but you are a little bit sweaty from being in the humid Chicago air. Do you take another shower? Do you skip the shower and feel sticky and gross for the rest of the day and hope that no one notices?

Well, Japan has a solution for this…actually Biore has a solution for this, but it’s only available in Japan (in spite of all my letters to Biore asking them to make them available in the U.S.)

Biore makes these powder sheets that are perfect for a little freshening up throughout the day. My sister-in-law introduced them to me almost ten years ago and I’ve been a devoted follower ever since. I bring a summer’s supply home with me each time I visit Japan. (They are significantly cheaper in Japan so it makes sense to stock up.) The powder sheets are kind of like wet wipes, but they leave a cool powdery finish behind, perfect for clearing away sweat and leaving your skin soft and refreshed. Some are lightly scented like citrus (pictured above) or baby powder or fresh soap but the scent is light and clean, not overpowering. The powder finish helps to absorb perspiration throughout the day, so you feel nice and clean long after you use the little sheet. I carry a pack of powder sheets in my purse for sweaty emergencies on the go. They are the next best thing to a shower. (And really, who has time for a shower?)

Biore Powder Sheets…yep, Japan Does It Better!

For more JDIB posts, go here.

P.S. Apparently Ban has introduced something similar in the U.S. I haven’t tried them yet to compare. If you’ve tried them, please let me know what you think. Hopefully Biore will take note and bring theirs to the U.S. too!

Tagged I *heart* Japan, Japan, summer

Jun 10 2014

10 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, home is a 1970s apartment, homemaking, summer manifesto

Our Blooming Balcony

Our balcony is open for relaxing! And honestly, that’s all I’ve been doing lately because the weather has been gorgeous! I bought some throw pillows at Target for the couch and the chairs. They make it cozier than ever to read a book or take a nap outside.

I finally finished all of my planting and re-potting. Once the seeds grow, hopefully there will be more flowers and vines. I have a tiny herb garden growing behind the couch. We have two kinds of mint, basil, thyme and lavender growing along with the only two annuals that made it through the polar vortex last winter. And, in a rebellious move that is probably breaking some sort of condo ordinance, I have several pots of seedlings situated outside of the railing for maximum sun and rain exposure. I’ve planted parsley, zinnias, lettuce and four types of vining flowers. (I may be in over my head with the amount of vining flowers I’ve planted…if the building falls down under the weight of morning glories, I take full responsibility.) While I’ve planted a lot of seeds this year, I took a big shortcut with my hanging pots. I usually put together my own pots, but this year I put together two and bought four: the portulaca above, two ivy geraniums, and another fuchsia. I repotted my old geraniums with some new in one pot…I’m hoping it fills out a bit. Last year, I stuck with geraniums because I knew I could make them work. This year, I’m branching out so the pressure is on to keep everything alive! The fuchsia is bright pink with purple centers…I know I said I hate purple, but I really love this plant! This is my original fuchsia. I filled out the pot with a vinca vine that is really taking off. Fuchsias are sun/shade plants so I’m really hoping the north side of the balcony is just right for them. So far they seem to be doing well, growing tons of buds and blooms. I wasn’t going to plant petunias this year because I tend to kill them by August, but I fell in love with these two varieties and decided to plop them together in one pot. The deep purple ones are Queen Bees and they are supposed to have yellow centers, though I haven’t seen any yellow yet. And the tiny peach ones are Mochaccinos. I love the tiny peach flowers. I also bought a little wicker cube to contain all of my gardening supplies. It’s nice to have them out of sight and the top of the cube can act as a little side table during dinners outside. On the black table in between the “living” and “dining” areas, I have a hibiscus and my clover (the clover lives in the kitchen during the winter). Some of my seedlings will move over here eventually.

So that’s the balcony. It’s not perfect but it really does feel like an extension of the living room these days. I’m just hoping I can squeeze in every moment possible outside before the heat and humidity takes over!

Tagged decorating, forest park, garden, gardening, home, home improvement, homemaking, summer

Jun 04 2014

4 Comments

summer manifesto

Summer Manifesto 2014

Naoto and I wrote up our summer manifesto during our anniversary dinner. It looks a lot like last year’s manifesto. What can I say? We are creatures of habit around here.

This summer we will:

* tend to our garden and balcony garden

* create three new cocktails using herbs from our garden

* invite special guests to Hasegawa Happy Hour

* hang out on the balcony whenever possible

* rediscover Chicago

* try three new tomato recipes

* take more walks

* visit some new Farmers Markets

* wear sunscreen & sun hats

* enjoy live music…somewhere

And that’s our summer in a nutshell. What’s on your list this summer?

Tagged adventures, cocktails, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

May 31 2014

2 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

Garden Beginnings

We’ve been slowly planting our garden plot over the past couple of weeks. So far we’ve planted two Brandywine tomatoes, two Juliet tomatoes, one yellow pear tomato, peas, flowers and a loofah. Our loofah didn’t make it last year but we thought we’d try it again anyway. So far, the seeds have done nothing. Again.

We decided to skip the root vegetables since ours failed last year. (The beets didn’t do anything and the daikon were so skinny they were almost nonexistent.) Tomatoes and peas and flowers…and maybe a cucumber or some lettuce. We’ll see. We still have about a third of our plot left to work with.

Today I’m working on planting some climbers on the balcony and trying to come up with some sort of notebook to hold my seed packets for reference during the season. Last year I thought I’d be better about keeping a garden journal and I failed miserably. This year…it’s going to be different. (Hopefully.)

Happy gardening!!

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

May 23 2014

3 Comments

gardening, home is a 1970s apartment, homemaking

Behind on the Balcony

I’m behind on getting our balcony all summer ready.

I looked back into the blog archives to find that in 2012, I was all planted by May 9th. And last summer, I was potting flowers on May 15th. This year…well it’s May 23rd and I’m still not quite started.

Yesterday I went to look for flowers but came home pretty empty handed. I bought one big hanging pot of geraniums since most of mine didn’t make it through the winter. (They may have been a little bit neglected in the water department.) And last weekend I bought the fuchsia above. Its flowers are so interesting and fun. The two fuchsia plants don’t quite fill out the pot as much as I’d like so I bought an accent plant to tuck into one side. We have a few perennials leftover from last year and two mint plants potted, but it’s looking rather bare out my window at the moment.

Oh and in other devastating news, my hen & chicks, which I’ve had since we moved here in 2010, died this year. I’ve left them out over the winter every year, but this year proved too cold for them. Poor things. I feel like I’ve lost some old friends.

My dad put in an outdoor outlet for us, so we can hang lights and make it a party-like atmosphere out there and I bought some fun new pillows for the love seat. Yesterday I spent some time sweeping up and moving furniture around. Hopefully we’ll make some progress out there this weekend (and in our community garden plot too!) and I’ll have more to share next week!

Have a good weekend!

Tagged decorating, diy, garden, gardening, home, home improvement, homemaking, summer

Jan 20 2014

4 Comments

Honor Flight Chicago, snail mail, some stuff about me

Making Some Changes

Last week, I made the very difficult decision to give up the Mail Call volunteer work I’ve been doing with Honor Flight for the past two years.

In some ways, I’m very sad to leave the job. I loved packing the mail for those veterans. I loved seeing all of the creative and sweet letters that area school children wrote to the veterans. I loved hanging out with my volunteer friend Barb on the Friday night before the flight, eating dinner and packing up the mail together.

But I was feeling very worn out by the job at the end of last season and I wasn’t really looking forward to going back in April when our flight season resumes, so I decided to step away. After I made the decision, I felt sad and kind of like a quitter. I work with amazing volunteers who always seem to be taking on more, not less…it’s hard not to feel like a “slacker” when I compare myself to them. But I really want some freedom this summer–freedom to spend less time monitoring mail emails, freedom to travel with Naoto without the constraints of the Honor Flight schedule, freedom to not spend anymore beautiful sunny summer days inside sorting mail all day. (Last season, every single mail sorting day happened to be a perfect summer day…)

In the end, we all make choices about how we spend our time and I have to make the choice that is right for me.

Today I feel good about my decision and I’m looking forward to spending my time on fresh new adventures.

Tagged Honor Flight Chicago, snail mail, summer

Aug 30 2013

5 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, summer manifesto

Garden Update: Surprises

Well look at that…we have a tiny watermelon! Just like that time I found the cucumber in the wild west mess of unkempt vines in our garden, I was shocked to find the watermelon.

Downright bowled over.

Now I don’t want to leave it. I want to stay home and keep it safe from bugs and other nibbling beasts. (Our second cucumber was a midnight snack for something.) Our red pepper is ready to be picked! We are going to get to enjoy one before our vacation, and our neighbors (who are watering and harvesting while we are gone) will be able to enjoy another one. There are two, smaller green ones still left on the plant. Hopefully those will hold off until we get home. I’m going to miss the garden while we are gone. I’m sad that I’m missing a week of new discoveries and tomato picking. Even though I know our plot is in good hands (thanks, Brett & Karen!), it’s tough to leave it. A few of our tomato plants are almost done, but most of them have newer green tomatoes on them and even some blossoms still. I hope that we can still have a few fresh tomatoes when we get back. In the meantime…hang on tiny watermelon! I want to enjoy you when I get back!