Yesterday, having just put out my first book, I granted myself one day mostly away from the computer. I did a little bit of administrative stuff on the book in the morning, I ran errands, and I got some time for some non-writing projects – and realized that it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted about any crafty stuff that wasn’t my writing! I promise, I’m still doing that. Maybe there will be a stash-busting post later, or one about learning to quilt.

DH and I are mostly-primal, which means we eat a lot of meat and veggies. I’m not a very good gardener, but this year I’m putting in a small plot in our back yard, between these windows:

This was taken last fall, before we laid down a little more grass seed, but the area is still kind of ugly to my mind. And, if I can grow herbs and tomatoes and cucumbers (and maybe, if I’m brave, zucchini), then that frees up space in the grocery budget for more exotic things that won’t grow here in central Indiana.

So, yesterday afternoon I took a little bitty $1 paintbrush and a pint of stain to the wood I bought more than a month ago to build a garden bed. I only stained the outside of the wood because I didn’t know if it would leach into the soil or not, but I didn’t want to stare at a gray garden bed come October, either. I think these are coming out rather nicely:

Next step is assembly. I’ll be sawing one of the ends of the stair risers so it will sit vertically and nailing the 4′ 2x4s between them on one end, at which point I find out how much more wood I need to make a bed that will also be a bit flatter than our (very steep) back yard.

Once that was done, I got some seeds started. I don’t even remember when I saw this, but I found the idea on Pinterest to start seeds in eggshells, so I’ve been saving shells and cartons to try it. I ended up poking holes in the bottoms of the shells with a wooden skewer so the soil would drain, rather than just be soupy mud cups. If this works, I’ll post a picture then, but right now they’re just plastic egg cartons filled with eggshell cups and dirt.