What is this shrub?

There is this very large shrub in the front yard of our house. I don't particularly care for it because it is ginormous and it has some kind of ornamental berry on it. I'm the kind of person that doesn't like shrubs that have berries that are not edible. I feel like it's such a waste of space. It's terrible, I know. I just rather use that space for a shrub that produces something we can eat.  Yard space is so precious, I rather grow food than look at a shrub.   Like if this were a blueberry bush, I'd be so happy!  My husband likes the shrub, he says it's nice to look at. It's still green even though we are in December.  So this shrub will stay in our yard...unfortunately.

I have no idea what kind of shrub it is, do you? It recently grew these interesting looking berries, I've never seen anything like it before. I would love to identify it.  Guesses are welcome.

Sums It Up

This pretty much sums up the garden season we had.  We had so much to accomplish in our first year of gardening, breaking in our "virgin" grassy lawn to make space for our ever expanding garden.  I literally wore these rain boots to it's demise.  These were my muck boots that I wore everyday to garden and it really did it's job.  When it rained, no problem, mud, no problem.  I still wore them this week, despite having a big gash in the right boot.  The left boot also had a gaping hole.  However, as I was raking the leaves the other day, I stepped in dog poop and immediately took off the boots and chucked them into the trash.  Normally I would just take a garden hose to the boots, but these are beyond saving, so why bother?  And there is a hole in the shoe so I don't want poop on my foot.  Ewwwww and ewww.  I guess I'll have to add garden boots to my holiday wish list.  Boy, the list is growing! hahahaha :)  Oh, and speaking of dog poop, I don't know how in the world we got dog poop in our backyard.  We don't even own a dog!

Vintage Jewelry: A Second Life

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I love to recycle just about anything.  I hate the idea of adding to landfills, so I always try my best to reuse something for another purpose. Like our reclaimed wood from the attic to use as furniture, recycled food containers to use as potting containers, newspaper to use as seed starters.  I'm a recycling fanatic, any paper, aluminum can, plastic, glass bottle that comes into this house is not thrown into the garbage, rather it is picked up by the city recycling.   So when I got this email the other day about a sale at The Weekend Store, I got so excited!!   Last year, I wrote about the Renegade Craft Fair which is an annual fair that travels the country featuring talented artisans making the most amazing crafts!  We saw a booth there called The Weekend Store, and she sells the most unique jewelry made out of recycled vintage typewriters!!  I love the idea of turning something old into something brand new.  This is the necklace I scooped up last year at the fair.  I wear it all the time, and it's always a conversation starter.  This is the perfect jewelry for me because this would be in a landfill if it wasn't around my neck.

The Weekend Store is currently having a 30% off sale until Monday, December 6th!  Use the promo code CELEBRATE to get 30% off your entire order.  And if that deal wasn't sweet enough, everything on the website has Free Shipping!  I couldn't resist, I bought some holiday gifts for myself. :)  I picked out a gorgeous locket with a letter "K" typewriter key on it, which is my husband's first name initial.  The locket I picked out looks like this, and you can pick out any letter of the alphabet!

I also picked out a ring with the letter "H".  I'm still waiting for my order to be delivered, however, the rings look like this.  I picked "H" which is my husband's last name initial.  I never took my husband's last name when we married and I always felt a little guilty about it.  Having the H on my hand I think will be a nice tribute to the family name.

The Weekend Store also sells jewelry out of other recycled materials such as transit tokens, maps, old watches, and letterpresses.  Check out her website, these would make great holiday gifts for yourself or for someone else.  Not only is it beautiful, you'll feel great that you rescued something designated for a landfill.

(disclaimer: this is not a paid advertisement of any sort.  I just love her jewelry! )

Backyard Homestead

This summer we went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for my birthday.  While we were there, we saw in their gift shop this book.  The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! We were intrigued so we picked up a copy.  This book is great for newbies like us.  It provides a general overview on how to make the most of your yard from growing fruits and vegetables to raising livestock.  Since livestock is out of the question for us, (except for a few chickens) it's still an interesting read, because the book provides tips on planning your garden, capitalizing on growing more in less space.  It also discusses nut trees, fruit trees and bushes, how to prune, and basic info on preservation.  Canning, making wine and cider, and drying food.  The book doesn't go into in-depth detail on process, however, I can see us using this as a good reference or guide book.  The book says that from a 1/4 acre of land you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, and 75 pounds of nuts.  I'm not sure about the growing wheat, and we don't have chickens yet, but the 60 pounds of fruit and the 2,000 pounds of vegetables is definitely a good goal for us.  My ultimate dream would be to raise enough vegetables and fruit on our 1/3 of an acre to sustain us all year, so this is a challenge I would love to undertake.  I saw that Amazon is selling this book for $12.89 right now, which is 30% off retail price, it would make a nice holiday gift! Click here.