Brought my avocado and mango seedlings inside, as well as the strawberry plants and the pineapple, which is growing a baby pineapple plant.

Little Avocado seedlings first Pruning

Today I went to look at the avocado seedling that I have been growing. It's been about a month and a half since I started the first two seedlings using my damp paper towel and ziplock baggie method. The plants are about 6 inches now, and while I don't think I should cut them in half as others do, I did decide to give them a good pruning, just the tips mind you. I'll bring them inside in about two weeks cause It gets cold here in the winter, and they would never survive the snow. Instead of pinching the tops off, I simply snipped the tops off. I wonder if I should do the same for my mango seedlings?

A better way to grow avocado pits

Hear's an easy way for Avocado lovers to grow a cool houseplant! Grow an avocado plant. Ever tried the toothpick in the pit with glass of water only to find that the pit rots or the water dries out too quickly? Here's an easier way. All you need is an avocado pit from an avocado you ate, a paper towel, ziplock baggie, and water.

Step one- Eat an avocado, use a spoon to remove the pit, place pit in water while you enjoy the fruit.

Step two- carefully remove the skin from the avocado pit, try not to damage the pit. This will be easier if the pit

was sitting in water before doing this.

Step three-fold paper towel in

half till you have a

long strip.

Step four-wet the paper towel and

wring out the excess water.

Step five-

wrap paper towel around the pit start near top so it covers the bottom, then reverse the

direction of the paper towel so you

wrap it around the pit. leaving the top uncovered.

Step six- place in a ziplock baggie, then place in a warm spot away from direct sunlight.

Step seven-check on the pit

every now and then, if paper towel smells

mildewey replace.

Step eight- when pit has cracked in half with a big

gap and you see the roots growing, plant in a well draining soil.

Step nine- avocado roots will rot easily, so water when soil is almost dry, do not let the roots sit in wet soggy

soil. I used recycled soda bottles to create a self watering container, and only water every two

weeks.

After several weeks your avocado will be growing a baby tree!

So far I have two seedlings growing! With three more

growing their stems.

Bring plants inside for winter, use a grow bulb and add humidity to their room.

I'm setting up a fishless fishtank to add moisture to the air in my plant room.

Look to see what is growing in my Garden!

Welcome to my Upside down hanging tomato garden! Have you ever seen those commercials that sell the 'upside down tomato kit' and it had huge tomatoes with the leaves all hanging down? Well the tomatoes do not grow down, they reach for the sky! The picture on the left does show my tomatoes looking like they are getting close to the ground though. I fed them coffee grounds, it seems they liked that. Not only did the root system get huge, the plant themselves have been growing alot of tomatoes. I planted peppers and eggplants on top. the eggplants do not have as many blooms yet, only three or 4, with at least one that I know got pollinated. I also planted Snow Peas for my garden from seed, and rather late so they are not far along. Seems the seeds rotted easy so I had to germinate them in a special self watering container I made. Once they got not only roots but leaf parts I planted them in a regular houseplant container. Two years ago I learned that squash did not like to compete with the tomatoes, so I grew some zucchini from seed, only three came up from the peat pots I used, so I planted them in a huge container that I got from Wal-marts along with a 'gift' squash I found growing in the ground under the area where I had the plants growing two years ago.

Two years ago I had also planted Marigolds on top of some of the hanging tomatoes, only decided not to do that this year. Instead

I decided to try to grow roses. I made self

watering containers for the plants to grow in. I think the plants will do better next year when

I have the chance to prune them. For now I'm interested in growing the hips so that I can try t

o grow roses from seed.

I do not

expect the seeds to grow roses that are identical to the bushes I have, if I'm able to get the seeds going they will be unique unto themselves. I did try to cross pollinate both the bushes I have, and will not know for a month or so whether it worked or not.

It turns out that the date both plants had 'loose' blooms blooming at the same time was exactly two years from the day I

met my boyfriend! I took him to my cousins wedding in June, and before we left we ate some very delicious mangoes. I removed the seeds from the husk and put them in a ziplock bag

with a damp paper towel while we were at the wedding. When we came back, roots had start

ed to grow!

I do not live in the tropics so the plants will have to be indoor plants.

I now have plans to turn my spare bedroom that gets the morning sunlight into a tropical growing room. I'll get a special grow light to add extra light, and get the fish tank hooked up and running to add extra moisture, I'll plant them in self watering containers and keep the soil from being soggy or dried out. The Mangoes growing so well has inspired me to do other tropical plants, I've got an avocado seed in water, kiwi seeds on a damp paper towel, and pineapple seeds as well. I'm also trying to grow the pineapple top. Did I forget to mention I also started some watermelon seed from a watermelon we had at mom's house? I broke the tap root on one, although two seeds have sprouted of the four I tried to germinate. I'll have to bring them inside once summer is over and they are planted in their final container since their growing season is too long for where I live. I've read where alot of people try to say that growing seeds from store bought fruit will not produce fruit, that only grafted plants produce. I wonder if those people ever thought of where the original plant came from that they are using to graft? The mango trees and the avocado trees do take a long time to mature, and with pruning can produce fruit, although not the same as what they came from, if they are given the correct conditions to do so. which I plan to try to do. I plan to plant more pits from avocados, maybe some I get when I next visit my boyfriend. Oh and if I can find some dragon fruit, I'll try to grow them as well, it comes from a tropical cactus and I so want to see what the red dragon fruit taste like, and try to grow it's seeds. I almost forgot to mention the peach and plum seeds I'm trying to get to germinate. If they grow I might plant them directly in the ground when they are big enough. They might make a good structure for the kiwi to grow on. I'm in zone 7 and think the kiwi will do ok outside in my zone. Well I need to go see if my Strawberry plants have any ripe Strawberries on them, they too will come inside in the winter, cause they are ever bearing.

Mother's Day Necklace

I was trying to decide what to get for my mother for Mother's Day, and because I do not have alot of money, I decided to make her something. I looked through the beads I have, and choose one of the new heart shaped beads that I had gotten when I went to get Jewelry making supplies last week. I also choose some blue and white seed beads, and some beads a little bit bigger that had blue and off white colors. So I made the'charm' part that I hung the glass heart shaped bead, then started with the seed beads in a blue and white pattern alternating with the slightly larger beads and increasing the number of seed beads as I added more beads to the necklace. I worked from both ends of necklace, with the heart charm in the middle, making it symmetrical. of course at one point added my 'flaw' seed bead. Then I used crimp beads and toggle clasp to finish the necklace, with a crimp bead cover as well. If you like this and want one like it email me at skayc1@yahoo.com, and I will make one for you. I am not at this time posting this on Etsy, unless someone wants me to.

Having fun using the bead loom!

It had been over a year since I used a loom to make a bracelet, I suppose I stopped for two reasons, well three anyhow; my loom that I had somehow broke, I was very busy with school and romance, and I was having trouble with my eyesight in that I had a blurry spot. The blurry spot was caused by diabetic retinopathy (sorry can't spell) and while it hasn't gone away, it is less noticable most days..in other words I've gotten used to it. School is winding down, I wont be graduating just yet, although the two classes I need to graduate are only offerred in the spring semester so I have to wait. As for the loom, well I bought another one when I went to shopping for some Jewelry making supplies. While I was shopping, I just had to look at the beads! I found this seed bead color that I decided to get, as well as heart shaped toggle clasp's and even a heart shaped glass beads. The heart shaped glass bead I'll use at a later time. First thing I wanted to do was to use the loom, so I got my supplies out, chose three colors of seed beads, including the color I got from my latest shopping trip, which was sorta a purple/ lavender kind of color. the other two colors I used were pink and white. I love how the heart shaped toggle clasp look on this bracelet, I did make it a bit big for my wrist, so it will fit someone who wears an 8" bracelet size. Despite the fact that I am very tall, and a little bit overweight, I have very small wrist.

The picture to the left shows the bracelet when it was still on the loom.

.......... Email- skayc1@yahoo.com , and Etsy- http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?

listing_id=24481342 .

Just made Today- Little Girl Necklace

I was looking through my bits n pieces of beads, the leftovers from previous times when I have made Jewelry for my family and friends, and decided to make a necklace to put up on Etsy! I had this bead that came in a three pack, three girl faces made from polymer clay, well two of them I had made necklaces with for my two youngest nieces and had one face leftover. I decided to use that bead in my necklace. I have the tendancy to buy beads from the craft store if they are cute, or I think I might like to use them in my Jewelry, well I had some gold sead beads that I hadn't even used yet, so that would make up the bulk of my necklace, next I recreated the same pattern I had used when I designed the necklaces for my nieces, and then strung the beads on to my string......making sure to include one 'flaw' bead. It's easy to find, unlike the bracelet in my previous post where the color variation is hard to see at first! as allways you can email me at skayc1@yahoo.com or visit my Etsy account-http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7175191

Making Flower Bracelet's

Several Years ago my sister went to work at a summer camp in the mid-west, and during one of her visit's back home, brought with her some seed beads. I was intrigued by these small tiny beads, and after she showed me the technique of making a flower pattern with them on a string, I was hooked! I loved the feel of the beads in my hands, and found out that they came in many wide ranges of color! Latter I taught myself how to make more than just the flower bracelet shown hear, which I will share with you at a later time. In my Jewelry work I like to put one 'flaw' a color of bead that isn't part of the color pattern. It represets that we as human beings are not perfect, that even though we are flawed, we are still one of God's Beautiful creations and deserving of his love. If you would like one of these bracelet's in your choice of colors email me at skayc1@yahoo.com .

The listing for this Item on Etsy -http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24258722

Magic Forest- Story of the making

When I worked for a call center answering Customer Service calls for an internet company we would once in awhile have the online programs that we used go down. One such day when we were not receaving as many calls because of this, I went online and asked my friends in a group I was a member what should I draw? One person wrote back 'You should draw a forest', one person said you should draw a frog wearing a hat, another person said 'an elf' .So I started to draw the trees, an elf, two frogs, which I googled the picture to look at, and the mushrooms. I put hats on top of the frogs then I also decided to add flowers. I showed this drawing to a fellow employee and the suggested that I add butterflies so I did! I liked how it was looking and gave it the name 'Magic Forest'. Etsy-http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24142086 . If you have a creative Idea of a drawing you would like for me to draw for you, then email me at skayc1@yahoo.com

'Joe Sleeping' - Story of the making of

I love to use colored pencil to draw people, I'll just pick up a pencil and get the outlines then finish the drawing using colored pencil at a latter time. I find it very easy to take the colored pencils with me everywhere I go, so when I was visiting Joe I had them with me. Joe had started not feeling well, and decided to sleep late. I of course was pouting and wanted him to wake up, only he didn't. So me being board silly decided to get my pad and paper out, and went and sat on the floor beside the bed, and started to draw Joe sleeping. I thought he looked soo cute I just couldn't resist. It was latter when I went home that I used the colored pencils to color him in. Like any artist when I'm inspired to draw something, first I sketch what I see, then later, I modify certain things in the drawing, while keeping it real. I also will use photos to draw from, which I will share in another Blog. Here is a picture of Joe for you to compare. Do you think it looks like him? If you would like me to do a drawing of you or your loved ones, then you can email me at skayc1@yahoo.com or go to my Etsy account and choose from what I have offerred, I will be putting up more of my art on etsy as time goes by. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7175191 I also make Jewelry as well !