fixin' up the living room floor!

Last summer, we ripped up the carpet in our living room. This weekend, we finally got around to moving along with the project by finishing the border of the floor. We still need to finish the center of the floor, but we're pretty happy with how it looks so far.
This is a picture from last summer after we ripped up the carpet:

David sanded the part of the floor that wasn't covered in lead paint; he plugged the holes and patched them.
Since the border was covered with lead paint and we didn't want to sand or scrape nasty lead paint flakes, we decided to just paint over it. The above picture is David drawing a line for our border.
Then we put some primer on. I'd like to also point out that it might seem like David did all of the work since I'm not in any of the pictures; I'd like to let the record show that I did in fact help out with this project. I just happen to be the one who remembers to take pictures.
We spent all of 25 seconds in our local Home Depot paint aisle and picked out a garden sage color for our border.
After two coats of paint, this is how it looks so far!

getting warmer

hyacinth, prayer flags, rose of sharon, tulips, daffodils, rhubarb, apricot tree blossoms, and japanese maple buds

basil

regular basil (seeds were saved from last year's harvest) on the right and purple basil on the left

first weekend of april

daffodil, norway spruce, lettuce, lettuce growing lots of different places, italian heirloom tomato plants are looking bigger, and a dandelion green salad*

*Dandelion greens are packed with vitamins, but they can be bitter. A friend recommended mixing in hard boiled egg to cut through the bitterness; I also added chopped almonds, some of our oven-dried tomatoes from last year's harvest and then we poured a sweet homemade dressing on top. Yum!

billberry biscuit

It is no secret that David makes some of the best biscuits I've ever eaten.

Plop on some of his delicious homemade yogurt cheese with a spoonful of our peach butter and you've got yourself one ridiculously tasty treat.

seeds!

seed exchanging, okra seeds, itsy bitsy Italian Heirloom Tomato plants {bliss}

started inside:
-Tequila Sunrise Pepper
-Thai Hot Pepper
-Italian Heirloom Tomato
-Pruden's Purple Tomato
-Basil (seeds saved from last summer's plants)
-Purple Basil (from Jessica)

planted outside:
-Dwarf Sugar Peas
-3 Red Raspberry Bushes

pawpaw post

We planted two more fruit trees today in our garden: the Mango Pawpaw and the Pennsylvania Golden Pawpaw. Most people have never heard of the pawpaw fruit; it has a short shelf-life, so it is typically not sold in grocery stores. The pawpaw apparently tastes a bit like a banana and has a texture like an avocado. We've been daydreaming of eating these things for awhile now...too bad we'll have to wait a few years. For now, we like to think of the many ways we'll enjoy the fruit:

pawpaw nut bread

pawpaw splits

pawpaw fruit leather

pawpaw pancakes

pawpaw popsicles

pawpaw cream pie

pawpaw smoothies

pawpaw ice cream

and the list goes on and on...believe me!

Apparently, the pawpaw tree is also associated with bigfoot sightings...check out this link! Maybe we'll have our own bigfoot sighting story to share some day!

for more information on this interesting fruit, check out this link: pawpaw on wikipedia.