The everyday stuff that makes up my life now—from home and garden projects to Bubble & Squeak, cooking, and whatever else happens to be going on around here.
What a year it has been! From tiny seeds to harvests, garden experiments, successes, failures, and plenty of learning along the way, Survival Seeds 2026 brought together an amazing community of gardeners, growers, homesteaders, and creators. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who planted, grew, shared, encouraged, watched, commented, and cheered each other on. Survival…
If you’ve been following Bubble and Squeak, you already know these two little girls have brought an impressive amount of chaos, cuddles, zoomies, and laughter into our home. Well, apparently being adorable wasn’t enough. Now they have their own soundtrack! 😂🎵 For today’s Bubble & Squeak video, I put together a collection of some of…
There are moments during this renovation when I have to stop and look at the house and think, “Wow. Is this really the same place?” After 12 years of neglect, this house has needed an almost ridiculous amount of attention. We’ve tackled the roof, the gutters, the floors, the trees, the brush, and a long…
I’ve always been happiest when I’m making something. Give me an idea, some supplies and a little time, and I’m probably going to disappear down a creative rabbit hole. Over the years, I’ve made jewelry, crocheted scarves, soap, skincare products, miniature fairy houses and furniture, wreaths, cards, T-shirts and probably a dozen other things I’ve…
Once we started dealing with the trees, it became pretty obvious that we weren’t talking about a few trees that needed trimming. We had a LOT of trees and a lot of them needed to come down. Many were dead or dying, some had been damaged or overwhelmed by ivy, and others had simply been…
When we came home, I knew the yard was going to need some work. I did not realize quite how much work. One of the biggest problems was the ivy. It had been allowed to grow unchecked for years, climbing trees, covering the ground, and working its way through just about everything in its path….
When we first started figuring out what needed to be done around the house, the roof was the one thing I knew we couldn’t mess around with. It was old. It was in bad shape. And after twelve years of questionable property management, it was pretty obvious that replacing it wasn’t going to be optional….
After twelve years in Canada, Dave and I decided it was time to come home to Oregon. I had officially retired in 2025, at 62, and I was looking forward to settling back in, enjoying some time with family, and maybe slowing down a little. The house had been rented and managed while we were…
SOMETHING HAS TO GROW AROUND HERE The Oregon weather had other plans for our Renovation Saga. When it’s too wet to work outside, there’s not much point in trying to fight it. So instead of working on the house and yard, I decided to sit down with my seeds and start planning what I’m actually…