Palette Garden

This is by far the biggest project I have done to date!

I got this idea from Pintrest after searching around for some fun, creative crafty things to do and I stumbled upon this.

Supplies!

My cousin was building a house last summer and they had a lot of theses shipping palettes that were just going to go in the trash when my creative gears started grinding and that's when I came up with the idea for a Palette Garden.

Now yes you may have noted that I mentioned "last summer" and the fact that I am writing this post means yes I just completed it but that is besides the point... Let me also note that I am in no way shape or form an experienced gardener and am merely doing this as an experiment, hopefully it will be a successful one, but only time will tell. Moving on...

I started by washing the palettes. This may seem counterproductive but seeing as they have been sitting outside for almost a year there is not telling what has been in or on them so better safe than sorry seeing as I am growing things I would like to one day eat.

After washing the palettes I start stapling landscape fabric to the bottom and sides of the palettes to prevent weeds and to hold the soil and seeds in place.

Squash and Zucchini seeds

I placed the palettes side-by-side and began filling them with soil. This was by far the hardest part because the spaces are so tight that I had to take a lot of time to fill each one, water it, place the seeds, then add more soil, then finally water again, and those bags are not light! After all the soil was poured in I watered again for good measure and stepped back and admired all of my hard work.!

I decided to plant some salad spring mix, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, red pepper and cucumbers. I am really hoping that everything grows into delicious, edible organic veggies.

UPDATE: There has been amazing growth in my zucchini, squash and cucumber areas!! The row with my red peppers has yet to show it's pretty little face but everything else is looking pretty good.




 Keep you updated : )


Simply Me,

Ashley Marie

13.1

On April 6, 2014 I ran in my first half-marathon!

Here's my story......

I have never been a runner! The last time I competitively ran was in Junior High and after that I since retired my runner shoes. Up until a few years ago at least. Being a college athlete we were demanded to do a lot of training (anyone reading this and knowing where I went to college knows this is complete sarcasm, but more on that later).

Throughout college I struggled with gaining weight then losing it just to put it right back on again. So as I was ending my college year I realized that I really needed to pick up a new hobby of working out because I DID NOT want to be one of "those people" who gained a lot of weight and metaphorically "fell off". My mom started running a lot and seeing how it made her look and feel I want to see what it was all about. I ran my first 5k in the summer of 2009 and was hooked. I loved the adrenaline rush, it felt like I was playing again!

I trained for a half-marathon 2 years ago but never got the courage to actually sign up and do one. This time I wasn't leaving any doubt! I signed up for Angie's Half Crazy Half-Marathon and I knew once I hit the submit button there would be no turning back. I used the NikePlus+ App for my training runs and also incorporated Shaun T's T25 to my daily workouts and felt better than ever.

The week of the race was rainy and there was a chance that it could storm on the day of the race. Knowing this I thought to myself that I was just not meant to run in a half-marathon. But as the week went on it started to clear up for race day on Sunday.

Race Day:
I did this race completely by myself. This was the first race that my mom would not be running in and that fact alone I was a little nervous, other than that I felt excited and prepared! The race was a turnaround race so half way (at 6.55 miles) you turned around and went back the way you came. As I passed the halfway point I just started to think "It's go time!", because one of my goals was to finish in under 2 hours and there was no way I was not going to accomplish it. I started "picking off" people and just talking to myself saying "you need to catch her and keep going and find someone else to catch up to" I ended up placing 4th in my age group, which was a little disappointing because the top 3 got prizes, but I did finish in under 2 hours! The one thing that I will say is that as proud of myself that I am of my accomplishment I wish my mom would have been there so I could have shared it with her.

All in all it was an AMAZING experience and I can't wait to do another one!

Simply Me,

Ashley Marie