Plant Markers, Seedlings & Earth Hour

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make some mini-chalkboard plant markers. Matt and I went to Michael's and got some really small dowel rods, square wood pieces, a bag of popsicle sticks and chalkboard spray paint. I wanted the popsicle sticks painted blue and cut to frame the squares so it looked like a little chalkboard. I didn't even have time to consider starting it before Matt was done with them. He just went to work on them one day and did a way better job than I ever would have! Yay for crafty husbands:) Aren't they darling? I can't wait till our patio is covered with them!

We ordered our seeds from Burpee.com  and they came on Thursday! We ordered Big Beef Hybrid tomatoes, Napa Grape Hybrid tomatoes, Costa Rican sweet bell peppers, Billy Biker Hybrid jalapeño peppers, Italian parsley, sweet basil, coriander, catnip:) and Dragon Fire begonias. We are also planting some of Mona's left over junior sunflowers! We don't have a yard, just a little balcony upstairs so these are all going to be in pots and herb boxes and the begonias are for my hanging pot. I'm really excited about everything! Last year we bought full grown seedlings at Home Depot and they all died tragic deaths. This year we really read up on what we need to do to be successful gardeners so hopefully all our little plants make it. Our patio has been lovingly called "the place where plants go to die" but we plan to change that:) I am especially excited about the begonias I chose. They are so pretty, and apparently really great for hanging plants and are easy to take care of. Have any of you ever had any? I stole a photo from glenleagreenhouses.com to show you all what they will look like!

Pretty, huh?!

We went to Ace yesterday and got all our soil and seedling trays and everything we needed and we planted them today! I cannot wait to see them grow!! Can you tell I'm new at this? :) I used the left over popsicle sticks to mark them for now.

Oh, also did anyone remember that last night was Earth hour? We totally forgot until like ten minutes before it started, but we still participated! You know you are lame when the most fun you're having on a Saturday night is celebrating Earth hour... hahahaha! We did have fun though:) Matt announced that Earth hour was happening in just a few minutes so I ran around the apartment and lit all our candles and turned out all the lights. We opened a bottle of Syrah and curled up in bed to watch a flick on our laptop (we don't have a television in our bedroom). We ended up leaving the lights off for the rest of the night so I think we deserve extra kudos for being so environmentally conscience! We watched a French film called Tell No One. It was really, really good. I'm not usually one for reading subtitles because I'm almost always working on something while watching a movie, but I'm really glad we watched this one. The acting, directing and storyline were all fascinating! Four thumbs way up; I definitely recommend it.