I am cheap as HELL

I promised pictures of the grow lamp setup, and here they are ... though this doesn't look like a lot now, the beginnings of my fantastic vegetable garden are there!

 I have always wanted this project to be as low-impact as possible.  Oh, how I wish this grow lamp was solar-powered ... le sigh.  Anyway, my containers are, as you can see, empty paper egg cartons filled with peat moss, set in an old serving tray.  I went a little farther and used the top part of the egg carton, used cut up toilet paper and paper towel rolls, and filled those with peat moss as well.  Then I was out of all of that and still had some seeds to plant, so back to the recycling (or upcycling) bin I went, and found the single-serve yogurt cartons that I always yell at the Mister for buying.

I poked some holes in the bottom, filled them with peat moss and set those in the top of a Chinese food container.  Even the markers are popsicle sticks I've been setting aside for a while.  So my total expense for all this was the cost of a bag of peat moss, about $7.  (My dad gave me the grow lamp, but similar ones are available at Home Despot <-typo on purpose, for about $20)
And that shelf?  All ME!!  OK, sidetracking for a minute - does anyone else have a husband who takes no pride whatsoever in household projects?  In this last year I've built a compost bin, painted our living room, updated our bathroom, built these shelves plus two others, uprooted a massive butterfly bush and re-planted it, set up our rain barrel, and re-finished the kids outdoor bench.   The latch he bought to put on the porch door three years ago is STILL sitting on my work bench on the porch.  Luckily he is still cute, and takes fantastic care of these two minions ... now to just work on the get-up-and-go bit.
Hopefully these little garden fairies can work their magic

Mooch got a Venus Flytrap from my Mom & Dad - she's determined to get it to eat stinkbugs, which she hates.  The child will pick up a snake and tame it in a second, but she actually cries when she sees a stinkbug.

It was her snack day at school today, and it was the beginning of "Prince & Princess Week".  So I got a little creative with candy melts and made mini blueberry muffins with a dollop of lemon frosting on top, and a little crown

She was so excited to bring these!  Almost made up for the hour I spent piping these onto parchment paper, lol.
Have a fantastic week, and don't forget to send out extra love and healing to the people of Japan affected by the earthquake and tsunami.  The girls and I are planting a sapling this week in their honor.