Happy New Year!

I don’t know about you, but for me, 2012 was pretty rad. Here’s to making 2013 even better!

I think we all know what time it is. Resolution time!

For WhatTheCraft, my resolutions are to make MORE patterns and MORE tutorials! My specific goal is to have at least a new one of each per month.

For myself, my resolution is to get a garden going. My last attempt didn’t fair so well, mostly because what had been a sunny spot in our yard had been converted to mostly shade. Not good for veggies.

Lucky for me, we moved! I now have lots of sun and lots of grass (ugh). I’m really excited to try Winter Sowing for the first time. As soon as it gets really cold here in Michigan, I get ants in my pants for spring and gardens and flowers. Seriously, just thinking about it now, I almost get an anxiety attack- but in a good way. I used to think I just had to wait, but now it seems I can start getting my hands dirty in January!

All my failed attempts at getting a good garden started are okay, though. Every time something doesn’t work, you hopefully learn something about what NOT to do. So my What NOT To Do list for my vegetable garden this year is:

1. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Even when I try to hold back, I wind up buying 50 different kinds of seeds. Too many, especially for a newb. Pick a few and add few more every year once you’ve got the routine down.

2. Don’t skimp on the garden bed prep. This time I’m going to try a variation of the “Instant Bed” method: I’m going to cover the grass with cardboard, add some compost and topsoil on top of the cardboard, and then mulch on top of that. I’ll be using raised beds made from cinderblocks for the veggies, unraised for flowers.

3. Don’t skimp on the mulch. The benefits of not having to weed or water or fertilize as much is worth the potential extra cost of buying ENOUGH mulch. Trying to spread a small amount too thin is pointless. I’d be better off not mulching at all if I’m going to do it wrong.

And lastly, the Extreme Unicorns are going to release one new song/video a week in 2013. Here’s the first one to get us started!