A garden tour

I never thought that I was a very good gardener.  Sure I am married to a former landscaper, but I have traditionally pretty much killed any plant that came into my possession within the first few days!  However, I am really wanted to be a good gardener, both for flowers and veggies.  Last year our gardening experience was HORRIBLE!!!!  Too many plants in too much space and it was several miles away on property that we were notable to use any pest deterents on :(  This year we have taken a completely different approach.  Our back porch is surround by a built in raised box screaming at me for something to be planted in it.  So we decided to put in some veggies around the back patio and lots of flowers around the yard in containers.  Here is a peak (I will take more pics later in the summer when, hopefully, everything has grown up a bit)

I think that this one might be my favorite flower pot - I have always loved purple and white flowers so I think these looked great.  The stick in the middle is a tiki torch.

These two baskets are hanging along our back fence.  It really brightens up the space to have some bright colors in unexpected places :)

  Onto the veggies - some garden fresh broccoli

Hailey's personal favorite - cucumbers

A big sandwich tomato plant - can hardly wait for some BLT sandwiches with some tomatoes from this one!

And no home garden would be complete with a cherry tomato plant (even with a little fertilizer burn on a few leaves)

2 zucchini plants - I definitely have some boys looking forward to zucchini bread

2 bell pepper plants

This one is a bit of an experiment - a strawberry tower!

And my wonderful basil plant - just yesterday I picked a whole bunch of leaves from this plant and had a mid afternoon snack of mozzarella cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes, and some fresh basil

This little porch basket is around the front yard.  I am hoping the flowers will fill the space, but it is a very small basket in some very warm sunlight so I will keep my fingers crossed for this one

These baskets are also in the front yard.  The pansies always remind me of walking around Temple Square in the spring when all of the gardeners are scurry all around planting thousands of these little beauties :)

So welcome to my garden!  I am looking forward to lots of BBQs and fun times this summer and I will certainly fess up to my blog readers if I end up killing all of the plants :/  For now we will enjoy them and keep nursing them along

13!

13 . . . . . . .


13 . . . . . .


13 is exactly the number of school days left for my kids!  I know there are some moms out there who cry when their kids ride away on the school bus, who can't wait until summer break so that their kids can be at home with them every day all day, who really do struggle with separation anxiety.

But let's just face the facts . . . .I am just not one of those moms!

Don't get me wrong - I love each and everyone of of my little people.  I love doing fun things together, working together, and all the things that families do together.  But I also love those few precious moments in the middle of the day when the older ones are at school and the younger ones are napping and I can eat my lunch in peace and even have a little treat without having the hide in my closet so I don't have to share :)  I am fully ready to admit that sending my kids to school from 8-3:30 makes me a much better mom from 3:30-bedtime.

That being said .  .  .  I have a plan!

I have planned something fun, or a little project to do, everyday of summer break!  Many of them are fun things that cost nothing, like playing in the sprinklers or making cookies for our local cops, and going to our local library every other Monday, and some are bigger activities.  Here is a peek:

May

• build a big blanket fort - perhaps incorporating twinkly christmas lights and snacks
• Geocaching - this is apparently a really big thing around here with lots of beginner/easy hikes and searches so I think we will give this a try
• lots of movie theme dinners (like trying out gumbo and beignets while watching Princess and the Frog)
• bike rides
• Zoo visit (totally pays off to get the yearly membership)
• Denver Chalk Art Festival

June

• Swimming at the Funplex
• Summer Movie Clubhouse shows - there are lots of good kids movies on the schedule this year and you can't beat $1 per person at the theater
• fishing
• Windsor Lake
• camping
• Giant bubbles
• Cherry Blossom Festival
• Train museum
• Make tie-dye t-shirts

July

• Nature and science Museum
• Denver art museum
• The farm @ Lee Martinex Park - this is a fully functioning farm that people can come visit and interact
• bowling - we found a place close by that they kids can bowl 1 free game every day during the summer break
• PVC pipe bow and arrows in the backyard
• Frontier Days in Cheyenne
• Buffalo Bill days
• Chinese Dragon Boat races in Denver

August

• Lots of birthday parties this month!
• swimming 
• farmers markets
• library
• Back to school shopping - my personal favorite LOL

Hopefully we will stay busy and happy and summer break will be full of laughs and fun.  Stay tuned to the blog for pics and updates!

A kitchen 'make over'

After the gallery wall in the front room my kitchen was my next big project.  I have always admired other peoples kitchens with decor, but I have long struggled to reconcile the balance between work space and decor.  I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and with limited counter space I made an executive decision to look up :)

Here are a few before shots

And here is a shot of the finished project!

These little boxes were super easy to make - I picked up three small unfinished wood crates at Michaels, used some wood stain, then cut some vinyl for the front

the 2 large square vases on either side of the red apples I found at the second hand store for $2 a piece!  Then I found the filler at Walmart for $5 - I was pretty happy with that deal.  And if I can't have real chickens, then I guess some decorative ones will have to suffice :)

 I have had this large green platter for a while, but don't use it very often.  The chicken plate I found at Hobby Lobby.  The bottles I painted (on the inside so that they would still have that glass shiny look).

I love this little trick - I found a kitchen towel with chickens that I liked on it and just framed the towel!  The little bucket with the moss ball in it is, when turned around, a St. Patricks day decoration, but turned this way I think it works year round

I love this chicken wire basket that I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby.   I added some vinyl to the front to fit with the whole chicken theme 

These are just some unfinished wood letters that I painted black, distressed, and add the couple of flowers.

I really can't stand corner cupboards - everything seems to get lost in the far reaches of the back corner, never to be seen again!  I took the cupboard door off of this corner cupboard, and am using the top shelf for seasonal items, a stack of my favorite cookbook in the center, and my recipe stand that also holds my Ipad on the bottom shelf.  The black chicken at the bottom of the pic is a chalkboard that I note whats for dinner.

After the counters and cabinets, my attention went to the floor.  While I thoroughly enjoy the hard wood floors in the kitchen, spending lots of time cooking can make my feet a little sore :/  With a tutorial I found online in hand, I turned these

into this!

love this little blue chicken :)

I am certainly enjoying my little kitchen 'make over'  

A Gallery Wall

First of all - I am officially back to blogging.  I realize that it has been almost an entire year since my last post,  but I have missed my little blog, and, hopefully, some of you have missed reading this blog and seeing some of my projects and such!  

That being said, I think that Matt has perhaps opened Pandora's box!  For years and years he has been saying to me - go ahead and decorate the house however you want, spend whatever you want on projects, go have some fun at Hobby Lobby, etc. etc.  I know - I am a pretty lucky girl!  However, I have never really felt up to the task.  Probably in response to my perfectionist tendancies (LOL) I have been a little gunshy to tackle some bigger decorating challenges.

Alas, with the advent of Pinterest, Matt has again taken up the call of "why save all of these projects and ideas if you are not going to do any of them?"  A good question, I suppose . . . .

A gallery wall . . . . .

They are all over Pinterest and I have always like them.  I decided to take some inspiration from the plethora of examples online, but decided on shelves, instead of putting a whole bunch of holes in the wall.  

Sorry about the bright spot at the top of the pic - probably a bad time to snap a picture with the sun shining through :/

The following pics are some of the pieces that I made up into JPEGS, then just printed at Walmart and framed

Everyone loves a piece of chocolate :)

Today I finished up some end of the year treats for Jake and Hailey's classmates and teachers - I think they turned out really cute!  The boxes for the teachers are just little boxes of chocolates and the little owls for the classmates are hershey's chocolate nuggets.  If you want to make some for your kiddos the printable template can be found here

Our first road trip of 2012 is just around the corner!

Tis the season for road trips!!!  Matt thinks I am crazy but I am happy to report that I LOVE road trips :)  Blame it on my childhood or what have you (sorry mom), but I really enjoy packing up the car and taking off on an adventure.  Things do get more complicated with a van full of kids to entertain but with a little planning and craftiness anyone can have a great "road-tripping" summer.  These are little tags that are posted on the driver's sun visor (obviously 1 for each kidlet).  If they are being good then they stay up, when they get naughty they come down - when you stop for a potty break or gas or what have you, if there tag is up they get a treat.  A simple, but hopefully effective little tool.

Let's get organized!

Meet my Home Management System :)  It is quite complex and uses lots of specialty products :p to wrangle the mountains of papers and receipts and 'stuff' that accumulates on my kitchen counters.  First the base is a red rubbermaid dish drying wrack from Walmart and I was delighted to learn that the cute little file folders from the office section of the store (and I might add cheap - 3 folders for $1) just stand right at attention just like your dinner plates!  With a little notebook for quick phone messages or something that needs to be remembered and some pencils and pens in the silverware holder the Home Management System is complete and ready to bring a little smile to my face every time I walk down the stairs in the morning and see my neatly organized papers and coupons, phones lists, and such :)

My folders are labeled

• receipts
• rewards programs & coupons
• weekly recipes & groceries
• FHE & scripture study
• Cleaning & home maintenance
• Contacts
• Schedules and calendars
• Errands & to do's
• Dining out menus and coupons
• Summer Activities
• Kids
• Misc/Other