2011 Spring Garden

Our garden has officially begun. It is much earlier than last year and I am prepared to make them grow!

This Spring we planted:

-Cantaloupe

-1 Pumpkin (for curiosity sake)

-squash

-zucchini

-Banana Peppers

-Jalapeno

-Okra

-Tomato

-Onion

We ran out of room so in containers, I will try:

-Sage

-Cilantro

-Rosemary

-Strawberries

I also started a Garden Journal to track progress each year. I also thought it would be helpful to remember what grew and where it was, any pests, etc.... Here is a quick tour through my journal.

This page lists the crops, what date we planted them, and if it was seed, transfer or both.

Hope your gardening goes well.

Window Box

This is where we left of with the shed update:


And as promised, we we added the window box (not as easy as it sounds)!

Went to Home Depot and picked out flowers that need FULL SUN.

Completed look from far away.

Combo revealed

This Saturday was a "free" Saturday. That means there is NOTHING on the calendar. No work, no traveling, no quests, nothing! That allowed me some time to work on the yard.

My last post I mentioned a strange combo idea...well I did it ! Using the two pictures from the last post, I decided to take my crafting outdoors. And like most projects I am going for cheap$$.

Well, that was easy this time. Our large carport has three workbenches. And when we moved in we inherited this stack of wood.

Starting to look familiar????
Well, I nailed them together quickly, took out the same yellow paint as our livingroom, painted a more suitable phrase and VOILA!

It serves not only as art but as storage space. I put in some nails for my most used tools.
Bringing some life to our dreaded carport, I decided to extend it a little further and use an already there workbench. Using the same paint, I quickly painted the bench.



Looks better than before, though there is more work to be done, and the best part was....it was FREE!!! Just in time for spring planting, too.

Unique combo

Here are two more inspiration pieces that I LOVE. One is form and one is function. Guess which is which.

This headboard is so simple that I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner.

Source: House tweaking

This is a potting bench. After seeding and transferring 20 vegetable plants on my porch, I can totally see the benefit of a work bench.

Source: Ms. Smartie Pants

I'm thinking of ways that I can make these mine. I don't need another headboard though (when I moved out of my college apartment, I realized I had 5 headboards in storage).

Stay tuned to find out what my plan is.

Quickest Craft Ever!

The other day I was going through Michael's craft store looking for a picture frame for a new poster we got in Gruene (more on that later). I came across these cute people in the wood aisle. I had an idea for them and for just $.99 each the risk was worth it!

All I did was paint them black



and hang them up! The whole process took about 15 minutes!


They are on our main bathroom door. I think its fun and if I get tired of them, they are quilt free!

Linked up to:

One down....three to go!!

In a recent post, I mentioned a couple of fun ideas that I wanted to tackle one of these days. Well, I got around to actually doing one! I decided to take on the burlap table runner. I made it up as I went along but I learned a lot!

1)Burlap is VERY difficult to sew - I broke two needles!
2) Burlap sheds...a lot
3) Making a ruffle is not as easy as it looks.

Still, it came out ok. There are things I would do differently, though.
For one, I would definately wash the fabric a couple of times (like 3) before cutting or sewing it. This helped with the shedding and make it softer.

Here is my inspiration:



Here is my attempt:



Stay tuned for more!

Spring Surprises

Spring keeps popping up and surprising us. The weather is wonderful but besides that, the wildlife is coming back out, the trees are coming back to life.

We planted trees back in October and Neil has done a great job of watering them and caring for them so we were hoping that they would survive. During this week we had a better view from our sofa than usual.

Our bradford pear trees bloomed. We knew that they would bloom white in the spring and red in the fall but we are just so excited that they are alive!!!

This is what it looks like. Bigger, similar trees in the area look like huge cotton balls - we can't wait for them to grow!

This is a close up of the bloom.

There was this bush on the side of our yard that we planned on cutting down because it seems to keep growing. Well, this afternoon I noticed another surprise....they bloomed too! The best part??? they required no care! That's my kind of plant :)


Spring is showing its face around here.

This last weekend of Spring Break we took a quick drive down to San Antonio. We got to see Charlie, my dad's new dog, and spend some time with each other.

Saturday was a packed day. We first made it to the Zoo.







The weather was wonderful! Neil loves zoos but I had never taken him to the San Antonio and while it was pretty good, it also made us proud of our Waco Zoo. The zoo here is as good as the big city zoo of San Antonio.

Just trying to throw in a little fun there for Spring Break.

That evening we took a drive 20 minutes north to Gruene Texas. It is a small Nisswa-like town. Filled with shops, restaurants, and a river. We had never been there but will definitely go back again, this time with more time to shop!

We ate a very good meal outdoors at The Gristmill Restaurant.


All the guys trying to solve a puzzle game.

It was a fun, quick weekend..... Back to work!

Lost and not Found

I have this tendency to not buy ANYTHING until its on sale - i get this from my mom. For example, sometimes when I need to buy, say, 4 curtain panels, i buy one a pay period so that I can spread out the spending. Sometimes I put items on "watch". These are things that I have absolutely NO need for but really like. But these methods should be used with caution - they can cause a minor heartbreak.

For example.
I saw these stools at Target and they were regular priced $25 each.
I needed three - thats $75! That makes me feel guilty so I bought 1 and then went back the next week to buy another and then went back two weeks later to get the last one and there were NONE! Like zero in all the Targets from Dallas to San Antonio, in Iowa, and online! I called every single one. Apparently they went on clearance within two weeks and sold out. Now I am stuck with two, which I have grown to accept and I guess its better than just one. Lesson learned.


Then there were these curtains that I wanted - $25 each. (the red)

I needed four...you know where this is going....long story short I have three hanging in my house and the fourth is not the same. I thought I was going to return all of them but luckily mom found one in San Antonio. She could not get in touch with me when she saw them and Funny thing is, this lady that taught me to buy small purchases bought me four curtains - just in case. Now I have 7! Lesson learned.


Recently, as in this afternoon, I was browsing through a store I have never bought anything from but love to window shop at- Anthropologie. I have had my eye on this (don't laugh) butter dish for a long time.

Apparently I missed the sale :( Now it is nowhere to be found...not ebay, etsy, or google. I will call around tomorrow.

I was going through IKEA and made it through the whole store without buying much but then I got to the clearance section and found a duvet cover for our master bedroom with ONE pillow cover. All for one $12!
I thought I would just pick up another pillow case next time since I was running out of time. Well, apparently you cannot buy pillow cases separately. You have to buy a 4 piece set that includes the duvet that I already have. This is not too much of a problem but is the principal of the matter.

All this is just the last year! Of course my sweet husband always says "you should have just bought them!" so next time, I guess I will.

College GameDay

This past Saturday we got up at 6:00 to be at College Game Day at 7:00AM!! It was the first time that Baylor has hosted College Game Day but boy did they pull out all the stops. There were free tshirts, free tacos, a poster pit(where you can make posters).

This was my date:

It was three hours of constant yelling and cheering but lots of fun so here is a recap.

ESPN analysts.

This is the poster Neil made. FYI-Barnes is the coach of the Longhorns.

Our players made an appearance coming down our aisle.

Bob Knight coaching our team - it did not end well.

It was a busy day but lots of fun for the Bears. Even the game was better than we expected.