Plants

So over the Labor Day weekend, we finally redid our foundation planting. I was finally able to make up my mind on what to get, thank goodness! As I mentioned before, we tore out all of the old bushes and have replaced them with dwarf varieties. We got a Dwarf Alberta Spruce, 2 Gumpo White Azaleas, 2 China Girl Holly, 1 China Boy Holly and we planted the 2 boxwood that S gave us. I think it turned out really well.



This is the before shot from around Easter this spring.







This is how it looks now. I really think it makes our house look "younger" and I'm so happy to have those big gnarly bushes gone.






We planted the China Boy Holly off to the side of the yard. We'll have to keep up with the pruning of these shrubs so since the boy holly dosesn't have any berries we figured it would be fine over in another part of the yard and we wouldn't have to worry about trimming it as often.

I'm really happy to finally have this project completed.

Now I just need to get my spring bulbs ordered and planted!

Have you done any garden projects lately?

Monday

Hello all!

I can't believe I've neglected my blog for this long, Yikes!

We've been quite busy with our front landscaping project over the past month or so. There's still plenty to do, but I've come to like and actually be pretty good at gardening so I'm excited to keep puttering around.

Here are some pics from a few weeks ago:

These were my daffodils along our front fence. The came up quite nicely.







We also ripped out several old shrubs at the foundation, but it doesn't seem that I have a pic that actually shows that, doh! I'll get one tonight.

Now that the daffoldils are passing, my day lilies and hydrangeas are starting to green up and mask the dying foliage. It's almost like I planned it that way, ;).

We had a nice weekend. Our usual Thursday date night got moved to Friday last week, so Michael and I went out to Foley's for dinner. It was yummy. I strayed from my usual fish dish, since I made Garlic Talapia the night before, and got a pastrami sandwich. I was not disappointed.

Then Saturday, we did some yard saling. It was fun, but we really should have gotten out there earlier. Most of the ones we hit, mainly just had kids stuff left by the time we got there. Saturday afternoon we headed over to C and S's for some hot dogs and beer. S got C an early birthday present of a kegerator so we were all breaking it in. =)

Sunday, we just chilled. We had some of the pancakes I made Satuday for breakfast. (It was such a huge batch, I made them all up and put the leftovers in the freezer.) I used a recipe I found at The Pioneer Woman. They are to die for! Then I made meatloaf for Sunday dinner using a family friend's recipe that I had been meaning to try. It was also a winner! It too was a big one for just the two of us so I made up two loaves and froze one. It hope it will still be as good when I go to use it later on.

Grilled chicken, potato salad and corn on the cob for dinner tonight!

Well, I'm off to finish up some things before I head home. Have a great day!

My 100th Post!

Hello all!

I noticed that today is my 100th post. Pretty cool! I noticed that today is actually our 900 day wedding anniversary too!

Just checking in for a weekly update. Nothing too exciting going on lately. I've just been getting back into the swing of work and life after the holidays and it's been going well.

I've been working on a perpetual meal plan. I set one up for January and hope to rotate it in future months as I find new recipes to try. I've been finding some awesome ones at http://www.kevinandamanda.com/. Last night I made the "Real Juicy Bacon Cheeseburgers." They were awesome! Tonight we're trying Amanda's "Alfredo Tortellini." I can't wait. I've tried a few other recipes and have yet to be let down. Check out her site and try some too. It's such a cute site and she does a lot of scrapbooking so her blog designs are super cute.

We've been doing pretty well with our budget and were able to send off a nice chunk to our credit card. I just love seeing that balance come down. We plan to have everything, including the truck, paid off by the spring. (That doesn't include the house of course). I'm really motivated to get this done and it's nice that come July, we will be debt free (except for the house) and can enjoy a nice long weekend on the Cape for our anniversary knowing we've paid cash for it. Woo hoo!

On another site I frequent, a forum was set up about getting back to basics. We're sharing recipes, home and garden tips and the like. I'm really excited about it. I'm especially looking forward to the gardening tips as Michael and I would like to set up a veggie garden for the summer.

Aaahhh, summer. Can you tell that I'm hating this Arctic cold and snow we've got going on here and am dreaming of the beauty of summer?

Well, that's all for now. 'Til next time, have a great week!

Wednesday

Hello out there,

Sorry I haven't posted. I've been all messed up with my time lately. Between Michael's wierd shifts and my own, well, blahs, I haven't had much to say.

We've made good progress on the front of the house planting and the steps (the steps have been all Michael, of course). It's really coming together. If it would just stop raining I'd be able to finish my planting and get the last of the mulch down. It's supposed to start clearing so I think I'll be able to get that done this weekend.

I feel like we're getting stuff done with the house. You know, that stuff that didn't need to be done the second we moved in but you want to get done before the holidays. We've got the chimney sweep and electrician coming in the next week or so and the steps are almost done so I'll be glad to cross this stuff of this list.

I really hope that Michael's shifts will straighten out. I think it's been really hard to adjust to this one, so hopefully it's almost over and we can get back to normal. It's been kinda lonely while we've had this schedule since I catch him only for a few minutes before I leave for work and he's been sleeping when I get home and I feel like I hardly get to see him before he's off to work. I guess this will pass once the next gig comes up, but for now it sucks. That's life I guess.

Sorry for the "poor me"...

On a lighter note, my FLYing has been going pretty well. The house is company ready, almost. Those damn dishes just kill me. It's bad since one of the first steps is to keep your sink shiny, but that just hasn't happened. The rest has been going awesomely (is that a word?) over the past several months, but those dishes, I tell ya, they get me every time. This month is about getting your paper clutter under control. I've been "dream decorating" (ie: not actually buying anything) our office that houses all of our paper clutter. I think I have a good plan in place for the office as a whole and that will help keep the paper demons in their place. Now I just need to figure out what furniture to get to make it a proper working office rather than the mish mash of non-functioning furniture that it is now. I think we'll tackle that (the furniture that is) this winter after the holidays. In the mean time, I need to get boogieing that paper monster.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I better head off for my before bed routine and get those dishes tackled.

Have a great night everybody!

Thursday

I was able to get my daffodil and tulip bulbs all planted last night and then Michael and I laid out the new mulch. It looks great, though I noticed some high spots in the mulch as I was pulling out this morning, so I need to straighten that out. Otherwise, I think we did a good job in the dark. Tonight I'm going to get the crocus planted. That won't take but a minute so I won't be stuck in the dark with the creepy animal sounds. I swear, I heard the squirrels and birds chatting as I was planting last night to plot how they were going to steal my freshly planted bulbs. Well, hopefully the 3-4 inch layer of mulch will deter them. FX!

I don't know why I'm so surprised that by 6:45pm it's dark in my yard. What is is fall or something? ;)

When we went back in, I was trying to be my best domestic diva self. I sewed up the seam split in our comforter, changed the sheets, did the dishes, swept the floors, and did a few loads of laundry. I felt good getting all this accomplished, but I was pissed that I was up until 1am. Now, I wasn't staying up to get these things all finished, it was more that I was wide awake so I got all these things finished. Hopefully, I'll get back on a normal sleep schedule tonight since it's been all wonky this week.

Now that the fall planting is pretty much taken care of, I need something else to do. I was thinking of maybe making a quilt now that I figured out how to get my sewing machine to cooperate and actually sew things. I saw online that there's a fabric store in town so I might try to stop by this weekend for some inspiration. We'll see...

It's just about lunch time so I'll sign off for now to get my post office errands together. I must be crazy going to the post office at lunch, but whatever it's not gonna get there by itself.

OK, I'm outtie!

Green Thumbs and Frogs

Hello all,

I think my black thumb is turning a bit greener! Yay!

We had a great weekend of yard work and boy was it a workout. My legs are finally not so sore today, thank goodness!

As I mentioned, Michael was out with his buddy on Saturday so I had the day to myself. I went to Sears to check out the appliances. I found a freezer that will work for us, but then I thoroughly confused myself with the ovens and couldn't make up my mind so I just turned around and walked out. I really need to figure this out this week so I can have the installs done next week. Anyway, I came back home and was doing some weeding out front so that started our gardening weekend.

The lillies that we planted are still looking a bit dreadful, but I'm just leaving them alone with the hope that all will be well next spring. I weeded around the light post and the dogwood tree and turned the mulch around and it looks like new. Then it was over to the front steps. They we full of weeds! How weeds grow in brick and concrete is beyond me, but I cleaned it all up and it looks really nice. Now, if I can just get the broken bricks fixed, I'll be in business. Oh, I know, maybe my brickie husband can do it! LOL, love ya babe! (In his defense, he's been working some crazy shifts and hours so he really hasn't had time to do it.)

On Sunday, we tore into the back yard and it looks awesome! With the help of M and S, we got a boat load done. We reclaimed our flowerbed from the crab grass that took over and S showed me that if we dig a little trench between the lawn and the flower bed that it will help keep the weeds from invading. It looks really nice too and like an actual flower bed. She also showed my where to trim the dead wood from the roses and just a bunch of other gardening type things that I should know. It's so awesome to have a MIL that is such a gardener!

Michael was a maniac with the sawsall. He cut down the three juniper bushes at the back foundation planting and then cut up the pine trees about 6 feet at the back property line so that you can see some of the tree trunk. We didn't lose any privacy by doing that since it's still all woods behind us, but it has made a nice area for a future shade garden and we gained back about four feet of yard. S said she had some hosta that we could have and I think it will look super nice in this flower bed-to-be. I think I'll just plant some annuals this year to fill in where the bushes came out since we might be doing the deck over in the fall so I don't want to waste any money on expensive perennials if they're just going to get pulled out or trampled during construction. M manned the wheelbarrow and made a gillion trips to the compost pile as S and I filled it up from all the weeding. She also helped Michael get the flag pole put up and we hung up the American flag as well as the Irish flag that C and S gave us with our last name crest in the white part. We've been waiting for a good breeze so that we can see the flags waving, but alas, so far they've just been hanging against the pole. I've got some pictures, but I don't have my camera with me to upload them, bummer. I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Thanks so much to M and S for all of your help!

Oh, one other tidbit....while I was weeding the front steps what do I see but a little frog jumping around at the base of the stairs. We also saw a bunch in the backyard on Sunday. I know it's an old wives tale, but maybe that's the start of something on our TTC journey. We shall see!