Visitors, Races, and Garden kind of weekend!

It's been awhile since I've blogged about our random weekend adventures!  Normally we're traveling somewhere, have somewhere to be at a certain time, or just plain busy!  This weekend was kind of a random weekend, but it was fun!  Friday night my brother Brett and his gf/my bestie Ashley came to visit us for the weekend!  It was kind of a last minute trip for them, but I'm so glad they came!  It was b.e.a.utiful outside Friday night, so after we ate supper we lit the fire pot (to keep the bugs away) and hung out on the porch just catching up. 

Saturday D played golf all day with his uncle, while us 3 went shopping for some vegetable plants for the garden.  Of course, we had to make a stop at Hob Lob...how could we not?!  We found some great deals in their clearance section...I spent a total of 20 bucks!  Score!  My brother did pretty good for being there over an hour...better than I thought he would do!

Outdoor  Mat...$7 bucks

 

Lantern/Vase...$11 (originally $30)

 

Scrapbook paper...not on sale, but very cute!
I will probably use it on some coasters in the future! ;)

Saturday night we decided to head to the races, which were about 40 minutes from our {small} town.  Ashley hadn't ever been, I had only been once (not counting the times in high school, but I didn't really go to watch the races!), and Brett and D used to race back in the day.  Plus D's dad builds performance engines for Sprint Cars and what not, so we were also supporting our drivers/motors we had on the track! 
 


Me and Ashley before the races

 

at the races



Brett and Ashely

 

D and Brett watching the races (didn't want their picture taken!)

Sunday they headed home early, and we relaxed for awhile.  In the afternoon we got to work on our garden.  Yeah, it may sound like we're a little behind, but it has been freezing at night randomly, so I'm kind of glad we got a late start.  We should be good to go now though (keeping my fingers crossed)!  It was full of weeds, but luckily my Dad and D tilled it last fall, so it wasn't hard to pull all of those nasty weeds out properly! 


Look, no more weeds!

We then worked the dirt around, and got to planting.  We planted: 4 Tomato Plants (3 of which are heirloom), 2 Jalapeno plants, 1 Sweet Crimson Watermelon plant, 1 Zucchini plant, and 3 Cucumber plants.  We also planted some 1 row of Carrots, 1 row of radishes, 1 row of Okra, and started some Marigold seeds in some little pods to transplant around the edges.  D read somewhere that Marigolds keep bugs away, so we thought we'd give it a try.  We still would like to find some Red Bell Pepper plants, those are my fav's out of Bell Peppers. 


4 tomato plants

2 Jalapeno Plants

 

3 Cucumber Plants (2 bunched together)

 

1 Zucchini Plant

 

1 Crimson Sweet Watermelon Plant

 

The whole garden view...we also planted some Carrots, Okra, and Radishes
We still want to find some Red Peppers to plant by the Jalapenos.
I know it doesn't look like much now, but just give it some time!! ;)


A couple years ago we planted a smaller garden when we lived in the {big} city, but we didn't can anything.  We pretty much just froze what we didn't use right away.  That was nice too, but this time I would like to can some Salsa, maybe pickle some Okra, and even give Dill Pickles a try!  I can't wait to see all of the fresh veggies that come from our own backyard!!  Stay tuned!


Bernie hangin' out!

What about you, do you have a garden?  If so, what is your favorite thing to do/make with your fresh veggies?

HAPPY SECRETARYS DAY!!

I'm not sure if I've ever said what my job was, but I'm one of the secretary for D's dad's business.  Yes, D and I work together, it's not bad at all.  I love my job!  It's pretty easy, and I honestly can't complain!  Sometimes (like right now actually) "fun" projects pop-up, which  make me want to pull my hair out, but all in all it's great!!  Today is Secretary's Day, so Happy Secretary's Day to all of you out there!!!

Check out the flowers the guys sent me today!!!



I love 'em!

 Don't you just love how Springy they are...lovin' the pretty daisy, tulips and lilies!  Oh and the funky pink and purple metal stuff!! :)

Happy Easter!

I received this via email and it's too cute not to share!

All I need to know

I learned from the Easter Bunny!

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.

There's no such thing as too much candy.

All work and no play can make you a basket case.

A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.

Some body parts should be floppy.

Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.

Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.

The grass is always greener is someone else's basket.

To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

May the joy of the season fill your heart.

Happy Easter!

I know the true meaning of Easter isn't about Bunnies and Eggs, so stay tuned for a link to a touching story tomorrow!

Springy Easter Decor

I've had my Easter Decor out for about a month now, I just never got around to taking pictures of it.  While it's really simple, I think it's really cute.  We don't have a whole lot of room to decorate our house, so I just stick with the bookshelf in our living room (Christmas of course is different!).  It's so easy to swap our decor from season to season.

Top Shelf...
House Plant (gift), White Iron Bird (hob lob), and Spring Subway Art (made by me!)
More Springy than Easter, but I like it!

 

2nd Shelf...
3 Egg Trio (hob lob)

3rd Shelf...
Vase (mine) filled with Ceramic Glittered Eggs (hob lob), Pink Easter Grass (Wal-Mart)
Frame and Books (mine)



4th Shelf
Pink Glittery Iron/Wire Mesh Chick (TJ Maxx $4.99) - he's my fav, so cute!
Check out his "wings" and "hair", they have stripes on them! (even on his little legs!)

 

All together!

Now let's get up close and personal....
 

Pretty Sparkly Eggs!


 

This little trio is fun, and I love the designs on them!



Iron little birdy...yep I jumped on the band wagon!
I actually have 2 of them, they are so cute...I'll be using them a lot!

 

Here's the cute little chick again...adorable!!

All of the stuff I got at Hobby Lobby awhile back was on sale like 50% off or something...I never pay full price there or try hard not too.  So this was an inexpensive way to decorate our house for Easter!


Linking up to...
At Home With Haley
It's A Blog Party
The Girl Creative
Today's Creative Blog
The Shabby Chic Cottage
What Allie's Making Now
Somewhat Simple
Paisley's Passions
Lovely Crafty Home
Just a Girl
The Sisters of the Wild West
Not So Homemade

Spring weather...

I was beginning to think Mother Nature was just teasing us...it's been hot, cold most of the week (actually snowed a little bit Sunday), and now back to nice weather.  Last night there was a little storm that moved through our {small town}, and I caught a couple pictures of the clouds.  They were really cool looking!!!  It thundered for a little bit and even had a nice quick shower, which was perfect!!  Things are starting to green up around here, including some flowers in our front yard.  I seriously can't wait for Spring to finally be in full effect!!


Sun shining on one end and dark clouds on the other!

 

I love how the sun is shining and storm is moving in!
Yep, our next door neighbors got a new sign!
And our neighbors across the road you can see they knocked out their front porch...
like months ago. They also think it's "cool" to ride 4 wheelers in their front yard...
I mean dirt pile.  Ugh...so annoying!


Tomorrow morning I'm off for the weekend for Ladies State Bowling!  It will be such a fun trip, with a bunch of fun ladies.  I'm hoping to remember to get some pictures so I can share some stories next week.  I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Spring Subway Tile

Friday after work I decided not to do Zumba, because I'm lazy I wanted to work on my Spring Tile that I started back in January at my cousin's house.  That is when I also created the Faith Family Friends Tile for my Mom.  I knew it was time to stop procrastinating and just do it, especially because Spring is here (or supposed to be here)! 

I really like how it turned out, perfect for Spring!  I used a mixture of cartridges, mainly Plantin Schoolbook Fonts, Accent Shapes (for the flowers), and 2 others I can't remember the name (1 is mine and the other is my cousins).  I put it on the top shelf next to our little house plant (it's hanging on!)!  Hopefully later this week, I'll show you the whole book shelf, which I've also added in some Easter decor!  

SpRiNg is in the AiR!

So what do you think, LIKE it or LOVE it?!  (I apologize for the crappy pictures again, took them on my phone!)  It didn't cost me very much to do...about $1.30 for the ceramic tile from Home Depot, and maybe 1 sheet of vinyl which is about $3.33 from Walmart (comes in a package if 3 sheets for $7.99 or something like that).

Have you been doing any Spring decorating?


PS - I also made a baby subway tile for my friend Danielle who is expecting a little girl in July!  I'm seriously in love with how it turned out, it will look perfect in her nursery!  I'm not sure if Danielle reads my blog or not, but I might give you a sneak peak before her shower that me and another girl are throwing her later this month! ;)


Linking up to...
At Home With Haley
It's A Blog Party
The Girl Creative
Today's Creative Blog
The Shabby Chic Cottage
What Allie's Making Now
Somewhat Simple
Paisley's Passions
Lovely Crafty Home
Just a Girl
Not So Homemade

Organizing: Kitchen and Laundry Cabinets

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!  Mine was pretty good, relaxed, did a little Spring cleaning, and had fun!

Friday night we ordered some takeout and rented Social Network.  The movie was actually pretty good; very interesting to see how Facebook first started and what has shaped it into the addicting website it is today!  I would totally recommend the movie to everyone to watch!

Saturday I decided I wanted to give some attention to our house...I've been lacking in that department here lately!  So I started in the Pantry/Laundry/Mud Room.  It's a small, but functional room, but man it needed some organization!!  Remember when I showed you our Pantry cabinet that I cleaned out/organized awhile back?  Well the Laundry is on the other side of the room.  Here it is before...


Random stuff everywhere!

Wowza...see all of that random stuff in there?  I guess when we finished up painting our house, we just stuck everything in there and said forget about it!  There was loose change everywhere, light bulbs, random tools, cleaning stuff, tons of cozy's (apparently we collect them?), and anything else you can think of was probably in there!  I tossed some stuff, and moved a bunch down into our basement where it belongs.  Here is the after...


Much better!  Found a little plastic basket to hold all of the light bulbs.
And put all of our cleaning supplies in one spot (they were in a few diff places before)

So much better!  When I open the cabinets there aren't paint brushes and rollers flying at me anymore!!!

Next up was the Kitchen and Kitchen cabinets.  Where I keep the pots and pans, that was the worse!  I think it's hard to keep everything from flying out, and the lids organized.  Here are the befores...

Hott Mess!



None that are too bad, but def needed some organization!

I emptied out most of the cabinets (the ones that needed some serious help), figured out what needed to go where, tossed some stuff, and made a pile for either a garage sale or take to Goodwill.  I also wiped all of the cabinets down.  Here are the afters...


No more lids and pans falling out when I open the doors!
I took out the other set of Pots and Pans, we really only use 1 set anyways.
The shelf with cutting boards and casserole dishes was a little hard to do anything with.
You can't really tell, but its a lot better than it was! 



Organized and combined seasonings, put seasoning packets into a plastic container,
and put cupcake liners and cake decor stuff into another plastic container.
Moved the pitchers over with the cups.
Put all of my platters on the top shelf with the cooling racks...So much better!

D helped out, picked up the living room and the guest bedroom, and then he organized our tiny shed outback (I wish I had the before and afters on that...wow!).  I put away the remaining "Winter" decor (wasn't much!), and rearranged the bookshelf, and dusted.  All in all I'm really happy with how everything turned out.  It's something that has needed to be done and I finally got around to doing it.  However, we aren't finished with organizing our house (when are you ever finished?).  Our basement is going to be a HUGE project.  It's only storage down there, but still it's out of control!!  When I was taking stuff down there Saturday, it reminded me of an episode of Hoarders!  Ok, maybe not that bad, but pretty close! ;)  Stay tuned for that one!

Saturday night we went out with some friends that came to town, there was a band playing at one of the bars.  They were really good, especially for only 2 guys!  And we found out that they do DJ services too...we may have just found our entertainment for our wedding!  They said they could perform and DJ at our reception, so I think we'll be in touch with them (plus the head guy is related to our friends!)!  Sunday D and I ventured out for the day...we looked at new table and chairs, got my ring cleaned (needed it badly!), picked out a couple for D, went to see the movie Hall Pass (hilarious, that's all I'm going to say!), and did some grocery shopping.  It was a fab day together!  Oh and late Sunday night, D was called out on his very first fire call!!  His pager/scanner went off at midnight, so I woke him up and out the door he went.  I guess it was a huge pasture fire, and he was so pumped!  He was home back home by 2am, but he couldn't sleep after that because of his adrenaline!  He talked about it all day yesterday, which makes me so proud!!

So have you been doing any Spring cleaning?