Spring...I mean Fall Cleaning

Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend! I know I did. Why you ask? Because I got my last taste of summer.

www.kidsgeo.com

 Ahhhhh so relaxing. I love the beach. It was the perfect way to end my summer.

Not only did I get to put my toes in the water, tush in the sand but Hubby and I also got some much needed work done on the house. Last year by the time we moved in, the leaves were already starting to change so we didn't do much prep for the colder season. Now that we are a little older and a little wiser we learned that if we take the time to do some prep and cleaning in the fall, we will have an easier time when spring came around. So what does that mean?

That's right. I get to play with my dad's electric hedge cutter! *insert evil laugh*

We ignored our poor hedges all spring and summer. They were a mess to say the least. So I took the cutters and a ladder and in an hour or two they were much much better. While I was hacking away at our hedge mess Tim was using his dad's power washer to give our deck a little TLC.

If you can't tell that our deck needed it check out the line Tim "drew" in the next picture.

  Gross.

Aww he power washed my name. Still gross but kinda cute. :)

We also did some projects inside the house including putting a much needed ceiling fan in our master bedroom. More on that later but here's a little sneak peak.

And no-Tim and I didn't have a water balloon fight before this. Let's just say that Tim runs at a higher temperature than most of us. Think Jacob from Twilight.....but with lighter skin and red hair.

So that was our weekend. We hung out with some friends and family, got a little sun at the beach and we got started on all our pre-fall projects. What did you do? Any projects? Or did you soak up some last minute summer sun?

I forgot leaves grew on trees

So I figured since I am all over the place this week I would switch gears away from art and talk a little bit about my first time planting a vegetable garden. I should start by explaining that I had high hopes that we were going to have a great garden...why you ask? Because of my main man...

Isn't he handsome? Mind you-This is not his everyday outfit although he has probably worn that shirt more times than I care to admit. But that is another story for another post.

The reason I had so much faith in us was because Tim and his family used to work at the farm next to their house. At Kohler Farms he planted, picked and maintained alot of vegetables and flowers. Occasionally he also got to drive the tractor during the Halloween season. Cool huh?

picture from Kohler farms website

I also started getting more into gardening and I really wanted to have fresh vegetables all summer long. So we decided we were going to plant one this season. We decided to go with a raised bed design since we didn't know how fertilized our soil was and because a raised bed is better at retaining moisture.

Sorry I can't get this picture to turn right side up

In April we planted 6 tomatoes plants (1- cherry, 1- roma, and 4 plants from my grandfather), 2 cucumber plants, 1 eggplant, 1 red pepper, 1 zucchini and some lettuce seeds. I was so excited to watch them grown.

The months went by and I started to get really excited when I saw these little cherry tomatoes pop up.

Unfortunately they were not the only things popping up. There was one factor that we forgot to factor in- our trees or rather their leaves.

itsnature.org

You see we live in an area with a lot of trees and when we planted these in April, we saw that the garden location was getting enough sun. What we didn't think about was the fact that none of our trees really grew back all their leaves yet. In the words of Homer Simpson, "D'oh!!"

So we quickly realized as the summer came that the garden was most likely not going to get the sun it really needed. As time went on we slowly started to see our garden grow a little bit.

In the end we got a handful of cherry tomatoes, 4 cucumbers,  2 big tomatoes, no lettuce, 1 zucchini, 1 eggplant and 2 peppers. Don't get me wrong- I am grateful we got something considering our poor location but now we can look back and remember a few things for next year.

1) factor in the fact that trees grow leaves which provide shade. i.e. move the beds
2) create large trellis's for the tomatoes to lean on - its amazing how high a plant will grow for some sun!

3) also create a trellis for the cucumber plants which began to take over our garden.

I hope you can take a few of these tips with you as you plan your gardens for next year. Now that we know a little bit better, I think our garden will be much more successful next year.

Has anybody else learned a lesson this year in vegetable gardening? I would love to collect all the tips I can.

You mean you can create art for a living!?

Hey folks! I am going to get on my soap box for a second. I love art. Every since I was little I have been really into drawing and painting. As I entered high school I seriously thought about making art part of my career. I realized that art could not only be a passion but a job too. So when my friend and fellow artist Amy overheard this conversation on the train, she couldn't sit by and not do anything about it. She decided to create the artistic rebuttal project.

This project encourages artists of all kinds to send in their statements and feelings about art and what impacts it has on our world. It's amazing when you sit down and look at some of these statements people sent in. It makes you realize how art is everywhere and there are people behind that work that made it possible. Here are some of my favorites.

This is a fun fact that I didn't realize about the national parks.

This one tears at my heart strings:

Of course I couldn't ignore this either and I had to contribute as well. I channeled my statement by thinking of what people use everyday that was created and designed by an artist. Of course it came to me while I was driving one night....

So there is my art tangent. I truly believe that art has helped in my life as well as many others. I encourage you to check out Amy's site and get involved. The more we spread the word, the better!

And this is exactly why I don't bake

I have a confession to make. I can't bake. Sure I have made a batch of chocolate chip cookies once but that's after spending way to much time making sure I got every ingredient exact. The thing I don't love about baking is how precise you have to be with the ingredients and if you try to throw something else in or wing a measurement, it will most likely end up tasting awful. (At least for me it does)

The reason I went on that little rant is because if the Chicken Enchilada Soup I made today was a cake, it would have failed. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me rewind and break down what I made today. I had been meaning to try this chicken enchilada soup recipe that I found on www.realmomkitchen.com. It was a crock pot recipe and I vowed to try and use my crock pot more for the fall and winter months. I started by getting all of the ingredients.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes (I used italian style because it was all I had)
1 10-ounce package frozen whole kernel corn
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped yellow, green, or red bell pepper (I used red, since I grew it in my garden)
1 10-ounce can enchilada sauce (I used mild)
1 10.75-ounce can condensed cream of chicken soup 1 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)
1 cup shredded Pepper jack cheese (I used sharp Colby jack cheese with 2% milk)
2 chicken breasts (I used 4 chicken tenderloins since they were already defrosted)

Anyone catch my mistake in the picture? I'll give you a hint:

I accidentally got chicken noodle soup instead of cream of chicken. I need to learn to read labels. I have the same problem with milk. I somehow always get 1% instead of skim. I wasn't about to go back out to the grocery store so I strained the noodles and added a little more milk and continued with the recipe. No harm no foul. Now do you understand why I love cooking over baking?

Anyway, the first thing I did was to combine the drained beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, and bell pepper in the crock pot. You probably want to use at least a 3.5 quart crock pot. Then you want to place the chicken on top of the mixture.

The next steps were to whisk together enchilada sauce and soup. Then you whisk in milk until smooth and pour into the crock pot.

After you have everything in there, cover and cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours. I cooked it for 8 hours because I like the chicken to fall apart and I was still at work anyways so I figured why not? When it's done, take the chicken out and shred it and then put it back in the soup. It will look something like this.

It looked so good but I wanted it to have a little more of a kick so I threw in some Franks Hot Sauce.

That gave it the kick I needed. After that, take whatever cheese you decided to use and throw it on top so it melts and makes the soup even creamier.

And that was one of my first crock pot while you're at work experiences. I know I was stupid for worrying about it overcooking the food or short circuiting and catching on fire but crazy ideas like that pop into my head now that we own a house of our own. Since this was a big success and I really enjoyed the meal, I decided I am going to give the crock pot a chance this upcoming season so I can enjoy meals like this more often.

Anyone have a good crock pot recipe for me? Have you tried this one before?

Meet James

So I think it is only fair to introduce a very big part of my family- our pup. He's a six year old lab/ ridge back mix. He hasn't always made it easy but we couldn't picture our life and all our new adventures without him.

 So how did he join this crazy family?

I got him while I was in college at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). I had NO plans of getting a dog. I was on the crew team and our regatta got cancelled on a Sunday around Easter. We decided to go to the rescheduled Easter Parade on Monument Avenue (the main street in Richmond, VA with all of the confederate monuments). My roommates, neighbor and I ran into a family with two of the most adorable dogs you have ever seen. I mean look at this face.....(it still melts my heart)

I held James and he fell asleep in my arms and I knew when the woman asked me if I wanted to adopt him that it was meant to be. My wonderful roommates all agreed that I had to have him and my neighbor luckily took his brother so the first whole year of his life he had a playmate. Needless to say, everyone ate him up. My friends all loved him and spoiled him rotten with cuddles and treats. One of my friends- Katie- even gave him a little photo shoot so I could always remember him when he was like this:

(insert Awwwww here)
James (named after the James River) went everywhere with me and that included moving every single year since I got him. Our current home is the first time we haven't moved anywhere after a year. It feels good to finally be settled in a place that has a backyard so he can play and a home that he can stretch out in. He loves hanging out with Mom and Dad on the couch, trying to get every scrap of food off the kitchen floor, and our annual camping trip to Canada. Look at our little David Hasselhoff here:

Anybody else replaying the Baywatch soundtrack in their heads right now? - Me too

We couldn't do any of these projects without him and his ability to sleep all day and night when Mom and Dad are working. So thank you James for always sticking close but letting us work at random times on random things!

Check back later to see how the chicken enchilada soup  turned out! I can't wait to get home and try it.

Shed: The Sequel

Hello Everyone! I can't get over how beautiful it is out there. I guess this is our reward for surviving Hurricane Irene. So yesterday I started getting into details about our shed project. I showed you the rough design and even a sneak peak. So let me dive into the materials it took to make all of this happen. Below is a list of materials we used and what they roughly cost us so you can see how we made this happen.

12’ * 8’ Shed

Materials Needed

·         15- Sheets ½” OSB @ $6.17 each = $92.55

·         4- Sheets ¾” Advantec plywood @ $32.86 each= $131.44

·         1- 6X6X10’= $23.75

·         4- Hinges@ $7.59 each= $30.36

·         1- Locking Hasp = $10.97

Siding

·         2 ½ Squares of siding= $125.00 each square= $312.50

·         4- corners @ $18.00 each= $72.00

·         8- J channels @ $6.18 each= $49.44

·         4- Vented soffit @ $14.37= $57.48

Roofing

·         2- Glue Down roll roofing @$32.00 each= $64.00

·         2- Gal adhesive @ $16.07 each= $32.14

·         12- Roof tie downs @ $1.39 each = $16.88

Window

·         1- 3’ X 5’ window= already owned (thanks to the Father in Law)

Other Materials

·         40- 2X4X16 PT= already owned

·         2- roll felt paper =already owned

·         1- roll coil= already owned

TOTAL: $893.62

So let's take a look at the a comparable shed you would get at a hardware store. 

Guess how much this 8' * 12.5' plastic shed is at a hardware store that should not be named??????

$1,299.00! That's right. We were saving enough for a few fancy dinners out after this.

So my wonderful hubby went out and got all of the supplies so we would be ready the weekend that his dad came to work on the house. Look how happy he is to start Operation: More Storage! (The shed will actually be located at the top of that hill so it doesn't take away from our awesome backyard).

Since I am not a construction expert, I will show you the steps we took using pictures. This project happened over 3 weekends and with help from our dads and my brother. They may have made fun of me for taking these pictures but now we will have a great time line of all the hard work we put in.

  We hung siding on the first wall so we could shift the shed closer to the house.

Next we built and secured the opposite wall.

Here we are starting to build the last two walls.

You can see in the next picture that Tim and his dad began to work on the roof while the rest of us continued on the siding.

Here is the finished product. We added vents and a window for circulation. The window also allows us to have natural light in the shed.

This is definitely the biggest project we ever did but it came out great and came in handy for the hurricane. Later I will show you how we organized the inside but for now I will let you bask in our handy work.

What's the biggest project that you did on your own at your house? Did you have a friend or family member help you like we did?

Tomorrow I hope to let you guys know how that soup recipe turned out!

No garage and no basement= building a shed!

Hi Folks! So the next couple of posts will be about our first large scale home project- building a shed! I should tell you ahead of time that in many of my posts about home projects I will be referring to my wonderfully talented father in law.  (See below)

He has been so patient with us me as I try to learn the difference between a Phillips screwdriver and a flat head. (Don't worry- I know the difference now) When we told him that we wanted to build a shed after moving into a home with no garage, no basement and no attic, he was very excited and willing to help us.

The first step we did was to figure out what side of the house we wanted the shed. After deciding that we didn't want to go down our backyard ski slope every time we wanted a hammer, that left us with the left or right side of the house. The left side of the house got very little sun and was wasted space so we decided that location would be best.

**WINNER- left side***

So we know where we want it- now what?

Insert my super FIL. He sent us plans to the shed that he thinks would work. He made it larger since we don't have any other major storage options. He also designed it so the roof was on a slant since it would be close to the house. That way whatever run off came from the house roof would not collect on top of the shed. (I told you he's a genius!) He was inspired by something like this:

picture from energybulletin.net

 Tomorrow I will break down the work and let you know how long a project like this really takes. But just to keep your interest here is a picture of the shed almost finished. Bet you're excited now, huh?

Do you guys have a family member or friend that is known as the "handy man"? Have you ever built a shed before?