Our vow to not be THOSE neighbors...

Tim and I are still learning when it comes to landscape and yard work. It is especially difficult when we have a shady lot with lots of trees. But that is no excuse for the mess we have put off attending to.

The first shot is the front of the yard when we started to tackle the weeds. The second shot is our raised bed that we built for the veggie garden of 2011. Needless to say it was hurting.We came up with a game plan. The back raised beds needed something so we decided to start a partially shaded garden to add some color to the back. The front garden beds needed a lot of weeding, edging and mulching. So while I headed off to home depot (in my opinion a better garden center than Lowes) Tim headed to get some mulch.

Luckily our township offers free mulch/compost. Its great for saving money. They dump a ton of it in various parks throughout the township. We discovered it last year but a little late in the game. This time we were not going to miss it. So while I went shopping, Tim went to get the first round of mulch.

At home depot, I gathered some dwarf rhododendrons and a few annuals for the bed. When I got back I ripped out the few massive weeds in the bed and got to work. Check out this massive weed!

I dug all the holes and then planted and viola. A shady garden.

Here is another angle.



A much better improvement than this.

But what about the front. Well Tim and I got to work weeding, edging and mulching. I started making trips to the mulch pile with him and we ended up going 4 times (each time filling 2 trashcans). That is a lot of money saved. But enough talk. Let's see some shots.

BEFORE

AFTER

How about a wider angle shot?

So our mission to not be "those neighbors" is one step closer. This took a long time to do but mostly because we neglected weeding and stopped to talk to our neighbors once in awhile. Now if we can only tackle that grass (or lack thereof).

Anyone else doing some work on their yards? 







Weren't you working on a bathroom?

I know I have stopped talking about our upstairs bathroom updates. To be honest, we have not been moving quickly. We do have another full bathroom so that took the pressure off of finishing it. Also, spring has sprung so I can't help but be distracted by the yard work that I have been dying to work on all winter. (more on that Wednesday)
Still, I have some bathroom pictures to show you. I finished painting the walls, ceiling and trim. I like it so much more already. Not sure if these pics will do it justice but I wanted to show you where I was.

I love the white trim around the window. It brightens it up and makes everything look more crisp. Here is a shot of the ceiling. The boob light is not assembled back yet because we are looking into light/vent combos.

This is a shot of the little sink alcove. It was once all cream colored but painting it purple blends it all in and makes the room look bigger.

And remember the infamous linen closet makeover? Well it is still working pretty well. I took the door off to paint the trim white and I am debating keeping it off. We will see when all the accessories are combined.

I also finally cleaned up the mess that was outside of the bathroom. For WAY too long it was looking like this.

There you have it. Not a crazy before and after. I am going to go pick out some accessories this week to hopefully have this bathroom back to working condition.

What did you do this weekend? Anyone take advantage of the 80 degree weather in the north east? I can't wait to show you guys the great work we did outside.

Crashed...

I have to tell you guys that I spent a lot of time writing a great recap post but my computer just crashed and I lost it. Since I am pretty upset with it still, I am walking away but will attempt to rewrite the post this afternoon.

I'm sorry but I hope you can understand my level of frustration.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes

No folks. This isn't a guest post. It's all me.

That's right. I baked cupcakes and even made the icing. Don't get too excited. The cupcakes were from a box but a few exra steps made this box recipe a little more special.

I took the cupcake recipe from bettycrocker.com. I did decide to make my own icing though. But let's get started. Round up the ingredients.

1  box SuperMoist® yellow cake mix
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3 tablespoons strawberry preserves
1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, cut into 24 pieces
Cream Cheese frosting (in this case homemade)
Sliced fresh small strawberries, if desired

Step 1: Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. In large bowl, mix cake mix, water, sour cream, oil and eggs with spoon until well blended. This is going to be thick so don't worry.

Step 2: Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Place 1 piece of cream cheese on top of each cupcake; press into batter slightly. The directions say to "Spoon 1/4 measuring teaspoon preserves on top of cream cheese in each cupcake" but I eye balled it since preserves are hard to get off a small measuring spoon.

Step 3: Bake 20 to 25 minutes (or 18 minutes in my hot gas oven) or until tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly in center.

While they cool you can start making the cream cheese frosting or go catch up on the latest Glee. (or both) This slightly lighter frosting is delicious and it was a bit tricky.

Light Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz package cream cheese (1/3 less fat)
1 tbsp light butter
1 lb. powdered sugar (sifted)
1 tsp vanilla

Step 1: whisk the cream cheese and butter at high speed until well mixed.

Step 2: This was tricky for me without a sifter but mix the sifted powdered sugar on high until it thickens.

That's it! So simple. I never realized it was that easy. I did make a bit of a mess before I realized I should cover the mixer.

Then ice the cupcakes. Lets take a look at how yummy they look.

I topped them with slices of strawberries right before serving them so the juices don't run over them. They were really yummy. Sorry for not snapping any pictures but trust me. If I can make them, you can make them.
As for the nutrition info, they are not the healthiest but they could be worse. One cupcake is 200 calories. So enjoy...and then take a walk around the block. :)
Anyone have a yummy cupcake recipe that I can tackle?

Our Veggie garden...in pots

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope everyone took some time with family and friends to enjoy the gorgeous day. Hubby and I took off on Friday (hence no post) to get some work done on the house. More about that during the week. I will tell you guys about one thing we got started this weekend...our veggie garden!
You may not remember but last year we attempted our first raised bed garden.

The raised beds were perfect. James (our pup) avoided them, the soil maintained water better and we had enough room for all of our plants. There was one problem: we planted in a shady spot. In fact, our whole house has a lot of shady lawn areas so we knew this year was going to be tricky. I did some research and we realized that the best place to grow vegetables would be in pots on our deck.

Don't judge our deck decor. We haven't pulled out the rug, cushions and pillows yet. I am a little behind.

We chose the deck because it gets the most sun throughout the day without trees blocking the rays and if it ever got shady we could move the pots to another location. It seems like a win/win. So what did we plant?

After some research from here and here we decided that the pot on the left would hold one heirloom tomato plant and the larger green pot would hold two cherry tomato plants. Tomato plants need room for their roots so I recommend at least a 5 gallon pot or bigger. We also decided to plant some romaine lettuce. We were going to plant seeds but the more mature plants were on sale so we went with them. Lettuce can grow in shallow pots so we went with some window boxes that were left over from the previous owners. Waste not, want not right?

Make sure that whatever you plant you veggies in has holes for drainage. We also used a mix of potting soil and fertilizer when we planted our garden. Research also encourages a compost mix but we don't have a compost pile.

Since there was also a sale on strawberry plants so we decided to take a chance and try to grow some of those delicious treats. We hung them on one of our hanging baskets on the deck.

I will keep you guys up to date on how our potted garden works out. As the month goes on we plan on trying to plant squash as well.  I really think that as long as we water the pots more often and make sure they get the right amount of sun, we might have a successful veggie garden.

So who else planted a veggie garden already? Nothing beats fresh tomatoes all summer long. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Living Smart Starting with 40 dollars and 40 cents

Tax season brings out a lot of emotions for people. Some are excited for getting some extra dough. Some dread it because of having to cough up said dough. For Tim and I, it was a time to really reflect on our finances. We both have full time jobs and are mostly smart with our money but now that we have a new car, we needed to get more strategic about where to spend it.

So I made it my mission to start making smarter choices in my spending and I knew one of the biggest ways to do that was through grocery shopping.

I'll be honest. My hubby usually does the grocery shopping. He enjoys it and he is faster at it. I don't hate shopping but I do get distracted and sometimes I make impulse purchases. But not this time. No way, Jose!

I started by clipping coupons that we receive every week in the paper. I only clipped coupons that were things that we usually buy or I wanted to try. I think this is a big key to not getting sucked into getting things that you don't need. Once I had my coupons and my biggest weapon, my bonus card, I hit the store. Well I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised with my savings.

That's right! I saved $42 bucks. It wasn't my only savings either. Our grocery store (Giant) is doing a special gas deal where you earn points towards money off your gas. And you read the bottom of that receipt right! In addition to the money saved, I also received an extra .30 off gas onto my existing .10 for a total of .40 cents off per gallon for up to 30 gallons. We have been using that special for awhile and its been great to save money every time we fill up. Needless to say, I was excited. All it took was a little extra planning and a little more time at the store looking at all the brands and store sales. It was worth it. I wasn't the only one excited.

Okay, maybe he didn't really care. :)

I know this may not seem like a huge step but to me it is. If I am able to save 40 dollars a month on groceries, that is an extra $480 in my pocket. And if I can do it, you can as well!

So what have you done lately to save a buck or two? Any one have any tips on ways to save at the grocery store? Don't worry- I'm not going extreme shopper on you but I am totally going to put a little more effort into my groceries.

Sneak Peak: Bathroom paint gone purple

So here is what is happening in our house right now. I will have more on this later in the week (hopefully) but I wanted to show you guys a sneak peak. We decided to paint the bathroom the same color because I loved it so much but this time we decided to go all the way...

It's only the first coat so far but we will see how it all ties in together. So has anyone ever painted the ceiling? If you know me, you know that this is not usually like me to go a little more bold with design. I am still soaking it in.