2011 Garden Tour

cilantro, tarragon, arugula, thyme, chives, basil

I live in a small townhome.  I don't have a huge yard... actually, I almost don't have a yard at all.  When I step out onto our deck (which covers our entire backyard) I don't get much privacy.  We can always smell what our neighbors are cooking and we have to close the windows when having private conversations on warm evenings.  It's cozy.

Despite our space challenges, I've always had a garden.  We bought this home six years ago and I always find a way to plant tons of edibles on our 15 by 15 deck.  It's a pain that I have to go in the house and out the front door and around to the back door to turn on the hose (our deck doesn't have access to the yard), but I do it.  All for the love of food.

If you have a sunny space, you can have a garden.  Mine exists entirely in containers.  One day when we have a larger, more private yard I will plant more items directly in the ground.  But for our tiny family, this works.

Strawberries - trying something new this year.

The great thing about my deck being completely enclosed is that I have fewer predators after my vegetables and fruits.  Some people have to deter deer, groundhogs, foxes, raccoons, and other critters, but I pretty much only need to worry about birds and insects.

I typically plant several varieties of peppers (this year it's jalapeno, cubanelle, and red bell), tomatoes (cherry and patio this year), every herb I use, and a few experimental items (strawberries and zucchini).  I've learned that some items are perennials (come back every year), so I always smile to see my sage and thyme pop up to greet me in mid-April.  I'm hoping that my strawberries do well and that they return next year.

I probably invested $75-100 on pots, soil, fertilizer, shovels, gloves, and plants back in 2006.  I pretty much reuse the same stuff every year and just make one trip to the home improvement store in mid-spring to pick up new plants.  I'm rewarded with more vegetables than I can eat and a vast selection of fresh herbs for every meal.

My plants look tiny now, but in 45-60 days they will be ten times their original size and I'll be starting to see the fruits of my labor.  Anybody else out there have a garden?  Is anyone lucky enough to have a real yard to plant stuff directly in the ground?

P.S.  My neighborhood has a deed restriction against vegetable gardens, but mine is in the backyard and no one seems to care.  I keep my vegetables so neat that they look better than my neighbor's front yards.

Kitchen Lighting

My husband and I purchased our home back in 2005.  It is by no means our "forever home", but we want to keep it nice and leave it better than when we purchased it.  We're on a budget, though, so it's taken five years to get most of the improvements completed.

Our home was built in 1997.  Most of the fixtures (faucets, lighting, carpeting, countertops, appliances) were builder-grade (aka cheap). We've slowly replaced the cheap-o stuff with nicer upgrades, courtesy of my handy husband.  He can't do everything, but I'm so happy with what he's learned by watching web videos and reading internet articles on home improvement.

Our latest project:  finally changing the light in the dining area of our eat-in kitchen.  After five years of living with a frosted glass and brass cheap basic light, we settled on a brushed stainless steel casual fixture with a beige drum shade.  I've been looking for an affordable fixture with a drum shade for nearly two years and we finally found this one for less than $100 at Lowe's:

It may not seem like a huge deal, but we got rid of our '90s-style beige appliances and flourescent lighting a few years ago, but we were still working with this super basic light fixture.  The new one looks like a real lamp and it makes me feel like I'm eating at a cozy restaurant or coffee shop, even when I'm just eating cornflakes at 6:30 am.  Plus, E installed a dimmer on this fixture, so we can have some ambiance when we're enjoying our evening meals.  I love it.  Little improvements make a big difference.  What do you think?

Birthday Celebration

Last Friday (Good Friday) was a fantastic day for me.  I turned 30!

I enjoyed a long weekend full of celebrations with coworkers, family, and friends.  On Thursday, my very generous coworkers decorated my office and decorated me with a tiara, necklace, and ribbon with a "30" theme.  They also ordered a birthday cake that we promptly sliced and ate at breakfast time!  Even though I was really busy in the office on Thursday, the birthday celebration really kicked off a great long weekend.  As an added bonus the weather was sunny and near 80 for the entire long holiday weekend.  It's much appreciated after the rough winter we had this year.

My birthday fell on Good Friday, so I ended up getting a day off work.  I started my day with a manicure and pedicure.  I enjoyed dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with my mom, husband, and aunt.  Everything was perfect.

Believe it or not, there was even more fun to come.  My husband took me to the Philadelphia Zoo on Saturday.  If you didn't know, I love animals (shout out to my pups, Milo and Zelda) and I haven't been to the zoo since elementary school.  It made my day to walk around in the unseasonably warm weather watching the otters play in the water, the mama orangutan with her baby, and the crocodiles chilling in their tank.  But that's not where the fun ended.  When we got back in town, my husband drove to my mother's home where there was a surprise party waiting for me, complete with a huge spread of food fit for an Easter dinner!

Needless to say, I had way too much fun.

Oh, and I'm not one of those women who is ashamed of her age.  I'm 30 and loving it.  The 20's were fun, but I'm looking forward to this new decade.

Here are some highlights from my extra special birthday/Easter weekend...

Enjoying a Mai Tai with mom

Celebrating with a royal gift (I haven't even seen this movie yet!)

 Chocolate Tuxedo Cheesecake = yum!

Getting wild and crazy at the zoo

The surprise party spread

My second birthday cake of the weekend... filled with fresh strawberries and creme and topped with whipped icing... my absolute favorite!

The lovely white gold necklace with the diamond heart pendant that I'm sporting in these photos was a gift from my husband.  I don't own much "real" jewelry (I normally wear costume), but he wanted to give me something special to remember this birthday.  I like it.

Christmas to New Year's Review

Has it really been two weeks since Christmas?  My husband and I enjoyed nearly two weeks off work during the holidays.  I had big plans:  hosting Christmas dinner for his side of the family, some minor home improvement and organization projects, visiting family and friends, an informal get-together for New Year's Eve...

Well, that's not exactly how it went down.  We didn't get much accomplished at all, but we had fun doing nothing for two weeks.  We have long commutes and we have every single hour of our weeks planned.  It was wonderful to enjoy doing absolutely nothing.  So here's my review of Christmas break.

We hosted family from Balitmore and Philadelphia for Christmas dinner.  We ended up with about 12 guests.  That doesn't seem like much...

However, considering the modest square footage of our home, it was a challenge.  Six guests ate in the kitchen (far right photo), four ate in the living room (far left) and the rest of us just floated around.  It worked.  However, our next house will have a dining room.  The real estate agent said that people don't use them, but I don't know what planet she lives on.

So, yes, I did seat four people in the living room.  We squeezed our leather couch, chairs, and bookshelves into the front 2/3 of the living room (right near the front door) and created a dining room with a portable table and 4 folding chairs.  It was a tight fit, but it allowed people to enjoy a sit down meal.  You do what you have to do.

I also must point out that this was only my second time making a turkey.  If I do say so myself, I did a great job!  I used a fresh Butterball turkey (14 lbs.).  I rubbed it with a combination of special spices and rubbed under the skin with butter and fresh rosemary.  Sometimes turkey can be dry.  My turkey was both moist and flavorful.  We also served baby back ribs.  We marinated them and smoked them (in the snow, with the help of my mom) for 5 hours before serving them.  Needless to say, the food went over well.  So well, in fact, that I forgot to take pictures and everyone ate it all.

As far as decorations, well... we put up the tree in the beginning of December.  The tree had to get set up in our basement since the entire first floor had to be open to accommodate our Christmas dinner guests.  It's an artificial tree circa 1988.  My mom purchased it on clearance for our old house in New Jersey.  The tree has seen better days.  On December 23rd we learned that the tree lights had seen better days, as well.  Who knows how old our lights were, but they decided to short out and start flashing and buzzing two days before Christmas.  My mom helped us search all over the tri-state area for white indoor lights.  We ended up with these cool white LED lights.  I'm all for LED, but since these were cool white (as opposed to warm white) they clashed with our gold ornaments and decor... so we promptly ran around town looking for "cooler" colors like silver and blue for the tree to match the lights.  I'm not sure we were successful.  Maybe next year we'll get a new tree.  Maybe we just won't put up the tree at all.  I'm not the Grinch, but I honestly don't think I'd miss it.

We did a little bit of decorations on the mantle above the fireplace (our little caroling family).  I have a nativity, but I haven't been able to locate it for a few years. 

And on to New Year's!  We were previously known for our Christmas party in early December, but this year we opted to not host friends for our annual gathering (tough economic times + my nervousness about preparing for our Christmas day guests).  At the last minute we decided to try to have a New Year's Eve party.  We ended up with three guests (not including relatives).  That's okay, because by midnight it was just family.

And I was happy because I got to rock my Snuggie.

Did our bedroom get painted?  No.  Did we visit relatives out of state?  No.  Did we ever find and put out all of our Christmas decorations?  No way.  However, we enjoyed two weeks of freedom.  No alarm clocks, no turnpikes, no frequent trips to the gas station, no professional dress.  It was great.

Happy New Year!

My husband and I have a tradition of starting the new year with a list of home improvements that we'd like to complete during the upcoming year.  After Christmas, we've eaten too much food and spent too much money, so it's nice to change our focus a bit.  Don't you worry, I'll still be cooking!  Cooking at home is a great way to save money.

Have I ever mentioned that my husband and I live in a relatively small space?  I prefer to call it cozy, but at about 1300 square feet, it's considered small around these parts.

We purchased our (town) home in May 2005, just two months after we jumped the broom.  We were and still are so proud to have our own home and we've spent the last 4+ years adding personal touches to our property.  I love investing time and money in our home because we work really hard and we consider our home to be our sanctuary.  We are so proud to come home to a well-decorated space that reflects our personalities.

I'm adding a new category to my postings:  Home.  In this category I plan to show some home improvements or organizational tips that really helped us make our house a home.  We've had some space limitations and financial limitations that have influenced our choices, so I figured it would be helpful to share our remodeling/nesting/customization experiences (major and minor) with my blog family.  Don't be surprised that many of my favorite improvements are in the kitchen!  Gotta keep the focus on the food.