Our little Garden

We may not own our own home but we do want the place we rent to feel like home so we decided to work on the front part of the house. 

This is before we started working on the two garden areas. 

The weeds were getting out of hand (and I did work on this before the picture was taken)!

Weeds growing everywhere, a big plant overshadowing the rest of the garden space and a messy sidewalk. 

Besides the two grass-like plants on the side and some tulips the rest of this is weeds. You can see there are big rocks that line the sidewalk but there is a space where there are no rocks.

Plain deck, weedy mess and no color.

Day 1: I weeded the small garden area, leveled it out and added compost soil. 

Day 2: Ben dug out all the old soil and threw compost soil on top. 

Day 3 Memorial Day: Ben split up the big grasses and put them in two separate areas. 

I evened out the dirt Ben threw into the large garden area. Ben moved over some of the tall grass to under the tree. I picked out some fushias (Ben choose the flower type) and we hung them up as well. 

The side of our house was pretty bare - not even grass could be found here. 

We are growing some sunflowers there (you can barely seem them in this photo). 

We threw in half of the grass plant here. 

After I dug up the ground, added compost soil, and leveled out the area.

Ben took a few tree limbs down to add some extra sunlight on our little friends. 

Bye tree.

Preparing to plant our friends!

Bachelor Button

Zinnias

Moss Rose

Ben found the missing rocks. They were there along just covered in dirt. We made a mess clearing out the rocks and let the dirt dry for a few days. Then I cleared the sidewalk off. 

Here is what the yard was looking like at the end of Memorial Day.

I'll put up new pictures after we put the mulch on! 

(Hopefully that gets done soon!)

I can't wait to show you how our garden has grown!

OH: Week Nineteen

Organize Your Home: Week 19

Mudroom & Entryway Organization

This week the challenge was to work on the entrance into the home. If you have multiple ways to enter the home - work on all of those! We have a main entrance and an emergency exit door. We don't use the side emergency door so we focused on the main entrance. Ben and I attacked this challenge together since many of the items in the foyer were his. 

Before

The entry was was filled with bikes, gardening materials, BBQ gear, construction equipment and dirt!

We got busy and ended up making a mess down here. It was awful!

Gardening supplies from our work over Memorial Weekend. 

The walls were filled with scuff marks. I have scrubbed most of the walls with a magic eraser but still have some more areas to work on. 

A pile of Ben's shoes usually collects outside the door. 

YIKES! This is the leftovers from Ben's woodworking projects and "cleaning" out his truck. 

After

Now the only items downstairs is our bikes, housemate's chairs, and a tote for BBQ items and car items. 

Ben used the tote to house the random things that didn't have a home before. 

Much cleaner looking!

I scrubbed these walls! Now all we need is our landlord to repaint our foyer and it looks brand new!

Trying to limit Ben's shoes to 1 or 2. 

The nice coat hanging area Ben made using a piece of an old pallet. The painted drift wood was a Christmas gift from a friend. 

Steps for this challenge:

1. Clear out EVERYTHING!

2. Clean the floors and get all reachable cob webs. 

3. Put everything back where it belongs. Gardening supplies in milk crates in the basement. Car cleaning supplies in a tote upstairs. All other random items in a tote by the door. 

4. Do a quick clean up in the front yard - sweep deck and pick weeds growing next to the front steps. 

Items to still consider:

1. A place for items that need to go somewhere else: library books, etc. Maybe get a small basket to place by the door. 

2. What to do with wet shoes in the winter. Maybe buy a small rug to go next to the welcome mat. 

OH: Week Eighteen

Organize Your Home: Week 18

First Aid and Medicine Organizer Challenge

In the article for week 18 the author mentions this challenge won't take long for most people. It didn't for me. In fact I did it along with the previous challenge of organizing/cleaning our bathroom. 

Before

 After

Our medicine cabinet was overflowing a bit but after throwing away the items we no longer used we had plenty of space. Like usual - I prefer to have some extra space for us to grow into. 

Making: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Every three weeks Ben and I attend a bible study with a couple people from our church. At every gathering someone makes a dessert. I love this tradition. I get something super tasty every few weeks and I occasionally get to try a new recipe! 


In May I made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. They were very sweet (even for my sweet tooth) so I'm not sure how often I will be making them but I was happy to at least try the recipe!


I got the recipe from Recipe Girl here. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

COOKIE DOUGH (EGG FREE!):
3/4 cup salted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3 Tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup semisweet chips (for topping)

Directions:

1. Prepare the brownies: I just used a box of brownies but Recipe Girl makes her own. 

2. Prepare the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Mix in milk and vanilla. Mix in flour just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Spread cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is quite firm. It's okay to speed up the process and place it in the freezer too. The firmer the dough, the easier it will be to cut into neat squares. Use a sharp knife to cut the brownies. You may need to wipe the knife off with a paper towel in between cuts since the fudgy brownies and cookie dough will tend to stick to the knife a bit. These brownies are best to serve placed inside cupcake papers and served with a fork.

4. If you'd like to add chocolate drizzle on top, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Scoop the melted chocolate into a zip baggie and snip off the corner. Squeeze the bag to drizzle the chocolate on top of each brownie. 

Enjoy!

OH: Week Seventeen

I am very far behind on posting on Organize Your Home but I'm working on catching up!

Organize Your Home: Week 17

Bathroom Organization

1. Declutter your Bathroom: get rid of trash, multiple bottles of the same product, expired products, items you haven't used in a year.
2. Separate Your Bathroom Into Zones:  each zone should have what you need within reach.
3. Organize Your Bathrooms By Zones: keep like items together
4. Consider Bathroom Storage Options

Before

I didn't make any changes here but wanted to show you how my towels are organized. The little basket at the bottom is filled with hand towels and wash clothes. 

My steps:
1. Go through all items in the bathroom. Throw away expired items and products we no longer use. 
2. Take out everything and clean shelf/drawer.
3. Put everything back - making sure everything is organized and appealing. 

After

I scrubbed the bathroom tub and reorganized our shower products. 

I use Burt's Bees and Lemongrass. Ben uses Dr. Bonners.

I got rid of all our medicine except for Ibprofun, Pepto, Allergy capsules and Nightquil. We avoid taking these but keep them in case of desperate times. 

These drawers pretty much stayed the same but now they are clean!

Same with under the sink... 

Got rid of a few things here. 

Not a big difference but everything did get cleaned so I was happy!

2nd Anniversary

Yesterday was our 2nd Anniversary! Our anniversary came up quickly and with our busy schedules we had a late start to thinking about what to do for our special day. We decided on buying a joint gift, something special for our home that we would pick out together! We found it! A fun foot stool/extra seating for our living room. 

Check it out! 

We know this little foot stool will be a hit with guests of any age. And so far it has been! (Noticed a change in our living room? I'll update about the changes soon!)

As for our actual anniversary Ben had to work until 4pm and then he was taking me out to dinner for a special night out. 

At least that was the plan....

I got a phone call from our friend Lauren at 6:30am saying that she was heading into the hospital because she was in labor! I quickly showered, packed a bag and headed over to watch her two youngest children. I stayed at their house until about 12:30pm. I brought the girls to their Papa and Nona's house and then headed to the hospital . For the next 12 hours I waited patiently in the hospital room for Baby J to make an appearance. Finally at 1:24am Baby James Michael was born at 7 lb 12 oz and 19 in. long. I was honored to be there to see baby J come into the world and take his first breaths. Here is a glimpse at the little cutie!

James Michael

Proud Daddy with his new piece of {temporary} body art.

Mommy holding baby after his vitals were checked. 

Mama and Daddy and their new addition. 

Baby makes 5!

Love those kissable lips, dimple chin and curly hair!

Daddy holding his long awaited son!

So blessed to hold this new baby boy!

Sucking on his fingers. So precious!

So instead of spending my anniversary with my husband it was spent waiting for this little man. He was worth it! We will be taking time to celebrate our anniversary soon! 

Welcome Baby James!

We love you so much! 

Love, Ca and Ben