My Flowerbeds - After!

You'll remember that I showed you my flowerbeds in THIS post a few weeks ago. Now I will show you some after pictures! I have pictures from right after we planted them (the day of), about two weeks later, and then about a month after that. Progress!

Here is a reminder of the plan Tobin made us:

And here are some shots of the day we planted:

And here are the after shots of the day we planted:

Here are the beds about two weeks later:

And here are a few shots from this week:

And there you have it: a very extensive "after" post. I love our results. I am very happy with it all!



STAY TUNED!!!

We just got back from a mini-family vacation over the holiday weekend to Canton, TX to the First Monday Trade Days. It was sunny and above 100 degrees but we had a great time. Stay tuned for some pictures of the great treasures we found! :)

H A P P Y   F O U R T H  ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I am an Island

Just kidding. I hate when people say that! But I am going to talk about an island. For those of you who know me well (this sentence is comical because there aren't even 20 people reading this blog), you probably know I am going to dedicate this post to my beloved island.


My kitchen island was the very first piece of furniture I purchased for our house (before we started building!) and it was and has remained my favorite piece in the house.


I stumbled upon it one day while browsing Windsor Market. When I saw it, it was love at first sight and I knew I would buy it. I refrained (painfully) from purchasing that day, and I waited about a week until Tyler could go look at it. When I took Tyler back to look at it, they had lowered the price by $100 (insert Hallelujah chorus)!


Here it is in the holding cell while we built our house (in Tyler's parents garage - where the dogs frequently walked across it, hence the paw prints)

When we brought it home, we hit a road block and I was [almost] devastated. It was more than 3 feet wide at every angle, meaning it would not fit through a standard 3 foot door (for those of you wondering why it was in a garage). I was ridiculed by my husband for this - BUT if HE didn't think about this when he saw it BEFORE I purchased it, I don't feel bad at all. Actually, my husband, who does construction for a living and is required to think about things like this on a daily basis, AND my father-in-law who is a structural engineer, both saw the island and it never occured to them that it wouldn't fit through a standard door. Why should I feel bad??? :)
So, as soon as the house was dried in and before we put the door frames in, we had to take the island and put it in the house. So here's how it looked for several months:

That is scary! Thank goodness for the tarp. I gave very specific instructions that it was not to be used as a work table but you can see how well the contractors listened to that.


Finally, here is a picture of the island in the kitchen. We actually planned the kitchen around this island :) We had the cabinets stained to match it. This picture was taken around Easter right after we moved in last year.

I will add a better, more current picture of it later. Now you know the story of my beloved kitchen island!

UPDATE*** Here are some newer, better pictures:

Project Post 2 - Barnwood Monogram Sign

Tobin's Sign


We wanted to make something special for Tyler's brother for his birthday, and we were still in the "old barnwood" mood from making Levi's letters and the shelf in his room (more about that later), so we decided to make him a sign with the barnwood (since the wood is sort of a family heirloom it is good to use it for Tobin) and his initials.


Tyler did the photography this time, and I won't explain [most of] the pictures because they really speak for themselves. I was very happy with the finished product. I hope Tobin was too!

I got the letters at Hobby Lobby and spraypainted them metallic dark bronze.

Southern Skillet Corn

Who doesn't love corn? I will admit that normally I look for quick, 5-minute side dishes that I can throw in the microwave (hello steambags!) while I prepare dinner and wrangle take care of my 8-month-old. Corn is pretty much a staple that we have often - microwaved, quickly cooked on the stove, or boiled on the cob when I can get it fresh and home-grown in the summer. I love creamed corn too - it's delicious - but overall I prefer my veggies crisp, with a little crunch to them. That's why this recipe was perfect for me to try (I slightly adapted it to fit our preferences). It's delicious and creamy, but the corn still has some crunch to it. Here's how you make it:

Shuck 6 ears of corn (I obviously only used 5) and pull off all the silks, then rinse with cold water.

Scrape the corn off the cob with a sharp knife into a large bowl, then take a spoon and scrape the bare cobs to get all the milk.

Combine 3 tbsp. flour, 2 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt (I used only 1/4 tsp. - one tsp. is a TON of salt!!), & 1/4 tsp. pepper (I used 1/2 tsp.) in a small bowl, then add to 1 1/2 C water. Whisk to mix together.

Melt 3 Tbsp. butter in a large skillet, then add the corn and the flour mixture. Cook on medium to low heat for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Enjoy!

Here is my little man being an angel while I made dinner. He is entertaining himself by eating throwing his snack in the floor so the dog will eat it.

Here's the recipe if you want to write it down:

Ingredients

6 ears of corn

3 T flour

2 t sugar

1 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1 1/2 C water

3 T butter

Instructions

Shuck corn and pull off silks, then rinse under cool running water. In a large bowl, cut the corn from the cob with a sharp knife. Scrap up the cob with a spoon to get the milk. Combine flour, sugar, salt and pepper in a small bowl, then add to 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir with a fork or whisk or combine. Melt butter over medium-low heat in a large, heavy bottomed skillet. Add corn and flour mixture and cook over medium-low heat for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Nutrition information can be found HERE. Yields 6 servings.

My Flowerbeds - Before & After...

...well, sortof! I'm not going to post the final "after" pics yet - so you will have to stay tuned.


We have an understanding when it comes to home maintenance, decorating, projects, finishing touches, etc. We don't spend the money on something until we have plenty to spend on it. This philosophy is why I still have incomplete rooms in most of my house (besides Levi's), why I am still missing a sofa, entertainment center, occasional tables, bedroom furniture, and the list goes on. The same philosophy is also why it took us 16 months of living here before we did any landscaping! But alas, we finally took the plunge.

Let me take you back to the VERRRY beginning. Here is the front "yard" right after we moved in, and when we were still using the pre-sidewalk 2x4s:

And here are the proud new homeowners in front of our yardless new house :)

And here is some progress after our beloved sidewalk was poured:

Then last summer, we (and by we, I mean Tyler) put in some flowerbeds and spread mulch, then put leftover stone from the house around the perimeter.

And then, FINALLY, after patiently waiting, my brother-in-law who does landscape design (***shoutout to Tobin!) drew us a design according to our budget, and ordered our plants from the nursery and then we put them in!

Here's the awesome plan he designed us:

I will leave you on the edge of your seats with that! Final "after" pictures coming soon!



Hall of Fame Shoes

It is no secret that I am a lover of clothes, shoes, accessories, and anything related. Every once in a while, I invest in a piece, whether expensive or not, that ends up being a wardrobe staple for seasons to come. Twelve years ago, I purchased a pair of Gianni Bini cognac leather wedge Mary Janes. Here they are now, in all their glory:

Gianni Bini Mary Jane Wedges in Cognac - Circa 1999 via Dillard's



I was in 8th grade when I bought these, and I paid for them with money I earned working at my dad's store after school. So when my parents griped at me for spending $69 on a pair of shoes, I thought "these were such a great investment - I'll wear them forever, or at least a year or two..."

Although I probably had no business buying $69 shoes just for the heck of it (there's no way I needed them; I had plenty of shoes - my love of clothes started way earlier than 8th grade), this is one of the only times I am glad I spent money against my parents' wishes. 

Twelve years, one high school graduation, one college graduation, a husband, a baby, and one resole job later, I am still in love with these shoes.