Planting Tomatoes

I did my container gardening a little differently this year - I usually do the square foot method (click here for one of my posts on that from last year) and plant all kinds of different things in the squares. Standing in the garden center tho I realized what I really want to grow and love to eat from the garden are tomatoes (lots and lots of tomatoes!), and both Lucy the parrot and Sarge love green beans and peas (she gets so excited when I pick beans and peas and bring them in for her - she grabs them right out of my hand and chomps them, then Sarge eats what she throws on the floor)...so all I'm growing is those 3 things.

 I have 10 tomato plants, 6 each of beans and peas...I read in a book about someone planting tomatoes in paper bags but when I googled I couldn't find info about how to do that, but I did find this technique to plant the tomatoes sideways so I did that with a couple of the plants and I'll let you know how that goes later in the season. They say it helps the roots grow stronger and that roots will form along the stem that is planted in the dirt...in order to plant them sideways and not break the tops (you have to sort of bend them up and out of the ground) just leave the plants in their original growing container on their side for a couple days, they'll naturally start to curve towards the sun making the job of planting sideways simple.

dig a trench and lay the plant in it on it's side, leaving the top out of course.

I also discovered what went wrong last year with a couple of the plants (the fruit was black and weird on the bottom), it's blossom-end rot and comes from inconsistent watering - which of course is totally my fault! I'm going to do better this year :).

Before planting I amended the soil by adding a little "dairy doo" which is basically manure and is supposed to make a big difference - we'll see...

Wear: Cuffed Jeans and T-shirt

Here's a jazzed up version of an everyday t-shirt and jeans that are seriously way too long on me...fold up the jeans to form a huge cuff (I prefer when they are cuffed high enough to looked cropped instead of folding them to the ankle - it seems more "on purpose" and fun to me), add some thin silver hoops, an oversized silver watch, silver flats, and top the whole thing with an unbuttoned blazer. Looks so much more put together than a plain old t-shirt and jeans!

 I have on AG "tomboy" jeans, favorite hoop earrings found at Francescas,  an elephant t-shirt Dave bought me (it says "say no to ivory"), blazer from Loft. I'm finding it's hard to make outfit pictures look good - it's cuter in person!

A little tip: I use a couple pieces of double sided tape to hold my cuffs in place so they'll stay put. It works!

even without the blazer it's more of an "outfit" with the jewelry and shoes...

Repurpose Old Artwork

Cathy sent me this picture months ago and I completely forgot about it until I stopped by her house the other day and saw it in person - she did such a good job and I love this idea...I'll now be scouring garage sales to find some old artwork to change into something new!

She found these 3 canvas panels that someone was throwing out - they used to be painted in funky modern colors with paint splashes and drips on them. She painted straight overtop with a white base coat, it's hard to make out but in person you can see the texture in the background around the flowers - I would not have thought of doing that. Don't bother trying to smooth the canvas out, just paint straight over - the texture from the original painting adds interest. Then using the bedspread as a guide she freehand painted flowers to match using plain old craft paints. Didn't this turn out great?

Brownie Strawberry Skewers

Looking for a no-bake, easy, fun summer (or whenever!) dessert? I made these to take to a party at my sisters the other day and they were a big hit. I didn't tell anyone that the brownies were store-bought and I'd appreciate it if you keep that tidbit to yourself ;). They all thought I was amazing and I'd like to keep it that way LOL.

Got the basic idea for these on Pinterest here. I changed them a little bit by drizzling with white glaze and before it set added some sprinkles - for a patriotic holiday use red, white, and blue sprinkles if you can find them; change the colors for whatever event you want or whatever makes you happy...they're sprinkles and are only meant to make you happy :)

I set the skewers on parchment paper before
drizzling to contain the mess. 

Ok, ready for how simple these are? Seriously...

Thread a marshmallow, a small brownie (I bought "two-bite brownies" in the bakery section of the grocery store), and top with a clean, hulled strawberry on bamboo skewers. You could be done right then but I like how they look with a drizzle of glaze (or melted chocolate) and finish with the sprinkles. Done. And you'll be a (dessert) rock star!

Kid Friendly Chop Sticks...by Brooke

Out to dinner and a couple people at our table were having problems eating with chopsticks - Brooke piped up with "you should just do this" and pulled off a ponytail holder from her wrist, wrapped it around the end of the chopsticks to hold them together, then inserted a folded small napkin up against the holder - I said she should totally blog that, she replied "just take a picture, but don't get me in it" hahaha. Teenager. So Aunt Jill is sharing this great tip of the day for her ;)

College Survival Kit

For Kenedy's open house I wanted to give her a gift instead of just handing her money, but obviously it needed to be something as useful and necessary as money haha...I have made these before for my nieces going off to college so decided to make one for Kenedy too. It's a very easy gift to put together and the kids seem to really like it - I found this double-sided case at Hobby Lobby but usually I use one of the clear plastic holders like the kind that were originally meant for organizing embroidery thread and has customizable dividers. Then hit up the dollar store, grocery store, drug store, or even look around your house for (unused!) things that a college kid might need (and not even know they are going to need!).

Here's what I included - make it personal and tailor the kit for your recipient:

• gift cards for ('emergency') fast food - pizza, subs, Taco Bell, Starbucks
• cotton balls and q-tips
• small sewing kit with pre-threaded needles in basic colors, couple buttons, safety pins
• tiny stapler, paper clips, rubber bands, sticky notes, tape, krazy glue, a sharpie pen
• phone cord
• tylenol, airborne, throat lozenges, rolaids, neosporin, bandaids, chapstick
• lysol, tide stick
• hair ties, nail clippers, tweezers, nail file
• tiny toothpaste, mouthwash, floss sticks
• batteries, matches and a tea light
• gum, package of fruit snacks, package of almonds

There might be more things in there but now I can't remember ;). Just wing it - it's fun to put together!

I found the "college survival kit" printable here and taped one on each side. Just 'cuz it's cute.

I wrapped it in tissue paper and made one of my favorite tissue flower bows for the top (click here to see how to make them!)

Orzo Pasta Salad

I make this simple salad ALL the time and can't believe I haven't posted it before now - maybe cuz it's so simple and easy I just didn't think to tell you...If you are looking for a simple light summer dish give this a try - it might be a new addition to your menu planning.

Not really a recipe - eyeball the amounts and change it however you want! I just boil orzo (it's a small pasta that looks like fat rice) until al dente (that means don't cook it till it's mushy!) and then drain it and rinse under cold water to cool it down. Drain well and put it in a big bowl. For the basic dish I add chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley, crumbled feta, olive oil, a splash of lemon juice or white vinegar, coarse salt, coarse pepper. You can also add garbanzo or small white beans, leftover meat (chicken, steak, pork chop, shrimp...whatever!), sometimes I season with some italian seasoning or add other herbs, you can add chopped arugula or spinach - really, it's good no matter what!

Tequila with Citrus

I don't love margaritas - usually too sweet for me...we went to a mexican restaurant in town though that only serves margaritas, beer, or tequila. I told the waitress I'm not a fan of margaritas and I hate beer - what to do? She suggested tequila over a glass full of citrus slices - and turns out that is SO good! I got the flavor of a margarita without all the sugar, and I'm pretty sure with how much citrus juice was in my glass this has to count as "healthier", right?

There isn't a recipe - it's literally cut up limes, lemons, and oranges in a glass (I muddle them up a bit to release the juice) and add a shot of tequila (or more, no judging here). I like it with ice too, so build this in a big glass! Took a big Tervis of this to the lake last weekend and it was the perfect hot afternoon drink.

Wear: Full Pants with T-shirt

I've been looking at lots of fashion blogs lately and while I don't always like their styles (there's a whole lot of ruffles going on right now, not my thing!)  I do like that it makes me think of building outfits differently than I usually do - sort of shaking up my closet a bit. I've fallen into the "workout clothes as all-day outfits" lately but I have SO many clothes (!) that I should either get out of the yoga pants and into real clothes or start getting rid of things hanging in my closet and buy nicer yoga pants haha! So in that vein I'm going to add making outfits to my blog (making crafts, making food, now making outfits too!), hopefully you'll get some ideas of what to do with your clothes to make them more wearable, put together more complete outfits, or just inspire you to see things a little differently and mix it up (plus it gives me more incentive to actually wear something other than work-out clothes!).

I've had these full pants for a while now and just never figured out the best way to wear them, they seemed kinda dressy and I don't have occasion to wear dress clothes very often... so I decided to try dressing them down and what I came up with is much more practical for my every day life. Here they are with a plain black t-shirt and platform tennies - I played with necklaces and scarves settling on the chunky white link necklace as the most casual and funky. I felt good and put together, and was super comfortable all day - even though all I did was work in the office, went to lunch, and visited my friend in the hospital (and probably could have done all that in my yoga pants).

One side effect of my making outfits and dressing a little better is that Dave is now questioning why I'm getting "dressed up" and if I have a boyfriend or something LOL. (Um, I don't think Adam Levine counts - I refer to him as my bf but he doesn't even know me hahahah) - I laughed and told him my new plan,  he agreed that I have ALOT of clothes I don't wear ;)

Lighten Up for Summer

I missed my whole "spring cleaning" phase I usually go thru since we were gone - looking around the house now tho I realize that things need to be "lightened" up just in time for summer living. There are (fake) sunflowers on the table that have been there since fall, the chenille bedspread and furry duvet cover are too heavy now, the indoor plants are super overgrown and out of control, the coffee table hasn't been changed in forever...you know what I'm talking about? It just hit me that things needed to be freshened up and changed around. So I did what I LOVE to do and haven't done since the last time I wrote about it (click here for that post) - went "shopping" in my own house and rearranged things. Ahhhhh....so much better!

Tip for today - look around, how does your house feel? Is it time to move things around? That doesn't mean buying more stuff, maybe just moving things from one room to another or putting a few things away for the summer will help your house feel "lightened up"!

Here's a few examples of small changes I made to be more ready for summer (more things I did but didn't take pictures include trimming and fluffing the indoor plants - I even threw one away and moved one sad one outside for a summer vacay of it's own!, moved 2 heavy rolling armchairs away from the dining room table into another room, changed side tables around, put away a few small throw rugs, removed a suede throw from the couch...):


removed the winter bedspread on the left, using summer blanket as a bed cover on the right









changed out the white furry duvet cover for a light cotton one (note my cute stuffed animal - it's "Howie Cowie" and he makes me happy :))

change fall flowers...

to beachy runner and live plant

changed out the coffee table stuff to lighter and less!

PS: I had an epiphany of sorts while moving things around - I always think I want to get on the "less is more" bandwagon and get rid of things (remember my whole tidying up and "does it bring me joy" moment?) but it occurred to me that I don't actually have to own less stuff - I just don't want to see all of it all of the time and want it organized. Although having drawers and closets not being overly jam-packed is a great feeling that I stick by. But I don't have to get rid of stuff just for the sake of getting rid of it - just put some things away for now!