Weekly Money Checkup

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was $39 on a new sink. Our extra bathrooms have metal coated porcelain sinks with metal trim. You cant get the trim clean and the inside of the sinks are scratched so they always look dirty. Yea to clean sinks....next month other bathroom. :)

2. Today I am thankful we had a REALLY productive weekend working together to get things done around the house.


3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was rip the dog kennel off the side of our house and sell it on craigslist. Check one piece of junk off my list!


4. I will consider this week a success if I get the main floor mopped. My husband is working on installing a whole house fan in our attic and keeps getting installation everywhere!


5. My favorite cuisine to prepare is grill food. I love summer and grilling. I am not sure if I like being outside more or the actual food.


Have a wonderful week!

Garden in July

So I haven't been real good about sharing photos of my garden. I have been eating lots of sugar snap peas and have tons of little tomatoes, jalopenos, and various bell peppers growing. We are eating fresh lettuce and should also be getting squash soon. Next year I am upgrading my pea trellis so I can have double the plants. I love my garden boxes! Don't tell my husband but I really wish I had room for more!

Our grass is coming back from having mites and looking good. What a GREAT summer!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Its a Book kind of day :)

It has been raining since Tuesday night at out house and hasn't let up as I am typing this. I have my garden plants under sheets and a tarp to protect them from too much moisture and cold. We have lived here exactly one year and it has rained under 5 times for less than an hour or two. I am glad for the moisture for our grass seed and my wildflower seeds but our back yard looks like the great lakes region right now.

Photo from Amazon.com

So I am reading a book today. I have no idea what it is about as my neighbor dropped it off. It is called Beyond the Shadows by Robin Lee Hatcher. I take books when my Mamo is done with them and share them with our neighbor. She cleans house for a women that is home bound and loves the same books as my Mamo. She reads them and gives them back to me usually with a few others I didn't send to her. They may not always be what I want to read but I will read anything. I used to have a HUGE list of books on my "to read" list but I don't have much time when I let books consume me. So now I pretty much read educational books. I read the National Geographic every night before bed, usually just one article. I also have been reading several gardening books specifically for Colorado. Not my old reading material but I am educating myself on things I want to know. We have traveled so much the last few years I made a pact with myself to only buy books for trips. Well now we are closer to our families and aren't taking trips so I need a new strategy. Maybe only buy one book a month? That seems reasonable as a book costs as much as going out to lunch and I would much rather have a book.

Either way I am sitting inside with a cup of coffee and a book. I can't think of a better way to spend a rainy day.

Weekly Money Checkup

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was $76 on flagstone to increase the size of our patio. Unfortunately I still need a bit more.

North side of the patio with added flagstone

2. Today I am thankful that we finally have a roof on our shed. 

Just needs a door, shutters, and window boxes

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was reuse the metal trim we removed where my garden boxes are. We reused it by creating a new flower bed along the fence.

Hard to see but we now have a curved continuous flower bed along the fence where there was none.

4. I will consider this week a success if I get the strength to lay more flagstone. I need to clean the house first because one of my best friends is flying in Thursday so the two of us can hang out!!!! I am super excited!!!!

5. One thing I appreciate about my mom is the fact she made us work hard for everything as kids and as adults. It makes me appreciate everything in my life now because we have worked hard for it. Self worth means a lot and she helped give me that.

Plants from seeds, the plants on the right are marigolds that I will plant in my garden boxes to keep bugs away. The spike grasses in back are blue fescue for my front yard planters.

Photo Friday #4

A quick view of what has been going on around our house.

Plant Table in the family room, my seeds are not growing as fast as I would like. :(

I FINALLY got dirt into my planter boxes. Two truck loads! My arms hurt....

The shed, still minus a roof. It's hard to tell but I have painted the siding the color our yellow house will be transformed into. We have had a lot of wind lately as you can see from the tar paper.

Rock Planters where my iris's are slowly peeking through.

I had the yard aerated Wednesday. Hopefully this will help the shape of our backyard. It is in sad sad shape!

New baskets for laundry. One for whites/light colors and one for darks. This way I can carry them up and down the stairs and fill them up with clean clothes to put away.

View of closet with laundry baskets and new baskets on the top of the shelf. Finally a system that will work better and looks better.

Have a wonderful weekend! I get to learn how to shingle this weekend!

Happy Easter with a few hiccups

We started out Easter morning with some home cooked breakfast. Courtesy of my husband....he cooked it all! :) Then our hiccups started.....

Our washer broke again. Thankfully we got it working within an hour! That is now at the top of my expensive list of items that need replaced most likely in the next year. Washer (& dryer because the dryer isn't great either), vacuum (cracked and isn't working right because the seal latches are also broken), stove (only two burners work), lawn mower (my husband has rebuilt the 3 year old POS twice already and informed me he wants a new one).

So because I want to cry at all the silly appliances that are barely hanging on I want to share the good things at our house.

Shed as of 4/23/11, we got the flashing (metal trim that goes under the shingles), everything caulked (to prevent leaks), and the windows installed. I also have painted the first coat of paint on the trim. 

8 Jalapeno plants and 2 Big Boy Tomato plants that were 50 cents each. Yeah for watching the sale ads! This was an AWESOME deal!

Side of shed and 2 of my garden boxes minus the soil. It still looks messy but we are getting there!

Next week we are planning on shingling the roof (I have to order the shingles tomorrow) and building the door together. My lone self is going to get the trim all painted and the siding painted as well as dirt in my planters.

Touch Screen Panel

But the best part of our weekend is we got a security system installed. The number of break ins have increased due to the economy but because it is getting warmer they also are increasing. All the homes I have been emailed about from the neighborhood watch have been houses that were obviously cased out. We travel a lot and I know I feel better about having a system but my husband also did as he made the final decision. We can even arm it or disarm it from our phones and it has a touch screen. Because we had a few extras added we spent $200 after the $1600 of equipment they gave us and it will lower our homeowners insurance. I now don't have to be nervous every time we are gone for the weekend with the dogs. Now I am just nervous about figuring the system out.

Photo Friday #3 with No Photos

So I have No photos to share today. :(

I didn't arrive home until late Tuesday night and have been busy! My house may still not be clean (I confess I tracked all kinds of backyard mess in and out yesterday) but I have done TONS of laundry, all the beds and towels are clean and I have a huge box of clothes etc. to get rid of.

I also started most of my plants for my garden and hopefully will have a picture of the sprouts Monday. That is if they grow. I planted 4 types of lettuce, green onions, acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet peas, and marigolds for the sides of my planters. I have other plants I also want to include but I will buy them. Such as jalapenos, Red Bell Peppers, Orange Bell Peppers, Yellow Bell Peppers and tomatoes. I also am going to plant okra, garlic and horseradish but they will go directly in the soil once it warms up.

After I finish my jewelry orders I am headed back outside to shovel some rock and remove another blue tarp from our planting beds (please note if you ever think using a tarp instead of weed fabric like the last homeowners of our house, it is a VERY bad idea!). Tomorrow we are starting the framing of our shed with some help from my husbands parents. Yeah for help!

And I promise I will take LOTS of pictures so I actually have something to share!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Backyard Beauties

I am resting from moving gravel yesterday. We are getting there on the yard so that the fun/pretty things can start taking place. YEAH!!!!

I thought I would share my amazon purchases that cost me $2.03 after using my free gift cards. I am a member of several survey sites that give Amazon cash or one that gives me Lowes gift cards. Personally right now I like the Lowes cards better. But this is what I ordered with my Amazon money.

A new snazzy set of gardening tools, my current shovel is plastic and it wont cut through the roots in our backyard. And I ordered some colorful bulbs for along our back fence. My budget on plants for the back yard is pretty non-existent this year since I need to put plants in the front yard (we have none). So I am excited to have a few bright colored beauties for the back.

Dreaming....

 Wouldn't it be nice to have this as a back yard? Of course but it would have to come with a gardener so you could enjoy it.

 This is what my last few "gardens" have looked like as landlords are not really cool with you digging up the yard for a real garden. I love being able to do what I want to our house, within reason of course. :)

 This is an awesome representation of what I am planting along our back fence, wildflowers! Cheap, Pretty and fairly dog resistant. My Mamo and I witnessed my puppy pulling a weed out of the yard last summer....I am hoping he will leave these alone because there will be so many of them.

And a dream of a waterfall and pond. I can just imagine sitting on a rock with a good book and enjoying this. Too bad this is a pipe dream, maybe I will get a fountain some day....one dogs can't swim in.

The sky is gray and cloudy dashing any hopes of being outside as much as I would like. Hopefully it is nice and warm for you and you have a wonderful weekend!

Torn at what to do first....

I am super torn at the moment. I feel like I didn't get enough done inside the house before spring and there is so much I want to do. I know I have awhile but I have a lot to do outside this spring/summer. I have big plans that need planned and budgeted for. Here are a few items I need to do:

-Visit nursery and ask about prices for the plants I will need for the front yard beds.

-Determine what ground covers I want to use in backyard area.

-Price out building raised garden boxes. Should I go with Redwood or Cedar?

-Check with Pioneer (gravel, ground covers etc.) about prices for whatever we decide in backyard, some bark for front yard beds, and some soil for my garden boxes. I also want to see how much flagstone costs as I have a plan to increase the patio but it will have to wait until next year.

-Move sprinkler heads, I think we will only move one and cap the other one off as it wont be needed with the new yard arrangement.

- Rototill front yard beds.

-Build garden boxes, fill with old rock and new soil. Plant, marigolds, lots of peppers, tomatoes, lettuce,and acorn squash for sure.

-Lay foundation for shed, we are debating between concrete and blocks.

-Build shed....we need helpers. :)

-Plant new plants in front yard, currently we have none.

-Lay new ground cover in front and back.

-Transplant current Butterfly bushes to cover up electrical bushes next to shed.

Man just typing that is making me wonder how we are going to get it done. I also have to buy new shutters for the outside of the house, repair and repaint the trim. My family is supposed to be rebuilding our cabin's deck early summer as well. I don't think we are going anywhere this summer. Anyone want to come help?

Garden Ideas

I thought I would share one of my ideas for my yard. I have wanted a real garden for years! I have had container gardens almost everywhere we have lived but they have never been quite right with the different climates we have lived in. Word of advice don't bother trying to grow peppers in Phoenix, inside or outside.

Last summer I helped my uncle plant his but I would still like my own. So here is my inspiration. Mine will be a plank taller to prevent my plant eating puppy from enjoying. I also am going to use our old gravel that looks bad to provide drainage. Win win, less rock and a garden. Now I just need to build them and move the sprinkler out of the way.

Thanks to my husbands shed placement for creating the perfect place to build three of these.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Life Update

Thought I would share an update into our lives. House is getting there....just a few items to make it more comfortable.
-Curtains in our Bedroom
-Shades in the kitchen so it isn't so bright
-New pieces for the sprinkler system so it isn't leaking
-Some plants in my pots for the patio

Other than that we are settling in and hopefully can sit and relax a little soon. We finally filled out our tax forms for the rebate. :) I will be really glad when it comes so we can refill our savings account.

Today instead of working on the house I joined my Uncle to weed and plant the his garden. He has a HUGE wonderful fenced in space for a garden but needed help. Perfect for me so I didn't have to rip up our yard. We worked all day until 6 tonight. I have some weird tan lines from my garden gloves and knee pads though. Marks of hard work! Tomorrow I am going to pick up some more plants to add to our spread.
We planted:
-Tomato's
-Green Bell Peppers
-Orange Bell Peppers
-Jalapenos
-2 kinds of Cucumbers
-Zucchini
-Acorn Squash
-Pumpkins
-Crookneck Squash ?(I think that's what it was)

Tomorrow I am picking up Yellow & Red Bell Peppers, some more Jalapenos, Butternut Squash, and a few more Tomato plants. Yum! I am so excited that we get to enjoy our shared garden produce and that I get to help this summer. I have been wanting a garden for several years but we never stay long enough for me to utilize the growing seasons. By the way peppers do NOT grow very well in Phoenix.

Yeah to moving close to home and growing roots again! :)

Garden Delish....yum yum yum

This weekend was wonderful! Minus all the yard work we did in the super hot sun :( We were invited to go raspberry picking. Yum! I was excited because I love raspberries, Colin not so much. He is a very slow picker, probably because he wasn't motivated to pick. Along our picking trip our friends and their neighbor also shared some of their garden produce. I got several yellow squash, zucchini (on steroids), onions, and canned peaches. Oh, can't forget the fresh eggs! I miss my chickens on the farm, store bought eggs are not even similar.

I am planning on canning most of the raspberries into jelly, I shredded quite a bit of the zucchini for bread this winter and everything else is getting incorporated into dinner this week. Yum!

P.S- The picture is only showing 1/4 of the raspberries that I brought home.