I know...it's been forever!!

I know that I have not updated the blog in months-and for that I apologize. My sister keeps saying to me, "the last update was Crafty Tuesday, I'm waiting for more!"

Now that school is in full swing hopefully I will be able to find a little more time to update the blog. Plus, I just found out from another friend's blog that there is an iPhone app for Blogger-so that will make it a lot easier!!

I have been working on so many projects lately and I have been wanting to get them posted. It will probably take me a few days to get to everything. Plus I don't want to put everything in one blog...I gotta keep you comin' back for more!

So the project I will share today is my awesome homemade vanity!! I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this. I have been telling B for probably a year now how much I wanted a vanity. There are several reasons why: our bathroom is really small, my make up is a powder so it is messy and gets everywhere, and of course because they are super cute. The problem is that they are really expensive and I was not willing to dish out that kind of cash (and neither was B).

So, a few weeks ago I was out garage sailing (not sure on that spelling?) with my mother in law and I came across this old changing table (looked like a desk to me) for $2!! I was pretty sure the price tag was wrong-but it wasn't they actually sold it to me for $2! I was so excited and knew that if it didn't work as a vanity I could use it as a desk or sell it.


I went to OSH and found one of their mis-marked gallons of paint for $4 in a color that was pretty close to the one I wanted anyway. I painted the table and tried it out in the bedroom. My biggest concern was that it would be too big for the space I had in mind. It turned out to be perfect!

Of course the table is not the only piece to the vanity-I still needed a mirror and stool/chair.

I had purchased a round lighted vanity mirror at costco and was happy with that...but then I found the most amazing find at a garage sale this past weekend. It was a rectangular mirror in a wooden frame with a small drawer at the bottom. It was perfect!!! I bought it for $5. I used the same paint from the table to paint it because it was very dirty and needed new paint, plus I wanted it to match the vanity. I also had to give the mirror a good cleaning with a razor blade and some goo gone.

I am so happy with the outcome of the vanity. It is perfect. I am still on the hunt for a stool but I am determined to find one at a garage sale or thrift store so I can keep the entire vanity under $20!

So far I have spent $11!

Check out the pictures of the before table and now the completed vanity. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the mirror before I painted it!)

Next up on the blog...my frame projects and the Christmas Boutique, be sure to check back soon!

Crafty Tuesday

Yesterday I sat down to make a little gift for my friend's birthday. In the process I was totally inspired to do some crafts for the afternoon. Over the past few years I have accumulated a bunch of scrapbooking stuff, but I just don't have a lot of time to scrapbook or the need to scrapbook. I decided to use all of the supplies I had to make some fun greeting cards.
Here is a little preview of what I was working on...

 This is my Christmas 4 pack...

 "First Day of School" cards

 Happy Thanksgiving!

 These are "miss you" and "hi from San Francisco" cards...

 "Sorry"

 The one on the left says "home sweet home"and the one on the right says "home" on the outside and on the inside says "congratulations on your new home"

 This says Family and Memories

 Friendship cards. The one top right says "I call you friend"

and the one on the bottom says "friendship".

 Engagement/Wedding Cards

The one middle right says "happily ever after"

The one on the bottom says "harmony"

 This one should have been on the engagement/wedding ones, but I missed it..."Together Forever"

 Just because cards...

 Happy Birthday

 Baby Boy Cards

Top right says "Welcome Precious Baby"

Bottom right says "Children are a gift from God"-inside says "Congrats"

The 2 on the left say "It's A Boy" on the middle ribbon

So, that is all of the cards so far...we will see if I feel inspired again today. I am now trying to decide what to do with all of them. They obviously are not good enough to sell on Etsy or anything like that, but we are having a garage sale in a couple of weeks and I was thinking about maybe trying to sell some of them there. We will see, maybe I will just keep them all for my own use. :)

Don't forget to check back for an update on the garage soon...

The Dreadful Garage

Lately I have been absolutely disgusted by our garage. It has (like many garages) become a place to throw all of the junk that we do not know what to do with. My first thought was, "where did all of this stuff come from?" We have not even lived in this house for a year and the garage is so full of stuff. Before we lived in this house we lived in a townhouse that did not have a garage, or any storage for that matter. So, somehow in the last 10 months we have accumulated enough stuff to fill the garage. Ugh.

Today I decided it was time to start going through all of this junk and organizing it. First I had to start getting rid of all of the cardboard we have accumulated. The problem is that we have made some big purchases in the past 10 months and they have all come in cardboard boxes, but the boxes are too big to fit into our recycle bin so we have just been letting them pile up. Bad idea. We will be making a trip to the dump to get rid of all of them in the next few days.

Once the cardboard boxes were out of the way I was ready to get started going through everything else. First I went through the stuff that I knew was mine. Most of it was stuff from high school and college that had been in the same plastic bin since then and I just kept toting it around for some reason. After looking through it, I realized that most of it was just stuff that I didn't need. Most of it went to the garage sale/goodwill pile.

All of my hubby's stuff that I came across I put in a pile for him to go through when he gets home from work. I have no idea what most of it is, so I don't want to through something away that looks like junk to me but is actually his most prized possession from high school. :)

My favorite part of the day was when I came across a box that his mom had dropped off a few months ago. It is his keepsake box and has tons of stuff from when he was a little kid. I spent probably 20-30 minutes looking through his baby book. Precious.

For now, I am done with the garage. Although it is not finished I am very satisfied with how it looks now, opposed to how it looked at 11:00AM this morning. My next step is to go through all of the Christmas boxes and organize them. Luckily, we have not accumulated too many Christmas decorations yet.  Once the garage is completely done I will post some pics.

Brad and Sonya's 30th Anniversary Party

My in-laws recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. My hubby and I decided to host an intimate dinner party for them and some of their close friends. We had so much fun prepping, hosting, and serving. Their actual anniversary was on June 27th but we hosted the party on July 1st. The dinner menu was as follows:

~Pear, walnut, and gorgonzola salad
~Homemade Focaccia Bread
~Grilled Asparagus and Grilled Sweet Potato
~Stuffed Pork Roast or Spinach and Cheese Ravioli
~Dessert: Creme Brulee

I made all of these courses, down to the salad dressing, myself (except for the ravioli). Everything turned out amazing...which was good considering it was my first time making all of these items.
If you are interested in any of the recipes I am more than happy to share. All of the recipes except the creme brulee came out of a cookbook that my mom let me borrow called "The Gathering of Friends."

I also did all of the decorating for the party. We decided to have the party out on our back patio. I hired my good friend Julia to do the flowers for me.
If you like what you see check her out at http://www.flowersbyj.com/Site/Home.html

We went with 3 cylinder vases filled with water, yellow floating orchids, and a floating candle on top. In the middle is a large cylinder bowl that has pieces of the floating orchids and several floating candles.

 One of my favorite things to see at an anniversary party is the bride's dress. My mother-in-law graciously let me display her wedding dress. Beautiful. (P.S. The secret to making it stand up is an ironing board.)

 On a table I had displayed their wedding picture, their wedding album, Sonya's bouquet from the wedding, the tie Brad wore when they were leaving the reception, the newspaper clipping announcing their wedding, and an arrangement of yellow roses (also done by flowers by j). The flowers they used in their wedding were yellow roses.

 My father in law brought me a bunch of pictures that he had recently found to display. I found 2 trellises in our backyard that I used to display the pictures. One of them had pictures from the wedding and the other one had pictures from Sonya's bridal shower and one from Brad's bachelor party.

 Our 8 dinner guests...

 Brandon decided to use the blow torch (that we were using for the creme brulee) to light the floating candles in the centerpieces. He was quite the entertainer that evening.

It was a great parry and we had so much fun doing it. Congratulations to my in-laws!! You are a great example of marriage for us.

So apparently I am not very good at keeping up on this blogging thing but life has been a little crazy lately. Summer is now in full swing for me. The hubs and I spent about 2 weeks in San Diego with both of our families. It was a great time to be with everyone.  Then when we got back from San Diego we were planning and preparing for a dinner that we hosted for my in-laws 30th Anniversary (blog to come about that with pictures soon).

For now I want to update you on the garden. Can I just say that I am pretty much in shock because this whole gardening thing is actually starting to work!! I was SO skeptical in the beginning because in the past I have killed just about every plant I have touched.   A few weeks ago we cut the cilantro and used it in some fabulous guacamole. We are hoping that it will continue to grow back throughout the summer.

Exciting News: I HAVE 7 TOMATOES!!! Woo Hoo!!!! It is so funny because I planted 3 different tomato plants from seedlings and one plant does not have any fruit on it yet, my biggest plant has 2 tomatoes, and my smallest plant (seriously, like a little midget tomato plant) has 5 on it. The small plant is a Roma  and the biggest one is a Better Boy. I also planted some tomato seeds and those plants are really growing but I think we are still a little while away from seeing any fruit.

My zucchini plant has a HUGE flower on it this morning, which if I remember correctly means that the zucchini cannot be too far behind.

My cucumber seeds all failed! BOOOO!!! Oh well, next time, I guess.

My bean plants continue to take off, but I have not seen too many "bean" looking things yet.

The other exciting thing is that my Dahlias have started to bloom and they are so amazing. Each plant is a different color and each day there is a new flower. They might be one of my new favorite flowers.
The hydrangea have also really taken off. Even though the plants were completely dead when we moved in, they have come back to life. I cannot take any of the credit for those though, my hubby is the one who did all of the maintenance on those.

I am just so excited to continue to watch all of the plants grow and change. And I really can't wait to eat my first tomato and zucchini!!

The garden has not changed too much in the last few days. The zucchini just looks like it is ready to burst and start showing some actual zucchini!! The cilantro continues to grow quickly and I am pretty sure that I will be able to use it fairly soon.

From the rain that we got last week the Dahlia's in the front yard have taken off!! There are not any flowers yet but the leaves are getting pretty large. I cannot wait to see beautiful flowers there.

I know that I have been slacking on getting some pictures up here but hopefully I will be able to get some up soon.

I am also very excited because Friday, June 3rd is my last day of school and then I will be able to focus more on the garden and other fun activites at home!! Maybe I will try out some painting or other crafts...although that makes me a little nervous! :)

Check back soon for pictures!

SPROUTS!

Sorry, I have been MIA the last couple of weeks, life has been crazy around our house. The exciting thing is that we have real sprouts!! I am so excited to know that my garden hasn't failed...yet! The first sprouts we got were the white & green beans. They have taken off like crazy. Next we started getting some cilantro, then came zucchini, cucumber, tomato, onion, and just the other day the jalapeno sprouted. The only one that has not sprouted at all is the lettuce, which I find a little funny because I thought that was supposed to be one of the easy ones! I am blaming it on the dog! ;)

My husband decided the other day while eating a grapefruit that he was going to plant his grapefruit seed--we haven't seen any sprouts from that yet, but we are waiting patiently!

I also recently planted some dahlia bulbs that one of my friends gave to me...hopefully they will brighten up our front yard!

I will try to post some pictures of our sprouts soon!

Oh and I almost forgot, this last weekend I bought some basil seedlings that I need to plant! Half of them are regular basil and the other half are lemon basil...yum!!

Pictures

Here are my pictures...

This first one is a shot from far away of my potted plants. I LOVE the 2 green ones I found at Ross! I also found a small cute purple one but it does not have anything planted in it yet.

 A close up of some of the potted plants. (Well technically not plants yet!)

 This just looks like a bunch of dirt, but has my tomatoes and green beans under there!
Not pictured: to the left is the onion and to the right is the white beans.

 It is hard to see from the shadows in this picture but these are my cucumber hills. The only vegetable I planted that had to be put into hills. There are 3 hills going vertically here. To the right of my cucumbers I have zucchini planted in horizontal rows (but they did not need to be in hills.)

Now we wait and see...

Well, I officially did it...I planted all of the vegetables yesterday. I am hoping that it will actually work and we will get some veggies from this (I still have my doubts)! I took some pictures to share with you but I am having some technical difficulties, hopefully I can get them up soon. I found some very cute pots at Ross and I planted some cilantro and jalapenos in those. In the garden bed on the side of the house I planted cucumber, zucchini, tomato, onion, green beans, and white beans. I am thinking that the hardest part about this garden will be keeping the dog out of it!

On Saturday morning I was asking Brandon about what type of fertilizer to get for the soil. He suggested I look for some kind of chicken poop fertilizer. Honestly, I thought that was kind of funny and hardly expected to find it at OSH...but I was wrong! There on the shelf I found a bag of "Chickity Poo Poo!" I thought it was so funny! But it also reminded me how incredibly smart my husband is. I am amazed at all of the information he knows about random things...like gardening. I am still amazed every time he decides to do some work on one of our cars and he walks right into the auto part store gets what he needs, goes home and does the work like it is no big deal. It seriously amazes me, and I am very grateful to have him and all of his knowledge around!

After I finished my gardening yesterday I decided to go to a "Womens Golf Clinic" that Brandon had mentioned to me. I knew that he REALLY wanted me to go but I was very unsure about it. I tend to be very self conscious when other people watch me do something (like trying to swing a golf club). I am really glad I went though. It was very informational and I also had fun. Hopefully I will be brave enough to actually get out and play with Brandon one of these days.

Tomatoes

Well, so far I have just planted tomatoes. I bought some seedlings from the store and they needed to be planted very soon after purchasing them so I put them into 2 pots that the previous tenants had left out back. I am hoping that these little plants really start to grow and give us some big beautiful tomatoes!!

I am hoping to start planting all of my seeds this weekend!! Brandon and I actually decided to move the vegetable garden to a different part of the backyard. There is a spot in the backyard that gets a little less sun, BUT already has soil on top of the adobe and has wood around it (to help protect it from the dog). We are going to plant some other plants in the spot that I tilled a couple of weekends ago. Or we also talked about the option of using that area for some planter boxes.  We will just have to see how everything turns out.

I am still feeling pretty overwhelmed with this whole gardening project but I know that I just need to jump in and do it. I am really excited to see what comes out of it, if anything!

Here is a picture of one of my little tomato pots!