Tomato Gardening 101
If, like me, you live in the Southern part of the country then you’ve probably recently come the conclusion that “winter” is just not going to happen this year. In central Texas, the last frost date is usually sometime mid-March, and since the 10-day forecast shows balmy temps in the 60s and 70s for our […]
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Make Ahead Snacks for the “Big Game”
We like to play a drinking game whenever we watch a show on HGTV – you have to take a sip anytime someone says “open concept”. This game can get you very drunk, very fast. Because “open concept” is all the rage in real estate, but it has one fatal flaw – if everyone can see […]
Read MoreRipening Late-Harvest Tomatoes
A friend of mine came over for lunch recently, and was shocked when I mentioned the tomatoes we were enjoying had come from my garden. “But how?” she wondered. “Our first freeze was over a month ago! How can you possibly still have fresh, ripe tomatoes this time of year?” Well, the answer is that […]
Read MoreFun Halloween Party Foods (2015 Edition)
Last weekend, we decided to repeat a tradition we started this past year: a pre-Halloween pumpkin carving party for friends and their kiddos. We already had some great recipes from last year including salmon sandwich ghosts and chocolate-dipped pretzel rods that we chose to repeat this year. But I also expanded this year’s spread to include candy […]
Read MoreHome Improvement 101: Kitchen Remodel
Over the past two weeks, the hubby and I took on one of our more ambitious home improvement projects: we installed a glass tile backsplash in our kitchen. The impetus for this project was that we finally replaced our old laminate countertops with a beautiful grey quartz — and compared to our beautiful new countertops, […]
Read MoreSaving Money with Rain Catchment Barrels: Doing The Math
Prepare yourselves: this post contains math. (Ack, the horror!) In case you were wondering, it’s been balls hot in Texas lately. As such, our garden is feeling the effects. We’re having to fill the resevoir in the raised bed daily, and our in-ground roses, begonias, salvia, and snapdragon at least every other day. Which means, […]
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33 Presents for a 33rd Birthday
This post contains affiliate links. For our full advertising disclosure, see our About page. Yesterday was my husband’s 33rd birthday, marking 1/3 of a century of him making the world a better place. I always like to plan something BIG for his birthdays, especially since he comes from a large family where birthdays were primarily quiet family affairs. […]
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Update on our Wicking Raised Bed Garden
It’s been a few months since we shared the process of how we built our wicking raised bed garden in the front yard, and we’re in full harvest season! We typically get this sort of bounty about 3x a week. We went ahead and tore out our remaining lettuces last month, as the heat had made […]
Read MoreHow To Upgrade All Your Kitchen Appliances for Free
Since I can remember, I’ve hated our appliances. We have a nice, new, energy efficient refrigerator in black, but everything else is slightly-yellowing-white, bottom-of-the-line stuff that’s been in here since the house was built. I’ve wanted to replace them with stainless w/ black trim since I moved in, but since they all worked just fine that […]
Read MoreDIY Garden Signs: Grilling Skewers + Wine Cork
As I bragged about yesterday, we’ve finally completed our wicking raised bed garden – a project I’ve been wanting to undertake for a couple years now! When all was said and done with veggies in the dirt, the hubby pointed out that it might be nice to add garden signs for what each thing is. […]
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