Ok...so today's home improvement project was painting our front door! I knew I wanted to paint it red, but just now got around to it. We went to trusty ole Sherwin Williams because they had a paint color called Redwing Red. It was a match made in heaven. ;) What do you think?
Also, I got some curtains for our living room...but I can't decide if it's too much or not. Tell me what you think???
So we finally got around to the landscaping that we've been wanting to do. Saturday was close to 100 degrees and Sunday was only supposed to get up to 77 so we figured it would be perfect...of course it ended up being 85 yesterday. LOL! We started the day with measuring our area...4' deep and 26' long. Plenty of space for flowers! We went to Skinner's Garden Store to shop for flowers...the hardest part was looking for plants that bloom at different times, plus we needed some full sun, some part-shade, and some full-shade. Why can't things ever be easy? :)
Got home and dug in...we had three current shrubs/plant to dig out and had a big area that was grass that we had to dig up to plant. I remember looking at the clock at 2:00 and thought, wow, this isn't taking long at all. Then of course, we didn't get done until 7. What the heck!?!
Anyways, here's some photos. It's not completely done, as we ran out of mulch and I have a couple more plants I need to get, but it's not too bad.
Here's the before pictures:
First things first --- we moved some of the rose bushes to our back yard. The remaining rose bushes will be moved to the backyard in the fall as I will be planting a whole crap load of tulips in that area by the house.
During picture:
After Photos:
As I said, we ran out of mulch. And I need two more plants. I bought one, but it will be too small for in front of the porch, so I'm going to plant it in a pot and put it on the front porch. I planned on buying everything either red, yellow, or white. But I found a couple pink things that were cute, so those are being thrown in too. For now, since everything is still pretty small and not blooming, I'm going to buy some annuals and put them in small pots and set them in there for some color until things start growing.
Here's what we planted:
Plants A: Mini Stella Daylily's
Plants B: Heart Attack Dianthus
Plants C: Autumn Fire Stonecrop
Plant D: Hollywood Coral Bells
Plant E: Olive Bailey Langdon Plantain Lily
Plant F: Gold Heart Bleeding Heart
And the plant that I bought that will go on the porch is a Lakeside Lollipop.
I think it will turn out cute (fingers crossed).
What do you think??????????????????
When I finish it, I will post more pics but that's it for now!
Today was...quite the day. I don't want to get into details, but those that need my prayers know who they are and know they have my constant prayers. So, I'm going to do something a little different to take my mind off things for a bit and share something that hopefully you'll like...it's a recipe that is kinda weird, but we really like it. If you want to try something new, give it a whirl and let me know what you think! I'm a picky eater and I like it, so it must be good, right? haha. Probably not the most healthy thing I make, but it's comfort food night. :) And the disclaimer: I do not own this recipe, I got it from All Recipes.
Anniversary Chicken I
2 T vegetable oil (I use olive oil)
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, halved
1/2 c. teriyaki basting sauce
1/2 c. ranch dressing
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 package bacon bits (3 oz package)
1 T chopped fresh parsley, for garnish (I don't bother with this...I'm too lazy)
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts and saute 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until lightly browned.
Placed browned chicken breasts in 9x13 baking dish. Brush with teriyaki sauce and then spoon on ranch dressing. Sprinkle with green onions, cheddar cheese, and bacon bits.
Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. Garnish w/ parsley and serve.
It's easy and good! Tonight we're going to have green beans and biscuits for sides, and sugar cookie dough for dessert. haha Try it out and let me know what you think!
Yikes! Last post was on December 6th? Oops. I guess I've just been busy! Let's see...Christmas came and went. It was fabulous. January came and went. And February is almost gone too. Sheesh. Not a whole lot has happened, I guess...Seems like I post stuff on Facebook more often than anywhere, so if you don't have me as a friend on Facebook, you should add me there since that's where most of my updates go!!! :)
Here are some photos though...We added some stuff in our living room, and I like how it turned out. It's always difficult for me because I don't buy stuff in case I find something else I like better...so then I never buy anything. haha. Eventually I wear myself down and just end up getting stuff, I guess. We're slowly adding more things to the house...Trying to come up with ideas to change our landscaping this spring. We want to pull the rose bushes out and probably plant some flowers where they were...paint the front door red...add some more porch items...put some rock underneath the deck in the back...I don't know what else. If our snow ever melts I'll probably have a better idea! Anyways, here's what we did to the living room...what do you think?
The green is the same shade of green that we used on the one wall in the dining room. And I decided to go with red in the living room as well. The vase, pottery, and sofa table are from Nebraska Furniture Mart. The shelves, matching frames, lamp, berry and grass stems are from Target. And the stars are from Pier One. We are going to move the top shelf to the left more...the bottom one was originally going to be farther to the right and we hit metal when we were putting the screws in the wall. Oops. LOL So we'll move the top one to the left instead. Let's see...that means I'm ALMOST done with the living room. I still need to find curtains or make curtains, change out the ceiling fan, and find one more piece of art. Woo hoo!
Speaking of art ---- something exciting coming up for us...our tenth wedding anniversary is next year (6/9/2011). As some of you might know, we made a pact that for each 5th anniversary we would go on a big trip...we spent a week in Hawaii for our 5th anniversary. It was fabulous...and we've always known what our tenth anniversary trip would be...now that we're only 15 months from when we wanted to go, we're really delving deep into the planning stages. Okay, well when I say "we" I actually mean "me"...I'm such a planner that I have to have every little bit planned out way in advance...Jim, not so much. :) Anyways...we'll be going to Europe for 2 weeks! The plan is to go May 14-28, 2011. We'll be spending 6 nights in London, 2 nights in Paris, 3 nights in Munich, and 3 nights in Rome! Originally, when we first talked about going to Europe it was just going to be 11 nights in London (with side trips to Oxford, Liverpool, and Stonehenge) and then 3 nights in Munich (with a side trip to Fussen). Well, then I saw this guided tour online that went to like 9 different countries (the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, England, and others) and we were in awe...that sounded awesome. The problem was that...well...most people on the tour were 50+ and that you spent anywhere from 1-4 hours a day on a bus. Soooo then I started looking at other options. I wasn't real keen on going to Paris, I'm not so hot on French people...but either way we would've had to go through Paris to get to Munich and Jim wanted to stay there so we could take a side trip to Caen and see all the historical Normandy sites. Sooooo I supposed I can suffer through seeing the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Cathedrale de Notre Dame, etc. hahaha Sounds like suffering, huh? :)
To go to the other countries though, I did have to cut back on our London days. *sniffle* I am sad about that, but we still have enough days there to see the majority of the main sites. We won't be going to Liverpool or Stonehenge though. But I'll live! Munich was a requirement --- we've always wanted to see Neuschwanstein Castle. That will be A-MA-ZING. I wish we had more time and could do some geneaology research while we were in London & Germany. Most of my research has ended at the point where my ancestors have come from those locations so it would be nice to be able to research back even farther. Plus, the train from Paris to Munich will be taking us right by the area that some of my ancestors are from. That's so crazy. I really wanted to go to Venice to go for a romantic gondola ride, but alas, we decided on Rome. I wasn't too excited about that until I really started looking at the things to see in Rome (besides the Vatican...not Catholic, so that wasn't that big of a draw for us). But holy cow...take the Temple of Fortune Virile for instance...that was built a century before the birth of Jesus. It's hard for me to wrap my head around those dates! So needless to say, we are SO excited and can not wait! 15 months from today we'll be travling from packing up in Munich and headed to Rome! So Cool!!!!
Ummmm I guess that's pretty much all that's going on with us. Just looking forward to spring, but really loving the REAL winter we got! Lots of snow...it's been beautiful. :) But I imagine as soon as March comes around I'll be ready for some warmer temps! I guess that's it for now...
