Garden Garden Garden!!!

So I have been pretty busy the past few weeks. If you see me on a regular basis or if we have our weekly phone calls, you are well aware I have been busting my behind to build my garden. It started when I saw a few photos online of raised garden beds. I thought they were beautiful, with sprawling plants and huge tomatoes, and filled with wonder and imagination. I know. I can be a little corny, I don't care. 

 So Jake and I went to the hardware store and he bought me some wood. I have built small things as a kid, but I'm pretty good at following directions. I got the plans off of www.sunset.com. The power drill... kind of intimidating. I tried it at first without gloves, until I really burned my fingers grabbing the drill bit after it just came out of the wood. Once I got the gloves on, it was pretty smooth sailing.

 And then there were two. The large bed I planned for a small garden. Peppers and tomatoes, maybe some peas, green beans, and cucumbers. I thought it would fit, just do one or two plants of each. The small one for asparagus, because I LOVE me some asparagus!

 So out I went again to the store. No where exciting, just Target. I saw a little garden section when I was shopping for Easter candy for my hun-bun Jake, and I decided I really needed some seeds and some seed starting trays. If I am going to do this garden thing, might as well start from scratch. So I had a small tray of seeds for tomatoes and peppers.  But I felt like it wasn't enough.

So back to the store I went. Again. But this time to the garden store..... wow. There were so many choices!! So Many seeds!!!! SO MANY THINGS!!! OMG GARDEN!!!! I discovered heirlooms, and of course I needed more heirloom tomatoes... and heirloom beans, snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, onion, beets, carrots, and corn. Yes. That much. And when I came home it was raining and I looked at my little garden plot and it hit me.

 I am never going to be able to fit all of this in my little 4x8' garden plot.

 So I got more wood! And built three more beds! And then I needed a fence! And then I read Square Foot Gardening by Mel, and decided I was going to square foot garden. And that required a grid and more planning. Which is fine, nothing I couldn't do.

 And then I read a book called Vertical Gardening. It's available on Amazon. I'm not sure of the author right now, but I have it and it was great. So then I needed trellises, and bean teepees, and tomato stakes and cages. I ordered the cages too off of Amazon, so those haven't come yet.

 But yay! I built it! It took a lot of time and a lot of effort, including three yards of quality topsoil and mushroom compost.

 Funny thing, we don't have a wheelbarrow. So I had this massive pile of dirt, and I'm shoveling it into a tupperware bin and dragging/pushing/pulling/carrying it to the beds. My back was killing me, I'd been doing it for two hours, and only had one bed built. My neighbor who lives across the street that I had not met yet came over. Nice older gentleman named Dick. He brought his wheelbarrow and said to me, "I saw you struggling, and I assumed you didn't have a wheelbarrow. Here's mine, use it as long as you like, put it back in the driveway when you are done." Wow, what a God-send, seriously. It went so much faster with a wheelbarrow! So much! Omg! Sooner than later I was done with the dirt, then constructed the fence, then built the teepees and trellises and set up my few little containers outside. There is my garden! See! I built it mostly on my own. Jake wielded about three wheelbarrows of dirt and taught me how to work the drill. And he dug the holes to put the beds in the ground. Other than that, I did it myself. Super proud, if I do say so myself :)

But I did walk away with several bruises, as you can see, and a pretty nasty sunburn on my face, neck, and arms. But that's okay, it was totally worth it.

Now I just hope something grows!!!!

This message is Bruno Approved. 

Quick Snippet Update

Don't have a lot of time to write, but here are some fun photos for you're viewing pleasure!

I went to the local farmers market here on Saturday and bought Señor Bruno an awesome little scarf. Or so I thought. Until Jake told me he looks like a "gay cowboy." Personally, I like the scarf, but whatever. So this is Señor Bruno, modeling his new doggy scarf. He's more fashionable than I am now!

 And this one... well, we sprung a leak in our boiler's pressure tank (yes, you read correctly, we have a boiler and not a furnace) so we currently don't have heat. We came home Sunday and Jake wanted to take a nap, and of course wrapped up in the blanket because he was cold. Well, the animals must have been cold too, because they all flocked to him. Aside from Vin because he was pretty sick and exiled to the basement. Exiled for his own good. He's now better and back to the group.

I've been doing a short series of Señor Bruno waking up in the morning. This one didn't turn out amazing, but still ridiculously cute.

More to come!

Crab butt.

It's no secret. I've been a huge crab butt lately. I'm sick, a little swamped at work, and I feel like I have 100 things to do all at once and all I want to do is research canning stuff and tinker with my garden ideas. I don't want to do anything else right now. I certainly don't want to blow my nose or sneeze anymore, which seems like the only thing I can do lately. My sleeping has been off, my throat has been sore, and I've had a constant headache. And realistically, I can deal with all of that, I really can. What I have a hard time dealing with is how out of it I have been. It makes me feel like I'm not productive, which makes me frustrated, and then eventually behind and upset.

So here are some cute Bruno pictures to make this post happier.

 This is Bruno looking like a seal. Taken in the morning when we woke up.

 This is Bruno pretending to be sick with me. Although he's not sick, he does a good job of pretending with me.

And here is Bruno trying to fit through the cat door.

Ahhhhh, Vin also has a UTI, poor cat. Needed to go to the vet, Jake had to take a urine sample from him (interesting process), and also has to have two pills each night with dinner. And if you know me, you know I'm not really a cat person. I don't clean the cat boxes, I don't let them sleep in the bed, and I don't let them lay on me very much. I feed them because they need to eat and because I am generally up earlier than Jake. BUT! I am a freaking CHAMP when it comes to giving Vin his meds. Pure champ status. That has been my small success lately.

 Well, that and ALL of my seedlings sprouted. Yay!

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE our engagement photos. LOVE.

The End.

Race for the Cure - Indianapolis

So! I went to Indianapolis this weekend for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. I go every year to support amy good friend Krystal and to see my lovely bestie Sara! We had a lot of fun, did some walking, bought some stuff, and had a nice relaxing pedicure. God I love my pedicures. I find it very soothing to have pretty feet, kind of like my own little secret bit of sexiness.

 This is Sara. She is also my maid of honor. She lives in Indiana, and we visit back and forth a lot. I met Krystal through her, and it's been some amazing friendships all around. Wouldn't trade her for the world!

As you can see, I run for my Grandfather and for my Aunt Barb.

The turn out wasn't as large this year as last year, and I blame that on the weather; rainy, cold, but we made the best of it. We always do.

And then we got our sweet warrior paint!

Sara, Krystal, Me, and Holly, all showing off our war paint! It kind of took me back to the old days of being a child again with the face paint, just wished they had cat whiskers. How cute would that have been? Cute little cat whiskers? I digress.

And everyone walks. It was a nice 5k. I like it because it goes through part of the zoo, and you can see some of the animals. See the photos above, the man all in black? That's Sara's husband Thomas. He's pretty neat.

They even dress up the elephants!

 And here is the gang after the race, showing off our team shirts. I'm pretty fond of the style this year, I'll wear it around. I do always enjoy the Race for the Cure. I have a thing about group events. When a lot of people get together for a common cause, it makes me emotional at how beautiful a group can be when it gets together for a mutual cause, and a mutual front on something. Well, except for the holocaust. That sucked.

And here we are, going out for the evening. All in all, it was a really great time. It's always nice to get away for a little bit, and to take a time out to do something for the greater good. I've been pretty obsessed with work and my garden lately, and it was a nice reminder that life isn't all about me, but that there are a lot of other things going on in the world.

Strawberries and a Cone Head

So tell me, who doesn't love strawberry pancakes? Especially strawberry pancakes for dinner? I do, they're absolutely delicious and a great way to get a little fruit in. My favorite thing to do with Bisquick pancake mix is to add a teaspoon of each nutmeg and vanilla extract to the batter (if making a full batch). It gives it the right amount of sweetness and an extra punch of flavor. Amazing.

NOM NOM NOM

Doesn't that make you drool?

Photo courtesy of my lovely fiance :)

In other happy news, Mr. Bruno does NOT need surgery!! Well, not right now. The small mass on his mouth may go away, as the vet said. But, he does have to wear a satellite dish for now because of the chocolate incident. When he had the chocolate incident last week, he had to have his poor puppy arm shaved for his IV. Now he won't stop licking it and it's starting to get very irritated. So now he gets a cone until his arm heals.

He looks pissed. But a cute sort of pissed.

I'm just going to say, I took this while parked. Sad pupperface....

And It Starts...

I am aware it is not Christmas. BUT! With that said, what better way to start a new blog than to showcase my awesome family? Here we are, all sitting lovely. Too much going on? Okay, I'll introduce the characters here:

 This is my fiance Jake. He's pretty awesome. And he put a ring on it. Get to know him, he's a main character in my life!

 This is Bruno. Or, as we like to say, Senior Bruno (Spanish for Mr, not older; I'll figure out that accent thing soon enough!). You will see a lot of Bruno, as he is my favorite subject to photograph, mostly because I think he is ridiculously cute! But, Bruno is the lemon of all dogs. Money pit if I ever saw one. He's lucky he's cute, or.....

 Here is Fitch. No, he is not dead, he just looks dead when he sleeps. He was my cat. Now he is our cat. Fitch is whiny, and currently has a thing about peeing where he is not supposed to. Yucks.

 This is Toonces. Toonces has an affinity for drinking out of water glasses and walking on the counters. He is Jake's cat, and his baby. Wherever Jake is, Toonces is not far. He was rescued out of his friend's house that was under construction. Aside from the water glass/counter battle, he's a pretty chill cat.

This is Vin. Vin is the strangest cat, and we acquired him from a friend who couldn't keep him. Vin wants to be in my lap, but if I pet him, he bites. But he lets me put objects on his head, so I think he's neat.

 And then there is me. I'm currently a brace face. See it in all it's brace-like glory.
There are going to be a lot of fun things coming up, because I want this
blog to be a showcase of all the fun/creative/interesting/entertaining
things we have going on... Kind of like an online diary with pictures,
how-to's, video's, recipes, and a lot of commentary about our impending
wedding and my weight loss.

Oh, and dog pictures. Lots of dog pictures.
Like this one of Bruno's new haircut! How stylish is he?
We moved to our new home in October 2011. Since then, we've had a lot of things come up and go on, and I want to document it.. One day I'll print it all off into a book. One day. Until then, there is this!
Until next time!