Dirt, Sweat, and Other Good Things

I've been excited for this year's garden since...about last August. This was for several reasons. Mostly, I really enjoyed having a garden, since I love being outside in general, and it's a pretty productive hobby. My in-laws (whose yard I use for my green things) collected enough vegetables for several salads and (if I remember correctly) some tomato sauce.



I've already got a few seedlings started indoors, but I wanted to improve my garden plot. I enlarged it last fall, but I wanted to replace the crappy mesh fence that the previous owners left, and install a gate so it's not such a nuisance to get in and out.



Somehow I don't have any good "before" shots of the whole garden...just shots of my plants and the inside. But this is the stuff the old fence was made of:

Two tiers of icky plastic mesh fence, and no gate.



Here's my "after"...

Dan and his dad spent quite a while helping me with this. I chose all the supplies, and they cut/hammered the poles down enough to fit the new wire fencing. I was especially excited about the new gate. It's actually a piece of fence we adapted for a gate by only staking one side into the ground. On the other side, we (and by "we" I mean Dan and Dean) lopped off the little staking posts so the fence could swing freely and pretend to be a gate.

It's super cute and classy, which I knew would make Dottie happy, since she loves nice-looking stuff like this.

As I said, I enlarged the garden itself, and I spent a good chunk of my time yesterday adding fresh composted dirt and turning everything over, getting ready to plant as soon as the Last Frost Date rolls around. 

Huzzah!

Of course, little dog had a great time too. She spent the whole afternoon running and playing.



Now it all comes down to April 20th...last frost, and I'm back out there, planting my seedlings and getting things growing!

Challenge Accepted! (Part 2)

Since I've already written this once, I'll keep it brief.



Pinterest Challenge, as hosted by Sherry and Katie:

Earlier today I wrote about my pin-tastic lunch, complete with homemade tomato soup and bacon-guacamole grilled cheese. 

Yum! 

The second part of my Pinterest Challenge for myself was to actually craft. I like crafting, but I'm better equipped in my kitchen, and so I channel most of my creativity and experimentation into that arena. I wanted to make myself actually do something I pinned, which really, is the whole point of the Pinterest Challenge!

Ahem. 

After checking the weather and realizing that the Greater Philadelphia area was/is in for a slew of rainy days, I decided any project that required sanding, painting, curing, etc (all of which would need to take place outdoors), would best be saved for drier weather. 

Also, I was busy. 

So I picked an easy craft. 

This was my inspiration. 

Here's the link to the website. 

Here's the link to the pin. 

And here's my take on this project: 

First I grabbed an empty frame (I have this tendency to buy frames with no particular purpose in mind, so I have a few). I liked the idea of a dramatic print on a shiny frame. 

I laid the glass over the image I chose. Dan vetoed the calla lily print I liked, but he liked this poppy print. Unfortunately, I snagged this image a long time ago and I don't have the link to the image I used. 

(It's not mine. I borrowed it, and I'm not making any money from it.) 

Anyway, I took my white paint pen, 

and started dotting away. 

My friend did a number of projects over Christmas breaks by making dot designs on coffee mugs, platters, etc, so I liked the idea. 

Once all my dots were in place, I let it dry for a couple hours and then, voila! 

Oh, please note: I flipped the glass over so the paint is on the inside. I tried flipping the image on my computer because I printed the picture, but I decided I liked it better that way. My paint pens don't stand up to Windex or scrubbing, so this way my picture is safely inside the frame and I can dust/Windex to my heart's content without damaging my work. 

We picked a red background from my scrapbook box, which pleased me because a) poppies are red and b) our living room is red, black-brown, and sand so it ties in well with our existing decor. 

It's hard to see because it's dark and this is a bad picture, but there is a string of little red stars strung around our window, and the two look really nice together. Plus it's exactly opposite our deep red accent wall, so it's some nice symmetry going on. 

Huzzah for small victories! 

So, that's my Pinterest project. Thanks, Sherry, for kicking my butt into gear and getting me crafting! 

Challenge Accepted! (Part 1)

On Friday I linked you up to the Pinterest Challenge, as hosted by Sherry and Katie.

Happy Pinning!

I rose to the challenge, and I had a totally pin-tastic Sunday. 

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I love to cook. Mostly I like to cook things are deceptively simple, things that taste like a million bucks but aren't really all that complicated. Things like my crockpot roasted chicken, garlic lemon chicken, pesto salmon, henrich-style alfredo, etc. 

But every once in a while, it's fun to do something that requires a little more effort. 

Enter these beauties: 

Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese

And some of this goodness:

Creamy Tomato Soup

I've been craving grilled cheese and tomato soup all week, so I was really excited about this meal and got started right away when we got home from church. It was actually nice--usually we go to the in-laws for Sunday lunch/dinner, and as much as I love that tradition, every once in a while it's good to have a break and have a Sunday of rest at home. 

Anyway, I made both of these in about 40 minutes! I was super busy the whole time, and I could have taken my time and been more relaxed (or if I wasn't as confident of my skills, I would have taken more time), but we're always starving after church. 

You can find the original recipes linked above, below each picture, but since the Pinterest Challenge is about putting your own spin on things, I wanted to give you a quick recap of what I did. 

First thing was to chop up my onion, celery, and basil (I used fresh, since it's growing on my windowsill anyway). 

The recipe called for diced tomatoes in puree, but since neither Giant nor Trader Joe's carried such a thing, I just made sure I had a can of tomato paste on hand for thickening and adding an extra kick of tomatoey goodness. 

Saute those veggies in butter, then toss in the tomatoes. 

I was puzzled as to why the recipe called for flour on top of the veggies, because you need straight up butter to make a true roux, but add the vegetable broth and baking soda and hold tight...

I let it simmer away while I worked on prepping ingredients for bacon guac grilled cheeses. 

I always cook my bacon in the oven...super easy, the splatters don't cause a ton of smoke, and all the pieces achieve the same consistency. Plus cleanup is a breeze.

And please be insane like me and make sure all your sandwich ingredients are neatly lined up for easy assembly: 

I used jalepeno jack cheese, and mild cheddar. 

Normally I'm a sharp cheddar girl, but I thought the mild creaminess would be nice against the spicy jack. 

Back to the tomato soup. Again, this is just my experience talking, but I figured once the soup was complete it could just hang out on the back of my stove and stay warm, while the grilled cheeses cooked. That way both things would be done and hot at the same time. 

Anyways, I tossed about 3/4 of the soup into my blender because I'm a nut about texture and I don't like baby-food-puree. Then I added 1/2 cup of half-and-half, and 1/2 cup of milk, because calories don't exist this weekend. Lastly, I mixed in a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste and stirred until smooth. 

Can you hear the angels singing? 

This was beyond heavenly. I didn't always like tomato soup, and I still don't really like it out of a can (or even those fancy boxes). But between the fresh basil, fire-roasted tomatoes, and the incredible creaminess, this was just amazing. So.much.flavor and texture. 

As stated above, I stuck this dude on the back burner (as low as my hot-burning gas stove would go) and attended to those bad boy sandwiches. 

This is my little trick for getting the cheese to melt before the bottom of the sandwich burns. Hold your biggest pot lid over it to catch some of the heat. 

More angels. 

In its plated gloriousness. 

Now...here's the thing. 

Both of these food items were totally awesome. Tons of flavor, and suuuuper rich and filling. But honestly, the two together was a little much! Dan ate all of his sandwich, but I only ate half, and neither of us could finish the soup. I absolutely loved both of them, but there will a little too much going on in one meal. I think the soup with a plain old-fashioned grilled cheese would probably be a little less overwhelming, and I really think these sandwiches can stand alone. Plus, all the cheese-and-guac-and-cream was pretty rich. 

Still totally worth it. 

Part 2: Craft Edition coming soon!

Productive Day

Dan's away in St Louis visiting his dad's family for the weekend, so I'm keeping busy in the old homestead.

Today I completed the following:

• Purchased new storage drawers for my craft supplies
• Sorted through all my craft supplies 
• Put craft supplies in drawers
• Went through the Christmas stuff in the attic and put all of it in the box that previously held my craft supplies
• Rescued a baby bird from the attic (seriously, how do they get in there?) 
• Posted a dartboard and dog crate from the attic on Craigslist
• Swept and vacuumed all the floors
• Washed two loads of laundry and folded a third

I still have to wash the dishes from last night (whoopsie), get a shower and get dressed for my friend's birthday dinner. We're going downtown to Monk's, which is a really great pub and restaurant. Poor Danny, missing out on Monk's Belgian beers. 

(I tried to link this back to the restaurant website, since it's not my picture, but it didn't work. Check out www.monkscafe.com)

Tomorrow afternoon I'm hoping to assemble another shelving unit for the Christmas (and other seasonal) stuff in the attic and get everything on the shelves. I'm also hoping to give an old dresser over to a happy new owner. 

Busy weekend! 

Procrastination 101

In case anyone was unaware, I am a professional procrastinator. I rock at putting things off until the last minute, but I will also say that I am pretty good at being efficient and accomplishing everything I need to when it really comes down to it.


That being said, student teaching has really put a new spin on my procrastination methods. I'm not comfortable improvising everything I do in the classroom, so I try to plan ahead by at least a week, and I usually have an overall scope for the next month or so. At least, I will until I'm done student teaching. That time is arriving alarmingly fast.


One of my new favorite ways to procrastinate is Pinterest. It's amazing. Truly. I've found delightful DIY ideas, delicious-looking recipes, and awesome decorating photos. It makes me itch to redecorate and hit the yard sales hard, but my little apartment is already full of stuff and I love the way it's decorated.


Guess I'll have to satisfy my urges by visiting one of my favorite stores (Ikea) with one of my favorite people (Liz).


(haha, tricked you, didn't I? You thought I was going to say Dan.)


Anywho, I guess I'm just growing up. I'm learning to put off checking my email and facebook and make dinner instead. I'm learning to do the dishes as they come into the sink, rather than waiting three days for the sink to be full (yes, sometimes when I don't do a lot of cooking I can not wash dishes for two or three days and still have room in the sink). I'm also learning how to make myself relax, which I've never been good at. Mugs of tea, glasses of wine, back rubs from husbands, walks with the dog in the evening, and a little bit of yoga and pilates tend to do the trick. It's just a matter of making the time for these things.

Half-Day Happenings

Today was a teacher inservice day, and since I'm enjoying the only pure benefit of being a student teacher (I don't have to attend all the inservices!) I had a half day. This morning I went with two other kindergarten teachers from my school to visit Lower Gwynedd Elementary School. It was really neat, Wissahickon is a great (very affluent) district, and the elementary school definitely reflected that. We saw some awesome writing conferences and literacy stations, and of course, observed some fun fillers and energizers. As anyone who has ever been in charge of children knows, it's always good to have some tricks up your sleeve for killing those last five minutes, or refocusing the children in a positive way. My favorite activity of the morning was a sight word activity. You know all those little words that aren't quite phonetic (sound like they're spelled) and come up ALL the time in reading? Words like the, she, it, am, and, etc. The students made cards for themselves with all their sight words, and then laid them out on the floor. They threw bean bags onto the cards and then spelled and said aloud the word the bag landed on. So cool, and such good practice.

I ran a couple errands after my visit, and then came home, because I had work to do. Cat lent me her mother's mini steam cleaner, and I had a date with my area rug. Lily is probably 99% housebroken, but those little accidents are ridiculously hard to get out of the rug. Plus we are the third owners of this rug, so there's no saying how long the dirt has been there.

First I moved the (freakin heavy) marble coffee table off of the carpet. It's a ginormous hunk of pure marble, thankfully in two pieces, but it disguises the fact that our rug is really too small for our living room.

As I said, Cat lent me her mother's steam cleaner. It took me a while to figure out how to use it, and I didn't have the appropriate soap, but warm water with a little baking soda did the trick.

It took ages, and a break in the middle to take the dog out, but finally I was left with:

and (brace yourselves, oh weak of stomach):

The rug is only 5x7, so it wasn't a ton of space to clean, but geez oh man that's a lot of dirt.

Finally, it was time for some Lily snuggles.

What a cutie. I don't think she really enjoyed the process, nor does she appreciate the end result. Oh well.

Home At Last--An Introduction

I've been considering blogging for some time now. I already spend an inordinate amount of time online, so it's not like it will cause a greater waste of my time, and I think it will be a good way for people I don't see or talk to very often (my family in Michigan, California, England, New Jersey, Maryland, my friends in Iowa, Louisiana, Texas, New York) to catch up on little glimpses of my life. Unless, by some miracle, I start focusing a great deal of attention on one area of my interests, I don't intend for this to be a cooking blog, a DIY blog, craft blog, or even just a family blog, but some amorphous combination of the three, plus whatever else strikes my fancy.

I chose to call it Home At Last, because, thanks to my mom (pretty much one of my favorite people) taught me the huge value of home. I want my home to be a place of haven, of warmth and acceptance, of joy and the simple pleasures in life. After my family moved from Collegeville, PA (where I spent most of my life) I spend almost a year in limbo, without a real home. It was a huge relief to marry my husband, Dan,

move into our little apartment in Glenside,

 adopt a puppy,

and have someplace that truly felt like home. We're enjoyed improving the place (we have a great, very laid-back landlord who doesn't mind when we do things like paint, put holes in the walls, rip up the carpeting and refinish the wood floors underneath...), adding touches of our lives, and making some cool memories here. I also have come to love the challenge of making a tiny, sometimes awkward space work for us. (I'm sure I'll detail some of that later).

But mostly, this is just going to be a simple little way for me to document and share bits of our lives, here in our happy little home. Thanks for stopping by.