June goals - How'd I do?

The Wife's June Goals:

1. Begin composting. 

I'll share soon.

2. Make a new recipe.

Several, actually. Go me. Santa Fe Meatless Tacos, Garlic grilled steak and potatoes, and rhubarb-apple crisp.

3. Organize files in office.

Finally.

4. Re-evaluate budget with Ryan (I'd like to sit down and look over our budget numbers to make sure they still make sense for us.)

5. Set-up direct withdrawals for our savings.

Didn't get around to this. Silly.

6. Finish family tree shadowbox.

I think I have all the names now, so I should be able to get to it. That is, if I can find the notes with names that my mom gave me last week that I have already misplaced.

7. Read  "I hope they serve beer in hell" (book club). 

(Sidenote: I didn't actually read this book, but I read two other books so I'm giving myself credit. Thanks to Longbrake Living's recommendation, I read "The 19th Wife" - which was excellent. I also read "The Host," which was also pretty good.)

8. Sewing machine manual, practice with tutorials and sign up for a sewing class.

9. Make outdoor pillows for the deck.

10. Sand and repaint outdoor chairs.

11. Go through boxes in basement and purge - then, hold a yard sale to get rid of all the stuff we don't need.

YIPPEE!

12. Go somewhere with Ryan for a few days during our week off.

Atlanta.

Eh.... I'm not going to dwell. The months go by so fast, don't they?

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Beetle Battle

We're currently waging a war... in our backyard.

These little buggers think they are taking over.

(Japanese Beetle, from here)

They are nasty, destructive creatures. And, they must be destroyed. (Singing "Bad Boys, Bad Boys, whatchoo gonna do, whatchoo gonna do when they come for you.")

So far, they have eaten up our maple tree, ferns, petunias and roses (Eek! My roses are all holey). It was so depressing, I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo of the damage.

Unfortunately, the majority of "fixes" are not even close to natural or organic. And, you may or may not know, but we don't dig the chemicals. At all.

So, Ryan went searching for a safe alternative (although not safe for those dang beetles... they can die, the sooner the better).

We purchased a beetle trap, which works like a charm. The bag is almost full within 24 hours (disgusting). It has a bait on the top and then the beetles hit the top and fall into the bag, where they cannot escape.

(Trap here)

We also found Veggie Pharm, which is part of a line that I've been thinking of trying anyhow.

(Veggie Pharm here)

It seems to be working well so far. After spraying it on the tree, the beetles seemed to disperse. So, that's promising.

The bottle says it kills garden pests, powdery mildew and horticulture fungus. It's made of organic soap, organic peppermint oil, organic soybean oil and organic garlic extract.

(Note: If you use any of these Pharm products, please don't spray them during the day. They need to be sprayed at night and rinsed in the morning. They are made of oils, which will scorch and kill your plants if they are sprayed during the day.)

Do you have any bugs taking residence in your yard???

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Back from Hot-lanta

We're back, safe, sound and sunburnt. It was HOT in Atlanta. Although, really not that much hotter than in Illinois, oddly enough. We had a nice time, but were ready to come back home. That's a nice thing about vacations... you begin to appreciate your home more.

(Ryan and I at the Coke Museum)

I'm looking forward to sharing details of our trip along with more of the shamefully few photos I took. However, today is the first day of our garage sale, which we've been planning for weeks and spending the last 24 hours getting ready for. So, we are busy sweating our butts off in the hopes of making a few bucks and getting rid of tons of junk treasures. 

Wish us luck and we'll talk to you soon!

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Meal planning

Do you menu plan in your house?

Since I am the definition of organized chaos, I cannot honestly say we plan our menus rigidly. However, we do have a simple little system that works well for us.

It all started with this handy-dandy Real Simple magnetic pad. This particular pad is perforated down the center, so you can keep two separate lists. I'm in love with it. I picked it up at Target over a year ago. I also promptly purchased 4 or 5 more on clearance when I saw they were going away. *tear* So, while you cannot find these exact notepads, (unless you break into my house, find my drawer of notepads and take one, which I do not recommend), you can certainly work my very scientific system in a different notepad of choice. 

(Although, let's be honest, I don't think anyone can do ANYTHING as well as Real Simple. That is a conglomerate that I can get behind. I love their magazines, their cleaning supplies, their books, their organizational materials.... if you put their name on a brand of diapers, I would probably buy them. And, I don't even have kids. But, I digress.)

Here's how our system works. (Try to keep up, because it's very complex. Emphasis on very.)

• We put the pad of paper up on the refrigerator, next to the goofy clips that hold coupons, receipts and photos of our cousin ShelbyLooHoo, who is sweet enough to send a new photo every school year.
• We make sure to have an ink pen clipped TO the pad of paper.
• On the left side, we list any items that we run out of. This becomes law in the house. If my loving husband notices that I am leaving for the store, he will frantically run to the fridge to write down the 16 or 17 items he ate or drank the last of and was waiting to put on the list. (Not that this has ever happened... every single time I go to the grocery store.) The list is easily removable and makes grocery shopping a snap. Before I go shopping, I also go through and list items that I need from recipes I want to try making in the near future.
• On the right side, we make a list of all dinners that we have ALL ingredients for. In other words, when I get home from the grocery store and am putting away groceries, I list the dinners I know I can make. Usually, this will just say Pizza, Pork Chops, Chicken Breast, Chicken Strips, etc. etc. It doesn't have to be fancy. Although, sometimes I do put the specific recipe I'm going to make. As I make the meal, I cross out the meal on the list. Thus, we ALWAYS know what we have to make.

This is a perfect system for us. I don't like the rigidity of having a specific meal on a specific night. What if my list says pizza but we are in the mood for stir fry? This system makes it easy to make a decision on a meal because we know exactly what we have on hand. We never say, "there's nothing to eat."

How do you plan your meals in your house?

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Making a window seat

I believe everyone should have a window seat in her life. It's like air - totally necessary. Unfortunately (for me), there isn't really a nook in our house to make it happen. 

Luckily for me, we bought a small house that has the perfect spot for one. (Confused? We purchased another small two-bedroom house in December, a fixer-upper - sound familiar? We don't plan to live in it, but it was too good a deal to pass up. So, the husband has been working hard trying to get it in liveable condition since then. We'll probably rent it after that. It's about ready.)

A few weeks ago, Ryan built a window-seat bench in an area that had floor boards in bad shape. Instead of replacing all the original hardwood, he just covered this area. I was in my height of glory - I love window seats.

Below is the box he whipped up. We decided to cover the top in a nice, neutral upholstery fabric to look more inviting. (This is the same process I used for our bench by the back door, too. So, if you don't have an area for a window seat, make a bench!)
In step the stars of this show:Batting, staple gun, scissors and fabric of your choosing (I picked up this pretty striped upholstery fabric on clearance for $3.99).

First, I stapled the batting onto the lid. Make sure to pull it tout.
Then, I attached the fabric (do you like my pristine work environment?), making sure the stripes were straight and the fabric was tight.

I decided not to cover the whole backside, although you can easily do this.

Voila! A nice, simple, 20-minute cover for a lovely little window seat. 

What do you think?

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Garage revamp

I don't know if I can call this a revamp, in all honestly. We ripped the garage down and rebuilt it. Oh well, I guess I can call it whatever I want. =) 

But, in honor of our GARAGE SALE this weekend, I'm spotlighting the revamp of the home of our cars, tools, bikes, gardening supplies and every other item I can banish out of the house.

Here's the before photo of the original garage. It was facing towards the alley, which made it nearly impossible to turn the corner and make it into the door. Although, you couldn't really get into it anyhow. the door was an old wooden door that was broken and the concrete slab was a mess inside.

This was a big job - but not too big for my secret weapons - Ryan and crew. They put up the new garage in time for the winter in 2007.

Funny story  - the day they took this baby down, grated it and laid the concrete, I signed up to paint at a Habitat for Humanity House. It was unintentional, but everyone got a good kick out of the fact that I was gone working on someone ELSE'S house. 

While I was working elsewhere, Ryan and both dads, several friends, uncles, cousins and one grandpa were making a new garage happen

What is it with boys and skid loaders? They all get so excited.

Junk in the trunk.

Aren't we so lucky that we have kinfolk who come over and help lay concrete?

And an uncle who actually owns one of these doo-wops?

So proud.

Going up.

And up. (It's getting colder.)

And this moment, Ryan was less than thrilled about me coming outside with camera in tow. In my mind, I think he may have been thinking, "Put the da*n camera down and get on this roof, woman." But, he didn't say that. I just imagine that he thought it.

Ta-da.

As you can see, now the driveway enters from the street. This is much easier, and we don't have to worry about tons of snow in the alley during the winter. Thank you, dear city, for giving us the permission to turn the garage around.

What do you think? And, make sure to wish us luck on our garage sale!

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It's raining, it's pouring

It's been raining like CRAZY lately, which is annoying when Franco and Lola refuse to go outside (little divas), but it's great for the plants - and particularly our rain garden. 

I planted a few more things in the rain garden, because a few of the plants didn't take and it wasn't filling out enough for my patience.

I added blanketflower, yarrow, butterfly weed and two new grasses. Here it is now. 

I even have a few blooms, which is nice.

 The city already came out to inspect it, and it passed. This means we should be getting a check for about $400 in the mail soon. Worth our time and effort, I would say.

Reminder: Our city has a rain garden program. If you follow their instructions and get it pre-approved, they will reimburse you $4/square foot, give you money off your water bill and throw in a free rain barrel. 

It was a little bit of yellow tape, but it was definitely worth it in the end. The reimbursement pretty much covered the cost of the garden and mulch. 

I found out later that there is only a certain amount of funding per year, and this year's funding is all dried up. We just missed the cut-off, so we're thrilled about that. All-in-all, it's an awesome deal.

And, even if you don't have a rain garden program, rain gardens are a great way to conserve water and reduce run-off. Help Mother Nature out - build a rain garden.

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Sante Fe Meatless Tacos

We try to eat a meatless meal once a week. It doesn't always happen, but we try. It saves cash and expands my cooking repertoire, by forcing me to find something that is filling and yummy, but doesn't include meat.

We do chili, soups, salads. But, these Santa Fe Meatless Tacos have got to be our favorite meatless meal yet. This recipe is adapted from Women's Day Magazine. It's da bomb, to put it lightly.

Sante Fe Meatless Tacos

1 cup uncooked brown rice

1 small red onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper thinly sliced

1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced

1 tbsp. canola oil

1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (14 1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes with mild green chiles, undrained

1/2 cup frozen corn

1/2 package of taco seasoning

1 tsp. adobo sauce (I added this because we loved it in this and it has the best flavor, but it is HOTT.)

1 tsp. chili powder

3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Whole wheat tortillas, warmed

Cook rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, saute onion and pepper in oil until tender. Stir in beans, tomatoes, corn, taco sauce, chili powder and cayenne; heat through. Stir in cooked rice. Spoon into tortillas and add toppings, if desired.

Here's a closer pic of the consistency.
This meal made two full dinners and three lunches. It also tasted awesome on lettuce for salads at lunch. Highly recommended meal.

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Trying to pull it together (office edition)

I was never 100% happy with our office. It felt like a modge-podge because, well, it was a modge podge. 

I like all the individual pieces, the desk, bookshelf, sofa sleeper... but I just cannot seem to get it to work. 

I'm still working to get to 100%, but we made good progress this weekend after a chance visit to Ikea. Ikea is about 2 1/2 hours away from me, so I've only been there a handful of times. I stopped in on Saturday and walked out with some frames and a few Lack shelves. I've been coveting larger shelves since I saw them in G&D's Dining Room. Then, I came across This Young House's Dining Room.

(Image: All Things G&D)

(Image: This Young House)

I was inspired to make our room look a little more "put together." Starting with shelves and accessories on the large wall.

 I'm going to come clean with you. I have some goofy stuff. Especially when it comes to dogs. It's not normal that a 25-year-old with a love for decor feels the need to purchase pug prints. But, I do. When I see a little pug on a picture, I feel the need to buy it. It's a sickness.

 So, I was hoping to have a little area with these prints and photos, but hopefully make them look a little less "crazy pug lady." This IS the dog's room as well, so I guess I'll use that as my excuse.

I added the succulents and jade to break up the dog-ness. I think it turned out pretty well and I'm happy to see the succulents in their new home.

This was a sign that I made that I thought was funny. I still do.

I made one mistake with these shelves. I accidentally picked up brown/black instead of black. Yikes! Ikea is stressful and there were too many choices and none of the packages actually SAID "black" so I just had to trust my eye, the fluorescent lights and the dude next to me. 

We were all wrong. It looks browner in the photos, but much more black in the room. I'm not going to stress about it. I'm not driving 2 1/2 hours to exchange. And, for goodness sakes, it's holding prints of pugs. I cannot take it too seriously. =)

I also added this little money tree that I picked up at Ikea to my desk. Ryan's hoping it really grows real money, but I just like the looks of it. =)

And, I just have to share this next picture. This photo makes Ryan and I laugh so hard. We call it "Franco, in mid-flight." Do you see why I need those pug pictures? I don't have enough pug in my real life. 

And, because I know you all love before and afters - here's what I originally tried to make use of the photos. Not working for me...

And here's the original room when we took possession of the house. Eek! You could eat off those floors, right?

So, do you have any crazy collections in your house? How do you display them?

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