Goals - how'd I do?

April.... oh April. You arrived and then snuck away like a thief in the night. (Do I sound poetic? It's probably the bottle of wine.) This month went by too quickly. I'm actually a little disappointed in my progress for the month, but understand that everything cannot be March. So, I guess I did okay. And, I'm grading myself liberally. Because it's my blog. Bwahahaha.

The Wife's April Goals

Fun

Read 2 books. I read three books - The Kite Runner (if you haven't read this, you must), The American Wife and Olive Kitteridge.

Take a class. I'm sure I meant this as a creative, non-MBA class. But, I finished one MBA class and began another. So, I'm giving myself credit. Are you upset by this? Take it up with the editor. (Hint: the editor is me).

Go to IKEA. Despite the fact that IKEA is an evil temptress for me, I actually visited 2 IKEAs. One in Phoenix and one in Chicago.

Get some Vitamin D in Arizona. Oh yeah, baby. (PSA: Don't say this phrase in an elevator at your corporate job. Doesn't go over well. Hypothetically.)
Practice with camera. Next month?
Take a hike. Love Arizona.

DIYing/Crafting:

Finish granny squares project. What? Let's just pretend this didn't happen.

Sew something new. Nope. But, May is the month of sewing projects.

Make fabric flowers. See above.

Gardening:

Prepare garden. Yeppers.

Add mulch. I'm getting giddy from the wood scent.

Add compost.

Weed.

Restrain from buying annuals. Not a single petunia, folks. Can I get a round of applause? 

Home:

Kitchen organization.

Clean the windows.
Garage purge and clean.

Organize closet. YES! I love a clean closet.
Paint something. Hello, beautiful.

Stain front porch.

Stain deck. 

Cooking:

Make a new recipe. It was unsuccessful, but new.

Wellness:

Weights and cardio 3 days a week. I'm being liberal. It was probably not 3 days, but definitely an improvement. And, close to 3 days.
Jog at least once a week. hehehe... jog?

Strive to eat at least 3 fruit and 4 veggie servings/day. I did strive.

Do not eat in car. I ate in my car exactly 2 times, which is better than the 3 times a week I was averaging.

So I'm calling it success. You cannot go cold turkey, folks.

So, this was a little ugly, huh?


The Wife's May Goals

Fun:

Read 3 books.

Take a canning class.

Practice with camera.

DIYing/Crafting:

Sew something.

Gardening:

Plant all vegetables and herbs.

Plant annuals in window boxes and pots.
Begin eating radishes and lettuce like there is no tomorrow.

Home:

Kitchen organization.

Clean the windows.

Garage clean and purge.

Stain front porch.

Stain deck.

Cooking:

Make a new recipe.

Wellness:

Weights and cardio 3 days a week.

Do not eat in car.

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I love fresh mulch

There isn't much better in a yard than a fresh layer of mulch.

Can you believe that our yard takes 30 bags of mulch? That's a ton of mulch. Okay, not literally a ton. But, it is quite a workout for the wife to put it down. And that wife may not have been able to move the next morning. But, totally worth it.

And, how much do you love these purple irises? If you don't love them, I don't think we can be friends. Harsh? Perhaps. But, necessary.

Knock, knock, spring. I love you.

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It's not easy being green

After days of rain, I was finally able to mow the lawn. It was very, very long. And, afterwards, my shoes looked like this.

And Lola looked like this. (She was so happy to help her mom mow the lawn.)

Zoom in on those paws.

Needless to say, a bath was in the cards.

Is the grass growing like crazy in your neck of the woods, too?

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Why, hello there, 26.

These were on the counter when I got home from work on Friday.

Because it was my birthday. And because life really begins at 26. And, because my husband loves me.

He left the receipt right next to them. I thanked him and told him he left the receipt. He said, "They were a great deal, right?" He makes me laugh.

Birthday weekend was pretty nice. Flowers. Dinner at a nice restaurant with pasta and dessert. Plus, Ryan and his parents gave me an Ipod nano. I think I may be the last living being without one. And, I adore it. Then, I went to IKEA on Sunday.  Which is really a birthday gift in itself. And I gave myself permission to buy whatever I wanted. (It WAS my birthday.)

I came home with (too) many lovely things. (See those divine vases above? IKEA. More about my finds later.) But, not the one thing I really wanted. The weather foiled my plans. Any guesses?

I think that 26 is going to be a good year. A very good year.

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Enough with the tulips already

After I posted about our tulips last week, looky what happened.

More tulips. 

The purple, red, pink and yellow all popped up. It's so beautiful, I just cannot stand it. Every time I drive past, I slow down and smile. I point them out to Ryan. I tell everyone how wonderful they are. (Modesty isn't my best quality.)

I don't know how I'm going to handle them dying. (WAH!) I'll keep you posted. (Aren't you glad?)

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Junkin'

When my friend, Sarah, asked me if I wanted to go junkin', I said, "Of course." When we pulled up to a little roadside gem with an abundance of chairs, wagon wheels and red barns, I was smitten.

We actually had to turnaround and hightail it back to the ATM. But, we did showed SOME restraint.

Here's me. In all my "oh-my-goodness-look-at-all-this-junk" glory.

My Lord. What was so funny? The fact that I'm wearing the 10-year-old Old Navy sweatshirt again?

No. It's that orange egg crate. I adore it. I dream about it. It makes me laugh and get the crazies. I've been sleeping with it. (Just kidding, although I have considered it.)

I only bought one. I should have bought all 6. But, alas.... that would have broken the budget. I can justify one egg crate (for magazines, for fruit, for flowers, and eventually for real eggs). But, 6?

I also found a flower pot and that milk crate. At least that's what I think it is. It is in great shape. And, I have an idea for that baby, too. Stay tuned.

There was an abundance of other wire crates and baskets that I may have to go back for eventually.

Sarah found an old kitchen scale (which would actually look perfect in our kitchen so I may be on the lookout for one in the future) and some awesome Pepsi and wooden crates. We were both happy girls.

Do you love junkin', too?

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From honey oak to fresh white

Our television hutch has a new look, and I think I love it. The inspiration for this redo was Traci at Beneath my Heart. She made over her television cabinet last July and I thought, "Hey! That looks just like our hutch." The seed was planted and now ours is revamped.


And, here she is. (You know you love the XBox.)

Here is what it looked like before the big paint. It's quite lovely and very solid. My dad made it and it was handed down to us. (We love hand-me-downs.)

But, the honey oak wasn't my style.  I have been slowing ridding the house of the honey oak, little by little (see the dining table and chairs, china cabinet and corner hutch). My poor father.  He hates to see the honey oak go. He definitely told Ryan that had he known I was going to paint everything within a mile radius, he would have made it out of pine instead of expensive and very solid oak. Oh well.

I've been wanting to paint it for awhile, and everyone tried to talk me out of it. 

But, finally, I decided it must be done. I asked the advice of the queen of redoing honey oak, my friend Jenny from Anything Pretty. She suggested white, instead of the oak glazing that she did so beautifully in her home. And if Jenny says it, I do it. 

So, I took her advice and got to painting. After a little sanding and a lot of priming and painting (way more coats than I expected), here she is.

I think you actually notice the details at the top more now.

And, below is a close-up of the "beadboard" paintable wallpaper I used. (I first heard of beadboard wallpaper at Southern Hospitality). This was the first time I've ever put up wallpaper of any kind. It was a bit tedious for my liking, but simple enough. And, it was better than cutting real beadboard since the husband was out of the country and I prefer to keep my limbs.

I still need to caulk the corners, but I think it turned out beautifully. The wallpaper really looks like beadboard but feels like foam. But, that doesn't bother me.  How many people go around feeling the inside of their television hutches?

The original plan was to distress and glaze. But, I loved the white so much, that I decided to stick with it and let it naturally distress. (Plus, I may have been tired of working on it and having a mess of a house.)

Hello, gorgeous.

What do you think? 
Do you love the white or should I have stuck with honey oak?

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The garden - beginning edition

Well... even though we're still a few weeks out from frost-free date in Illinois (May 10-15 is frost-free), we began out cold weather crops this weekend.

So, I guess it's time to tell you about our plan for the garden. I know you have been losing sleep. We went from two garden beds (4x5 feet each) in 2009 to 3 beds plus more space for 2010.

The strawberry plants from 2009 are already coming in gangbusters. There are already a lot of blossoms, which I hope means we'll have lots of strawberries this year.

And, here's the plan for these three beds. If you recall, I use the "Square Foot Gardening" method, so each plant will have a square foot. I'm doing one entire bed with a variety of tomatoes, because I'd like to preserve them this year.

So, that's the garden, in photos. So far, we've only planted radishes, potatoes and onions outside. We also put a variety of lettuce and mustard greens in the planters on the deck.

Here's Ryan planting all the onions. There's like a thousand (not really - but, there will be a lot). Hopefully the neighbors like onions. Ryan chose to plant them in rows instead of in square feet.

Garden-time is almost here! Hope you are feeling the joy of spring in your neck of the woods.

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You-musts

You must:

• show Ana's pallets-to-shelves to your husband to make, pronto. (Or, at least that's what I did.)

• create a cover for your planner out of a vintage book and scrapbook paper like Cathe from Just Something I Made.

• check out Melissa's skinny table runner at The Polka Dot Chair. (And, you must love the fabrics she chose as much as I do.)

• consider all the fabric scraps you could use to make these fun napkin rings from Chris at Pickup Some Creativity.

• throw an "It's so easy, a caveman can do it" party like Kim Vallee. 

• covet this repurposed coffee table on The DIY Show Off. Seriously amazing

Talk amongst yourselves...

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Seed talk

So, you know I am a second-year gardener. (Information about our first year here.) And, this means that I have to do some planning at the beginning of the year and buy seeds/transplants.

But, this year I was super blessed because my friends at Hometown Seeds sent me over their Survival Seeds for the garden this year.

And, boy! What a haul! Enough to plant 3/4 of an acre (much more than our modest, city yard). But, the 16 types of seeds also store for 5 years (or 10 years in the freezer), which means this will really help with our long-term garden planning.

I love that the concept of the Survival Seeds is to be able to sustain your family in the time of a crisis. And, it really struck home with me because I recently learned that in our region, only about 2 percent of our food is local. And, if we were to have a natural disaster or crisis, we could be without any food in 3 days.

3 days!

Did I mention that we live in the Midwest? Amongst farmland and corn stalks and such? I just couldn't believe it.

So, this is just another reason that for Ryan and I, growing our own food, buying local and preserving makes sense.

Have I lost you yet? I hope not. Off my soap box, now.

I'll be posting soon with our garden plan (assuming that I put together a garden plan). Thanks again to Hometown Seeds. Go check them out if you have yet to buy your own seeds. Their individual seed packets are priced very competitively (much more so than the seeds we had already purchased).

How's your gardening planning coming?

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Everything's coming up... TULIPS!

They haven't quite come up the way I expected (in rainbow colors), but I'm so excited about all the tulips and daffodils along the fence.

Ryan told me today that they look like they have always been there. Like they were meant to be tehre. Just a perfect place for 100 or so tulips, don't you think?

Now, I cannot wait to get some annuals in those pots. And the window boxes. And the hanging baskets. And add mulch to the flower beds.

Just about 100 more things on the garden to-do list. Send me some energy. ;)

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There is an Arizona

What was I thinking? You've probably been losing precious sleep over where in the world Ryan was when he took the photo in the last post.

Shame on me. To leave you hanging like that.

Many of you were right. Ryan has been spending his time north of the border in Canada (or Canadia, as both Freckles Chick and my husband prefer to call it). Banff, to be exact. He got home on Wednesday, and then we jetted off for a little vacation first thing on Thursday morning.

This time, we headed south.

There is indeed an Arizona, all country songs aside. And, we spent four lovely days in the Phoenix area, soaking up the sun, avoiding rattlers and having a fun but relaxing time.

The sky was an unbelievable shade of blue. There were yellow and orange flowers blooming everywhere. Arizona is just a beautiful place, and particularly in April.

And, if you are up for a little jealousy, here's a family picture of us in my parents' backyard. 

(I don't think I'd ever leave a lawn chair - or the hot tub - if that was my backyard.)

They were the most amazing hosts (as always). We took a boat ride through the mountains,

Stopped by a ghost town,

Went hiking,

and spent lots of time lounging by the pool and in the hot tub. (And, I have the sunburn on my previously transparent body to prove it. Sunscreen and all.)

Don't you wish you were related to my mom and dad? Sorry - They're taken.

So, how much have you missed us?

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Where in the world is....

Mr. NewlyWoodwards? (Anyone else singing the Carmen San Diego theme song right now?)

Pretty, right? My husband took it.

For the last couple of weeks, while I've been very swamped with catching up on The Office, avoiding laundry and eating out every night, Ryan's been away galavanting in the mountains  working 6-12 hour days a week.

He doesn't know how tough it is for me at home.

Any guesses about where he is?

(Hint: Oh __________, our home and native land. True patriot love in all thy sons command.)

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I (heart) Sarah Richardson

We don't have cable at the Woodwards, mostly because my hubby is cheap. But, it's also because neither of us watch much television and the money would not be well-spent. Cable ain't cheap, and we'd rather use that $60-$80/month another way. Or save it. Very novel.

Anyhoo, mostly I don't miss it.

But, I miss HGTV. Sometimes, I really miss HGTV. Mostly, I can get my fix of beautiful homes through blogs. But, sometimes, I miss HGTV.

Did I mention that I kinda miss HGTV? But, until cable offers me an ala carte menu (hint, hint: cable), we will be sans-HGTV.

And, because my mother-in-law knows me (and loves me), she DVRed the first episode of "Sarah's House" for me. She thought I'd like it. She was wrong.

I loved it. (Thanks, Joyce.)

I loved it so much that I made her pause it anytime someone dared to speak and then made it clear that no one was allowed to talk for the duration of the show.

Sarah bought this awesome old farmhouse on 50 acres (hello, jealous). She gutted it and will complete a room each week. Is this my kinda show or what?

The first week was the entryway/mudroom/bathroom, which was converted from the original (dark and dingy) living room.

Before:

After:

I seriously adore it all.

• The red doors
• The old chest instead of a wall full of closets
• The fabric for curtains (seriously hunting down some of that for me)
• The old light fixture repurposed (it was an outdoor lantern)
• The woodwork and ceiling

Check out the full sources list. Including the rug from IKEA. (Thank you HGTV.)

I honestly want this room in my house. Do you love it as much as I do? 

(All photos from HGTV. Also, check out Sarah's portfolio. I love them all. I am mildly obsessed with her. )

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She's just big-boned

I can't use this excuse for the Lola-nator anymore.  We knew she was a bit of a chub-a-lub, but at the vet, we found out she's gained 7 pounds in the past year.

Holy porker.

Sorry Lola, no more Beggin' Strips for you. And no more stealing Franco's food.

Bummer for you.

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