Gardening

Over the past few weeks, Kelly and I have discussed how we plan to garden this year with the addition of our new dogs.  We adopted them last July and were able to harvest a good bit before they thought plants were chew toys and produce was for playing keep-away.

Last year, we tried our hand at gardening both at the community gardens and in the back yard.

Several people at work have been talking about building raised garden beds, and Kelly and I agreed this would solve the problem of the puppies and still being able to harvest in the back yard.  I read online including a how-to guide from one of Kelly's favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman.  I also read from Organic Gardening their how to build a raised garden bed.

After deciding where and how to build, I purchased (6) 2x10s 8 feet in length.  I cut 2 of the 8 foot pieces in half using a hand saw and then moved the wood to the back yard.

I used both 3 1/2 and 2 1/2 inch screws in no real order to secure the two layers.

The bed measures 8 feet by 4 feet and 20 inches tall.

After the bed was complete, I went to Bricko Farms, a local organic store and got a truckload of garden mix soil.

Prior to planting, I decided to map out where everything would go.  The garden will include red potatoes, bell and jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, and okra.  Most of the plants started as seeds in styrofoam cups and were then transplanted to the garden.

As you can tell, it is jam-packed.  Here's the raised bed with potatoes (covered with dirt to create a mound around each and to protect from our last frost), tomatoes, and jalapenos:

 One of the tomato plants with marigolds surrounding it...supposed to keep the bugs away.

The fencing was added to keep the dogs out.  It took them about 5 minutes to jump into the garden bed, so while we hoped the raised bed would keep away temptation, the fence was necessary after all. 

 Watering the jalapenos

Lastly, we will add the bell and red peppers as well as the okra. Here's hoping for a great garden.

Ready for their close-up

Recent photos of the pups...

 Focusing on a toy, I'm sure

Morgan, cutting his eyes at me

 Madison

Morgan

Map...help me find one!

I am really into the new trend of decorating with large scale maps!  I love the vintage, monochromatic maps. My pinterest boards are full of them.  The only problem?  I can't actually find any to put in my home!  I really want one of the Savannah River, but at this point, I am willing to take just about anything remotely related to Georgia!  Any ideas?  Help!

Another year older

Cary and I spent this past weekend in Athens, GA celebrating my birthday.  We went to our favorite restaurants, Porterhouse and Last Resort, but the real treat was stopping at Marti's at Midday and going by Gigi's Cupcakes on the way out of town today.  

 

 Chicken salad sandwich at Marti's

 Yummy cupcakes...I'm just now trying the text feature of Photoshop.  Any tips?  Obviously I need some advice on making it look a little better. 

Thanks to my wonderful husband who made the trip so fun!  Also, thanks to my parents for taking care of the puppies while we were away.  I also enjoyed all the cards, gifts, texts and FB messages!  It has truly been a happy birthday!

Tobacco Baskets

I realized that I never posted the finished product of the Tobacco Baskets!  My mom was able to find 4 of these beauties (in this post I explained how she found 2 and we needed 2 more)!  I cleaned them up by giving them a good scrub and sprayed them down with water to get rid of a few decades of dirt and dust.  I then stained them with a polyurethane-stain combo from Minwax to make the wood look new again. Just FYI, they are approximately 4 feet by 4 feet and weigh about 15 pounds a piece.

Here's a before photo, with no stain:

 And here they are in place:

One is from Virginia and two are from North Carolina while the other one is not marked.  I think they turned out pretty good.  It was a much easier way to fill up that amount of wall space than with artwork or photos or something.  What do you think?

Happy New Year

Happy 2013 everyone!  We wish you many blessings in this coming year.  Cary and I are excited about what God has planned for us in this new year, too!

It is hard to believe this little blog, which started because of our wedding planning, now has over 9,300 page views.  No, it isn't a lot compared to some of those professional bloggers, but we still think it is fun.  We plan to continue blogging and sharing and hope to receive more feedback from ya'll along the way!

We played host to not only my family's Christmas, but Cary's immediate family as well.  Wanted to share some photos from Christmas celebrations:

 

The tree was placed in the dining room this year.  The table was lined with globes from Dad and the credenza featured a nativity from Cary's mom.  

  We decided to make salt dough ornaments and get the pups paw prints.  We got Morgan's ornament on the first try...Madison's required a little more work!  Imagine that!

 

 The West Family

We were blessed to spend the holidays with family!  Make 2013 great!

Merry Christmas

For to us a child is born,

    to us a son is given,

    and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9 : 6

  Merry Christmas!  

And Happy New Year, too!