It's the Little Things: New Blooms, Grilling & the HUNGER GAMES!!

This week's weather did well by my new plants! 

The transplants took beautifully. 

My tulips have already started blooming. 

The snapdragon has tons of new buds, ready to burst! 

The dahlias and morning glories have poked through the ground with lots of little sprouts. 

Everything looks great so far! 

Don't you just love projects with such tangible results?

My mom always says that it is so much more rewarding to clean a dirty house than a spotless one!

Also, I'm spoiled. 
I enjoyed dinner outdoors twice this week! 
It was a very strange feeling - relinquishing control of the cooking. Have I mentioned yet that I'm a bit of an control freak avid cook?
I did it twice though, and the results were...well...


 DELICIOUS! 


Chris grilled up a tasty dinner for us on Sunday. 
He grilled marinated pork and shrimp with butter and Old Bay -and now, I'm hungry again just thinking about it! 
My parents grilled shrimp and served it over my mom's famous Caesar salad with homemade croutons and dressing. 


Spring Break should happen more often than once annually...I'm just saying...

I also chopped off 8 inches of my hair this week. It feels FANTASTIC. Chris has only ever known me with long hair, so I was interested to see his reaction. I didn't tell him that I was getting it cut or that I had a surprise or anything.  When he got here, he told me I looked pretty twice, and then 5 minutes later realized what I had changed. 
Success! 

AND, to SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST!!!!!! 

Nothing beats the midnight premiere of the Hunger Games on a school/work night with my little sister!! We got there over an hour early and it was jam packed! We barely got seats together. They did such a great job with the movie. Obviously, they had to leave out several small things from the book, to fit it into a reasonable amount of time, but honestly, they captured the characters and the storyline very well. I wanted to start from the beginning and watch it a second time as soon as it ended! 


May the odds be ever in your favor!

What little things made you happy this week?

Garden Makeover & St. Patty's Day

My favorite holiday has always been St. Patrick's Day. I love the history of it, the food and the celebration. This year we lucked out with great weather. 

Chris' friend is in town and had never been to Annapolis! We couldn't have asked for a better day to show it off. 

We ate lunch at Pussers, out on their deck. Crabcakes, Oysters on the half shell, Maryland Crab Soup and Oyster shooters...YUM! These little ducks loved the crumbs we threw them.

We swung by McGarvey's for a green beer and headed up to Baltimore for the evening.

Sunday, we attempted to salvage the disaster that was our back yard. Our neighbors had their roof redone this year and the roofers kindly threw all of their waste off of the neighbor's roof and into our back yard. My housemate had removed all of that debris, but in the midst of that chaos, she discovered that terrible awful harbor rats had invaded our garden. She set out poison for them, but they left quite the mess. Check out the damage below!

I don't know about you, but in my mind, rats are probably the most disgusting, vile creatures that have ever existed. The thought of them rooting around my plants, in my living space, totally freaks me out. 

Chris and I made a Home Depot run and got to work. First, we salvaged a couple plants that had hung on through the winter, transplanting them into pots temporarily. 

Then, we emptied a ton of dirt from the raised bed and  replaced it with fresh soil, filling in all of the tunnels that the rats left behind.  

We planted dahlias, viola pansies, snap dragons, moon flowers, and morning glories and replanted the lavender we had transplanted. 

We also put out some strongly scented powder that supposedly is safe for plants but deters rodents. It contains bobcat urine...YUM!! 

(ugh, if I never have to deal with rats ever again, I will be very happy! I didn't even have to see the one that the poison killed! My housemate's boyfriend had to finish it off because it wasn't all the way dead, SOSOSOSO GROSSSSSSSSS)

Here's the after picture. Please ignore the wire going across the top of the picture! That was one of the presents we received from the neighbors' roofers. Chris climbed onto our roof though and was able to move it back where it belonged.

In the pots, we trimmed some herbs that survived the winter and planted a tomato plant. Chris surprised me with the hanging flower bed :) I love it! We filled it with violas and I'm hoping they end up growing over the edge and hanging. 

We planted some tulips in pots as well. I'm too impatient to wait for summer for blooms! Spring bloomers are necessary!

I was thrilled to see that my gerbera daisies are coming back this year. Luckily, we had such a mild winter! I really hope they make it. Next to hibiscus flowers, they are my favorite. They are just so bright and vibrant when they bloom!

Chris' hanging basket.

I started some more herbs and veggies from seeds, inside. Once they sprout, I'll bring them outside as well. 


What are you planting this season? Do you garden? If you don't, but would like to, what would you plant?

Monday without Diet Coke

Good news, I'm still alive.

I know you were worried.

My lack of attention comes from the fact that we're nearing the end of the worst month ever invented. February has been worse than normal just because despite the constant gray we haven't even had a good snow. This yo-yo ing between 60 degrees with rain and 40 degrees with sun is quite capricious. Mother Nature - get your act together, you're toying with my emotions. No one likes a tease.

However, by the end of the week, annual awful will have ended and I can get back to sorts.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with all of my sisters. We celebrated the youngest's birthday with lunch, mani/pedis and some new jewelry for her.

She's 15 and it is VERY STRANGE. I left for college when she was 8 years old and now she's most definitely a teenager. It's hard to start treating her as more of an adult - I just barely started seeing my 19 year old sister as an adult! But, her life is full of boys, cell phones, parties and new clothes so I'm pretty sure it's time I get over it and let her be as old as she is. This was the first year I had to check her schedule before I planned her birthday festivities. 

So Weird

As far as life without diet coke, I hate to admit this, but I think I actually am starting to survive without it.  

Wednesday was bad, headaches and shaking hands. 

Thursday was crippling. 

Friday the headache didn't kick in until noon. 

Saturday it didn't kick in until 4pm. 

Yesterday, no headache just exhaustion. 

Today, going good so far! 

I think I'm beating this thing!

Anyways, here are some pretty and happy things to help you survive the last few days of the most terrible month.

Since we've had a serious lack of snow this year, I thought I'd share a snowy paradise, straight out of a fairy tale.

Source: flickr.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

When I went to Germany, we visited the Neuschwanstein Castle. It's the castle the Disney castle was modeled after and is very bizarre.  When you visit it, you feel like you're visiting a museum - everything is ornate and over the top. 

It was built in the late 1800s by King Ludwig II of Bavaria - at the same time the first skyscrapers were being built in America . He was a huge fan of music and theater and adored Wagner. His castle celebrates his love of art and he apparently had elaborate sleighs built so that he could travel around the countryside in historic attire.  It struck me as strange that such an old fashioned building decorated lavishly was built so recently. 

The location is gorgeous though and the castle really is magnificent.

I'm hoping spring is just around the corner. As such, I'm planning my garden for this season. One of the problems I've encountered with planting seeds is I always forget what I've put where.

Source: shineyourlightblog.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

I saw this idea on pinterest and can't wait to try it. We have plenty of corks at my house and I think this looks so much nicer than seed packets that get bleached and torn in the elements.

Finally, Easter is coming very quickly. I'm really excited to try Martha Stewart's spin on traditional Easter Eggs. These eggs are so sparkly and I think they will be really fun to make!

Source: marthastewart.com via Rebecca on Pinterest