over the weekend... and happy day

This weather in Memphis is just amazing... and everyone is talking about it, I know, but it just is.  We spent all weekend in the backyard, and Gibson was loving every second of it too.  We mowed front and back, planted our climbing roses (super pumped about these!), and I'm attempting and growing some strawberries.  We'll see how that goes.

The process for our backyard beds has begun.  We flagged off the shape the beds would be, then T scalped it as low as the mower would go, and he finished it off by spraying it with roundup.  We will be able to just till that in to make our beds and get them ready for shrub and flower planting.  It's already looking so much better.  The rest of the weekend we just sat out on the patio and enjoyed ourselves and the weather and watching our dog skip around.  Life is good.

This little rose bush (well 2 of them) will eventually climb all over.....

 This wall!

Wonder if these strawberries will grow?

Check out these curves...

Also, I'm late to this party, but who has done the gel/shellac manicure?? Why haven't I done this before?  It will look like this for 2 weeks. Amazing.

Last but not least.... It is my main man's birthday today.  I'm the luckiest girl in the world to get to spend life with T Dudley Carter.  Just sayin'.....  Happy Birthday bestest buddy.  Love you lots!

we have trees!

When we bought this house we had zero trees on our property.  That's right zero.  We didn't count the off-shoot magnolia in the backyard as a tree because it just always looked weird/awkward....

When we bought the house we knew the backyard had potential, but needed lots of TLC.  First step was demo-ing the rotten cover thingy that was over the patio.  T and his dad and uncle knocked that out one of the first weekends we were here... oh back in 2009.  The next step was getting rid of the azaleas along the back fence (they were overgrown with bamboo.. eeks!), and then our last step would be trees, plants, beds, flowers, grill etc.

Last summer we did full on front yard re-do.  Thanks to Adsit Landscape and our landscape designer (happy to share his name with you!), we got a full design drawn up for the future backyard and would do it in phases.

We completed phase 1 on Monday and it is already looking like a backyard!  We love to do yard work and be outside, but we wanted Adsit to plant our trees because they get awesome plants (come see our grass if you need proof).

Here's the backyard... the clean slate... No trees... No plants... No more bamboo...

Trees arrived Monday morning!

"Hey, what are you guys doing in my backyard??"

 

And here it is with all the new trees (and a ghost-doggie thanks to auto-stitch)!

 

Some crepe myrtles, magnolias, hollies, an oak and a beautiful cherry!  Eventually there will be a barrier/block/privacy line of trees along the fence.  Oh, and back in the right corner, a nice little pocket among the hollies for T's bow target to sit.

Oh and check out that trough.  That was the purchase over the weekend that we were excited about finding...at the tractor supply store!  Can't wait to put some flowers in there very soon.  It's already spring here and we are loving every second of it.

catch up, whew!

Such fun things have happened (since apple crisp) the past 2 weeks I can't ignore, so I'll post a photo timeline of the fun we've had lately.  It's been lovely.

Grizz game...

Babysitting my cute niece and taking her on a walking date with the Charlies...

A fun and blessed birthday with family and friends...

A fun wedding celebration at the zoo!

Grizz game vs Lakers... and highly disliking ALL faker fans... aka Kobe fans...

More babysitting and smelling the flowers...

The most enjoyable weekend (this past weekend) spent in Oxford with the Carters...  delicious food, fun shopping, beautiful weather, and great family...
Our little passenger...

First thing we had to do Saturday was take T-man to pick up this.... no comment.

We got this rug for a steal... I have a slight obsession with Kilim.

The store that had this rug had all these awesome "inside the house" flower arrangements in neat looking containers.  I loved how they all looked, but have always steered clear from inside plants.  Not sure why... I got a great concrete circle container for our circle table and was determined to re-create what they had in the store.  Those little pink guys are called "crown of thorns" and I love them!  Still have to add moss to cover up the little plastic pots.

Baby chicks!  I wanted some of these, and T just laughed.

Family walk to the park... Gibson stopped to smile for the photo with his momma...

Making sure his coyote is safe... Gibby loving shotgun...

The weather this weekend made us all so excited for spring and summer and planting flowers.  We looked ALL over Oxford for some planters for our back patio.  I wanted them to be tall and slender, but we just couldn't find any that we loved.  His parents surprised us by coming up right after we left because they were looking for some large forsythia shrubs.  We went over to Lowes, and there were the perfect planters.  Just what I was looking for, just sitting there, and an awesome price.  I finally got to plant my ranunculus bulbs in them yesterday!  The most interesting shaped bulb I've ever seen.

There was one other item that we searched all weekend for and finally found... but I'm going to save that for another post.

Such a perfect and refreshing weekend!  I can't tell you how much fun we are having in Memphis, and how much fun we have as a family with our little dog child.  This weather in Memphis has been crazy.  We never had a winter and it's already 60 in the mornings and 80 in the day... Wonder what summer will be like??

apple crisp for 2

Last week I was doing baked potatoes for T and I, and some kind of apple dessert came to mind and all of a sudden I was craving hot apple crisp.

I just simply googled "2 serving apple crisp" and just clicked on the first result.  I found the best, easiest, quickest recipe for single serving apple crisp for 2 people.  Prefect.

Recipe here, but I made a few additions/changes so here's what I did:

1 large granny smith apple
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oats
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of fresh nutmeg
3 T butter

1. Slice up apples and slice off peeling.  Separate slices evenly between 2 creme brulee dishes (we got ours at Lit if you live in Memphis).  Squeeze a little lemon juice over apples to prevent browning.  I put mine in fridge while I mixed up topping and finished dinner prep.

2. Put flour, sugar, oats, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg in a bowl.  Cube up butter and blend into dry mixture.  I found it easy to just do this with my hands to help soften the butter.

3. Cover each dish of apples with the topping mixture.

4.  Set the two dishes on a baking sheet in case overflow occurs.

5. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes.  Top with ice cream, cool whip, whipped cream... whatever you prefer!

T had a nice sized dollop of whipped cream

T said this might be his favorite dessert in the whole world.  It was so yummy and an easy dessert for the 2 of us!

birthday month

In our house it's birthday month!  Both our bdays fall in March so it's fun to have celebrations throughout the month.  I always hang our cute bday banner in the kitchen window...

(see our million buttercups in the backyard? there are even more along the wall under that window)

And enjoy sweets a little too much and justify it because "my birthday is in a week" or "t's birthday is next week." I would rather eat sweets for a meal any way.

T and I have been busy with building the table for the green egg grill we plan on purchasing.  We can't wait to get this thing.  You can cook/grill/bake anything on it.  You have to have some sort of stand, table, nest before you buy because you literally buy just the egg.  We wanted to save some moolah, so we (t-man) decided to build it ourselves.  Well it's just a beaut, but we have to let the wood "cure" before we can stain and seal it.... Patience.

See how great of a job he did?!

The egg will sit down in that hole.  A perfectly cut hole.


I was contemplating on whether or not to do a monthly desktop background.  Are you reader out there still enjoying it?  Please tell me if you are because I'll continue doing them if so.  In honor of March birthday month, check out March desktop here.

Happy Birthday month to the Carters!  :)