Cupcakes & Flowers

On my recent trip to Washington, DC I visited a bakery called Sticky Fingers. It was nearly a life changing experience. I had looked at the cookbook on Amazon before, but after my visit I was sold and ordered it right away. I was actually a little bummed it was only sweets included in the book because their regular food was really good too. So far I have made the blueberry muffins which turned out pretty well, and now the classic vanilla cupcake with almond frosting.

The single cupcake above is on a wine glass turned upside down! Like its own mini pedestal. 

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In other news, the yard is in bloom! I think these flowers are so beautiful but they only last a few days. Look at all the petals packed into each one. We had a rain storm last night that sort of beat them down, but they are still gorgeous.

Raised Garden Box

T.J. and I have been hard at work on the outside of our house, something that has been pretty ignored that past few years. In the last week T.J. has weeded, raked, mulched, trimmed, cleaned the siding, and I have planted flowers and veggies and helped a little with weeding. :-) But... he also built me a garden box. So while this Pinterest challenge isn't my project exactly, I did help design it and T.J. made it come to life.

 

As always, I was excited to see the Pinterest spring challenge hosted by Young House Love, Bower Power, Red Bird Blue and Sparkle Meets Pop. A raised bed has been on my wish list since the pesky bunnies ate my flowers and strawberries last year. I can't stay mad at them, but it is frustrating.


Pinterest has lots of cool raised bed ideas. I really dig these pink raised beds, and these taller beds. My sister has an awesome garden which I blogged about here, and her garden was an inspiration as well.

T.J. made the box out of 4x4s and 2x6s. A good chunk of the wood was left over from other projects, so we ended up only spending about $40. The most surprising expense was how much dirt it took to fill it when it was done.

These are the seedlings I started early this spring indoors. They look sort of dead here, but they aren't, it's just day 1 in the dirt. :-) I planted brussel sprouts, broccoli, green peppers, and zucchini in here.

Doesn't this scene look inviting?

I also planted quite a few flowers today. I filled these 4 patio pots and planted in the window box under our bedroom window.

The idea is that a tall raised bed will offer a little privacy on the patio. I am sure I planted the veggies a little close together because I grew so many seedlings, but this raised bed will be a nice safe place for them to grow in addition to our corner garden from last year. Updates to come!

Outdoor Pillows

In light of my other recent backyard projects (like this flower pot holder and the garden) I thought it was high time for some more fabric outside. I picked up this cheerful yellow, green, and pink outdoor fabric at Hancock fabrics back when I lived in South Carolina. I had promised T.J. I would make him a hammock pillow after I got him a hammock for his birthday in April, so I cut two pieces of fabric - one rectangle for an Adirondack (I am shocked at the spelling of this word) chair pillow, the other longer rectangle for the hammock pillow. I just sort of eyeballed the size for hammock pillow and used a pillow form size + 1/2 inch on each side for the square pillow.

T.J. caught me trying out the new pillow shortly after I put it out there -

 I made it long enough so we can share if we need to!

I think they really help brighten up our outdoor space. I like to think about our backyard as another room in our house, and adding fabric touches makes it feel more comfortable and homey out there.

Corner Garden

For Valentine's Day this year I got T.J. an indoor starter greenhouse, which he ignored for weeks and weeks until I finally got it out and did it myself (think I might still be a little bitter about this?). Anyway, I was pretty proud of how well I kept all the plants alive - except for sage and dill for some reason - I even posted about the greenhouse here if you want to check it out. After feeling inspired by my sister's garden over Memorial Day Weekend (see her garden last year here) I begged T.J. to help me create a garden space in our backyard. TJ's dad suggested the corner, and so it was settled. We got to work.

We ran over to Menards to buy all the usual gardening supplies that we (being amateur gardeners) didn't already own. Tomato cages, watering can, rabbit fence, tiny shovel, all the good stuff.

I picked out the spot and TJ got digging. 

After a couple hours the dirt was ready and I plopped in (possibly too violently) my starter plants.

Mr. Gnome keeps a watchful eye out for those darn rabbits. 

Then it was time to spruce up those tomato cages with one of my favorite color combos - lime, yellow, and pink.

After the plants were all in the ground, T.J. finished putting the rabbit fence across the front.

And there you have the corner garden. Do you think it will produce any veggies? 

I am not so convinced myself. Only time will tell.

Window box

Our house came with this charming underused window-box right outside our bedroom window. We didn't end up doing anything with it last summer because we were still getting acclimated to our landscaping but I decided this year it was time. I filled it up with dirt and just sort of chose whatever looked good at Menards to purchase for flowers and plants. I tried to buy plants that could be in shade or part-sun because that side of the house doesn't get much sunlight.

While this may seem like a pretty boring thing to be posting about... the real reason I wanted to do this post is because I got a new camera today! I blog worthy one. I worked my tail off this semester racking up extra hours outside of teaching so I could buy a camera with my "extra" money. The window-box was my first muse. What do you think of the pics? I am still experimenting of course, there seems to be quite a learning curve with these things.

Does this one hurt your eyes?