We've moved!

Well, we as in the royal 'we.' Getting a fresh start! Head on over to kdearth.tumblr.com and check it out.

Guilt.

Someone made me feel guilty about never updating this thing anymore. A lot has happened in a year and I'm not about to recap all of it here. And is anyone really checking this anymore besides the single person who called me out on it? Probably not. So I feel like I'm just writing to you Lady! But here's a promise to try to update this more. 'Try' being the key word there. But not now. Because I'm TIRED.

Gardening

So I was going to write a post about my latest/next craft project or post some pics of our renovated bathroom(oh wait, it still needs to be painted...), but I decided to go with gardening instead.

At our house, this is how it works. For flowers: I pick them, tell Jay where they need to be planted and then occasionally water them. I feel that my involvement ends there. Our first spring here I got a bit too attached to some flowers that didn't do well, so never again! For the veggies: all I demand is that we have tomatoes. Both regular sized and cherry. And I picked out the herbs. Everything else, I leave in Jay's hands.

So first up: some of the wildflowers we planted last year....to me this whole area looks like a bunch of overgrown weeds, but at least now we have a few flowers coming up. Jay could tell you what they were, but all I know is that the first one is a daisy.

Next is the Vegetable Garden.

First up: Eggplant. Jay wants to make Eggplant Parmesan for my parents. I have no other idea what else you can even use eggplant for and I'm pretty sure he doesn't either, but oh well.

And then the Pea plants. Also has a few flowers, so they should be ready soon (or so Jay says).

And we have a watermelon (maybe more than one, I have no idea).

And the tomatoes of course!

We also have some carrots. We have cucumbers too, but I don't think they made it into the picture.

We're growing Romaine Lettuce and Broccoli in separate containers on the deck.


Here are the herbs:

First is the Lemon Balm...which Jay has used to make himself tea...

We also have Lemon Thyme, Chamomile, Oregano and Rosemary, but I'm not posting pictures of those because wow, my computer is taking forever to upload these things. So we'll save the front and side gardens for another post. So next time: Roses, Dahlias, Snapdragons, Winking Columbine and MORE!

My Ketchup Rant

I realize I haven't updated this thing for a long time (not as long as some people have gone without updating their blogs- BETH) but since I'm home sick from work, something which rarely happens, and really can't do anything but lay here in bed and move my head from one side to another trying to unclog my nose and cough up a few lungs, I figured, hey, why not?

So about this Ketchup thing. You know Ketchup. Yummy tomato product that goes well with all meat, cheese and potato products? The condiment that is officially one of my food groups? Let me give you a piece of advice about Ketchup. Don't put it in the refrigerator. I know that sometimes it says you should refrigerate it after opening, but really...don't. Cold Ketchup is disgusting. I can see how other people might not recognize it as such an important part of every meal if they are eating it cold.

When you go out to eat, and put that yummy Ketchup on your fries or your burger, guess what? It hasn't been refrigerated. And doesn't it taste good? And I'm only talking about REAL Ketchup. Heinz Ketchup. Anything else is going to taste disgusting no matter what you do with it. So go ahead, put it in the refrigerator, the freezer, the oven, or preferably, the trash can. It won't matter.

Now sometimes when I tell people about not refrigerating Ketchup, they assume I mean that I like it warm. Now, room temperature isn't warm. I don't think I'd like 'hot Ketchup.' Also, I can't be responsible for a bottle of Ketchup that has been opened and left unrefrigerated for a long period of time before being used again. In this house, we go through the biggest bottles they have pretty darn quickly. So if you only use Ketchup, say once every 6 months, I can't be blamed for any food poisoning that may occur from not keeping it in the fridge. Not that I think it would necessarily make you sick, I'm just saying don't blame me if it does. Really, just buy a small bottle and use it often.

Ornaments!

So this year, we decided not to put any traditional 'balls' on our tree and just use our 'special' ornaments. Which we had a lot more of than we thought. Every year Jay and I would each pick out one (or two) ornaments to add to the collection and of course last year Johnathan got one too. And also, people gave us a lot of ornaments, when we got married, bought a new house, for Johnathan's first Christmas, etc. So we have quite a few. And there are the ones that I make for the kids each year. Here a few of my favorites (that I could get a good picture of):

The pinecone snowman is one of Jays:

This is obviously another of Jay's:

The cross is one that I made:

So this next one was one of the first ornaments we bought together as part of this tradition, back when we lived in our townhouse. It had a little friend, another red bird to perch on a branch nearby. The cats killed it. Really. All we ever found of it were some red feathers near the tree. Very sad.

For our new house:

A few for Baby's 1st Christmas:

And for getting married:

This last one is another one that I made:

This year I made a yellow star. Johnathan got two special ones this year because we just couldn't decide. One is a monkey and the other is music notes (with bells in them). I got a butterfly ornament and Jay chose a reindeer. I think it makes the tree look pretty cool and different. There are a lot more, but maybe that is a post for another day. It is officially Christmas Eve and my 25th birthday. How incredibly depressing. Well here's a nice pic of Johnathan to cheer us old folks up! I hope everyone has a very Safe and Happy Holidays.

Tree Time!

So we went to the Tree Farm and picked out our tree. They didn't have a ton of huge ones left to cut down yourself, but as we realized once we got home (and I said when we were there), it was probably for the best, as we don't have a ton of space.

How about this one?

Maybe this one is more my size!

Still Looking!

So it was pretty cold and getting dark, but we finally found a really nice tree!!

And, we have started our Dickens Village collection! Three new pieces (I only have pics of two) are now on display on the bookshelf.

And we already have some presents under the tree, which the cats obviously love playing with...We're not quite sure what Johnathan thinks of the tree yet, but he seems to like looking at the ornaments. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

I've been Crafting!

Yes, there are new projects, FINISHED projects, and unfinished ones. I've made the Christmas ornaments for this year, and I'm very proud of myself for finishing them already. Especially since only two people got theirs last year, and I still have to finish one of the snowflakes. But the snowflakes were very time consuming and this year's ornament was much easier to complete. And once I find my camera and take pictures of them, I will of course post them.

I also made a hat for JW. It was supposed to be for him at least. I had a pattern but it was for a baby, and of course he is NOT a baby anymore. He's a little boy. So I tried to make a few adjustments to the pattern to make the hat bigger, and I did. But maybe a bit too big. So I'm going to wash it in some hot water and see if I can get it to shrink. Otherwise it might just have to wait for next year.

I was going to do some more craft stuff last night but after Jay got home I pretty much crashed and had no energy whatsoever to work on anything. Maybe Sunday when the boys are in Indiana. Pictures coming soon!