Check out this Blog!

So lately I've been following a blog about saving money when you shop for groceries.  Who doesn't love a good deal?  It is written by Heather, and she not only provides couponing and shopping tips, but also includes useful links along with recipes that you can cook ahead of time and freeze for those super busy evenings.  I'm honored to be mentioned in one of her latest posts!  Check it out here: Once a Month Shopping for Couples.

Thanks again Heather!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The hubby and I finally found a free weekend to plant our garden for the summer.  Last year we had great success for it being our first time having a garden.  We ended up with lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, banana peppers, and a few bellpeppers and eggplants.  We planted lots of the same things this year, but we do have a few things we plan to do a little differently than we did last year (learning from experience!).  These are a few pictures from the process of creating our garden last year:

This was our yard in the morning when we started:

And here it is in the evening when we finally finished:

(My hubby and Parker - our cairn terrier)

We learned very quickly that our little buddy, Parker, liked to dig in the garden.  We placed a fence around it to keep him out and he simply proceeded to jump right over it and dig away (and steal a few plants while he was at it), hence the tall fence you see in the following pictures:

So we are hoping for the same good luck this year (or maybe even better luck!) since I officially do not have a green thumb.  

Here's the "before" condition our garden was in after the winter (lots of weeding to be done!):

Here's the start of our new garden this year:

 (Yes, our neighbors still have their camper parked in the back yard but at least it's clean now!)

We're crossing our fingers that we will have lots of yummy produce to enjoy and share!

On a sidenote, along with re-planting the garden, we filled in some missing gaps in my planter box where flowers had (gasp!) died.  I thought the planter box would get more sun than it actually did, so the only plants that survived were those that needed partial sun (the pink flowers I planted last year).  These flowers were made for me because they even lasted through the winter (we had a few freezes) without me covering them during freezes or watering them when it was warmer.  Therefore, I bought only that kind of flower again this year and I filled the entire planter box with them.  The only slight problem I have with them is that they are not quite the same shade of pink as last year's flowers (although that was the closest pink available at Home Depot). 

Money Saving Tip: Instead of buying 4 individual plants (about the number I needed to fill in the gaps), I bought one hanging planter full of them (for less than the total of the 4 individual ones) and seperated the plants when I got home before planting them.  The only downside of this plan was that the plants had started to grow very stem-y and tall because they had very little room to grow out (rather than full like the one from last year - all the way to the right in the pic).  I think it will even out after they've been in the planter box for a while, but who knows - I'm no expert on planting.

Here's the planter box before:

 And here it is after:

No flowers yet, but they'll be here soon (and often! - another thing I love about these).

I'll post pictures of the flowers' and plants' progress as it happens.  So have you planted anything yet? What grows well in your area? Do you have any tips for us? Share your secrets please! :)

Living Room Redo

     So you've seen the dining room, kitchen, and den, but there are a few other makeovers that I haven't shown you just yet.  The next room we made over after the kitchen was the living room.  I couldn't wait to put some paint up after seeing the gold-ish/orange-ish walls.  I'm sure there are lots of places where that color might work, but next to the dark brown beams, light brick of the fireplace, and the light fireplace mantle, not so much.   The room needed to be unified.  After much deliberation, we chose a Behr color called Harvest Brown (can you tell we are Home Depot people?).  I was a little nervous about this color after the snaffu in the den with a beige color.  However, this color is gorgeous.  It does come across as a beige/brown/tan neutral at some times during the day, but it also has a hint of green in some lights, which was perfect because we wanted to bring in some blue and green accent colors.  Here are some before pictures:

     This room was the hardest to paint by far (except for maybe the kitchen cabinets) because I couldn't just use my handy step ladder that I usually use; I actually had to bring in a real ladder to get the higher parts of the wall.  Along with painting the walls, we also removed, sanded, and painted the baseboards, painted the doors, and replaced all light switches, outlets, and all covers (we even added one to the cable line since there wasn't one). We painted this room around Christmas time, so we also picked up a few finds on Black Friday.  The curtains as well as the painting are from J.C. Penney, which had huge Black Friday discounts in that department.  A few months later, we found out that there was a Habitat for Humanity Restore location only about 30 minutes away from us! While that's a post on its own, we did find a chandelier (brand new!) for sale there that fit our room perfectly.  So my hubby replaced the old rickety fan that was there (and which, frankly, scared me to use because I thought it might fall of off the ceiling!) with the new chandelier in one afternoon.  Next on the list was to sand, stain, and seal the mantle.  Thankfully, the hubby took over that job too.  It took a while to do it correctly, but it was worth it because it looks amazing! 

     First, he sanded the entire mantle until all the finish was gone.  (We left it attached to the mantle because of the way it was put up there - not easily removed or replaced).

     Then, he stained it with an ebony stain (we wanted a super dark brown, almost black).

Finally, the longest part of the process was to seal the wood, which involves lots of wait time.

 (You can see in these photos that we covered the brick with plastic drop cloth just in case of spills)

(There's my handy step ladder that I usually use to paint all the walls and trim).

     Many, many months later, (okay, okay, a year later) we purchased two club chairs from World Market the day before Black Friday (my favorite shopping day of the year!).  It ended up being a better deal the day before because they were on sale plus they were offering a 25% off coupon for all furniture that day.  The pillows come from TJ Maxx and Hobby Lobby (you have to love the 50% off sales at Hobby Lobby!), which bring in the blue and green I discussed earlier in this post (which also shows up in the curtain).

     A few other additions in between the two Black Friday shopping days were a new-to-us fireplace screen and tool set which we grabbed at a garage sale for only $30 for everything.  There was a little bit of melted wax on the screen itself, which we just melted off before we cleaned the entire thing and brought it in to the house.  We like this screen much better than the gold one that was on the fireplace when we moved in. (It was donated to a family member for their fireplace).  Whew, I think I've covered everything we've done in this room up to this point.  In the end, this is where our living room stands now:

     Oh, and Parker's bed stays in the living room too.  It's where we usually find him when we get home. :)

So what good deals have you found lately?  Any garage sale finds? Craigslist? Black Friday? Habitat for Humanity Restore?  Where do you shop when you need to get a good price on something for your home?