Patio Garden

So if you were raised a country kid like me, apartment living in the city can be absolutely unbearable. When you’re use to fresh garden vegetables, supermarket produce sucks.

If you’re lucky enough to get a ground level apartment, most of them have some sort of little concrete slab they call a patio.

This summer Matt and I had our first patio garden, and it’s been AWESOME! I mooched 5 flower pots from mom and dad, some small wooden posts, and some hog wire.

We decided to do Green Peppers, Cherries Tomatoes, Chives, Basil, and Sugar Snap Peas.

Fairly early on. The snap peas had been up for about a week, and the basil and chives had just sprouted

Tip: drop a couple big-ish slabs of rock into the bottom of each pot to help with draining.

Plant according to seed packet. Vine plants, like snap peas need something to climb, which is where the posts and hog wire come into play. (See Picture)

We had an 80% success rate! The peppers did fantastic. The first pepper we got was eaten by chipmunks, the dirty rat bastards. But then we got 2 enormous peppers! These things were huge, especially for container plants. I made some awesome stuffed peppers with them, and thought the plant was pretty much done. However, with this weird weather the plant rebloomed and is totally full of peppers right now! IN MID-SEPTEMBER!

Peppers!

The tomato plant. Oh the tomato plant. Where to even begin. Firstly, it got enormous and couldn’t hold itself up, completely top heavy. So I started with a couple stakes (and by stakes, remember I’m poor and cheap, I mean wire clothes hangers that I bent to work), when it outgrew my stakes, I would up with a super janky rigging. First, I’d like to point out that the landscapers at our building broke one of our branches, which we tied back up and luckily it healed. Storms blew it down. The dog knocked it down. Matt broke a branch by accident, but this thing WON’T DIE. I incorporated the lawn chair, the pot of chives that were, at the time, a complete failure, to anchor it, and various wiring. It’s still alive and producing lots of tomatoes!

My janky rigging haha

The chives….. sucked. But in the end we wound up with a handful of them, so it wasn’t a total loss.

The basil was awesome! It exploded. This plant just took off and we were using basil in every meal. It was fantastic!

(Tip: you can dry basil in the microwave. Put a large handful between 2 paper towels and microwave 30 sec at a time until completely dry. Crush and store.)

Not a great picture, but you can see the peas in the back there

The snap peas were a little bit of a disappointment. They started great, grew huge, lots of blossoms…. and then it got a fungus that a lot of viney plants get and died 😦

I’ll post the recipe for the stuffed peppers later. Happy gardening!

Yummy Stuffed Peppers 🙂

Veggies! LOTS of Veggies!

So this recipe was both a success and a fail in different ways. I know, great introduction, right? Haha

I made it last night with pretty high hopes. It looked delicious, and it tasted pretty good, but it wound up really watery and kind of mushy, and I’m a texture person…

HOWEVER, dumping out the extra liquid and frying the leftover up in a skillet with some salt and Mrs. Dash was pretty tasty.

You’ll Need:

foil
9×13 baking pan
1 large potato, or 3 small red potatoes
1 zucchini squash
1 yellow squash
1 sweet potato
1/4 c onion (sliced or diced up to you)
1/4 of a green bell pepper
1 clove garlic
Stick of butter (just enough to spread on the bottom of the foil-covered pan)
1/4 chopped green onion
salt
pepper
thyme
Mrs. Dash Garlic Herb
1 c Shredded cheese of your choosing

Slice all vegetables and set aside.

Line pan with foil (for easy clean up). Grease bottom of lined pan with butter. Mince one clove of garlic and spread on the bottom of the pan.

Alternating vegetables, pack the pan with all your sliced vegetables. I followed a pattern a first and eventually just wound up shoving stuff wherever it would fit. Sprinkle the chopped veggies (onions and chives) over the top.

Generously season your veggies and plop a couple small spoonfuls of butter on top.

Cover with foil and bake at 400 deg for about 45 min to an hour. Until potatoes are fork tender. During the last 10 minutes or so, sprinkle with shredded cheese!

Some folks might like this as is, again it wasn’t bad, just a little too watery for me. Squash has a lot of juices. But fry up the leftovers in a skillet the next day and it is quite yummy 🙂

The Boomerdog

So this is not a tutorial or advice session of any kind. Just an update on something new in our lives! About 3 months ago (yes, I know its been forever since I’ve posted) we decided to adopt a 1 yr old Boxer/Hound mix from an Animal Rescue center near where I go to school. We named him Boomer. And he is the absolutely biggest sweetheart ever. He’s staying with Matt, I hated to leave them when I moved back to school, but, a girl’s gotta do! I’ll be back in 8 short (hopefully) months. Can’t wait. I miss them both like crazy!

Here’s the Boomerdog!

Playing in the lake!

Frosted Glass – Cheating

Let’s take frugal to a whole new level. As poor as us college kids are, we somehow always manage to scrounge up a few bucks for a bottle of wine or similar, yeah? yeah….

So lets take our now empty glass bottles and make them frosted! Cheap decoration for a small apartment or dorm room, and no one could guess how you did it either.

Hopefully the label of your bottle comes of easily and clean. Otherwise either soak it in hot soapy water or water+baking soda. Label should be fairly easy to remove then.

When your bottle is clean and dry, find yourself some Elmer’s Glue. Yup. Elmer’s Glue. Also, you’ll need food coloring, and disposable container (I used an empty gum container, how cheap am I? haha) and a foam paint brush.

All you need!

This is so incredibly easy its seems so stupid that I haven’t been doing this for years.

Dump maybe 1/4 c of glue in your container and add 2-3 drops of food coloring of your choice. Mix well.

Apply the colored glue as even as you can manage to your glass.

All glued.. er.. painted up!

Allow to set until all the glue is completely dry. You’ll notice its now complete uniform! (In order to get this effect, be careful not to leave thick streaks anywhere, spread that stuff around!)

Almost there!

There you have it! DIY Frosted Glass Decor!

Angel Food Slider (SUPER EASY PARTY FOOD 2)

So unfortunately I did not get a picture of these before they were eaten up 😦

But it doesn’t take too much imagination to picture what these will look like.

All you need:
Angel Food Cake – already made from Kroger or Walmart or wherever’s your fancy
1 reg sz bag Milk Chocolate Chocolate Chips
1 container fresh strawberries
Optional: 1/3 c peanut butter

I cut the cake in 1 inch slices. Sliced the strawberries in half (and removed stems) and laid 1-2 strawberry slices (depending on size) on each slice of cake. In a small bowl pour about a cup of chocolate chips and microwave for 20 sec at a time, stirring in between heating until melted. Spoon chocolate into a ziplock baggie and snip a corner (or just use a pastry bag if you have them). Gently squeeze out the chocolate so it drizzles over the strawberries and cake. Refrigerate for about 20 min or so before serving so the chocolate stiffens up.

Peanut Butter Ganache Option: Same as above but microwave 1/3 c peanut butter and 2/3 c chocolate chips together to drizzle over the top. The Ganache will be slightly softer than the chocolate alone, but it is oh so delish 🙂

See? Sooooo easy… and cheap… and tasty!

Here’s a similar picture. They essentially did the same thing, except decided to skewer them, which is also super cute!

Enjoy!

SUPER EASY PARTY FOOD! for the poor and busy :)

Hey Y’all,

So it turns out I’m not so great at this whole blogging thing… by that I mean I haven’t made an entry since like March… fail for me. So I’m going to try to get caught up tonight.

Some of you have seen my earlier post about the Origami Owl Jewelry that my sister is selling. Well she did a jewelry bar for me and I thought I’d share some of the recipes I used for the party food!

These are especially great for college kids like me because a) they don’t take much more than a couple ingredients so it’s cheap! and b) they come together super fast and easy.

First:

Lil Crockpot Smokies – Bourbon Style 🙂

So this one is awesome.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz package of cocktail weiners
1/2 c apricot preserves
1/4 c maple syrup
1/3 c bbq sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray’s Hickory-Brown Sugar)

1 tbsp bourbon or orange juice (I used Jack Daniels)

I’m absolutely a sucker for Sweet Baby Rays, but this recipe still works wonderfully with cheap kroger brand stuff. It’s all delish. Though I wouldn’t dream of turning down Mr. Beam… 😉

In a bowl, mix the apricot preserves, maple syrup, bbq, and bourbon together until smooth. Pour over weiners in your crockpot. Turn the crockpot on low and let it warm and get all bourbony-yummy for about 4 hours. I actually doubled this recipe and it was perfect for a 10-12 person get-together.

Unfortunately I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the smokies with the sauce on it before it got eaten… but just imagine this a little darker and…. wet? haha

Enjoy!

Your Longest Relationship

Here’s some advice. Do not rush into permanency without putting in the time. If it took you 4 years to realize your last boyfriend was not the guy for you, then you have no business thinking you’re ready to marry your current boyfriend of 1 year.

My point is, if you think 1 year is long enough to know, then you should’ve known the last one wasn’t it after a year. This mostly applies to the kids right out of high school and college. For a more mature generation, this may not be the case. But when you’re in your late teens/early twenties, you barely know who YOU are. Let alone this other person that you think you’re ready to spend your life with.

It drives me nuts when someone in the middle of their college degree, or right fresh out of high school decides they want to get married.

Here is the most important part of this whole lecture: If you are meant to be together, they will still be there waiting for you when the time comes to take that step. If that person is not willing to wait 2 more years for you to graduate, then walk away. Wait until you are done with school, have a job, are financially stable and actually able to support each other and THEN take that step. Unless an extremely low budget wedding and financial hardship were your childhood dreams…

Please note, this does not apply to everyone. There are exceptions. Please don’t be that person who reads this and thinks I’m speaking directly at you. This is a generalization about people who think they’re in love after only a few months because they’re in the honeymoon stage. Guess what folks? When you meet the man or woman of your dreams, they will drive you nuts. They’ll piss you off, they’ll make you want to pull your hair out, they will drive. you. crazy. I’ve been with Matt for 4 years and we still find out stuff about each other once in a while. And that’s saying something because we are very open with each other. We’re a much different couple than we were 3 years ago.

What makes it real love is the endurance of your heart to keep on loving through all of that. Being able to make it through the hard times without ever wavering in how you feel towards them. Second thoughts never cross your mind, and you would do anything in world for them knowing they would do the same for you.

Don’t search out love. It’s shy. Love will find you when you’re least expecting it. That’s when it’s real. It’s not a game or a process, and you can’t make it happen. You can simply play your cards well, and see where it takes you.

If you’re a young adult who thinks they’re ready to tie the knot, I’d suggest waiting until your current relationship is your longest relationship and until you’re both in that stage of your life. You want to enjoy your first year of marriage, not spend it studying calculus…

Think about it.

DIY Curtains

I’m kind of a sucker for colorful curtains that makes the light colorful when it comes through. I was also getting really tired of the ugly generic plastic blinds that came with my apartment. SO: diy time. Yay!

Went to Walmart and picked out some cheap fabric. If you can’t already tell, I kinda love the color green, and I wanted something that would throw a good color in the light. So I went with a light green with white plaid. (This would be the same fabric I used for my To-Do board)

What fun is crafting without a mimosa?? 

I have a rather wide window, which worked out perfect. If you have a window wide enough to use to 2 panels of curtains, then you can get 4 yrds, cut it in half, and just keep the finished edges so you don’t have to sew up the sides. Makes things MUCH easier.

I hemmed the top wide enough to be able to fit my curtain rod through it, and hemmed the bottom about 3/4″. I bought the curtain rod at Walmart for $1.29 That’s it! 2 quick runs on each panel and BAM. Curtains.

To-Do Board

So I am the queen or organizing. I cannot function without having sticky notes, a checklist, prioritized bullets… the works. It’s the only way I get anything done. Seriously, you oughtta see my desk at work. Post-It notes EVERYWHERE.

My big thing is to-do lists. I’m very forgetful and rather unproductive on my days off so I have to make myself a to-do list to keep me on track. Here’s a way to decorate and organize at the same time:

So super simple.

Here is what you’ll need:

I used left over fabric from the curtains I made and covered the cardboard backing that came with the frame. Use Elmer’s Glue to hold in place. Didn’t need anything too sturdy since it was going in a frame anyways.

There it is! Easy Squeezy. Dry Erase markers write and erase just fine on glass.

And of course, I can’t help but show off Johnny, Elvis, and the Beatles 🙂

Not to mention I was playing around with the panoramic setting on my camera

DIY Fix a Broken Zipper on Your Favorite Jeans

It’s happened to all of us. Great pair of pants, broken zipper. Nooooooooo!!!!!!!

I decided, no more! I will fix this! I found a tutorial online that gave me the round about idea and then I just wung it. You’ll notice I do that a lot…

Here’s what you’ll need to fix your pair of jeans:

Some wide ribbon, 7/8″ works well

Matching thread

Medium sized buttons

Scissors

Pins (optional)

First cut out the broken zipper using a thread ripper or scissors. Then cut a piece of ribbon that is twice as long as the flap of your jeans. Double it over and pin it on the inside of the top flap.

 

Sew the ribbon to the jeans across the top, bottom, and the inside (the side closest to pocket). For the side closets to the edge of the flap, do not sew it to the jeans, but just sew the two layers of ribbon together.

     

So now you have a pretty little ribbon on the inside of the flap that’s hidden.

 Next, sew your button holes.

Now, this is the way I did it because I did not have a machine. Had I had my sewing machine, I would’ve sewn the button holes first, then sewn the ribbon into the jeans. Trust me, it is VERY irritating to sew button holes by hand… But hey, it worked.

  Cut your button holes!

Since I did mine by hand, without a machine, I didn’t trust the integrity of my handy work. So I also applied fabric glue around the hole to reinforce it.

 

Mark where you want your buttons on the bottom flap and sew into place.

  

And VOILA! There you have it, your favorite jeans are back in business!