When I am not in the Garden...

I spend alot of time in the kitchen. I love to cook and bake and find great joy in feeding those that I love. One of the biggest wishes on my list when we were looking for a house was a bigger kitchen. While my last kitchen wasn't tiny, for a girl who likes to spread out, it still felt cramped.
I am now blessed with a great galley style kitchen that has amazing storage, lots of counter space and a perfect layout. It reminds me of my grandparents kitchen and I love that. The decor is much different, but there is a certain air about it that is somehow nostalgic and comfortable. What makes it even sweeter is how natural it feels to my family when they come for gatherings. I cherish that my home has become the hub of family gatherings. I find it a great honor to step into the shoes of the role my grandparents played for as long as I can remember.
So in the spirit of my love for the kitchen, of course it was one of the first rooms I had to put my personal touches on.


Here is the kitchen nook before we moved in:

Here is after....we found this wonderful table after many months of looking, it just fits perfectly in the nook and we feel right at home with a booth! Not to mention, the kids love it!






And here's the heartbeat of the kitchen in the house..



And what makes it alive in a home!

The herb beds

I was a busy girl over the weekend. I stay in a constant state of feeling overwhelmed with the goals I set for the garden this season, but I am enjoying it immensely despite that fact. One of my big priorities this season was to get my herb garden up and going. I really got used to going out and picking whatever fresh herbs I needed at the last house and have sorely missed it when playing in the kitchen. I still need to find a place for tarragon, but I am sure that will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. The rosemary is in another garden area since it gets so big.
In this bed are stella de oro daylillies, greek oregano, lemon thyme, wood ferns and oxalis. Also, much of the time during "outside time" there can also be a Sadie planted behind the cedar tree.
She wasn't very happy with me when I added a row of bricks and stinky cedar mulch, but it only took a day before she was back to curling up in one of her favorite outside lounge spots.



This little spot just seemed perfect for easy access from the kitchen. You can see where I started to dig up the grass in a spot above and I got distracted by a shiny object and have not gotten back to finishing that project. I thought about re-using these rocks I took out of the herb bed as a border for above, but then I got these great free (best kind) landscaping bricks. I guess procrastination wasn't so bad since I think the bricks will look better. More of an update there soon.
In this bed I planted dill, sage, basil, flat leafed parsley ( we'll see how that does in July), and curly leafed parsley.

A Texas welcome

into our first spring in our new digs...low and behold, look what greeted me in our very own backyard!

The latest project: Operation Get ready for Summer

One of the things on our to do list is updating and resurfacing the pool. We knew it needed some TLC when we moved in, but had managed to put it off until now. With summer just around the corner, we thought it was time to take the plunge. Here's our progress so far. (Note the special supervision the tile layer received!)


Before:



Tile going in:




As my hubby pointed out, this will be the only time we can see the pool light shining opposite of it's intended direction. Looks kinda neat reflecting off the foliage.