This Tree!

I hyper colored this picture to give you my view point of this tree!

I am in. love. with. this. tree!

Can someone out there in the blog world tell me what kind of tree it is? I seriously want one for my yard.

Shrimp Tacos!

A couple days back, I was tootilin’ about my garden, & picked just a few pieces of lettuce. As I was walking back into the house, I spotted my cilantro, and picked a bit of that as well.

Thinking, thinking, thinking… what’s for super? hmmm Opened the freezer, and the shrimp smacked me in the face. This got me thinking about a post the other day from a friend, Cheesecake Factory: Shrimp Tacos!

Absolutely. I found what sounded close enough for me over here. I had all the ingredients listed, besides limes, but I did have lime juice, so I dove in.

They tasted wonderful, especially knowing that my shrimp were from Whole Foods, and not farm raised. It was also satisfying that the greens were from my garden.

I believe that the only thing that would have made them taste any better? A margarita would have finished it off, of course!

Mother’s Day 2013

Did everyone have a wonderful Mother’s Day?

I believe every year with my girls gets better and better! Being a mom is so wonderful, but it seems as they get older it gets better. <3

We went to Whole Foods for a free coffee, flower, & mini pastries. It was lovely, and while we walked about, they had beautiful bouquets in Mason jars, & I had to have one! So I came home, pulled out one of my Mason jars, and started to walk the perimeter of my house. I feel like I came up with a good combo, don’t you? I wanted to put a yellow tiger lilly in there too, but held back. My husband came home later and brought me some white roses too. I love it!

Getting my hands dirty

Bet you’d never guess what I been doing all weekend?!

I know I mentioned that I might not be doing a garden this year because of Europe… but I’m crazy like that I guess.

My thinking is that if I promise someone my harvest for that three weeks, they will come water for that time. What do you think? Even enough trade?

Garden of 2013 has begun

Here it is the end-ish of April and it is snowy/rain mix outside my windows, so I am focusing on the positive!

Here are the pictures I took of my garden this weekend. It is now in bloom, although I pray it’s not all getting frost bit as I type :/

   

    

    

            

    

Yes to this dress?

Here  is a sneek peak of my new dress that I did actually buy, and did not walk away from. I would like to say that I generally will not buy horizontal stripes… do to watching entirely too many “What Not to Wear” episodes. I spotted this one in the window, and luckily had my husband with me to give his opinion.

I say lucky, because my husband will give his honest opinion, sometimes he regrets it. I am truly appreciative that he still does, despite the wrath he receives from time to time. He approved of this one, and chose it above another that I had already bought. So I said yes to the dress.

Opinions? What do you think?

The dangers of being cheap!

I have a wedding to attend at the end of May, and contemplated buying a new dress for the occasion. I decided just to “see what was out there” a few weekends ago. I went to the usual places, and The Limited being one of them, I popped in there too. This amazing dress was before me! In. LoVe! Yes, you guessed correctly, I walked away.

In my defense, Easter was coming up, and I KNEW it would be on sale once it had past, right?! Well, right… but once it was on sale, no more in my size :(

“But, Katrina, zoom over to the internet and order it."

Nope! Gone there too. Don’t fret though, I went to the outlet mall this weekend. I’m not AS in LoVe with the one I picked up, but it has pockets!

Picture to follow <3

Slow as a snail, but…

I can feel spring in the air, and it is coming slowly but surely… This lovely little rose as made her appearance! Do you think she would like to be planted outside soon? I sure do.. amongst the “bugs” in my perennial garden.

Everyone have a nice Easter?

I realize I have been away for a few days, but I promise I have good reason! It was Easter and my birthday all in one day…

I made this cute little basket for “my” Easter present. Target dollar spot is where I snagged the basket, but what I want to talk about is how everything is edible. The suckers are so sweet, pun intended, and the bunny? Lindt dark chocolate (holy yumm), and the grass is imported from Germany, it is edible too! It’s not delicious, but not bad either, just eh.

So I know I am a little on the Easter post, but what you think? Cute huh?!

Naturally Perfect Eggs

I talked the other week about “natural dyeing” our Easter eggs this year… ironically, a week later I stumbled upon an event at the St. Patrick’s Park locally. I was so ecstatic, I invited everyone I knew who had kids my kid’s age. Lucky for me one of my best friends & her son were able to go with us.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but at $5 per kid, it was nearly fee entertainment. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the teacher had things planned out for the kids to do. There were color pages, and she had strips of pastel paper to make rings for the eggs to set on.

We got to make 6 different colors, so 6 different techniques. Here, all of them are pictured together. From top left: the first was dipped twice; turmeric & then red cabbage (gave us a greenish hue); the second was of course drawn with an amazing sun, then dipped in mashed blueberries; the third was colored quite literally with beets. Next row from left; soaked in grape juice (which left the egg quite sticky); the second on bottom row was boiled in turmeric water; the final egg, boiled in onion skins, was such a pretty brown, no really! The speckles were created from rice.

 

It was overall a long process, but we five had a lovely time. Like I said before the teacher was kind enough to have extra things for the kids to do, so they wouldn’t get bored. My girls loved showing their eggs off to their dad, and I was just as excited with the little carton as the kids were. Too Cute!

Arts & Crafts per my 6 Year Old

It is really starting to look like Easter around my house! My Alisa has been hard at work making us all necklaces to celebrate. So what do you guys think? Are they not so craft-cute for an imagination of a 6 year old? I love mine (the purple one).

<3

March 8th–Women’s Day…

The first time I heard of International Women’s Day was after I became a mother. With a husband from Europe I should have been getting flowers the 8 years prior to this, right? *sheepish grin here*

Okay, let me tell you what women’s day means to me….  The year that I learned about Women’s Day, I was going through a lot. It was the stuff dreams are made of, two beautiful, and amazing little girls in tow. As all of you women know, this is hard hard work, especially when you have two under two. It was not flowers and trinkets I was looking forward to. It was not some time alone at a spa, & it sure wasn’t a “night out on the town”. It was, in fact, something only a women could truly give me… moral support. This is how International Women’s Day came full circle for me. Women helping women.

Why do we, as women, get so cagey and catty with other women? We have it hard enough ladies.. we need loads of support to get through all that domestic stuff that us “goddesses” are expected to do. Okay, well, let me back up for a minute. All those domestic things that a lot of (but not all) women like to do. Everyone has their own arrangements in their households, but I feel like I would be an awesome “goddess" if only time allowed. This is where our support team steps in, to talk us down off the ledge, we can’t do it all. Also, to let us get the praise we deserve, who better knows how hard it can be than another woman?

So in short, be extra kind to all women today & everyday, because like in my favorite quote:

If we all understood that everyone has their own battles to fight, insecurities to face, loves to contend and goals to attain, the world would be a gentler place.

Happy International Women’s Day! <3

It’s around the corner!

Hey kids! It’s March tomorrow… Spring is right around the corner. I am dreaming about Spring, going to the greenhouse & planting the garden. My littlest girl can’t wait either. She’s been talking about “wearing short pants, & no more fat coat” LOL I’m right there with you baby, & so is the majority of the midwest.

So what are you planning to do first in lue of the sunshine & green leaves?

Spring is here - So is my garden

Spring has sprung!

Time has sprung forward... & my veggies are springing up too :)
It's almost garden time, I am so Excited. Do you have a garden? Ever thought of having one? It is a lot of work, but it is so rewarding when you can walk out to the garden and pick a tomato to slice for supper. A little salt on that and yummo I am in heaven!

Pictured here are my carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes. I planted these seeds a little more than two weeks agao & look how quickly they popped up. The only problem now... what do I do with these beauties till after Mother's day?

Here is a quick tutorial on how to get these big boys {or girls} planted. It really is too easy! I almost feel bad posting about it how easy it is :)

First things first, go shopping! My personal favorite...
You will need seeds of your choice, and one of these all in one domes that are amazing!



Secondly, open the lid and put the appropriate amount of water inside. Don't worry too much about getting an exact amount on each individual one, there is plenty of water to swish about before it all seeps in.



Thirdly, not really anything here for you to do, just watch each of the soil pellets puff up. My girls thought this part was "cool" :)

Now it is time to feel like a real Farmer Jane :)
Get digging! Take about a fourth of the amount of the dirt out of the center of each pellet. They recommend to put about two to three seeds in each one. I think we, put about three in each one. Yes, my four year old helped me put the seeds in, and her little fingers could do a better job then mine.

Put the dome on the top and wait till you see green, litterally! They recommend to popp the lid up after you see the first green. I just cocked it catty-wompus and that worked just fine. {P.S. Did your grandmother always use silly phrases like catty-wompus}

Mrs. Nature tricked us!

Baby It's COLD outside! We got a few warm days, but Mother Nature tricked us! We are back to snow & ice, so I was inspired to create this to make myself feel better :) Hope you enjoy it, and if enough people request, I will make it a free printable download.