These are a few of my favorite things

 Why the hell is my dog laying in the fire pit??

 This is the rain chain my husband got me for Valentine's Day.  I love it!  I then bought a half whiskey barrel from Lowe's ($30?) and put a water lily in it.  So far it hasn't flowered and I'm not sure it will based on how much sunlight it receives.  The wreath was made out of grapevines by my dad for my wedding.  I love him.

 I made this raised planter bed from this tutorial.  I have sunflowers, strawberries, basil, catnip, apple mint, cilantro, okra, cucumber, tomatoes, serrano peppers, and some sort of squash planted.  I say some sort of squash because they came up from my compost and I have no idea whether they'll be zucchini, summer squash, or pumpkin.  You may notice my tomato buckets on the fence...last summer I had them hanging but they became too heavy and broke so this summer I have them sitting on two iron plant hangers.  I need to do some serious pest control.  Just need to figure out the best eco-friendly way to do that.

This is my blue hydrangea that I absolutely love.  A late frost this spring caused some burning, hence the left side full of blooms and the right not so much.

 

My rain barrel!  It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does the trick.  And best of all...it was FREE!  I won it in a raffle at Greening up the Mountains.  

The chicken coop!  I painted 'eggs' on the side.  I'm so cute I can hardly stand myself.  :o/  I realized after the fact that I should've installed the planter box lower so I can open the window without hitting whatever's planted.  Oh well.  Speaking of that window box, I made it myself from leftover boards from the backyard fence.  I like free.  The coop & run...NOT free. 

 The chickens then...

 The chickens now...

Spike is on the box and Little Foot is the brown one.  We think they might be roosters.  :(  We're pretty sure Ducky & Petrie are hens.

Hope you enjoyed my favorites from around the house...thanks for stopping by!

Out with the old

I've been doing a bit of purging lately.  Purging of blogs that is.  The majority of the blogs I frequent are mostly about food.  And I admit, I have found some really good recipes, but nothing I can't live without.

Yes, I enjoy the blogs and I enjoy being in the kitchen, but I feel like I need to focus on healthier things like gardening, reading, and finishing up my half-finished crafts.  And let's face it, I have tons of cookbooks that are crying out for my attention.  Not to mention Pinterest will for sure keep me up to date on the latest recipe craze.

Disclaimer: I did hold on to a food blog that I particularly like.  Come on, I have to have some fun!  :)

If any of you know of any good healthy food blogs, I'm all ears!

Coming Soon!

My adventures in backyard chickens!

Keep those appointments

Well, I've done some thinking.  I have another blog where I was posting about my workout and weight loss adventures.  Except that it was boring and I didn't keep up with it.  So I've decided to just detail my "adventures" here.

First off, I joined Weight Watchers.  I've heard lots of great things about this program and I saw it first hand the first week when I lost 2 pounds.  Unfortunately, the second and third week I gained some back.  Disheartening and annoying to say the least.

I started Turbo Fire again and the first week was great; felt like I really put my all into it.  I have noticed two things with weeks 2 and 3:

1. Time management - I have a difficult time getting up in the morning to workout and on that same note, I also find it difficult to do it at the end of the day.
2. Energy - I don't have the energy in the morning to really put my all into it.  I can also say the same thing about my evening workouts.

This post was going to be much longer but I cut a bunch out.  Why?  Because I feel like I whine about this all the time.  The solution is simple!  If you want it bad enough, you'll do it.  It's all on me...no one else.  I can't complain about not feeling/looking my best when I don't put the work in.  Life isn't a cake walk...it's going to take some effort on my part.  :)

Here are the solutions I came up with for my two issues:  

1. I am making an appointment with myself at 5am.  Made my appointment this morning.  I wasn't late and I didn't cancel!  *I've officially done 3 morning workouts!*
2. Uhhhhh...the solution to this one is to get your advice.  :)  What do you do to boost your energy before a workout?  I have no energy in the morning but I can't eat a full meal right before a workout.  Banana?  Clif Bar?  Toast?

I love my little town.

I said to my husband this morning, "It's days like yesterday that I really love where we live."  He agreed.

Yesterday was the 15th annual Greening Up the Mountains festival.  From downtownsylva.org: "This annual spring festival, named for the way the “spring green” creeps up the mountainsides, began as a celebration of Earth Day and has now evolved into a celebration of our local economy, sustainability, and traditional heritage crafts."

Sadly, in my 6 years here, this was my first year partaking in the celebration.   We started with the Greening Up the Mountains 5k where we got these awesome shirts:

We then headed over to the festival where we entered a raffle to win a 55 gallon rain barrel...and WON!  I'm so excited.  The trash can rain barrel we made just didn't hack it.  In fact, last weekend it busted up the side so we were in dire need of a new one.  I'll post pictures later when we have it set up.  In the meantime, here are some other pictures from the GUtM festival:

I wasn't quite sure what to think of this rack(?).  And they had several.  I giggled a little bit.

 Lunch was YUMMY!  Indian fry bread topped with lots of yummy stuff.

Doing my part to save the planet.  Are you doing yours?

We couldn't leave without getting some kettle corn.  :)

This used to be the county courthouse until a new building was built several years ago.  They recently did a major renovation and now it's the public library.  It's amazing in there.  Especially compared to where the library used to be housed.

I had to get a picture of this beast.  His name is Jake.  His brother Elwood was at home.  He's the biggest pitbull I've ever seen.  

That night we went out to Soul Infusion aka "The Tea House", hung out with friends, ate good food, listened to some jam bands, and sampled some great brews out of Tuckaseegee Brewing Co-op's kayakerator.



Here's to good times and great friends.

The Ho-Hum Lunch

Lately I've gotten kind of tired of the same ol' stuff I bring to work for lunch everyday.  Sandwiches = boring.  Leftovers = blah.  But really, I just don't feel like I'm getting the nutrition I need.  Nor am I creative enough to do it on my own.  Thank goodness for Pinterest.  ;oD  I know, I know. "Here she goes about Pinterest again.  *sigh*"

But seriously, I get some wonderful ideas and find great new (to me) websites on this site.  One of which is this one:

Source: easylunchboxes.smugmug.com via Nicole on Pinterest

It seems like it started as a site for lunch ideas and then grew to where they're now selling lunchboxes.  I don't know.  What I care about is the variety of lunches.  And yes, obviously some (most?) of these are geared towards kids, but I think they can be great ideas for adult lunches too.  What I plan on doing is going through them starting with the first one.  The first one has cherry tomatoes...I don't particularly care for tomatoes (on their own) but I figure I need the great things tomatoes can give me that Fruit Roll-Ups cannot.  I don't buy Fruit Roll-Ups but I'm sure you understand the point I'm trying to make.  I also need to use up the rest of my grilled tofu, so I'll be packing that instead of the chicken strips.

Anyway, enough of that.  I just thought I'd share this site with my wonderful readers.  :)

Have a good lunch break!