Tulips

I bet you all thought I forgot I had a blog.  Well, sometimes, I do.  Because I'm busy growing a human.  And there's a lot of other stuff that's been going on, but that's a story for another day.  In the meantime, I've been stacking up pictures of things that have happened and things I have made, so I have at least 3 posts for you!

This Spring, my mom and my sister took me to Windmill Island Gardens in Holland, MI.  We went the week after Tulip Time, when the tulips would still be plentiful, but the crowds wouldn't be.  However, it rained that week, so many of the tulips lost their petals.  We still had a good day, though, and got to see a lot of beautiful flowers!

They have this big field where there are rows and rows of tulips, and had it not rained, this field would have been amazing.  As it did rain, this field was a little sad.

This tree, however, was in full bloom, and I wanted to become a fairy and live in it forever.

We toured a real, working windmill.  Because it's real, and they actually use it for food production, we weren't allowed to explore it ourselves and had to sit through the extremely boring and uninformative tour.  "This is the storage floor.  This is where we store things."  (Actual quote, I kid you not.)

However, the view from the deck was beautiful!

Plus you could see down their pulley shaft, and we waved at some rascally children below. :)

"Look, Leah!  A blue door!"

Here's the far-away shot of the windmill.

We also saw this duck couple who apparently have all the ducklings.  I count at least 20.

I hope to update more about my life (and baby) later this week.

Love and Nutmeg,

Leah Joy

Two Recipe Reviews

I'm pretty sure this first recipe was supposed to be my new recipe for February.  Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, I haven't completely given up the 5 Goals project, but it has gotten pushed aside for a few months.

This recipe was actually pretty good.

I made homemade pizza dough, then squished it into circles and filled them with sauce, cheese, ground beef, and pepperoni.  (You could also use canned biscuits.)

They were a little leaky, but some of them turned out very nicely.

Others turned out less nicely, but still tasted delicious.

We really liked their portability, but for a regular dinner, we prefer the crust-to-toppings ratio of regular pizza.

The other recipe I tried was chocolate fudge pop-tarts.  You make a chocolate pie crust and then fill it with homemade hot fudge sauce and bake it.  I've made pop-tarts before with pie crust and jam and they turned out fine.  These, however, got very leaky, and I promise I didn't overfill them.  Even the one that didn't leak didn't taste very good - it needed more filling!  I did put frosting on top (not shown), but it didn't help at all.

It's sad that these didn't turn out, because chocolate fudge pop-tarts sounded really good.

But the homemade hot fudge sauce was really good.  And I ate it with a spoon.

Love and Hot Fudge,

Leah Joy

Spring Garden

This is the year I'm going to plant things.  Hah.

Well, at least I planted some hyacinths, tulips, and crocuses last fall.  They might be the only plants in my garden all year.

Note: all these pictures were taken at the beginning of May.

In the backyard, Chloe helped me get some carrots, lettuce, and peas into the garden.  Later, I planted beans and potatoes.

I planted garlic last fall, too, and that seems to be doing very well.

4 of the 6 rhubarb plants I planted last year are thriving.  I'm excited to start picking from them this year!

One of my main garden goals this year is to finish off this corner and get some shade-loving plants in it.  I already have them all picked out.  Now it's just a matter of making my husband get two cinder blocks in there and filling it with dirt.  And buying the plants.  And not killing them.

Love and Dirt,

Leah Joy

Yellow Room - Finally Organized

Caution: Lots of pictures ahead!

The yellow room is finally in order!  Just in time to change it into a nursery!

(But hey, at least it's clean.)

This may not look super organized, but it is.  In the laundry basket, I have things that will go back in my kitchen once I get that organized.  Then I have our toilet paper stash. (There was a really great sale, and now I don't need to buy toilet paper for at least a year.)  Someday, I would like to use the chair for sitting, but now it houses blankets, and my bakery paraphernalia (cupcake boxes, cake takers, cake boxes, etc.).  The little dairy crate is for mending.

I'm so proud of how nicely this came together.  If you don't care what I'm storing, skip ahead.  Otherwise, here you go:  On top, I have some extra baking/party supplies that I have decided what to do with yet.  I also have a decorative tray with little bits I don't want to get lost and some baskets with current/upcoming projects.  The first green bin holds little leftover bits of fabric.  The pot and pans are for crafting, meaning they are no longer food safe.  In the big round basket, I keep leftover craft parts from other projects (i.e. foam balls, pipe cleaners, stickers).  In the beef patties box (hey, it's the perfect size!), I keep all my Sharpies, pens, pencils, paints, colored pencils, etc.  In the middle row, I have a project all wrapped up, a basket of basic tools (stapler, hole punch, etc.) and craft books.  The cardboard box holds my essential oils and Epsom salts.  The blue tray holds stationery, and below it I have an old microphone box that holds small supplies.  In the bottom row, I have another bagged project, and then larger pieces of fabric in the second green bin.  Anything relating to fabric or glass paint is in the penultimate box, and then sticky supplies are in the last one (glue, tape, velcro, etc.)

In the two boxes to the right of the organizer, I keep my knitting/crocheting supplies, and then general craft supplies that didn't fit in the organizer.

I had fun adding a few decorative touches, too, like this sign a friend gave me:

And these cute butterfly pins from another friend:

Now, the last time you saw the other half of the room, it looked like this:

Now it looks more like this:

I know it's still not perfect, but this whole pile is stuff that Caleb and his dad use around the house when they're fixing things.  Yes, it all needs to be moved, but I am not the one to do that.  *hint hint* 

My hippos had to get relocated from the kitchen, and while this isn't their most ideal location, it works for now:

I'm still pretty pleased with my closet organization in this room.  Having only three closets in the house (including two bedroom closets), means I have to get creative with the space, but this system only needs a little refreshing every now and then.  (My idea of a good system!)

I keep extra toilet paper, paper towel, and tissues on the top shelf.  Extra cleaning supplies and spare towels go on the second shelf.

I have bags hanging from the rod for rags, gift bags, tissue paper, and gift wrap.

On the floor, I keep boxes and baskets for gift wrapping, a first aid kit (because it doesn't fit in the bathroom), the sheets for the air mattress, and a box of gifts (for either [1] when we have a surprise event and need a quick gift or [2] when I find someone's Christmas present in April).

And of course, now that whole system will need to be rearranged, too.  Anyone want to come build a few more closets for our house?

Love and Yellow,

Leah Joy

Pi Day 2015

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a million years since I posted, or at least 105 days, but this time I have a really good excuse, and it's not insomnia.  Well, a little bit insomnia, but not mostly.

And since all three of my readers already know this, there's nothing surprising about this announcement, but I'm pregnant!  Woohoo!

Now, I was still absent for a month or so before getting pregnant, so I blame PVS.  You know, Post-Vacation Syndrome.  We had such a nice vacation and then I had to go back to real life and that was an adjustment.  And then I was throwing up all the time, and that part hasn't really changed, but I'm mostly adjusted to that routine now, too.

And now that I've mentioned vomit, let's look at some pictures of food!

This year was an epic Pi Day, because not only was it 3-14, but it was 3-14-15!  To celebrate, I wanted to make 3.14 pies, but that's kind of really hard.  Instead, I made 3.16666 pies.

2 of my whole pies were new recipes to me, but they're both keepers!

I made an apple berry pie the night before, and we ate it for breakfast.  It was delicious!

For lunch, I made a Dutch Apple Pie, and as always, it was fantastic.

For dinner, I made a chicken pot pie.  I've never made one before, but it was really delicious.  I was so proud of the pie symbol that I cut into the top crust, but as soon as I got it on and sealed, I realized that I had forgotten to add the spices to the filling.  I had to cut the whole top crust off, stir in the spices, and then 'paste' it back on.  It didn't look nearly as nice, but then the filling overflowed while cooking and ruined the pi symbol anyway.  Regardless, it was a very nice dinner!

I never thought I'd be sick of pie, but honestly, eating pie for every meal in one day is a bit much, even for me.  We had mini pies for dessert, but probably should have just saved them for breakfast the next day.

Love and Pi,

Leah Joy