Test chicken

Oh yeah, I have a blog. Geez, I nearly forgot!

Much has been going on, mostly related to us running around like chickens with our heads cut off now that its the holiday season. And speaking of chickens...

May I present my first baked chicken! It was my test chicken before our Thanksgiving celebration that included about 20 family members on my Mum's side of our family. The chicken was about 7 pounds.

Chicken Little.

This beauty, however, was a good 20 and took about 4 1/2 hours to cook. I basted it every half hour -- it was a delicious labor of love. And nobody died after eating it!

Turkey Lurkey.

I realize that many people cook this way on a daily basis -- whole chickens and so forth. This is new territory for me, and makes me feel quite domesticated. I'm excited to work on some new stuff soon -- I am making it a New Year's resolution to learn how to cook at least five new things next year. Doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm a slow learner. Obviously.

A whole lot of nothing...

...has been going on with this blog. I feel like the past two months have been a whirlwind of work, family events, and never ending to-do lists. But then sometimes, things slow down enough to enjoy the little things. And the fuzzy things.

Priorities, people.

Tricks and treats

It's that time of year again - time for the annual pumpkin carve-off that Josh and I have each October. It's not really competitive, but it's definitely serious business. Josh had his design chosen a week ahead of time, while mine was Googled at last minute. We are both happy with our creations and hope they hold up long enough to use them on Halloween. We also feel that his bears a striking resemblance to his grandfather, which has been the topic of hot debate within the family. Pretty amusing if you ask me.

His & Hers.

Bring on the trick or treaters! We're ready for you!

Long time no see!

Worst. Blogger. Ever. Who wanders off from their blog for two weeks? This gal, evidently! Truth be told, there hasn't been a whole lot of excitement going on in the garden front. I do, however, wish to share this beautiful blossom with you. This beauty is half dahlia, half peony -- my two favorite flowers in my favorite color. Of course, the woodchuck ate the first blossoms that it had earlier this summer, and it took the rest of the summer for it to rebloom. I was thrilled to be able to enjoy it again before we hit freezing the other night. I hope I get to see it again next summer!

The highlight of my gardening career.

A little project, or the benefits of yard sales



The bubblegum house from hell.

 Here's a little project I finished this past week. A friend and I went yard saleing a few weeks ago, and we both came back with some fabulous treasures. She ended up with a vintage chair that she scored for $2 (nice!) and I had a multitude of little weird things that I planned on turning into craft projects.  At one sale, I ended up filling up a box of random items, and this was one of them -- a Lil Kids Tiny Toy Shop. Hideously pink, but I love the form. Look at the little shelves! And the arched doorway. And the little roof! It had potential.

So I did what any self-respecting crafter would do: I hauled out the spray paint again. (Not that this is becoming a problem or anything. I do not have an addiction to spray painting things now. Nope.) And what color would convert this pink nightmare into something fun? Why yes, the answer is black. Very good! 



Pumpkins! Get your pumpkins here!

 Here's our converted house -- it's now a pumpkin stand. My first vision was to turn this into a little garden shed or something, but with the Halloween season fast approaching, it didn't take long to convert the idea into a holiday decoration.

Projects like this are a great way to use up the little doo-dads that you have kicking around.  Granted, I bought all the cute little pumpkins at my favorite craft store (Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA), but the rest I had in my stash. The patterned stuff is all paper and a fabric ribbon, the skull is a bead that I received in a swap, the bucket that the skull is sitting in is something I had picked up from Home Depot.  (Josh says there's an actual use for them, and thinks it's amusing that I saw them and said, "Aw, little pots!" They were in the washer and nail aisle.)



We've got big pumpkins and small pumpkins!

 I had moss kicking around from several other wreath projects, so that had to go in here. I like that it makes it feel like it's being overgrown.  Much like our front garden. (Ha.)



And some fancy stuff in bottles -- probably magic potions.

 I made the signs and window boards out of grungeboard from Ranger. The bottles I picked up at the AE yard sale this year, and they were originally clear so I colored them with alcohol inks and added glitter. The number 13 is actually a weird magnet thing that I also got at the yard sale, and I needed something there on the roof.  An unlucky number seemed appropriate.



 



Don't mind our broken windows!

  I have also had this stained glass window thing from Jolee's sitting around forever. It's one of those things that I have always thought was super cute (thus why I bought it probably about five years ago) and just couldn't find the right place to use it. It has finally found a home. (Or rather, a pumpkin stand.)

And there you have it -- trash to treasure. Well, I think it's treasure. It's certainly better than the bubblegum mansion I started out with. It was seriously fun to make, so for that reason alone I'm pretty happy with it. Josh seems to like it a lot too, so hopefully this is just another argument for the benefits of yard saleing. (See, I actually did something with some of the stuff I bought! It's not just junk I brought home!)





World domination and new rosebushes



Taking over the world one bug zapper at a time.


I had a friend who warned me about trumpet vines -- she said they take over the world and that we should get ours out of the front garden. I mentioned this to Josh, who has been very excited about attracting more hummingbirds, and he wasn't sold on the idea.  Then he read about them online and how they really do take over the world. So it got moved. 

I can't recall if I have mentioned before that we have what used to be a giant bug zapper in our backyard. (In other words, we have a very large, very ugly metal pole in the corner of the yard.) My brilliant husband put two and two together, and voila! A new home for the trumpet vine.  Hopefully it will grow right up this puppy and we'll have more hummingbirds than you can shake a stick at. The pavers aren't really that white in real life -- I took the pic when it was sunny out and the just seem to glow.  (They're the same gray as the pavers we used to edge the patio.)






Everything is turning up roses.



So what took over the trumpet vine's place in the front garden? I'm so glad you asked! It appears that most garden centers have their perennials and other good stuff on sale since its the end of the season. Yours truly ended up with two new rosebushes at about half off the original price. So if they survive the winter, we should have a lovely rose garden next year. I also stuck my two iris bulbs in here, so hopefully they do something magical too. 

Pettengill's in Salisbury is having a big festival this weekend with antiques and crafts. (And plants, of course.) I hope to make it over there to see if they have anything on sale again. We went to their spring festival and it was marvelous. That's where we got the glass bird bath -- a guy makes them out of recycled glass pieces and puts them all together to make beautiful garden stuff.

I love beautiful stuff. These people must see me coming a mile away.





Roses on a rainy day



If you clip it, it will bloom.


It's pretty disgusting out this morning, so I thought a nice, pretty blog post would perk things up around here. After listening to the wind howling all night and the rain hitting our window (which for some reason sounded like someone hitting the bottom of a pan with a spoon -- it was not the relaxing sound of raindrops that I had been hoping for), let's consider a brighter topic -- rosebushes.


I am nothing if not completely clueless about how to care for rosebushes. The only thing that I really know is that they love attention, much like all the other divas in the world. (Hey, beauty like that takes some work!) So when a blossom fades, I snip it. And once, when I saw some little aphids on its leaves, I sprinkled some anti-aphid stuff on it.  And that, my friends, is pretty much all the care that this thing has received.  (And it gets watered.)


Yup. I grew that.

I am shocked to report that this rosebush has actually doubled in size since I bought it. It seems to LOVE being pruned now and then, and in gratitude, shot up and out and has been blooming its little heart out for the past month. I am in awe. This is in my garden. And nobody has eaten it yet. And it's still alive. And it's actually really pretty.


Really? My garden?




Another look at how the colors change through each blossom's life cycle -- they start out bold and brilliant, and as they age, the colors fade to softer pinks. I think they're just lovely at any stage.



The divas... Mariah, Whitney, Christina, Celine...



I can barely spell delphinium







D-e-l-p-h-i-n-i-u-m.

I found a pleasant surprise this weekend -- my delphinium came back from the grave! (I realize that's a pretty common theme with my posts around here.) This had been chewed down by the devil woodchucks, and managed to come back again and actually blossom. I am beyond thrilled. I love the colors in it -- it kind of reminds me of the purple Rose of Sharon that we have. Did you know that delphiniums are also called larkspur? I had heard of larkspur, but didn't realize it was the same flower.  And, according to wikipedia: The name "delphinium" derives from the Latin for "dolphin", referring to the shape of the nectary.  They are also very poisonous to humans. So there. Now you've learned something today. This blog is nothing if not educational.




Delphinium, aka, larkspur.

I loaded these photos onto the blog over the weekend, and thank goodness I did that -- I have not been able to see straight for the past 18 hours. (It's kind of interesting typing this -- if this blog post makes no sense whatsoever, blame the following story.) I managed to pull something in my neck/back of my head yesterday while at the gym, giving me a near-migraine. This happened while I was on the elliptical -- a machine that does not require neck movement whatsoever. It was a searing pain when it happened, and then was just annoying for the rest of the day until the late afternoon. Then it became terrible again. I spent my evening with a hot pad on my neck, and took some Tylenol PM which had the exact opposite effect that I was hoping for -- I might as well have had a large cappuccino before going to bed. Josh came up with the idea that I should put Icy Hot on my neck as well, hoping that would sink in and help the situation.

Little did we remember that a certain little tiger cat LOVES Icy Hot. It is about 1,000 times more exciting to her than catnip. So as I was drifting off to sleep last night -- finally -- I was quickly woken up by what appeared to be a fur stole around my neck, licking the back of my head and purring. Then she started kicking me. Then she ended up on Josh's head, rolling around.  He told her to go to sleep, and she then ended up near my face, with her nose in my ear. I removed the hot pad that I still had around my neck and laid it down at my side to divert her attention. 

She slept with her arm around the hot pad all night, like it was a teddy bear. I told Josh I thought I heard her muttering something about, "My precious..." We left for work with her laying on the bed next to it. She was not giving it up. I'm hoping we don't have to stage an Icy Hot intervention when we get home.









Feeling blue -- in a really good way

I'm pretty excited about these babies -- I have no idea if they will do anything for me, but I had to try. I mean, just look at that color! The bulbs seemed pretty dry though, so there's definitely an excellent chance that they may not make an appearance next spring. But I hope they show up, and I hope they're as pretty as the package claims. I'm looking forward to spring already.

You're my boy, Blue!

Some pig

Pretty sure my husband would love to be Spiderman.

Is it me or is there an abundance of spiders this year? They are everywhere! Outside, inside, on the car, in the closet, hanging off the blinds. Big ones and small ones. Long legs and little legs. And they all see me coming with the DustBuster and head for the hills.

Josh spotted this monster today while mowing the lawn - actually, he almost touched it and yelled,"Holy $&@+!" (Who could blame him? If I had almost touched it I would have been screaming until I got to the car and peeled out of the driveway.) I'm pretty sure it's radioactive.

Oddly enough, when I was a little girl, one of my favorite books was "Charlotte's Web." I loved Wilbur the pig and all the characters on the farm, but above all else, I loved Charlotte the spider. She was so clever with her web, and was one of the sweetest heroines that I can remember. I loved how Templeton the rat brought her scraps from newspapers to get the material for her web words that saved Wilbur from the dinner table ("some pig!") and I was heartbroken at the end. (Infer what happens. I won't ruin the ending for you, and it chokes me up to think about it anyway.)

I have relayed this story to our many spiders and think that if they really got their acts together, we could pay the mortgage off. I'll even leave some periodicals outside for the woodchucks to thumb through.

 

My best get-rich scheme to date.

Best photo I've ever taken

While feeling a little artsy tonight, I clipped a rose off the rosebush and brought it inside. Then I took a photo of it with some tomatoes that came off the tomato plants. And it's totally the coolest photo I've ever taken. Just sayin'.

Lazarus



The dead shall walk again. Or bloom, at least.

I bought a mallow plant at the beginning of the summer.  At least, I believe that's what they are called. I'm referring to those gorgeous, dinner-plate sized blossoms that you see in people's yards around this time of year. They look ike a giant hibiscus (and are probably in the same family), and I have always wanted one.  So I bought one at Pettengill's earlier this summer, with dreams of these gorgeous blossoms gracing my yard.

The woodchucks decided that mallow meant marshmallow, and felt that this was the most delicious plant they had ever eaten.  What had originally been a lush, thriving plant was chewed down to toothpicks.  I was not pleased. 

Now, for some reason, they are leaving it alone.  Probably not enough to floss with at this point. But because of that, my little friend has made a come back.  I thought it was more than dead, so to see this quarter-sized blossom really tickles me. I named it Lazarus, even though I think it's a girl. And for all those of you who skipped Bible class, Lazarus rose from the dead, thanks to a miracle being performed on his behalf. I'm not sure what the miracle was in this case, but this baby just isn't going down without a fight. 

And yes, I need to pull that grass out that is hiding behind it.

Happy anniversary to us



Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

This week marks the anniversary of our first year of living in our house.

I am completely gobsmacked  that time has gone by so quickly. At the same time, though, it feels like we've always been there.  Maybe that's how it's supposed to feel. Either way, I know that Josh and I are both totally blown away by the fact that we are home owners, that we have this little oasis to come home to at the end of the day. A place where we can plant whatever plants we want, decorate however we want, and maintain however we need to. We can also walk around in our underwear whenever we want, so let that be a warning to anyone who feels like dropping by. (Yeah, like you people don't do that. Right. I know my readers.)

We have certainly learned a lot about home ownership.  And maintenance. And cosmetics. And entertaining. And how to keep the cat from getting locked into various closets, rooms, cabinets and so forth.

 



This is easily the nicest part of our lawn.



Years ago, I was in a friend's wedding and she had a Victorian themed cake with the traditional charms that are embedded in it.  (For those who may be unfamiliar, it was a tradition to have charms that symbolized various wonderful things baked somehow  into the cake or layered on in the frosting or however its done. Each charm is attached to a ribbon, and then each member of the bride's party gets to pull a ribbon to see what her fortune or charm would mean.) 

One friend pulled a charm that was a little engagement ring, indicating that she would be the next to get married -- and she was. Another friend pulled out a four-leaf clover for luck, and she has always seemed to have good fortune in her life. I pulled out a teddy bear, symbolizing that I would have a happy home.  At the time, that didn't feel quite as impressive as being the next to get married or having incredible luck for the rest of my life. 



I realize now that as long as I have these two to enjoy a home with, I made out pretty well on that cake thing. Pretty well indeed.





He's all mine, ladies.







Napzilla.



Not quite dead yet...

Two posts in one morning -- what am I thinking? I wanted to pay a quick homage to the lone pansy that we had remaining in the bed before the mums were planted. This one had spirit and spunk. Not bad for a flower that had chewed down about five times by the woodchucks, survived a horrendous heatwave and is technically a spring plant.  You made us proud, little one.

Mum's the word

Now the attack ants have mums to hide under.

Over the weekend, I decided that our front garden bed needed a little bit of love. Our pansies, though beautiful (and delicious, according to the woodchucks) had more than gone by, so it was certainly time to spruce the place up.

I got a gift certificate to Home Depot for my birthday, so I headed over there to see what they had flowers. They seemed to have every size mum you could imagine, and I picked out four in little pots and then two six packs of yellow and orange. I took these photos in the evening after I planted them, and it's funny how bright the yellow ones seem! Exactly what I was going for. Little balls of sunshine. I need that as it seems like we're already heading towards Daylight Saving again. (Is it dark when anyone else gets up, or is it just us since we get up so darned early?)





Here's a few close ups to get you ready for your fall planting:

Yellow, orange and pink tones all in one. Love it.

This one feels sophisticated to me.

Love this color.

These look so fuzzy and pink!

Little balls of sunshine.

This ain't no disco

Target is starting to put some of their summer goodies on sale -- I spotted this lovely, shiny orb and grabbed it since it was half off. $6 worth of joy. I hope the woodchucks don't haul out their leisure suits and start doing their best Saturday Night Fever routines.

This ain't no country club either.

Tips from a Tagger, or Fun with Spraypaint





I'll have a large pepperoni and garlic, please.


Here's a fun DIY Friday riddle for you: What do you get when you combine decorative  objects with blue spraypaint? Answer: Pretty things! We had this star when we lived in Ipswich and our color palette was red/gold/green.  Our house is now blues/grays/whites, which is interesting to me as those are not colors that I tend to gravitate towards. But the house was like that when we bought it, and I really love it. Anyway, I felt that this star needed a bit of an update, so it was spraypaint to the rescue. 



This is smurfy!




I have a few recommendations for when you are spraypainting stuff.

1: Wait for a non-windy day.  There's a reason this is #1 on the list.

2: Make sure you have something you DO NOT CARE ABOUT to put your object on while you are spraypainting. Because that thing you are laying your object on will never be the same again. (Thus the pizza box.)

3: Spraypaint is pretty stinky for a decent amount of time, and I don't care if you buy the "less stinky" kind -- it all stinks. Make sure you have an outdoor area that is free and clear for airing out your object.

4: Try to get the paint even. If you hold the spraycan in one place for too long, the paint will pool up.  Keep the spraypaint moving!



Star of wonder, star of fumes, how lovely you look in our living room.

I had originally intended for this star to
hang outside, but we had an empty spot over the fireplace during the summer. So here it is, in all its Hipstamatic glory. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. And since it is spraypainted, it could go outside at any point. 

So if you find yourself bored this weekend and searching for a great DIY project that's pretty cheap and makes you feel like a graffiti artist, I recommend hauling out the spraypaint! I felt accomplished and just a little bit naughty all at the same time.

Party animals



I love that little ear sticking out from under the hat.



The lack of posts here has not been intentional -- I have just been partying up a storm for the fifth anniversary of my 29th birthday. On Saturday, I went to the beach with friends and it was just the perfect day. It was warm but breezy. The water was chilly but refreshing. We got a good parking spot. That never happens. We ended up staying at the beach for about eight hours and then went to Portsmouth for dinner. Such a fun day!

On Sunday, we spent time with my favorite in-laws, and later had dinner with my parents. On Monday, I went to lunch with a friend and had another friend over with her kids in the afternoon. And then on Tuesday, my actual birthday anniversary, my parents, two aunts and uncle came over for a BBQ. 



She is also very patient with me.


It really was a wonderful birthday. My husband spoiled me rotten, despite his tendencies to roll his eyes when I start to get excited for my birthday. He has become used to my birthday obsession over the years, though it's still pretty foreign to him. His birthday isn't long after Christmas, and every year seems to contend with terrible weather. It's hard not to love your birthday when it's in August and there's nothing else going on anyway.

As you can see, someone else totally got into the spirit of things. She practically begged to wear the party hat. Such a good girl. 

Celebrating from bed -- what a party animal.



Our lawn and Meatloaf



Not quite the dark side of the moon. (Also not a Meatloaf song.)



What an imaginative title for a blog post -- our lawn and Meatloaf! And yet oddly, those have been the two highlights of our week.
Since this is a blog that is supposed to be about our home and all that goes with it, I'll lead off with a look at what used to be our lawn. It looks more like Shredded Wheat. If you step on it, you leave this really weird footprint that I imagine is similar to what astronauts leave when they walk on the moon. I have been thrilled at the amount of rain that we've gotten this week -- my rain barrel was empty and our plants have just been so dry. I told Josh I thought I saw a hint of clover somewhere in all this mess. He informed me that we don't want clover, we want grass.  I told him that I wanted green, not brown.





The Man. The Meat. The Loaf. The Legend.



Proceeding on to what was really the most exciting highlight of the week... Meatloaf! I got tickets for this concert months ago in order to surprise Josh for our anniversary.  He didn't even know there was a concert until two days before our anniversary when he heard an announcement on the radio, and then declared he was going home to buy tickets.  I then had to let the cat out of the bag a bit earlier than I had intended. But he was thrilled, and that was back in May.

Fast forward to the end of July, and we couldn't believe the day was finally here! Mr. Loaf did all the hits -- Paradise by the Dashboard Light, You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (It Must Have Been When You Were Kissing Me), I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), and so on. He even managed to get the Time Warp in there and a clip from Rocky Horror Picture Show. And this was a concert that was fantastic for people watching. There's a colorful cast of characters that goes to a Meatloaf concert. 

Take these two for example.



Notice the Meatloaf sweatshirt.



Goldfinches



Male Goldfinch; Salisbury Industrial Park; J. Bouchard.



Anyone who knows my husband is well aware of his love for nature photography. Every weekend, he gets up at the crack of dawn and then spends as much time as possible outside, scouring parks, the river, the woods, industrial parks, and any place else that might have natural life. I usually stay in bed until a reasonable hour. 

He got into this hobby while we lived in Ipswich, and I remember very clearly the first day he went out to take photos. I was at work and received a phone call from him that he had started out on one trail and had ended up on the other side of town, was now exhausted and could I please pick him up? And since we only had one car, that meant that the car was parked in the place where he had started off from. And that meant that I had to ask a friend to drive me there, then I had to go find my husband on the other side of town to pick him up. I was not thrilled.







Female Goldfinch; Salisbury Industrial Park; J. Bouchard

 

Female Goldfinch; Salisbury Industrial Park; J. Bouchard



By the time I found him, I was steaming a bit -- but he had a look in his eye like he had just found the treasures of an ancient pyramid. He told me that he found frogs. He found snakes. He saw a deer and a turkey. He took as many photos of them all as he possibly could and was almost delirious with excitement. Some people go through life with no interest in anything at all, and my husband had just found his passion.



I was rooting around in the closet last night, and came upon an old photo album that had some of his first nature photos in them. He had used a pretty normal camera, and they were not the best photos. (At the time, they were treasures!) Now, three cameras later and several years of experience under his belt, he can take incredible photos of pretty ordinary things in extremely ordinary places.




He told me that this weekend he drove through the industrial park in Salisbury and saw some Goldfinches.  Big deal, right? It's old hat to him now. Then I started nosing around on his Flickr page and saw the photos that he had actually taken. You would have no idea that there were factories in the background somewhere. I am sure that hundreds of people drive by these little guys every day on their way to work, not noticing how sweet they are, or how the purple thistles play off their gold bellies. And I love their little beady eyes.


If you asked Josh, he would tell you that these are boring.  Boring mostly because he is at a point in his nature photography that he wants photos of Bald Eagles swooping into the river to catch a fish, or of a fox carrying a pup out of its den. But I am a big fan of these sweet little vignettes that have so much color and detail in one little moment. They feel like watercolor paintings to me. They feel like summer.





 



Male Goldfinch; Salisbury Industrial Park; J. Bouchard









 

Rose of Sharon

The one ROS that didn't get creamed by the October storm.

When we first saw our house, the Rose of Sharon shrubs in the backyard were in bloom. Josh and I both fell in love with them -- the colors were just amazing and the blossoms abundant. (And if we're going to be totally truthful, there were few truly impressive sights in the yard when we first moved into the house -- so anything we didn't have to totally excavate was especially incredible to us.) Then, we had the horrible storm in October that pretty much had its way with two out of three of the shrubs. We weren't sure if anything would come back, so we had been holding our collective breath since.

Now after much ado, I'm excited to announce that its Rose of Sharon (ROS) time again! 

We have two lavender bushes and one pink -- the pink is much prettier to take a close-up photo of, but the lavender is just gorgeous when you see all the blossoms together on the shrub.

Pink:

Pretty in pink.

More pink:

A rose-colored Rose of Sharon.

The colors that our two lavender bushes create is just gorgeous. The blossoms start out as a pinky-lavender, and as they fade and wilt, the colors turn to a beautiful blue-lavender.

I could stare at these colors all day.

More lavender:

Lots of blossoms and buds! Good signs.

And, finally... a game for your amusement.

Find the bee tukkus in this picture...