Rainy day project & finally sunshine!

The end of last week was so rainy, and it continued into Saturday. But our lawns were looking great! Yesterday it kept looking like rain, but by 3pm Jesse had had enough of our long grass and mowed all of it; and it never rained!

I love BBQ sauce and hate looking at all the unhealthy ingredients of my favorite kind--so when I saw this recipe on Pinterest I knew I had to try it out. I added a few of my own touches and left out some of the ketchup (I only had the generic unhealthy kind, and the whole point was to make me less guilty for eating it :) and it came out great!

I made some corn/mango tacos with cotija (delish mexican cheese) and fried some plantains; the only thing missing was a nice margarita...next time! Instead, we tried some Vinho Verde rose, which I wasn't sure about...I love vinho verde, don't like rose, so figured it would be great or gross. It was so good! Nice and light and sparkly.

Windowboxes on the garage & hanging pansies:

Wall progress

Jesse hung some things whilst I was away... 

&kitchen:

..and it hasn't stopped raining in days, so our grass is growing!!

Since we can't mow or work on the garden or yard, we thought we'd take a trip to Trader Joes and Ikea... Ill post out purchases once they're home!

Hello from San Francisco!

My amiga Jamie and I are in San Francisco visiting my cousin Caitlyn! It's beautiful and so different from New England hills and fields and weird weather.

Since I am not adjusted to the time change and am up bright and early, here are some pictures from our long sunny day of exploring the city yesterday:

April Showers Bring Flowers&Grass! (&a new mower!)

We went with the John Deer mower (it is what I learned how to drive on when I was 12) and good old Pop went along for the ride and provided the back of his truck for transport.

Jesse's painting skills on our kitchen means a new purple front door! And new white closet doors instead of awful green trials-gone-wrong.

One side of the barn became the start of an herb garden, with a nice little stone border made of stones Jesse found while sawing down the small trees near the brook...

...the beginning of our continuing lawn! With two saved trees, one with a little nest in it. It sort of reminds me of 'The Lorax' which I read to my firsties when we were learning about the importance of trees...but we have plenty! So I don't feel too horrible. And we left the little nest :)

Our newly mowed lawn! We only did the front and half a side, and now it's rainy but it was great. Nothing runs like a deer. Ha. Ok I'll stop there.

Newly-mowed :)

My next outside project is to take down the prickers etc. from the front of the barn. I started it last weekend, and got completely scratched up in spite of my great gloves that I figured would protect me from any pricker. My hands are fine, but next time I'm not wearing cut-offs and a tank top. I started on the left side, and want to clear it all so you can see the little stone wall that goes down to the side and the little herb garden to-be.