I had some time to kill while waiting for Craig to pick me up after a work function, so I stopped in at Canadian Tire to try and find some bamboo blinds for the guest bedroom (foreshadowing...?). I am trying to find woven bamboo roman blinds in a pretty ridiculous size (45.5 inches...seriously?!), but my search turned up empty. While wandering aimlessly through the store, I finally ended up in the cleaning products aisle. For those in the know, Canadian Tire is my go-to place for all of my eco-friendly cleaning products. They've got the entire Method line and they sell them at a reasonable price. Today, though, my eye was caught by the brand that has become my "Holy Grail" of cleaning products. Allow me to introduce the Mrs.:
Mrs. Meyer, that is. Yes, I nearly bought out their stock! I'm a sucker for the dish soap (can you tell?) because it's the only one I've tried (and I've tried several) that lathers really well and smells even better. Once upon a time, Superstore carried the Mrs. Meyer's brand, but it was pretty expensive. I just couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of dish soap for almost $10. I only ended up buying it when they were being sold at half price. Since then, I haven't been able to find it anywhere in town. Not anymore though. At $4.99 a bottle, this is a steal of a deal. I highly recommend that you run, not walk, to your nearest Canadian Tire and pick some up to try for yourself, otherwise I might just beat you to it!
Lazy Days
July 19, 2011
Sometimes on gloomy days, especially after a long day at work, we like to treat ourselves with something sweet:
I wish I could say I made this, but I didn't. One day though. It's on my official baking bucket list.
Hope you're enjoying your Tuesday!
{ Red Velvet Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting }
I wish I could say I made this, but I didn't. One day though. It's on my official baking bucket list.
Hope you're enjoying your Tuesday!
What a Difference a Year Makes
July 15, 2011
Remember what our poor little large lawn looked like when we blogged about it almost exactly this time last summer? Here, let me remind you:
It was painful being "those" people in our cozy little cul-de-sac. And of course, being right on the corner means that everyone who drives by the court gets an eyeful of what we've got going on out front. We tried everything. And by everything, I mean one thing only: PatchMaster. This stuff is an all-in-one combo of mulch, fertilizer and grass seed. We put all of our faith into this one product...and unfortunately, it let us down. I couldn't get over the fact that it looked like insulation spread out over the lawn. I think we were supposed to cover it with soil and, ahem, water it regularly, but by the time we figured that out, it was far too late. By the fall of 2010, we had conceded defeat and eagerly waited for the snow to cover up our mess of a lawn.
Fast forward to July 2011. We bought two giant bags of Turf Builder EZ Seed. We figured we couldn't go wrong with a product with "EZ" in the name. And this time, we decided to add a few bags of Enriched LawnSoil to our cart as well. If we were going to spend the money, we may as well do it right the first, er, second time around. After several applications of the soil-grass-soil lawn sandwich, wewatered waited. And watered waited. And watered
waited some more. What can we say? Water is expensive and I'm of the
opinion that nature should do most of the work when it comes to watering.
Luckily for us, Mother Nature decided to take pity on us and has showered
us (literally) with tons of rain this season.
Which brings us to this (drumroll please):
It's thick! It's green! And more importantly, it's actually there! We're half expecting the neighbors to throw a party for us and hoist us up onto their shoulders while they parade us around the block chanting our names in a musical montage just for this great achievement! There are still a couple of thin patches but nothing compared to the big ol' bald spot that was there last year. The above picture was also taken right after Craig mowed. It was actually pretty long when he got started:
Oh how I love our little push mower. Grasscycling forever!
But now that we've finally got some grass established, we're planning on cutting some of it out and replacing the rocks under the tree with some red mulch, adding a few spireas and maybe putting in a big rock. I'll post some plans of what we're thinking of doing soon.
Have you guys ever failed miserably on a project the first time around? How about being the eyesore of your neighborhood?
{ PS: Um, when did this post become a HUGE ad for Scotts?! I didn't even realize we've only been using Scotts products for our landscaping needs. Nope, we weren't paid for the free plug. They just have the shiniest bags at Home Depot and green is one of my favorite colours. }
It was painful being "those" people in our cozy little cul-de-sac. And of course, being right on the corner means that everyone who drives by the court gets an eyeful of what we've got going on out front. We tried everything. And by everything, I mean one thing only: PatchMaster. This stuff is an all-in-one combo of mulch, fertilizer and grass seed. We put all of our faith into this one product...and unfortunately, it let us down. I couldn't get over the fact that it looked like insulation spread out over the lawn. I think we were supposed to cover it with soil and, ahem, water it regularly, but by the time we figured that out, it was far too late. By the fall of 2010, we had conceded defeat and eagerly waited for the snow to cover up our mess of a lawn.
Fast forward to July 2011. We bought two giant bags of Turf Builder EZ Seed. We figured we couldn't go wrong with a product with "EZ" in the name. And this time, we decided to add a few bags of Enriched LawnSoil to our cart as well. If we were going to spend the money, we may as well do it right the first, er, second time around. After several applications of the soil-grass-soil lawn sandwich, we
Which brings us to this (drumroll please):
It's thick! It's green! And more importantly, it's actually there! We're half expecting the neighbors to throw a party for us and hoist us up onto their shoulders while they parade us around the block chanting our names in a musical montage just for this great achievement! There are still a couple of thin patches but nothing compared to the big ol' bald spot that was there last year. The above picture was also taken right after Craig mowed. It was actually pretty long when he got started:
Oh how I love our little push mower. Grasscycling forever!
But now that we've finally got some grass established, we're planning on cutting some of it out and replacing the rocks under the tree with some red mulch, adding a few spireas and maybe putting in a big rock. I'll post some plans of what we're thinking of doing soon.
Have you guys ever failed miserably on a project the first time around? How about being the eyesore of your neighborhood?
{ PS: Um, when did this post become a HUGE ad for Scotts?! I didn't even realize we've only been using Scotts products for our landscaping needs. Nope, we weren't paid for the free plug. They just have the shiniest bags at Home Depot and green is one of my favorite colours. }
Summer Lovin' 2011
July 5, 2011
Hey strangers!
Wow, has it really been almost two whole months since I last posted?! I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. I hate to admit it, but the house projects have been somewhat on the back burner these last few weeks. Since summer only lasts what seems like four months around these parts, we've got to get out there and enjoy it while we can! The projects are lining up, but who knows when we'll get to them. We're not the quickest when it comes to finishing projects anyway, and you already know we like to bite off way more than we can chew, but we're trying to find a healthy balance between fixing up this fixer-upper and justenjoying life maintaining our sanity.
But just because I've been severely neglecting the blog doesn't mean I've abandoned the whole thing. I've actually been keeping busy trying to improve my photography skills (to give you guys way better eye candy). I signed up for the Photo 101 class offered by Nicole's Classes. I've been spending a lot of quality time with my camera over the last four weeks, and I'm excited to finally be able to use it properly after two years of pointing and shooting!
Here are a couple of my favorite shots that I submitted for my course:
Still have a lot to work on, but at least I finally know what f/5.6 means!
In totally unrelated news, notice anything different around here? (You'll have to go to the site if you're viewing this post in Google Reader.) What do you think of the semi-new look? I changed it a while ago but am just bringing up now...
Wow, has it really been almost two whole months since I last posted?! I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. I hate to admit it, but the house projects have been somewhat on the back burner these last few weeks. Since summer only lasts what seems like four months around these parts, we've got to get out there and enjoy it while we can! The projects are lining up, but who knows when we'll get to them. We're not the quickest when it comes to finishing projects anyway, and you already know we like to bite off way more than we can chew, but we're trying to find a healthy balance between fixing up this fixer-upper and just
But just because I've been severely neglecting the blog doesn't mean I've abandoned the whole thing. I've actually been keeping busy trying to improve my photography skills (to give you guys way better eye candy). I signed up for the Photo 101 class offered by Nicole's Classes. I've been spending a lot of quality time with my camera over the last four weeks, and I'm excited to finally be able to use it properly after two years of pointing and shooting!
Here are a couple of my favorite shots that I submitted for my course:
Still have a lot to work on, but at least I finally know what f/5.6 means!
In totally unrelated news, notice anything different around here? (You'll have to go to the site if you're viewing this post in Google Reader.) What do you think of the semi-new look? I changed it a while ago but am just bringing up now...
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