DIY mini succulent garden

Spring has sprung (although now today is rainy...hmmm such is spring I suppose) so the hubby and I decided to bust out our "green" thumbs and do some yard work/ sprucing. At the moment we rent our home so we wanted to make some curb appeal upgrades that we can take with us when we purchase a home of our own! I am all about the succulent craze so I decided to make my own mini potted garden for the porch. 

{to collect: bucket or large pot, cactus mix soil, different varieties of succulents, shovel, gloves}

Make sure to get cactus or succulent mix, it has all the goodies needed for these desert plants!

I had this great vintage FIRE bucket I have been wanting to use for a long time. Once upon a time my mom gifted it to me with a flower display in it...and my black thumb killed it...so I am trying to redeem myself by replanting something that hopefully I won't kill!

Try and plant your largest succulent first so there is room for all the others. I originally planted it right in the middle, thinking there would be ample room on all side for the others, but ended up moving it since the bucket was a little smaller when I started sticking all the plants in. 

make sure to kind of "fluff" out the roots before adding to the pot so they have an opportunity to spread and take root in their new home!

Add all the rest of the succulents...and not the cacti was NOT an easy fellow to work with!! 

use a folded up roll of newspaper or really thick gardening gloves to transfer a cacti from its small pot to its new home. These guys are NOT afraid to bite!

With anything make sure to use common sense and do not place a display with a sharp cactus near any place where a small child or animal can get into it. The cactus thorns are really, really sharp and have something in them that make their puncture sites itchy! 

No fun for a baby or animal!

I was very happy with the way my little bucket turned out and it has made our porch more homey and pulled together!

I only had to bribe this little one with 2 graham cracker halves to be patient while I did my planting too

so score!!

homemaker dinner party

This past weekend I hosted a little girl's night at my house. I invited all the girls I knew that are recently engaged or married or are in a relationship that will definitely, most likely, almost definitely turn into marriage material! Haha. It was so much fun!! By no means am I saying that in my 2 years and 2 months of marriage that I have all (any of) the wisdom, but I also know that I would have liked the perspective of a women JUST on the other side of the fence when I was getting married. One with no kids, one who was just barely not a newlywed herself. So that is what I did. I invited these ladies into my home and we had a wonderful night talking weddings, engagement stories, recipes, crafts, and our men. (in the best way possible of course!)

DIYs

1. Card making

 We made some fab cards together ranging from birthday, thank you, bridal shower, you name it! These girls got so creative with it I loved seeing the end products!

  2. Homemade Laundry Detergent

The next DIY we did together was making laundry detergent. It was a practical & different craft for them to take home! I will post the "recipe" on the blog in a few days!

each girl got her own jar to take home! They all added different combos of the essential oils so they all came out so different and yummy smelling!

Dinner, dessert, sweets, & treats

Making dinner together was a blast! We made balsamic & brown sugar chicken with oven roasted potatoes, spinach salad with blue cheese and dinner rolls. 

After dinner we made some "Polar Express hot cocoa" (again, another post for another day...so.good)

and the last girlie left standing and I watch a movie.

swag bags.

Whats a party without swag??

I picked up these awesome bags for 0.99 each at Office Depot of all places and filled it with goodies!

Cute socks for the colder weather that is (eventually??) coming, kleenex for the purse, my favorite cleaning tool the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, a printed M-F cleaning schedule by Squirrelly Minds and a gorgeous scripture printable by French Press Mornings. They were also able to take their DIY laundry detergent and their homemade vanilla (not shown above) home in their cute bags!

Like I said we had a blast and it was so much fun hearing about all their wedding plans and what is going on in their lives. It was seriously an awesome evening!

Cleaning printable can be found HERE

Scripture printable can be found HERE

1/2 marathon recap

So I did it and Im still alive yay!! As I mentioned in my previous post I was insanely nervous and doubtful about my race. But I think adrenaline and determination carried me to the finish!

Rarely do I ever go away for the weekend without Greg, but all of us ladies (who have all run 1/2s before) decided to just make it a girls weekend because of kids, hubby's work schedules and just the fact that sharing a room 5 ways was going to be way more affordable!

We stayed at the Park 55 hotel so we could walk to the starting corrals in the am and not have to worry about a car and parking, etc. Wonderful view...hello! The hotel was inundated with people because of its proximity to Union Square (the race start) and with 30,000 runners plus their families, friends, etc. the place was a mad house! But good news for us, our room wasn't ready so we got a $25 voucher so we sat in the hotel restaurant when we arrived and sipped cocktails and had some appetizers. Fun start to a girls weekend!

After realizing our room was still not ready we wandered down to the Expo to pick up our race packets and get some swag!! 

Eek! It's real. Picked up my 1/2 marathon bib and lots of free chocolate, luna bars, and sunscreen!

We then wandered down to Nike Town which is kiddy corner to Union Square to be part of the absolute madness (did I mention this race is sponsored by Nike?!) haha the store was absolute chaos, but we wanted to find our names on the Nike Town wall! 

Union Square was all decked out for the race which made it even more exciting to be a part of! Also it was the 10th anniversary so they went all out!

Woke up at 4 am to prep and to grab a little pre-race breakfast. Black coffee and oatmeal. And to calm my nerves...at this point I was still so nervous.

Race morning and we are ready to go!!

I as hoping that right {here} would be some gloriously sweaty post-race pictures, but alas it is your lucky day! My phone was dead when I retrieved it from my bag check at the end of the race and wasn't fully charged in time to see me in all my racthety glory.

But I WAS able to capture our post race splurge! Artichoke dip! Hello!
And you guys - I ate an entire 6 slice "personal" pizza. What?! Like, by myself.
And afterwards I wasn't even full. Oh the joys of burning 1,350 calories during a race!

RACE SWAG! Luna bars out the yang, awesome finishers Tee, whole foods water bottle and why yes that is a Tiffany & Co. Necklace! Given to us on silver platters by firemen after the race (which always  weirds me out, because my dad is a fireman so the whole sexy fireman thing just doesn't do it for me!!) 

Close up of the necklace because why not! X for the 10th anniversary and of course the nike swoosh.

I did not run fast, I did not cross the finish line with a very good time, but I had an absolute blast of a girls weekend and I conquered those SF hills! 

we run SF. half-marathon jitters

Tomorrow I am running a half-marathon.

yikes! 

I am full of doubt and I'm not a fast runner (like AT ALL) and weird random injuries and laziness led me to not train as hard as I did 3 years ago when I ran it before.

But. I am going to do it. I am going to run and walk to the finish line if I have to! I am excited.

Excited to be in a sea of 30,000 women running their hearts out across the nearly desolate San Francisco landscape. SF here I come and I'm bringing my game face. (And my doubting heart so bear with me!)

day trip to Napa

This Labor Day weekend the Mr. & I took a day trip to Napa with our good friends to celebrate one of their birthdays! It was so nice to be out and about on such a wonderful, sunny day!

We started off the day at one of our (collectively - both couples!) favorite breakfast places Howard's Station in Occidental. I may have ordered the Irish Benedict which has homemade corned beef hash instead of the canadian bacon. And it was mighty good. 

 Our next stop was Olive Oil, Balsamic, & Fresh Mozzarella tasting at Figone's in Kenwood. 

I left there with a lemon olive oil for a certain mom-in-law's birthday...but shhh she is in Texas all week so probably won't read this until after she gets it! : )

Our next and final stop was at the Oxbow Public Market in Napa. It is a wonderful indoor market with way too much good food and drinks! We had lunch, dessert, and coffee inside!

We ended up eating at a South American eatery called Pica Pica which served up some delish pulled beef and coleslaw on a sweet corn fritter. What? So yum.

We ended the lovely day at Ritual Coffee before having to run home to babies and doggies. 

It was so much fun, I can't wait for more weekend adventures!