Coat Closet Update

Well it only took three months to finish our weekend coat closet project, but here is the finished product.  I primed the wood with two coats of primer and used one coat of white semi-gloss paint.  I probably should have used one coat of primer and two coats of paint, but since it's a shelf in a closet I wasn't too worried about it.  I love how it turned out! And I'm still debating what color to paint the inside of the closet, but that will have to wait until I finish the living room.

Happy Spring!

Today is the first day of spring...yay!  I'm loving the longer days and looking forward to spring showers and warmer weather.  Our winter garden is finally starting to take off, just as winter is ending.  Last year was my first year planting a winter garden and I mainly used starters.  This year I started from everything from seed sewn straight into the soil so it took a bit longer to get established than last year.  Our raised bed is small by most garden standards at 8 feet by 4 feet, but we have a bumper crop of lettuce, kale, and chard that we're enjoying.  Our pea are also just starting to climb up our pea tea-pea and the carrots are getting bigger.  I also planted broccoli rabe (which was eaten by snails) and bak choi (which bolted before I had a chance to pick it).  It actually works out well because there is room to start planting our summer veggies.

I have plans for a container garden that will be a bit more shaded.  My hope is to grow greens year round.  Stay tuned for updates on that project next month, which is as soon as I'm likely to get to it.  In the meantime enjoy this beautiful season.

Luck o' the Irish

I'm a holiday junkie but I've never really gone all out for this particular holiday.  That changed this year thanks to our little man.  He made leprechaun traps at school last week and insisted that he set his up outside our front door in hopes of catching a little wee green fellow and raking in some gold.  We were game to join in on the fun and play the part of mischievous little elves.  We set off the trap and left some coins behind.  We also left some leprechaun foot prints around (using green water color paint on surfaces that were easily wipeable).
Food is always at the heart of our holiday celebrations so of course we got creative with our dinner.  If you've read my post from last year, you'll know that we don't really stick to the cultural cuisine of St. Patties' Day.  Rather we tend to incorporate more of the Italian cuisine.  This year we had pasta with pesto sauce "leprechaun logs", sauteed greens "sautéed shamrocks",  fish (no creative name), and a "rainbow of fruit flavors" for desert.  For the rainbow we used fruit from each color of the rainbow (strawberry, orange, pineapple, kiwi, and blueberries) with the exception of violet....the store was out of purple grapes. Marco loved helping to assemble and promptly devour the rainbow.  It was fun to watch him create his own holiday traditions and a great day was had by all.