Outdoor Fixings - The front

After our awesome night with our friends, we were all pumped up and decided to do even more outside work to extra beautify this house!

I also was really inspired by my Mom, who had called me the day before and told me how much work she had done in her yard and how gratifying it was to see a nice and clean space.

Our front yard, was in great need of some cleaning!

It still had leaves from last Fall...

So, I put my gloves on, and out I went on a weeding journey!! ;)

I cannot stand bugs of any kind ~except Ladybugs~ so gloves were a must!!! Argh, just thinking about tiny crawling, jumping, flying things give my goosebumps!

Outdoor Fixings - The deck

My husband and I had a fabulous weekend!  We were super busy, but it all was really gratifying, satisfying and much different than usual, in a great way!

We decided that after living in this house for 4 months already ~and since the first warmer days had arrived~ it was way time to have our friends over!!
Saturday night we invited my Hubby's childhood friends with their wives/girlfriends for a mini house warming party, and Sunday we had his parents and one of the brothers and his fiancee over.  It really was such a good experience to finally have people over and show our home.
Plus tonight, 2 of my best friends from the Au Pair time are coming from France to visit us ~woohoo!!! so excited!!!~.  
So, with all this company coming to us, we really had to get the house done!!

Since the previous weekend we had rearranged the whole house ~we moved around 3 rooms out of 4 on the first floor!~ it was now time to take care of our house from the outside. 
In the back, we power-washed the deck.  It was filled with moss and dirt.  We felt uncomfortable going on it, and I was getting a bit grossed out by the fact that we would be bringing dirt onto the carpet ~which is in the room when we first come in the house from the deck (really don't like that, but gotta deal with it...)~

Kitchen Windowsill Garden

I love having a window right above the sink!  It's wonderful to be able to wash dishes or do whatever I may do in this area and see birds, flowers, snow ~in the winter~.  I think it's therapeutic and relaxing to be able to glance out the window and see pretty things while doing not-so-fun house chores.  I've missed having that a lot in FL, so I enjoy it even more now!

I really wanted to have some fresh herbs in the kitchen, but the windowsill was too narrow.  

Shelves Lining

The house that my Hubby and I are renting is great!  We really are so lucky to have found it, especially when we were far from expecting it!!
Even though we love it, there are some little things that are outdated.  For instance: the shelves! haha!!

The paper that was on the shelves was probably wallpaper, red with flowers, kind of like  from way back in the days!  Just touching them made me feel uncomfortable putting anything on them.  It was rough and almost sticky... 

So... for better use out of them, what a great and cheap way it is than to wrap up those pieces of wood in some colorful, brand-new and of course clean paper!!

I started by stripping the shelves off of their old cover.  

Turkey for Breakfast!

No... We didn't actually eat turkey for breakfast!
As we started our day, our cat Lily was as usual on her windowsill, but she was barking ~yes, our cat barks, well in her own way!~  So Hubby and I approached the window to see what kind of bird it could be, and... wow what a surprise!!  These were REALLY BIG birds!!!

Home Organization ~ Labeling Laundry

Today for some Funtastic Friday, I decided to have a label day!!

I have to admit, I really procrastinate doing the laundry.  Between sorting the clothes, washing them, drying them ~thank god we have machines nowadays!!~ and folding them... I feel that it's just really time consuming.  Well, at least when you are not organized it is!

Of course, in order to make it easier on me, I've been trying to keep the first part of the process organized: sorting the clothes.  I believe that if the clothes are continually grouped in categories of the ways that they need to be washed, it should be simple to just take the filled basket/hamper or whatever you call it and throw everything in the washer!  Very much logical, isn't it?!

Right! 

However, my hubby has some difficulty remembering what goes where, and instead of telling him every time or worse getting mad when he does it wrong (because it gives me more work!!), I decided I should try something more radical! 

Simply put, I labeled the hampers!

Hanging Towels in the Kitchen

Yes, I do have a dishwasher, but sometimes there are items in the kitchen that are not dishwasher proof!
 For those, I have a dish mat, which I really like.  I used to have a wire dish rack but that would always fill up and look messy.  Now at least, with the mat I have to keep putting the dishes away as soon as they are dry! It works better for me.
Sometimes though, I don't have enough room or time to let some things hang around on the counter. So I keep a dish towel near by to dry whatever I need quickly.  And, I also have a towel for drying hands.
Since we moved in, I've been having issues finding the best place in my new kitchen for these towels.

In the condo in FL, I used to have them over the handle of the oven door. It was perfect, handy and they would dry quickly.
This oven now doesn't have a handle that sticks out which could enable me to do the same, so I started tucking part of the towel in the the door... As such:

Scandal

Don't be misled by the title, I'm just talking about the ABC TV show "Scandal".