Mom's "Memorial" Garden

Mom and I have finally finished another project. Mom wanted to make the courtyard off our kitchen a nice garden area to sit when it's really hot. We have another patio off the side of the house, but the courtyard is about 10 degrees cooler, and always seems to have a good breeze. Mom decided that we should put up a plaque and call this area the Sherri Smith Memorial Garden. I pointed out that I'm pretty sure you cannot have a memorial garden unless you're dead. Mom thought that after all this work we've been doing she might actually be dead soon! :)

So here is what the courtyard looked like before we started working on it...Rocky likes to get in all the pictures:)



We found some great chairs...they only took us an entire day to assemble, and then we went crazy at the plant store. We put all the window boxes in, and weeded and planted the bed against the wall. We also put up the hanging baskets, but thankfully someone had already drilled the hooks into the wall for us...we don't have a very good history with drilling into concrete if you remember:) So, here it is, the finished "Sherri Smith Memorial Garden"...although we're still working on getting that plaque;)

Gardening Italian Style

I planted a garden back in April. I've never actually grown anything before, so it was all a big experiment. I have this little area next to our shed that I thought would be a good spot. I got a bunch of seeds from the BX and really just sprinkled them into the dirt. I read that you should space them out 6 inches apart, and with 2 feet between the rows and all that, but I didn't really take that seriously...and I didn't have that much room. Well as things started to grow I realized I probably should have believed the books, because now things are really crowded. I just went through and had to stake the beans up and the zucchini is trying to run over the garlic...and who knows what's going on with the carrots...they don't look like any carrots I've ever seen at the store.

But, overall I'm very proud of what I've been able to grow so far. I currently have the following things growing... tomatoes, peppers, celery, zucchini, garlic, carrots, beans and peas. I had lettuce, but it rained really hard for two weeks right after they sprouted and I think they drowned...they never really looked good, so I pulled them out to make more space. Here's what the garden looks like (with my first harvest on the ledge!!)



Mom and I ate our first batch of green beans the other day for lunch and they tasted great!



I also planted some herbs. I planted the basil out in this strange planter in the yard. We also put a kumquat tree and some kaladiums (sp?) in that area. The basil is growing so fast that it's going to take over the kumquat tree soon. We've been eating caprese as much as we can stand, and putting fresh basil in everything just to keep it in check, but I think I'm going to just have to start cutting it back and giving it away!



I'm waiting on the rest of the veggies to be ready, I can't wait for the zucchini, it's my favorite!!

Kitchen Project...

Nothing like a little work while you're on vacation...or at least I hope my Mom feels this way. There is always a list of projects that I want to do, but most of them never get done for one reason or another. One big reason is that Kevin would never, ever give up a Saturday of bike riding to do something as boring as painting. Well, Mom and I feel very differently. We are knocking things off the very long to-do list, and we started with the kitchen!

I think the fact that Mom has lived in a one bedroom apartment for the past two years has seriously helped my cause. She misses having house projects to do, so I'm reeping some serious benefits.

Our Italian house is a 100+ year old farm house. We have tile down stair, hardwood floors on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and exposed beam work throughout the entire house...except the kitchen. The kitchen...as you will see in these pictures in tiny. It was added on after the original house, but I don't know when. As a result it does not have the exposed beam work ceilings. I thought it would be a good room to start with because it makes me sick to think about getting pain on the beautiful wood work ceilings that are throughout the rest of the house! (You can see some of it over the doorway in one of the photos).

We found the Italian equivalent of the Home Depot (much, much smaller...but still good). I wanted a color that would be bright and fun because with the kitchen being so small there's not much space for decorating. So I went for green...we'll see how Kevin feels about it...he hasn't seen it obviously, and I didn't even ask his opinion, I just did it!

Here's the before view...note that my entire kitchen has NO drawers! (yes that's the whole thing in that one picture, it's a glorified hallway really)



We started working and we had a step ladder we were using to get the high parts. Well, we needed one more step to edge the ceiling. I called all my friends in the area and couldn't get anyone with a ladder that would work, and I was not willing to wait another day to finish this project, so I painted the rest from on top of the fridge. Conveniently the kitchen is so small that I could paint a section, get down, push the ridge over, paint another section, get down, push the ridge over etc, etc. Most impressively, I could do the entire perimeter of the kitchen without ever unplugging the fridge!



Finally it was done!



This is the "pantry" we got from IKEA to store all our food...it's a challenge getting all Kevin's food to fit, but we make it work. And yes, those are juggs of wine on top:)



We also hung some pictures and a shelf on the wall opposite the stove. It was hard to take a picture of it because it's so narrow, but you get the idea. A big challenge here is hanging anything on the walls because they are made of stone! You have to have special drill bits and pre-drill everything...it's a total pain. But I was up for the job. I ended up breaking a concrete drill bit off in the wall and having to take the drill to a guy friend of mine to change the bit out! I know how to change a bit, but the drill was stuck so tight that there was no way I was going to get it done. Even he admitted it was really hard (that made me feel better). I do believe that changing drill bits and drilling into concrete totally falls into the category of "Things I shouldn't have to know how to do." But, I guess as when you're a "single woman" you have to fend for yourself sometimes:)



I will post pictures of the rest of the house soon...we're still working on some areas:)

Mom's Italian Summer

So, Kevin left in mid May for Afghanistan. He will be gone the entire summer, and seeing as Mom teaches school, we thought it would be a great plan for her to come out this summer to keep me entertained! The first week she was here was very busy, I had lots of activities on my calendar, so she got drug along on most of them...she was a good sport though. Honestly, they were all pretty fun.

One of the most fun things was our AOCSC luncheon. We get together once a month for lunch and this month was at a great resturant called Grizzino's. Mom must have asked me 5 times what we were having (it was a fixed menu set up ahead of time). I read her the menu at least twice, but she appearently got stuck on the asparagus lasagna (which was the first course) and didn't hear the rest. In "real" Italian lunches and dinner you get multiple courses, and they are all huge and awesome. Mom was so excited about the huge peice of asparagus lasagna she got that she ate the entire thing and could not believe that there was more food coming!...two more courses actually. It was great fun to have a real "fancy" Italian meal and the company was great. She listens better to the menus now, and she knows that the first course, while delicous, will be followed by something just as delicous...you must pace yourself in this county.

Here is a photo of the resturant before everyone got there. There was a huge table, and Mom and I both loved all the colored glassware. It made it seem so summery and festive. I'm sure there will be many more awesome meals this summer, but there's nothing like your first Italian meal:)