weekend works.

austin and i got to work on our garden this weekend. we bought our seeds and jiffy pots to get the seeds going in. after a few weeks, we'll be able to transfer the little plants to the garden, once it's staying warm.

here's austin adding water to the jiffy pots.

{please excuse the ugly green couch. the couch cover was in the wash}

i think these are beet seeds {yuck, i know}.

all of our seeds planted and ready to grow.

so far we've got:
lettuces.
spinach.
beets.
broccoli.
cucumbers.
carrots.
onions.
potatoes.
strawberries.
and austin plans to buy an already growing heirloom tomato plant.

i can't wait to get them out to the garden!

austin, steve and taylor went on saturday morning to get the dirt for our garden outside. somewhere around here there is a mushroom farm and after a few uses of the really rich soil they sell the compost. so that's what we've got in our yard, waiting to be put into the box. and it stinks to high heaven. juliet, however, thinks it smells awesome. so she rolls in it. thus, requiring a bath.

bath time for juliet!

all clean!

and lastly, just a little picture of copper i'd like to share. this is how he sleeps.

all flattened out. he looks like a copper skin rug. cracks me up.

so that was our weekend, for the most part. i hope you all had a great weekend, too!

protesting.

for safety reasons, joe has decided that copper needs to not be allowed to jump up on the couches anymore {it wouldn't be good if copper smooshed baby paxton}. so joe got him a nice and comfy orthopedic foam-filled bed.

however, poor copper does not like the idea. so he's protesting. instead of sleeping in the bed, most of the time he shows his discontent with the new regulations by sleeping in odd places. like the corner by the door.

he makes me feel so bad... but it's for safety reasons so i'll do my best to enforce the new rules.

and besides, at least someone is getting use out of the new bed.

{sorry for the poor cell phone picture quality}

life's a garden. dig it.

austin and i decided we're going to grow a vegetable garden in the backyard. so we bought a book.

all new square foot gardening by mel bartholomew {you can find his website here}. the basic concept is to build a frame for the garden, that way you don't have to worry about the condition of the soil in the yard.

so on sunday we went to lowe's, bought {most} of the materials and got to work. ben even came over to help with the construction.

teamwork.

i think this was ben's way of testing out the sturdiness the frame...

so here's the actual frame. we decided to make it 4 foot by 8 foot.

and here's the square foot grid to go on top.

basically you plant a different vegetable or flower in each square and it helps to keep things organized and pretty, which is perfect for my ocd {nevermind the fact that no two of those squares ended up having the same dimensions}.

someday this week we're going to get the dirt to fill up the garden so we can plant seeds when it's time.

i'll be sure to keep you posted on the progress with our garden! i'm looking forward to yummy vegetables in the months to come.

sleeping dogs...

we've had some really nice weather lately {well, not so much today, bleh} so last week i took the dogs on a big walk around the neighborhood. we walked and walked until my legs hurt, though the pups didn't seem phased.

that is, until we got back to the house. and they. were. out.

and let's just be honest, i was out, too, shortly after these pictures.

hopefully we'll have lots of nice weather days coming up soon. maybe i'll even get to take the pups to the dog park!

getting to know you.

and by "you" i mean my new fun camera!

as i sit home all day by myself, i don't have much to photograph except for the pups and random things around the house.

so i've been playing with the settings and trying to learn and i'm just going to share a few shots of the things around the house i've taken.

they're nothing special, i realize, but i'm having fun. so that's all that matters for now, right?

guinevere's eggs.

my fork and spoon chimes outside.

some pretty {but faux} flowers from my wedding shower.

my juliet trying to avoid the flash.

side note:
i am a product of my mother. mom used to sell princess house products and still has a lot of it around the house and i've come to love it. so when i was browsing the aisles of the goodwill a few weeks ago and i found this princess house bell, i couldn't just leave it there {and it was a whole $1.99 anyway}.

side note number two:
my favorite flowers are daffodils. they remind me of home. so mom donated a whole bunch of daffodil bulbs to me in the fall. austin and i planted most of them in the flower bed out front, but i put a few in a pot to grow inside. and they're coming up fast!

and austin pointed out to me yesterday that the ones in the flowerbed are sprouting, too!

some are just babies.

some have friends.

and some are getting pretty big!

so those are just a few of the pictures i've taken recently with my new camera. there's a lot more of the dogs, too but i'll share them later maybe.

it's a beautiful day outside. looks like the pups will get a walk again today!

big girl toys.

i. am. so. excited.

i've always been obsessed with pictures. always wanted to take a photography class. always wanted a big fancy slr camera.

and now...

i have one!

i am the proud {and ridiculously excited} owner of a nikon d3100. i've got two lenses for it, an 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm zoom lens.

and i'm not going to lie, i really have no idea what that means. this camera is confusing. but i'm working on it. continuously searching for tips, tricks and guides on the never ending interweb. one blog i've found to be really useful so far is 31 days to a better photo - a step by step tutorial on the different features of most digital slr cameras. i've been working on the "assignments" darcy posted in the series and so far, i'm understand most of what she says. key word: most.

{fortunately, the camera has an "auto" function, so until i learn all the ins and outs of my camera, i can still play.}

i also just got a nice little bag to pack all of my camera supplies in. it's a "sling" style backpack {one shoulder type} so you can sling it around your body real quick to grab your camera without having to take the bag off.

i like it because the camera gets nestled in all snug-like.

with the purchase of the camera, i got 18 tickets to photography classes and since the place offers 9 different classes, austin gets to go with me to learn about the camera, too!

i really can't explain how unbelievably excited i am.

i've taken quite a few pictures so far, mostly of juliet and copper, of course. so i'll share just a few.

and here's my favorite. because i love my puppy so much.

and she's just so darn cute.

hopefully i'll become a pro at my new camera and i'll have all kinds of awesome pictures to post in the future.

our first {married} valentine's.

yesterday austin and i celebrated our first valentine's day together as a married couple. of course, austin had to work until about 9:00, so it was a late dinner to start.

i know most people make a huge fuss about the day, but we generally don't. don't get me wrong, i want some acknowledgement of the day, but flowers/jewelry/balloons/stuffed animals/etc won't be required {although i would gladly accept jewelry any day of the year}.

so our big valentine's dinner started with austin making us some homemade french fries and chicken sandwiches {well, fake chicken for me}.

and then, for dessert, we made chocolate covered strawberries. yum!

{then austin took over the camera, it's pretty rare to have pictures of me!}

our finished product! they were de.lish.

i hope you all had a wonderful valentine's day, however you chose to spend it!

austin's birthday: part 2.

since austin and i were in tunica for his birthday weekend, we had to wait until this past weekend to celebrate his birthday with the heard family. steve, gloria and taylor met me and austin at the mt. vernon restaurant on saturday night for a nice dinner.

first, gloria gave us all homemade fudge for valentine's day. austin and taylor were both very excited.

steve, however, was more excited about the onion rings.

steve, gloria and taylor all got the fried seafood platter, austin got the chicken livers {yuck, i know} and i got the alfredo pasta. then, it was time for dessert, of course, because it was austin's birthday and he had to blow out a candle!

taylor lighting the cande, in his own way.

blowing out the candle... in a weird way.

austin reeeally likes coconut pie, apparently.

can you tell they are related?

and then, we decided to try and take a group picture.

note the use of the word "try."

that's the best we could do.

finally, though, one last ditch effort.

happy birthday, austin!