In a Nutshell: Garden

Spring is here and good weather has been abundant around these parts. You know what that means...yup, garden time.

We hardly profess to be gardening experts. In fact, we still feel a little anxiety and fear every time we prep our garden.

Will it come up?
Will we remember to water it enough?
Will my wife's black thumb kill the garden immediately? That is Hubby's quandary.
Will we plant the right things?

You get the idea.

In Ohio we had one simple little square foot garden. One!

Well this year...our first year here...our first year figuring out this new climate...we are planting FOUR.

Gulp.

We have asked and fretted about how/when to plant these gardens. Our backdoor neighbors are like garden wizards. I mean it is pretty amazing. When we asked them the wife just laughed and said the husband always new when to plant. She stated, "when the snow is off the mountains over there."

SO imagine my stress when this last Monday I looked out the window and they were getting down to gardening business.

I immediately texted Hubby and panicky I wrote, "THEY ARE PLANTING TODAY! We HAVE to start ours today too!"

Over react much...

So that evening while Oldest went to baseball practice with the neighbors, the boxes got built.

With some assistance from little helpers.

Four boxes got made.

And they got played in a bit.

Then it was celebration time with some trampoline time. PS Can you see our neighbors garden back there? Awesome, right?

We have since purchased plants and seeds. We are trying some new things...ahhhh! Fingers crossed.

The boxes are now filled with the dirt. Soon...like as in tomorrow...we start planting everything.

I am pretty excited with the prospect of our garden. Hopefully our first year gardening here will be a triumph.

Send happy gardening thoughts our way!

How-to Edit Photos Online: PicMonkey

Remember when Picnik went bye-bye? Remember hearing my cry of anguish on April 19th when they shut their "doors"? Remember when I skipped and jumped and hoorah-ed for joy when I found a super fun and equally cool replacement for Picnik?

Well for reals, it all happened.

So like FOREVER ago, I said that I would do a little How-to on my new favorite online photo editing program. Well I finally got my act together and here is my first little intro to PicMonkey.

This site really is amazing. If you don't have a photo editing program on your computer, or you sometimes don't understand all your photo editing program has to offer (ehem...that would be me), this is the place to edit your photos.

Well, heck, this is the place to have lots of fun editing and making tons of fun photo projects. For example, this site is where I made this...

There is so much you can do on this site, but let's start with the simple:

How-to Edit Photos in PicMonkey

First got to PicMonkey.

This is what the main screen looks like:

 

Click on "Edit your photo".

Pick whichever photo you want to edit.

I picked this Ah-dorable picture of Little. The first thing you will see is this menu for "Basic Edits".

I like to play around with Exposure to make sure that my photo is not too bright OR that it is bright enough. This photo was a little too bright, so I moved the slider under Brightness until it had the look I wanted. Then I click "apply".

Then I went to the color edit. To enhance the color I moved the saturation slider. You can see the orange is a little richer. Then again click apply.

Now the fun BEGINS!

Let's go over to the effects menu. Click on the little potion bottle and start playing. Just click on different effects and just click cancel to try another one.

I went through a couple of effects just to show you the fun things you can do.

My favorite effect is Cross Process with the green undertone.

I played with the Dusk effect.

They have a fun Camera-like section. I LOVE Time Machine.

Daguerreotype was fun. I actually moved the Fade slider a little to have a faint color pop.

Then to kick it up a notch I used the paint option to highlight different parts of the photo to really enhance specific colors...

Then I went more traditional. I picked the black and white option.

The effect was just okay for me.

Then I found the Film Stock effect under Tri-X.

AND BOOM!

Then I was super happy. So when you find what you like then click "Save" all the way down at the bottom.

Save your newly edited photo to your computer.

Enjoy your new PROfess looking photo.

There is tons of other things you can do in this program. I will put together another tutorial for you soon.

Ham and Swiss Sliders

We love, LOVE, L.O.V.E these sliders.

I mean LUHHHH-VE.

We have made them over and over and over again. They are easy to make. They are fast. They are a crowd-pleaser. They are divine.

Okay, you get the point, right?!? They are yummy.

You will not be sorry you put these on your menu. The ham and melty Swiss cheese are just about the most perfect couple...but then you hook them up with a Hawaiian roll and yowzers.

AND just when it couldn't get better, the oh-so-delightful butter sauce over the top will blow your socks off. Literally (sorry Hubby I know you hate the inaccurate use of the word literally), you probably should make sure you are bare foot for this meal.

Now that I have gone on and on about a little sandwich, I probably should give you all the recipe!

ENJOY!

Ham and Swiss Sliders
Annie's Eats

Sandwich Ingredients:
24 Hawaiian Rolls (If you can't find these use small slider rolls...I highly recommend trying to find the Hawaiian rolls though)
12-24 slices of deli ham
12 slices of Swiss cheese, cut in half
Mayo

Sauce Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tablespoon yellow mustard
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
2 teaspoons onion powder OR 1 Tablespoon finely minced onions
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
poppy seeds, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Split rolls and spread the inside lightly with mayo. Cut ham or fold to fit roll. Fold the cheese slice half in half again and place on top of the ham. Replace top bun. Place the sandwiches on a cookie sheet.

Make the sauce by combining all of the ingredients but the poppy seeds. Whisk to mix well. Drizzle the sauce over the tops of all the slider buns. Sprinkle with the poppy seeds. Cover with foil and bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Remove the foil and bake for another 2 minutes. Serve warm.

Be prepared for oohs and ahhs and happy tummies.

Have a marvelous Thursday!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, my Mother-in-law, my Sister-in-laws, Grandmothers, all my Mommy friends, and my friends who also help me Mommy my own Little Men.

I have so much admiration and gratitude for Mother's and women who mother without being mothers yet themselves. It is hard, tireless work to raise a child. I am grateful for the women who have raised the adults in my life. I am grateful for the women currently putting in so much time to raise the children in their lives. I am grateful for the women raising the daughter-in-laws I have yet to meet.

I am grateful for the legacy of motherhood I have in my life through my Mother, my Mother-in-law, Grandmothers, Aunts, the Mothers of my friends, and the women who were examples of righteous, happy and fulfilled mothers.

I owe the kind of mother I am today to you.

Most of all, I am grateful to have been entrusted with my own Little Men.

I am grateful to be a Mother.

So thank you again Mothers and Mother's-to-be.

Have a beautiful and glorious Mother's Day!

Lemon Cheesecake Bars

I will get to these DELIGHTFUL Lemon Cheesecake Bars in a sec...

Around here I normally post recipes on Thursdays. I like that there is some order and normalcy to the blog sometimes. Normalcy gone...being that today is Friday and all...and it is actually later in the day at that.

I can't always guarantee that sewing or projects are going to make the list above laundry, cleaning, errands, life, and loving my little family.

However, normally I can always guarantee that my family needs to be fed. Since cooking is always on my list, I tend to be able to have recipe posts every week.  Well since Bean has been born, even cooking sometimes doesn't make the list...thanks heavens for the premade Freezer Meals I made.

I am closer to being in the swing of things, so hopefully recipes will find their normal Thursday soon AND maybe there will be some small projects here and there.

Okay, back to the lemony goodness pictured above.

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine was having a birthday. Perfect excuse to bake.

I had everything on hand to make these Lemon Cheesecake Bars. SO GOOD. I mean what is better than an amped up lemon bar? Not much people. Not much.

Cheese cake mixed with a refreshing amount of fresh lemon happily layered on top of a crust made from a cake mix..yep I said cake mix crust...delightful. Then more of the cake mix dough is sprinkled on top. Then when they have had their party in the oven, they get some powdered sugar dusted on top.

Bam! Yes, please.

It was hard to take pictures without nibbling at these bars.

p.s. I had to throw this picture in of Middle taking after his Momma and setting up a food photo shoot. L.O.V.E. it. SO stinkin' cute.

Okay enough blabbing...

Here is the recipe:

Lemon Cheesecake Bars
The Domestic Rebel


For Crust:
1 yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg

For Cheesecake:
1 8oz pkg of cream cheese, softened
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
3 TBS of fresh lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Really, really grease a 9x13 baking dish OR lay down parchment paper so that it covers the bottom and the sides of your pan.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, and the egg. Mix by spoon until blended. It will look like a dough. Press 3/4 of the dough into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 8 minutes, while preparing the filling.

Beat together all of the cheesecake ingredients until blended and smooth, about 1 minute. Pour the mixture on the partially baked crust. Crumble the last bit of cake dough on top of the cheesecake filling.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the center is set (aka doesn't jiggle and wiggle in the middle). Allow to cool completely before cutting. If you used parchment paper you can let the bars cool almost completely and then lift out of the pan.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

No go ahead and have yourself a treat.