Our Next Garden Bed

By June 2014, when the spring bulbs tired, I was ready to work on another garden bed. This is the before photo of the bed overgrown with vines and weeds. The bed is on the west side of the property: it faces east and gets sun from sunrise to late afternoon.   

Peter cleared out the overgrowth for me saving the daffodils and red tulips that we inherited. 
  

My goal was to find perennials that prefer sun, are heat/drought tolerant and bloom from early summer to fall. My husband was also hoping for something wildflower inspired. I selected yellow coresopsis (tickseed), blue salvia, white leucanthemum (Shasta daisy), red and yellow gaillardia (blanket flower), echinacea (purple coneflower and double scoop raspberry), and tri-lobed rudibeckia (black eyed Susan). This is the best picture I have from the summer of 2014. A very needy beagle we named Hercules is in the foreground. Hercules was lost and wandered into our yard. We played with him while we waited for our village’s finest to come take him home. Our tuxedo cat Apollo Creed did not like Hercules very much.  

This is how the perennial garden came back this year (2015). We moved a few things around, added some herbs and annuals, but more on that in another post. We absolutely love our wildflower inspired perennial garden. 
   

😍😍😍

Reclaim Refurbish Reuse

Peter and I got this classic oak table and set of chairs from his brother John since John’s family of five outgrew it. It’s very well made: heavy duty and sturdy. 

Here’s Apollo loving on everything cardboard box on the oak table.   

But I’ve always dreamed of a classic white cottage kitchen, and so these caught my eye on Pinterest (follow me @cathysdds). This would blend my dream of a white cottage kitchen with a tabletop that would match our hardwood floors.   

So my amazing husband sanded, sanded and sanded the lacquer off the original oak finish. He painted the table base and chairs white. Then, he stained the table top with a dark wood stain. Here it is in our unfinished basement drying.
  

And here it is back in place in the kitchen. I absolutley LOVE it! Hubby finished it better than I ever could have expected. And the set is extra special because it’s reclaimed from family, refinished just for our White Amorn and being reused each and every day 😎 

Mother’s Day 2014

By Mother’s Day weekend, these purple bearded irises started to peek. I love the sharing nature of gardening. These 1′ and 3′ irises were thinned and gifted to me from my assistant Vicki’s garden in Maple Park. She originally got them thinned from our patient Anne’s garden in Elgin. I hope to keep spreading the love ❤️💚💜 

To add to our spring bulb display, I purchased some annuals. The pink, red and white begonias were for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day. I used to get her impatiens, but a professional gardener patient of mine told me there has been an impatient disease the last couple of years which explains why they’ve looked so sad as of late. She’s been just as happy if not happier with the begonias. I tried the geraniums, yellow tuberous begonias and pink verbenas in our south facing front yard garden.
  

Here they are planted with a freshly edged garden bed. This is one of the best pictures of this garden bed to date. So bright and cheerful after winter. Guess they were right about spring bulbs loving those cold winters. Hostas coming back in full force, and even the mums survived! Falling in love with this amazing gardening therapy and our sweet White Amorn cottage! 

Happy First Birthday to Our First Housie

May 2, 2014 – It’s been one year already! Happy first birthday to our White Amorn! Too bad it’s a cloudy day; Peter just loves how the house looks with sun on her.

The daffodils and tulips we planted last autumn filled in nicely around the front door and the front of our house.     

We inherited these purple-striped-leaf red tulips. We remembered not remove these when we cleaned up the rest of that flower bed on the west side of our property later that summer.

We also got a great display from these inherited traditional red tulips next to our garage door.  

So far, spring is my favorite season for blooms at the White Amorn 🌷💐😍

First Signs of Spring

April 27, 2014 – We had to wait until mid to late April for our first blooms of the season, these multi-bloom daffodils. Daffodils are my husband’s favorite flower. He says the blooms look like cute little faces peeping out for spring. I bought a bag of “mixed” daffodil bulbs from Meyer and was pleasantly surprised by the charming cottage feel of these tiny delicate multi-blooms.   

We also planted some double-faced tulip bulbs which started to bloom as our daffodils tired. Perfect timing! 

This year (2015), none of the daffodils returned. I’m not sure if this is because those types of tulip bulbs need to be replanted each year or if the chipmunks and squirrels got to them. I have a feeling it was the latter 😡 

This fall, I hope to get more daffodil bulbs planted as well as some hyacinths that would precede the daffodils next spring. Already planning another epic gardening season 😊

Meet the Smith Brothers

April 21, 2014 – Our first big project of the spring season was reclaiming our backyard from the mulberry tree growing out of the side of our garage.

Here is a photo from the extra bedroom of the mulberry tree on April 15th when there was still snow on the ground.  
And one last photo the morning of the removal.  

Enter the Smith Brothers! They removed the mulberry tree and stump along with a large branch from our backyard neighbor’s tree that hung threateningly over our garage roof.   

Look at that backyard we never knew we had!  

The Smith Brothers also cleaned up an evergreen and two mature silver maples in our front yard. It was especially relieving to see them remove a large branch that hung dangerously close to some powerlines attached to our house.  

I still cannot believe what a huge difference that made! Let in that warm bright sunshine light ☀️  

Waiting for Spring 2014

After three polar vortexes and almost record breaking snow, I couldn’t help but purchase these daffodils at Trader Joe’s in early March to start the spring season indoors. I’ve heard spring bulbs will come back the next spring if replanted in the ground before the winter, so I didn’t feel guilty about splurging on them. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually replant these😒 Guess there’s always next time!   

Easter rolled around, and my sister Cindy, her boyfriend Ilya, Peter and I dyed Easter eggs. As you can tell by our color choices, we’re all ready for a brighter more cheery season.  

Finally, we celebrated Apollo’s first birthday on April 11th. I never thought we would have pets as a married couple, but he’s been such a perfect addition to our family and a great learning experience for us.  

This was a picture we got from Apollo’s twin brother Henry who lives at Mimi and Papa’s house (Peter’s parents). Kitties’ momma Millie had a beautiful litter.  

Apollo and Henry’s birthday will now always signify the official start of the spring gardening season. The photo below is from April 11th of this year (2015), and we’ve got everything coming back in our front garden: purple bearded irises in the back row, the starting spikes of hostas and even the mums are returning for a third season! The spring and summer of 2014 is really when Peter and I started to work on our outdoor living space. It’s come so far. Can’t wait to show you what we’ve done!  

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies for Super Bowl 2014

It’s Super Bowl Sunday! The Denver Broncos versus the Seattle Seahawks, offense vs defense, veteran quarterback Peyton Manning’s passing game versus sophomore Russell Wilson coupled with his skittle-powered Marshawn Lynch. It was shaping up to be a great Super Bowl match-up. That is, until the game actually started 😒

By the second quarter, guests at the Dawg Pound West were playing foosball and popping appetizers and my baked treats: oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, seven layer bars and white chocolate macadamia cookies.

These are probably some of my mom’s most requested desserts, especially the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. The recipe is from AllRecipes (thanks for sharing your recipe, Mary).

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/10025/white-chocolate-macadamia-nut-cookies-iii/?mxt=t06rda

I just made a couple of changes according to the reviews: I used 1.5tsp vanilla extract and 0.5tsp almond extract instead of half of each. I also added to the bake time. Read through my recipe below to get some of my cookie baking secrets!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate
• 1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
2. I combine my dry ingredients first, sending it through a sifter. So sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl, and stir with a fork to mix.
3. Then, I beat my softened butter and sugar together on high (6 on my kitchen aid) for 3 minutes. I almost always use Imperial melted almost all the way in the microwave. Very rarely do I actually use butter, just when I’m looking for a certain crumbly texture. I don’t usually have a preference between light and dark sugar, but the dark can tend to make the cookie a little chewier or firmer.
4. Scrape down the sides. Add eggs and extracts. Beat on medium (4 on my kitchen aid) for 2 minutes. At this point, I like the texture to look a little curdly.
5. Scrape down the sides. Add the flour mixture with the mixer just stirring  (stir or 2 on my kitchen aid) until combined.
6. Add the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips (stir or 2 on my kitchen aid) until combined.
7. Place heaping scoops on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Good luck with the recipe! Hope you enjoy and come back to try more of my baking recipes! There should be plenty coming down the line since baking is my fall and winter release while our garden is sleeping outside.

First Winter

After our first Christmas came our first real taste of winter in the White Amorn. There was close to record breaking snowfalls, and we experienced three polar vortexes with windchills as low as forty degrees below zero. Any other year, this would’ve almost been a dream come true to me because call me crazy but I just love the snow and the cold. This year was different. This year, I was a homeowner facing cars that wouldn’t start, heating bills, and three ice dams. We learned that must haves for winters in the White Amorn are a trickle charger for our cars and a very nice roof rake😉 On the positive side, gardeners tell me spring bulbs love the cold. The colder it is, the better the blooms. Can’t wait to see the tulips and daffodils🌰🌱🌷 Is it spring yet? 

Our First Christmas

It is a tradition for my husband’s extended family to drive out to Cortland the morning after Thanksgiving for Camelot Christmas Tree Farm’s opening day. It’s a beautiful farm. Each family searches the rows of Douglas, Fraser and Balsam Firs, white and scotch pines and white spruces for the perfect Christmas tree. 

Peter let me pick our first tree, and I finally fell in love with this fat and squat Douglas fir. Problem was we didn’t nearly have enough lights or ornaments to cover it! I think we’ll always look back at that tree and laugh a little 😆🎄😂  

A new tradition in my family was getting together for Christmas crafts. That year, we made gingerbread structures. Peter and I assembled a Jeep Wrangler (photo top left pre-snowplow addition to the front). My sister Christie and her boyfriend Steve constructed a traditional gingerbread house complete with chimney, gingerbread tree landscaping and a festive little wreath on the front door (top right). Finally, my sister Cindy and her boyfriend Ilya crafted a circus carriage that was elevated off the ground on gingerbread wheels complete with a tiger riding inside!  

As you can see, Cindy is one talented artist. She even treated me to this adorable and probably unprofessional Rudolph and Clarice manicure that holiday season 🎅🏻 

But perhaps the most epic moment from Peter and my first Christmas together was waking up on Christmas morning to find this custom live edge cherry wood table in my dining room. Peter made this table from a cherry tree that had fallen in his parents’ back yard with help from his brother John who is a local contractor specializing in custom woodwork. It fit the smaller room perfectly and was a strong foundation for what we hoped would one day be a Vietnamese inspired dining room.  

If only our Christmas lights and snowman wreath had been as amazing. My husband loves the vintage look of traditional glass incandescent colored C-9 bulbs, but I liked the thought of saving with LEDs. I bought the LEDs and whomp whomp. Our Christmas tree and outdoor Christmas lights had a weird neon look to them. We were just missing that classic glow I guess. Also, fail on my snowman wreath. I found the idea on Pinterest, thought it would be more “winter” and last us through February. Instead, gravity turned it into more of a snowman alien, and glittery styrofoam beads ended up everywhere. All in all, if LED bulbs and a snowalien wreath were my biggest disappointments, I would have to say our first married Christmas in the White Amorn was a great success! 🌲🎄❄️⛄️🎅🏻