Backyard Herb Garden

A few months ago we decided we needed a little greenery inside and plated these 2 cute little succulent plants:

They currently live on the windowsill in the kitchen and we love having something pretty and green to look at anytime we do dishes, etc. However, if you look past the cute succulents, you can see that our view was a bunch of bricks, dirt, and leaves....which is our tiny backyard. I use the term "backyard" very loosely. Technically, we own the little patio right outside our living room, but the rest of the area in the back belongs to the condo. 

This is part of our little patio - it's a small rectangle shape that ends where the brick wall starts.

(And just to assuage any decorating fears, no, we didn't hang that strange face/mask on the wall...it was there when we moved in and we haven't replaced it with anything yet! And we also plan to eventually replace that little table....it's all a work in progress!)

So we're the only people with direct access to our patio, and the space right above it (we're also the only unit with a patio but that's a whole different story). Our HOA used to at least have gardeners come and pull out weeds and trim plants, but over the past few months it's started to look like "our backyard" was totally abandoned. 

Vast nothingness (with just one lone tree, which is right behind me in this picture):

So, we decided to beautify part of the back yard, just a little bit. 

Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the dirt in the backyard is so incredibly packed down that we knew we would need to either buy or make some kind of planter if we wanted to try to grow anything. Taylor came up with the idea of creating small cinder block planters and sketched out a design. We also knew that we wanted to incorporate a rock ground covering into our plan.

We went to home depot and bought all the materials, and after many trips to and from the car, ended up with this:

This is what it looks like from a distance. Oh, we also bought a big metal planter from Crate & Barrel and planted two little rosemary bushes!

Next we bought a slew of herbs and flowers:

And then we planted:

This is what it looks like with everything planted:

We planted parsley, oregano, yellow bell peppers, English lavender, green basil, impatients, 

sweet mint, peppermint, and purple basil.  

This is the finished product...we love it! 

This is what you can see if you were sitting on the patio - just a smidge of a view:

But the smidge of a view from the patio is definitely worth it, because it's a majorly better view from the kitchen. Which, if you remember, is where the beautification projected started out in the first place. Instead of dirt and leaves, we now see this:

If you've been following along, you're probably wondering about the rest of the back yard. Well for now, it's still a bunch of leaves, but we're starting to plan out what we can do....that will be phase 2!

Summertime Catch-Up

Where did the summer go?? It’s certainly been a busy few months for us. Here’s a little recap of what we’ve been up to:

On June 14^th we celebrated our 3^rd wedding anniversary! The morning started out well, but around lunch time, I got a call from Taylor - our '97 Ford Taurus had broken down on Highway 75 and Taylor was stranded! I quickly left work to go get him, and by the time I made it to where he was, he had gotten the car to start just long enough to navigate it off the highway and into a parking lot. We left the car there overnight, and the next day Sawyer helped Taylor tow the car back to our condo parking lot - yes, you heard that right - the guys towed the car themselves! I was very impressed.

We decided to bring the car back to our place for a few reasons. 1. The car was old and at that point, we weren't sure we wanted to invest the money in fixing the car instead of putting money towards a new car. 2. Since that was our mentality, we didn't want to pay a tow company to take it to a repair shop, and we needed a few days to figure out what we should do with the car.

So, the car lived in our parking lot for a few weeks and then we decided to donate it to the Texas Can Academy. The company came and towed her away for free, and we even got a tax write off. Definitely a win-win situation for us, but it was still sad to see her go. We've been a one-car family since then and are still looking for our next car!

Anyway, back to our anniversary! After the car drama, we finished out the day at work and then that night we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants: Morton’s. Morton’s has turned into a tradition for us – it was the place we went on the night Taylor proposed and since then, we’ve been every year for our anniversary. The next night Taylor surprised me with a night away at Hotel Palomar (in Dallas).

We’ve been working on the condo non-stop since we moved in, in the middle of May. Our weekends have been full of rearranging, painting, and decorating. So far we’ve painted our bedroom and bathroom gray, and painted our entryway the same bright blue we had on the living room accent wall of our old apartment. We’ve gotten rid of some furniture (bar stools and our big dresser) and bought some new furniture (a craigslist coffee table and two tall wardrobes for our bedroom). We’ve also started hanging pictures on the walls and made a new headboard last weekend. {More pictures of the house to come soon!}

Painting is the perfect opportunity to write all over the walls!!

We split the 4^th of July between two parties: one at a co-workers house and the other at Taylor’s parents’ house. We bought these "4^th of July Rice Krispie pops" to each place (idea courtesy of Pintrest!):

We celebrated Bastille Day (French Independence Day on 7/14) at a fair in Bishop Art’s District with friends. There was live French music, French wine and many delicious food stands (mussels, crepes, etc.)! It was a lot of fun and my only complaint is that they totally underestimated how many people were going to show up – it was crowded!

We’ve tried out a bunch of new, fun restaurants this summer. Pecan Lodge is a BBQ joint downtown in Shed #2 of the Dallas Farmer’s Market. We went with my mom when she was in town for a visit and tried three incredible dishes: The “Hot Mess,” (which is a huge sweet potato filled with shredded brisket, cheese, butter, and green onions!), a BBQ Sandwich, and a BBQ plate with ribs and sausage. Yum! Taylor and I have become huge fans of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives lately, and this place was featured on an episode!

We also tried a new place for brunch one weekend called Smoke, in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas. The place is a funky mix of old fashion barbecue and trendy new flavors and creative cooking. It was delicious! I tried the Broiled Raw Sugar Grapefruit (with cheese grits-hominy casserole) and Taylor got the Smoked Brisket Cornbread Hash (with a poached egg).

At the beginning of August we went on a family-road-trip-vacation to Florida and Georgia. The Florida portion was with Taylor's family and the Georgia portion was with mine. The entire trip was 8 days and about 2300 miles! The first day we drove from Dallas to New Orleans, and spent the night there. We stayed right in the French Quarter and got to walk around the city, try a yummy Cajun Southern-style restaurant called Cochon for dinner (where I got to try fried alligator and gumbo!), and had french beignets at Cafe du Monde before we left.

 

Next, we drove along the coast to Panama City Beach, Florida, where we spent 3.5 days with Taylor's family. I'd never been to that part of Florida before and it was beautiful! We hung out by the pool, went to the beach, and had many amazing meals.

 

 

Then we drove on to Savannah, GA and spent a day and a half with my mom. We explored the city, went for a boat ride down the river, and had many delicious meals (can you sense a food-trend!?).

 

 

At the end of the week we made the long drive home - with a quick stop just outside of Atlanta for a visit to some outlet stores, and an overnight stay in Jackson, MS on the way back to Dallas. It was a great week-long vacation!

We went to exactly 1 Rangers game this summer, and it was a blast!

And on August 16th I turned a quarter of a century old. Taylor showered me with birthday treats and surprises all day long: coffee and bagels for breakfast at home (favorite!), a stunning assortment of flowers at work, and then later in the day a delicious box of cookies (and a balloon!) from Tiff’s Treats.

My sweet co-workers also surprised me with cookies…it was a very yummy afternoon at work.

That evening Taylor and I celebrated at Five Sixty – a restaurant at the very top of Reunion Tower. Reunion tower is a landmark of downtown Dallas and is…wait for it…560 feet tall! The restaurant is inside the sphere at the top of the tower and it revolves in a full circle, once an hour, and gives you a spectacular view of downtown Dallas.

Five Sixty is Asian Fusion cuisine and the food was incredible! Here was the menu for the evening:

Appetizers

Crispy shrimp and lobster spring rolls for Taylor, and Thai coconut steamed mussels for me

Main Courses

“Hong Kong Style” Alaskan King Salmon, Bok Choy, shiitake mushrooms, and jasmine rice for me and Chinese Style BBQ Pork Shank with sweet tamarind glaze for Taylor

Desserts

A trio of salted caramel cheesecake brulee, chocolate decadence cake, and a citrus sorbet 

That just about catches us up to where we are now!