I find waking up early on a Saturday morning to play in the flowers and to cut the grass can be very therapeutic. But I’ve gotten into a bit of a winter slump.  With the warm weather arriving, it’s time to get my butt in gear to start doing yard work again.

Flower beds need to be weeded and mulched, the grass needs to be seeded and fertilized… and don’t forget our Lasagna Garden!  {for more details on the garden click here.}

I found this diagram of a Salad Garden and an Italian/Salsa Garden in a not so recent copy of Better Homes and Gardens.

I love the layout of the Salad garden with the trellis’ for the cucumbers and the different layers of the greens, onions, carrots, etc.

We attempted to plant a bunch of goodies last year, but I think we were too late in the season.  Nothing really took.  This year we are taking a different approach.  Trying to get a head start and get our little veggies growing strong prior to planting them.

I’ve seen tutorials on using these pellet starter kits to get your seeds growing.  I’m gonna give it a whirl this weekend and see how it works.  {Any pointers from readers with green thumbs are welcome!}

I realize I totally missed Shoe of the Month for March, but I just didn’t find any worthy of the award.  I’ve been constantly checking my budget friendly haunts  {Payless and Target} and nothing has impressed me.  I did find these today… not sure how they would look with my pale skin, but maybe with a little tan??  What do you guys think?

Neilson Bow Flat…$29.99

Lela Rose for Payless

From start to finish my birthday was great!  And my laundry room is getting closer and closer to being done!

Here’s another sneak peak…

Plus I also had to show you the birthday cake Mr. vB made me.

A true Krispee Kreme Delight Cake!  Miss Maddy helped me to blow out the candles.

And then the sugar high insued.

Good thing Uncle DD doubles as a jungle gym!

Thanks to all my family and friends that made it such a great day! xoxo

You will never believe what I came across today courtesy of Christina over at Full House.

It’s the Mirror I want for the dining room!

Check it out in a side by side comparison with the one that Jenny over at The Newlywed Diaries has!

Pretty Dang Similar Aren’t They?!?!

The most surprising part is where it is from….

wait for it…..

WAL-MART!

I know, shut the front door.  I am as surprised as you!

Check it out here.

In about 4 hours I will be a year closer to my mid-thirties! YIKES!! To make me feel better Mr. vB has started on a birthday renovation project for me! YEAH!!

{here is the back story}

The only room in our house that has not been touched since we moved in is our Laundry Room.  It is located down in the basement off of the main living area.  I have always kept it hidden from the camera’s view as it was a bit scary!  We upgraded our washer and dryer to front loading units about 2 years ago, but never upgraded the room surrounding them.  It was inevitable that every time I went to switch the clean clothes from the washing machine to the dryer, something would fall on the dirty concrete floor and have to be rewashed.  It was SO annoying!!  I was constantly begging Mr. vB to add this room to the To-Do list.  I got so desperate that I finally said a finished Laundry Room is ALL I want for my birthday!

Apparently I got my point across because when I got home from work today, there was an odd smell coming from the basement.  When I yelled down to Mr. vB as to what it was, he yelled back,”Dunno?!”  I could tell from his voice that he was clearly lying.  I then went around and opened all the windows on the first floor.  When I got to the window that overlooked the back yard, I knew immediately what he was up too!  All the junk that has been crammed into the laundry room was now in the back yard.

About 30 minutes later Mr. vB emerged from the basement and asked me if I would like to see my {early} birthday present.  He had spent the afternoon clearing out the laundry room, sweeping, spraying for spiders, water proofing the cement floor {the stinky smell}, and installing a new sliding window.

Tomorrow he wants to paint the floor, paint the walls, install more shelving, and put the wood trim around the exterior door and new window!  Did I mention that I love my husband??  {And a great renovation project that happens without me lifting a finger?!?}

Check back for the finished product! Doing laundry will never be the same again!

I thought this might amuse you guys. Mr. vB and I stepped up yesterday to help out our sick sister in law.  Her hubby was out of town and she had the 24 hr stomach bug.  We came to the rescue and whisked away Maddy (age 3) and Philip (age 8 months) to spend the day, and possibly the night, with Aunt TT and Uncle DD.

I had left the kids under Mr. vB’s supervision while I jumped in the shower.  This is how I found them when I got out.

I stopped long enough to take their photo and then jumped in bed with them.  I mean if your auntie and uncle can’t spoil you with a day in bed watching cartoons, who can?

It’s been almost 3 months to the day that Mr. Sanders came into our life. {for a recap click HERE}   And I must have been in a dream world to think that our brand new hard wood floors would look gorgeous forever.  Why might you ask?!  Their names are Boots and Bailey and I have tried to tell them at least a 100 times NOT to dig their claws into the floor as they run {like the road-runner} to the back door.  They never seem to listen.

So, I have finally given up counting and stressing about each new scratch.  Instead we decided to cover them up.  Yep.. you heard me right.

With our trusty list and dimensions in hand, Mr. vB and I headed about an hour away to a great furniture, lighting, carpet, “you name it for the house store”, called Greenfront in Farmville VA.  We had heard they had amazing steals on all kinds of rugs, so we figured it was worth the drive.

2 hours after arriving, Mr. vB and I were the proud owners of FIVE new rugs!  {And all within our budget!}  We picked up 3 hand woven rugs from Pakistan…

and 2 custom cut mountain grass rugs.  We decided to have them bound in a basic black edge, so they would coordinate with the new dining room rug! The guy told us we could come back in 2 weeks to pick em up.

Well it has been more like 4 weeks, but we finally got the remaining 2 rugs tonight!  Are you wondering yet where we have room for all these new rugs?  You will just have to wait to see… I think you’re gonna be impressed!  Here’s a sneak peek!

Another week flown by… And it was quite the busy one!  I was traveling for work in Philly, when I got an email from Mr.vB that Young House Love had featured our Kitchen Redesign.  HOORAH!  We had been expecting the post, as Sherry had told us it would be coming, BUT our Web Hosting company wasn’t.  With several hundred people pouring to our site it did the worst thing possible.  IT CRASHED!!!  FOR HOURS!!! My IT guy (Mr. vB) immediatley jumped on the issue, but it still took 5 hours to get it back up and running.

So welcome to all the new readers over here at Bootsandtotty.com.  Mr. vB and I hope you have enjoyed reading about our renovations… We got some more up our sleeve!