In the Kitchen: Grilled Peaches

The onset of summer weather brings with it the grilling season.  Last summer one of my favourite grilled desserts was this recipe from Oprah Magazine!  Think fresh, juicy in season peaches with a dollap of greek yogurt, a sprinkling of pistachios, and a generous drizzle of honey.  Delicious!  

Find the full recipe here.

Photo from Oprah Magazine

Bellagio Gardens

Over the Victoria Day long weekend we took a quick trip to Las Vegas for my sister's wedding!  It was absolutely beautiful!  Hot and sunny, and the bride was stunning.  Also - the Strip was something to see.  Each hotel was decadent and dripping with the grandest decor.  Of course, the Bellagio is one of the grandest.  We didn't stay here, of course, but I walked through and took a few pictures of the pretty indoor gardens!

Of course, the fountains in front of the Bellagio were a sight for themselves.  We must have caught the show at least five times in the three days we were there!  The fountains 'danced' to a different song each time.

And finally, the gorgeous blown glass ceiling in the hotel lobby - it looks like like a school of rainbow coloured jelly fish!

Five Senses Friday + Weekend Links

Seeing

My new garden beds take shape!

Hearing

This song is too catchy.

Tasting

The juiciest homemade hamburgers with alll the fixin's

Smelling

Freshly cut lawn

Touching

Compost, peat and manure - good stuff!

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Weekend Links:

A feature on Winnipeg vintage store, Rhymes with Orange

Oh, I wish I could fly to NYC to see this

The hottest annuals for the 2013 garden

DIY boutonnieres and corsages - these are gorgeous

Lessons from Holly Golightly's apartment

Great idea - three freezer ready hospitality meals

How to style white jeans

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Have a wonderful looong weekend everyone!  I will be travelling out to be with my sister on her wedding day this Saturday!

Photo Source

In the Garden: Trying out a new system.

One of my goals from the garden of 2012 was to figure out a solution to my kitchen garden problems.   The main problem is that I have a cat who loooves to use the garden as his personal restroom.  After a season of this, you can imagine how the quality of the soil is affected.  Combined with a dry year, my kitchen garden produced pretty much nothing last year.  

This year I want that to be different.  

I convinced my husband to build me two raised garden beds on top of the existing garden site.  We used scrap lumber from some other recent projects, so it didn't cost any money to put these two beds together.

Once we had the beds in place they needed to be filled.  I've had the book, Lasagna Gardening, on my shelf for two or three years now.  I've been wanting to create a lasagna garden of my own, so this seemed like the perfect time to try it out.  Lasagna gardening is an organic gardening method in which you create layers of peat, compost and mulch in your beds.  If you search this type of gardening on the Internet, you will find loads of information.

I started with a layer of wet newspapers at the bottom, to keep out any unwanted weeds, etc. from the ground.  Then, I layered shredded paper, dry leaves, compost, and cow manure with layers of peat moss in between.  You can use many different types of compostable materials for your layers - it's all about using what you have available.  I spent about $50 on the peat and manure, but the rest we had at home.

I'm looking forward to planting in my new garden beds!  I am thinking of trying the square foot gardening method - have you tried it?  I've been reading up on it over the last week.  Sounds intriguing!  

Also in my garden this week - blooming tulips!  

(P.S. - Can you tell I am enjoying my new photo app?)

In the Kitchen: Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs

The first time I tried this recipe was at one of my bridal showers (4 years ago!), hosted by a cousin of mine.  She was gracious enough to share this amazing kabob recipe with more than a few dazzled guests.  This is a go-to summer recipe at our house....I like to add fresh veggies onto the skewers as well (peppers, onion, zucchini, etc.)  I follow one of the comment tips and use half the amount of oil in the recipe - it tastes wonderful.

See the full recipe here.   Enjoy!

New Photo Editing App!

One of my favourite blogs, A Beautiful Mess, just released their own photo editing app today!

Honestly, the work day couldn't go by fast enough so that I could get home and install it onto my iPad as soon as possible :)  The app costs $0.99 and is very user-friendly - even I could figure it out pretty quickly with a little playing around.  I love the esthetics and design ideas of the ladies behind A Beautiful Mess, so I was very excited when they announced their own photo editing app!

Take a look at some of my photo edits (using photos from our recent trip to Europe):

The app allows you to add filters, borders, text and doodles to your photos.  There are a good selection of designs that come with the app, as well as a number of additional design and font upgrades that you can purchase for an additional fee.  So fun!  Watch for more edited photos in upcoming posts!

To find the app, search "A Beautiful Mess" in the iTunes Store.  More info about the app here.

Make it Monday: Watercolour Notebooks

I think these little watercolour notebooks from Fellow Fellow are so pretty!  I'm a big user of notebooks to keep lists,  so this do it yourself project caught my eye right away.  I've never tried using watercolours before, but the instructions don't look too hard...maybe a rainy day project this summer?

Find the full instructions here.

Photo from Fellow Fellow blog.