Texas Winter Garden

Lately, we have been enjoying our garden and all the awesome things it has been producing for us this winter.  My favorite thing so far is definitely the broccoli. They are HUGE.  We planted six of them in October and now, there months later we are looking up delicious recipes to make. 

The garden right after planting into October. 

Our garden in January! I am very sad our basil is done :(

Swiss chard and cabbage. 

I just love the bright red color. So pretty! Makes me not want to eat it!


Our first bouquet of broccoli we steamed and ate with stuffed sweet potatoes that Holland made.  We have given half of the broccoli away to friends and our favorite neighbor because there was just so much!

We planted romaine and spinach and the spinach never came up but the romaine is beautiful!

Late October romaine-started from seeds. 

January romaine!

Holland is really good at whipping up a fantastic meal when I feel like we have nothing and need to go to the grocery store. He made an avocado, tomato and cucumber salad mix that we wrapped up in our romaine.  Very delicious and fresh!

I just recently had to start buying basil since ours died over the two weeks of cold winter weather we had.  We knew it was coming, but I miss it so much! I hadn't bought basil in over a year! I am ready to start our spring/summer garden. We plan on putting a new basil plant, cucumbers and some summer squash.

Hannah is Six!

Time is flying by.  In 2007 after my sophomore year of college, my mom got a call from my grandma saying that there was a puppy who was going to be sold. We were told that if the dog wasn't bought that it would go to another home where there was a pit bull. I know there are kind pit bulls out there, but I just was not willing to take that chance. I told my mom to call them that I was going to buy the puppy. I had worked at a Montessori school during that summer and I used my first paycheck to get her. My plan was to buy her, then find her a home since I was so busy with college and I didn't think I was ready for the responsibility of owning my own dog.  It all changed when I saw her. She rolled on her back(which she still does when I come home) and she peed all over herself. I scooped her up and gave them the check and left. By the time my mom and I were in the car for about 5 minutes I already had a name for her. Hannah.  I liked it because it is spelled the same backwards and forwards. We went to Pets Mart and I called my roommate in College Station and told her I had a dog. Holland was surprised because he had tried to talk me into getting a puppy and I kept saying no. It was all meant to be this way. 

My Hanners is SIX!!!! Hannah is one of the most active, crazy dachshunds I have ever known.   All through college she was used to Deanne and I. She never fully accepted Holland until we lived together and now she snuggles up with him on the couch instead of me. She LOVES other Dachshunds, and only two large dogs are her friends(Shadow and Bleu.) She has a doppelgänger and its funny that her twin look alike is Deanne's dachshund, Annie. When they are together we call them Hannie!

If you have known her as long as I have had her, you have seen the change in her especially in the last two years. I do not want this to get all depressing but it probably will. When I first got Hannah she was 6 months old and she was really skiddish. Her previous owner kicked her, locked her up and well he never let her really be a dog. She was up for sale because he was tired of her messing in the house, chewing up stuff and all the things that puppies do. She had a dislocated shoulder when I got her and she was so afraid of men. I have found tricks that have let her trust the males in our lives. If it is a new guy she has never met before,  I have them sit on the couch when they come over so they are on her level and within ten minutes she follows guests around and gives them her ball to throw.  

She has a personality.She sleeps in later than I do and she loves that Holland can stay in bed until 11 a.m. She is a stubborn German and refuses to take any pills, she loves the lake and swimming,  she likes perching on couches to people watch out the windows and she LOVES LOVES LOVES her green ball. I cannot imagine how different the last 6 years of my life would have been without her, she is one of my favorite things in life. 

I made my traditional doggie cupcakes that I usually make for Hannah and Bleu's birthdays and we celebrated!!

Of course Bleu was never too far away until he got his cupcake!

Doggie Cupcakes:

Mix together: 

-1 cup flour

-1tsp baking soda

Mix in separate bowl:

-1 tsp vanilla

-1/3 cup honey

-1/4 cup peanut butter

-1/4 cup veggie oil

-1 cup shredded carrots

-1 egg. 

Add dry ingredients and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. 

Top with icing: 

8 oz cream cheese

2 tsp honey 

few drops of food coloring. 

Look at that tongue!

Pretty girl. 

I only have one picture of Hannah when she was a baby. Since I got her when she was 6 months this is about how big she was. SHe brought this stick in from outside and carried it around all day!

WIENER DOG!

Hannah and I in the College Station apartment. 

guarding the Thanksgiving rolls. 

I expect to have MANY more years with Hannah. My family has had a dachshund live until 16 and one until 19! If all goes well, we have time to make more memories to remember.

My New and Improved Dressing Room :)

So.... Holland and I have been renting the same home for a year and a half now.  It only has two bedrooms. One is our bedroom and the other is MY VERY OWN DRESSING ROOM aka, our spare bedroom. When we first moved in, the closet in our bedroom was the smaller of the two closets, so Holland got that one and I got the other room. MUAHAHA. Now before you go thinking that I am spoiled, you have no idea how small our closets are.  So small, that Holland could not even fit all of his things in his closet..... so small that Hollands mom gave us a roll away hanging closet for us to put the rest of our clothes on that did not fit in our two that we had. It was depressing, and often times I felt bad because I just had so many clothes! But really, I know our house is old, but I have no idea how people used these! My closet doesn't even have a light and I had to reach inside to find anything I wanted/needed. I often would use my cell phone in the darkness to retrieve clothes and eventually I would just give up and just keep the seasonal clothes out on the rollaway rack and the rest in the closet of doom. UNTIL NOW!!!

For Christmas, Holland built me my very own clothes rack!!! it was a few weeks before Christmas when the idea came to him. We were driving and all of the sudden he said " I just got a good idea.... I know what I am going to make you for Christmas!" When he said make I got really excited because he is awesome at welding, building and everything in between. I caught him measuring in my dressing room and I got all giddy like a kid " OOOOOOOHHHHH I said.... ITS FOR MY DRESSING ROOM!!!"  Two weeks before Christmas I was cleaning around the house and I usually go through Hollands pants before they go in the wash and I found the sketch but I was good, people! I peeked and instantly knew it was my gift so I stopped looking and I even gasped when I realized I had seen it! 

Well due to our trip out East for Christmas and New Years at the Lake House, my clothes rack made it to the house yesterday afternoon so I had ALL day today to organize organize organize. I popped in my Adele record that my sister got me and I sang my heart out and organized that room and it looks spectacular!

This photo below is a picture from when we first moved in with the rollaway rack.  So don't get all excited just yet. 

BEFORE

AFTER!!!!!!

 OKAY GET EXCITED!!!! I LOOOOOVE that I can see all my clothes now.  ALL OF THEM!! EVERYTHING!!! ALL OF IT!!!!!  Also, now if people come and visit, we don't have to roll away the other one to the corner.  I don't know if any of you realize the difficulty it was to get ready some days. Today, when I was going through my closet of doom, it was like I was shopping for new clothes. I found stuff in the corner that I haven't seen since I lived in College Station!

I wanted to take some photos to point out just how talented my Holland is. He used materials to give it a vintage feel (which I love that feeling about EVERYTHING), he said he stripped the poles to give them the rustic feeling. He even put levelers on the bottom because again, we have an old house and it is not leveled all around.

I seriously could sleep in here and just stare at my wardrobe. 

Shelves for all my pants, jeans and shorts! I even put scarves at the bottom. 

This was an awesome gift, and even if we ever move somewhere where I have a larger closet, this can always be used for a coat holder or we could add more shelves to make it into some furniture for another room.

Thanks babe, you are the best!

Back to work for me tomorrow! Looking forward to seeing the kiddos. Hope you all have a fantastic week!