Joyfully Grown



 

We planted our first garden a few months ago and it's been so fun watching it grow! And most recently, even more fun that it's started producing some food for us! I think the fact that we planted it ourselves and put in a lot of hard work makes the food we've gotten out of it already so far taste even better than if we had purchased it at the store.

 

We hand built the raised beds, I held them together while my hubby hammered the nails into them to build them, we made so many trips to Lowes for dirt and fertilizer, hand picked the little plants and planted and watered them together so many times already. WE thought we were going to lose the garden when it snowed about a week after we planted but we only lost one plant, the rest were either okay or pulled through it! Yay!



We planted tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, red onions, a kohlrabi, and lavender, basil, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, sage and marigolds! It's been an adventure keeping check on our little plants, tracking their growth,  feeding them organic plant food, working the dirt, watering them, being impatient as to when they'll ripen and put on fruit and vegetables. But this past week we were rewarded for all our hard work with an assortment of veggies and fruits and green leafy things enough to make our first dinner from our little garden! A delicious garden salad!



It contained bibb lettuce, heirloom variety mix lettuce, heirloom radishes, a tomato, strawberries, green onions and sweet banana peppers! We ran out to the garden, Bella loves when I try to catch her haha. It was so much fun having Bella help me pick everything and of course she wanted me to take pictures of everything. We loved surprising Frank with our garden salad when he got home from work. And we loved eating it for dinner! I seriously think it was one of the best tasting salads I've ever eaten! It tasted so savory and almost a little earthy and was just amazing!

 

If you'd like to keep up with our growing ventures a little more closely you can follow along with us over at @JOYFULLYGROWN on instagram! Did you grow a garden this year?

 

Family Dinner, Shopping & Donuts | Weekend Re-Cap

 

The older I get, the more important family becomes to be, and there is nothing better than a backyard family picnic! Cook up the delicious dinner inside and carry it all outside to the picnic table, family all around, laughter abides and shoveling alllllll the food in.

It was my hubby and myself, Bella, my step-daughter Tiffani, her boyfriend Kevin, and their puppy Gemma, and my step-daughter Kristi and (her  little sons) our almost 2 year old twin grandsons! We had Caprese pasta, steamed crab legs, skewered Caribbean jerk seasoned shrimp and of course a freshly homemade apple pie for dessert! Yum!

The Caprese pasta is one of my favorite meals: bowtie pasta covered in a mix of oven roasted grape tomatoes, sautéed fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, Italian spices and salt and pepper. Oh! And don't forget to throw in the mozzarella pearls before serving it! I also love to add a little parmesan. Oh so much yum! And of course the shrimp skewers were one of my favorites. I love shrimp, especially when it's seasoned with our favorite Caribbean jerk seasoning from McCormick. We found these already on the skewer at our local Giant Eagle and grilled them up in the George Forman grill in our kitchen. Yummmm! I'd have probably eaten them all if I could have haha.The crab legs were delicious. Seasoned perfectly and messy and reaaaalllyy messy and yep, you guessed it, delicious. The pie turned out good, I whipped it up last second, made the pie crust from scratch, peeled and sliced the apples and made the pie filling from scratch. It smelled of apples and cinnamon and spices and warm crust... Mmmm! I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it!

We also had a couple fun days shopping, we headed to the outlets and got so many good deals... A Columbia brand winter coat for Bella, regularly $75, we got it for $27! Talk about a deal! And I got a cute winter shirt at Aeropostale for $3! Oh, and at Haggar, we snagged an $80 sweater for my husband for only $10! And we got a ton of things at Carter's for less than $35! Some serious money saved!

We also stopped in at Burton to look at clothes and Bella spied the entire line of snowboards in the racks against the back wall... She was in heaven! She grabbed the pink one and wanted to take it home! She kept saying "I'm gonna take it home, I wanna take it home". It didn't make it home with us but she got to try it out which made her day for sure.

And then there's the donuts... Gah! Literally THE BEST donuts I've ever eaten in my entire life! We stopped at Peace, Love & Little Donuts and purchased a half dozen. I got a s'mores donut and a maple bacon donut. That maple bacon donut was like a glimpse into heaven, or at least it felt that way lol, it was one of the best things I've ever eaten! Frank got a maple bacon one as well, and also a cookie dough donut, and Bella wanted a fruity pebbles one. After eating her donut, we asked her if she liked it and she said "Yep! Let's go get more". Hahaha! She's definitely our daughter.

We stopped at Charley's Philly Steaks for subs, french fries and lemonade for lunch, (and it seems like all I talk about is food haha but...) they were so good! I definitely love a good Philly steak (or in my case, chicken) sandwich! All the meat and onions and peppers and cheese and bread!  Talk about comfort food!

We ended up going back to the outlets on Monday because we needed a mirror for Bella's room (the complete room reveal will be up so soon) from Kirklands, and we of course had to grab some more donuts. Yep, more food, more donuts. Haha. But life is short, right? Eat allllllll the donuts. Hope everyone is having a great week!

 

Adventures with Wren & James

 

Simple things are the best things to me. Things that don't cost a thing and make the best memories. Simple things like being with the ones I love and being outdoors. A couple days ago we decided to take a trip after dinner to McConnell's Mill State Park. It's so breathtakingly beautiful there... waterfalls. Rushing, gurgling streams. Moss covering everything. Ferns everywhere. Wildflowers I've never seen before. Huge rocks. A lovely trail to walk. An adorable bridge across a water fall and natural spring. Truly the loveliest scenery. We even found a little (almost hidden) beach during our hike along the trail, and Bella found a little shell while playing in the sand! The rocks make you feel so small, and the beauty of it all makes you feel like you're in another time and another place, certainly not so close to home.

 

Of course Bella wore her favorite dress (and truth be told it's one of my favorite too), her vintage inspired red gingham pinafore from Wren & James. If I'm completely honest it's become one of my most favorite dresses of hers as well and I really wish it came in my size too haha.

 

 

It reminds me of a classic traditional American summer, fireworks, adventures that take little exploring feet everywhere, homemade pies, the county fair, a homegrown garden, picnics, and of olden times passed that I wish were still here. Yep, I'm one of those people who would go live back in time, in the 40's or 50's, if given the chance as long as I could take my loved ones with me.

 

You guys, I could really see a Wren & James addiction starting here lol. Pretty sure she's going to need one of these dresses every single summer (they do all the way up to a girls size 10) from now until she's too big for them. Maybe we'll even switch it up and choose a new color every year? These gorgeous dresses come in cornflower blue gingham, sunflower yellow gingham, ballet pink gingham, Kelly green gingham and of course the traditional red gingham. The colors are all so beautiful and are perfect for almost any occasion, from a summer child friendly wedding (how cute would one of these even be as a  flower girl dress?!), to a family picnic, to Sunday school at church, to outdoor playtime, to even a first day back to school outfit later this summer. This pinafore dress really can't go wrong for any occasion. You could even pair any of these with a long sleeve tee, tights and boots for when autumn rolls around to create the perfect fall outfit for frolicking in the leaves (and pretty sure the cornflower blue gingham would make an adorable Dorothy dress for Halloween).

 

 

Oh and did I mention how well these dresses are made? The fabric is both soft and thick, when we were on our hike Bella took a tumble and scraped  her knee and both of her little legs, blood everywhere, but even though it got on the inside of her dress skirt, none of it bled through to the front of her dress at all! And I love the detail of the 3 wooden buttons on the back. Wooden buttons just give me all the heart eyes!

 

Wren & James was started by the loveliest Kiley, she studied fashion design in New York years before meeting and falling in love with her husband. When they settled down and started a family she chose to leave being a designer in New York and all that came with it to focus on her children and being a mama. But that didn't stop her creativity and it wasn't long after their daughter Mazie was born that Kiley designed and made the first outfit for her. From there she started receiving tons of requests from friend's and neighbors who wanted the same outfits for their daughters and from there Kiley rediscovered her love for fashion and design but this time with a focus on her children! She focus's on vintage inspired dresses since she has always been inspired by classic silhouettes  and loves to incorporate the feel of childhood and play into all Wren & James clothing. Kiley says "I wanted to capture that feeling of nostalgia and wonder with my designs. This lead me to create a vintage dress with a modern sensibility. And this simple idea became Wren & James".

 

I'm more than positive that she has succeeded with that mission of making a fun childhood inspired dress. Don't forget to use code JOYFULTRIBE20 for 20% off when purchasing! Code expires 7/22/16. Which dress is your favorite? What adventures will you and your little find while she's wearing her favorite Wren & James dress?