So... after registering for wedding gifts, two bridal showers, a wedding and so much generosity from our family and friends, we recently determined that we don't have a gravy boat.

Exhibit A:



Need a close-up?



That, my friends, is a homemade pot roast with carrots, onions, potatoes, all the fixins, so to speak. I even lit candles! I was attempting to get my homemaker badge for the day! But there was no gravy boat. Homemade gravy, yes. Boat, no. So I improvised. And we were accurately able to measure how much gravy we had poured. :-P

At Macy's the other day there were these lovely gravy boats on the clearance rack:



Lovely, no? However, please note that I said gravy boatS. Plural. These boats come in a set (fleet? flotilla?) of two. Who needs two gravy boats?! 99.99% of the time, I don't need ONE gravy boat!

I couldn't fathom buying (and storing for all but one day a year) two gravy boats. However, I did find this set on the same clearance rack:



Please refer to the cute lil cream pitcher and sugar bowl hiding in the back of that grouping. This was the set I found. I thought "Hey, that could be a gravy boat the 0.01% of the time I need one and a creamer pitcher the rest of the time!" (And who doesn't need a sugar bowl?) I grabbed that set and ran it over to the price check scanner thing to see how much it was. $15.20?! Not such a terrible price, but this is the clearance rack and the tag on the box only says $14.99! (But this is Macy's and you know how they like to change their prices on a weekly basis...). I took my box, marched up to the lady at the counter and demanded she check the price (noting the discrepancy... and probably politely asking, not demanding). "Why, look at that!", she said. "Well, I'll just give you 40% and an additional 50% for being on the clearance. That'll be $4.88".

Needless to say, I bought the set. And next time I make gravy, I'll be ready. I still don't have a gravy boat, but I've got a solution that works for me!

As support for my cabin fever post, I present photographic evidence.

We went from this scenic vista, in late October, early November...



To this in January.



From a lush, verdant lawn in October...



To the Pittsburgh tundra.



We watched the snow accumulate on the picnic table. First a paltry inch or so (is that all ya got, Mother Nature??).



To 4 inches... (now we're talking!)



To eight inches... (okay, you can stop any time now!)



To ten inches (really, we get it. You're the almighty Mother Nature. We won't disrespect you again!).



To snow as deep as a beagle (Mother Nature, Mocha is only 15 inches tall. Her lawn has been restricted to the 6 square feet under the picnic table. Can't you give a girl a break?).



It has been kind of nice, though, to look out our back windows to see this...



As long as they stay in my backyard and out of the grill of my car, they're welcome in the neighborhood.



If for no other reason than to torment the dog. :)

How many days 'til spring?? It's 13 degrees outside today and I'm dying for warmer weather. When we moved in in October, we did a few things outside. We built a fence for beagle containment, trimmed the front bushes and bought a reel mower. (Yes, we're those people who downgraded from a gas-powered mower to an old-fashioned human-powered mower!).
But besides those things, we didn't have the opportunity to do much outdoor work. So, come spring, the outdoor environs are uncharted territory!

Here are some images inspiring me to get through this bout of cabin fever!

I'd love to have a raised vegetable bed. As we discovered when drilling fence post holes, our yard doesn't have the best dirt. Also, the raised beds warm up sooner in the spring, dry out faster after rains (important in our wet backyard)and keep the soil fluffier (for a lack of a better term). I'll be planting the usual suspects: tomatoes, basil, cukes, zucchini, etc.





Also, I'm looking forward to doing a little landscaping along our retaining wall. I like the look of bright, fresh sweet potato vine and it seems to be pretty low-maintenance as well.



Have any other landscaping suggestions for me?

Here's a quick post on front door painting. To stand out in our neighborhood of very similar brick ranches, we decided to paint our front door red. (Actually, I have always wanted a bright front door and when Byron didn't hate the idea, it was a go!). The paint color is Red Delicious by Glidden. The door was originally white and this was after 4 (5?) coats. I think I may apply one more eventually. It's still a little uneven in person.






What do you think? Does this add a little snap to our boring brick neighborhood?

Here's a photo narrative of our holiday season! (I wanted to post this before it was completely irrelevant!)

Here is my glitter "Happy Holidays" banner I got on clearance at Michael's 2 (?) years ago. I love it.



Mocha turned 4 on December 15th! She celebrated by eating a bone the size of her head!



The 'theme' of our tree was 'Star Trek meets Starbucks' and had some martinis thrown in for good measure.









We purchased Phillips LED multicolored net lights for the front bushes. We severely underestimated the size of the shrubbery and had to buy two extra sets to make it look right. Around New Year's Eve, one of the middle sets burned out, making it easy for our guests to find the house (convenient!). Byron went out and looked and several bulbs were missing from that set. I think the mailman is screwing with us. In the third picture here you can see our snazzy new house numbers!







We had 3 other couples over for NYE. All of the ladies are also (nearly) audiologists. We played Cranium and Last Word and great fun was had by all. We woke Mocha up for midnight. Here also are my centerpiece, the whole room, and my cinnamon broom turned modern art piece!









Happy Holidays!

We live in Pittsburgh and we have a basement, which means that we have water in that basement. This is especially unsurprising since there is a big hill behind the house and it's easy to see how water can come down the hill and collect in the ground in the backyard when it rains.

When we first looked at the house there was some mold in one corner of the basement, so we had the sellers pay for a contractor to come in and get rid of the mold and clean up the little bit of water damage that there was.

We figured that would be that. But no, several weeks later we came back to look at it again, and there was water in the same corner. This time the sellers agreed to pay for a contractor to put in a drain all along the back wall of the basement to carry any water that came in over to the sump pump.

Since then we have not had any more water, but we'll see what happens in the Spring when the snow melts. So far we have been extremely lucky that all that happened before we closed and the sellers agreed to pay for it.

"Let's do the Time Warp Again..."

Want to know what time of year we are in here at Fruits/Roots? Here's a few hints...












I'm still posting chronologically, so we'll continue to be a little bit behind. But we've got lots more to show you!