Well hello...It's a very uncharacteristic rainy mid-July day here in puddle-y Portland, giving me the opportunity to unexpectedly have the morning off from work. As I was sipping my morning tea and catching up on my blogger reading list,I realized I haven't had a post on Pdxpectations in almost two months! My how time flies. Listening to the rain pitter-patter on the roof of my computer room, (and flow freely into our fantastic rain barrel) I decided this might be the perfect time to bring all you Pdxers up to speed on what we've been up to.
So, you know we built the barrel, and the obvious next step was to plant a garden so the barrel has a purpose. The first step was to rent a sod cutter to get rid of the "grass" in the area of our front yard where we wanted to plant.
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| Good thing I have Shawn to figure these things out. |
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Once we cut the sod, we had to bring in soil, till it all in and then build the raised rows so we could plant. Again, I am very happy for the manpower of my future husband during this point of the process.
Next up we planted all of our seeds. We have beets, squash, spinach, arugula, carrots, romaine and cantaloupe, just to name a few. The last step in our garden process was to keep our little creation watered everyday, and our fingers crossed. Shawn built the raised rows on a downward slope so we can run the hose right off of our barrel and it will gradually water the whole garden.
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| It's a small photo, but this gives you an idea of the finished product. | |
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Now it's all about picking, pruning and eating all of our deliciously home grown organic produce! It's a project that's been a lot of work, but overall very rewarding.
Of course, this is just one aspect of what's been keeping me busy...what else has happened since my last post? Well, we went back East and attended and helped execute the fabulous wedding of my brother and his new husband. Congratulations again to the Léger-Small's!!! I learned a TON about the do's and dont's of putting on a DIY wedding, and am feeling more confident than ever that we will be able to pull off our own wedding pretty seamlessly.
Oh yeah, that reminds me, it's less than three months to our own big day!!! Let's see, I've had my first dress fitting, bought my shoes, ordered the invitations, met with the Baker, DJ, & Reverend, hired a bartender and coordinator (it sounds fancier than it is, these two are just my co-workers), and I'm creating my own centerpieces and decorations. The bridesmaids dresses are in, as are the flower girls. What else? Oh, we're planning and executing our own menu and hoping that everyone can actually make it to the venue on the Wedding Day...we just found out the Portland Marathon is happening on the same day. Last but not least, I've been working my tail off down on the waterfront, including a very long and profitable Blue's Festival and Fourth of July Weekend.
So, you see, this is why Pdxpectations has taken a back seat to just a few of the other things I have on my plate right now. I'm not complaining though. I'm thrilled to be a thoroughly happy and busy little bride-to-be. Life could not be better and I'm thrilled to share it all with you. Here are a few more pictures to highlight what we've been up to.
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| Just a bit of the pre-wedding set up. |
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| Great job on the fire pit Shawn! |
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| One of my favorite pictures of the soon-to-be newlyweds. |
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| We're up next. Hope our wedding can be as amazing as theirs was! |
