Odds & Ends, vol. 3

MichelleLeave a comment

It’s been a minute since I posted last – I’ve been too busy enjoying summer and a very busy toddler to spend much time blogging – but I’m back with a few links to share. We have a few home projects in the works (our pantry, powder bathroom, and master bedroom), which I’m excited to post about once they wrap up. In the meantime, here are a few things I’ve been loving.

Note: this post may contain affiliate links (i.e., if you click my link and make a purchase, I’ll make a small commission at no additional cost to you). Read my full disclosure policy here.

Cake Pan Pizza

We’ve been making this pan pizza recipe regularly for the past few months and it is SO good. A few changes we make (because I’m high-maintenance when it comes to pizza): use two 9” cake pans instead of a cast-iron pans, add an extra 10g water to the dough, and use room temp butter and then olive oil to coat the pan. We typically do only a 4hr first rise and 1hr second rise (rather than the 8+ hours the recipe calls for), and it’s been totally fine.

Read More »

The Best Gardening Resources for Beginners (Like Me!)

MichelleLeave a comment

When we first moved into our house, one of the things I was most excited about was planting a garden. I’m still very much a beginner, but last year I was able to harvest a few things (peas, green beans, raspberries, and some herbs), which was extremely rewarding. This year, I’m growing even more! We also have big plans to build some raised beds on the sunny side of our house, which I’m hopeful will mean even more successful gardening. (Our beds are in less-than-ideal spots currently – but preparing for a garden is one of the projects on our list for this year!) I’ve loved learning as I go, and I’ve put together a list of the gardening resources that have been most helpful for me as a beginner.

  • Garden Resources for Beginners: image gallery of plants growing in a small garden.
Read More »

Our Deck Makeover Reveal

Michelle1 Comment

Today, I’m revealing our (finally) finished deck makeover! When we moved in, our deck boards were old and rotted, the pavers were overgrown with weeds, and our yard had been about halfway taken over with vines and overgrown plants. This deck was one of the items on our 2020 home projects list, and it felt great to cross it off! Having lots of livable outdoor space is a high priority for us, because we know we’ll be spending lots of time in the backyard with Jamie this summer!

Image of finished deck makeover with table and chairs.

The backyard was one of the things we loved most about our house when we first saw it; we knew it had tons of potential for a great outdoor living space. Although small, the yard is quite flat and pretty square (a real rarity in western PA!), and we loved the mature trees. A few other selling features were the fence, the privacy (pretty good for a neighborhood), and the perfect combo of lots of warming sun in the winter and nice shade in the summer (once the trees have leaves).

After ripping off the old deck boards pretty early on, we left the joists exposed for a year-ish. We bought the new Trex boards last winter but between an error in our board delivery resulting in a shipping delay, the winter, and a baby, we didn’t get around to finishing it until this spring. We are SO happy that we finished it just a few weeks before our state’s COVID-related stay-at-home order went into effect. We’ve been getting a TON of use out of it already!

Note: this post may contain affiliate links (i.e., if you click my link and make a purchase, I’ll make a small commission at no additional cost to you). Read my full disclosure policy here.

Read More »