Conquering the Popular Ladder

Shelf that is.....don't you love it when I fool you with my title?!? :)

The Ladder Shelf, oh so chic, oh so popular, and oh so expensive!

My sister and I are both in love with these shelves but they can cost an arm and a leg (at least by our budget definitions).  Here's one from Target, that's a bargain at $90. I don't want to spend that much money on the shelf, as much as I might love it. Furniture is not normally my budget breaker (that would be scrapbook supplies). I checked out the building plans for one (Sig helped of course) but it was going to be labor intensive and I wasn't going to be saving a ton of money.

Then in my blogging explorations, I found this blog and she had a post about a ladder shelf! Of course hers is super cool because it's made from a real ladder. Check it out and start reading her blog (if you're not already), she's got lots of cool tips and projects!

Pretty Handy Girl

In the meantime, if you see an old ladder out somewhere, give me a holler. I know how I'll use it!

A Special Note on Gardening

I love flowers so I tried to grow flowers. I had my first patio last summer and I spent a great deal of time and money setting up my patio garden. I bought lots of affordable pots in bright colors from Wal-Mart. I bought a Groupon for a local nursery to buy strong, healthy plants. I made sure to plant things with right amount of drainage and place them in the right amount of sun.

And they all died. All but the monkey grass. Because apparently you can't kill monkey grass.

Where did I go wrong!?! Oh yeah, the watering bit. Turns out that my gallon watering can still meant 4-5 trips back and forth to water my oh-so-plentiful container garden. (Maybe taking on too much at the start was my problem?) Consequently, my plants only got watered every few days.

If my plants had been in the ground, they would have survived with that. But my plants were on a concrete baking sheet, just roasting in the sun day after day.

So this year I put my plants out on patio near a gardening hose and they get watered every other day at minimum. They are gorgeous!! Pictures will come soon, I promise.

*Note- I still hold with buying quality plants at the start. This year I purchased mine from the local botanical garden's plant sale (Powell Gardens). The few plants I picked up at local supercenters just don't fare as well. Spend the extra dollar and you'll get a plant that blooms more heartily- especially if you're a weak support system for it like me!

Better Poppyseed Dressing

So with all this madness with the new house, me moving to a new apartment, working like crazy, and being lazy, I don't work out much. I figure when I'm settled in the new town I'll figure out some fitness plan. In the meantime, I eat a lot of rabbit food and try to keep my diet in check. (Except that it's summer so that means I have a lot ice cream right now.) Not to mention, a cool salad on a hot day is my idea of perfect.

Now as far as salads go, I adore Panera. They rock my world, especially now that I get free stuff every time thanks to the myPanera card. But I can't afford to buy every rabbit meal I eat, therefore I cook. Since it's summer, Panera has their strawberry poppyseed salad available. As much as I love most of their salads (the Cobb, Caesar, and Asian are favorites of mine), this one doesn't do it for me. Because I've found a recipe one better. ;-)
First make this dressing, it should make enough for a few salads a week for lunch:

¾ cup sugar (or Splenda if you're like that)
1/3 cup cider vinegar (or you can use an apple balsamic)

1 tsp. salt
½ cup oil

1 tsp. dry mustard
½ tsp poppyseeds

Mix it all together and store in a covered container. If you get fancy you can actually buy salad dressing containers to keep your home-made dressings in. I want one (or three) but haven't actually found any I like yet. I'd love suggestions!

Then when lunch time comes, all you need to do is tear open a bag of romaine lettuce or spinach (use a dark colored leaf for maximum flavor and vitamins), slice up an apple and strawberries, toss in some walnuts, celery, and green onion, bada bing, bada boom, you've got a yummy summer salad.

I chop the strawberry, celery and green onions ahead of time and keep in another container ready to go. The apple I slice daily because I'll end up eating the whole apple.

It's a great meal because it tastes like summer (we all know how obsessed I am) but it has ingredients easily available during the winter. Not to mention you get two servings of vegetables and one serving of fruit in one meal. Fabulous!

*PS- this salad is super cute for Fourth of July, add some blueberries to make a red, white, and blue color splash.

*PPS- this is also good with chicken if you're looking for the protein. If I add chicken, I usually use some leftover rotisserie chicken because it's more salty (to balance with the sweet dressing).

Disclaimer- this isn't an "original" recipe. I have seen versions of it ALL over the place. I have no idea who the original creator is, they are a genius though.