Meet Ollie

So, I know I posted last week about our garden. We're currently trying to grow some tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. This past week, little green tomatoes started growing. We got VERY excited; however, then we started noticing that something ie. birds were eating the baby tomatoes right off the vine before they had a chance to grow!

Enter in the newest member of the Kolchinsky fam:  Ollie!

Only $12.95 at Lowe's tonite.  He looks fierce!

Hopefully he will keep away whatever is eating our garden!!

I'll keep you updated!

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Project of the week: Beaded Flower Tutorial

When I got married last year, I found an amazing necklace at this bridal store. It was insanely expensive so I went about making a knock-off version for my wedding. Here's how it turned out:

I decided to blog a tutorial of how I made it.

Materials

tear-shaped or round shaped beads for the petals

accent beads - round works great!

thin wire

1.  Thread 5 petal beads through the wire.

2.  Then thread the wire back through the beads the other direction. See below:

3.  Pull the wire taught and shape the petals around to form a circle. 

4.  Twist the two wire ends together

5.  Next, pull one wire up through the middle of the petals and thread 3-4 (whatever your preference) accent beads. Then pull the wire back through the bottom of the flower and twist the two wires together.

After that, you are done!

You can attach this to pretty much anything you want - bracelets, necklaces, shoes, headband, make it into a pin!

You can beef up your beaded flower by adding additional rows of petals. 

Take a the extra wire hanging down from the bottom of the flower and thread the petal bead. Then, twist the wire together. The wire makes it pretty malleable to position it behind the original petals. Keep adding petals. 

I also made one out of pear-shaped, gold-tinted beads

I recommend hot-gluing a flat bead to the back of the flower so the wire isn't itchy!

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Man vs Food at the Lake

My husband's parents own a condo at the 31mm at the Lake of the Ozarks. He grew up boating and swimming and skiing. He loves the lake. I mean LOVES the lake. During the summer, every chance we get, we head to the lake. This past 4th of July weekend, we invited my brother and sister and their fiances down to the lake to spend some time together. We had a fabulous time -boating, riding the waverunner, skiing and tubing.  Oh, and there was plenty of bbq and eating.

There are tons of what I call "on-the-water-dives."  We headed to one of these "dives" called Larry's on the Lake. They have their own version of the Man vs Food challenge.

It's a five-pound burger with a plate of fries and onion rings. While we were there, someone decided to take the challenge. 

Sadly, he was only able to get halfway through!

We definitely have our favorite lake hangouts. If you're looking for any recommendations, 

here are a few:

Best Mini Golf:  Pirates Cove

Best Breakfast on the water:  Paradise

Best Ice Cream:  Andy's

Best Tenderloin Sandwich & Pizza:  Fish & Co.

Best Breakfast on land:  On the Rise Bakery & Bistro

Best Mexican:  Mexicaliblues

I also picked up an old desk/work station this weekend that was Joe's parents. I'm planning another furniture makeover project so stop by again soon for my re-do!

Our House

Joe's parents were kind of enough to let us live in his grandmother's house after she passed away when Joe first moved to STL and I moved in after we got married last May. They did lots of renovations to bring the house up to modern standards. The kitchen was completely gutted; the bathroom was taken down to the studs. Here's a few pictures to see all the changes, both before and after.

After

It was up to us to fix up the outside and do the landscaping. It wasn't until this past spring and the weather turned warm that we actually started contemplating what to do with the yard. I was a little hesitant. I know absolutely nothing about gardening/landscaping. My thumb is by no means green. Last year, I tried to fill a couple of pots up with flowers and put them on our front steps. The flowers quickly died. And by quickly, I mean they died within the first week. So, you can imagine my hesitation.

Here's a before picture of the front of the house. There were two large bushes in the front that I convinced Joe we needed to take out.  Thankfully, he didn't know how much work it was going to be until after we were in the middle of taking them out. And, once we got started, there was no stopping.

After the space was cleared, we had to put down soil, place a weed barrier on top and then put in the plants. Lastly, we covered with mulch. Six weeks after, I can happily say the flowers and plants are still green and growing. I'd like to say I've grown a green thumb but I can't take all the credit.  I have a secret weapon:  miracle grow!  It truly is miracle! I don't think our plants would look this good without it! (PS - I am not a paid sponsor of miracle gro :) ) Here's a couple of after pictures.

Joe also decided we should start a garden. We started small this year, but so far we have a healthy-looking patch of green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelon. I'll keep the updates coming!

Pesto Artichoke Chicken Pizza

My least favorite thing about making dinner is trying to come up with something to make. Luckily our local grocery store provides recipe ideas and samples along with all the ingredients in one location every day. 

A while back they had an awesome recipe for pesto chicken pasta. I decided it might make a better pizza than pasta recipe. I am also a lover of artichokes and spinach so I added that as well to my make-shift pizza.  It's been a hit at our house. Here's the recipe:

1 pizza crust

pesto sauce

grilled chicken (already cooked)

marinated artichoke hearts

spinach leaves

mozzarella cheese

Make the pizza crust as instructed. I recently bought a "pizza crust kit" from Crate and Barrel which was fabulous but a little pricey. 

Top the crust with pesto sauce, artichokes, chicken, spinach and cheese

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Cardinals Game

Since getting married last year, my morning alarm has changed from the pleasant sounds of music on the radio to ESPN's Mike and Mike in the morning show (Joe's request). Hence, my sporting current events knowledge has dramatically increased.  I know all the ins and outs of the dispute between the owners and players in the NFL. I know Lebron James embarrassed himself in the NBA finals. Mostly recently I was jarred awake by Dirk Nowitzki singing Queen's "We are the Champions." I also know he shouldn't quit his day job and start a career singing like the ever popular Kareem Rush recently did. 

I've only lived in St Louis about a year now. However, I've listened to more stories on the news and radio about Albert Pujols and Stan Musial than I care to count. Seriously, when Stan Musial won the Medal of Freedom there was a TV special about his life almost every night and the sports portion of the news was devoted entirely to him every nite for about a month (no exaggeration).  The drama over Pujols not signing his contract this spring reached a frenzy and the "will he or won't he sign" debate went on and on. (Unfortunately it's still not over). However, I'm pretty sure he's kicking himself now that he broke his hand (another fun fact I learned on Mike&Mike's show).

However, it has been refreshing moving to a city where the hometown baseball team is actually a winner (sorry KC Royals fans). I was only 4 in 1985 when the Kansas City Royals last won the world series and were actually fun to watch!

Last nite we enjoyed a nite at the baseball game cheering on the Cardinals with some of our friends. 

Happy Summer!

Jill

Welcome!

Welcome to my fabulous new blog! I decided to start a blog to document my creative projects, life and adventures in St Louis! Thanks for stopping by!