Photo Fun with HGTV #lovehome and Giveaway #HGTV

I learned as a kid home is where you family is! It does not matter if its a big or small home, full of things or only the basics, a home you own or one you rent, what matters is the people you love live there. We moved a lot as kids but I loved it. I found it to be adventurous and any time we moved I had all the best friends I needed, my siblings. This last year my husband and I had to move our family into a condo from a house and again I realized its not the kind of roof over your head but the people in it. We had to find our dog a new home and that has been rough having no dog and a new place to live. We have been getting more comfy here and things like cooking in the kitchen, having plants to garden, sharing movies together and having parties together as a family is what makes this house a home.

Having a garden even a small one makes it feel like Home.

A place to have parties and celebrate the small stuff is Home.

For my son Home is where his Giraffe is

The word “home” can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. As leaders in home improvement, HGTV wants to dive deeper into the concept of “Home” and find out exactly what this phrase means to you. What does home mean to you and your readers? Home is your city. Home is your family, your friends, or your favorite neighborhood hangout. It’s more than just an address. It’s the place you fall in love with – over and over again. Capture the moments and share your favorite photos + you might even see them on HGTV.

Tag with #lovehome and  #HGTV on Instagram and Twitter. You can also check out the gallery of photos at HGTV.com/LoveHome. HGTV is all about ideas, inspiration and, of course, home. Every day we share with you all of our experts in renovation, real estate and design, on air and online. Now we want you to share what home means with us. We want to see real photos, from real viewers, of all things home. The birthdays and the lazy Sundays. Their best pals and four-legged friends. We want to see and share what home REALLY means. All you have to do is hashtag your favorite photos of home with #lovehome and share on Twitter or Instagram. You may even see your photos on HGTV. Over 40,000 photos have been submitted and we want even more.

http://HGTV.com/lovehome
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hgtv
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GIVEAWAY:
Win a HGTV Prize pack

1 HGTV iPhone Case (1 will be randomly picked from the variations)

1 HGTV 4GB Flash Drive

1 HGTV Headphone Set 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



 *Limited to US residents 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts April 27 2013 and ends on May 11,  2013 at 12:01 am EST. Winner will be emailed and has 72 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. The opinions on this item are 100% mine and may vary from others. The sponsor is responsible for providing the prize. I was sent a product to review for this post.

Digging for a Garden

Spring is starting to show signs of life around here in the great Northwest, flowers are blooming, trees are blossoming and garden growing is in full bloom. I want to plant a garden this year, one that gives us plenty of fresh veggies and the satisfaction of watching it take on a life of it's own.

Every year I say that I want to grow a vegetable garden but every year it I get overwhelmed with all of the planning, ideas and execution. Our house is built into a hill, the front yard is set back into the property, with a deck that wraps around the side. So a garden in the front yard is not an option. I go back and forth with the idea of a garden in the backyard. It is ready made in a sense but the kids play out there a lot during the spring and summer and I don't want to have to worry about them digging it up. Constant monitoring of the garden is not my idea of fun, I want the kids to help me tend to the garden but under my supervision.

When my husband and I talk about where to put a garden in there is one side of our house that would work out great and comes up frequently. It is off the deck where the kids can only go over to when supervised, it has the most sun during the day and it feels like an unused area just waiting for a purpose. The only issue is there is a tree that needs to be uprooted and a lot of blackberry bushes need to be taken out. It is a big job and not something that can be done by hand. The space is tight so we would need something like a mini digger to get in there and clean it out. It would be great to be able to uproot the tree, remove those prickly bushes and move the dirt around quickly and efficiently.

We are still in the process of planning our garden area, with signs of spring popping up more and more everyday we really need to nail down a plan and fast!


*This is a sponsored post.. The opinions are 100% mine and may vary from others.

Harvesting our Watermelons

 I love watermelons! They are sweet, juicy and good for you. The summertime is my favorite time to enjoy them. In a salad, as dessert and I have been trying to make it into a drink. This is the first year we have decided to grow our own watermelons. The only thing is my watermelons are tiny! I am not sure why. They are sugar babies but in the store they are bigger. Its the perfect size for my son. I cut it open picked out some of the seeds and he ate it like a bowl of ice cream!

I have seen so many cool Watermelon Drink ideas on Pinterest. I just need bigger watermelons!

photo pinned by The Luxury Spot

Oh My Squash!

This is the first year we have grown crook neck squash and zucchini squash. It has been so much fun going outside each morning with my son to check on the plants. We have grown huge zucchini and bright yellow crook neck squash. On my birthday we picked a few to have for dinner later in the week. I find growing plants to be so rewarding. I want to plant all sorts of things! Our watermelons are getting big, pumpkins coming in and cantaloupe beginning to grow too.

My son was saying wow cool when I handed him the first zucchini we have grown for him to take inside to show his Dad. My first thought was oh my I need to make fried zucchini rings with that! :)

Now I just need some great recipes for all the squash we will have in a few weeks. 

Do you have any recipes to share?

DIY Compost

There is something so soothing to me about growing things. Planting, watering, harvesting, I love it! I always say my garden nurtures me more than I nurture it. Nothing taste better than food you have grown yourself. Its like home made cookies your Mom make, its made with love! This year we have planted new things like watermelons and jalapenos along with our regulars like tomatoes and basil. If you plant basil and tomatoes mixed in together oh my its good! The tomatoes take on the basil flavor a bit giving the flavor a boost.

This year we thought we wanted to try making some compost for our garden. I am always tossing eggs that expire, rinds and peels of produce and thought there must be a better thing to do with them. We decided to do a mini DIY Composting. For now its on a tiny scale just to see if it works but we plan to go bigger if we can make it work for us.

Here is what we did:

We took a box, lined it with a plastic bag added potting soil then eggs and shells

Next we added the rind from watermelon we had the night before (I am sure any fruit or veggie would work)

Then we added some grass

Then more potting soil. It was only $1 for a bag of  potting soil few weeks ago I stocked up

For a touch of beauty I added rose petals from the rose bushes that line our back yard

Layered more grass

A touch of Christmas spirit lol pine needles from our tree last year.  I chop it up and use it as bark in the yard and there was pine needles still in the bark pile.

Mint Leaves from the mint that has invaded a portion of my yard. Smells so good!

Another layer of potting soil

A bunch of decaying leaves, bugs worms and all

More dirt!

Add water to the mix, just regular hose water.

Cover with the plastic from the soil and rocks to hold it down. Leave in the sun to break down.

I hope it works! We will add more veggie peels and such to it and give it a stir here and there. I do need a real compost pile though. This is just my attempt at seeing if it works. Wish me and my decaying matter luck!

Grow Your Own Fruit

 There is a fruit tree that makes yellow fruit each year that divides our property to the neighbors. I always thought it was their tree so I have not picked any fruit off of it. I did rescue a Mama bird and her eggs from it last June but thought the fruit was the neighbors. Turns out its our tree. This year I will try some of it. I have been wanting to buy some more fruit trees too.

We had a banana tree and an avocado tree that I accidentally destroyed with too much care. I know better now and was just at Home Depot (LOVE that store!) and saw some great fruit trees and vines. The two I want the most is a grape vine and a blackberry bush. In our first home my husband and I ate grapes right from the vine on hot summer days with the neighbors and loved them. As a kid when we lived in WA we would pick them from the bushes at my brother's school and eat them. So good to eat fruit that fresh. I am hoping to get some more plants for Mother's Day and plan to get some fruit bearing ones. Cant wait! Over the weekend I planted Sugar Baby Watermelon vines and Bell Peppers. My garden is growing and I love it.

What have you planted so far this year?

Not ripe yet but soon they will be bright yellow. Not even sure what they are lol

DuneCraft Seed Bombs Tasty Herb Mixture Review - Mother's Day

There is something so wonderful about cooking with produce and herbs you have grown yourself. It makes your food taste better in my opinion. Fresh basil tossed into your spaghetti or chives to go on some garlic bread is the little extra that can make a good meal great. I have been doing a lot of container gardening since we have been having work done to the roof I did not want my plants squished. Containers are perfect for herbs. It makes it easy to make sure they do not grow all over the place. Not a bad thing to have a ton of herbs but its nice to be able to contain them. (we have peppermint all over our backyard from the neighbors planting it in the ground. Smells wonderful when I mow the lawn lol)

I planted 3 in this small container. When they get bigger I plan to move them into bigger containers. (the fourth one is a rock. We place a rock in all of our containers for a mini decor.)

I planted a small container of the Seed Bombs Tasty Herb Mixture and am waiting to see them sprout. Its easy to plant it says to just place it on some dirt, water and they will grow. It also says you can throw them, toss them or crush them, all very fun to do as well. I like that its a mixture I look forward to the wonderful herb smells. Best of all they are made in the USA.

Seed Bombs would be a great gift for Mother's Day for any woman that loves to garden. DuneCraft, the makers of Seed Bombs makes many great mini gardens too. There are butterfly gardens, farmers gardens, rain forest biospheres and so much more. I could spend hours looking at all the cool stuff.








*I was not paid for this giveaway or post. I was provided the item reviewed in this post for free by the company or PR company that represents them. The opinions on this item are 100% mine and may vary from others.

Let the Gardening Begin!

I have been waiting for the nights to not be so cold to buy any plants for the garden. I did pick up some new gloves, a little hand shovel and seeds but have not planted anything just yet. Today while we were out shopping I found two cherry tomato plants that I had to have. Its just not Easter unless we have veggies growing outside. Tomatoes are one of my favorite things to eat. I love them fresh from the vine with cracked pepper over them. So good!

This old chair is a DIY on my list. I want to re paint it and fix the seat with a hole in it to turn it into a planter for the back yard. I saw some cool ideas on Pinterest and its on my to do list. For now I will just sit these on here off the ground so the local cats dont get it.

I am going out in the morning to buy planters and some soil for these plants. I did not plan on buying anything just yet, but the gardening at my house has begun!