Spring Garden Wishlist

With a new house comes a new opportunity to create our dream landscape! I'm really, really thankful that our yard has the perfect amount of "base" landscaping. Everything is very well maintained, nothing messy, quality evergreens...with plenty of space to make it our own. I don't know how much will get planted this year with our pending garage addition, but I cannot wait to really make the yard ours! Here are some of my favorites for the garden that we either currently have that are worth a mention, or on my wishlist!

1. Boxwood

My evergreen hedge, foundation bush of choice. I will never quit you boxwood!

2. Endless Summer Hydrangeas

These are the ones that if cared for well, will give you blooms over and over throughout the summer. Thats a big plus since most just bloom once a season.

3. Blushing Bride Hydrangeas

My parents gave me one when we got engaged in a pretty stone planter. A beautiful shade of white with hints of pink!

4. Irises

I love seeing these bloom early Spring. They come in a ton of colors and are so, so easy to grow. Great bulb.

5. Japanese Snowball Viburnum

I love these for the gigantic mounds and mounds of blooms they produce, twice a year. They look similar to hydrangea blooms, so of course I love them!

6. Holly Ferns

 Great for adding to beds. Come back year after year.

7. Trees- Magnolia, Crepe Myrtle, Holly

Southern staples! I love the natchez crepe myrtle variety.

8. Caladiums

Easy for your pots!

9. Limelight Hydrangeas

These are a great shade of white and light green, they bloom a little later in the season which is a nice change when everything else seems spent!

10. Hostas

I'm obsessed with hostas. They are also a favorite to clip leaves for arrangements.

11. Rhododendrons

These are in the azalea family. I love the bright pink blooms!

12. Creeping Jenny

Easy for your pots- one of my favorite "spillers"...

13.Sweet Potato Vine

Another easy "spiller"....

14. Kimberly Queen Fern

I get two every year for my big black pots and they last all season. I am on the lookout for them now. I usually buy mine pretty early and they still do fine all summer and through the fall.

15. Peonies

Oh how I wish I could grow peonies. They do not do well in our salty, humid climate...but a girl can dream.

You can find all of these on my Floral Love + Outdoor Inspiration Board. What are your garden staples?!

PS- Stay tuned for a really fun post tomorrow to get ya in the mood for Spring + Easter!

A Birthday + A Christening

We celebrated both of my babies two weekends ago and I wanted to do a mini recap on those! I know I don't share a ton of personal updates but this was a special weekend for everyone. Maybe I will get better about sharing more weekend recaps etc - but let me tell you, its a lot of work for doing that. Major props to those bloggers that keep up with it all! 

First up, my sweet Weeks' Fourth Birthday. He wanted a jeep and golf themed cake :) Our baker did a perfect job executing it! I also set up a black chalkboard runner on the table that I wrote little messages on. The food went on the table- I know it looks sparse in the pic and I didn't get one when lunch was served. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, hashbrown casserole, and at the last minute I got some frozen Nathan's Onion Rings {which were SO good! Such a good side thats easy and who doesn't like onion rings?}

Weeks was so excited when it was time to sing Happy Birthday to him with his cake presented! It was so sweet.

Weeks got a fun new swingset for his birthday from both sets of Grandparents. I know the kids are going to have a blast this summer on it! This was right after going down the slide the first time!

The next day we were up early for Frances Ann's Christening! Thankfully both kids did great on the front row of the church and Weeks nodded off during the sermon, ha! I was worried how Frances Ann would react during the actual baptism but she did great. 

You can find my dress and shoes here. This dress line is one of my favorites. A designer style but priced fairly, and such a classic look! This would be perfect for Easter in a few weeks. The shoes are not only so pretty, but so comfy- I wore them all morning up until after lunch with no problems. The heel is the perfect height. I fell in love with them last fall and they are on sale now!

We had brunch at my parent's beach house afterwards and my Mom set up fresh potted flowers, pictures of my sweet girl, and of course, another cake! It was perfectly simple and sweet for the occasion. Our menu was fabulous too: roast beef tenderloin sliders, ham biscuits, broccoli salad, fruit salad and twice baked potato casserole. 

We even got a decent family photo, minus FA being her curious self! I will take it though...love them to pieces!

Easy Beach Coverups

white tie belt coverup // smocked blue coverup  // ruffle trim romper // pom pom kaftan // side tie coverup dress // tassel trim coverup // fringe coverup 

We are on vacation next week {YAY} and coverups have been on the brain. Even though it's still a little early to be needing them, I have learned the good ones sell out fast and early in the season. So go ahead and find your favorites and don't wait! I regret it every time I do! Also, a requirement for me is it has to be EASY. No mess, and fuss. Something I can be getting up and down in out of my beach chair and be totally comfortable when it is 100 degrees. Most of these are well under $50, one under $80 full price {but on sale makes it much less!}. Happy Saturday y'all! 

PS- This coverup is a little more, but I can justify that for one really cute coverup a year. Stephen asked if I wanted anything new for our trip {husband of the year!!} and I quickly responded with this baby. Let's see if he pulled the trigger ;)

My Hello Fresh Review

I mentioned a few weeks ago we were trying out Hello Fresh and since I was very curious about how it would all go, I wanted to share my honest opinions about the food and service! As I mentioned before, my Mom forwarded me her code to make my box $20 for three meals. This is discounted $40, the regular box is $60. So, right off the bat I felt like I was getting a great deal. By the way, everyone receives their personal code that they can pass along, and in turn you get rewards for each person that signs up. The good thing about Hello Fresh, and I am guessing other meal delivery services, is that you can stop them at any time. I would never sign up for one that didn't allow that! You also get to pick your meals out of a handful of options. So now that we know the basics lets go over the food, meal by meal!

Our first meal was made on Sunday night and I thought the most involved recipe was best for this night, the Tater Topped Pot Pie. I did get excited knowing I just had to pull out that one box that had everything right there in it...no hunting, and back and forth to the fridge 40 times. In my honest opinion, a few of the potatoes were not the freshest and some of them were smaller than what I was expecting {i.e tiny potatoes!} which I think makes them harder to peel. Were they bad potatoes? No. But, I probably would have picked a few others in lieu of them at the grocery store. The mushrooms were really fresh. The finished meal was good, and I am not a huge pot pie fan! Potatoes and pot pie are right up Stephen's alley though and he loved this meal. Right away, Stephen commented that we should be doing this delivery service every week because he was impressed with the result and the price! By the way, we spend way too much money at the grocery store. It also made enough for leftovers, which was nice for Weeks the following day for lunch.

The next meal was Sassy Soy Chicken, Broccoli and Rice. I absolutely loved this meal in terms of flavor! The broccoli had a few yellow spots, so again, probably would have picked something a teeny bit fresher, but it did not affect the end result of the meal. I just trimmed that part off. They provided chicken thighs- one was pretty large and the other was significantly smaller. All this means is that one was done a little before the other, and Stephen had a lot more chicken than me! 😉  The peanut sauce that I made with it was really good too, similar to something I would have found in a restaurant and never thought to make at home! Overall, I was really impressed with how this meal turned out. It was delicious.

The last meal was the Sirloin, Parsnip Wedges and Creamed Spinach. Another really, really great meal. My parents happened to be in town and they had coincidentally chosen the same meals for the week. We opted to pool our meals together this night so we could eat together. I think this meal ended up taking the most time to prepare, but we were also catching up and entertaining kids at the same time. My Mom had some fresh green beans that she brought along that we added to the meal. Again, this meal really impressed me. I saved the recipe card and will definitely recreate it again, probably for a special occasion. By the way- I don't think I had ever eaten parsnips before?! Their take on the wedges made them seem like fries, but are much healthier. This was a fun discovery.

So, the big question is...will I do this again? Absolutely! I really enjoy cooking and planning our meals so I will not be doing this weekly, but Stephen and I decided we will do it about once a month or so, depending on the menus offered and our schedules for the week. I have to say, I wished on Sunday night I could have grabbed a box out of the fridge and started cooking. I also think you are getting really great meals at a fraction of what you would pay at the grocery store. The good definitely outweighed the bad, which was minimal. I think I learned a bit too! Our recipes also called for roasting vegetables several times, and they turned out fabulous. Roasting veggies is not in my usual routine and I will be incorporating that into future cooking!

If you guys are still reading, thank you! I know you probably didn't need to hear every detail about my dinners but I wanted to give an honest opinion! If you want to try it out, my link is here {code is KRHILLM}. Any questions? I am happy to answer! Have you tried a meal delivery service yet?

Some Shopbop Faves!

As you might know, Shopbop is having their buy more, save more event which is really nice ahead of the Spring season! I wanted to mention a few items I own and a few I have my eye on that are a part of the sale. One of my most asked about items- these sunglasses!

Super Duper Sunglasses 

I wanted these forever and they were so worth the wait! Snagging them on sale makes them all the better, right? Also, since y'all have asked me about this before, this is the Curling Iron Used!

Petty Suede Bootie

I got these for Christmas and have loved them. They are super comfortable and go with so many things as we are transitioning towards Spring!

Flamingo Smoking Slipper

A Valentines present. They don't have a ton of sizes left in this one but you can see the rest of the Soludos collection here. They are super, super cute. I'm obsessed!!

 We are headed to Florida in a few weeks so I have resort wear on the brain...

Coverup

A pretty coverup that is easy to throw on...comes in several colors. This brand makes a long coverup as well but it is way too hot in the summer here for a long coverup! #nothanks

Coverup

I am so obsessed with this one! It also comes in a pink/white colorway.

Garage Addition Planning

One thing that was always in the plans was to build a garage to our two story colonial. After living with out one for three months, its safe to say we are definitely garage people and miss having one so much! {Our last house had a carport, exterior storage room and shed...which worked fine but we much prefer a garage!} We have worked with a few different builders now to get estimates and are hopefully getting close to where we want to be. Not only am I excited about having a garage again to hide our junk, but I am also looking forward to the landscaping around it! I think it will be the perfect way to put our "touch" on our backyard. Due to the way our lot and house is set up, there will be a breezeway that connects the house to the garage. Here is what I have been daydreaming about, found on my pinterest board "exteriors"....

source

source

source

source

source

source

What do you all think?

Cooking Lately + Dinners Next Week

Since the start of the year we have been cooking a ton of Skinnytaste recipes when I want to follow a recipe out of a book. We average homemade meals about 5 nights a week, 1 night at my in laws for dinner, and 1 takeout night a week. Occasionally we get brave and go out to dinner as well ;)

I will do a post soon on the Skinnytaste recipes we have tried and how they turned out. Chances are you have probably made one of Gina's recipes. I love that she somehow cuts down on the bad stuff and never skimps on flavor. It still sort of baffles my mind! After making her recipes I feel like I have learned some little tips on substituting and how you can eat healthy and eat really well at the same time. So that has been fun!

One thing I have been thinking about doing for so long is trying out a meal delivery service. {No this is not sponsored, I'm just like you all!} I have no less than four coupons for them laying around the house, stuck in those dreaded "piles" of miscellaneous papers and magazines and mail we all have. Finally, my Mom forwarded me her coupon code to try out Hello Fresh this week and it just so happened that both kids were napping and I took 2 minutes to sign up. The deal is for three meals- $20 for your first week {taking $40 off the weekly total} Heck, $20 for 3 meals? That is way more cost efficient than our daily trip to the store {true story}...so I am giving it a shot this week. Our delivery is set for Saturday and here is what is on our menu for the week!

Tater Topped Pie

Butter Basted Sirloin Steak with Parsnip Wedges and Creamed Spinach

Sassy Soy Chicken with Broccoli and Lime Peanut Sauce

So those all look pretty delicious and I feel like we are getting a bang for our buck for $20, and honestly, also at the full price of $60. I'm excited and will report back how everything turns out! I probably won't do this every week, but maybe about once a month.

Are you subscribed to a meal delivery service? So, if you are like me and are new to this you can use my personal code {everyone gets one} to get the same deal. You get rewards for referrals, so why don't we all take advantage of this deal and pass your own codes on too! Win win! :)

Here is my link :) {KRHILLM}

Happy weekend y'all....hope it's a pretty one for you!