This and That...

So happy that Summer is here and we are vaccinated so we can go out and about!  The dish picture above is a throw together - our community has an area where you can have a small garden plot.  The cost is 5 dollars for a small raised bed or ground level garden.  That cost includes the landscape crews turning over the plots early in the season so the ground is ready to have plants put in the earth.   When we lived in our houses I enjoyed gardening...flowers and some herbs in pots.  I never was a vegetable garden person - I guess because my family never was.   All of our neighbors were...and we always had friends giving us home grown tomatoes and other produce.   Now...I just don't see the need to go through all that work - we live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and there are farms and farmstands all over where we can buy fresh produce.  And...the neighbors in our building who do have garden plots are VERY generous with their bounty.  Some put extra produce in a common spot for anyone to take.   I often find a bag of some wonderful, fresh produce at my front door.   That was the case this weekend - a friend gave a bag of snap peas - and I turned some chicken tenders, carrots, a pepper that was hiding in the crisper drawer, and the snow peas into a wonderful stir fry supper.  The snap peas were SO tender - much better than the frozen ones I usually use.  The other nice thing about the garden program in our community is that extra produce is also placed in the gazebo near the gardens...and volunteers package it up and donate it to the local food bank each week!

It was a very easy meal...just threw everything in a pan with sesame oil, a little ginger, onions...and finished it off with some soy sauce.  Yummy!

My other project this weekend was unexpected - while browsing around Bed Bath and Beyond I came across this shelf - 

I have a similar unit in white that I use in my kitchen and love it...so when I saw this AND the sign on the shelf that said it was reduced to $9.00 I knew it had to come home with me...

This is what the area under my sink looked like...I had those white stacking shelves but it was difficult to see what I had and to get to the items in the back - 

It took me a little while to figure out where I wanted things to go...some of the items I use daily I had sitting in front of the old organizers and thought I would try to avoid that...I put the items I don't use every day in the back of the pullout drawer.  There is a divider in the middle to keep everything from jumbling together...

This is the finished project....No more tall items in front of the unit that kept falling over.   I was able to corral everything in the pull out drawers, keep my hair care and some other products in the purple bin, and have my two body lotions within easy reach.  I alternate between the TanLuxe Tanning butter and the Booth lemon body lotion in the summer months.   I am hoping this system stays neat and is easy to maintain...

Have you been reading about how to do a "gel" manicure at home?  Several blogs and Pinterest posts have been talking about this for the past few years.   I decided to purchase the Gelous and the Gel Effect Top Coat and give the manicure a try...here's the process - 

One thin coat of Gelous

One coat of any nail polish ( I used OPI Strawberry Margarita )

Another thin coat of Gelous

Another coat of nail polish

Top coat 

I did this process a week ago today and I think it is holding up great!  I am pretty active with my hands, but I did start using my rubber gloves to clean the pots after dinner...I also put another top coat on on Wednesday and Saturday...it is fast dry so that was not a problem.  And...I have started to rub in a cuticle cream each night while I watch television.  I am not as good at using hand lotion - I do before bed, but not a lot during the day.  Have to get better at that...but I am THRILLED with the way the manicure lasted!  A little wear at the edges and a tiny chip on one...but overall - SUCCESS!

Last but not least...this visitor was eating the shrubs behind our apartment last evening.   I tried to get a better photo, but did not want to scare him off.  I say him, because he was starting to grow antlers and before he wandered off he was rubbing the antlers on one of the tree trunks.  I love seeing nature outside our window...and hope he stays away from the flowers!!!

So...do you have a garden ?  Do you grow flowers, veggies... or both ?  Any tips and tricks for making a manicure last ?  Or...animal visitors ???

Please leave a comment and any tip you have below - I love hearing from you.  Until then, thank you for visiting Our New Vista !