Plants on plants on plants

I can't believe we are already halfway through July! I feel like this summer is flying by and  I haven't gotten nearly enough accomplished. However, our days have been filled with work, making time for friends, trying new recipes, and trying to find time to run together. Sadly, I don't have many new fun crafts to post. We are currently working on 4 or 5 different things that are all more than halfway started, but need the time to finish (which we seem to be lacking). Anybody else start their day with a massive list of to-dos and then find themselves reading a book or napping or getting sidetracked by a million other things? We are definitely guilty of that. The crafts we have been working on are all exciting though, so I can't wait for them to be done so I can show them off. In the meantime, this entire blog (minus my delicious recipes) will be dedicated to the awesome plants I am growing! My favorite part of our new house is the built in office. Not only is it super helpful to have a space to put the never ending pile of books I have as well as the school stuff that continues to grow daily, but also because the office is surrounded on all sides by windows which is perfect for indoor plants! My obsession with plants started around the time Brent and I started dating. Instead of buying me flowers, he always came home with a plant. It took me killing off a couple (okay like 4...) plants before I really got the hang of how to keep them alive. My longest living plant is a Christmas cactus that I am obsessed with. It recently got repotted and has since then doubled in size! I keep telling everyone, I want to buy a house--not for normal people reasons, but because I want a yard where I can have a garden and plant flowers and have a hanging basket (I'm secretly 24 going on 90..)

So even though this post is not filled with normal 24 year old exciting things, they are really exciting to me...and because I'm so smart, I hid delicious recipes at the end of the post--that way you are forced to look at my plants :))

 Look how enormous my christmas cactus is!! and if you look closely you can see the new blooms!

 The downfall of having Brent bring home random things he thinks are neat in the store, is that I have no idea what they are what they get home. I know this is a fern, but that's the extent of my knowledge 

 If you are looking at this--try not to judge the mess that is occurring behind it. The office is the last room in the house to be set up. The bookshelf is still under DIY which results in quite a few boxes of books that need put away. Regardless--has anyone ever tried to keep an orchid alive? It's impossible!!! I was told as long as the leaves are still green and alive that the plant as a whole is alive--even though the stems and branches look dead. Does anyone have any secrets I'm unaware of on how to keep this bad boy alive?

 This little fella is new to the household! I have absolutely no idea what it is but it's super fun and super bright which makes it perfect. I found the coffee pot holder at Jo-Anne Fabrics which is also ideal for my house and my obsession with coffee mugs. I bought a ceramic rainboot the same day, but have yet to find a plant that would look good in it. Anyone have any ideas? It has to be tall!

And last, my african violet..this is also taking on lots of new blooms and will need to be repotted soon! 

Seriously how awesome are they! I am currently growing a strawberry and tomato plant too, but am going to wait til they have grown a little bit more to post. You guys are gonna love them :)

Last but not least---here are the recipes of the night

Roasted Cabbage

This recipe turned out pretty good.  The recipe says 20-30 minutes, but if you want soft cabbage I would recommend leaving it in a lot longer. 

This is a weird link-but this was the recipe I followed. I combined the liquids together then using a spoon to distribute it to the individually wrapped cabbage. Then I topped it with bacon bits. 

http://media-cache-ak2.pinimg.com/originals/30/73/e1/3073e1c3c6218f4cf909ca8203f84a33.jpg

and...Peach Cobbler Cupcakes
seriously, peach cobbler in cupcake form. I'm a firm believer the world is happier with cupcakes. I don't know what it is about cake in cupcake form-but I swear it makes it better.

This recipe is kind of tedious and requires quite a few steps-but they were absolutely delicious. One of my favorite parts was buying the peaches fresh from the West Side Market!

DELICIOUS!!

http://une-deuxsenses.blogspot.com/2012/08/peach-cobbler-cupcakes.html

I have absolutely no idea where you find cardamom, nor have I ever heard of it before. I didn't add it in there, but they still turned out great!