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My husband and I have been living in our house for just over 365 days. Last year, when we moved in, our 1/2 acre of property was already covered in warm-hued leaves; the trees were bare. Because we didn’t have a rake — or very much time — we hired a lawn care company to do a Fall clean-up. They mowed and raked and tidied up our property in just a couple of hours.

This year, I watched in dread as the leaves began falling off the trees. J and I decided that we would play the roles of responsible homeowners and not spend the extra money for somebody else to do our dirty work. When there was an adequate amount of leaves blanketing the lawn, we woke up early on a Sunday and began tackling the front yard. We got a quarter of the way through before we had to abandon our project for other plans. A couple of days later we did another quarter of the front yard. It took a little over an hour, but when we were finished, half of our front lawn was clean.

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Forty-eight hours later, you couldn’t even tell where we had raked. More leaves had abandoned their branches.

Like most couples, I imagine, my husband and I really only spend quality time together in the evenings and on the weekends. Occasionally I have to work on Sundays, so we don’t always have full weekends together. If we were to rake and clean our entire property, it would take one whole exhausting day, maybe two. In the words of Carrie Bradshaw, I can’t help but wonder: Is it worth it to spend the rare time we have together sweating it out in the yard? Or would our time be better spent if we shelled out the cash for somebody else to rake?

We aren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination. We try to live comfortably within our means. It is extravagant to hire a lawn care service to tend to our yard? Or is it a good use of our time and money? What do you think?

The ABCD Design 2nd Blog-i-versary is celebration is coming to an end. So are your chances to win a Hip Hostess apron with a set of matching tea towels! Pop by ABCD Design and leave a comment before midnight Wednesday. Good luck!

Welcome to this week’s edition of A Well-Stocked Kitchen, the series in which I’m sharing the tools that have helped me produce lots of deliciousness in the kitchen. This week, I’ll share with you the contents of my “stuff” drawer. This is my go-to small-tool stashing spot. It’s not very well organized, but it’s one of the highest traffic areas of my kitchen.

Anything I missed? What’s your favorite little kitchen tool?

Measuring cups x2. My biggest piece of kitchen-gadget-related advice is to keep 2 sets of measuring cups and 2 sets of measuring spoons on hand if you cook a lot. It makes cooking and baking a whole lot easier (and fun!), since you won’t be constantly rinsing and looking around for the measure you need.

Measuring spoons x2

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Over last weekend we celebrated Mr. D’s birthday. Last year, I ordered him the Coconut Cake from the Peninsula Grill in Charleston. Talk about a delectable cake!

This year, I wasn’t feeling the hefty price tag that goes along with the Coconut Cake but felt that I really had to “knock it out of the ballpark” if I was going to live up to his birthday cake memories from when we celebrated 34. I dug far back into my childhood memories banks - I remember my mom making this cake when I was a kid but it doesn’t seem to be written down anywhere! - and recreated a recipe from what I remembered. Three words for you = A.HUGE.HIT

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Welcome to another edition of A Well-Stocked Kitchen, where I’m sharing with you the tools and gadgets that have helped me become a better cook and baker. This week, I’m talking about small appliances, the ones that are relatively portable and can sit on your counter or be stored away when you’re not using them. These are listed in order of the frequency I use them, with most frequent first.

Which small appliance can’t you live without?

Food Processor: My #1 most used small appliance. Before I had one, I didn’t know I needed one, but now that I do, I use it constantly for cooking and baking.

Rice Cooker: Rice is my all-time favorite food (weird, I know), so this was a worthwhile investment. If you don’t eat rice too often, it’s definitely not necessary, but I make it at least twice a week. Mine is cute, little, and yellow, but it takes forever to cook the rice (over an hour for 2 cups), so there are definite pros and cons to this model.

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Darling readers, so sorry for my prolonged absence from EAD Living recently. Things have been mighty busy Chez Rachel & Husband but I hope things are settling down now. Some of the things I have been busy with include but are not limited to:

* London Fashion Week. Miele (or, the washing machine people, as like to refer to them) invited me, along with a few other bloggers, to attend the Jasper Garvida show and these are some of the photographs I have time to download and edit from the camera that Canon were kind enough to lend me:

* As some of you may know, I was made redundant just before our wedding in June. Since then I have been for many interviews but am still not in full time employment. I am however boosting my CV with various unpaid freelance projects including learning the PR ropes in a friend’s new PR business. I also spend every Sunday helping out in a beautiful vintage shop.

* Attending weddings. Aside from our own we have been to a further 4 weddings this summer with another still to come this year and another two at least next year. I do so love weddings and at some point will be writing further about this.

* Watching Gossip Girl. Series 2 suddenly appeared on our TV choice thing and I have to admit, Husband and I have spent a fair few evenings enjoying our new Sunday evening routine: roast dinner and a film/TV evening, together. Turns out GG is a good compromise.

* Cooking. We have started having our vegetables delivered from a local organic farm delivery service and have very much enjoyed the process of cooking more local and seasonal food, together, in the evenings. Turns out that I do a good line in veggie lasagne.

* Hosting birthday parties. With cupcakes and bunting and homemade pizza and pasta. It’s a fun way to host a party: make pizza dough, tomato sauce and plain homemade pasta and ask the guests to bring the toppings.

When written down like that it doesn’t seem too bad but combined with all the usual things one must fit into a week, it’s felt like I’ve barely had time to sleep recently.

I hope you are all enjoying the onset of Autumn/Fall. More to come on that note soon.

xoxo

My husband is turning 30 in December and as the party-loving wife, it sounds like the perfect occasion to host one heck of a surprise party. As the husband is a huge sports fan (baseball and football in particular) and an avid coach (both baseball and football…go figure), I’ve decided that a stadium-themed tailgate-style party is definitely in order. Luckily for me, all of his teams (the Atlanta Braves, the Buffalo Bills and the teams he coaches at school) all share the same colors of red, white and blue so that gives me a pretty good place to start when it comes to gathering inspiration.

{Cracker Jack photo from Passionate Eater}

{Martha Stewart does it again - I love these!}

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Have you all seen this trick? Next time you brew a pot of coffee, make an extra cup, pour it into an ice cube tray, and freeze. Then when you’re craving iced coffee on a hot summer day, you can use the coffee ice cubes instead of water ones… no diluted coffee!

You can do the same thing with tea, or even juice or lemonade. No one wants a watered-down beverage, right? It did take almost the whole tray to make my freshly brewed hot coffee suitably icy, so save these up for a single-serving special treat.

As I’ve lamented before on EADL, Evs and I have quite the blank space looming large right above one of our living room sofas. Finding a piece that’s affordable, fills the space, and is aesthetically pleasing to the both of us has been quite the challenge.

Then there’s my love of gallery walls.  However, The Cottage has neither a staircase nor a deep enough hallway to boast the collection of images I’ve dreamed up in my head.

Enter the “Shelf Gallery!”

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Welcome to another edition of A Well-Stocked Kitchen! This is my humble attempt to share with you, dear readers, the tools that have helped me become a better cook and baker. Today, we’re talking baking supplies. Another time, I’ll write about the ingredients I keep on hand at all times, but for now, this is the equipment that produces yumminess on an almost-daily basis.

What baking tool can’t you live without?

Silpat: This non-stick silicone baking mat/cookie sheet liner is one of those things that I never thought I needed before I had it, but now use constantly.

Muffin Pans x2: Most of my bakeware is the Calphalon Classic brand. I’ve been very pleased with the quality and durability of their products. Having 2 muffin tins has made making muffins and cupcakes infinitely easier. Many recipes make 24, and it’s quite the pain to have to bake a batch, cool, and start over with the same pan when you could be baking both at once. I recommend the investment in an extra one if you’re planning on doing a lot of baking.

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