The Better Martha Works In the Garden...Sort Of

For me summer is kind of like the annoying cousin that you see at the yearly family get together; fun and entertaining the first hour or so, but by the end of the evening you are counting down the hours until he leaves. Aside from the delicious fruit and not having to go to class, summer pretty much offers me nothing. I guess I can only say this as a native Californian who experiences warm weather year round, but honestly I just want to go back to sweater weather.

{Old water fountain used as a flower bed}

My parents, however, love the grueling heat since they are from Jamaica. On the weekends my dad isn't working they spend countless hours gardening and making multiple runs to Home Depot. I've always been the type who prefers getting glue and glitter under my nails rather than dirt. Today I just looked on, snapped pictures, then retreated to our air conditioned house as they strategically planted flowers in the front yard. 

{Backyard flower}

{The surgery performing, video game playing, gardening hands of my parental unit}

The Better Pasta Dinner

Until college I never knew that you could mess up pasta. In my household it has always been the dinner reserved for days when no one wants to spend time preparing a meal. But oh, college has opened my eyes to a variety of things I hoped never to experience; like noodles that are undercooked and generic sauce straight from a can. The culinary atrocities I have witnessed in pursuit of a higher education!

Spring break is coming up and I can't wait to return home and enjoy a quality meal. 

On a total nerd note, can you believe the picture above was taken at night? I just got the Canon Speedlite flash for my DSLR. That combined with a few white presentation boards from Office Depot and it's like the sun never has to go down!

And not to brag or anything, but could I really call myself The Better Martha if I didn't bake a couple loaves of bread from scratch? But in all honesty I didn't plan to, but my parents are very spoiled. When I said I'd make pasta, they demanded made a request for some bread. I'm not sure when they started to think they were Beyoncé and Jay-Z and could start making demands like this. 

The Better Day at the Garden

Today the Bartley family (barfam as I like to call it, much to my mother’s dismay) took a trip to Huntington Garden. I frequently go because there is always interesting things to photograph, but this was the first time we went as a family. After, we retired home ordered Thai food and ate in our own backyard since we came home inspired by the outdoors. Here are some pictures!