Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Garden Growing

Our seedlings made their debut a few weeks ago in their little planters on our kitchen table and some of them are finally ready to make the transition to the garden beds. So far the hardest parts about being gardners have been waiting for the indoor seedlings to sprout and knowing when they are strong enough to be planted outside. The tomatoes and basil are still so teeny tiny and frail that we think they might not be doing so well, especially in comparison to the sunflowers, peppers, and squash which sprouted out of the soil overnight like little green arms and have grown inches in a matter of days. 
Our strawberries and snap peas were starters that we bought so they are looking pretty robust! Sadly our first little berry was a bird snack for somebirdy else so we will have to wait to taste the next one. The sweet peas, romaine, parsley, spinach, and beets are all sprouting on their own little schedule so honestly we just water and wait. There's lots of wondering if this little shoot is a beet or a weed, and if this little sprout is lettuce or a volunteer from the last garden... it's so much fun and the suspense is killing me! 







I haven't gardened in a really long time and it has been such a special way for me to reconnect to my childhood and specifically to memories of my Grandma Jackie. It's also pretty much me and Joey's favorite hobby together lately and such a fun learning process. There is a wealth of gardening knowledge out there but sometimes all that learning the right way to do things is exhausting and you just have to put some seeds in the ground and trust the planet to do what it does. 

Monday, February 11, 2013

Little House Living: the living room



Decorating a tiny space and making it feel cozy is not really a challenge, it's the staying organized part that is hard. With two lives worth of stuff to fit into one small space, I knew we would have to get creative. Having a piece of furniture or area of the house that only serves one purpose is for mansion dwellers. We needed more uses for less things. My favorite piece of multi-functional furniture we have is our couch. Joey built it for us out of shipping palettes and a futon mattress and we love it! Bonus: we use the slots underneath as a book shelf. And that little table to the left of it is a brass-topped beauty that I found at a garage sale. Now it holds a lamp, some candles, fairy cards, gemstones, and some coasters while also hiding the baskets below it. Which brings me to baskets: the best and most attractive way to hide your belongings in a small space. These ones hold my weaving materials and other fiber bits, our terra cotta and stone clay collection, and extra boxes of tissue. The ones under our bed hold my makeup (the bathroom is a story for a different day) and all my extra purses/scarves/tapestries, and a bunch of Joey's things. I always find good ones at Ikea or Cost Plus World Market.

And now if you will direct your attention to the area just above the side table... this weekend I hand-dyed curtains! Two out of three of them were a success (not bad for my first try) and this little gauzy one is my favorite. I went for an ombre effect using a deep blue and then I folded over the top leaving the rough edge exposed and made some little golden stitches. The dying was a mess and not as easy as I had hoped, but I might try again.