Friday, May 27, 2011

"This Cocktail"

I usually participate in "this moment" inspired by soulemama but to be honest I really didn't capture any great moments with my camera this week. We had some. We just didn't get them digitized (did I make that word up? I can't say "on film" I don't use it anymore) 

So in keeping with the cocktaily spirit of things, it being a holiday weekend and all, here's a little tutorial video I made.

A simple but genius use of a mason jar!







Thursday, May 26, 2011

Cocktail Hour!

I know. It's a little early and only Thursday but we've had runny noses and sniffles for the past few days around here and mama could use a drink right about now. So instead of imbibing at this "inappropriate" hour I thought I'd share this cocktail recipe. Since having a baby and nursing have been at the forefront of my priorities for the past 8 months, cocktails have been reserved for fridays and only one.

So here it is in the spirit of the season... Basil Strawberry Lemonade Cocktail.


Muttle basil and strawberries in shaker.
Add ice, vodka and lemonade to taste.
"Shake what your mama gave ya."
Pour into glass.
Garnish with a sprig of Basil and/or strawberry.
Enjoy!


Options:
You could substitute tequila in place of vodka, mint in place of basil. 
Also, champagne would be nice too. (Do not put champagne in shaker!)

Monday, May 23, 2011

Random things...

Here are some random things we've been up to this past month or so...



Attending a Beltane Celebration in which I got to wear fairy wings and indulge my inner hippie.


Creating scrummy snacks out of a bunch of rag tag ingredients floating around my fridge like this morrel, eggplant, red onion, bacon and goat cheese "quesadilla". 





Going from these delicate pink blossoms with sparse gray trees as a backdrop...



... to this!


Same tree. I swear!

Finally getting the little nugget out in the grass to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine.



What have you been up to?

Friday, May 20, 2011

{ this moment }

a friday ritual - a single photo - no words - a moment I want to pause - savor - and remember
inspired by soulemama



Thursday, May 19, 2011

P.S.

I forgot to add #26 to my list yesterday.

Here it is officially...

26. Organize and sort baby clothes... like this.

My girl's closet is pretty organized. But her outgrown stash is not so much. I've been removing things as she outgrows them and placing them in a large bin. That's about it.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

2011 TDL: What's next?

Well here's the list again with just a few more items checked off.


1. purchase mushroom growing supplies and make preparations for logs
2. pot rack for kitchen
3. organize phone and message center in kitchen
4. clean and organize under kitchen sink
5. purchase supplies for maple tapping for next spring
6. new couch for living room and general living room design
7. paint dining room
8. figure out a better situation for shoes/recycling by the front door
9. finish reorganizing and clean dressing room
10. clean windows
11. start and finish handmade gifts for Jenny, Helen, Becky, Melissa, Allison, Carol, Sarah and Pat.
12. new lighting for Iris's room
13. organize and backup iphoto
14. clean out pantry and wipe down shelves and bottles (ANTS!!!)
15. find and purchase vintage ceramic egg holder
16. sort through wardrobe and donate, trash or repurpose
17. learn one new knitting pattern
18. learn one new crochet pattern
19. paint giant urn and candle stick holders
20. finish mending and repurpose projects
21. plant salad greens, tomatoes and kitchen herbs
22. keep blog up to date
23. start etsy shop
24. buy more vintage and handmake more of our clothing
25. run in at least two 5k's 

I posted about #19 here (although I neglected to include a picture of the candle stick holders, see below), finished a handmade project from #11 (it was a rush job so no picture) and plan on cleaning the windows (#10) just as soon as it stops raining. 




Cute, right?

I think #7 is on deck. All I need is a gallon of paint and some new rollers. I've decided on Rendezvous by Olympic. It's a nice subtle 
not-smacking-you-over-the-head robin's egg blue with a slight gray undertone.

Rendezvous is the top center color sample


#9 has been in progress for sometime and I will share some before and during shots soon. Complete after shots may be a little ways off yet. 

Monday, May 16, 2011

#19

The Painted Urn... sounds like a Polanski movie. But alas it is just one of my attempts to bring some much needed coolness (as in temperature of color) into our already very warm palette. You see we have lots of dark wood in our home. Furniture, cabinets, trim, floors, etc.. This urn was a wedding gift and I really like it's shape and even it's color if it were in a different home. We often put branches in it in the spring and watch them bloom. It's very dramatic.

Here it is before...



I taped off the strip of earthy detail...



During...



and after.



The picture is a little blurry but it still looks nice all the same under some lovely Aboriginal art that G. brought back from Australia (which I might reframe in a more black gallery frame kinda look).

I cleaned the urn with some alcohol to remove any dirt or build up that would prevent the paint from sticking properly and I used Rustoleum Spray paint in a high gloss finish for this project. It took about three coats and required very little active work time on my part. The most timely part of this project was dry time. No effort needed by me whatsoever.

My advice: Wear a protective mask and make sure it's not going to rain!

Friday, May 13, 2011

{ this moment }

a friday ritual - a single photo - no words - a moment I want to pause - savor - and remember
inspired by soulemama


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Oops... missed a few days

Sorry for the delay. I know what it's like to read a blog regularly and then it goes silent for a few days. No explaination, nothing. I start going through withdraw. Shaking, the whole thing (maybe it's the coffee). So here's a little taste of what's been going on around here in between all the spring cleaning. These are the bonus projects that are mentioned here where you can also check out my 2011 TDL.

Some DIY stuff... Bonus Project #1

This bird bath project I saw on The Art of Doing Stuff via Design Sponge. Here's the project link. I pretty much copied it to a tee. Right down to the ikea candle tray. 



My supplies. Ikea candle tray, three wood dows (painted), a level and a rubber mallet.


G. Daddy rigged this up so I could spray paint the legs without having to manhandle them. It's just a piece of plywood with nails coming up from the bottom. Then he gently hammered each dow down onto it. Clever!



This is the Magnolia tree that it resides under. Notice the hideous planter tray subbing as a bird bath. It's not even terra cotta... it's plastic!


I pounded each dow into the ground with the mallet, made sure they were level and....




Bird Bath!!

I even saw a bird using it yesterday!!


Bonus Project #2

The Watering Hole.
This corner of the kitchen used to be occupied by a blender, an ugly filtered water pitcher and random water glasses. It was chaos. After cleaning up under the kitchen sink and making room for that ugly pitcher I was able to do this...


A little white ceramic tray, a bud vase and a prettier glass pitcher can do wonders. Oh and the blender found a new home where the pots and pans used to live. You can read about that here.

Friday, May 6, 2011

{ this moment }

a friday ritual - a single photo - no words - a moment I want to pause - savor - and remember
inspired by soulemama


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

#4 Under the sink

This turned out to be a much more disgusting job than I anticipated. In fact, after removing a few items I marched into the bathroom grabbed a pair of rubber gloves and continued to remove all the cruddy bottles and such. It seems some mice had been having a real time down there. Even consuming a box of Rid X. No joke. The whole box.

Here's what it looked like before...

see all that mouse poop in the back and said box of Rid X! Yuck!

In case you didn't get enough.
Here it is during. We patched around a pipe in the back where the mice were getting in. Haven't seen any sign of them since.

Shiny.


And after.... ahhhh.


I got rid of almost all the super harsh chemical cleaners that were back there not being used anyway. I don't want them around when our curious little nugget starts walking (of course this cupboard will be childproofed anyway). I also left room to hide away our filtered water pitcher when we have guests or I just don't feel like looking at it. I'll post that whole debacle later.


Curious nugget.

So another one bites the dust. Feeling good about the progress being made around here!!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

# 3 Phone/Message Center

This little area has always sorta bugged me. An ever changing cup of pens, little papers everywhere. Cameras. A dumping ground for just about anything. Which made it a pain to clean because you would have to gather everything up, move it, wipe down the counter, then move everything back.

So I did this...


I installed (and by me I mean G.) a rail system from ikea, bought some S hooks, two different sized ceramic pods and a wood basket (actually meant for the bathroom). It gets everything off the counter and it looks sharp. I think it's a nice juxtaposition to the pot rack which you can read about here. Now it's just the phone, calendar and a pretty vase waiting for some fresh cut flowers. I also hung a nice black and white photo of G. and I where an old calendar used to be. I love it...IloveitIloveitIloveit!!