Father's Day Succulents

This year I decided to make my dad a succulent arrangement for Father's day. My goal was to buy one plant and use the rest from the yard.

This was also really driven by this cute container I got at Hobby Lobby. I lined it with moss and then with chicken wire to give it strength. Then I filled in with dirt, then plants, then pebbles.

This little bloomer came from Natorp's. Oh, and the beautiful urn is my neighbor's. Thanks again John!

For NANA

Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there, I did not die.
-Mary Frye

Pesto Feta Pizza

I had to post this pesto feta pizza I made the other night because it was so pretty. This summer we are part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) from Hazelfield Farms in Kentucky and we are constantly trying to find uses for all the veggies we are getting. This week we got a little baggy of Italian parsley and I decided to make pesto feta pizza.

The dough is not hard to make in the food processor, but you do have to refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Here are the recipes:

Dough

1 1/2 cups flour

1 stick butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

cold water to form dough

Place first 4 ingredients in food processor (I slice the butter into chunks) and then slowly add cold water until dough moistens and sticks together. Put dough in refrigerator for at least 30 mintues. When ready, spread dough on cookie sheet and add toppings. Cook for 50 minutes at 375 degrees.

Pesto

1 handful of basil leaves

1 sandwich baggy of Italian parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
2 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Fern

The other day I went to Hobby Lobby and I couldn't help myself. They had all these super cute wrought iron containers and they were 50-60% off!

This is a photo of one of them. I lined it with moss and bought this cute little fern to put in it. The photo doesn't show how this fern's wiry little arms move in the sweetest way in the wind.

More Hobby Lobby projects coming soon!

Coral Peony

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers so you can imagine how excited I was to bring these coral peonies home. These were a hair past their prime, but still incredible! They measured about 7 inches across.

The color of these peonies starts off an intense coral color and fades to white as they age. The part I like the most are the yellow anthers that all wiggle their heads together if you move the flower.

Tulip Pods

I have been garden crazy lately. You know how it is...you are just going to weed this one bed; then five hours later you can barely straighten your back and you are dehydrated.

Anyway, I feel like I have evolved into a hardened gardener. I used to try and save every little baby sedum that accidentally got dislodged, or I would transplant every last day lily that was in the wrong spot. But no more nice Nessy. Now I am pulling out columbines left and right. Yes... even the ones with flowers! Can you believe it?

But this brings me to the current topic which are these beautiful seed pods. They were about to go right into the garden waste bag when I noticed how beautiful they were. Yes, they made this hardened gardener pause for a moment to consider their slender shape and hint of pink.


I have to admit I am a pod lover. I love pods of all shapes and sizes. I love the idea of all their little babies nestled inside. OK, this blog is getting too long. Enjoy!

Baby Raccoon

George and I had a crazy day yesterday. George spotted a baby raccoon that had fallen out of a tree while we were driving and the hole was really high so it was impossible to put it back in.

It was so cute. Its eyes were still closed and it made super cute bleating noises. We were a little grossed out by all the ticks, but we couldn't just leave it there.

So we picked it up thinking that we could take it to a wildlife rehabilitator we know. Unfortunately she was not home so we had a long night in store for us. Those cute bleating noises turned into incesscant cries. We fed it kitten formula using a dropper and that calmed it down for half an hour or so.

The cries were so loud we even tried bringing it back to where we found it in hopes that mama raccoon might hear it and come get it. But after an hour of waiting we decided to take it back home.

We kept it in the basement all night and we did morning feedings at 6 and 10. I was getting concerned because it was a little lethargic and cold during the last feeding and the rehabber we knew still wasn't home.

Luckily we found another wildlife rehabilitator online. She was one of the few that took rabies vector species. We drove the baby up to her this afternoon. Thank God for Marcy the rehabber!

I called tonight to see how she was doing and Marcy reported that she warmed up nicely on the heating pad and had a good feeding.

Now if George would stop making "coon itch" jokes maybe I could stop feeling like I have a tick crawling on me.

More Flowers!

This weekend we celebrated Mother's Day again with my brother so I decided to make another flower arrangement using just flowers from the yard (and my neighbor's yard - Thank you John!).

I started off using a trifle bowl and taped a grid to hold the flowers. I didn't have any floral tape so I cut regular scotch tape in half.

I used mostly solomon's seal and hosta leaves for the greens. Then I added peonies, iris, rhododendron, yarrow, heuchera, and some other unidentified flowers. My neighbor John not only "loaned" me his peonies, but he proposed we use his last two yellow irises to finish it off. Thanks again John!

Fancy Towels

I recently finished roman shades for the bathroom and I had a little bit of fabric left over so I decided to buy some hand towels and sew the extra fabric on to them.


I washed the towels and fabric before I did the project, but I didn't wash the trim. I hope it doesn't fray when I wash the towels. I tried using fray check, but it didn't seem to help much. Hopefully they will hold up. I don't want to end up hand washing these.

Happy Mother's Day

I started working a couple days a week at an incredible florist called Robin Wood Flowers. She has beautiful flowers and the arrangements are wonderful!

This past Friday I got to make my first floral arrangement ever. I was so excited because I love peonies and they are in season right now. It was also perfect timing for Mother's Day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!

Roman Shade Solution

So I think this is my solution to the fabric dilema. I am going to cut two bands of the Robert Allen fabric and piece them against an ivory background. This will solve the problem of being too stripey. I hope it works.

I will make one and if it doesn't look good I will just go with the vertical stripes. I am excited about doing a nice tassel beneath the bands of fabric. Oooooooooooooooh, the possibilites!

Canada Geese

When the wind blows
The creak of the fence
Sounds like far away geese

Fabric Dilema

Right now I am trying to choose between 2 fabrics that I love for roman shades in the computer room. The first fabric is gorgeous and is called Limonia Marble from Calico Corners. Here it is:



The second fabric is called Pierette Mimosa and is a Robert Allen Home fabric from JoAnn's. Here it is:



One nice thing about the Robert Allen fabric is that is has this coordinating fabric that I could use to re-upholster our rocking chair. Here it is:


I decided to try and do a quick and dirty Photoshop job to give me an idea of what they would look like.



From this it seems like I should choose the Limonia Marble over the Pierette Mimosa, but sometimes this Photoshop thing makes things look weird. Let me know what you think!

More Easter decorations!

The other day I was in Home Goods and I just couldn't resist this plate. It was so cute and had that vintage look with the scalloped edge. That place is dangerous!

I added the "Happy Easter" with a nice bevel and emboss effect in Photoshop.

I also promised more chick photos. I promise this is the last of it (at least this year).

Ok. I know it was a bit much, but I couldn't resist putting all those chicks on the chick plate! But the whole time it bugged me that those eggs weren't quite the right color with that plate. I almost Photoshopped them to be a better color but then I thought that was going too far.

Nest Cakes!

We are hosting bridge tonight so I decided to make Nest Cakes! I am addicted to Whoppers and my husband is an orthithologist so what better dessert than Nest Cakes?

They are super easy to make too! I cheated and bought a cake mix and tube icing. It turns out I should have made my own because I went to 2 grocery stores and finally to Michael's before I found chocolate tube icing. For some reason the grocery stores have every color but brown. Michael's had Wilton icing which I like because my icing tips fit onto their tubes. (The cheap plastic tips from the grocery store only fit on the skinny tubes.)

Before I did the nest icing it is best to put a layer of chocolate icing to make sure the whole cake has icing. Otherwise there might be a bare spot below the eggs and we couldn't have that!

I'll let you know how they taste. Hopefully delicious!

Homage to Sloane Tanen

If you have ever seen Sloane Tanen's books you will know where I got my inspiration for my Easter decorations. Her books are so funny! Her books are all composed of photos of mini dioramas with pom pom chicks. They are amazingly expressive little chicks!

I normally don't do a ton of Easter decorating, but when I found these little guys at World Market I couldn't resist.





More chick decorations coming soon!

Another Fabric Project

Lately the white plaster walls behind the book shelves in the family room have been bugging me. So I thought, "Of course! Another opportunity for a great fabric!"

I already made roman shades for this room so I wanted something subtle. This room also has a bit of an Asian flair. So I found this incredible fabric at Calico Corners.



I ended up basically making a roman shade but without the rings. I lined it mainly because I thought it might help insulate a little bit. I left room at the top and bottom for metal rods.


I ended up putting 2 screw eyes into the top of the bookshelves (actually my husband did this part). These supported the metal rods.


I was originally worried about the shelves making the fabric pucker because there is not much space between the shelf and the wall. But it turned out fine.


This is a photo of the final product. It is very subtle and not everyone would even notice, but I am happy not to have the white plaster behind there anymore. Even my husband (who was cursing me when the screw eye broke) likes it.

It's Spring!

Its so exciting to see what pops up in the yard. I know spring is here when the front yard is covered in crocuses. Then the daffodils pop their happy heads up and voila! It's Spring!

Roman Shade Done!

I am so excited because the bathroom is officially finished. Even though I showed you pictures in November of the closet turned bathroom, I haven't felt it was officially finished until I put the roman shade on the door. Some of our guests had complained that they didn't appreciate the glass door when using the bathroom (go figure?), so I decided to make a roman shade.

Originally I tried to make a roller shade. I bought all the hardware and the fusible fabric to give it body. But it was a disaster. I don't know why, but the fabric did not fuse properly to the fuse fabric. Maybe my iron was not hot enough, but I had to give up that project and switch to roman shades. I had wanted to avoid the string hanging down, but I'm OK with it.

I was so excited about this fabric. I LOVE it! I got it at Calico Corners originally to put in the cabinet for the sink. Then I realized that I wanted to make a roman shade. Of course when I went to get more, they didn't have any left and I had to special order it from California. I'm not sure if they make it any more. Its name is Belladonna. I got the wonderful fringe from Hobby Lobby. They were 2 separate fringes, but I thought they looked great together on this fabric.

Now our guests can have their privacy!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

So it all started because I thought I would make my mom a Valentine's Day card. Next thing I know I am printing 20 cards, cutting, scoring, writing in, and addressing Valentine's Cards. I always get carried away.

Anyway, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY everyone!