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As spring has truly sprung, I am really starting to dig this backyard business. It isn’t laid out and “styled” in a way that it gets much use {yet}, but it is fun seeing things come into bloom.
First we had camellias, and now these awesome huge pink clustery-flowers. A quick google search leads me to believe they are from a Pink Trumpet Tree, but if you know for sure what they are, please let me know.
Regardless of the name, they make me happy … and that’s all that matters, no? Who knows, I may even be inspired to start planting something.
Anything growing in your garden? For beginning gardeners, where is a good place to start?
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Like this:
As much as I love flowers, blooming branches may be my favorite. Extra height and stature makes them err naturally on the side of dramatic, but couldn’t be simpler to keep or “arrange.”
When I spied these spiraea branches at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, I couldn’t help but snatch up a bundle.
Spring naturally has lots of pretty branches, but these white flowers may win my heart. For now, at least…
And as the blooms fall, they leave the prettiest little confetti – which makes even midweek feel like a party!
What are your favorite spring branches?
I am embarrassed to admit that I often only think of buying flowers, never picking them. Years of city living will do that to you – mentally train you to forget about things in their natural state.
But our current apartment has a cute little backyard with a few camellia bushes, that have been blooming in full force lately. So I am happy to say that I have flowers all over the house from our.own.yard. This, for me, is quite a treat!
Anything fun growing in your yard? Street? Neighborhood? Anything is fair game!
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I wish I could say my home was always teeming with beautiful blooms, but alas that is not the case. I pick up flowers from my favorite florist entirely too rarely, occasionally make it to the flower mart, and truth be told, many days they only thing living here is eucalyptus that seems to hold on forever.
But I do notice that I simply feel better, and the house obviously looks better, when fresh flowers abound. Most often I pick up stems at the farmer’s market or grocery store and do little to style them up.
I thought it would make for a fun series to check in now and again to see what’s blooming in our home.
This week brings some gorgeous purpley-blue hyacinths (picked up at Trader Joe’s) – and are the perfect precursor to spring (which feels close, at least here is SF).
Any fun flowers in your home right now?
In a departure from my usual manuevers, the house was decorated by December 3. This may be a new record for me.
Being a Thanksgiving baby, I am not one that gets excited when Christmas songs and Santa figurines start popping up mid-Novemeber. I take it as a personal slight. Therefore, I usually don’t get out the Christmas goodies until Thanksgiving has long since past. (At least that is the reason I am claiming – being lazy about it or a slow-poke could never be the real reasons.)
But this year, as a way to continue to make the season last, we decked the halls with plenty of time to enjoy it.
And in another departure from my usual antics, the decor is merry and bright! Glass balls and ornaments in pink, purple, green, blue and red – of course with a few of my old gold and bronze ones tucked in for good measure. And glittery-striped and package-shaped ornaments too.
A little trick to help make sure all the colors are evenly dispersed – start with groupings by color, so you can see what all you have (a la Eddie Ross).
We skipped a traditional tree this year in favor of several small tinsel versions, but added some garland and wreaths – gotta have something that smells good and fresh!
Also in the mix are lots new and vintage candlesticks (some unpolished on purpose, to add more color and depth – I am partial to the almost black tarnish on occasion), silver bowls, a bold-print fabric remnant, dozens of budding paperwhites and those flea-market find milk-glass footed compotes.
I gotta tell you, I’m kind of in love with all the bright colors – it is, dare I say it, bringing out the kid in me. And isn’t that what the season is all about?
How is your decorating going? Are you trying new things, or sticking to your favorites?
xxo
Growing up, we always had advent calendars throuout the house. I ususally had a cardboard one on my dresser – the kind with little squares of chocolate. And sometimes they had Bible verses (which as a kid were even less fun than the stale chocolate I didn’t eat) or other little messages hidden behind the doors. In the kitchen was often a bigger interactive one, where we moved a little stuffed package to a new envelope each morning. I love the traditions and feelings evoked from advent calendars.
So when Jordan {Oh Happy Day!} mentioned how she usually comes up with little activities to do on each of the 24 days preceding Christmas, I immediately wanted to follow suit!
It is the perfect way to savor the holiday season and not have the realization that is is Christmas come crashing on you like a ton of bricks come the 22nd.
So here’s to this form of an advent calendar. And unfortunately, I don’t have a cutesy calendar hanging on my wall, but I will do my best to share everything here.
(Sidenote, I have also been wanting to post more frequent, shorter posts {with the occasional longer recipe too}, so this may just be the ticket to get me started.)
1. Make an old-fashioned paper advent chain, to help count down the days until Christmas.
This one just involved construction paper that I had in my desk, a paper cutter (because I have never been able to cut a straight line with scissors) and double sided tape.
As for the bright colors, well let’s just say that this year’s Christmas decor is a distant cry from my traditional neutrals. More to come during the month.
Are you doing anything fun for any of December’s holidays?
There are plenty of pros and cons to moving.
Pros – learning a new neighborhood (particularly the wine & cheese shops across the street), making your furniture work in a new space, decorating, shopping & finding the new things you need and getting to play with all your fun things (particularly if they have all been in storage for the last two years).
Cons – actually moving, unpacking the 1,000th box and realizing you have umpteen million more to go – even worse if you just packed them too, and having to wash everything once you get it all out of the boxes.
Then once you get settled, and think things are coming together, there is a huge mess of cords and wires just taunting you. Or at least taunting me.
For a television stand, we are using an open bookcase – which is great because with books, picture frames, vases, lamps and the like, the TV doesn’t command too much attention. The bummer is that it is doesn’t offer an option to hide all the cords required for the television, DVD player, router, etc.
So here was my quick fix.
Since the wires were too numerous and thick to simply tie up and tape to the backs of the shelves, I had to be a bit more creative. And I wanted it to be a cheap solution too. I simply taped construction paper to the back of the shelves.
I happened to have some cream colored construction paper that more or less matched the color in our (rental) apartment, and so I taped that to the back of the open section where the cords were visible. In this case, the paper was a bit shorter than the height of the shelf, but the books covered the bottom part.
As for the top part, where I wasn’t able to use the paper trick, I just tucked a frame on top of the DVD player, which also hid the router, that doesn’t need to be visible to send a signal.
For a fancier, and admittedly more stylish look, you could line the back of all the shelves with a fun wallpaper. And seeing as how it wouldn’t take much, still a pretty reasonable priced alternative.
So what do you think – not bad for a no cost, 5 minute fix, eh?
Do you have cords that you have to hide? If so, what are your solutions?
P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts last week. Moving, work and a broken computer slowed me down a bit. But hopefully we are back up & running!
P.P.S. The bookcase is (obviously) not finished and styled, but it’s a start… 
Oh, and while the color difference is visible in this picture, it is not nearly as noticeable in person.
I literally might be too excited to sleep.
After two years without our precious belongings, we are finally moving and bringing all of our stuff with us. Since we did LA → NYC → SF in a {relatively} short period of time, if didn’t make sense to drag all our stuff with us across the country and back. But now that we are {more or less} settled, we are finally ready to unpack it all.
And so thankfully the move won’t require too many purchases, and it will still feel like Christmas! Finally getting to use all of our wedding gifts, plus our old kitchen stuff – I can’t hardly take it.
And the real bonus is there is room for a real dining room table! All of our old places have been short in the dining space, so this new place means two things. Scoping out a dining table and honest-to-goodness dinner parties!
I am thinking that we want a nice long table – like a farm table or a library table. How great is that top one from a Vicente Wolf dining room? I have had that pic stored on my computer for as long as I can remember.
These options above are nice, but my goodness are tables expensive!
I know there are cheaper options, and please, many times I go that route, but we spend so much time around our tables, that it is nice to have something that isn’t so, well, Ikea.
I am thinking about maybe even having something custom made. That way I can get exactly what we want, use reclaimed wood and maybe even save some pennies!
Have you tried having tables made – any thoughts?
And to finish it off, I think the end chairs should be a bit bigger and special … and bonus – we can always move them to the living area if we need extra seating.
What do you think?
And don’t worry – we will have some majors soirees once we get settled. And chances are, you’ll be there too!!
Top Image from Vicente Wolf via Coco + Kelley. Table resources below. Bottom Image from Robyn Karp via Little Green Notebook
Resources:
It may be a little late to snag one of these Linen Deck Towels in time for the long weekend, but I will definitely have them on hand for the rest of summer.
I love linen – sheets, pants, jackets, couches, napkins, you name it – it’s a fabric that just exudes simple luxury. And the thought of spending the summer with linen under my bum sounds just fabulous. Take ‘em to the beach, backyard BBQs, deck parties, anywhere that has sunshine (and maybe a cocktail).
They would also be the perfect present for summer birthdays or as a thank you gift for any summer travels.
Have a great Memorial Day Weekend! Hope it is filled with food, drinks, friends and fiestas … and a few little luxuries too!
Images via Deck Towel via Design*Sponge
For years, I was scared of the bulk bins at the grocery store. They just seemed way to hippy-dippy for me. I am admittedly not very hippy and I hope not too dippy. But over the years as I have started eating more and different grains, I have come to love the bulk bins.
First of all, if I want to try something new (like say buckwheat groats) I can get a small amount in case I realize I don’t quite know what to do with them. Also, when you have a teeny tiny kitchen, it is nice to still be able to try lots of different things without taking up too much space.
Another bonus – freshness. Since I started buying my rice in the bulk bins, it has turned out perfectly every.single.time. I account that to the higher turnover in the bins than their packaged counterpart.
Also, without the excess packaging, the prices are lower and there is less waste. These two items alone I think make the switch worthwhile!
Someday I imagine that I will have loads of canisters and jars to store all these goodies, but for now, I use the plastic take-out containers – which are pretty handy to tell you the truth.
And with all these little containers on hand, I can do things like whip up (not terribly authentic and but good nonetheless) dal or make my weekly grain salad or an updated pesto with my “pantry items.”
Do you use the bulk bins, or keep the the packaged aisles? Has your cooking changed at all by using bulk bins?
