Herb is the Word

22 May

Last week, I showed off my repainted planter and pot here, that took part in our outdoor beautification.  I wanted to continue to share some of the things JD and I were able to tackle outside on the nice days we’ve gotten from Mother Nature.

Last year, as part of my 30×30, I grew a vegetable garden.  Let’s be honest – it was mostly tomatoes, basil and oregano, as I couldn’t seem to get the squash to grow, nor the beans. But that’s okay, because I learned something from that experience – if at first you don’t succeed in the garden, grow a different plant! ;)

So this year, I decided to go with cherry tomatoes and some herbs, just to keep it interesting.  Last year, we had so many unused tomatoes, between our vacation away (we couldn’t pick them!) and just a general abundance of them!  So we are scaling back the tomatoes from 6 bushes, to 2 and sticking to one variety.

As to the herbs, I’m trying my hand at those in hopes to at least have fresh ones for the summer and then be able to freeze them as we grow more.  I’m certainly very optimistic, I know – but I think this could work out.

So here are some early photos of its growth, with the peonies in the middle of it all.  I don’t really have  a spot to replant them to, and I love them too much to get rid of them.  So they stay.

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We’re growing basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano and mint.  I’m looking forward to harvesting these as they grow and using them as I cook.

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One of the many things I learned in my research about growing herbs is that the roots of mint can completely take over a space, so it’s best to grow it in its own container…unless you want mint all over, then go for it.  As I’m still new at this, I think I’d prefer not to have one plant orchestrate a take over of my garden space, so in a pretty new pot it goes:

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I’ll keep you updated as the season progresses!  So far, I’ve learned that a toddler doesn’t fear getting dirt all over himself…nor does he respect mini plastic garden “fences” -he’s busting into the dirt and looking for a good time.  I’ve heard red pepper can keep cats out of your garden…what natural remedy removes a curious little boy from the same space? ;)

Anyone have their garden started, window box or otherwise? Any tips or advice?  I welcome all!

Happy Wednesday!

 

#18: Visit East Egg and West Egg

20 May

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

JD and I had a Great Gatsby weekend, for a family adventure and a date night.  It was a fun and special weekend – our first solo outing as a family of four and one that was just quiet and normal and laid back.  In the midst of all this, I was also able to check off #18 from my 30×30 list, to visit East and West Egg.  Let me elaborate a bit…

As I believe I’ve mentioned before, JD and I have been together since high school.  So we’ve clocked a lot of memory miles – from proms, to homecoming, to final exams, to shared teachers and beyond.  One such example of a shared experience and memory was our senior English teacher’s love of The Great Gatsby, and her ability to teach it to us and pass that interest and enthusiasm  with her lesson plans.  Maybe it’s the Long Island/New York City connection, maybe we just love F. Scott Fitzgerald, maybe it’s the history of Jazz and Prohibition, but it’s a book and a memory that has always stayed with us.  It even played a part in his proposal to me!

So, I wanted an item on my 30×30 to represent something about it – to kind of revel in it for a little bit and, like Gatsby, attempt to recreate, if only briefly, a moment from our past.  I wanted to travel to East and West Egg, where the story is set, on the northern shores of Nassau County, the storied Gold Coast.   I just wanted to let my imagination wander, connect to the book, and think of the green light and all of the hope and expectation it stood for.  So that’s what we did.

Here’s the map you may remember seeing, if you read the book in high school too, to understand the what I’m talking about:

So we headed to Sands Point, what would have been East Egg – in all its old money glory and hit up the preserve there.  We walked around the nature trails with our double stroller, ate lunch in sight of the Long Island Sound, and wandered (ran?) around the grounds of an old Guggenheim estate, Hempstead House.  The Buchanans would have mocked us and our lack of nannies, chef, butlers, and maids, but it was a great day!

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Then, that night, with the help of a fantastic babysitter (thanks, Dee!), we headed off to see The Great Gatsby movie and grab dinner.  See, we went full circle.  Book, to reality, to film.  And what was great was that while we ventured back into our past, it was wonderful to bring our present and future with us: CJ and Emmett.

The movie was fantastic – vibrant and alive – like the time period it is supposed to depict.  In an early scene, as they showed the parties at Gatsby’s house, it looked like a spectacular party; consider your best night out; your best friend’s wedding, a black-tie affair, a bachelor party…now, add lights, fireworks, music, dancing, singing and free-flowing alcohol to add to it all.  And the music was great, too- it added so much, especially to the mood and the themes of the movie.  I loved how they lifted dialogue and prose straight from the text and literally put it before the audience.  I thought Toby McGuire was a wonderful Nick – although I needed some convincing before hand – and he told the tale of Gatsby, Daisy, Myrtle and Tom very well.

So #18 is complete (albeit, a bit late), but the way we were able to complete it makes up for the fact of its tardiness.

Has anyone else seen the movie?  Love the book?  Feel free to share perspectives and thoughts – I love turning over new ideas in my mind to understand both better.

Have a great day, everyone!

Inspired Friday: Spring Fling

17 May

Happy Friday!

I’ll be honest, I haven’t spent too much time inside our home this week.  Even when the weather wasn’t perfect, it was still warm (less cold?) enough to just get out.  And if I hadn’t wanted to, CJ would have been push enough: his favorite word is “outside”, next to “fire truck”.

So with camera in hand, here’s the great outdoors of Suburbia…or our tiny corner of it:

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And a preview of what’s on the horizon next week in my universe.

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The Great Gatsby and all its Jazz Age glory is on my horizon this weekend.  Yay! And pending nice weather, an West Egg/East Egg trip.  What’s on your agenda?

Repaint and Rebirth: Painting Pots and Planters

15 May

Howdy and happy Wednesday!  My great-uncle always says “howdy,” when he sees you, and it always makes me smile when he says it, so howdy to you, blogosphere! I hope everyone is having a great week and looking forward to some fun plans/adventures for the weekend.

I wanted to post a quick project that I was able to complete this past weekend as we attempted to “beautify” our great outdoors with flowers, mulch, herbs and planters.  While on a date-night to Lowes (yes, JD and I took advantage of babysitting-grandparents to complete a to-do list for Lowes), we were searching for a ‘window’ style planter (rectangular) in a basic black or dark gray, to match two pots of a similar color.  Alas, no luck! They had nothing that fit the bill.  And as a side note, speaking of bill, has anyone else noticed what the bill looks like when purchasing new planters?  Yikes – it can get pricey to re-outfit a home’s planters and pots!  But I digress…

So, we couldn’t find what we wanted, so we decided to bring in the best product around, spray paint, to customize what we already had.  Dollars and SENSE, my friends.

Here’s what we started with:

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Worn wooden planter that’s seen four summers now, it used to be black in color.  Looking a little dull.

This pot came with the house.  Can you tell we sprayed it black?  Rainy autumn days and harsh winter storms have not been kind to its coat of paint.

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The solution and match up:

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The new (plastic) flower pots that will go on either side of the garage, in a gray/brown color.  The Rust-oleum matched up perfectly – the spray paint gods smiled upon us.  Huzzah!

First, I cleaned off each pot, sanded a bit of the rough edges on the wooden one, and hammered in where a loose nail was on the corner.  Then, I hit them with some primer spray:

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I should mention that the spray paint recommends you do this when the humidity is low…but it’s New York…in May…and it was pouring rain.  So, I’m here to tell you that spray paint still works in 100% humidity.  Just be patient.  And stop touching it already to see if it’s dry or you’ll wear that paint on your fingers all day!!!

I sprayed evenly, keeping my hand constantly moving and put two coats on it.  I considered putting a coat of clear varnish spray on it, but left it off for now.  The wooden one didn’t have a coat of varnish to speak of, and lately, it typically hangs out under our front door’s over-hang, so it’s not directly exposed to rain.  But we’ll see in a week or two, when the humidity is down to, ya know, 95%, if I have time for a clear coat then.

Here they are:

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Not so bad, eh?  They match well with the new plastic pot and the red flowers (begonias and New Guinea impatiens) pop in there.

By the way, has anyone else read about this crazy mildew that’s basically wiping out “regular” impatiens this season?  Like, could potentially make impatiens extinct?  So crazy!  I got an education at the garden center where we bought the flowers.  Who knew?  Maybe that’s what killed our impatiens last summer…not Erin forgetting to water them.  Hmm…

Any spring projects on your horizon?  Rescued anything with spray paint lately?  Would love to hear about it!

Have a great day everyone!

Mother’s Day Details

13 May

Hello and happy Monday, everyone!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Despite a little bit of crummy weather at the start of the weekend, we had beautiful weather to finish it up.  Here’s hoping you got to enjoy the sunshine, too!

I’m back to just give an update on some of the small details from our Mother’s Day lunch.  With JD’s help (between his beautiful pink roses and his trek to the store to get more flowers afterwards), I was able to do a few nice flower arrangements for our tables.  In addition to that, we received several bouquets from family as they came to celebrate the day.  Here’s how they all turned out:

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Some others for our picnic table included simple white daisies in clear vases and a pitcher.  I also used a little bud vase and a blue drinking glass to hold buds too.

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And I used the tea cups, that I mentioned from my at-home shopping trip, in a different way, other than holding flowers.  As I may have mentioned, my tea set consists of one cup and saucer from my mom, my mother in law, JD and my grandmothers and our Godmothers.  So I pulled out the cups and saucers that belonged to each of our maternal grandmothers, and included some of the lilac that my sister brought for us.  They looked great to have on the mantel and it was a nice remembrance of two mothers who meant (mean) so much to so many!

IMG_5857So now that my house is brimming over with flowers, I’m looking forward to enjoying them throughout this week as I go about my daily tasks.

How was everyone’s Mother’s Day?  Any flower arranging?  Did anyone plant flowers outside?  We did – in between rainstorms on Saturday.  We’re still putting some finishing touches on those projects (border for the herb garden, anyone?) and I’ll be sharing soon enough.  Have a great week!

“Shopping” Around the House

10 May

Hello and happy Friday to all!  This week seems to have dragged a bit – I”m glad for the weekend and am looking forward to family time.

So in continuation of yesterday’s post, I was looking for the supplies to create some centerpiece and decor fun for Mother’s Day lunch.  It’s been a little bit eye-opening to “shop” my house; I never realized just how much stuff I have around that could potentially work for the little task I have assigned myself.

Here are some of the items I’ve scoped out and hope to use them for Sunday.  Here are some of the containers and vases I’ve found:

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Maybe some white hydrangeas, carnations and daisies, in glasses of varying color, shape and size – more of a hodgepodge look, the color of the flowers connecting the arrangement?
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The metal candle holder might make a great holder for a cylinder glass vase, full of flowers also.

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I could use the cake stands to elevate the heights of some smaller bud vases; I could also use the canister behind the cake stands as a vase.  It has all of the right colors.
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I love this yellow pitcher – I’ve used it for iced tea, to hold utensils, and as a vase for flowers.  It would like great in the center of the table.
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I started considering the tea cups I have; they’re a special set of mismatched cups and saucers and I love them dearly.  They’re one cup and saucer from very special women in my life; wouldn’t that be a great set to use on Mother’s Day?  IMG_5622

 

I could use the tea pot, too.  Hmm…see, I told you – I have a lot of stuff I had never considered and now I need to start pulling it together.  Ah, well – I’ll figure it out.  I enjoy jobs where you kind of throw it together at the very end, and it either sinks or swims.

Well, that’s just a look ahead.  Looking further into next week, I’ll be posting about our front step clean up, the planting of our herb garden, and our backyard’s preparation for the summer months and outside entertaining.

Have a great weekend, everyone!  And Happy Mother’s Day!

 

Inspired Thursday: Mother’s Day

9 May

I know, I know – what’s going on?  Inspired on a Thursday, and not a Friday??  But I will be back tomorrow – I just wanted to keep it all in real time here – I have been focusing on decor for our Mother’s Day lunch on Sunday and wanted to share what has been inspiring me as we host our families.  I want to make sure things look pretty around the house, from the tables, to the food, and give it a nice general ambiance.  So I’ve been scoping out some pictures to help inspire me as I try to pull it all together in the next few days.  Here are some photos that are giving me some creative motivation:

via So Happi Together Photos, Wedding Planning Pictures

via So Happi Together Photos, Wedding Planning Pictures

I love that this table setting uses regular kitchen items to act as vases for the various types of flowers they hold.  And of course, I love the teal color of the canisters.

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I love the pastel and pale colors on these table settings; they too seem to use “found” items as vases, while keeping things simple, light and pretty.

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via cristinamella.com

I love the pretty colors here – the pale blue and yellow cans, and the pale green and white flowers, are all so soft and pretty.  And they all work within a color scheme I’m going with.  Maybe instead of painting coffee cans, I can do something with all of that green contact paper I have.  Hmm….

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I like the look of this pale pink rose with the rope around the mason jar.  It’s shabby chic, and definitely a DIY.  We’ll see what time allows for me before Sunday.

I’d love to be able to use the jars, canisters, glasses, and vases I have around the house; my goal is to use whatever I have here and not go too crazy over pulling it together.  Tomorrow, I’ll be back to show a bit of progress as I shop around my house to find some supplies for some Mother’s Day centerpieces and table decor.

Any suggestions?  Which ideas were you digging? I’d love to hear it!

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