birdsandtrees

Herbs, Herbs, Herbs...and some Blueberry Lemonade

At the beginning of summer, I mentioned to our friend/neighbor that I would eventually love an herb box right outside our kitchen door.  About two days later, he told me he had built it and was ready to hang it!!  Talk about a good neighbor!  

James and I have been looking for ways to use the herbs, and I came across this recipe for Blueberry Lemonade on Pinterest (my latest obsession), which uses some mint. 

I'm always looking for some new drink recipes in the summer, and this one was delicious!

Add some strawberry slices and I think this would be great for the 4th of July weekend. 

Need ideas for how to use your herbs?  Check out some of these:

- use some herbs in cocktails (you might have seen this in Southern Living)

- basil pesto (we've already made one batch!)

 - grilled artichokes with creamy mint sauce

- of course Martha has plenty of ideas

Spring Cleaning

I'm off this week from school for Spring Break, and I've got cleaning and organization on the brain.  I thought I'd share some inspiring images (mostly kitchens, entryways, and mudrooms) to get you in the cleaning mood!

(the emersonmade pantry via sweetpaul)

(rolling cubby storage)

(simple and clean laundry room)

(there's a lot of stuff in this kitchen,

but everything seems to have its place!)

(organized kitchen cabinets make me happy)

(this pantry is a such a great use of space)

(I loved this garden shed in this month's Country Living...

I'd love for our shed to look like this someday!)

(such a bright and colorful space)

Happy cleaning!

Today

Phew! What a day. 

Today marks the start of the Lenten season.  40 days to reflect, pray, slow down, repent, and prepare for Holy Week and Easter.  It is one of my most favorite seasons of the year.  I had all these grand plans of ways to start the Lenten season at school today (like we did last year), but some rain that came through the night and morning made their way into our basement and changed the plans I had made. I wouldn't have said this a couple of hours ago, but I'm kind of glad they did.  It made me see how much weight I put into my own plans, my own ideas, my own expectations.  My identity is not found in those things, and today made me draw near to God and away from myself.  Not the day I had planned, but glad it was given to me.  

"Lent is a time of returning to God.  It is a time to confess how we keep looking for joy, peace, and satisfaction in the many people and things surrounding us, without really finding what we desire.  Only God can give us what we want.  Lent is a time of refocusing, of re-entering the place of truth, of reclaiming our true identity."  - Henri Nouwen, Eternal Seasons

JCPenney...who knew??

This summer my mom and I went on a pretty intense hunt for roman shades.  Preferably inexpensive roman shades.  I searched online, we went to many home stores, but we finally ended up at JCPenney. I don't think I had been there since junior high.  But if you're looking for any shades - roman or bamboo- I will save you the time of searching - just go to JCPenney!  They are great quality, they come in lots of different colors, and the best part is that they're almost always on sale.  I got each shade for about $25.  I saw a tutorial about gluing fabric (using spray adhesive) onto the roman shade for a custom look.  I was sold!  It was a really easy process.  A fabric without a pattern would make it easier, but overall, I'd do it again. 

For my next project, we've got 5 windows in our bedroom that I want to work on.  They all have mini-blinds in them, so I'm going to try this idea...genius!!  I'll be sure to report how it goes. 

A book was harmed in the making of this project...

One of the first projects I wanted to make this year was a book wreath.  I saw the tutorial on the jones design company blog (which has some other wonderful projects and tutorials to peruse).  

Now let me just make a disclaimer: I am a huge lover of books.  I have an addiction to books.  So when I'm thinking about destroying a book, it's not a great feeling.  BUT - there are some BAD books out there.  I call them twaddle.  And I don't mind getting rid of those.  I someday dream of the day where we live in a twaddle free world. Sigh... 

So I looked through all my books and found one that I've never read or will ever read.  I think I got it at a garage sale because it was old and looked cool.  And the color of the pages was perfect for the look I wanted.  Once you've picked your book, all you need is a hot glue gun (I ended using 3 or 4 long sticks of glue), a styrofoam wreath form (I found a 12" at Michael's), and a movie or TV show to watch while you mindlessly roll pages and glue.   

Here's a close-up of the wreath.  You can see that it's basically just layers and layers of folded and rolled up book pages.  Now that I've done one, I know that next time I will choose a book that is a bit longer so that I have the problem of too many pages, instead of not enough.  My wreath could have definitely used more layers.  But I ran out of pages!  I'm happy with it, though.  And you better believe I'll be making more!  Just think how cute it'd be on your front door for a book shower or book club party. 

One project down, and more to come!  This blogging thing isn't so hard, I guess...

Tree and things

 This past weekend we went with some friends to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree.  The weather was perfect - cloudy and chilly.  Add a hay ride and some hot chocolate, and we were good to go!  Although they had fresh cut Frasier firs at the farm, we all decided to go with one of the varieties they grew at the farm - the Leyland Cypress.  It is gorgeous!  I coudn't wait to come home, turn on my Christmas mix, and start decorating.  Hanging ornaments on the tree is a big deal in my family, and it's engrained in me to hang slowly, thinking and talking about each ornament that you hang. 

For the past few years, I've been trying to make new ornaments to add to the tree.  Last year, I made some paper globes (tutorial here) out of Christmas cards we received (especially with the ones that had beautiful papers), and I'm definitely going to continue to make some of those each year. 

I'm looking for some ideas to make for this year's ornament, so if you have any to share, please let me know!  In the meantime, I'll be waiting, curled up in a chair next to the fireplace, taking in our tree! 

A Basement Turned Schoolroom

When we were thinking about buying this house, the basement was a huge selling point for me.  There aren't many houses where you could imagine using one of the rooms as a school.  But this basement had potential, and I could see it.  And it was huge.  But it took some work.  A lot of work.  And it's still not done - but I thought I'd go ahead and share what we've done so far!

Here are some of the before pictures:

The basement is broken down into three different levels, with a bottom level that you can enter from the backyard.  It has the laundry area and a bathroom area.  Then it has a middle level and then a level in towards the back, with a storage room in the back as well. 

We took up the carpet, added some half-walls to the middle level, made walls to go around the bathroom (including a curved wall that you will see in the afters), and also added walls around the heater/AC unit.  We also enclosed the stairs to make them a bit safer for everyone! 

Here's some in progress shots:

You can see the very back level of the room to the left of these new walls. 

After all the "construction" stuff was done, James painted the walls (he wouldn't let me include that picture), our handy neighbor sprayed the ceiling so that all the duct work and everything just blended in together, and my awesome sister-in-law helped us paint the floors.  We had lots of friends, family, and neighbors help us and we couldn't have done it without them! 

Now keep in mind that we're still working on it and it's REALLY hard to get some good pictures down there - let's pretend you came in from the backyard, to the lowest level:

We put in a new door and then added this curved wall, with a bathroom inside. I'm not sure how many people include pictures of bathrooms on their blogs, but I want this forever documented!  This bathroom has come a looong way, my friends. 

The laundry area is on the other side of the bathroom...I'm not done with that part so I am leaving that out.  Too messy and not photo-worthy.

Here's the middle level - the main gathering place for school and my craft area:

See those books on the wall?  They're  in rain gutters!  $5 for that and they work perfectly.  I love having the books face out - kids are always more apt to choose them.  I would put them on every wall if I could.  Here's where I got the idea.  Closer look:

And my craft/desk area:

And then some of the middle-to-back area:

And to the back! 

 
I have a table around the corner there where we do a lot of our studies. I couldn't get a good picture of it though!

   So there you have it.  Our schoolroom/laundry room/craft room.  We've come a long way, baby. 

Spice Cabinet Makeover

Since I took that long blog break, I have lots of photos to show you of our home - we've been working on it and making it our own since this summer.  Some of my favorite things about this house are the small details - the mail slot next to the front door, the tile around the fireplace, the rounded doors, and the one I want to show you today - the spice cabinet.  I'm sure at one time it was used as a place to keep your ironing board, but Abby (who we bought the house from) kept her spices in there and I wanted to do the same.  It's the little things like a spice cabinet that make me want to buy a house!

So this summer, while we were working on big projects like the schoolroom, I wanted to work on small things like the spice cabinet. 

Here's the before:

And the after:

Ta da!  Matching jars and labels and everything!  I love this kind of stuff! I bought the jars from World Market, and the printable-labels came from Martha.  And why can't a plate hang in your spice cabinet?!

Now when a recipe calls for a spice, I get just a little too excited.  It's the little things in life, right? 

Next up for show-and-tell is the schoolroom...stay tuned! 

I'm alive!

Well hello there, everyone!  I hope you didn't worry.  I'm alive and well.  After some "gentle" "nudging" from several friends and family members, I knew it was about time I came back to this place.  I've missed this space! 

These past four months (!!) have been filled to the brim.  Since my last post, we've managed to:

::go to the beach::pack up our old house and move out::end the third year of our school::house-sit an amazing house for the summer::go to Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta (AWESOME.  Must. Go. Again.)::read lots of good books::get the keys to our new house (see above)::make many trips to Home Depot::paint almost FORTY gallons of paint::go to the lake::turn a basement into a schoolroom::catch a raccoon::make more trips to Home Depot::go to the mountains with friends::start a new school year in our new basement/schoolroom::add another teacher and class to our school::laugh a lot::cry a lot::go to Wisconsin::say goodbye to summer:welcome fall in our new home::

So sorry for the absence - I hope you'll stick with me! 

House Stuff

Well, we did it.  We closed on our house last week  - two very cool people (not to mention great friends) are buying our house and will move in at the end of May.  We're then moving into our new digs (currently owned by some other cool people and great friends) sometime this summer (TBD).  So after we move out and before we move into the new place, we're house-sitting in a nearby neighborhood.  It's going to be a crazy summer! 

So as you can probably tell, house stuff has been the topic of many conversations around these parts.  Not to mention taking up many of my thoughts.  But not just logistics, mortgages, and moving trucks.  I'm talking design.  Up until a few weeks ago, I had never entered the world that is design blogs.  I pretty much stay in the craft blog and friend blog world.  So I had no idea.  There's a lot of design stuff out there!  It can get a little crazy, with so many people just pointing and showing off so many great things.  I've decided on a few of my favorite design blogs if you want to start checking them out, like this one, and this one, and this local favorite! 

But even better than the design blogs is a new show that I record every Saturday on HGTV - Sarah's House.  I love love love this show - even James admits that he likes this one.  Sarah Richardson is a Canadian designer who bought a farm and every episode is a different room that she redecorates (she has previous seasons where she redid a ranch-style home and also a three-story home...see pics from those seasons here in her portfolio, titled "Sarah's House" and "Sarah's House 2"). 

This season of the farmhouse has been so inspiring.  Her budget is WAY bigger than mine will ever be, but her creativity and sense of style is really impressive.  Here are some pictures from the episodes I've seen so far...let's start with the entry and mudroom, shall we?

and next a bathroom:

 

and then this past week, the kitchen (LOVE):

 

So there ya have it.  House stuff. Pretty exciting stuff, right (a little sarcasm there)?