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Skinny trees for sunny spots
I saw a lot of gardening “trend” stories pop up around the beginning of the year. The concept of trends in gardening always seems a little off to me. I look at photos of gardens designed a hundred years ago and love them as much (or more) than one designed last year. But I know particular kinds of plants come ...
Think you’ve got Mother Nature figured out? Think again, sucka
Since most of the country (and Canada) is in the grips of the polar vortex I’ll spare you my tale of woe and the pictures from my cell phone of the thermometer on my car. School’s been cancelled due to the cold for two days now and one of our buildings at work is without heat but my main concern ...
Let there be (a not ugly) light
Happy new year, everyone! I hope you had a nice New Year’s Eve and a great first day 2014. I was happy to get the house completely de-Christmassed. As much as I like the decorations (and I really just got them up about a week and a half ago), it’s still nice to reclaim the house. Last weekend, when I ...
2013: A year in (blog posts) review
I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful holiday season. From a work perspective, this whole holiday-in-the-middle-of-the-week thing is for the birds, but I certainly enjoyed having a whole weekend in between Christmas and the new year with no social engagements. It was a fruitful weekend as far as projects and personal rejuvenation goes. But before I start telling you ...
Merry Christmas (and what it looks like at my house)
It’s Christmas Eve. What’s done is done and what is not done will not be. All that’s left to do at this point is enjoy the holiday. The last week and a half has been full of late nights for me as I tried to catch up on getting ready for hte holiday, so it’s no surprise that I was ...
A new take on an old mantel
Pretty much the whole point of having a big fireplace is to decorate it for Christmas, right? So it was a big relief when last night we finished (for now) a project that will actually allow me to do that. Yes, I know it’s December 20. I’m working on it! I’ve mentioned before that I have a real problem decorating ...
Simple swag
Posting on the blog has been so sporadic lately and I apologize for that. I have so many projects up in the air right now and it seems like it’s taking forever to finish any of them. I’m including things like “decorate the Christmas tree” and “hang up the garland outside that I bought a month ago and haven’t put ...
Orange you glad they are finally finished?
You know I always have several projects in the works at one time, but I think this one holds the record for longest in-progress project. Obsessed with cane chairs, I found a pair of them on Craigslist more than two years ago and picked them up for $30 each. This really wasn’t a good deal (I’ve since seen similar chairs ...
Spreading the cheer outside
Holiday decorating is a slow process at my house. I’m so amazed by all the holiday home tours on the Internet … I haven’t even really thought much about the inside. I love doing my outdoor containers though. I leave them decorated (sans lights) almost all winter because I love looking at them. I take no credit for the design ...
Custom junk corralling
Sometimes there are little things that challenge our sanity, and I think I have identified the number one offender. You know what I’m talking about folks … it’s the damn junk drawer. I didn’t even bother taking a before picture. You know what a horrible junk drawer looks like; I don’t need to share my horror with you. ...
Put on your elastic pants, it’s time for Thanksgiving
When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was a much more formal affair. We always went to my grandmother’s house (just down the lane from our house), dressed up in uncomfortable clothes (oh how I hated tights), sat at a kids’ table, which we all hated until my grandma wisened up and gave us our own bowl of mashed potatoes and ...
*This close* to all finished
This might look like a picture of some pretty double welt, but it’s really a picture of what the almost end of a project looks like. I’m this close to finishing up the chairs that have been in my house for about two years and I’m so excited to show you them. There’s been a lot of hemming and hawing ...
A sweet treat, just not for me
Some gardeners are much better than I am about planting late-season crops. A friend on Facebook just posted a beautiful haul of beets the other day. I am just burned out by the end of the summer and I consider it a success if I can just stay on top of harvesting and general maintenance. Planting, and more importantly, nursing ...
Giveaway: A bit of holiday help
Where do you stand on mailing things? Have you gone entirely digital or do you still fall back on mailing a good old fashioned note? I’m a big fan of more traditional methods. If I get an invitation to something in the mail, I know they really want me there and that I wasn’t just included because I was in ...
How to make a custom striped table runner
I found a great new list-keeping app for my iPhone a week or two ago. It’s called Tick, and so far it’s my favorite list-keeping app that I’ve tried, and believe me, I’ve tried many. You can customize the icon and color for each list. Right now I have the number 10 by the little icon of a house. That ...
Don’t look now but winter’s coming
I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and other than a brief stint down under, I have lived in this state for my entire life. If you’re not familiar Wisconsin, you probably associate the state with three things: cheese, the Green Bay Packers and cold weather. It’s no coincidence that these are the first things that come to mind when ...
Letters from the Garden
Letters from the Garden
