working

we got a sander. true to form, phil researched and then comparison shopped for a couple of weeks. he decided we need a random orbital sander, since we plan to use it mainly for refinishing furniture. so we tested it this weekend on the craigslist dresser. i'll do a full post once we finish the piece (i had a bachelorette party saturday night, so we couldn't finish), but we were able to get the entire piece sanded and a couple drawers primed. we had to sand the edges by hand, and the tutorials we read recommended using a sponge sander. well those cost almost $10 (!!), so i rigged one out of a sponge from the garage and a 79 cent sheet of sandpaper :) hoping to finish the dresser this weekend! well, everything except the hardware... that is a big decision!

planning for fall

i started some fall seeds! spinach, kale, lettuce, swiss chard, thyme, and oregano.  most of the seeds are from my favorite seed catalog, but the lettuce is from my mom. when i went home over memorial day, she took some of the bolted lettuce from her garden and let it dry to save the seeds for me. i hope it sprouts! 

i bought some potting soil, because i don't use regular soil for seed-starting.  then i have these seed-starting plastic containers that i re-use over and over. i ordered them about four years ago, when we moved to maryland, and have used them at least once or twice a year since then. i just fill each pocket with the soil, then plant a few seeds, and mist with water. i start them inside - no light needed until they sprout. i just keep misting them. once they sprout, i thin them so a couple per section have a better chance of getting big and strong. once i have a leaf or two, i transplant into little 4" pots - i save them whenever i buy a plant. part of the quest for no waste in my household! 

i also transplanted some of the basil starts in my other pots.  if you have a basil plant, let a few stems go to flower. then let the flower dry up - that is your seed. drop into some dirt and keep it watered... a new basil plant will sprout before you know it. i have tripled the basil plants at my house in less than a year! so this round is for giving away : ) 

updates

these are the assembled chairs.  they are reproductions of one of my favorite chairs and surprisingly good. one of the major differences is the overstock version is a thin plastic shell seat, rather than a thick molded polypropylene or fiberglass.  either way, they look great in the dining room! the clean white chairs with the wood table is exactly what i was hoping for : ) not a huge fan of reproductions, since as a designer i'm a proponent of supporting other designers, but i couldn't find any in our price range or on craigslist.  we need six chairs - at $300-$350 each, there is no way! we had to assemble them, which was fun. and by fun, i mean i got really frustrated assembling two while phil did the other four. i try really hard, but i'm not the most adept...

and this is the guest room. doesn't look so pink : )  the duvet i ordered looked way too feminine, so now i'm hunting for a charcoal striped set - like this but hopefully at a different price point. i also want to make a grey upholstered headboard. the room is too small for a full bed frame - we did fit a queen bed into a 9x11 room - so looks like it is a headboard-only solution for us. one of these days we will finish a room so i can post finished photography! 

yellow rose of glover park

this was the rose bush in our front yard on closing day, mid-april.  lush & beautiful. the bush is not the healthiest and this was the only bloom we had... 

until this week.  my sweet mother-in-law helped me trim the bush back. a lot. the leaves were yellow and it was so spindly.  suddenly, this week, the bush erupted into bloom.  granted, they are not nearly as beautiful as the first one - it was our closing day symbolic bloom - but it is prolific.  i'll trim it back more later this year, to give it some shape, but until then i will enjoy each and every bloom : )

progress!

craigslist, overstock and rue la la :) we've been busy shopping for deals! the end of the month is the best time for craigslist, since people are preparing to move. and rue la la has had a white sale a while back, but it's just now coming in... this was my first overstock experience - $2.95 shipping!! on six dining chairs!!

putting up, part II

in my ongoing quest to reduce food waste, i spent my rainy sunday afternoon juicing and making pizza. sounds weird, but those two things are the fastest ways for us to use up produce. 

i used the surplus of fruits to make super yummy juice: peach, plum, blueberry.  i bought a breville juicer two years ago when i went on a cleanse after a particularly bad deadline. the kind where you eat greasy pizza and takeout every night of the week and work until late, six or seven days a week. where you condition your body to crave sugary, caffeinated drinks and candy to get you through the long days. anyway, i did the cleanse to recondition my body to normal. very hard, but worth it. so since then, i have LOVED fresh juice. especially anything with peaches - peach, apple, and grapefruit is the best! the colors are awesome and it gets frothy at the top. perfect sweetness. strange photo, i know, but this is the juice right when it comes out of the juicer. love!

and i make pizza to use up veggies & herbs on their way out. no photo, because it was ugly (sorry!). it had leftover grilled rosemary chicken, basil, spring onions, and chopped tomato with mozzarella and parmesan on my homemade whole wheat crust. 

we also had a productive house shopping weekend: dining room sideboard and master bedroom dresser off craigslist, 1950s advertising proof lithograph from the georgetown flea, and dining room chairs from overstock.  can't wait to finish a room to post the photos! : )

i have a tomato!

the back patch is growing!

this is the small patch between the large tree and fence, before i cleared it out. all ivy and thorns, over gravel. with one peony and a bunch of daylilies.

this is the patch after clearing. i planted tomatoes (yellow, orange, red, mini & big) and eggplant. i didn't get rid of all the gravel because that would be a LOT of work. i'm going to slowly get rid of it. by next year, i'll have a better bed.

this is the patch today! the tomatoes are doing well, there is a green one already on the large plant in the corner : )