We have two established grape vines in our fenced garden. One has Concord grapes, the other Niagara. The Concord grapes are fully ripe right now and we’re looking for any and every way to use them, because there are a TON of grapes. Enter: experimenting making grape juice!
Last weekend we did a quick project after stumbling upon these beautiful blue arrow junipers. We’ve been discussing ways to add both year-round color and a little more structure to our gardens. We’d considered planting and shaping boxwoods, yew or juniper by the entry posts to the kitchen garden, but on seeing the beautiful silver-blue of these junipers, we pulled the trigger.
Last week I took a long walk around our eight acres – which I really ought to do more often. I took a bunch of photos to give you an idea of our space, how we use (and fail to use) it, some antique curiosities around the place, as well as some projects that would be great to do.
Hard to believe that it’s almost time here in New England to plant garlic and shallots again. It seems like I just harvested them, but planting time is October, and lots of vendors sell out of fun varieties early.
I drew up this little map of what I’m doing this year:
I know that design and lifestyle blogs are for featuring pretty things, and easy DIYs, and nice, finished images of aspirational rooms, but today, I continue my (apparent) series from Monday on vintage regrets and mistakes. I found this bed (now nicely finished and in my son’s room) for $25. Yes, the wood was damaged in places but I’ve read enough internet to know that “Painting is an easy and cheap way to refresh old furniture!” And now I’m here to tell you that anyone who tells you this is BUILDING A HOUSE OF LIES.
As promised in my post about some of my favorite recent vintage finds, here are (some of my many) vintage purchases that I regret. Writing this hilariously revealed to me SO MANY of my personality flaws. Overconfidence in abilities to do everything by myself? YES. Glossing over important details because I want pretty thing? CHECK. Buying something because it is cheap, even though I don’t need it / it will cost a lot of money to fix? YUH-HUH. Trolling auction sites while having a glass of wine? YUP (maybe not a personality flaw, but friends, don’t drink and internet – it never ends well, and for me, it ends with useless furniture). Now, you’re probably thinking, that photo up there doesn’t look TOO bad. Nice turned legs, cute little brass detail on the keyholes. Looks like a sweet addition to an antique house. WELL, YOU WOULD BE WRONG …
We have an obscene abundance of kale in the garden this year. You guys, I am so tired of kale. SO TIRED. But, on the plus side, apparently boredom is the mother of invention, because in order to not keep putting my taste buds to sleep I’ve found some creative ways to use up this extremely healthy, fiber-rific, vitamin-packed (blah, blah, blah I’m still planting less kale next year no matter what the internet tells me) veggie.
Here are three different recipes that heavily feature kale, allowing you to get those benefits when another plain old salad makes you sad.
One big goal of renovating our kitchen is to be able to remove clutter. A real culprit for gathering clutter is our current built-in range hood surround, which has a four-inch deep shelf that goes all the way around its rim, and a two-foot long bar for hanging pots and pans. For our re-do, we’re looking to simplify and get rid of the potential for mess. Here is what our hood looks like now:
This month we decided to bring our home up to ancient Roman standards, and get water. In our house. From the government. Yes, it turns out that in this, the twenty-first century, you can finally get water to your house, from your town! I joke, but initially I was actually pretty torn about getting off of well water.
A chicken update – our chicks that we bought as one-day-old hatchlings back in May have finally started laying!
