Alternate Uses for a Dining Room

Don’t have a grow table? Don’t worry! A card table in your formal dining room works just fine:

Let’s have a closer look at Operation Homegrown Eats 2013:

This certainly isn’t the prettiest operation ever, but hopefully it’ll be an effective one. Last year I bought a grow kit; this year, I went with the “use watcha got” mentality. And I’ve got an array of plastic pots, a flat, and a bunch of seeds. I even reused flower tags to make new veggie tags. And since I don’t have a clear lid to place atop all this, I’m going to see if plastic wrap can create the same greenhouse effect.

The more I write, and the more I look at the photos, I realize how completely janky this operation is. Which is funny, because I’m usually as much about the fashion as the functionality. But, seed-starting season kind of crept up on me. I mean, we just experienced Snowmaggedon 2013 last week, so this whole concept of Spring seems pretty unrealistic. I’m just hoping that I don’t end up starting over before these puppies ever make it into the ground (that happened last year… no thanks to the teeny tiny slots in the grow kit… no where near big enough to accomodate the roots of a summer squash seedling!)

Anywho, I planted 2 types of tomatoes (Brandywine and Salad Hybrid), cucumber, summer squash, zucchini squash, green onion, cilantro and basil. And I’ll probably end up buying green peppers, more herbs, and maybe another cantaloupe plant. That thing did alright last year.

Loving Lately

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I was beyond excited yesterday when I received my first UmbaBox. I may have even been squealing and dancing a jig in our driveway when Tom got it out of the mailbox.

And I was not disappointed! Check out my swag:

4-leaf clover pin by Neogranny / pom-pom flower by Love and Marshmallows / ceramic vase by Material Good

On Saturday, Tom & I were at IKEA, where I totally made a scene in the art section over this print: a Keri Herer for IKEA for $3. Yes, that’s three dollars. Holy Affordable Awesomeness, Batman!

If you haven’t seen her stuff, check out her Etsy shop. It’s full of creativity and gorgeousness.

What are you in love with this week?

Two Things

That are making me happy right now:

1.) After 28 months on the market, and 13 months of paying two mortgages, our old home has finally sold!! And we were able to dig this guy out of the front yard and give him back to our generous neighbors who lent him to us.

2.) I made a little change to my office – switching out my old desk chair for a more stylish option. I’m loving how it looks, and it’s comfortable to boot! Win-win!

Pinterest Challenge: Corkboard Jewelry Display

Whew! Well, this Pinterest Challenge really lived up to its name! It was a challenge, not for skills required but in satisfaction with the results. I still don’t know if I love it, but it’s a lot better than where I ended up after the first try! So, like with many things, let’s look at where we started to understand where/how/why things ended up like they did 🙂

A few weeks ago, I saw the pin below from Cutting Edge Stencils, (the original comes from Southern Lovely).

I had an old corkboard lying around so I figured I’d give it a go. I started out by painting the frame a darker coppery color.

I wasn’t in love, but I thought once I added a design on the cork itself, it’d look better.

Not. So. Much. Once again, my crafting impatience struck. Partway through, I decided I wanted a more random pattern than a uniform one. And I was experimenting with different shades of purple. Yea…… not loving it. So, out came the black paint for a frame re-do. Then, I only had the cork to contend with. I was over painting at this point, so I tried craft paper.

Ugh, seriously?

In the end, my fabric scrap bin came in for the win!

And looks much jazzier than craft paper. I like jazzier.

Did you take on the Pinterest Challenge: Winter Edition? Check out more pinspiration in action from Megan, Katie, Sherry and Michelle!

Chalk Art Notebooks

I’ve been at it again! Still loving the chalk-art look, on any surface or in any medium I can muster 🙂

I used paint pens to create this one. I’d love to play around with different colors and combinations of paint pens – I think the effect could be really cool!

I used a black pencil for these; I liked the contrast with the bright washi tape.

Now that I’ve got the hang of the lettering down a bit better, I want to play with embellishing the space, with flourishes or ribbons or things like that. Have you tried chalk art lettering? Any tips to share? I’ve yet to try it on an actual chalkboard, haha!

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