Our City: The Botanical Gardens

The botanical gardens is one of our favorite places to visit.

The children's garden is amazing!

 

sewn

I finished sewing the handiest little pincushion. The pattern comes from Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me book. If you decide to tackle this project make sure you read the corrections for the project on her website.  I had to make some adjustments, meaning I had to exercise the math part of my brain (scary) figuring out circumference and I even used Pi. What's really weird is that I enjoyed it, most likely because there were some really cute results at the end of all that math.  

And another project completed. The only math needed for the sewing machine cover was measuring-easier math and more cute results!  This was a Home Ec. class project. There's my handy little pincushion in the background.  Both of these projects were well worth the effort, the process was just as enjoyable as the finished results.  You can sign up for the Sewing class here.  And find Seams to Me here.

A quick note:  I am an Amazon Associate.  The links to books in my posts will take you to Amazon and where you can purchase them. We receive a small percent for each purchase made from my links and that small percent is a huge help to our family while Jeremy is in school! Thanks for your support!

Just last week we were bundled up (well, I was at least) sharing some chips and salsa on the kitchen floor and this week it felt too hot do anything.   Today,  our a.c. is on, the girls have friends over and all of the ceiling the fans are on high-bliss I tell you.  The rest of our day includes a stop by the organic market around the corner to pick up our CSA share, then dinner and dessert at our friends' house with some date night swap planning on the side. I think tomorrow will include some Texmex and more a.c.  How are you beating the heat?

May Day Baskets

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to make May Day baskets, but I never followed through with it.  This year I decided to make it happen by keeping things simple and starting out small.  The May Day basket tradition is to leave baskets of flowers at your neighbors door.  This year I left a basket of flowers at our door, waiting for each of the girls when they got home from school. I think this got the girls excited about the tradition and next year we can all work together to deliver baskets. 

I found the little pots in the dollar spot at Target, 8 for a dollar, they are small and super cute. I only used two of the pots, leaving six for us to give to our neighbors next year (planning ahead!).   

I didn't have any fresh flowers on hand, so I decided to make a flower garland and tie it up to look like a colorful bouquet of flowers.  The garland was so easy to make, tutorial found here.  The yellow yarn came from Anthropologie at Christmas time.

Next year, we may purchase fresh flowers or make our own again...that all depends on the status of our bank account.   Last year, I had high hopes of delivering Christmas cookies to our neighbors but with Jeremy's finals and traveling, it was hard to make it happen and this Christmas will probably be the same.  A May basket might be a nice alternative for our family.  Plus, making our own flowers would allow me to plan ahead and have things ready to go months ahead of time.  Will someone please hold me accountable to this?  

Happy May!

Two Cans or Not Two Cans

I debated posting about my trashcans, is it really worthy of a blog post?  But, this is just the type of thing I would tell a good friend over the phone if we were chatting house updates. 

Trader Joe's bags were working just fine to collect our recycling, but they kind of made our kitchen/ living room area look messy.  Plus, our trashcan made a Chewbacca type growling noise every time it closed so I was on the look out for a replacement.  I found a great deal on two stainless steal trashcans a few weeks ago and decided to reserve my Trader Joe's bags for protecting our table when things get messy.  And now we have a trash can and a recycle can!  

I was afraid it would be confusing at first and planned on making labels for the kids, but they all quickly caught on to which was which and no labels were needed.  All of our small to mid-sized recyclables go in the can, while big boxes are broken down and wait in our hallway to be taken out (or we empty our recycle can into a box and use it for carrying everything out).  

I love sharing ideas for keeping a house functional and tidy, do you have any tips for functionality and tidiness? 

a little bit of our Easter

     

It was a beautiful weekend.

And the rest of the pictures are on my ipod, which is sitting in a bag of rice, hopefully recovering from it's recent plunge into water...oh my.

A Pretty Table Runner

 

 I am a little bit fascinated with table runners, especially the ones made from antique french grain sacks.   Oh my, they are just so beautiful.  As much as I am fascinated by table runners, I don't have a single one to adorn our dining table. I've been waiting for the right fabric to come along.  On my last thrifting trip I found a pretty vintage curtain panel that was perfect for an Easter table runner.  Then, I found the gorgeous green vintage trim and the springy zigzag ribbon at this local fabric store. 

To make the runner from the square curtain panel. I cut the panel in half, sewed the two short ends together. Then, I hemmed the newly created long edge. Lastly, I sewed the two trims onto each end of the runner, folding the ends of the trims over onto the backside of the fabric for a clean finish.

Quick projects can be so satisfying!