Minky Couture Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the Minky Couture giveaway is Amanda!!!  I am contacting you asap so that you can get your awesome blanket!

Tomorrow, an awesome new giveaway is starting, so stay tuned!

I Love Zinnias

Was there ever a more perfect flower?

Straight and tall.  Colorful and bright.

Always a surprise.

Sunshine in a mason jar.

I Dream of Desks

Not too long ago, I dreamed of a kitchen island.  Well, I'm still dreaming of that and many other things.  (Alas, they will stay dreams for now, as our darling free dog has needed two eyelid surgeries in the past month.  Yikes!) 

Anyway, here are my latest dreams: desks.

Why do I dream of desks, you ask?  Well....I can't believe I'm about to show you this photo....it's an extreme embarrassment, a nagging thorn in my side, a source of constant irritation. 

This is my husband's desk in his office.

I've pleaded. I've begged. You can see (barely) the masculine, sophisticated room I created when we first moved here.  But it's a lot easier to see the frat house it has become!

Needless to say, I get no work done in there. I pay pills, do my editing work, etc. at the coffee table or kitchen table or on the couch.

So I dream of desks.  And of the office/study I could put them in. 


Oh for my husband to work in a space like this one.

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I can also see him working from a black computer desk with hutch or a modern L-shaped desk like this one...


Anything but an old, insanely heavy, concrete-top chemistry table with no storage!  Even a small credenza would work better!

As for me? I need something function and very importantly, beautiful!

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Perhaps I'd get nothing at all done in these rooms, but it would sure be fun trying!

Basil Crazy

What started as a handful of seeds a few months ago has turned into lots of basil.  To keep it growing and producing all seasons, you need to keep cutting and harvesting it. 

The "problem" is that I can't use it all!  So, I've been experimenting with different ways to preserve basil for future use. 

To harvest, pinch off the large leaves just below the lowest leaves. 

The easiest method is drying.  It's important to lay the basil leaves on a wire rack so that both sides have venhilation.

I placed the leaves on the rack and baked them at 170 (my oven's lowest setting) for five minutes, then turned the oven off and let the basil remain inside as the oven cooled.  I repeated this process twice more until the basil was completely dried and brittle.  I then crumbled it into a jar for storage and later use.

Though drying is the quickest and easiest way, the basil does lose some of its flavor.  Another option is to preserve it by freezing.  This involves a few steps.

The first is to boil several cups of water in a small boiler.  Submerge the basil leaves for 5-10 seconds to blanch.  (Be careful...it's easy to burn your hand when doing this step!)

After blanching, quickly place them in water-filled ice cube trays.  This stops them from cooking and drying.  Then pour a little more water in the trays to completely cover the basil and ensure throrough freezing.

I also repeated this same process but froze the basil in olive oil instead!

Once they are throroughly frozen, pop them out and store in freezer bags.  They can then be easily added to sauces or soups in the future.  

It'll be like summer all year long!

One Year Ago

Harvest

The raised beds are bursting at the seams!  It's great to see our garden flourish.  Here are a few of our recent harvests.  (Click here to see some other garden produce we've enjoyed this year!)

The green beans and butter beans were big and green and literally the best we've ever tasted.  And there's still more to come!

We've got basil coming out our ears! It's amazing what a few seeds can do.  The leaves are so big and fragrant.

I can't wait to enjoy more of this as the season progresses.

What herbs and vegetables have y'all been growing?

Children's Rooms

As our first anniversary nears, more and more people are asking the big question:  When are you going to start having kids?  While we do want children in the future, they are still not in the near future. 

However, this recurring question, plus the pregnancy of a good friend back home in Georgia, has got me to thinking about one part of having a family that I'm really, really looking forward to: decorating a child's room!

We'll start with the gals....


This furniture reminds me of what I had as a child.  There's nothing sweeter than white furniture for a little girl.  I love teh contrast of the white with the punches of bold colors.  And it's so very whimsical!

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Green is my current color du jour, and I love the way this room's green pallet reminds me of a springtime garden.  And the antique-style iron bed is fantastic!

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This room has one of the most beautiful color combos of all-time--blue and yellow.  I adore those cotton bowl canvases, and the yellow accent wall makes the softer colors pop.

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As you can tell, I'm currently not favoring pink for my hypothetical little girl's room....maybe it's because I grew up in a crisp blue and white room!

On to the fellows....

I'm so in love with the idea of bunk beds in a boy's room. Maybe that's because my brothers had them in the room they shared.  To a kid, bunk beds are just plain more fun than regular beds. Period.

It's important to try and find cheap bunk beds for kids since, alas, they will eventually grow out of them.  But, I could always go for these full-over-full bunk beds that will last a little bit longer before they grow out of them! 

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(FYI, there are special bunk bed mattresses....I didn't know that!)

   

These next two rooms prove that white can be for boys too!  These bunk beds are pretty and boyish...who knew that could happen!  I love the bright, crisp red, white, and blue color schemes. 

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And how amazing is it that sports pennants are the valances over the windows!  What a unique and distincly masculine touch.



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This next room is very child-like but so grown-up.  Sophisticated yet fanciful.  I love the organic colors and love the way this room could last him for many years!

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This last room would be, if I had to guess, the room my husband would choose for our son.  He grew up riding on his make-believe range and checking on real live cows with his farmer grandfather.  He's a cowboy at heart and would love to pass that on to his son.  Such a "tough" room for a rough-and-tumble little boy!

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Hope you found these rooms as inspiring as I did! What did y'all do in your kids' rooms?