From Mommy Joyce

Joanna Goddard of Cup of Jo recently posed the question "What has your mom taught you?"  Well, here it is...  

When I was a tween (before tween was even a thing), probably without meaning to, my mom gave me permission to feel at home in my own body.*  As I remember it, we were bathing suit clad and laying out in the back yard.  I should mention here that I look pretty much just like my mom.  I'm not sure if I was complaining, or maybe just remarking, about my burgeoning pear body-shape, but the part that remains clear is that my mom said, "I think your dad is just glad that I have curves somewhere" and "husbands tend to like their wives' bodies."  Even though I was about twelve, it made sense to me that somebody somewhere would not care that my chest was pretty flat and that they might even be into my booty and thighs.

* A body is just a body.  Thank you Mom!

You Say Potato, I Say "Hi Potatoes"

Last year, the compost pile offered us a few volunteer potato plants.  This year, we planted potatoes on purpose and are growing them in barrels.  As they grow, you keep adding sawdust and at the end of the season, you should be able to tip the barrel over and... ta-da hundreds of potatoes.  The end result remains to be seen, but so far so good.

We planted four types of potatoes (French Fingerling, All Blue, La Ratte Fingerling, and Purple Viking).  Because I was too lazy to mark the barrels at the time of planting and have no idea which potatoes are where, it will be a fun surprise come harvest time.

Warm Woolen Mittens

Boy-oh-boy am I glad that it's Friday.  These longer days and all the springtime work that goes with them are wearing me out.  Although I'm pretty terrible at sleeping in, I'm going to give it a try this weekend.  These are a few of my favorite things from this past week that have perked me up along the way.

Childhood obsessions.

Our star.  What?!

A list of home and garden tours.

Breath

About a year ago, Sandon from San Francisco Window Pros came to take a look at the window situation in our house.  It was pretty cool to learn even a few things from his vast knowledge of old windows.  For one, the diamond-y window upstairs was installed inside-out.

I learned that all the one-over-one windows on our house are actually double hung.  The little rectangle on the outside of the the bottom pane is the area for the weights of the top section.  This is how you know that the top did, and possibly still does, open.

I also learned that the little wavy pieces of wood on the sides at the middle are typical decorative features and are supposed to be there.  Before that, I hadn't really paid close attention and simply assumed that the top window sections on all of the windows had been propped up with a block of wood.  ...not the case.  

When we bought the house, not a single window opened from the top and four of the windows in the first floor living area were painted shut entirely (for eons apparently).  Well... last month, with the elbow grease of three people, the windows once again breathed with life.

It was amazing to open these four windows, and it was doubly amazing to be able to open them from both the top and the bottom.  Although not now, at some point down the road, we will have fully functional, restored windows.

30 march 2013 . saturday .
(day one thousand one hundred eighty-one)

Amendment

Nine years ago at Chester Zoo, I had no idea how important poo would become to me and that I'd be willing to pay for it.  Thank you Wildlife Safari for a load (or three) of crap.

Our soil is so happy about the addition of zoo doo to its mix.

12 april 2013 . friday .
(day one thousand one hundred ninety-four)

Sandwich Cookies

Although not quite a Pinterest fail, the Homemade Oreos I attempted didn't totally turn out as intended.

The cookies were supposed to be approximately two inches around.  I figured that the 1.5" cutter that I had would work okay, but I think that they ended up being a little too small.

Also, the cream filling was too thick for the round piping tip that I have, or maybe the piping tip was too small.  Either way, I had to use a different tip and ended up creating more of a floral-looking, creamy center with edges of cream that came out too far or not enough.

The real shortcoming may have been that I didn't have dutch process cocoa power on hand so I just picked up a container of Hershey's cocoa powder.  The cookies are supposed to be darker and more cocoa-y.  As it was, they seemed a little salty.  All in all though, I would try these again and stick more closely to the recipe.

Let There Be Light

22 april 2013 . monday . (day one thousand two hundred four)

This weekend, on the tail end of what began two weeks ago as a carpet removal project, a previous (likely original) doorway was reestablished.  It brings so much more light to the stairway.

Because J. found a crumpled page of the News Review tucked inside the old light-switch box, my guess is that the doorway was closed up in late-1989 or shortly thereafter.  I'll have to do a little research to find out if anything significant to the house's history happened around that time (change of ownership, beginning or end of a bed and breakfast endeavor, etc.).

A review of the news...  Milk prices were expected to rise.

Freddy's had a 3-Day Sale.

Slippers were being sold at the Fall Wool Products Sale.

It's astonishing how much difference the restoration of a doorway can make.  Before the rear addition, the top of the stairs would have been the center of the 2nd floor.  This would explain why this area, with it's four doorways, feel like the heart.

Bright Copper Kettles

14 april 2013 . sunday . (day one thousand one hundred ninety-six)

It's Friday!  I'm getting better at enjoying weekdays instead of simply putting up with them in order to get to the weekend, but Fridays are still pretty rad.  These are a few of my favorite things from around the interweb that made me smile this past week.

This video wonder from my chum Robert Nachman.

Any and all maps.  These non-traditional groupings caught my attention.

Hiking to the end of the earth (sort of).  When will I do this?

Common Ground

In the past, Food Not Lawns has certainly caught my attention on the shelves at Territorial Seed.  Aside from being more of a check-books-out-from-the-library-over-and-over kind of girl, I was a little intimidated by the lady on the cover so I never bought it.  As it turns out, someone was going to donate their copy to a local Friends of the Library Book Sale, but thought of me and gave it to me yesterday as a gift.  

J. and I are currently in the process of converting our yard from lawn to food-plot/edible-landscape/whatever-you-want-to-call-it so obviously I'm really looking forward to learning ways to build community and bring people together with our venture.

P.S.  Be sure to wish someone a happy National High Five Day today.  ...probably you should exchange as many high fives as possible.

Rise and Shine

It's only been seven days, but some sunflowers are showing signs of growth.  Because I only marked the cups "Mammoth," I'm not really sure if these are Mammoth Grey Stripes or Mammoth Russians.  ...oh well.

This time around, we tried the dixie cup method, which seems to be working out alright.  Also, we only have the one light so three trays of starts are just hanging out in front of a south-facing window.  It's not ideal, but hopefully it's good enough.

Speaking Terms

Refrigerators are sort of private but not totally off-limits.  When someone tells you to make yourself at home, helping yourself to something in the fridge seems to mark that achievement.

Photographing refrigeration spaces appeals to me for a few primary reasons.  Firstly, the dimensions seems to be designed for camera capture.  They frame themselves.  Secondly, as things are added, removed, and shuffled around, pictures of these adjustment mark time.  It's a different way of viewing the ebb and flow of daily life.  Lastly, I think that what we have in our refrigerator says a little something about us and can tell a story.  A picture of my own refrigerator evokes memories, while a picture of someone else's sparks imagination.

What do you think?  

Does your refrigerator say something about you?

Lady Layers One Year Later

One year ago today, our little peepers came to call our nest home.  

Two weeks later, they were showing off their perching abilities.

01 may 2012 . tuesday . (day eight hundred forty-eight)

They grew so much in just one month's time. 

13 may 2012 . sunday . (day eight hundred sixty)

In two month's time, they were out-and-about enjoying their new digs.

After just four and a half months, our very first egg appeared.

30 august 2012 . thursday . (day nine hundred sixty-nine)

Nowadays, we pretty reliably get three eggs each day.

Whiskers on Kittens, or, Favorite Things

Happy Friday!  Here are a few of my favorite things from the last week.

An arresting development.  I can hardly wait.

This wordy challenge.

My sister-in-law leads a HuffPost slideshow.

About-Face

The lawn is being converted to an edible landscape.  We've planted a Pakistan Mulberry which hasn't really started producing leaves yet.  Can you identify the other budding flora?