Sewing Project

Instead of buying wicker baskets, I found this great tutorial for sewing slipcovers onto milkcrates! I am happy with the way they turned out, especially since they are stackable!

Community Supported Agriculture

If you are like me, you hate going to the grocery store to wander the produce section, stare at the high prices, wish you could afford organic, pick your produce from the bin, look at the pile of plastic bags you just put everything in (what a waste!), then go wait in line with people who are not happy, yelling at their kids, shooting mean looks at anyone who is taking too long, etc.

The desire to buy local, organic, fresh produce has really been pulling me for a long time. When I learned about CSA's, I was so excited! A CSA is basically a subscription to receive produce or other goods on a regular basis from (small, family-owned) farms. It allows people to form a relationship with their food and to actually know where it comes from (what a novel idea). To me, it's the next best thing to farming it myself. The produce could be organic or include heirloom or unique varieties of foods. By buying into a CSA, you are also supporting a local business.

Although I am sure I will still do my time standing in line at the grocery store to buy food that comes from the far reaches of the earth and is trucked in by gasoline guzzling refrigerated trucks, I feel like I am making a small difference by purchasing from a CSA.

Lo and behold when Rachael found a farm that is starting their CSA this year for the first time! The best part is they are only 2 miles from our house, so we can go pick up our weekly produce very conveniently. We actually already drive down there sometimes to buy veggies so this is a great way to not only support them, but also to guarantee a variety of veggies and fruits (and other yummies) on a weekly basis all summer. Check out the farm here.

You can also see if there is a CSA in your area here.

Cake!

This is the first cake I have ever decorated! (To be fair, the flower wasn't done by me). Ryan's Mom (Bert) and I are taking a cake decorating class at Joann Fabrics. I have wanted to take one for a long time, but never did it until now. It was a lot of fun and we have another session before the class is over. I think that for the future I will probably not take a class. I am going to learn by playing around and reading about it instead. I had a giant bag full of icings and supplies and a cake carrier to take to Joann's last night. Then when we are there, we mostly work on our own and the instructor tells us how to do things exactly like the book does.

And now that's it finished, it's time to eat it!

Spring Is In The Air

Even though there is snow on the ground, Ryan and I have already started wishing for spring. Last summer, we intended to grow a garden with our roommates Rachael and Shane (who own the house we live in, for those who don't know). Time got away and we ended up with a really nice front flowerbed but nothing in the backyard. So this year, we are starting early! Ryan found a great product to start plants in from Home Depot, which is basically a plastic tray with holes for soil. The soil comes in little pellets and when water is added, the pellets magically grow into individual tiny soil pots! (I am a big fan of the washcloths from Dollar Tree that magically grow from tiny compressed shapes into real washcloths, so growing the pellets was very fun for me.) After that, you just add seeds and put the plastic top on the tray and wait for seeds to grow.

So, we added seeds of all kinds to our plastic mini-greenhouses: Mint, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, basil, onions, tomatoes, and peppers. After just over a day, we could already see the tiny sprouts coming up. I wish I had a camera with a zoom lens so I could really capture it, but the pictures Ryan and I took will just have to do.

The plan is to transplant these to container gardens in the back yard in April. Rachael found a great container gardening plan in a magazine. It is designed for sloped surfaces so we are planning to do four containers along the back fence of our yard. We would like to fill them with the herbs and veggies and add some flowers for color (and to help keep certain pests away from certain plants without using pesticides).

I am sure we will be planting more soon since those seed packets in the store seem to call my name every time.

Second Post

OK! So for the second post, I must include my much loved dog carousing in the snow that we got last night.















Emma gets very hyper in the snow.






































And post-snow...

The Original Kitsch

I suppose it's only appropriate that I explain the title of this blog before posting anything else. The blog isn't focused on any particular theme so I gave it a name that says something about who I am.

According to Merriam-Webster, someone original is: "a person of fresh initiative or inventive capacity; a unique or eccentric person." And, something kitsch is: "something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality; a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition."

So, I feel I embody some aspect of each of these words, be it through my love of whimsy or the way my heart warms when I see a gawdy 1960's era chotchke, my urge to be artistic and unique (unfortunately I lack some skill in the artistic arena!), or my odd desire to create slightly different versions of something that was invented by someone else.

On that note, welcome to the blog which is my first attempt at voluntarily writing something other people will (hopefully)read.