Dipped Flower Pot

Three things happened last weekend:

1.  We drove about an hour out of town to check out a possible wedding venue.  Everything was going well until we headed home and Terry got lost without realizing he was lost.  "Why didn't you tell me we were going the wrong way?!" he asked me.  I thought the Welcome to Pennsylvania sign was a clear indication we were not heading in the right direction, but I was wrong.  Apparently when he said "Right now, we're going towards Pennsylvania" and I affirmed "Yes, we are headed towards Pennsylvania" he took that mean we were supposed to be going towards Pennsylvania.  But we don't live in Pennsylvania so I'm not sure how one would derive returning to our home in Maryland via Pennsylvania.  Unless of course we were returning home from maybe Vermont?   

2.  I attempted to eat more veggies and was successful!  I really do enjoy vegetables, but I'm a fan of summer vegetables.  Fresh tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, that type of thing.  So in the winter I struggle.  The night after our trip to Pennsylvania I prepared roasted broccoli and eggplant with a tomato and mozzarella salad.

No, my tomatoes cannot touch my broccoli and vice versa.  But wait, what's that hanging out with the tomatoes and mozzarella?

AVOCADO!  I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  I like avocado; it's my mouth's way of craving summer.  It really worked well with the creaminess of the mozzarella, and the balsamic reduction blended all the flavors nicely.

3.  I re-potted by button fern.  The poor gal was all but packing up and moving out of her old pot all on her own, but before I could do anything I needed to find a bigger pot for her to relocate to.  Flower pots and planters are one thing I'm always on the hunt for at thrift stores.  They're so unbelievably expensive at nurseries and garden centers.  I recently purchased a pot from the Goodwill that still had the price tag on it - $44.99.  I paid $2.96.  And now it's housing my begonia bulbs.  Larger pots can be harder to find so I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for a comparable alternative.  This weekend I didn't find any large pots, but I did find a small trash can...

So when life gives you a trash can - make a flower pot!

And a dipped flower pot at that! To be fair, this trash can was cuter than the average trash can.  I toyed with the idea of spray painting it when the weather turns nicer, but ultimately impatience won out. 

"Dipping" this guy proved tricky.  And I have to give credit where credit is due, Terry took over this project and I was grateful for it.  Really what was required was lots and lots of tape to maintain a straight even dip line all the way around.  If you look closely you can see the pencil where we traced the outline for the tape.  Once painted, all that was left to do was drill some holes in the bottom, and cross my fingers for a successful pot transition.  

Fresh potting soil and a shot of Miracle-Gro - my sweet little bigger button fern looks super cute in her new home!  It's been three days now and she seems to be holding her own, so hopefully she'll take to her new digs just as well as she took to her previous residence.       

Spotlight on Frito

Well this doesn't look suspicious.

I walked into our bedroom to find the boys like this on the bed - please note Kenny is sitting on Frito's paw. 

After a rousing game of fetch on the bed, Frito decided he needed to take a load off.

And he continued to stay like that long enough for me to take 75 pictures of him, which almost never happens.

I could not have posed him like that if I tried.  If I did he'd have the whole mopey-ASPCA "stop abusing me" face, which doesn't translate well in pictures.  Unless they're for the ASPCA.  

Not a day goes by that Terry and I don't remark on how far Frito has come since we brought him home a little over three years ago.  We met Frito months before we actually adopted him.  He was at an adoption event, and Terry and I fell in love with him.  However we were in the process of moving in together and the timing wasn't right, so we left him behind.  Fast forward a couple months later, and there's another adoption event but this time without Frito.  Terry was looking at some other small dog, and I reminded him "We said if we were going to adopt a dog it would have been Frito."  The adoption coordinator overheard, said she knew Frito, and he was still available.  Two weeks later, he came home with us.  The stars that had to align to make that connection still astound me.  

We brought Frito home on a Saturday - he didn't come out of his crate until Monday afternoon.  I finally got him to eat by sitting on the floor next to his crate, not making eye contact, and feeding him pieces of pulled pork bbq.  To say he was shy or timid is an understatement, the dog was terrified of everything and everybody.  Before us, Frito had been adopted out once and returned back to foster care not because he was aggressive but because he didn't act like a dog.  Their loss was our gain.  The Humane Society said Frito would never be the dog to greet us at the front door when we got home.  Tell that to the neighbors who have to endure him barking at the window when he see's Terry's truck pull up in the drive way.  Whether it was us, Kenny, or the pulled pork bbq Frito has come into his own, and he's ready for his close up.

 
People have commented how lucky Frito is to have found us, but it's the other way around.  

We're lucky to have found Frito, twice.

This is Pretty Much Only Awesome to Me

I couldn't have timed this better if I tried.  Coming on the heels of my Birthday Bulbs post, what did I spy this evening?

Baby Begonia Sprouts!

See, there it is!  There are actually two sprouts in that same pot.  Before I pat myself on the back too hard these bulbs were most likely ready to sprout with or without my help.  Or they have some mutation and their rapid growth will soon result in Begonia's crying out "Feed me, Seymour, feeeeed meeeee!".  And then they'll try to eat Kenny.

Sure, these guys are hanging out in a pot, in my basement, without any knowledge that it's 15 degrees outside with 20 mile per hour wind gusts.  But, there is hope in growth.  There is also hope in the fencing going up in the Home Depot parking lot.  I have it on very good authority this is in fact happening so unless they're receiving a super early shipment of Christmas trees, that means the Garden Center is expanding, which means plants are coming and so is Summer.

Monitoring the growth of these baby sprouts will now give me something to do while I'm watching paint dry.  See, I totally have hobbies. 

Birthday Bulbs

As February comes to an end, so do my birthday celebrations.  Sunday was the last celebration, spent with my bestie.  Initially the plan was to do what we do best - plant shopping.  But it turned out to be a happy birthday for Toyota too, and I had to shell out an unplanned lump sum to get my car serviced.  This took a toll on my plant budget.  As I forlornly reported this to the bestie she merely smiled and told me to open my birthday present.

Proving she is my true spirit animal, a gift card to our favorite nursery awaited me.  To feed the addiction. 

I'm in love.

Included with the gift card was a dish towel featuring one of Kenny's cousins that speaks the truth, AND some pre-planted Hyacinth bulbs ready to come to life.  I truly love this idea; it's so unique and thoughtful.  What an awesome, awesome gift - thanks again, stud!

My gifted bulbs helped inspire my own bulb work.  I often overlook bulbs because they require patience.  I'm more of an instant gratification type of girl, anxiously awaiting the before and after.  But bulbs seem like a great way to fill the time between now and Spring, so I'm giving them a shot in some planters.

Pictured here are two types of Begonias, and pink and purple Freesia.  Not pictured are the Ranunculus bulbs that were soaking in luke-warm water.

And before you even ask, yes.  Yes, my Begonias are going to look exactly like that.  

All bulbs are planted in a variety of planters, catching rays by the basement window.  I'm holding my breath, and checking their status daily.  I. Just. Want. Flowers. 

Introducing Lorraine

Late last Summer, so late it may have even been fall, my mom and I hit up one of our last yard sales of the season.  It was also the day we both got some new ink and I bought the chair that has (partially) re-designed a room.  This yard sale had lots of vintage treasures pulled straight out of an older home not far from me complete with the original glass door knobs on all the interior doors, and steps leading up to the house that were impossible not to trip over.  I bought a planter, a vintage green juice bottle complete with "new" screw-on lid technology, and this table with matching chair:

I failed to take a picture of the matching chair, which kills me now, but it was the same color and had the same sweet little flower decal embellishment.  This little set was a thing of beauty.  If it were up to me, I would have left them as is.  If it had been 10-years-ago and I was living in my little apartment in Bethesda, I would have kept it as-is and used it for my dining room table.  But alas, I was the only one to feel that way, and this set was pretty grimey.  The previous owner had painted it (I would soon come to learn it had been painted twice, as there was green underneath the blue), and years of residing in a garage or a basement had left it fairly dirty.  Dirty to the point of no return.  So I only had one option:  strip it.

And I did.  I started stripping and sanding the table-top the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving.  I finished stripping and sanding the table-top that Thanksgiving weekend.  And then it sat.  And sat.  And sat some more.  It was begging for stain, for paint, for love, for something, and I neglected it for months because I wasn't ready.  The clean wood was so promising and so full of opportunity but I couldn't see it yet.  I knew vaguely what I wanted it to look like, but I wavered.  I kept going back and forth.  I kept waiting for divine intervention.  And finally, divine intervention came in the form of a foot of snow on our doorstep and a fresh can of stain.  And now, here's Lorraine:

Her top is stained in a warm, rich, chocolate brown and sealed with a gloss poly.  I went with the gloss poly because it's unexpected.  This lady is older and a little rough around the edges but a little gloss goes a long way and gives a shine to her vintage look.  I repainted her legs a matte dark grey, which are a strong contrast in many ways to the warm, glossy tones of her top.  But the contrast was necessary to highlight her features, she's matte and shiney, she's cool and warm.  She's a little bit of old made new again.  

And her chair, a bright, bold cobalt blue pop of color that compliments both the grey and the warmth of her stain.  

I was so excited to take her picture.  The weather was nice last weekend, and I wanted to take her picture under natural lighting.  Terry wasn't home, so I schlepped this lady out solo, careful not to ding or scratch (her, not me; I'm plenty dinged and scratched).  I set her up and staged, and took lots of shots from lots of different angle.  The sun was on my face and in my eyes but it felt good.  I had a thousand other projects going on at the time, but I wanted to tackle her before the sun set.  Unfortunately in my excitement, I failed to take a a picture with her leaves opened (she has leaves!) so I can't list her on Craigslist until I do.  That means waiting until this weekend to take more pictures outside in the sun (while it's significantly less nice), with the leaves up.  

But she's a beauty to behold in the meantime.  Thanks Lorraine, for patiently waiting on me.  I hope it was worth it.

This Isn't A Real Update

I totally had an awesome blog post in my head.  It was full of fancy pictures and funny anecdotes and it was going to be amazing.  And then I tried to eat more vegetables and made spaghetti squash for dinner and it took forever.  

And it tasted like pumpkin.  Let's just say it's a good thing my bff brought me cupcakes today because the most delicious thing on that plate were the croutons in the salad.  

In somewhat related news, my Aunt sent me an inspirational quote today about how it's ok to not look like girls in magazines.  

I'm not sure I know how to take that.  

First of all - which magazine?  I feel like we need to specific about which girls, and what magazines because we might be thinking of totally different magazines, with totally different girls.  That's a pretty significant detail to leave out of an inspirational message.  Second of all - I'm pretty sure this happened because I had Fettuccine Alfredo for lunch yesterday, and I didn't consume a vegetable beyond iceberg lettuce.  But it was at Olive Garden and they're not known for vegetables they're known for breadsticks, plus I'd had a banana earlier in the day and that totally counts because bananas are located near the vegetables in the grocery store.  They're like vegetables by proxy. 

I digress.  All just to say the amazing blog post is going to have to wait because it's late, and I'm tired, and if I'd just eat more vegetables I'd totally have more energy.

Here's a sneak peek of what's coming up this week:

 Wait for it...

Kenny photobomb!  Terry was out of town this weekend, so I did what any good girlfriend fiance would do and sent him pictures of the boys.  This was supposed to be a picture of Frito.  It didn't work out that way.

 

Mom, I saved the spaghetti squash leftovers if you want them.  But the cupcakes are totally mine.  

Valentine's Day: A Week Later

Terry got me a beautiful flower arrangement for Valentine's Day and I got to enjoy them for exactly 3 days before I had to leave for Atlanta.  I wanted to prune the stems before I left but ran out of time so I gave them fresh water and crossed my fingers they'd last until I made it home.  In my absence I only lost a couple roses and some filler/greenery, so when I returned home today I pruned and rearranged.  

Replacing my engagement Tulips in the blue vase are my white Hydrangeas. 

Placing arrangements in front of a mirror makes them appear fuller and the reflection is striking.

These Hydrangeas are massive.  I was afraid I'd have to break out the chainsaw to prune their stems.  They are absolutely stunning, and a week later they're still going strong!  My absolute favorite flower, these guys are a nice reminder that in spite of the snow-dirt on the ground Spring is coming.

I love this picture - the reflection from the mirror creates a perfect spotlight for these lovely pink ladies.

These are the prettiest pink Roses I've seen and I'm sad I lost some while I was gone because I think the full half-dozen in the original arrangement would have look precious trimmed down to fit one of my vintage milk bottles.  But the three remaining do the trick nicely, and they're gorgeous with our grey bedroom drapes to serve as a back drop.  I love the reflection of the roses in that last shot!

I miss my flower friends outside. It's hard to believe under the foot of snow Tulips and Hyacinth, Peonies and Salvia are waiting patiently to come to life.  Until then, cut flowers along with all my indoor plant friends help bring life inside.   

In other news, Terry keeps remarking on how wonderful the flowers smell, and how he can smell them throughout the entire house.  I don't have the heart to tell him he's smelling the scented candle I got for my birthday.