Spring Flowers

 I feel very lucky to be surrounded by absolutely gorgeous flowers this spring.

 Especially these white Calla Lilies that are blooming by the bunch in our backyard!!!!    

In addition to the Calla Lilies, there are quite a few flowers in our neighborhood and on the local trails near our home. Since we live on a little road tucked in behind a golf course, we also benefit from the courses beautiful landscaping and flowers. Every time we go out for a walk, I can't help but stop to admire the natural beauty that is all around us, all the time.

And...just one more of the Calla Lilies :)

I couldn't help myself!

Farmer's Market Beets

We've really been enjoying the local Farmer's Markets around our area. This week we bought these amazing beets. The colors were absolutely stunning and I couldn't resist sharing!

My hope for these beets was to make beet chips. I gave it a try, slicing them very thin and then tossing them in olive oil, salt and pepper. I then baked them in the oven at 275F for about an hour. To my dismay, they still weren't crispy after an hour, and they quickly went from not crispy to slightly burnt :( Now, don't get me wrong, I still ate them. And the flavor was wonderful, but the texture left something to be desired.  

I will just have to try again another time!

Until then, I found this amazing recipe and will give it a try with this week's beets. 

I'll be sure to post an update when I do!

Spring Cleaning with Green...

I really like a nice clean, fresh smelling home.

 But I don't like cleaning with chemicals.    

So I've started to revamp the cleaning products I use to try and include more all natural (i.e. non-chemical) products. And after some time now (it's taken me a good 6-9 months) I'm not only comfortable with my new arsenal of cleaning products, I'm 100% confident that they are actually working to clean my home, and I have grown to like them much more than their chemical counterparts. So here's a run down of my go to products/recipes for cleaning every room in the house.

First I collected a few mason jars (which our favorite salsa happens to come in!) and ran them through the dishwasher, bought a pile of these soft towels, a scrubby brush, and a spray bottle. I don't recommend using old spray bottles from other cleaning products (unless they were all natural and chemical free to begin with) because the residue of the original cleaning product may be difficult to completely clean out of the bottle and spray mechanism.

ALL-Purpose Countertop/Tabletop/Hard Surface Cleaner

You will need an empty spray bottle and the following ingredients:

2 tsp. Baking soda

4 tbsp. White distilled vinegar
1 tsp. Dish Soap

warm water
10-20 drops essential oil

Begin by mixing the baking soda, vinegar and dish soap in the spray bottle. You will notice this mixture foams up quite a bit (this is the baking soda reacting with the vinegar). Give it a few minutes to settle down and then add your favorite essential oil (our favorite is Rosewood Oil) and enough warm water to fill the spray bottle about 3/4 of the way full.

Spray on the counter or any surface that needs cleaning (i.e. tabletop, coffee table, end tables, night stands, dressers etc.) and wipe with a soft cloth. We get these cloths at Ikea by the bundle. They're great and they have a little tab to hang them with in between uses.  Just throw them in the wash when they get real messy and use them again and again. No paper towels please!

KITCHEN

We are big cooks and bakers, so our kitchen gets A LOT of use and it's especially important to me that the space where we prepare and enjoy our food is clean. I keep the ALL-Purpose Cleaner (listed above) under the sink because I probably reach for it 10 times a day! Here are some others that I have found to work well.

Sink Cleaner
Sprinkle the bottom of the sink with a bit of salt. Using a scrubby brush, clean the bottom of the sink. Salt is a mild abrasive as well as a disinfectant and will keep your sink nice and clean. For any tea stains, rub half of a cut lemon all over the surface of the sink and rinse with hot water. The used lemon can then be put down the garbage disposal for a nice lemony fresh smell :)

Faucet and Pots & Pans (or anything you want shiny :)
Mix together equal parts Baking Soda & Water. Rub with a soft cloth on the surface to be cleaned and then buff to a shine with a clean dry cloth.

Cutting Boards
To keep wooden cutting boards fresh, rub with a freshly cut lemon and rinse clean with hot water.

Also....
I keep boxes of baking soda in the fridge, the freezer, the trashcan and under the sink to absorb any foul odors and keep everything smelling like it should.

And did I mention these sponges?! We love them! They are made by a company called TWIST and they are 100% biodegradable and work really well. No more chemicals anywhere in my kitchen :)

BATHROOM

All Purpose Cleaner listed above works great for any counter top surfaces, the back of the toilet, etc.

Toilet Cleaner
Baking Soda
White Distilled Vinegar

Sprinkle baking soda inside toilet bowl, along the edges of the water line and the sides. Then pour vinegar over the baking soda. The baking soda will immediately react and foam up (I find this part very satisfying :) Scrub with a toilet brush and let sit for 10 minutes before flushing. If needed, repeat.

Mirror & Window Cleaner
White Distilled Vinegar
Water
Mix in a spray bottle and wipe with a soft clean cloth or newspaper for a shiny clean mirror/window.

Bath Tub Scrub
Mix the following together in an airtight container (I like to use a mason jar)
1 cup Baking Soda
1/2 cup Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap
Essential Oil

Scoop a couple of spoonfuls onto the tub floor and with a scrubby brush, and scrub it clean! If you have any trouble spots (or a tub ring) just leave the tub scrub for a few minutes before scrubbing. Rinse clean with water. This mixture will keep for up to a year in your cabinet, just keep it in an airtight container.

One of my favorite books for all natural cleaning recipes, and where you can find several of the recipes listed here is Organic Home by Rosamond Richardson. I constantly reference this book for anything from how to clean a stain off the couch to how to treat the dog for fleas and ticks.

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Looking Back...Our First Garden: Summer 2011

Last year we began our journey toward a more sustainable lifestyle by planting a garden. 

Growing our own food is something we had been excited about for a while and we really wanted to see what we could grow on our own. Luckily we had a good sized backyard, lots of sunlight, and a very understanding landlord.

To get ourselves started, we decided on what plants to grow and then went about sketching our ideas.

Our plans looked like this and were hand drawn by Tom:

In the main garden bed we planned to grow: "The three sisters" (Sweet Corn, Squash and Pole Beans),
Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Basil, Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers (several varieties), Snap Peas, and our experimental Peanuts (we weren't sure if they would have a long enough growing season in New England, but we thought we would throw them in the mix for fun and see what happened!).

In our raised beds we planned to grow:

Left: Broccoli & Spinach

Right: Salad Greens, Onions & Carrots

*** We also planned to plant herbs in a neat spiral formation that we found in one of our gardening books. More on that next :)

With lots of ideas in our heads and our plans sketched out, it was time to get outside and start digging.

Here are some photos of our process. 

1. Plot and dig out the main garden bed.

2. Add a few truckloads of fresh compost and mix in with existing soil. 

(For this part we were lucky to live in a town that offers access to their compost pile and 

allows you to take as much as you can carry truck out!)

3. Build the raised beds.

4. Build a circular bed with rocks and boulders found during the digging of the

main garden bed and use them to create a home for all our herbs, an idea that we got from this book.

  

Once everything was dug out and filled in again, we were ready to begin the planting. Some plants we had chosen to start from seed in our house and others we purchased as starters at our local garden center. Here are a few shots of our seeds ready to be transplanted outside.

For our "herb spiral" we purchased starter plants. Here they are all tucked in to their new home. From the top of the spiral we planted rosemary, sage, tarragon, dill, parsley, basil, cilantro, chamomile, silver thyme, golden oregano, lemon balm, chives, and garlic. In between the herbs are 4 strawberry plants that we thought would be a fun addition to the herbs. Unfortunately our little rabbit friends love strawberries just as much as we do and ate them right up before we could get to them! 

Here are the two raised beds. On the left are our carrots, onion sets, and lettuce. On the right are our broccoli starters. You can see a little bit of the netting we ended up putting over the two raised beds to deter the birds from eating our crop!

And here's the main bed (a little later in the season on a nice sunny day :)

By the end of the summer, this bed grew in A LOT! That's me kneeling in the middle with our puppy, Napali. He also really liked hanging out in the garden while we worked :)

New Friends....

Well, new plant friends that is :)

When we moved, one thing I was very sad to part with were our many house plants. I had a collection of them that just weren't going to be able to make the trip cross country, so we found new homes for them with friends and family.

So now I am creating a new collection. Not that I'm complaining, I love going to the nursery to browse all the beautiful and different plants. And the other day one of my orchid's roots weren't looking very good (they had white residue on them) so I called the nursery and they were happy to help.  After a good washing (the white residue was mealy bug, yuck!) and some new bark, my orchid was good as new. With my happy orchid tucked under my arm, I went for a little walk around the nursery.

And this is what I found that I just had to bring home with me :)

It is a type of Tyllandsia, which is part of the Bromeliad family. These plants don't need soil because they collect nutrients and water through their leaves.  They do like a lot of water though, especially if it's hot and dry (which it is here in California!) and they can either be sprayed with water daily, or soaked overnight in a bowl of water once or twice a week. Believe it or not, they also produce flowers! I can't wait to see what kind of flower will appear on this guy!

It seems very happy so far, dangling over my desk, in the company of my orchids :)

Golden Yokes

Earlier this week a friend shared some eggs with us from her friends backyard chickens.  I have to say, I have never seen such bright yellow yokes, and these eggs were delicious! 

I have yet to experience raising my own chickens, but it is definitely on my future list of things I would like to do.  After reading several articles on Mother Earth News (such as this one) and Urban Farm (such as this one), I feel like it is a very reasonable animal to raise. Not to mention, the thought of collecting my own eggs, from chickens I raised, sounds amazing. 

Studio/Office Space

We were really excited when we moved into our new apartment to find that we had a decent sized second bedroom. Not only do we now have space to host guests, but we also have a space to create a true workspace. Here it is before and after. 

BEFORE

As you can tell for the first few weeks after we moved in, this room was the dumping ground for anything we didn't have a place for yet.  It's much more functional now that we have sorted through and organized everything.

AFTER

We found both tables and the two chairs on craigslist. We felt really good about this since we sold quite a bit of our old furniture on craigslist before moving cross country. Then I searched the house for any sort of basket/container to organize our many art/office supplies.  I would still like to find a small table to make a home for my sewing machine, but for now I can put it on the large table top easily enough.

 

     

Napali is also enjoying the new setup, since he can sit on the desk while I work and look out the window at the wildlife.

Green Smoothie!

It may not look like it, but this smoothie actually tastes like peanut butter! I found this recipe over on Iowa Girl Eats and with a little bit of courage, I gave it a try. 

It's something I've been trying to convince myself to do for while (put veggies into my morning smoothie mixes), but since I usually make fruit smoothies, and I don't yet have a juicer, I wasn't sure of where to begin without breaking my blender. I should have known that spinach would be the first veggie to make its way into my morning blend, since it's always been one of my favorite vegetables. This smoothie not only tasted delicious, but it filled me up for a good part of the day, too.

Shelves

We've been living without a proper shelf in our bathroom since we moved in and last week I had had enough of reaching to the floor for things. As you can see, it's a fairly small space, so we needed something that we wouldn't bump into.

And after looking at this, this, and this and deciding that they were all over our budget for such a small project, we headed out to Ikea to see what we could find.  We came up with a great solution that cost us just $18 and fit our needs perfectly.

We trimmed two of our new shelves to fit our bathroom space, and left the other two at their original size to be used in our studio/office space (pictures of that coming soon!).  I then gave them a few coats of white paint (I used Behr Paint & Primer in one Ultra Pure White in a semi-gloss finish), 2 coats for the shelves and 3 coats for the brackets did the trick. I let them cure overnight and hung them the next day. I wanted to be sure they were going to stand up to whatever we put on them, so I gave them another night to cure and we were good to go. Don't they look nice?!

I am so happy to have a place to put down my morning coffee :)