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the next big shop update won't just feature new handmade items, and a ton of excellent summer vintage clothing for you ladies, oh no! expect about 2 dozen supercute vintage pieces for the little ones in your world! waiting for a spring or summer baby and looking for something cute? or maybe you have a shower to attend and you're looking for somethin' special for your vintage loving friend.
we might have what you want here, so check back soon!
it all started sometime last summer, when matt and i found ourselves in a tangled mess of tomato plants in our garden, desperately trying to prop them up and keep them secured inside their cages. it seems that no matter what, tomato plants love to just go crazy, and by the time the plant is full-on producing fruit, you're battling it's size and the weight of all the tomatoes, and you're risking damaging the plant when you're really just trying to prop the sucker up and keep it from breaking.
so check it out: we are growing our tomatoes upside down this year.
a quick trip to lowes for some supplies:
and the rest is pretty simple. you just need some large buckets, and a spot in your yard that gets a nice, full day's worth of sunshine. of course you'll have to figure out how you're going to hang them... i've seen people use a laundry line pole, or even just hang them from a hook on the deck. matt pulled out all the stops and built an official upside-down-tomato-grower's-structure of sorts... but really, you can keep it simple if you're limited on space or tools or whathaveyou. anyhow, you just want to cut some holes in the bottom of the buckets to plant the tomatoes:
and hang them in your sunny spot! the rain will water the tomatoes from the top of the bucket, and you can easily water them yourself if the weather is not cooperating.
so not only do you save on the cost of tomato cages/stakes and the time spent tying + propping up the plant, you're practically eliminating the issue of ants + slugs coming along and snacking on your plants. from all the pictures i've seen online, the plants seem to love it. the plant produces a TON of tomatoes and they ripen so nicely. i don't know about you, but in my world, there's nothing better tasting than a home grown tomato. i'm just thinking of all the fresh salsa i'm going to make, all the yummy slices sprinkled with salt that i'll be snacking on, all the mozzarella, basil, tomato salads i'm going to eat. YUM. hello summer!
i'm hot + cold, hot + cold with this blog! seems that i get all into blogging for a few days and then life and schedule stuff gets the best of me. lately i've been a busy momma, and a busy home owner, and there's not been a lot of time to be a busy web shop lady. and blog writer. please forgive!
i will be back soon with something more than this!
i couldn't sleep at all last night! the wind was howling, and all i could think about was a damn tree blowing onto my house or car. and i was so tired that i would start to have the thoughts, then stop myself, for fear of making it happen cause i was actually thinking it was going to happen. make sense? no, not much to me either. i am really tired today, that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it.
so i was driving across the mountain earlier, lady white knuckles at the wheel, feeling like i was going to get blown into the side of an 18 wheeler. oy, vey! first we had days of straight rain, now all this gusty wind, and supposedly more rain is on the way.
is it too much to just want some lovely 75 degree days, filled with sunshine and a light breeze? i feel like i have blogging way too much about the weather these days.
another collection. this one might seem odd to you though. but here it is. vintage MATCHBOOKS.
it's a fairly new collection, maybe a year or so old, i think. i came across this big box of matchbooks at an antique mall that i used to be a vendor at... it was something like 10 for a dollar, but the lovely owner and i go back a few years and she said i could have 40 for a dollar. and just like that: a collection was born. i think i must have spent over an hour rooting through that box, setting all the best ones aside. and since that day, i have come across vintage matchbooks two times, and yes- i bought what i saw both times. what the hell am i planning on doing with all these matchbooks, you might ask. do i smoke? no. do i burn a lot of candles? no, not really. do i really need all these matches? no. but, i don't really need all those bird things either. they just make me happy.
what i will say is this: there are some real treasures in this group. some amazing images, great color combinations and interesting fonts, and they have actually served as a bit of inspiration, believe it or not.
plus, it's cooler than just whipping out a bic lighter when somebody needs a light.
a few weeks ago, i gathered up these things from my bird collection, and re-vamped the bathroom in my workshop. (sorry for the bad lighting, but it's a bathroom with no natural light, ya know?)
so anyhow, among many, *many* other things that i collect, is this. Vintage Bird Stuff. figurines, books, prints, tea towels, drinking glasses, fabric, whathaveyou. birdy things are high on my list of collectibles. and my eyes are always peeled when i'm out in the land of the thrift.
what about you? what do you collect?
spring break was really nice. the first half of the week was filled with good stuff. lots of relaxing with little house + yard projects mixed in. we gardened, we picnicked, and even enjoyed an amazing nap outside under the sun. we put a fresh coat of paint in henry's room. we lounged around and snuggled our kitties and read some more chapters in mrs. piggle wiggle.
by wednesday though, the lovely 80 degree temps had dropped to 50, and by saturday, it was in the 30s. i woke up that morning to find an inch of snow on the ground. huh? yeah, i felt like i had those funny slinky-eyed glasses on... you know the ones that the eyeballs come bouncing down? that was me early saturday morning when i found myself looking out to that snow covered landscape. what happened to all that green, and all that color?!?!? and what about my tulips!?!
thankfully, by mid-day, all the snow had melted. and by sunday, it was in the 50s again, and nice enough for us to enjoy a little easter lunch-egg hunt.
i also managed to finish a project that had been on the back burner for a while. it's a big wall in the kitchen that i had painted apple green right after we moved in last fall. i liked the green ok, but it never really "wowed" me. now, some of you might not be color-on-the-walls kind of people but those of you who are, might know just how difficult it is to actually go in a choose a shade. you make your way to the paint store all confident and ready to grab that color swatch and march on up to the counter to have it mixed. because in your mind, you know exactly what color you want. well, try matching that color in your mind to a paint swatch underneath that awful florescent light they've got going on in there. talk about stressssssss-ville-central!
after i had it mixed, i went home and cautiously rolled on the first few rows. and, hooooo boy. it was wrong. and it wasn't just wrong cause i was looking at it next to the apple green. it was just WRONG. so what to do? i took it back & asked if they wouldn't mind tweaking it- because, after all, i didn't go in there looking for electric salmon, but i sure did walk out with it. and they were happy to acommodate. i had it tweaked. and tweaked. and tweaked a final time. the paint mixing duo behind the counter was surely looking at me like i was a certified nutball color FREAK. were we going for red-orange or orangey-red? was it tomato-orange? mandarin orange? 60s orange? eh, i was ready to cry. in the end though, i got just what i wanted. and it was worth all that hullabalooo that i went through to get there.
so now the wall is finished and it's proudly displaying some of my favorite vintage advertisements from my collection of 1950s + 60s magazines. and i am happy every time i look at it. the bonus with this little kitchen gallery is that i can easily change-up the artwork whenever i want. i will certainly change it to feature some of henry's best art works down the road, and maybe even do all family photos. the frames were only $5 a piece from the craft store, so it's a great, inexpensive way to add some fun color and freshness to your world.
anyhow. happy tuesday, all. i'm happy to report that i am feeling much better than i was last week. less stress, more spunk. refreshed and ready to take on that next shop update. cross your fingers for an official warm-up this week. it is still chilly here in central virginia, only warming up to the low 50s today. come on, weather! it sure would be nice to take some photos outside, you know?!
