Yipppeeee!!!!
I’m definitely looking forward to a football and beach filled weekend (two of my most favorites)!! I hope y’all have a safe and super fun holiday weekend!
Be sure to tune in Sunday for this week’s edition of The Sunday Currently. :)
In sticking with the theme of Liz’s guest post earlier today, I have a little challenge for you. I think many of us can relate that our lives often seem centered around food. Meals are a social event for most of us, not just a means of sustenance. We gather in the kitchen, or around the table, and spend time enjoying one another. Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky.
Erin at House of Earnest posted an admirable call to action today on her blog. As Erin noted, we all seem to be outspoken about the things we are thankful for around Thanksgiving, but it’s easy to lose sight of those things as the year passes on. Now there’s a way for us to be reminded of what we have and what we are thankful for, all while helping a worthy cause.
Here’s the deets…Schwan’s food company is beginning it’s “Open the Door to Thankful” campaign today in an effort to help people realize all the things we each have to be thankful for. Schwan’s has already agreed to donate 250,000 meals to Feeding America up front. In addition, Schwan’s invites all of us to join in by sharing what we are thankful for on the drive’s Facebook page each #thankfulthursday through October 10. For each post, Schwan’s will donate an additional 5 meals to Feeding America.
This really is such a simple way to make a difference. Not only will participating in this campaign help feed those who are less fortunate, it may just help you too. A little positivity and benevolence can go a long way!
What are you thankful for today?
Today’s guest post comes from a dear friend (and girlfriend of my brother), Elizabeth. She is quite the talented baker, and has long been involved in the “farm to table” movement. Liz and my brother, Jason, just moved into an awesome historical loft in downtown Salisbury, NC. Here, she talks about her relationship with Jason (who is quite the cook himself), and how their home is built around the kitchen.
Jason and I nearly didn’t meet. It was complete happenstance at a bar in Pittsboro, NC on a night neither of us should have been in town. But we were and we did and here we are a few years later sharing the kitchen in our pre-war loft in Salisbury, NC. The meals I tend to cook are extremely simple. I feel that quickly sauteed vegetables speak for themselves. Add a slice of homemade bread, a bit of good cheese, and a glass of wine and I’m in heaven. Jason on the other hand likes production. A good meal from him requires planning, a trip to the grocery store, a finely cut slab of meat and the use of every kitchen utensil we have.
We’re just starting our lives together. We go to farm dinners, save our money for far away restaurants, look at food books together, walk downtown holding hands talking about our next adventure. We spend time in the kitchen together and eat leisurely meals on the weekends. We make plans to cure meats and sausages and shop at the farmers’ markets all year long. A well spent Sunday includes a nice hike, listening to the Grateful Dead, and drinking coffee then Bloody Mary’s. We sit with a copy of the Sunday NY Times, and look at menus online of restaurants we’d love to visit. Food is central to our lives–our home and life will grow from there.
To see more pictures of the delicious food that Jason and Liz are constantly whipping up, check out their Instagram pages! (Jason, Liz)
Happy anniversary to the two people who didn’t have to tell me about love…they just lived it. I love you, Mom and Dad, and I hope that my marriage looks a lot like yours in 31 years.
A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. ~Paul Sweeney
A successful marriage requires falling in love many times with the same person. ~Mignon McLaughlin
I hope the next 31 years are even better than the last!
“Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be…”
Well, not yet. But we will be soon! The electrician is about half way through the first floor with new outlets and receptacles, and hopes to finish up the rest of the house this week. To stay on trend with the period of the house, we have decided to stick with the antique brass switch plates, but switch the actual outlets to black instead of white. It looks really great, and I can’t wait to see it all put together! Below is a shot of what will be behind the TV stand in the den. We decided to go with 6 outlets total, so hopefully we can avoid ugly, bulky power strips.
Eventually, we are going for something like this:
And while we’re talking about lighting…
You can see my post on front porch lighting options here. I found this very simplistic chandelier at Lowe’s this weekend, and now I can’t get it out of my head.
Am I crazy? Who puts a chandelier on the front porch? Isn’t that a little excessive? But then again, I keep coming back to these photos, and it doesn’t seem so ridiculous.
I mean, THAT is excessive. That makes my idea look incredibly unassuming. Right? Or am I just rationalizing this? Help!
Since Charles and I have been watching some preseason football, we decided to do a little “preseason” landscaping to get ready for the Fall. We dubbed this little adventure “preseason,” because hopefully it will get us prepared for when we have to take care of an entire yard!
We are so lucky to have a place to live…and rent-free too! Charles’ grandfather moved to an assisted living facility in the Spring, so we are living at his house and helping to look after it. (We will call this the Madison house for short.) Since we don’t pay rent, we wanted to do something to show our appreciate to Charles’ parents for letting us live in the house. And what better use of a gorgeous Saturday afternoon than to do some gardening?
First, we went to Lowe’s and used our pretty hefty gift card to get some things (read: all the things) we needed. We bought 7 knock-out rose bushes, potting soil, cypress wood mulch, landscaping fabric and pins, and even a wheel barrow! We figured it was a pretty good investment.
We headed back over to the Madison house and got to work. Here are the two flower beds when we began:
So let’s get started!
Step 1: Pull up all the weeds and overgrowth from the side bed.
Step 2: Dig out about 5 inches of soil in each bed, then even them out.
With the extra soil we had left over, we spread it over a few spots in the front yard where we could not get grass to grow. Hopefully the new soil will help sprout some new grass!
Step 3: Lay out the landscaping fabric and secure with pins. We figured the fabric would make it easier whenever we had to go back and spruce things up.
Step 4: Cut X’s into fabric, dig out a hole under each X, then plant the roses.
Step 5: Cover the entire area with the new soil mixture: about 1/2 potting soil and 1/2 original soil we dug up.
Step 6: Cover the entire area with the mulch.
We were really happy with how it turned out! For all you avid gardeners out there, I’m sure this looks totally amateur, but we thought it was a good first run. And we definitely realized how much time and effort it is going to take to keep up our entire yard at the Park Avenue house!! (Read more about the landscaping we’ve done so far here and here.) Next up for the Madison house…power washing the white siding.
Hope y’all have a great week!! Stay tuned for more on the Park Avenue basement, and some light fixture dilemmas! :)
