Staying Peppered in the New Year

I'm sure the term "peppered" brings to mind varying images for everyone. I've talked about the history of my paper-peppering technique here. I think of something "peppered" as sprinkled with cheer: colorful, sweet, vibrant, textured, intricate, lively, bubbly, and with a little kick! I was thrilled to get some gifts this year to help keep us "peppering" in the new year. Whether it's through cooking and eating, writing and photographing, crafting and creating, or by watching and being inspired- I know it's the little things that are "the spice of life." And, I'm eager to spice things up a little bit this year!

Pa-pri-ka (pepper) - used to add color and flavor to dishes, yum

My mom found this ribbon with some of her old fabric scraps. Pretty and peppery- a perfect stocking stuffer!

We'll be "peppering up" lots of meat this year. And, when I say we, I mean Laurence. I'll certainly be enjoying it though. And, I love the logo on this!

Isn't this a lovely serving basket from Budapest, with chile peppers and all! I love getting gifts from other countries.

Some notebooks from Laurence to help me consolidate all the to-do lists and post-its I leave around the house. Hmm, I think they'll be perfect for sketching and journaling!

The Joby Gorillapod Tripod! For taking lots of photos of all our "peppering" in the new year.

The Original Whirley Pop!

Yum.

A Work in Progress - Part Two

The Studio

Can you believe all that dark wood paneling? We also had this paneling in our kitchen nook. Several people seemed to think we should leave the natural wood, which was most likely added in the 50's. We have no regrets. It looked better and better with each coat of paint, which were many. Sometimes even the smallest fixes, like repairing a hole in the floor or some cracking plaster, make such a big difference, but painting all of this panelling definitely made one of the biggest improvements in the feel of these rooms.

The Basement Stairway

I actually don't have a good "before" picture of the entire basement, but we've cleaned it up a ton as well. The first picture of the stairway here is post removing a 500 pound cast iron coal burning furnace, thus the grease and hand prints along the walls. It's telling that one of the first things I needed was a clean place to keep our cleaning supplies, with crisp clean blue walls- so many ways to apply color theory! I braided all the onions from our garden and hung them up there as well, if you're wondering what's on the wall.

Perennial Garden

Just one of many perennial gardens, with more to come! We added the fence after we adopted Lulu. It completely changed how the house looks from the street and opened up the side yard. And, provided this little corner for some planting. We've dug up hundreds of iris and day lily bulbs from the back yard, along with lots of old stone, which we used for the walkway and border here. We even dug up a sink- see below. We still haven't made the caps for the fence post, or fixed up much of the exterior, but we're counting down the days now till the painters come to visit! So, certainly not a finished "after" photo, but I thought it would be nice to include one of the exterior.

Of note- the enormous camilla trees on the side of the house that bloom in March, the wild nandina we can't control, and some rosemary I planted from one of the arrangements at our wedding!

I love black eyed susans and cone flowers!

some type of phlox we got at Ijams Nature center-

it's tripled in size since we planted it in the fall

Lulu practicing how to use the gate instead of jump the fence

what else could be under there?

literally hundreds of surprise lilies, and this doesn't even include all the irises and day lilies!

Again, so much more to come! We've done so much in these two and half years, but still have four rooms to go, plus more on the exterior, in the yard, and in the details. I'll keep you posted.

A Work in Progress- Part One

For a while I've been considering posting some "before and after" photos of our home renovations, but I've never wanted to because we're not really finished with anything. For instance, we need some nice art for the walls, some pillows shams for our bed, new light fixtures in the kitchen, and more flowers and trees! And that's just for the rooms that are somewhat "finished." However, after my post about getting our house appraised, I thought I should fill you in on some of the details. After all, I understand the importance of the process and realize that is really what home restoration is about. We'll never be completely finished, so please consider that my "after" pictures here really mean much better, certainly not finished. And, the good news is we'll have more "much better" pictures soon because our appraisal came in higher than expected!

The Kitchen

Along with the yard and the neighborhood, this is the room that sold me on the house. I love the windows, the view of the stone path to our garden, and the openness of the kitchen. It's perfect for us. We salvaged all of the cabinets, converting one into the island. My mom even salvaged the giant sea fan for us (top left). We added all new "scratch and dent" appliances, a butcher block from IKEA, a porcelain sink from the Habitat store, some chalk board paint, and a spice rack, custom built by Laurence.

The green for the cabinets was difficult to get just right. The color I started with was too green and the second attempt not green enough. So the solution was to mix the two myself- a nice combination of Asparagus and Relaxation, so fitting for our kitchen. Lots of the little details I'll have to post about individually, and hopefully our nook will be finished soon, along with new lighting in the entire kitchen.

The Guest Bedroom

Really, this is our bedroom for now, but we call it the guest bedroom- maybe one day. I know, how incredible is that wallpaper! I had to do some convincing to keep it, but I love it! Especially with the arrangement of black and white photos against the velvety gold background, and the soft blue walls complimenting the wallpaper and the curtains.

I like to think that this wallpaper is original to the house, it looks very 20's to me, but could have also been added in the 70's, not sure. The velvet texture is kind of lost in these photos, but you can imagine what it's like. Oh, we also had to close off an exterior door that was added when they duplexed, i.e. decimated, the house in the 70's.

The Bathroom

Some more favorites from our house- the sea foam green tile and the world map shower curtain! I guess I have favorites from every room in the house, actually. Sometimes Laurence says I'm too positive about everything and that I need to be more critical. So, even though that blue floral wallpaper looks like it's cool and funky, underneath I discovered several patches of water damage, including some rotten wood in parts of the window. My criticism - even if people used to just take baths, who puts a wooden window in a shower?

Since we agreed refinishing the bathroom should be first on the list, this little room was my introduction to spackling. At first it seemed like a genius invention, then came the sanding, and sanding, and sanding, and sanding. Two and a half years of restoration and I can say without hesitation, I hate sanding, but I love our new bright bathroom!

Much more to come...

Kissin' & Cookin'

I found this pretty recipe card looking through my mom's recipes a few weeks ago. It's a recipe from my great aunt Dorothy. The cheese balls don't sound particularly appealing to me, but maybe I'll have to try them out one day, whenever I have an extra stick of Oleo on hand. However, I do love the illustration and detailed design of the card, with the colorful figures and floral designs, and even the nice blue script. I wish all of my recipes were on fun cards like this one. Maybe I should design some recipe cards myself? That would be a fun project! I also love that the little man is holding some utensils (for cooking?) with the little lady about to pour some tea! Laurence does make some mean pao de queijo (Brazilian cheese balls). I'll post his recipe too. Just saying, I still like his kissin' and cookin.' :)

Happy New Year!

I happened upon this lovely Christmas card from the early 70s when looking through old family pictures over the holiday. I love the mandolin, and the typeface and bright funky colors of course. Best wishes to everyone for the New Year!

Picture This: The Pop-Up Book of Gnomes

The opening page displays a typical gnome's living space where all the activity takes place; "The mother gnome cooks on the large stove, which keeps the room warm and cozy." The illustration is labeled with letters and has a diagram explaining what everything is, including the Christmas decorations on the table, which stay out year round, the carved portraits, and the hobby area!

The next page show the gnome's daily routine saying, "In the gnome household, the children set the table." Here we also see a typical breakfast for gnomes, including tea, eggs from a song bird, and bread from acorn meal.

This page explains that gnomes are great friends of animals, and often help them out of peril. The animals help the gnomes in return, as illustrated with the moving otter, who, "swimming and giggling... ferries the gnome to the other side."

And, of course, gnomes love to play! Adults and children alike enjoy swinging, jump rope, tug of war, and dressing up as dragonflies. Who wouldn't enjoy simple play in such a lovely setting?

I found this Pop-Up book for Laurence's birthday! Ok, it's a little gift for me as well. But, it also includes pages about gnomes as great woodworkers and gardeners, and explains that they believe in using natural resources. It's incredible. It shows and tells you all about the life of gnomes, using these wonderful pop-up illustrations. Most of the tabs, etc. are still in great shape too. These images don't even do it justice because there is so much beautiful detail, and it provides the great interaction that is the nature of pop-up books. I need to add some more of these books to my collection. And, I certainly hope some gnomes are living comfortably in the hollow of one of our old trees!

Picture This: When Joy Came

We pull out tons of classic Christmas picture books each year, and I'm always discovering new favorites. Almost all of them include a Santa theme, so I was excited to find this old book from the early 70s entitled "When Joy Came." It's such a simple narrative telling the story of the nativity. And, the illustrations aren't all fluffy and cheesy! You know the ones, with the immature figures, curly blond hair, and barnyard animals. The illustrations in this book make for a much more authentic and moving story. I love the use of color and movement, and think children appreciate this quality of art over dumbed down images. So glad to add it to our collection this year, and I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas!

Rockin' Christmas Tree

We found this poster at the Habitat Thrift store in our neighborhood last year. After mistaking it for wrapping paper, though it did make for a beautiful package, I tried to piece it back together to hang it as a poster. Still a little off kilter, and the lighting in these photos adds to the nice psychedelic effect. I think it's absolutely wonderful.. the nicest fake Christmas tree I've seen! I love the green wallpaper-like background, and the highly saturated colors in the tree and presents seem to be bursting with excitement. I couldn't find a date on it, maybe 60's/ early 70's, not sure. It needs a little bit more repair, but it's rockin' our house this Christmas!