my sister's new craft book

hey there my crafty and creative blog friends! just wanted to stop by and let you know that my incredibly talented sister, Abby Glassenberg, has just published an amazing sewing and craft book, The Artful Bird, that is available for pre-order on amazon.  It is filled with ideas for how to sew the most wonderful soft sculpture birds that are truly art.  This is the kind of craft book that is sophisticated, wonderfully laid out, and tells the story of a talented stay-at-home mom/artist and crafter.  hope you check it out!!

Oh, and while I am here, I thought I would also share a few photos from our recent trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, (for work), and then Hot Springs, Arkansas.









1. The Clinton Library 2 -4. Hot Springs, Arkansas. The hotel that Al Capone stayed at. If you ever make it out there, I recommend a bath and massage at BuckStaff Baths. It is not only very relaxing, but you'll swear you jumped into a time warp and landed in Mad Men. Thanks for stopping by and as always -

Winter Planning

Lately I have been having lots of fun taking care of (by that I mean giving light water mists to) my wall aerium, by FloraGrubb.  I absolutely love having these little dirt-less creatures living on my wall and once it warms up a little, I am surely going to by purchasing more!

I have also become enamored by the idea of fruit trees - both indoors and out, in containers and in the ground.  Because, why buy a tree that doesn't also produce delicious and healthy fruit?  It's a little difficult to cultivate fruit trees in Virginia, but I feel that my constant internet research is sure to lead me on a successful journey.  I am starting with a key lime tree, indoors, because citrus trees appear to be lower maintenance than many others.  But I would love to also have a fig tree, and perhaps a bush nectarine?  They are quite beautiful.

And finally, despite the severely cold winter we have here already, when it comes to my outside garden, my planning goggles have already been adjusted, placed securely on my head, and are ready for use!

Next spring, I plan to keep the planting contained to the "bush" variety.  small.  short.  sweet.  I find that the larger varieties of vegetables really aren't the happiest campers in a container.  My list:

Miniature Chocolate Bell Peppers
Czech's Bush Tomatoes
Miniature White Cucumbers
Minnesota Midget Cantalopes
Tom Thumb Sweet Peas

I wasn't kidding!  All courtesy of seedsavers.org

Meanwhile - we have been really really enjoying our weekly CSA share from the virginia green grocer.  the amount of cabbage recipes I have had to drum up has been interesting, but I can tell you - there is nothing more delicious than organic, freshly picked sliced carrots with a yogurt/onion dip after a long days work!

Happy Holidays and thanks for tuning in!

green things (sort of)

from the garden, there was lots and lots of basil. it started to go to seed, so i finally got around to picking it for pesto.



then the last things in the herb pot (it is the end of the season for many things), were these two green onions. but, i guess they are also kind of purple.



they will go well sprinkled on top of anything.  like tomatoes. 

though these now appear brown, let me assure you! they are fried GREEN tomatoes. (a roma fell off the vine before it had a chance to ripen.) now, I must sit and wait - patiently - for Jesse to come home so we can share them.

arrangements

mmmm ... basil and dried lavender in the living room today.  I was pruning my garden when I realized that the ton of basil growing would look quite fabulous as part of the flower arrangements for the wedding.  I am doing my own flowers, and I think I will stuff some of these leaves in here and there.  Brown seeds and all.





I am enjoying this cloth bunting much on our art wall.  It inspired me to make some bunting for the photobooth.  I mean, if you didn't know it was a photobooth before, hopefully "say cheese" gets the point across!!  I think I am obsessing a bit too much over the photobooth.  Come on wedding - get here already!

invitations and weevils

I forgot that I haven't shared our wedding invitations here on the blog.  We were early birds and sent them out way back when - in early June for a September wedding!  I worked very closely with ellothere to create the perfect image.  And when I say worked closely, I mean that over the span of a month we e-mailed back and forth with my 100 million edits and suggestions, and Maddy's many upbeat and helpful responses, along with lots of different versions of the image.  I just wanted the invitations to really imbue our vision of Old Town, Alexandria, our beloved place of residence.  And we were very happy with the results!  You can view a different version that ellothere later created here. 



On that note, we also commissioned this lovely map of Old Town with suggestions of sites to see, places to eat, and things to do, from the wonderfully talented Laura of Wonderland Papers.  She came up with the perfect little map for us, and we were so pleased to send it to our guests so that they might plan their stay.  And, you can see a slightly different version in her shop here.



Next, I wanted to share our solution to the many little ones who might be making it down the aisle on the big day (six little nieces and a nephew all under the age of 7 ... we will see how that one goes.)  Instead of flowers, I picked up these glittery wands from the dairygodmother, a wonderful frozen custard and gourmet popsicle shop in neighboring Del Ray.  I figured, they are gender friendly, any little kid would love them, and they can keep them later!  I love checking tasks off the never ending wedding list.



Ok, now on to the garden, at long last!  Soo ... the topic today will be pepper weevils.  greedy little creatures are they!  I have yet to see one, as they feed at night.  But such perfect half circles they chomp from the leaves!  There seems to be little out there on the interweb as to what to do when infested with weevils (I kind of like the name though, I must admit.)  But I do NOT like the possibility that they may have laid eggs in my beloved peppers ...  So, I sprayed the leaves heavily with a dishwasher detergent/water mix one night, and although that caused the leaves to turn a tad brown, there seems to be much less weevil activity lately.

I have also read that adding nematodes to the soil can do wonders in getting rid off any weevil larva that may be in the soil.  I think that I will use nematodes next year, as they are great for many different pest defenses.



And look how many delightful peppers there are growing!  Are you to tell me horrid weevils are eating these from the inside?  I so hope not.  But I will keep you updated ... come harvest!  (crossing my fingers).

photobooth and tomatillos

We are having a photobooth at our wedding! I am excited of the prospect, and lots of work has gone into planning the whole thing out. I have the signs done, and I pleased with the results - rustic-y yet instructive, you might say. I also love the props that I ordered form MaroDesigns, especially the monocle.  There will be other elements as well, but I will leave those as a surprise.  I know photobooths are pretty big in the blog world, so if anyone has any ideas for me (its still a work in progress) I would love to hear.  Especially - the back drop ... ?



In the garden, tomatillos are flowering!  I must say, tomatillos are definitely as hardy as promised on the seed package.  Even with little care, (I didn't have much faith they would grow), and having to share a pot with the very aggressive mint, the plant has grown quite strong. I think the purple and yellow flower is quite surprisingly pretty.

I also wanted to mention a great program that we just used to recycle our old yoga mats, called, fittingly, recycle your mat. you mail your old mats to the company, where they will be either re-used or recycled, and in return you receive a 20% discount from Manduka, the maker of the awe inspiring Black Mat Pro!  Now, equipped with our new black mats, we will surely rise to yoga stardom (or so may happen only in our minds.  but, in yogi fashion, I say that is just as ok as the real thing, right?)  I find the Manduka mats are a tad on the heavy side (8 pounds!), but so sturdy and cushy, a far better mat than the many I have had before. 

how to make a chuppah

For our wedding, we decided to make our own chuppah, or, Jewish wedding canopy. In so doing, we decided to make it a free-standing one, the sort of chuppah that is carried down the aisle and held above us, rather than the stationary kind. For one, it seemed that with the stationary kind, we would need to pour cement into flower pots to hold it up, and that would be heavy, and so my arms hurt just thinking about it. Then, I chanced upon this lovely wedding for inspiration.  That is exactly it!  I exclaimed, a light structure with a beautiful fabric that is easily transported to our wedding site.

First, we purchased about a 6 feet x 6 feet piece of fabric from Ikea.  Then, I promptly sent it up to my very skilled sister to hem the sides and place grommets in the corners.



Once I received the fabric back in the mail, we went to our local hardware store and purchased 7 foot wooden poles from the crown molding section.



A very pleasant employee helped us figure out how to screw in the "thing-a-ma-dings" into the tops of the wooden poles (first hammer them in slightly, then start to screw them at least until they stay in, and then use this pulley system with a nail to screw them in all the way.)  (this was not the easiest step, as that wood was hard hard.)



then, because I love the rustic look of twine and it will be a design theme throughout the wedding, I decided to get a thick sturdy twine, and tie it around the grommet and screw twice, tying a double bow.



Lastly, I just needed some friends to come over and help us hold it up so that I could snap a photo of the finished chuppah.  Luckily, tonight they did, so here it is!



Yay.  So simple and light weight.  I am thinking of starting a chuppah rental business ... i think it could be lucrative, no?  but then again, I'd have to make so many more chuppahs ...