Crooked House

I've been doing a lot of backyard pricing for my summer of sun and relaxation at home and one thing that has been bothering me is the quality of playhouse that we can afford.

Unfortunately, we don't have a thousand plus dollars to spend on a playhouse alone.  I sincerely wish that we did because I'd totally buy my girls a crazy, triple-decker, lofted, fully furnished playhouse that they could enjoy well into their teen years.

Jay and I have imagined having a playhouse where we could plaster children's artwork all over the walls and they could make a total mess of and never have to clean up.  So, I've been a little bit sad when researching what I can get for the money I have to spend.  With Lila going on 7 years old and Bunny 8 years old, they're far too big for the little playhouses that you can buy at a toy store.  Even some of the larger, log-cabin, type houses that are out of my budget are a poor investment.  I mean, even if we did splurge on one, they would likely only get a year or so of use out of it before they outgrow it entirely.

So, the wheels in my head began turning.  Why can't Jay and I build the kids a playhouse ourselves?  I mean, he's pretty great at putting things together and working with measurements and I'm pretty handy and creative.  It would be a super fun project to work on together, and with his new schedule at Twitter he has every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off and every other Saturday off too.  If we started building this summer, I'll bet that we could have it entirely built by the time spring rolls around.  I mean, we're in California, so we don't exactly have the weather restrictions that we did on the east coast. I've been looking at crooked houses and I'm certain that we could make one happen together!



I did some research and it looks like for between $20 and $80 we can get some pretty detailed instructions.  My friends Siet and Jenny built a whole tiny house out of almost all reclaimed free materials. I'm not suggesting that we could be that lucky, but I'll  bet with a bit of patience and some thorough investigation we could at least get a few great deals!

This is just a thought right now, but I think I'm going to do a lot of researching and thinking about it and I'm going to hold off on buying a playhouse for the time being.  Maybe we can start our building in July!

Not only will my girls have an awesome play space for years to come, but I get a bunch of non-technology saturated time with my husband.  Love that!!!!!

Inspiration Pinterest

One of my favorite new things is Pinterest!

Every time I go onto that site I feel so inspired and motivated to make beautiful things.  More often than not I work on spontaneity and compulsion.  I'll find whatever I can around my house to recreate the inspiration to some degree.

Recently I pinned a vase full of flowers and sliced lemons onto my wall and have been toying with the idea of making it ever since.  Flowers are truly one of my joys in life.  When I got married they were one of the only things that mattered to me.  They just have the ability to make a plain room gorgeous.  When I have a vase full of colorful flowers on my table I feel total peace and pure happiness.  They're mood altering to me, nearly medicinal.

Today, I made this, and I LOVE it.

I am unable to stop admiring this!

It's contents come entirely from my yard.






























PURE HAPPINESS

Backyard Oasis

As the weather warms up in Concord I have been thinking a lot about summer vacation.  Since we moved to California in January we've been too busy for my taste.  Private school has brought a shocking increase in the amount of homework the kids get.  Also, as a mom, there is a different expectation placed on volunteer work and parent involvement.  I've always been pretty involved in my kids education, so it doesn't bother me, but I do think it's a bit more time consuming now.  On top of this, we are at track three nights a week and at dance and cheer after school one day a week and then we have meets on Saturday and we're supposed to go to church on Sunday but can never seem to get there because we are always totally exhausted.  I am dying for summer vacation!

In July, Bunny has to have her tonsils out, which will have her on bed rest for about two weeks.

It is my plan to spend a quiet, lazy summer at home and turn our backyard into an oasis.

We have this lovely little pergola/trellis with a patio set beneath it, but we don't have anything else.  Our house has two exits leading to the backyard.  We have sliding doors from our dining room and we have a door leading outside from the laundry room.

I made this little map of my backyard and what I'm hoping for!


Here is what I need:

A canopy to place in front of the fireplace


A small set of comfortable furniture to place under the canopy (think summer night time fires, pitcher of white sangria, good friends).


an inexpensive grill


a pool.  In front of my garage workshop there is a nice, large, level space where we could set up a medium sized pool for the kids.  It's not perfect, but I think that they'll love it.


A small play house.

This is where I'd like to put the pool.  Jay is pretty sure that a good sized pool will fit in that space.  I am spatially inept so it is tough for me to know if that's true.

This is what we were thinking.

Then we have that small patio in front of the fireplace to set up the canopy.  We were thinking about doing something like this.
 

This is the perfect spot for a grill.  Outside of the pergola and close to our patio furniture!

Something practical!  Nothing too fancy!

Then we have a really great space towards the back of our yard for a playhouse!

Something like this.  I saw one at Costco for a fantastic price!



This will still leave plenty of room for the kids to run around and play!

I love being outside when the weather is nice.  I can get up, go outside and eat breakfast lunch and dinner there, coming in for almost nothing.  Lazy summer days are the best.  Here's to not going anywhere or doing anything!

My Garden

I have this friend, Siet.  She is one of the most fascinating people ever.  We've been friends since we were 11 years old but have lead very different lives.  She's a farmer living in Colorado, building a tiny house to live in while she and her wife Jenny work on constructing an earthship.  I am pretty consistently amazing by the process of realizing dreams.  This is generally true of me and magnified by the experiences of my friend Siet.

When we moved into our new home Siet and Jenny sent a care package.  Inside I found these.

Unfortunately, for every living thing outside of my children that I had ever tried to cultivate in any of my 35 years (including some small animals- mostly fish), pretty much everything that I touch dies.

I swear to God, even that avocado seed that I have been trying to grow for YEARS only sprouted a root while I was away on vacation for a week.  It probably sounds crazy and paranoid to think that my very presence to could kill living things, but I swear it is the truth.

On a separate but related note, my husband is convinced that I have a technology killing super power.  Not in a way that makes technology difficult to use, but in a way that makes it possible for me to control the touch screen on my iPhone from six inches away.  Or, by killing the microwave.  Or my iPod displaying all of our music upside down and backwards.  Or, a stereo in the car of a friend that has not worked in years suddenly begins working when he picks me up from the airport and suddenly stops working after he drops me off at the airport.  You know... weird stuff.  My husband think that there's a normal scientific explanation.  He thinks that my body works on the same frequency as many electronics and interfere with them.

But I can't help but wonder if the same things inside of me that kills electronics also kills plants.

That said, we moved into this house that has gorgeous, well established landscaping.   I have been sincerely enjoying weeding and pruning and clipping flowers to make bouquets.  I enjoy the fruit that we grow and the blooming of all of the plants and the little baby succulents sprouting from their mamas.  My black thumb made of lead has just a hint of green... and I have these seeds.  Siet gave me some great instructions...

...so, yesterday, with fear in my heart and the lives of much vegetation at my fingertips, I planted squash and California poppy's.

Hopefully, they'll be sprouting up and thriving in this space.

I don't hold a whole lot of hope, but I will follow the instructions and do my best to see them grow into healthy, prolific, food baring crops.

Today, I will plant cardinal climbers.  The seeds had to be soaked for 24 hours before planting, and I needed to find the perfect place for them.  I am going to pot them next to our outdoor fireplace so that they can climb up the side!

I have this bed next to my front door that gets no sunlight and I am wondering what I can possibly plant here.  Are there plants that don't use sunlight?  It seems as though something must have grown there at some point.  But, what?

Happy Birthday Bunny Holler: Post 1

Each year for Bunny's birthday she and I seek out some cakestrosity that she thinks is extra special and she challenges me to make it for her class.  It's our tradition.  She selects the confection and I do my best as an amateur baker and craftstress to rise to the occasion.

This year, my friend who should be on  sweet genius Jennifer posted pictures of high heel cupcakes and I and Bunny went gaga for them.  We decided to make them blue so that the boys in her class wouldn't feel entirely Barbified.  I also wanted to challenge myself further by making the interior of the cupcake rainbow!  This is something that I have seen several times but haven't ever had occasion to try!  I think it will be a fun surprise for the kids when they bite into their cupcakes!

Here's the How To:

First, I chose decorative cupcake wrappers

Then, I made little bows out of fondant

Next, I mixed the cake batter, colored it, layered it in the cupcake wrappers and baked them!

I cut a small sliver out of each cupcake.   It's for the wide part of the graham cracker to rest on. 

While the cupcakes were baking, I cut my graham crackers and dipped them in candy coating.  Then I cut the heels for the shoes!

After dipping the graham crackers, make sure you stick them in the freezer for a few minutes after you dip each side.  And put them on parchment paper.

I let my cupcakes cool overnight before decorating them!

Frost the sliver that you left out of the cupcake white.  

Then frost the rest blue and cover it in sprinkles.

Glue the heel to the small end of the graham cracker using melted candy.

Put it all together!  Add the bow.  Pipe around the edges of the arch with frosting and use decorative candies to make it festive!

Because of the colors here I think that these would be perfect for a bridal shower!  I sort of wish I'd gone with yellows and greens, but all in all, I'm really thrilled by the way they turned out and I think that the kids will love them tomorrow.  

Landscaping

I think that I've bragged enough for you to know how much I truly love our new home.  This is the quietest, prettiest, most established neighborhood that we've ever lived in and my heart sings every time I drive through it.  The houses are cute.  The neighbors are friendly (and normal, which is something of a novelty for us).  In every direction, I feel as if I could stretch my arm out and touch the mountains.  Sincerely, I just love it here.  Concord is definitely the place I love most in Northern California.  Even after flying in the other night, I felt myself really relax when I saw the "Walnut Creek/ Concord" sign from the highway.  

My own little house is landscaped in such a way that I seem to be surprised by something blooming every day.  When we moved in I thought that most things were dead, but at the advice of my favorite farmer Siet, I decided to hold off on plucking too many dead plants from the ground.  Now, what was brown and dead is alive and thriving.  

Most of our front yard is landscaped in rose bushes.  Please, if anyone knows how to care for and shape these, let me in on the secret.  Overnight they have become a little unruly!  

Look at this beautiful bouquet that I made for my table this morning!  

I used an assortment of flowers, including roses, daisies, tiger lilies and even lavender.  

I love the fact that Lila was able to go outside this morning, pick an orange from our tree and eat it.  Previously they were pretty sour and the first batch of juice I made was a disaster!  But, here we are in midApril and the orange are sweet as candy. 

This is the orange tree!  I don't know how tall it is.  My guess is 30 feet, but I'm terrible at discerning size.  We have this giant pole with a claw on the end that helps us reach and pick the oranges, otherwise we couldn't  reach any of them.  That said, it's pretty light and even the kids are able to manage it.  

Here's a little bit of the landscaping in our front yard!  It seems crazy to think that any of this seemed dead just a few weeks ago!

Our trellis has been rebuilt!  We are renting this house and the owner of it makes us never want to buy!  He has been a dream!!!!  We mentioned that we were thinking of having the trellis fixed and before we could blink he had someone here taring it down and building a better one.   I imagine hanging many beautiful baskets of plants out here this summer.  I'm actually sitting under it as I write this. The weather here is beautiful today!

I'm really excited to create a backyard oasis for the kids.  I'd really like to give them some sort of playhouse and a little pool too.  Nothing huge!  Just a way to pass the time on a summer evening . We have a pretty great outdoor fireplace and I imagine setting up a canopy close by with a chaise lounge, comfortable chair and coffee table beneath it.  I imagine Jay and I sitting outside, chit chatting in front of the fire with a bottle of wine on a summer night.  I imagine us grilling our meals and just spending 75% of our time outdoors.  Summer, where are you?  

I have said it before... but I love it here so much.    

Peach Tree

When we moved into our house in February this tree was completely bare and we were told it was a peach tree.  To me, it just looked like a sad, naked trunk that was adorned by many weak, spiky branches pointing upward.  This is not what I have imagined peach trees look like and I never expected it to become anything other than it was in the winter.

Then, in March something interesting happened.  It seemed like overnight this tree went from being completely bare to being covered in tiny, pretty pink and white flowers.  No sooner did it bloom that it lost all of the pretty little flowers and green leaves sprouted throughout the skinny tree.  But rather than appearing frail, suddenly my peach tree looks full of life and transformation.

Today, I noticed that there are little green and red berries that are about the size of large olives covering this tree.  I can't wait to watch it transform.  Will these grow into peaches?  I already feel so spoiled with an outdoor fire place, two lemon trees, orange tree, rose bushes, tiger lilies and fresh herbs everywhere.  Will I be so lucky as to be able to just pluck a peach from a tree in my backyard every time I need a little midday snack?