organic garden of my dreams

I stayed at the Azalea Inn while in Savannah a few weekends ago, and they had the most amazing organic garden I've ever seen. It was raining most of my time there and the mosquitoes were hungry, but I really could have stayed in that garden all weekend!

My next house will have an amazing garden like this one. Definitely.

kitchen: painted

While it took way longer between coats than we would have liked and there is still some trim work to be done, the kitchen is finally painted. And it is bright.








Results have been mixed amongst friends and family. We weren't so sure ourselves, but it's grown on us tremendously. The color is most beautiful in morning with sunshine streaming in from the kitchen window.

On to the Florida room. Yay!

the accidental jeweler

I visited a great store in Jacksonville's Riverside neighborhood this week. Southern Crossing Antique Mall is one of those rare finds these days, a place whose prices are affordable and appropriate. I was in a bit of a rush so I didn't get to explore the way I wanted to, but I did score a gorgeous mother-of-pearl disk necklace for $5!

I was so excited by my find that I pulled it out of the bag immediately when I got home to put it on -- and the cord promptly snapped, sending disks flying all over the bathroom (note to self: vacuum soon.)

Luckily I had also spent some time in 5 Points' Bead Here Now on my Jax trip, so I already had jewelry making/fixing on my mind. Instead of just stringing the disks back on new thread, I decided to double-knot between each to provide a small space between the disks. This provided the little something extra the necklace had been missing before. Patience was paramount to this process -- I forgot how hard knotting thin thread can be!

The subtle change completely altered the feel of the necklace, making it a bit fancier than I'd normally like. But it also made it just a bit longer so it's now the perfect length for the V-neck shirts I tend to favor.

I was so happy with the result that I spent the rest of the afternoon making and altering other pieces in my collection. More pics to come soon!

fun with beads, part two

My entire point for stopping into Bead Here Now in Jax's 5 Points was to try to find some beads to match this carnelian bracelet I adore.

I've been wanting a necklace to wear with it forever, and finally found the right-shaped beads to make it work. It strung up quickly and is now the perfect match!

The only thing I didn't like about the necklace is its shape -- the wire cord the shopkeeper recommended made the necklace too stiff when I put it on (even leaving room for movement didn't help). I'm going to try to live with it for a little while. If I don't like it, I'll restring it on actual string.

The clear block necklace was a 30th birthday gift from my mom. I love it, but find it's a little short to wear with those V-neck shirts I favor. When contemplating how to lengthen it just a little, I noticed the silver beads between the blocks were chipping so I bought enough sterling silver beads at Bead Here Now to replace them. After the stiffness issue with the carnelian necklace, I opted to restring it with actual string. Since the silver beads are a bit larger than the ones they replaced, I also got about the added length I wanted.

The last fix was the easiest, but the one I worried about the most. The wooden bead earrings match a necklace I bought in Peru that I wear often. I could never wear the earrings because my ears are uber-sensitive and require me to only use hypoallergenic posts. I thought it would be difficult to replace the wire, but it popped off and on rather quickly. I like them so much better now and can't wait to wear them.

Now that I've finished these pieces, I find myself eyeing a few more pieces of jewelry I could change. But since I'm in project mode and there are so many things I'd love to accomplish, I think I'll head for the sewing pile instead.

i am way too proud of this

That is my fantasy baseball draft list of best possible players (bats on the left, arms on the right). Of the 312 total players drafted Sunday night (there were 26 positions to fill for each of 12 teams), I managed to draft all but *one* from my 180 best players list, which was based on league specifications, last year's stats, and plenty of Baseball Prospectus input. Yay, stats!

i built a garden this saturday past

The veggie garden is finished. It currently has yellow peppers and two types of tomatoes, but that will change soon.

While I wanted to build it in the backyard near the kitchen, there just wasn't enough sun. So I took a cue from many of our neighbors and built it in the front yard next to the driveway. tw wasn't too thrilled with this, but you can't argue with a neighborhood full of old-growth trees. It's also gotten us into new conversations with other front-yard gardeners on the street. There have been numerous discussions about planting techniques and plans to swap some plants soon to increase everyone's variety. I love gardeners -- such a friendly bunch. I built this bed closer to the house than the street so if the time comes to expand, there'll be room (foreshadowing, anyone?) I can probably fit another one and a half beds in, if I *had* to.

But that's not all that's going on in the yard. Spring is showing itself everywhere.

The mini roses are blooming and my grandmother's night-blooming orchid has tons of new growth. I added a trellis and pink mandevilla in the planter bed attached to the house. And the real sign that summer is coming soon: the banana plants have shown signs of life! We have grand plans to move these to the fence line this summer and build a deck by the kitchen.

Hopefully, our next front-yard task will involve ripping out the overgrown azalea bushes and planting something smaller and more manageable -- tea olive bushes, maybe? That, and trying to control the dollarweed that's taken over the front lawn. A true gardener's work is never really finished, is it?

organizing writers

Even though the African grant I was working on was submitted early last week, I've still been MIA. I apologize. I've moved from relief efforts to disaster planning.

I've been expanding my company lately, no longer just editing writers' works but now formatting them too. I have to say I am *loving* what is essentially the organization of the written word. There is something about the beauty of style and design, even in the most mundane of things.

My latest client is working on a comprehensive disaster plan for a regional government agency. All the plans were written by different people, so I was tasked with bringing a unity to the overall design. And since many people are not adept at using Word (although it's practically universal, it sure is a quirky program), it's taken a ton of time. Thankfully, unifying is satisfying work.

When in the formatting zone, I barely read what the words on the screen say. But every now and again, things pop up that make you go "oh!' One of the tables I was working on detailed the number of corpses able to be housed by different agencies in case of a disaster, which included surprisingly lower numbers than one would expect. A bizarre statistic I'll never forget.

Have I told you all lately how much I love my job?

business is beautiful

Look what I got in the mail today -- business cards!

I can't believe I waited so long just to get *something* made. I agonized over what my branding would be until I realized I just need something out there. So here they are. I am currently working on my branding label for business cards, letterhead, website, etc., but for now I am totally thrilled. I can finally hand people a card when they ask! :)

the chair that was a couch

This is the latest acquisition for the house. I have to say it's adorable (but unbelievably heavy!) I didn't really love it when it was first introduced, but it's growing on me. I love the avocado green color with gold glitter flecks and especially the lines, but am not so fond of the plastic nature of the chair (this is not one of the cozy, curl-up chairs I favor for working from home.)

For the last few months we have been endlessly discussing how to set up the Florida room, mainly focusing on a new couch since all of the seating in the room is either a) broken, b) uncomfortable, or c) disfunctional. There is no cohesiveness to the space. We entertain there constantly, so it's an area we really needed to focus on. The room is oddly configured with three doors on three separate walls and a non-working fireplace on the fourth wall. It's a design issue I mentioned when tw showed me the house before he bought it. Back then it was just an observation, now that I live here it's become a dilemma.

I'm discovering there is really no stronger dilemma than how to design for a house that you live in but that ultimately isn't yours. I constantly go back and forth on this. I have known tw for 15 years, and our design style is very similar. So far, he's let me rearrange any pieces I want to create a tableau that appeals to both of us. The breakfast nook is a great example of this:

When I moved in, there was a broken table with no chairs we bought 10 years ago sitting in the space. We carted that to the curb on trash day and I rummaged through the house for something usable to take its place. The table belonged to his grandmother and was just refinished by his uncle. I found it under a blanket in the office. The chairs were headed for Goodwill before I snatched them up, the tablecloths are relics from my grandmother's bridge-playing days, and the art is all Florida-focused (posters found at thrift/antique stores, photos taken by tw) which I found in a pile on the office floor. I framed them in frames also found in the office. This was easy since he already owned most of these things and so I knew he liked them.

The Florida room has been a bigger problem because I know exactly what I want to do in there, but I'm just waiting around for tw to jump on board. We were stuck in the "what next" phase for several months while he contemplated a couch. Then the chair showed up one day out of the blue. True, it's no couch, but it's a sign tw's ready to forge ahead with the rest of the space. We have an Ikea date planned and furniture in mind. Hopefully we'll leave there with a clearer picture -- or maybe even furniture!

This isn't my house, so designing for the long-term is hard. But it is my home & workspace for my growing company. And as one of my best friends said to me when I was feeling blue about packing my life into an attic, "It doesn't matter where you live, your home will always be very you." When helping design the spaces in this house, I am often reminded of those words. I have to say that most days I am blessed that it is just that, not mine but very me.