Crimson and Clover

"Now I don't hardly know her. But I think I could love her...."

Nothing like Tommy James and the Shondelles to get us pumped for today's post!

Today I thought I would bring you a post about our garden. It's not the immaculately weeded and expertly cultivated garden of my dreams. You won't find any tomatoes or zucchini here, either. I'm talking about Mother Nature's bounty in an empty field. Some of you might come away from this thinking I am some big hippie. That may be. We love to recycle, and I could wear Birkenstock's (or any brand of flippy floppies) year round. I'm an aspiring amateur herbalist. And I love pretty things-- especially if they are good for me, too.

We are fortunate to have a large, empty field behind our home. It is not part of our property, unfortunately, but the owner has given us free roam of the space as long as we pick up after ourselves. It's a perfect little hill of a field-- great for flying kites or doing cartwheels in the grass. It's also abundant with clover right now.

White clover is such a fun little plant. Bees love it. Horses love it. And I love it, too. It's a wonderful earth medicine that is abundant all summer long. It's crazy good for you, and you might be lucky enough to have this in your yard, too!

Not only does clover fight the common cold, soothe coughs and do away with migraines, but it also promotes healthy hair and fingernails. It has a plethora of detoxing benefits, too.

One of my favorite ways to use clover blossoms is in tea. It is easy to dry and save for the cold winter months, and provides lots of FREE medicinal comfort during the flu season. It is easy to adjust for taste, and boiling the dried petals helps extract the healthy goodness in an efficient way. They have a hint of natural sweetness, and can also add a lovely vanilla undertone when added to any batters or baking mixtures.

Here's how we dry our clover blossoms:

Take a brown paper lunch sack and punch holes in it. Fill it with clover blossoms. I usually only fill only 1/4 of the bag so as to leave breathing room for it to dry. Just give your bag a little shake each day to toss the blossoms around, and they should be fully dry within a week or two (depending on how full you filled your bag). You can use them immediately or you can store the dried clover in an airtight container for when you need them.

Clovers are great fresh or dried-- use whichever method you prefer. I like to dry mine so that they are easier to store for the winter months when fresh clover is not available. White clover tea is great on it's own, or you can concoct your own recipes by mixing it with rosehips, hibiscus, nettle, rosemary, or lemon balm. Feel free to add your own spices, like cinnamon, too.

Some tips for collecting clover:

Be conscious of where you are picking. I usually flick the blossom that I am going to pick first to make sure there aren't any bees hiding where I can't see. You obviously don't want to pick one of those. :)

Be cautious of where you step. If you have a ton of clover in your yard, then you might also have a lot of bee's who are visiting the flowers for their pollen. You don't want to step on any of these, either.

Pick the biggest, fullest blossoms. Our bee friends that I mentioned above are great indicators of which blossoms are best. They visit the ripest, sweetest clovers... so once they are done visiting a flower, feel free to pick it in confidence.

Don't pick every flower in the patch. Leave some for the bees. We are lucky enough to have a very large field which makes it easy to skip from cluster to cluster and collect a large amount of clover.

Clover is abundant year round. Don't feel like you have to spend all day picking everything in sight. More blossoms will pop up again and again. The field behind our house is mowed every so often, too.

Clover blossom picking is a great outdoor activity for the kids! My daughter loves being a part of nature, and it's a great way to show her how to respect it. We watch the bees, and talk about their journey from flower to flower, and eventually to their hive where they make honey.

If you have outdoor pets and are picking blossoms from your yard, be conscious of where they do their business, and not "shop" near there. My dogs have a particular spot in the yard they like to frequent, and so we make sure to stay far away from that spot.

Do not pick and use your clover blossoms if you chemically fertilize your yard or use weed killer. I doubt clover would survive on grass that is sprayed with Roundup, but then again I wouldn't know since we do not use that stuff. The field around our property is mowed every other week, and that is the only "maintenance" it receives.

Image via eattheweeds.com

Have you tried clover blossom tea, or are you willing to try it? Have any other secret herbalist tips to share? I'd love to hear about them!

Sprucing up the Front Porch

So, this isn't exactly the post I wanted to publish today. I wanted to show you my beautifully painted Adirondack chairs or my front door in it's lovely new coat of paint, but unfortunately the weather hasn't exactly cooperated. It's also turned out to be a much bigger job than I anticipated. Don't you love when that happens?

So here we are. Chairs that are still in primer and a front door that's a hot mess.

I wish it were as easy as slapping some paint on the door and calling it done, however the surface of the door was not in good condition. No telling when the last time the door was painted, but it had several layers of white and cream paint that were cracked and flaking off. So I took my trusty 6-in-One tool from Ace Hardware and began the arduous task of scraping off the paint. It came off surprisingly easy on the lower half of the door. The upper half, however, put up a fight. So I had to bring in the big guns: paint stripper, and soon the upper half of the door as well as the jamb began to look like this:

Paint stripper is nasty, messy stuff. If you've used it before you know exactly what I am talking about. Prep is key. You'll want to make sure you wear long rubber gloves, eye protection, and use plastic sheeting to protect the work space below (something I, regretfully, did not take into consideration). This is what your floors will look like after you scrape the chunks off if you do not prep the floor properly.

Oops. So, it looks like I will have to add "pressure wash" to BOB. Which works out because I had the intention of pressure washing the underside of the porch roof anyway. Speaking of BOB, I don't think I ever laid out my "game plan" for the porch. Here's my list of goals:

Seating
  -Prime and Paint
Paint shutters black
Paint front door and frost the windows for privacy
Powerwash underside of porch roof and concrete
Paint/seal concrete slab
Remove ivy from perimeter of the porch
Remove azalea
Add steps to create a traditional entry for the front porch
Upgrade porch light
Tiered planters with house numbers (something like this or this)
Landscaping
Window boxes for added privacy and color
Maybe beef up the porch columns


So, as you can see, it looks like I have barely scratched the surface of my list. One thing at a time, right?

So, now that it is raining again, here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on inside. It, too, is a tedious process, but perhaps at the end of the week I may have some more to share. :)

How was your weekend? Anyone else get frustrated at how certain projects seem to fly by while others drag at a snails pace?

Craigslist Score and Shutter Dillemma

I'm a huge fan of Craigslist. It's usually the first place I stop to shop when I need something for around the house. I love a good bargain, and there are many to be had there. Initially, I was in need of some yard tools-- in particular, an edger. But not the electric or gas powered kind. We wanted the old school rubber wheel with splines. We had priced them at Lowes and Home Depot, but I wasn't interested in shelling out $30 for a plastic tool that had questionable hardware. It just didn't feel very solid. So, naturally, I hit up Sir Craig and his list to see what I could find. Lo and behold, the first listing under my "Trimmer" search revealed exactly what I was looking for: long handled garden tools. Best of all, they were only $5 each! For half of what one tool cost at one of the big box stores, I scored 3 sturdy tools to aid me in my yard work efforts.

And in true dough-brain fashion, I totally forgot to take a picture of the edger-- the tool that started this adventure to begin with. D'oh! The pitch fork is going to come in handy when I finally get a compost bin set up. I've been frantically pinning compost bin styles to my boards, and I like the idea of a 3-bin system. Hopefully I can get started on that project this summer. The pickaxe will hopefully help me loosen up the soil in the flower beds with ivy so I can more easily remove the roots. Some of the root systems on that plant are that of a small tree, and incredibly hard to pull by hand.

The gentleman selling these tools also had a garage full of other great antique finds. Including these awesome shutters that we just HAD to grab. Originally he was asking $80 a pair for these, but I managed to talk him down to $60 a pair. Aren't they awesome!? They're in really nice condition despite their age, and they match the shutters that are hanging alongside our front door.

We have some ideas for these guys: either replace the shorter front porch shutters with these and add a planter box to lengthen the window, make a rustic dressing screen for the bedroom, or a new headboard for our bed. There are so many options! Which do you think sounds like the best project?

These are the shutters that are currently alongside our front door. They are slightly different than the shutters which we purchased, so I am a little hesitant to pair them, but I don't know if that bottom detail is really prominent enough to matter. We will have seating in front of the windows which will somewhat "hide" the bottoms anyway. I'd also like to repaint the shutters (I'm thinking black will be a nice contrast against the masonry), and the door is going to get a dose of color this week.

Here's a good comparison of how short the window shutters are next to the entry door. I had contemplated adding the larger shutters alongside these windows, and then add some window boxes beneath the window to elongate them. Would that look odd or cohesive I'm not sure at this point. The side of our home does not have shutters. I could always relocate the shorter pairs to the side of the house, but would that be necessary? Would it look overdone? Decisions, decisions!

As for the chairs above, they're already undergoing transformation. So far I have them primed and ready for a light sanding before adding color.

I love them already.

What's happening at your home? Have you spruced up your front porch at all? Do you have any suggestions as to our shutter dilemma?

Weekend Blur

This past week has been a blur of activity for us. We had family come to visit for the holiday weekend, we celebrated my munchkins fifth birthday, and best of all my husband was able to take some leave from work so he could be here. In the nearly 2 months of being a homeowner, he had yet to spend one night in his own house. Crazy, huh? That's Army life for us, though, and we are thriving. I can't wait until he is home for good, though.

Birthdays are a big deal around here. I love to party in style and make the birthday person's day feel extra special. Every year I go all out on cake and decorations. It's just something I want to be memorable (and perhaps I am living vicariously through my five year old. It happens.).

This year was a blast despite the stress of moving. It was great to be able to celebrate with family as we have always been too far away for them to join us, and I am so glad that we were able to see everyone. My only regret from the day was that I didn't get to take many pictures since I was busy manning the Lemonader, flipping burgers, and refilling the chips and dip. It wasn't until after the cake when everyone had sat down to open presents that I was able to take a break and snap a few pictures. I'm hoping my friends and family are willing to share their moments with me so I can have some to remember the day and maybe share here. I doubt you all want to see a half-eaten purple ombre cake. :)

Birthday princess and her guests while opening presents

The kids enjoyed playing on Claire's new swing set.

After the Memorial Day weekend, our guests who had come to stay with us left to return home, and we got to spend a week with my husband before he had to go back to work. We had so much fun going on throughout the week that it just flew by, and before we knew it, it was over. Claire went to stay with Grammy and Pappy while I made the round trip trek to New York and back yesterday (which is why I am late with my post). Of course I took advantage of a kid-free house and decided to get a few things knocked out.

Here are some of the fun things we accomplished last week:

Self-assemble adirondack chairs from Home Depot

Mini trellis from Lowes

Goodbye ivy. Hello ancient lamp post foundation. I've still got a lot of de-rooting to do with this patch, but eventually I hope to start a little rose garden here.

I happy to report that we are finally done moving-- nearly two months later! This afternoon I unpacked the car which was filled to the brim with the last of our stuff that was in storage in NY. What a relief to have that over with, and it's great to have discovered a few "missing" items. I also spent the evening in paint mode: priming the new adirondack chairs and painting Claire's closet. I was amazed at how productive I could be without a kiddo on my heels. I'll have to take advantage of more "Grammy and Pappy time" in the future!

So that's pretty much a recap of the craziness that has consumed my last week. I've got so much fun stuff to share with you this week, including more about my secret closet project and also some sprucing up going on on the front porch! Here's a hint!

I can't wait to see how the color I've chosen works out! It was hard to find something that both my husband and I could agree on (initially I was going to paint them white to avoid making a choice). Any guesses to what we went with? No cheating if you've seen my Pinterest!   I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Did yours go by like a blur like mine did? 

Secret Closet Plans

Last week I eluded to some secret plans that I had for the former closet in Claire's room.While it may take some time to see my vision complete, I didn't want to leave you hanging, and thought that I would give you a few hints as what to expect. Here's what we started with when we first moved into the home:

Claire's closet left a lot to want when it came to storage for her clothes. It's a pretty narrow but deep space, and it also has a beautiful decorative window inside. Awkward.

The first steps that I have taken towards renovating this space is to patch up the holes, clean and caulk the trim and window, and eventually give it a fresh coat of paint.

The pictures above were taken before caulk and paint and before I had a chance to patch the holes in the window. Once the window and trim around the window has been painted and caulked, I'd like to install a secondary pane of glass to help protect the window from any unruly toddler activity, but also provide an additional weather barrier to help insulate the closet against the winter weather.

As for a few hints on what the space will become, I'll leave you with a couple of these images to mull over. I am so excited to get started on this space! Behold:

Some Ikea "Green Bird" fabric that I picked up on Ebay since Ikea no longer sells it.

Via Pinterest

Via Pinterest

**Note: The two Pinterest images above do not link back to the original source for the images. I would LOVE to give the original source credit for these photos, so if you know where I can find the original links, please let me know! 

Storage Cart

I just wanted to leave a small post about the crate I bought at HomeGoods, since I had some questions. First, this thing is pretty sizable, and I was incredibly happy to pick it up in the clearance aisle, no less. I paid $24.99 for it (original price was $39.99). The distressed exterior really got me, but also the weight of it. It's not a flimsy little bin by any stretch of the imagination. It made me love it even more.

My first inclination was to see if this bin would fit beneath the wardrobe that we recently moved into the room, however the handles made that an impossibility. I could have attempted to relocate the handles (and certainly that is an option for the future), however I decided that I liked them as is for now. I also knew that if I was going to use it in this space, I wanted to make it easier to move about without damaging the floor. Immediately I thought that some casters would be a perfect addition, and I picked some up at my next trip to the hardware store.

It was a very easy modification to make on the crate.  I purchased wood screws that did not require pre-drilling, and it took about five minutes to complete.

I think it's going to make excellent storage for some of Claire's adored stuffed animals. The girl has a mini-zoo going on, so hopefully this will provide her with a place to keep them safe and off the floor. We are certainly in need for more storage options, so stay tuned as I work those out. It's been a slow but steady process, and I cannot wait to give my munchkin a great little space of her own.

Happy Memorial Day!

I am sitting here this morning with my warm cup of tea reflecting and giving thanks to those who serve our country. Some have paid the ultimate sacrifice, and I am forever grateful for that. I hope that you, too, will take some time to reflect on our nation's service heroes and veterans as you celebrate Memorial Day. 

Picture via war-veterans.org