Last Saturday, while Kristen was working in the garden, I got out my new Dremel and set to cutting the basket into two baskets. I’ve only had the Dremel for a couple of months, and I’ve been trying to think of things to use it on (productive things). Turning this basket into two is easily the most productive thing I’ve done with it so far.

First, I fitted the Dremel with the cutter disc that is made to work on relatively non-heavy duty metals. Then, I just started cutting the two rods at either side as close to the bottom basket as possible. While cutting, I tried to cut around the rod in a circle (like I did with the bathroom vanity plumbing)  as opposed to straight through from one end. I don’t know if there’s a good technical reason to do it this way, but it seemed to make sense to me.

Above, you can see the bottom basket already cut away from the top one. The top basket was held up by a sort of three-prong rod (which above you can kind of see in the middle of the table, in the shadow of the bottom basket), so I cut these off the top basket right where they were soldered on. That was pretty much it for turning the one basket into two.

But. I wasn’t done using the Dremel yet. After I separated to two baskets, I still needed to grind down and smooth out the edges where I made the cuts. Sharp, jagged metal edges are not all that appealing to us.

So I swapped the cutter disc for a grinding attachment and went to smoothing the edges. This part is fun if for no other reason than the sparks. (It’s also a good idea to hold the Dremel in a way that the rotation of the grinded shoots the sparks away from you instead of at you.)

After a few minutes of smoothing out the just-cut edges, we had two baskets that would fit where we needed them and that wouldn’t draw blood from hands looking for produce. (Insert unfunny Rambo joke here.)

And here’s one last shot of the baskets in action.

Have you made any creative modifications to baskets or household items? Have any good Dremel tips or jobs?

So in place of homework this past Saturday, I decided to do the following: go for a walk with the dogs, go to the local co-op to check out the seed and seedlings out for the spring, buy a number of said seeds and seedlings, plant a large bed full of spring goodies, watch MSU basketball, and make rosemary salt. On any regular Saturday, I might read a little, do some piddling around the house, and watch trashy TV, but not when I have homework to do. No sir, I can get productive real quick and in a hurry.

Turns out, I didn’t need much time to make the rosemary salt. It took all of 3 1/2 minutes. Well, 5 minutes if you count walking to the herb garden and clipping the rosemary.

Side note: If you aren’t currently growing your own rosemary, what in the world are you waiting for? Seriously, folks, this stuff is the easiest thing to grow ever. Ever. I recommend going to your local nursery, buying a small plant, and sticking that sucker (out of the pot, of course) in the ground. Better yet, find a friend who grows it and just cut some off and root it. You could grow it from seed, but there’s really no need for all that waiting.  You can also grow it in a pot, but I find mine does much better in the ground–overwinters better and grows more rapidly.  We’ve got good dirt, so we don’t do a single thing to ours apart from clipping it when we want to eat it, but if you grow it in a pot, you might want to add organic fertilizer and compost a couple of times a year. End side note.

And now on to the main event: Rosemary-Pepper Salt

You’ll need:

• 4-6 long stems of rosemary, depending on your taste
• 1.5 cu of kosher salt
• 3-4 tbsp crushed black pepper

• Wash and pat dry the rosemary, then pick off the leaves by running your fingers down the stems backwards
• Grind peppercorns in a spice grinder if whole (or just use pre-ground pepper)
• Add rosemary leaves, salt, and pepper to food processor
• Pulse in food processor until well mixed, about 30 sec

And there you have it — homemade, all-natural, flavored salt. You can add it to anything you would normally add salt to, but I think it’s especially good on homemade chips and roasted potatoes. Yum.

I’ve only had it a couple of days, so I’m going to watch it to make sure nothing moldy or weird happens in there since the rosemary is fresh and carries some moisture with it. I suspect it may get a little more rosemary-y over time too as the herb infuses the salt, but it’s good already. The picture below is the truest to what it actually looks like — pretty and white, not yellow-y like above.

I’m so glad I finally pulled out one of my hundreds of pins and used it at home. I did have to eventually do that pesky homework though. Hmph.

What are you pinning lately? Any simple foods like this one? Or perhaps you’re finding inspiration in other ways. Tell me about it and feed my pinning addiction!

BTW: I used this recipe as inspiration but altered the amounts to fit my tastes. 

Here’re the peels. I’d guess there are 2-3 grapefruit peels and 3-5 orange peels here.

Then, like I said, I crammed them all into the jar. Turned out to be just the right amount.

Next came the vinegar. We figured that not very much vinegar would fit in the jar with the peels, but there’s more in there than I thought would fit.

So far, it’s only been steeping for a day. I checked the smell, and it’s getting better, but it’s still pretty vinegar-y. I’ll let it sit for a couple more days before checking it again. If it comes out like we hope, it’ll be good to mop in the kitchen and clean bathrooms with.

Anybody have an idea of what’s actually happening with the peels in the vinegar? Is the vinegar pulling oil from the peels maybe?

One of the most popular DIY cleaners, I’ve found, is basically just plain old white vinegar, and I’ve started using it for multiple purposes. Another pretty popular cleaner is baking soda, which I also use a good bit when cleaning. I even sometimes use them together (and not just for the 2nd grade volcano effect).

I like to put the vinegar in a little spray bottle that makes it easy to use the same way I’d use any other kind of spray cleaner. The cleaning power of vinegar is pretty well documented in books and on websites, and since it kills many, if not all, of the types of germs bleach kills, it’s a good natural substitute for the heavier-duty cleaners. I use it to clean toilets, kitchen and bathroom sinks, and kitchen countertops.

But.

The smell. Vinegar’s smell is not the most pleasant, I know. However, I’ve found that when I use it to clean, the smell usually dissipates pretty quickly (like maybe an hour at most). So the smell isn’t something I worry too much about. Just for the fun of it, I’m going to try steeping grapefruit peels in some vinegar for a few days and then using that vinegar to clean. Supposedly, the peels will eliminate the vinegar smell. We’ll see (and I’ll let you know).

The other cleaner I’ve started using is baking soda. I like to keep it in a little jar.

Baking soda works toward a different end than vinegar. (Vinegar=disinfectant; baking soda=cleaner.) Since baking soda is an abrasive, it’s good at getting up sticky spots on counters, soap scum in sinks, and even oils spots on pots and pans. I even use baking soda to wash my face every once in a while (particularly before I shave). It’s a super-versatile little cleaner.

I’ll save the combination vinegar/baking soda explanation for another post. I promise to have pictures of the 2nd grade volcano science project phenomenon.

These DIY cleaners do a good job in their own respective ways, and they’re noticeably cheaper than most cleaners. Even if the kinds of cleaners we’ve given up somehow turned out to be completely safe, I’m a fan of using these cleaners because I know what’s in them and they’re the kinds of homemade cleaners grandmas would swear by.

Do you use any homemade cleaners or natural cleaners that you’re a fan of? Let us know.

In keeping with the pine theme in our house, our kitchen cabinets are true 1950s knotty pine. They’re charming, cabin-y, nostalgic, quirky, dated, awesome, blech all at the same time. Sometimes I come home and walk in through the carport door into our kitchen and think, “Ugh, it’s so dark in here. I can’t wait until we paint these cabinets” (not to mention get rid of the pine cabinets-on-pine walls thing going on up in there). And other times, I walk in and think, “Man, I sure do love that we have real pine, sturdy, huge cabinets that show the history of this house.” It’s still a toss up as to what we’ll do with those ugly-gorgeous cabinets when we renovate the kitchen.

What isn’t a toss up though, is my affection for the one row of glass-front cabinets. They were the first thing that caught my eye when we looked at the house (scratch that, they were the first thing inside the house to catch my eye–the amazingly huge backyard full of flowers and fruit won first prize).

Like this row of muscadines and scuppernongs (types of grapes, for those of you who don’t live in the South). 

And a close up (they get much larger and turn purple (muscadines) or yellow (scuppernong) in the fall.

To say that our house was not a looker when our realtor showed it to us is a bit of an understatement. We had the most awful blue walls in the addition, beige shag carpet in the den, a yellow-wallpapered bathroom, wall-to-wall carpet and other old-folks design choices everywhere.

But the glass-front cabinets were not a problem. I loved them instantly and just knew that they would be perfect to house our pretty blue and white dishes and serving pieces.

Like the rest of the kitchen, they’re a little cabin-y with that hardware, but I still think they’re so pretty. And this little bit of glass reflects light around the room and opens it up a bit. Proof, the glare in the pictures. Sorry about that, folks.

I hope you see this area is the temporary home for my new cuckoo clock too. I’m still pretty much in love with that thing. It’s amazing, I tell you.

These and the cabinets below are more shallow than those in the rest of the room, so we may decide to make them deeper when we renovate, but regardless what we decide to do, they will definitely be a part of our kitchen and home for years to come. I love ‘em!

What’s your favorite part of your home or apartment? Did something vintage like these cabinets catch your eye when you moved in, or do you have a love for something brand new and modern?

When I came home from work yesterday, Ed had this sitting out for me.

Daffodils picked from the yard, a bottle of wine, and a sweet card. He also is going to clean out and wash my car for me (yes!). All such sweet and thoughtful gifts. Oh, and he cooked dinner for the two of us. He made a delicious vegetable lasagna and a fresh loaf of bread. It had tons of spinach, mushrooms, and broccoli (and cheese, tomato sauce, and noodles) in it. Yummy for sure.

Ed made dinner for me, and I made dessert for him. Bourbon chocolate cupcakes to be exact.

Because we didn’t have any bourbon proper in the house, I had to choose between Irish whiskey and Southern Comfort. I went for the Southern Comfort, and they turned out amazing. I had some red sugar crystals left over from Christmastime, and they gave just the sparkle. You can get the recipe at Mess of Greens, a great blog about southern food.

Ed’s gift hasn’t arrived yet (even though it shipped well over a week ago!), but he knows what it is. I printed him out a tiny version and stuck it in his card. He’ll be receiving a periodic table of heavy metal bands.

Instead of the real elements we learned about in chemistry, this is a chart (categorized by genre, I might add) of 303 heavy metal bands. And the chart is in the shape of the standard heavy metal hand signal–devil horns. I think he’s pretty excited about it.

So there you have it, our Valentine’s Day. I got wine and a car cleaning. Ed got a print, which we’ll frame and hang in the den/paneling room as we continue to fill our walls in there. And we both got food.

Other than the fact that Mississippi State lost to LSU in basketball (*$%#$*#@!), it was a perfect day.

How did you spend Valentine’s Day? Did you make goodies for your sweetie? Or did you curse the day with loud metal music and anger? Whatever you did, I hope you got some good sweets like those delicious bourbon cupcakes!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Y’all!

Print graphic from Pop Chart Lab.

Here’s what I started with:

Not much work (of any kind) was happening on this desk. And even though not much work happens at my desk even when it is clean, people often have to walk by the desk to get out to our back deck. Our guests shouldn’t be subjected to what you see above–no one’s guests should.

I started by taking all the tools down to the basement and putting them back into the big fancy tool box I got for Christmas this year. Then out came the paper shredder.

I still get paper notices in the mail for things like bank statements and retirement account stuff, and since all that stuff is readily available online, there’s not much reason for me to keep it. Into the paper shredder it goes. What few things warranted keeping, I organized in this little file folder that Kristen donated to me after she cleaned out the office from her old job.

From there, all I had left was basically organizing the books that stay on the desk. This was easy. After I repeated this same process with the four drawers, I had a desk ready to be worked on.

Which really means it’ll start catching more stuff that I’ll have to clean off again in a few months. It’s hard work, I know.

Before:

After:

Have you purged anything lately? Getting rid of unnecessary items just makes my heart go pitter pat. What about yours? 

January was bedrooms month, so I went through everything in the guest room (aka the dog/storage area) one weekend and everything in our bedroom the other (the third bedroom is used as a media/hang out room, so it gets purged another month). Cleaning out our bedroom was relatively boring because we don’t have a lot of excess in there. I got rid of a few pairs of shoes and some t-shirts, but that was about it.

The guest room, on the other hand, was a different story. I have a chest of drawers in there that had a lot of old clothes and random items (like some candles and a picture frame in the top drawer ???). My very unused desk is also in there. There wasn’t much excess in it, but it hadn’t been organized since we moved in, so I did that. Mostly, that desk just gets opened twice a month: once when we pay the first-of-the-month bills and once when we pay the middle-of-the-month bills (the two times we need the checkbook).

Anyway, the major project of January was the guest room closet. Were I a better person, I would send out personal, handwritten apology notes to anyone who stayed with us over the holidays when that closet (and the floor near it) was a disaster zone of leftover holiday decorations, odds and ends from our bathroom remodel, and lots of clothes that I haven’t worn in 5 years. It was awful, I tell you.

Here’s what I was dealing with at the start of the closet purge (I took off the doors for your viewing pleasure).

And a close up.

Pretty bad, huh? We’re pretty clean people, but we sometimes have the bad habit of just letting clutter behind closed doors be ignored (you know, while we veg out on the couch watching Parks and Recreation or something). So I didn’t have to do any major cleaning (yipee!), just major organizing and straightening.

First was the make-a-bad-thing-worse-before-it-gets-better step of pulling everything out and putting it into aforementioned piles. Next was the fun step of going through some keepsakes. Ed will attest that I like to throw things away (often things I still need) more than the average person. Therefore, I don’t have a lot of keepsakes. I don’t have boxes of old love notes, remnants of flowers from boyfriends gone by, Kristen & ________ B.F.F. lockets, and so forth. Not a one. But I do have a few things left over from high school and college in a box, so I spent a little time going through that.

Here are the highlights. 1) I was (and am) not cool. Proof: I was in a piano competition for a scholarship to my piano conservatory. That’s right, I didn’t just take piano lessons; I took them at a conservatory at a college. I still remember this boy, whom I regularly performed with in recitals and competitions, who wore white gloves prior to our recitals to keep his hands warm. I didn’t wear gloves, but I did sit on my hands to keep them warm. Only uncool people are concerned if their hands are too cold to properly play the piano.

Further proof: I got a superior (the highest) rating in a different piano competition for the seventh year in a row. I was one of those people.

2) I was not a fashionista, but I tried sometimes. Proof: I wore this number to my senior prom. Just in case you can’t tell, it is a black dress to the knees, but below the knees it is just mesh with beads in a floral pattern. The same is repeated on the back, making for see-through back and below-the-knees sections. Also, I’m wearing elbow-length black gloves with rhinestones on them and pantyhose with open-toed shoes. I’m pretty sure I thought this was the sexiest thing I had ever put on. Ed has yet to ask me to wear this, proving my idea of sexiness is misguided.

  3) My dad is cooler than your dad. In college (at Auburn University), my dad was one of the eagle trainers/caretakers, meaning he fed and worked with the eagle every day. Like all birds, eagles shed their feathers from time to time. When I was a child, my dad had a shoebox full of these feathers that he collected over time. He gave me one, and I still have it. It isn’t in perfect condition anymore, but it’s 35ish years old, so I think that’s okay. It’s hard to tell, but it’s about a foot long.

  4) I was once adorable (and almost bald).

  I also found some of our wedding stuff. I found some extra napkins from the groom’s table. We’re big Mississippi State fans, so we had an MSU-themed groom’s table with cowbells, MSU ice cream, and these cute napkins. It sounds tacky, I know, but trust me, it was awesome. People still ask me about that MSU ice cream.

Lest I travel too far down memory lane, I’ll stop there. Other notable finds included our huge board game collection of three, a big pile of slap bracelets we use for our every-now-and-then 90s parties, and some books.

Back to the purging. I had a lot of clothes that went to the donate/consignment pile, a few that went to the keep pile, and a lot of stuff that got moved to its proper place. For example, all those paint cans? They went to the basement and are now on the leftover-paint shelf. That big box housed something we bought at Lowe’s but ended up not really liking, so we took it back for a refund. And all those video tapes? They went from this space-eating version

to this boxed up version.

Ed insists we keep them even though we don’t have a working VCR. If I’m the purger, he’s definitely the keeper. Ahem. It took about 3 hours to get everything organized, but pretty soon, I had this.

Just in case this picture gives you the impression that I dress up (ever), you should know that these are clothes used for weddings and occasional fancy dinners out of town. And suits for job interviews. I don’t go in here very often. My real clothes are in our bedroom. I realize you can’t see much in there, so I’ve marked up this photo for you. The closet is quite long, extending behind the walls, so I’ve got a lot stored back there. And once I take the clothes on the right to the consignment shop, there should be plenty of room for guests to hang a few things when they visit.

I have no idea why the light is making the wall look so yellow at the top of the picture, but it’s making me think a sunny color in there could be a good thing. Eventually all our walls won’t be white in the bedrooms, but for now, this is what we have.

Have you purged anything lately? Getting rid of unnecessary items just makes my heart go pitter pat. What about yours? 

And in case you don’t understand why we had cowbells on our MSU groom’s table, it’s because we have the best college tradition ever. You can read about that here.

The Endearing: Pine Paneling in the Den

We’ve mentioned it plenty of times by now and you’ve seen parts of it in pictures, but we’ve never fully addressed the pine paneling in our den, I don’t think. So our den is covered with pine paneling (which we think originally came from the pine trees they cut down to build the house–we’re the only house in the neighborhood to mysteriously have zero pine trees), and when we first moved in it seemed like something we’d want to change. To call it dated would be like calling my dog, Ripley, excitable (she’s basically wired when she’s not asleep).

But it didn’t take long for me to move in the vintage stereo system and record collection. If anything fits with vintage electronics, I think, it’s pine paneling walls. I like the paneling so much because it makes the room seem warm in the way that used bookstores or cabins seem warm. Or like a really old British-style pub that’s full of real wood and leather. Which all this seems to boil down to the fact that it’s old. You won’t find real wood as the walls in many new houses, I don’t imagine, and I like that this room makes records and 60′s style couches look appropriate.

Kristen seems to have come around on the walls as she’s gotten furniture that matches the vintage (accidental) style in the room.

As long as I can keep Kristen happy with the old-timey pine paneling walls, I’ll be happy with this room just the way it is.

Are there parts of your house that you haven’t changed and you’re nuts about? *Stainless steel appliances don’t count.

Oh, how I’ve hoarded this little gem in my e-mail inbox. I’ve perused catalogs that come in the mail, browsed for way too long on the website, and generally thought about this wonderful gift no less than once a day for the last few months. Okay, so maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I was pretty excited about what it might afford me.

Then I read the fine print. In addition to Crate and Barrel, I could also use it at CB2. Holy cow, my head nearly exploded (in a good way). I heart CB2 like crazy.

So I got on CB2′s website and started looking. My first inclination was to look through the sale items, so I could try to get as many things as possible. But then I remembered this wonderful little guy I saw in a catalog one day. Back then, Ed had dismissed it with a sarcastic little laugh, and I couldn’t justify such a frivolous purchase, so I forgot about it. But birthday money is meant for frivolity. “Buy something special!” “Get yourself something you’ve been wanting!” “Use this to get something you wouldn’t buy yourself!” These are statements people always say when they give you money or a gift certificate.

So I did.

And it’s here.

And I did the happy dance when I got home from work yesterday and found this on the counter.

I scrambled for the scissors and got to this.

I removed all the bubble wrap and pulled out a smaller box and opened it.

Do you know what it is? No? Well, I suppose I didn’t give you much to work with. I’ll give you a hint.

Still no? Okay, I’ll give you another hint (from The Sound of Music).”And up in the nursery an absurd little bird is popping out to say ‘cuckoo’ ‘cuckoo’”

Agh! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. I realize this post is a bit too excited, a bit too ecstatic, a bit too loud, but is that not the most amazing clock? I have a thing for birds in a big way, which I think I’ve failed to mention before, so it’s yet another way I get to incorporate birds into the decor. It also will be a perfect addition to our midcentury modern-styled den. In fact, I have big plans for it to go on a custom cabinet we’d like to build to house the stereo equipment.

But for now, I will just enjoy its cuteness. And once I get some C batteries, that bad boy is going to be cuckooing all over the place. Or actually, once an hour between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Happy birthday to me!

Do you have a favorite Crate and Barrel or CB2 item that you’re just ga-ga over? Are you swooning for this guy like I was a few months ago?

PS. You can get your very own here.

PPS. Disregard the poor photo quality. It was dark, and I was excited.

We weren’t paid or perked to talk about CB2 or this clock, Kristen is just that excited about it.