Winter Duldrums

     Everything seems to go into hibernation during the winter and this includes me. I spent the fall focusing on getting a new job (which I did!) but not much time on the house. Then the holidays came and it was all I could do just to clean the house and decorate. However, I have used some of my down time to start planning for spring. I have rather large goals for this year. Thirteen is my lucky number (I was born on the 13th of August) so I am going all out this year. I have managed a few little projects but Matt has done a little bit more. But first my little triumphs.

      This is the barren wall above the towel rack in our tiny bathroom. We have this grandiose idea to some day redecorate the whole room in a "French Metro" style. Now, neither of us can really explain what that means but it will have a black and white color scheme and I guess be a little art deco-ish. Anyway, I mentioned to my mother and for Christmas I got a little mini art collection. She water colored these four little square paintings specifically to fit our style theme.

          They look really great with the silver towel holder and black and white towels we bought a little while ago. I like the idea of a black and white bathroom because it feels very clean and simple. The room is very small so I want everything to blend together and only have hints of color such as the red sign in the bottom left hand corner. Here are some close ups of the paintings.

      I guess some day I will have to go back to Paris and actually see these signs in person.

      This one is my favorite because it reminds me of the old movie Metropolis which is very art deco. Our house is very old so having an older, less modern style really fits.

      I just wanted to show some more of the art we have in the house. Most of it is thanks to my mom who likes to watercolor. The painting above is in our kitchen and really goes with the retro 1950's vibe of that room. Mom even gave me some of the objects from the painting and they reside in my kitchen now.

     Above is my mother's idealist version of what our house could look like. In reality the fence is gray, there is no stone retaining wall in front and there is a garage to the right. Maybe some day it will look this nice.

     Matt is hard at work right now installing a new fan/light in the kitchen and making a decorative wood ceiling medallion to go around it. Here is what the old fan looked like. It was ugly and made a weird noise.

     It is laying on the floor. It really has no pizazz and with only one light bulb it didn't give off much light. The new one has two bulbs!

     Matt started putting it in and then realized the new one was slightly bigger than the old one. So he rigged the shop vacuum to suck up the dust while he made the hole bigger. We also had to take off the square piece of wood that helped cover up the square hole.

     And here is the new fixture. Much more stylish but obviously the ceiling needs some work. That is why Matt is currently outside in the 25 degree weather using his new wood working tools to make a ceiling medallion. I will post that picture when it is done (hopefully tomorrow).

     We have big projects slated for this year. With me finally getting a decent job and a little Christmas money from my wonderful Grandmother we can finally fix the little issue we have with the foundation and put new flooring in the kitchen and bedroom. But more exciting for me is that is looks like we will finally get a dishwasher! Yes, that is right, we have been here for almost two years without a dishwasher!!!  Plus the side yard is becoming a garden and if all my wildest dreams come true we might even redo the bathroom...but I'm not holding my breath for that one.

Things get ugly...

     We are now the trashy neighbors. Not that we throw beer cans in the yard and let our gutters fall down. No, we are still trying to have a decent home but our latest idea doesn't start out looking all that beautiful.  We have decided to make our whole side yard into a garden. It was going to be a bark chipped play area for our dog but he only likes to fetch at the dog park and we could really use the food. 
     It is not a large space but compared to the two 4x8 raised beds we have in the front it will be huge. One section is roughly 20x6 feet and the other is about 10x6.  So there will be a lot more tomatoes next year along with leeks, peas, broccoli and whatever else we can shove in there.  But the first step is to kill the grass. Which involves large black plastic tarps on the ground held down by chunks of cement wall rubble.  It is pretty ugly.

     The dirt in the foreground was covered for most of the summer and we just moved the plastic to extend the area. After the grass is dead we will rent a rototiller and till the dirt up while also putting in some compost, probably early next spring. We will have to put up a small fence to keep the dog out as he has recently become a digger. If only his powers of destruction could be harnessed for good.
     When taking this photo my back was up against the back of the garage. My plan for that is to plant an apple tree next to it and create a beautiful espalier.

This is what I have:

And this is what I want:

     Should be pretty easy, right?  I would also love to rip up the old walkway and put down a lovely stone or brick path but I may be getting ahead of myself.  After all, the closet still is not done.

     Now that the weather is cool and I am not spending as much time in the garden I can do things like organize my pin boards on pinterest. Before I was putting everything on my "For the Home" board but I have now created a "Garden" board for all my outdoor wishes.  If you would like to see them just go here http://pinterest.com/selbygunter/garden/. Feel free to browse my other boards as well. There is a Holiday Wish List board if anyone feels like getting me a gift. 

Learning to can and eat

  In the last post I talked about learning to make and can plum jam.  I enjoyed it so much we now have 40 jars of jam sitting in our pantry.  Spiced plum jam, ginger plum jam, nectarine plum jam, and raspberry plum jam are all sitting there waiting to be enjoyed.

  On the bottom shelf is also some ketchup that Matt made with our tomatoes. It is way better than regular store bought ketchup but I may be biased because I don't actually like ketchup.  So our little panty is getting some use.  Next up, pumpkin and apple butter.  And if I can get my hands on some persimmons or quince then we will have even more jam.

  One really nice thing about having the garden is the ability to walk outside, grab some stuff, and make dinner.  The above photo is a frozen cheese pizza made amazing buy our onions, tomatoes and basil. Super fast and tasted great. So even if you don't have time to slave over a hot stove you can still enjoy your garden's bounty.

  Not much else has been going on recently. The weekends are our home improvement time but since we have had people visiting or canning to do the last month or so not much has gotten done. We still haven't finished the closet that you may remember from an earlier post. But I have been sure to pin every idea I see on pinterest so you can be sure there will be lots of stuff to be done around the house. Stay tuned!