Out With The Old In With The New

Hi everyone!

I'm really happy to announce that I have moved - that is my blog has moved! You can now find me at http://www.acultivatednest.com/

I'm at the point in my life where I'm ready for a new adventure and I felt a fresh start with a new blog was needed!

Here's what I wrote on my About page:

Hi and Welcome!


Although I’m just your average mom, I come from an artistic background (former ballet dancer and art history major), so everything I do is influenced by that. I also have the privilege and challenge of making everything happen on one income! So I’ve had to learn how to cultivate beauty in my home by using my creativity and not my pocket book.


In the past few years I’ve become very interested in self-sufficiency & in the homesteading movement and all that encompasses. I’m also at a point in my life where I’d like to be less of a consumer and more of a producer.

A Cultivated Nest is place where I can share my adventures and dreams of simple country living in a metropolitan suburb of Atlanta…where I can let my inner farmgirl out! It’s a place where the focus will be on the ability to enjoy the small things in life, where I’ll try doing stuff I know I’m not good at but want to get better at (sewing, knitting, growing more of our own food, preserving that food, trying new recipes, to name a few).  I do like feathering my nest so there will be a bit of decorating thrown in (but on a budget). And of course, lots of gardening as that’s what I really love to do! There might be chickens and rabbits in my future as well!

It’s a Celebration of Everyday Domestic Life!
 
I've enjoyed blogging here and meeting all of you but it's time for a change. Now, all the people that follow this blog have automatically been subscribed to the new blog through Google Friends Connect (couldn't get that widget to install without all the people that have me on their Google reader also coming along). But I totally understand that this new blog may not be what readers of this blog are wanting or expecting. You will not be hurting my feelings if you unsubscribe....really. My choice would have been to have no subscribers and just let people choose to subscribe but that's not how it worked out.
 
I'll be keeping this blog up (since it's free) and have transferred most of the posts to my new blog (but in the end not everything will wind up there so that's why this blog won't be deleted).
 
I want to thank Katie at DreamUp Studios for my new blog design and for doing all the hard work of transferrring everything. She's really nice and easy to work with and does Blogger designs as well.
 
There's a new post up at A Cultivated Nest so come on over for visit. I will no longer be posting here.
 
See you at my new place!

Thrifting Again

Hi everyone!  I hadn’t gone thrifting in long, long, looooong time since I've been in the decluttering/packing up phase. Last weekend I went to my favorite place to do a little shopping. The weather was gorgeous and it was so much fun to look at all the pretty things. Here are a few pics of what they had and at the end I’ll show you what I got.

I’m so into old outdoor birdhouses right now. Isn’t that a cute one!

I liked this one too, but I didn’t get either since they were waaay more than my spending allowance.

What do you think of this? It’s made from old tires!!!

I think they’re planters (there’s two there – at first I thought it was a weird two-headed swan thing)!

Some more cute outdoor stuff.  I saw lots of old painted ladders inside as well.


I just loved this little yellow bench made from a bed!

Also loved this little red cabinet.

There were some fun light fixtures for sale too! I mean really, where would you put that?

This one was pretty because they had a beaded bulbcover on the bulb. Very Frenchy looking!

Wish I had room for this yellow cabinet.

They had quite a few pieces that incorporated burlap. Including a rug made out of burlap that had been stenciled on (couldn’t get a pic of that do to poor lighting).

I’m looking for an old painted ladder to use in my garden as a trellis. All the ones in this store were crazy prices (in my opinion, but maybe they’re hard to find?). I might just buy a new one and I’m sure by next year it’ll look like that one!

I thought this old dishrack was the cutest thing. Great for displaying dishes and cups&saucers on that bottom shelf.

Want to see what I bought?……………..

Almost bought that black vintage scale. But instead I got this cute vintage picture!

$12 and I think it’s just perfect for this spot!


**Moving News – soooo, we’ve pretty much decided to stay put for now due to a number of factors.To complicate matters, our daughter isn’t sure she’s going to stay at SCAD Atlanta for her degree. So that’s going to factor into where/if we move. So for now I’m just going to “bloom where I’m planted” and make the best of it even though this town isn’t exactly my cup of tea.

I do have some fun news to share with you all later this week!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

A House in the Roses

Hi everyone! It thought I’d share some photos of all the roses I have blooming and give you all an update of what’s happening around here.

I think I say this every April but so much is in bloom that I wonder what’s left for the rest of the season!

Anyway, the Knockout Roses are in full bloom and are just a wonderful carefree rose (at least for me).

I was at Home Depot yesterday and saw that they have white ones now. Want one of those!

Believe it or not, but I cut this rose way back in December! Those Knockouts are such nice roses that bloom all year long here in Georgia.

This is my very favorite rose.

It was here when we bought the house and I just love it! I wish I knew what it was. I’ve done some research online but can never find one exactly like it. I’m going to take a few clippings and try to start them in some pots.

My Climbing Iceberg. Very pretty but does tend to get blackspot which I just leave alone since my blueberry bushes are planted behind it. Don’t want to get any nasty spray on something we eat! This year I’ve tried spraying it with some liquid seaweed mixed with water and it did better until we got all these crazy spring storms with lots and lots of rain. I’ll spray it again this week as it’s supposed to be dryer.

My white Clematis (and you can see the blackspot on the Iceberg). Wow the last time this bloomed was about 4 years ago!

I couldn’t believe this! I planted this almost ten years ago before I planted the roses. I had a nice obelisk I was going to train it up. But it never bloomed so I planted a Knockout rose instead. Every year it would come back but just the leaves. One year my husband thought it was a weed and cut it down! This year it’s got blooms!!! Must be a good year for Clematis. Of course it’s growing underneath the backside of a Knockout so no one is going to be enjoying it but me! But it’s was such a nice surprise to find a bloom and it’s going to be fun to see what it does.

***Now for an update. Well, we’re not sure what we're going to do with the house. The news from the agents hasn’t been what we had hoped to hear. Unfortunately my neighbor to the side of me just listed her house for considerably less than what we had planned to list our house for. She’s moving back to a small town in Texas and says she can make up the difference there since houses are way cheaper.

We,unfortunately, had planned to move into the city and prices are much higher than here and we need to make money not just break even (and definitely not lose money). So we’re considering renting it out, or listing it and actively trying to find a developer (you could build 3 or 4 houses on our property the way they stack them so close these days), or listing & hoping someone comes along that would be willing to pay more and has the cash. We sort of knew it would all be a long shot but you don’t know till you try. So we have to decide what to do. I’m still plugging away at all my projects since they’re things I wanted to do anyway – so no harm done. Anyway, I’ll let you all know what we decide to do.

            Happy Earth Day!

Garden In Bloom

Thought I’d share some garden photos as everything is starting to bloom!



That’s my one lilac bloom so far! I envy those of you who are able to easily grow this shrub. I had a huge old bush at our house in New Jersey. So fragrant and beautiful!






That pretty spoon marker was gift from my bloggy friend Clarice.



My Knockout Roses are blooming!

I bought a little $30 greenhouse from Big Lots last month and it’s doing surprisingly well. It comes with two solar lights that you can clip on to any shelf. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it’s very light weight (easy to take apart and move) so I have to add some rocks to keep it from falling over when it get’s windy on my porch.

I’ve been able to start quite a few seedlings! Which I never do (I’m more of a direct sow kind of girl). It’s also a good place to hold some veggie starts that I bought that I can’t plant outside yet.

Thanks to all of you that came by to get cinderblocks and rocks. It was fun getting to meet you! I have about 20 cinderblocks left if anyone wants to come and get them.

I’ll probably be having a garage sale in April and I’ll let you all know when I have a date. I’ll be getting rid of lots of decorative accessory type things. I’m also selling quite a bit of my transferware collection. So if any of you have a store/booth and would like to come and have a look at all the transferware just email me and I’ll give you details. I’d like to sell it as a lot and not piece by piece.

I should have photos of my downstairs bathroom makeover in another week or two. I just need to get a shower curtain and a few accessories for it. Haven’t found a shower curtain that I like so far. Everything else is done and it looks good!

Hope you all have had a good weekend! It’s been a stormy one here!

Spring is Here & An Update

Hi everyone! I’ve gotten quite a few emails asking if I was alright. Yes, I’m fine – we’re all fine here. Just busy with life in general and still trying to get this property in shape. I’m a little behind in my projects but my husband is taking some time off this month and my daughter has spring break, so I’ll be getting some help with the things that need to be finished up.

(Those are Primroses above for those of you that aren’t familiar with them.)  I’ve been ruthlessly decluttering! You wouldn’t believe the amount of books I just donated to my library. I gave them my whole collection of frugal/simple living books. I think I had every book ever written about frugality and simple living! The only one I kept was the Complete Tightwad Gazette. My library hardly has any books on either subjects so I thought those books would be put to good use there. Also donated tons of magazines.

Let see….I’ve been working outside since it’s been so gorgeous here lately!

I added some lattice that I had laying around to my arbor on one side and on top and moved one of two grapes here. Just have to find a place for the other grape and add lattice to the other side. The grapes are from last summer when I had this garden area in addition to the one you see above.

I took it apart when we decided to sell but I never moved the grapes I had planted along the fence. So they’ve been sitting in the middle of the yard all winter LOL!

I also weeded and put down some new mulch in this bed.
 
Yes, spring is here is Georgia! I’m sure we’ll get another below freezing night before it’s safe to really plant – we always do.

Unfortunately, this nearby bed still needs to be done. Plus last spring I started planting liriope around the edge and never finished because it got so horribly hot I couldn’t stand to be outside (except later in the day but that’s when those horrible little biting bugs are flying around)! So I have to also finish that. Sigh…….

Tried to sell these cinderblocks on Craigslist.

They were from this lovely pond we used to have.(chipmunks made a whole in the liner and it leaked so we dismantled it).

I had a guy who said he wanted them then he never showed. So if anyone in the Atlanta area wants them email me. I’m going to Freecycle them as I’ve got to get them out of my yard.

I have tons (and I mean tons) of various rocks etc. from the pond dismantle.

In an effort to use some of them, I made this little planting circle.  I used a Japanese Maple that we had growing in a pot. Before we list I’ll fill that bed with some flowers and mulch. It was a good way to use up some of those  stones and also use the outlet that’s there(it was for the pond pump). I didn’t want to have to dig up the electric line and I couldn’t just have an outlet sticking up out of the ground for no purpose. We already had uplights etc so we have the tree lit at night and it’s really pretty. I did put down some grass seed but I think it all washed away in the storm we had this week!

I painted the ceiling, wainscoting and primed the walls above the wainscoting in the downstairs bathroom.

I started applying the Venetian Plaster that I’m going to use on the upper part of the wall (the walls are in bad shape) but decided that the color I had was too dark for a room with no windows.

So I had to wait a week to get to Lowe’s to get a lighter tan (we have three people using two cars).  I’ll start applying it this weekend and then I need to find a mirror and a new light fixture.

My daughter and I did paint her room. It was a real bright BRIGHT blue and now it’s more of a light gray/blue. If her room wasn’t a huge mess from all her art projects that she’s been working on I’d take a picture…but it is :)

I also painted the hallway downstairs (mixed up a nice milk chocolate color with some leftover paints). Anyway, I’ll take pictures when everything is done and just have a blog open house tour. You’ll see the house and gardens as prospective buyers will see them.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something….anyway, mostly I just wanted to let you all know that yes, I’m still here, yes I’m still trying to get my house sale read (want to get “top dollar” ya know LOL), no we haven’t even looked at houses yet but plan to this month and yes, I’m really really REALLY tired and can’t wait to just get on with it!

Be back when I can!