Remember how I made custom cornhole bags for my friend Sarah’s wedding? They made their debut in Folly Beach this past weekend. Sure, they were cute and fun. But not nearly as cute and fun as the bride and groom.
xo,
Julia
Today I’m writing about a different sort of good idea. In fact, I’m writing about two good ideas that I have stolen from two different cultures that are not my own. This morning, I impulsively skipped church. I was dressed, fed, and ready to go but something tugged me to stay home. During a time of reading, contemplation and prayer, these 2 ideas crystallized in my mind as inextricably related to each other and to me. This post is a little different than what I usually write here but thanks to the twists and turns in my life’s road, I’m a little different than I used to be too. Don’t worry, I haven’t given up on tearing ideas out of Southern Living and stealing them for all the world to see. But I think I might sprinkle in a stolen metaphor or concept that relates more broadly to life here on occasion as well. Hope you don’t mind.
Ever heard of wabi-sabi? This is a concept I have long known that I love. It’s an ancient Japanese aesthetic that in it’s most simplest form describes how imperfections make things perfect or beautiful. You see things like asymmetry, roughness or ruggedness, and the suggestion of natural processes or materials in Japanese art. I like to incorporate those things into my personal aesthetic as well …
Wabi-sabi characterizes why I love antiques so much more than new, sleek designs. Their nicks and stains make them unique, rich with stories, and just plain beautiful. (Empire style is my favorite. Too bad this one from Chester County Antiques is already sold … lots of wabi-sabi character here).
A wabi-sabi mindset would describe why there’s hardly a room in my house where nature, both perfect and flawed, has not been brought from the outside right on in.
Wabi-sabi describes why I think my little mutt with her asymmetrical feet and her imperfect (but 100% unique) breeding is the most adorable animal on the planet.
Wabi-sabi encapsulates why I find the practically imperceptible 7-shaped scar on my hubby’s forehead irresistible. The imperfection indicates there’s something richer, deeper and more complex that what is on the surface … an indication of pain that’s been overcome but not forgotten.
A wabi-sabi approach to aesthetics isn’t everyone’s idea of beautiful but it has always been mine. But now I’m learning that the concept can apply well beyond what’s considered attractive.
In fact, in Japan, wabi-sabi is more than just a chapter in an art history book. It’s really a philosophy, a lens on the world. It describes a certain kind of beauty that is built on imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness. There’s a melancholy that goes along with beauty articulated through transience. But as I’ve learned of wabi-sabi, that twinge of sadness doesn’t make it any less beautiful. In fact, it makes it more beautiful.
I can’t help but think of our little daughter Evelyn. The 21 weeks that she grew in my belly were beautiful. We were filled with hope and love and brimming over with joy for the promise of her life. We were waiting for the sure arrival of a person that we would love fiercely and fully. The doctors tell us that Evelyn must have been genetically imperfect. And too soon, she was gone. Life has been focused as remarkably fleeting for my husband and I. And with that focus comes and overwhelming sense of blessing.
How can that be? How can a huge slap-in-the-face reminder that hope, dreams and even life can sometimes and without reason be taken away feel to me like a blessing? It’s hard to articulate. But I’ve found a second idea to steal as my own that helps me to describe it. This one comes from the Jewish faith, a concept nestled in the Jewish blessing after a meal. I found it in the closing lines of a book called Overcoming Life’s Disappointments Rabbi Harold Kushner. Rabbi Kushner does a much better job of describing it than I …
In the Grace After Meals in the Jewish tradition, we ask God to bless us “as You blessed our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with a full and complete blessing.” But the Bibles tell us of how their lives were marked by fertility problems, quarrels with neighbors, conflicts between husbands and wives, between parents and children. What sort of blessings were those? I can only understand the phrase “a full and complete blessing” to mean the experience of life in its fullness, tasting everything life has to offer, the bitter and the sweet, the honey and the bee stings, love and loss, joy and despair, hope and rejection. The blessing of completeness means a full life, not an easy life, a hard road, not a smooth one, a life that strikes the black keys and the white keys on the keyboard so that every available emotional tone is sounded.
I read this and think that a blessed life is full of wabi-sabi, where the impermanence of everything brings all beauty into sharp focus for us to appreciate and be thankful for.
And this morning, as I write, I’m reminded that God gives us not what we ask for but what we need, when we need it (even if what we need is to play hooky from church and just think for a little while). Believing that is trust. Understanding it is peace.
Did your elementary school have a fall carnival? Mine did and I LOVED it. There was a haunted house, a cake walk, a fish bowl ping pong toss, potato sack race, hula-hooping contest and of course the perennial favorite, the bean bag toss. These days, the bean bag toss has seen an incredible resurgence at beer-drinking events for the adult set. No serious beach day, steeplechase, tailgate, or cookout is complete without it. Game sets are available for purchase online and decorated with every imaginable team logo. And it’s also gained a more mythological name: Cornhole.
What sparked the Cornhole epidemic? According to Wikipedia, the tipping point came in the 1990′s when kids at Miami University made Cornhole a mainstay as a casual drinking game. And I am proud to say that yours truly (Miami Class of 2001) certainly fanned the wildfire’s flames.
This spring, Cornhole is getting an even more impressive promotion when it will be featured at my dear friend Sarah’s wedding (another Miami alum). Sarah and her beau Kevin are marrying at Folly Beach, South Carolina. Their fete will be casual, elegant, and beachy with Capsian Blue bridesmaid dresses from J.Crew and yellow accents.
Sarah asked if I might know how to make custom Cornhole bags. I said “I do”.
My mother-in-law and I whipped these up over the Christmas holidays using the directions at the appropriately-named CornholeHowTo.com. I saved this project until I was visiting her since she has an embroidery machine and I thought it would be necessary to create the appliques. However, I learned that any machine with a satin stich will work for applique. Here’s a quick summary of what we did:
1.) We followed the directions at Cornholehowto.com to make regulation 6×6″ bags filled with 1 lb. of hull corn each.
2.) Before assembling the bags, create and apply the applique. First I hand-sketched the whimsical K and S seen above on stiff paper and cut each letter out as my template.
3.) Using standard blue cotton duck and an upholstery print called Good Vibrations (that I can’t find anywhere online!), I traced the letters onto the right sides of the fabric.
4.) Next, iron Heat ‘N Bond to the backside of the letters.
5.) Now it’s time to cut out each letter and center it on the 6×6″ fabric squares. Peel away the paper backing on the letters and press them to the fabric.
6.) Now just run around the border of each of the letters with a satin stitch. I confess that my mother-in-law was much more skilled at this than I. However, I would tackle it again knowing that even though I might have to rip out my stitches a time or two, I could get it looking pretty darn good.
Sarah is making her Cornhole boards herself! I’ll be sure to post pics of the set in action at her wedding this spring. I think they are super cute and I’m wishing we had not hastily purchased a Tennessee Vols Cornhole set this past summer and rather made our own! Maybe that set will make it’s way to Craig’s List …
It’s been a REALLY long time since I’ve posted a recipe up here. Today I was so proud of my lunch concoction that I thought I would share. You’ll have to excuse the photo. I was 1/3 of the way through my lunch, really patting myself on the back, when I decided it was blog-worthy and so then snapped the pic.
This recipe started with me eyeing a bag of Uncle Ben’s 90 Second Wild Rice in the pantry. I’ve got to say, the stuff is pretty darn decent, especially if you are going to dress it up with some other goodies like I have. I was tempted to eat just the rice for lunch (it’s me in the home office, what can I say, sometimes I eat wierd stuff) but then I remembered that Will had put some left over grilled chicken in the fridge. This prompted me to do a little fridge search where I found …
- aforementioned grilled chicken left-overs, generously seasoned with Italian seasoning
- portobell0 mushroom halves
- flat-leaf parsley
- uncorked bottle of white wine; probably open too long to enjoy drinking
- parmesan cheese
The recipe goes like this:
1.) Put a little olive oil in the bottom of a saute pan; drop in mushrooms.
2.) Chop up left-over chicken into small cubes, add to saute pan.
3.) Pour in just a titch of white wine, enough to flavor and re-hydrate the chicken.
4.) Tear the top of your Uncle Ben’s bag, put it in the microwave for 90 seconds.
5.) Pour cooked rice onto a plate. About now, your chicken and mushroom concoction will be warmed through so pour that over top the rice.
6.) Sprinkle parmesan cheese and roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley over top.
7.) Remember to chew each bite 30 times. Otherwise you’ll be like me and gobble the whole thing in about as long as it took to make it … 4-5 minutes?
Enjoy!
Sometimes, an experience makes a better gift than a material item. My Mom’s birthday was last week and she hinted to Dad, who told me, that she wanted to try growing an orchid. Mom’s a green thumb but she had always been intimidated by orchids in the past. Now’s she’s ready. Mom and I, we’re thick as thieves.
So I visited my trusty friend Google to see what was available in the world of Nashville orchids, hoping I might happen upon something special. And something special is exactly what I found … Merkle’s Orchids. Ed and Lydia Merkle run a little backyard orchid business from their home in the Inglewood area. The greenhouse isn’t open all the time. As a matter of fact, it’s really just a hobby for the two of them and they show their orchids at events across the region. But if you use the contact information on the website, Ed will meet you and give you a tour of his greenhouse.
Mom and I spent over an hour touring with Ed. We sniffed orchids that smelled like peonies, coconut creme pie, root beer, nutmeg, and believe it or not, exactly like Fruit Loops. We learned about orchid reproduction, what makes an orchid and orchid, how best to care for them, and how the various species of orchids have adapted to ensure pollination. Some become fragrant only at night to attract the moths that pollinate them. Others smell rancid like a carcass or dog poo to entice the flies that pollinate that species. Still others (and Ed didn’t have one of these to share but we loved hearing the story) use sex to lure in a pollinator … here’s an article about the wasp orchid that looks and smells like a female wasp. The male comes by looking for action and pollinates the flower in the process. How in the HECK did evolution cause that to occur?? Mother Nature is a fancy lady, indeed.
Here’s my favorite orchid from the Merkle’s collection. Never seen anything like it:
Isn’t it STUNNING? And here’s Mom with Ed and her new purchase (plus a little baby orchid that is a hybrid that Ed himself created – couldn’t resist).
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Steal this idea … think outside the box to make a gift a little more special. Mom’s orchid was only $25 but the time spent together and the things we learned were priceless.
Be Green: reduce, REUSE, and recycle
Save Green: like, free
Get Green: no more pesky bald patches in your landscape
Intrigued? Read on.
The first time we saw our little abode, we loved her straight away, even if her paint colors were looking a little dated.
My hubby was chomping at the bit to get started on that landscape tout suite but we were practically broke. The previous owner had been an avid gardener before she just got too old to take care of the yard anymore. So there was some beauty lurking around but it needed some serious TLC. Case in point: shrubbery abounds on the right side of the front porch, nada on the left. Weird, right?
We really wanted some boxwoods to match what was on the right so we put up a wanted ad on CraigsList. We knew this was a bit of a long-shot. Boxwoods are coveted in Southern gardens and we’d heard many a tale of vacations and cars being financed by selling big, old boxwoods right out of the yard to newer homes seeking that “always been there” look. But we tried anyway and would you believe that on the very first day our post was live we got a bite!? The voice on the other side of the phone said:
“We just pulled 6 boxwoods out of a yard up here today. I was just about to haul them to the dump in the morning. If you want them, come on out and pick them up.”
Visualize Will and Julia doing a happy dance.
Except that when my husband drove out to timbuktoo, TN, they weren’t boxwoods at all. They were hemlocks. So our original boxwoods to the right of the porch got moved elsewhere and we become the proud parents of 6 new hemlocks.
Now just about the only thing I can think of that hemlock has made a bigger impression on is Socrates. But while hemlock killed Socrates dead, it totally brought our yard to life:
(Please ignore the petrified ornamental cabbage in the windowboxes. Yes, those are the same cabbages that I planted in December in my very first post and there’s a windowbox post coming soon, I promise.)
Now here’s the real kicker about these hemlocks. My hubbs went down to the garden center to find out what fertilizers and such would make these puppies thrive. And would you believe that the nursery told him that he would sell hemlocks that large for $400 apiece!!! We have 6! That’s $2400 in landscaping for nuthin’ except the cost of gas to get to timbuktoo and pick them up. Not to shabby.
So …
Be Green: reduce, REUSE, and recycle
Save Green: like, free
Get Green: no more pesky bald patches in your landscape
And although I am sure I’m not the first to come up with the idea to source landscaping on Craig’s List, I devised this plan sans rip off or inspiration file. So let’s call this one a Julia Original. Why not give it a whirl! What do you have to lose?
This Saturday is one of Nashville’s most time-honored traditions. It’s the 69th running of the Iroquois Steeplechase to benefit the Monroe Carrell Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. And although the event raises tons of money for the Children’s Hospital (over $8M over the 26-year relationship), I was still feeling a little funny about putting on a sundress and hat and sipping cocktails while my fellow Nashvillians are cleaning up the wreckage in their homes this weekend.
(Image courtesy The Enabler from Flickr)
So my hubby and I decided to take one small step to funnel some good to our flood victims from Steeplechase day. We’ve asked our guests to pack a little extra folding money when they meet us for this weekend’s festivities. As we always do, our little tailgating crew will draw horses out of a hat and place small bets. But this time, Will and I will match the winning purse up to $100 and donate the proceeds to the winner’s flood-related charity of choice. We’re encouraging our guests to donate their winnings as well. We figure maybe it will make the betting a little more exciting if dollar amounts are increased and do a little good to boot. You know how it is, a little booze and a bit of excitement and all of a sudden the charitable donations start to flow. Just ask anyone who has ever chaired a live auction for charity!
I thought I would share this idea via my blog in case others want to jump on the bandwagon. If you are thinking of supporting flood victims through your Steeplechase festivities this weekend in other ways, please let me know and we’ll post those ideas here. I’d love to hear from you!
Giddy up, Nashville! We’re going to be ok!
Gardening, Plants & Flowers , Julia Original
Houseplant Insurance, Part 3 in the Houseplant Series
Here’s my final post in the houseplant series and it also is a Julia Original. I call it Houseplant Insurance. Others call it the self-watering pot. I suppose this is less of an idea and more of a purchase suggestion. But I like to think of it as a credo. If you are known to let your houseplants die, you need to invest in some self-watering pots. Those combined with hearty houseplant varieties are virtually indestructible.
So what is a self-watering pot? Here’s what it looks like to the unsuspecting guest:
And here’s what it looks like when you take it apart to add water (once in a blue moon):
That little guy on my living room coffee table is also in a self-watering pot:
When you purchase a self-watering pot, you should realize that the larger the base the less often you have to water it. That one up top requires a refill once every month to 6 weeks while the smaller one is more like every 2-3 weeks. Either way, it’s a lot less to keep up with in the plants department. I found the large one at Urban Gardener in Atlanta. The smaller one I found at Lowe’s. Because of it’s size, it was marketed as being perfect for violets. But obviously it works for a lot more than just violets!
These pots aren’t dainty or formal. They are typically heavy pottery which works for most rooms in my house (the plastic ones are more plentiful but I’m not a fan). They aren’t always easy to come by so keep an eye out for them and snap ‘em up when you see them. A few extra dollars spent on a self-watering container is well worth it since your plants will last much, much longer. Believe me, I know! ;)
Decorating , Gardening, Plants & Flowers , Julia Original , Rip Off
Houseplant Bling, Part 2 in the Houseplant Series
Who’dve thunk I could stretch out a topic like houseplants to 3 posts? But that’s exactly what I’m planning to do! Today’s topic represents a collaboration between Martha Stewart and I. It’s one part Martha Rip Off and one part Julia Original. Let’s begin with the Rip Off.
Remember how in my very first post I told you I was reading Martha Stewart in my early 20′s? We’ll here’s proof. I’ve been toting this idea around with me since 2001. Behold Martha Stewart Living’s March of 2001 Find of the Month. Silver Pot Saucers!
You can click on these images and get more of a close-up if you want to read about this straight from the Martha’s mouth. But the concept is pretty easy to grasp and pretty elegant once executed. Use flea market silver plate platters with pretty edging as your plant saucers instead of those ugly, flimsy, plastic plates. You’ve got to have something to protect your furniture. Silver plate is cheap and if it’s flawed it either won’t show or won’t matter. It’s available in abundance at flea markets and yard sales and with a little polish and some stick-on felt surface protectors to keep the silver from scratching your furniture you are good to go. Here’s what it looks like in my house and I’m not even using old clay pots (which for the record look fantastic in the top picture above, IMHO):
You might have noticed the silver plate under the tulips from my roman shade post:
And also under this very same orchid on my mantle in my last post. I keep several of these little gems on hand to embellish any house plant that needs extra sparkle. In the case of my orchid, you get all of the texture of something organic like cork dressed up with the jewelry of a little silver pedestal. Beautiful and simple. Thank you Martha, for the fantastic idea. Consider it stolen.
But that’s not where the Houseplant Bling extravaganza ends. I’ve got a few tricks of my own to share. The first is … drumroll please … moss! I firmly believe that adding a little moss to cover the dirt of your houseplants makes them look infinitely more finished. And it’s totally easy. I get my moss at Michael’s. It’s $4.99 per bag. This is what it looks like:
And this is what it looks like when it’s tucked around your houseplants ….
Valentine’s tulips with ugly foil wrapper (and gift of diamonds lotto ticket from hubby attached) BEFORE:
Valentine’s tulips with red foil removed, plopped into a silver cachepot that’s not even the right size, and moss gaps filled in looking VERY fancy AFTER:
Take note! I did not plant that tulip in this pot. I just dropped it down in there and covered up all of the terra cotta colored plastic and the gap between the ovular cachepot and the round plastic pot with moss. Easy.
And here’s a close-up of another of our plants. Just a plain old plant, looking WAY more finished and thoughtful with a little moss tucked in there:
And this little guy on my living room coffee table. I had received a basket of mixed houseplants and over time several of them just got gangly and crazy looking. This little one stayed small and pretty so I repotted it and tossed the rest. I originally planted it to the side thinking that I would put another type of houseplant in with it. But now with the little carpet of moss, I’m looking for a little embellishment of another sort. Maybe some little mushrooms made of organic material or a few robin’s eggs or a couple of sticks of driftwood. Too much? Maybe. But I’ve got an eye out for something that would look interesting right there and at the end of the day, it might just be another plant. Check it out that fabulous, organic, mossy texture:
But forest floor moss doesn’t fit every plant. I have this awesome little aloe plant that my friend Brandy gave me for Christmas. The little lady was calling out for a bit of jewelry of her own but my usual moss selection just wasn’t cutting it. Well luckily on the same aisle at Michael’s is Spanish Moss. Spanish Moss is a great choice for cactuses, succulents, and anything that has more of a desert feel (ironic since Spanish Moss is a mainstay on the Georgia Coast). Check out my little lady aloe:
Pretty, right? Looks like it was purchased at a nursery, already all dressed up for a night out. Not so! Totally DIY dressed up. (For the record, she was dressed for the holidays when Brandy gave her to me … adorable but looking a little neglected now that March is upon us … wardrobe change!)
Bling out your houseplants! It’s cheap, easy, and makes things look so finished and fancy.
Decorating , Gardening, Plants & Flowers , Julia Original
The Perry Orchid Rotation, Part 1 in the Houseplant Series
Am I turning into an old woman? I think I might try to cultivate orchids. At the first of November, my colleagues sent me this beautiful orchid:
Would you believe that this beauty only stopped blooming at the first of February? 3 solid months of BEAUTIFUL purple blooms. I, for one, was totally shocked. Of course, I’ve never been known as a green thumb so my shock might have come purely from inexperience. Regardless, I think I might have found a new favorite website and maybe even a new hobby. The American Orchid Society offers lots of great advice on how to successfully grow orchids at home and to be honest, it doesn’t seem like it’s that hard to do.
Tonight, I learned a couple of key things:
1.) Looks like I have a Phalaenopsis (fail-eh-NOP-sis) or Moth Orchid. They are pretty dang common at grocery stores and such and apparently are treated a bit differently from other orchids. The upside? It’s super easy to keep them thriving. If you are wondering what kind of orchid you picked up on impulse, check here.
2.) They like bright, indirect light. I had my orchid on the dining room table where indirect light was aplenty until I decided that it was too gorgeous not to put on my mantle. It thrived there for about 6 weeks so it must have been pretty content, right? Well it turns out that this rich, dark green color on the leaves is actually a sign that it’s not getting enough light. Orchids leaves should be a lighter shade of green. Interesting given that the last time I saw a yellow-green on the leaf of one of my houseplants, I was putting that sucker out to pasture in no time. Not so with orchids!
3.) They really do need a good soaking, as long as they are ready for water and allowed to drain well. This depends a lot on the pot you use and the humidity in your house. But really all you have to do is stick your finger down in the soil. If it’s damp, you are ok. If it’s dry, it needs water. If you can’t decide, wait another day and then water.
4.) Fertilize weakly weekly. The AOS recommends diluting any orchid fertilizer that you get from your local Home Depot down to 1/4 and using that weekly on your orchid plants. Even I can handle that!
Even if you do all of that, your orchid is probably only going to bloom for 6 – 10 weeks a couple of times per year. That is just not often enough for me. So I decided to institute the Official Perry Orchid Rotation. Here’s my plan … I want tall, graceful, blooming color on my mantle at all times. So, when my orchid fades, like this one eventually did ….
I will prune and place in a sunny location and continue to water and fertilize as above. Then I run out and get a blooming one for the mantle. Nashvillians, Creekside Nursery on Harding Place near Harding Road was running an awesome special on orchids – just $14.99 for BEAUTIFUL ones earlier this week. Run over there and see if there are any left!
How to prune:
Off-season orchids are going on my filing cabinet in my office. This way they’ll get plenty of morning light (according to the AOS, this is perfect). And I actually think a grouping of non-blooming orchids will look fabulous here the more I collect. Those dense beautiful leaves are just spectacular, and see how I pruned it down just like the video taught me?
Stay tuned to see if these puppies actually bloom again! Ever tried to cultivate orchids? Have any tips for me?
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