Crystal Madrilejos

Hot damn! We finally got out to the garden to plant! This rain has been really been… raining on our parade (jeez, i’m dumb.)

We decided to scale things back a little bit this year. We’ve been overly ambitious the past couple years and while it’s been fun, it’s also gotten to be a headache at times. Plus, we have this tendency to just cram everything in. So this time, since we have a little more room to play with we’re giving everything room to breathe.

Yesterday (before it started pouring) we were able to get tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and carrots in the ground. Unfortunately, we were so late that we missed our chance to do regular potatoes, which have been the most fun to grow in the past. All the seed potatoes were gone before we even could consider planting, and we didn’t have any left from last year. Boo hoo!

Hoping to get the salad greens in and the fence up very very soon. The damn deer have already destroyed any strawberry plants we had left. They are such jerks! Heard this story on NPR the other day and it confirms my suspicions that the deer are hating on us hard.

-c.

p.s. How awesome is that garden in the picture above? Found it while looking for garden inspiration!

I’ve missed you guys! Things have started heating up around here (literally) but it’s still raining. Work has been getting busy busy and  I haven’t been able to take photos of things I’ve been wanting to share. This weekend I was able to sneak in a mini-photo shoot while Q was napping of these cool porcelain glove molds (I got two!) that I found at the thrift store where we got our china cabinet/hutch thing-y.

They seem to be a hot thing on the second hand market these days. A little while back I found one at an antique store for $50 ding-dang bucks! I got both of these ones for a little over $20. I like me some vintage things, but only if the price is right.

I’ve been looking for a way to store my ever growing collection of necklaces and these seem to fit the bill. They sort of look like Homer Simpson hands but I like them!

-c.

This is what happens when it rains too much. Snapping turtles start hanging out on the driveway! Andrew’s mom found this beast lounging around. Scary, isn’t it? It’s prehistoric looking!

This weather is completely bipolar. It’s been raining non-stop for weeks, but finally today it’s all the sudden mid-summer. I guess we just sort of skipped Spring.

Finally got to clean up the garden area and till. It was starting to look like Grey Gardens out there, sheesh! Once it starts looking a little more garden-like and not just a huge patch or dirt, I’ll start posting some pictures.

-c.

Everyone knows that the Midwest is where awesome vintage goods are just hiding out waiting to be discovered by some big city folks looking for a diamond in the proverbial rough. Well, the Medina Antique Mall is one such place. Also known as AntiqueLandUSA, it’s so chock full of old shit it will make your head spin. Most of the inventory is stuff that I don’t have too much interest in, like ratty porcelain dolls with scary eyes, old baseball cards, and Victorian furniture. I mean, some of the stuff is really beautiful, just not my style.

However, we took a little trip there a couple weekends ago and found some real gems. There was one dude who had a booth full of mid-century Danish modern goods, hell yeah! As well as a few other choice pieces scattered here and there.

One draw back of this place (other than the fact that it’s super huge and overwhelming) is the fact that it’s mostly out of my price range. At this point in my life, I just can’t afford to spend $600 on a single side chair. No matter how awesomely designer-y cool it is. But it doesn’t cost anything to browse!

I didn’t bring my camera to the Antique Mall so I will resort to found images on the interweb. Here are just a sampling of the cool things I found:

1. Bertoia Side Chair by Harry Bertoia
2. Wassily Chair by Marcel Breur
3. Dansk Kobenstyle Cookware
4. Sprite Stacking Chair by Ross Lovegrove
5. Crayonne for Habitat Ice Bucket
6. Lucite Folding Chair
7. World Time Mantle Clock by Howard Miller
8. Herman Miller Eames Shell Chair
9. Italian Guzzini Arco Style Floor Lamp

Not all these items would be at home in our house, but I still enjoy them nonetheless, though Andrew wasn’t too keen on some of the things I pointed out. A couple times Andrew referred to the furniture as “looking like it belonged in Akeem’s Apartment”. For those of you who forgot the movie “Coming to America” let me jog your memory:

God, I wish that image was bigger. But don’t worry, our house looks NOTHING like that.

-c.

This weekend we finally completed the next step in Project Clean-Up-This-Old-China-Cabinet. In the first phase, we cleaned all the grime only to realize that the top would need to be stripped because the grime had pretty much damaged the finish. Phase 2 consisted of Citri-Strip, which looked like this while it worked its magic:

Followed by removal of the loosened old varnish with plastic scraper and lots of this nastiness:

Disgusting! So after that, we let it hang out for a bit, then the next day we gave it a cleaning with Mineral Spirits, a little sanding with extra fine sandpaper, another wipe, then a couple coats of Teak Oil. Voila! A long ways away from this mess.

Andrew decided that it needs a coat of shellac because as beautiful as the teak finish is, it isn’t as shiny as the rest of the piece so it doesn’t quite match. I trust his judgement. So! One to Phase 3! Hopefully, Phase 4 will be the phase where I fill it with all my junk!

-c.

You may remember my post about my early Mother’s Day mid-century modern china cabinet present? That was a really confusing sentence. But come on people, it was just last week. Anyway.

This thing is beautiful but very dirty. I’m sure it’s just an accumlation of years of dust that has congealed into a nasty black grime. But part of me thinks it could be that someone never learned to wash their hands after handling crude oil OR Andrew’s hypothesis: A smoker with a china cabinet next to their stove where they fried fish all day. Whichever way you swing it, this thing has some serious build up issues.

Murphy’s Oil Soap to the rescue! Thanks to Morgan’s post on Refreshing Vintage Wood, we had an idea of how to start dealing with this mess. As you can see from the before and after pictures, we got a lot of the nastiness off but next step is the strip the top of the old finish. Everywhere else on the piece is fine, but the top could use a sand and a finish with some Danish Oil.

I can’t wait to just GET IT DONE so I can start filling it with all my junk!

-c.

Does anyone know what this piece of furniture is called? A china cabinet? A hutch?

Whatever it’s called, it’s awesome and beautiful and it was Andrew’s surprise early-Mother’s Day gift to me!

This past weekend we went on a little thrifting trip and came across this china cabinet (that’s what I’ll call it for now until someone corrects me) at a local thrift store that is usually hit or miss. This particular store can sometimes look like those hoarder houses on A&E, but they usually have really good prices on large items. So much so that I am willing to look past the old lady who chain-smokes and the cat in the corner giving birth (no joke).

We saw this china cabinet and we both really liked it, but it wouldn’t fit in our car. So we had to pass on it. The minute we left I knew we were passing up on something good, but there wasn’t anything we could do! I was feeling some serious non-buyers remorse. Is there such a thing?

Anyway, Monday I come home from work and it’s in our living room. Andrew had gone back with his Dad’s truck and got it for me! What a guy!

We’re still unsure of what our plans are for it, but you can be sure I’ll be posting about it again soon.

-c.

(I posted this image of our garden last year, but I love it so I’m posting it again, deal with it!)

So all the signs are pointing to the beginning of our gardening season! Friends and colleagues have been talking about their plans and efforts for this year; and last night while browsing the latest issue of Organic Gardening, I got all giddy with ideas for our garden this year.

It’s still early for us to get anything in the ground. I know some people have already started planting but we live in a valley so we like to wait about a week after the last frost date before we get anything into the ground. Also, it’s been so wet lately that we haven’t been able to till the soil.

Our first year, we started most everything from seed. But for right now, buying starts is just easier. I think as Q gets a little older and can get excited about planting too (and not just eating anything he can grab and shove in his mouth), we will go back to starting seeds.

Overall, last year was pretty successful. And every year we learn new things and how to improve for next year. So, what did we learn?

1.) Deer fencing is awesome and worth investing in. There is nothing worse than waiting patiently for all the bounty of your efforts only to have it completely destroyed by some damn deer!

2.) Unless you absolutely LOVE zucchini and yellow squash, plant only one plant. These things produce like bunny rabbits and next thing you know, you will have more than you can handle. I mean, you gotta really love this stuff. Like, breakfast-lunch-and-dinner love.

• If you DO plant too much of anything, share the wealth and donate!
• When it comes to zucchini and yellow squash, check your plants for fruit often and pick often or else you will end up with only a couple gigantic ones that will scare you and your co-workers.

(Ok, I’ve posted this image before too. I’m lazy)

3.) Make sure trellis’ are securely anchored into the ground. Or you will be cursing the wind as well as the deer.

4.) We are not fans of the mixed salad green packets of seeds. There is always one thing in the mix that goes bitter before everything else and ruins your salad.

5.) Beetles will live just to annoy the hell out of you. To combat this annoyance, go out early in the morning and pick their sleepy asses off your plants and put them in a jar of soapy water. Then their corpses will annoy you with their god awful stink.

Those are just a couple things that I can think of off the top of my head. If I can think of more, I’ll be sure to post. A post on our plans for this year’s garden will be coming soon!

-c.

My Mom just came back from a 5-month trip to the Philippines. (Welcome home Mom!)

As per usual, she came bearing gifts from abroad and these two beauties were amongst them. She has a small obsession with Sake sets. I don’t think she actually enjoys drinking it, but she sure does love collecting those little cups with matching pitchers. Pitchers? That can’t be the correct term.

-c.

Image by Smabs Sputzer via Flickr

Does anyone else have only a shower stall in their house? Has anyone else wanted to pull their hair out trying to bathe a one-year-old in a shower stall? Am I alone in my frustration with bath time?

After Q grew out of his baby bath tub we tried a few different things that worked with varying levels of success. Mostly low levels of success. We’ve tried the kitchen sink, our modified galvanized tub bathroom sink, a blow up ducky bathtub, and our recent incarnation of a bathtub being a big plastic flex tub/bucket from Target. Here are my issues:

Kitchen Sink: Too much water everywhere! Dude likes to splash and trying to rinse his hair with minimal spraying outside the sink area is nearly impossible.

Bathroom Sink: We have an unusual bathroom sink. It’s pretty much a round galvanized tub that we converted into a sink so it’s deep enough for him to bathe in. The splashing is a factor again here too especially since there is an electrical outlet right below the sink (don’t ask). Spraying is not an issue, since there is no sprayer which sucks just as much.

Blow Up Ducky Tub: This worked okay for a little while and is great if you are traveling. We took it with us to NYC with us when Q was about 7 months old. But he’s grown too big for it.

Plastic Flex Tub: This is what we are currently using and Q seems to like sitting in the brightly colored tub. But there’s no drainage so it’s basically the worst thing ever when you want to empty the water before rinsing.

Another frustrating thing about bath time is that Q seems to have an aversion to standing while bathing so it’s hard to get him rinsed well. He’ll only stand during a bath if I’m holding him up even though he is fully capable of standing on his own. This is also another reason we haven’t yet tried to just bathe him directly in the shower stall. We try to clean our shower often, but we still don’t feel comfortable with him sitting directly on the shower floor. I know there is a simple solution to this problem but it’s evading me with all it’s might.

How do you get a one-year old to stand during bath time? Is a thorough rinse even that important? What if he peed in the water? Am I over-analyzing this?

Anyone have a solution to this nonsense?

-c.