Living the Good Life...: April 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Cotton District Arts Festival

I'm an arts fest lover to be sure and the Cotton District Arts Festival quickly usurped all the rest in my heart last year. I was definitely looking forward to this years and was not disappointed!

My parents joined us for the fun, too!

Having a tough time b/c he really wanted a red string or black.

He settled for pink.

Very cool addition for this year was the drum/percussion circle open to anyone who felt the beat.

Serious stuff, those balloon animals

Charlie LOVED this toy and I was planning on buying it.
A few minutes later, the guy snatched it up and sold it to someone else.

Charlie was not happy.

Ever seen a 1 year old throw a fit?

Well, you would have if you were nearby when this went down.

simple fun.

giant bucket o' chalk

Walking around with Nana

Tripp LOVES his owl pillow my friend Alisha made!

Besides the owl pillow, Tripp really racked up.

He picked out 3 pieces of art from one of my favorite semi-local artists for his room.

Well, technically he picked out about 6 pieces, but mom and I talked him down to 3 small ones.

He was also really convinced he needed or that my mom needed several other items, but was distracted otherwise. At least my little bud can appreciate the beauty of homegrown, local artists!

Have you ventured out into your community lately?

The creativity may surprise you!

Monday, April 25, 2011

A Garden Flashback

I'm not sure if it was the chai or the energy bagel this morning from City Bagel, but I got some things done in the yard today!

I completed the transformation of a mulched over empty bed into a mini-garden and planted a lot of containers. We're waiting until we return from the beach in May before containing up the rest of our summer veggies, so the poor dears aren't neglected while we're gone.

While I was working, I was sort of missing our huge beautiful country garden.

I say "sort of" because I DON'T miss all the work that had to be done in July and August, but otherwise, tending our gigantic organic garden was very cathartic and rewarding.

We had big dreams out there in the country.

Our 5 year plan was to become certified organic, and sell our veggies/eggs/breads at the farmers' market and/or a CSA.

In our 4 years there, we learned an amazing amount of knowledge about organic gardening, harvesting, preserving, balance, chickens and patience. During those 4 years, we managed to grow PLENTY of veggies for ourselves year round, some to share with friends and family and even some veggies and eggs to sell.

I was hoping to find some pics from Ye Olde House, but all my pics are on the external hard drive.

And, yes, I'm that lazy tonight.

I DID find some from the late spring garden our 2nd year to compare to my measly little garden now...

peas, tomatoes, cabbages, dogs, etc.

purple hull peas, corn, more corn and in the very back melons, squashes all bordered by zinnias

wittle baby broccoli, greens, lettuces

from seed to fruit...tomatoes.

Will loves him some tomatoes.

I think this year we had 75 plants and yes, he talked to every single one.

container herbs, medicinal herbs in the background, clovers & more medicinal herbs, Mediterranean herbs

What I don't have pictured are the pears, crabapples, blackberries, blueberries, multitude of flowers or my chickens...maybe one of these days I'll pull some good uns off the hard drive.

Stay tuned and I will update with pics of my current set up after a week or so to let it establish itself a little bit.

Go get dirty!

Meal Plan 4/25/11

This week is crazy.

Will graduates (!!!) on Friday and we have a lot of family coming into town.

So, I have to prepare for the long weekend of food, fun and celebration.

which means, this week,

Mama. ain't. really. cooking!!

Sunday- leftovers from easter lunch

Monday- Leftover easter ham into ham fried rice w/ peas, carrots, onion, garlic & local swiss chard w/ homemade wontons

Tuesday-mahi mahi tacos w/ mango salsa, raw veggies and guacamole

Wednesday- split pea soup w/ ham bone and rolls

Thursday- Landscape Architecture Awards Banquet for Will & I and probably a muffin tin meal for the boys

Friday- pre-graduation BBQ & party food at our house

Weekend- up in the air...we'll have a lot of folks over and I need to strategize every meal out later this week.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Naturally Dyed Eggs

This was a fun little experiment.

In years past, we've tried our hand at dying eggs with natural ingredients, but never to this full extent. Plus, for a few years we had several Auracana hens and they laid blue and green eggs. No need for much dying ;)

I wanted to try and dye a rainbow of eggs.

I found this cool chart that has all the colors and natural ingredients that will yield such results.

We used grape juice, turmeric, red cabbage, beets, red onion skins, spinach and canned cherries.

The results were not what we expected, but they were all so unique and beautiful!

Tripp has eaten a LOT of them so I'm not even sure if I have one of each in my pics!

We prepped our ingredients, added enough water to cover the eggs and added 1 TB each of white vinegar and salt. After boiling for about 30 minutes, we put in the eggs to dye. After about 30 minutes, we'd check the color and leave them in longer if we wanted a deeper color. Some I left in overnight.

clockwise: eggs soaking in beet and red cabbage dye, gorgeous red cabbage prepped, beets ready to boil, checking the color of the eggs in the turmeric

stirring his brew

Clockwise from the top: lavender-grey from canned cherries, gorgeous blue from the red cabbage, pinkish from the beets, brilliant yellow from turmeric, and speckled eggplant purple from grape juice

Tripp had a lot of fun with this whole project.

He liked trying to guess what color each ingredient would produce.

He was really surprise that the red cabbage made blue eggs when the dye was a brilliant shade of purple.

All in all, this was fun and something I look forward to doing again.

Happy dying, y'all!

{this moment}...Flour Power

{this moment}

A Friday ritual from Soule Mama, whom I love reading. A single photo – no/few words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

Flour Power

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Mud Brudders

I'm not sure what was more fun...

The playing in the mud or getting hosed off with the water hose.

Here's wishing for a little sunshine tomorrow-

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Homemade Natural Insect Repellant

All these April Showers will surely bring May Flowers, but in the Deep South, May and the approaching summer heat and humidity only means one thing...BUGS!

And lots of them!

Mosquitos are especially annoying.

When I was pregnant with Tripp, in the middle of the summer living out in the country with a pond right behind our house, I was suddenly even more aware of the awful ingredients in mosquito sprays and lotions.
At the time, we owned a natural goods market, so it was no problem for me to easily access a retail product made with natural ingredients that effectively kept the bugs at bay.
But shortly afterwards, when we no longer had the store, the price of these organic items I had grown accustomed to using and buying at wholesale became real.
I simply could not afford to buy them.
I researched making my own personal care products from natural ingredients and just as soon as the temps warmed up again, bug spray was on the top of the list!

I've done a combination of things.
First of all, before moving to Starkville last year, we lived in the country where the ecosystem was much more in balance and we had chickens and guineas to help gobble up bugs. But they were still present and when we would go hang out anywhere else, the mosquitos were rampant.

There are many essential oils that can be used effectively to ward off these summertime pests:

Eucalyptus
Lemon Eucalyptus
Rosemary
Citronella
Lemon Verbena
Lavender
Rose Geranium
Cedar
Peppermint
Lemongrass

I've been known to just carry a bottle of one of these essential oils in my diaper bag just in case.

In years past, I've used a recipe similar to this, a combo of eo's and vodka. I'm a big fan of eucalyptus, citronella and lavender. My friend, Laura, recently showed me a study that showed Lemon Eucalytpus to be just as effective as DEET without all the obvious harmful effects. This makes complete sense because I know using eucalyptus on us has worked and our summer mosquito spray for outside in our yard that we use prior to outdoor entertaining, is made using lemon dish soap (and a few others things). So, it will be added to the mix this year.

She also found this great tutorial of different insect repellant recipes from Mountain Rose Herbs, my favorite source for bulk organic herbs and oils. We both LOVED the witch hazel recipe and I decided to whip up a batch.

Natural Insect Repellant:
1/2 teaspoon citronella essential oil
1/2 teaspoon eucalyptus essential oil
1/2 teaspoon lavender essential oil
4 ounces distilled witch hazel
Mix in a 4 oz bottle and spray every 2 hours or as needed!
Voila!
Simple, easy and inexpensive.
Plus, why waste vodka on bug spray when it goes much better in a Bloody Mary ;)

Enjoy!