Numbers!

We have house numbers!
Buying six numbers can be expensive, especially those fancy modern metal ones. We opted for the cost effective classic wooden numbers for our front gate from this website:
http://www.sjawoodesign.com/pinewoodenlettershousenumbers.htm
We thought about making our own but we didn't.

Now everyone can find our house.

Garden View - 2nd week of May

The days are getting warmer, but we are still getting some rain. The garden is exploding! We are eating lots of greens made many ways. Plus lettuce & radish salads. One night David & I had simple boiled beets & the next night mushroom soup with the greens & stems. And of course, David made spinach & feta pizza!

Sewing Project 2: Bedroom Curtains

I learned a few things while working on these curtains for David & my bedroom. One - it's nice to have a gift card from your mother-in-law to the fabric store so you can buy $18/yard fabric. Two - having a properly working iron is key when straightening said fabric.

Before

After

I made the ties from vintage fabric that Abbey & I had in our sewing collections and I got the curtain fabric from Stonemountain & Daughter in Berkeley. I found the pattern here on sew4home.com when I was searching for ideas for my kitchen curtain.

Native Plant Update

Back in October we planted some native grasses and flowers in front of our fence. Now things are blooming! From left to right: the yellow is Buttercup, the pink is Checkerbloom, the orange is California Poppy and way in the back, the white is Yarrow.

 

Clothesline: Sustainability Wonder

We decided our backyard needed a clothesline, but didn't have a great place for permanent one or want ropes strung out all the time. We picked out retractable lines long enough to stretch from the pagoda to the fence and have been using them ever since set-up.

Apparently clotheslines are quite contentious throughout the country and many homeowners associations and even a few cities have bans against them. As electric dryers became a household appliance in the 1970s and 80s, clotheslines became a thing of the past. But as energy prices rise and global warming continues, the clothesline is being called one of the "Sustainable Wonders of the World." According to the Department of Energy, a dryer uses 6% of a household's total energy consumption. There is even a slow laundry movement that encourages air-drying and resources for simple, effective ways to save money and energy.


Katie and I grew up helping mom hang the laundry, so I wouldn't call it some radical, eco-idea on our part. Just a simple way to use the sun to help us save resources.