Odds and Ends

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Our kitchen has been painted a color called "Apple Crisp", which is a cross between a rich orange and smooth brown. It sounds hideous, I know, but it's really quite stunning.  I found a shadow box in a complementary frame that has two rows of 4 granny smith apples in it. Against the wall, it's just stunning. The apples make me think of Magritte.

I have been reaching deep into the recesses of my how-to bag of tricks as we get settled into our new digs.  We've re-painted and re-organized.  Craig and I have tag teamed the bathrooms, switching out hardware, hinges, and the like.  I even upgraded my relationship with the regular ol' Philips and flat head screwdrivers to a borderline obsessive one with the Black and Decker cordless drill.  I'm all about the screwing and the drilling.  As in home repairs, HOME REPAIRS, you filthy folks!

Having a house to decorate has me trolling all kinds of DIY blogs for inspiration. I'm trying to repurpose as much as I can instead of calling Pottery Barn and having them send the entire fall catalog, next day air.  Monograms have caught my eye and I'm thinking of doing this to include in a collection of images over our bed.

Speaking of trolling on DIY blogs, I really think I need a "pintervention".  This site is ridiculously addictive. No matter how much I try to dress it up under the guise of "research for home projects", it's the biggest time suck since FaceBook.  *le sigh* I love it.

While I haven't totally jumped on the Pinterest Challenge bandwagon, I have tried this.  It came out really well. I found a frame similar to the shadow box with the apples and mounted my keys on an apple green mat.  I hung it on the wall and below it, I hung up these typeset letter hooks that spell out our last name.  I scored those from A. Dodson before we left Norfolk.  The whole thing makes me feel very accomplished and somewhat design savvy.

All this creativity leaves me hungry, so when I've gotten the munchies lately, I've been trying to reach for something a little better for me.  I tried these bars on a whim and my mouth has been thanking me ever since! It's like a preview of fall with every bite. And you know how I love fall!

It's been so hot and the plants have been suffering. I switched my routine from watering when I remember (oops) to watering first thing in the morning. In the afternoons, though, the soil is kind of dusty, like elephant knees.  I don't want to overwater the plants, but I fear they'll crumble after they survived the move and the re-potting.  I flipped open my Real Simple and ta-da!  Ice cubes as a soil soaker.

All of doors in the interior of the house are equipped with locks. You know, it ensures privacy and also that the girls will get into some kind of high squealing foolishness thwarting my ability to stop them.  Somehow or another the girls locked themselves out of their room.  They were playing so nicely on the landing for a good half an hour before it occurred to me to just ask them what they were doing out there. 

"We're locked out," Morgan said, simply enough.  I jiggled the handle and yep, it was stuck fast. Thinking quickly, I got out the drill piece from my new best friend, the Black and Decker Cordless Drill.  I chose the thinnest bit I could find, popped it in the lock and with a few well placed wiggles -- *click* -- open sesame.  I have to admit, I felt really cool having jimmied open the lock in like two seconds.  The girls were duly impressed, too, which is very cool.  I love looking like a superhero in their eyes.