I've Got A Loverly Bunch Of Pineapples!!

Did you know that you can grow your own pineapples?!

You don't have to live in a tropical oasis to do so, you can grow one inside your home as an indoor plant!  And you can just use a plain old pineapple from the grocery store to start it!

When you cut your grocery bought pineapple to eat it, leave about an inch of flesh below the green leafy stem.

Place the top into a dish filled with water.  The water should only go half way up the fleshy part of the pineapple.  Let it sit in a well lit window for 3 days.  It may or may not start to produce roots, don't worry if it doesn't.

Next plant into a medium to large sized pot with good soil. Only water the plant twice a week strait down the foliage.  Do not saturate the dirt, it should only be moist.  Make room for this plant because it will expand to a very large size over time. 

Be patient.  It will take about 2 years for your plant to produce its first pineapple, but what a treat worth waiting for!

And there you go!  An easy way to bring the tropics into your own home.

Follow this LINK for a recipe for broiled pineapple and ice cream!  YUM!

I think it would be so yummy with coconut ice cream!

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!!



Winter Walks On The Beach.

It is starting to get chilly up here in the Pacific Northwest.

But in all honesty, this is one of my favorite seasons here in Washington.

The fall rain stops, the skies are as clear as glass and wind is chill.

Everyone starts putting up their Christmas decorations and the Christmas ships start floating through our harbor, just outside our door.  I love it.

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Yesterday I decided to take a leisurely walk on our beach here at Casa Del Playa.

I'm always looking for treasure, and I can frequently find something interesting that has floated in from the Puget Sound.

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Here are yesterdays finds.

An old washed up wooden boat.  It would be so fun to haul this back to my apartment and put it the plant bed just on the other side of our deck.  Though it would probably raise a few complaints with the neighbors.  The downside of not having a house!  This beauty has already been betrothed to the Seattle Dead Old Wooden Boat Society.

Between some rocks I found this gorgeous array of colors. I love the bits of bright purple crab shells.

I found an island of vibrant orange seaweed.

And I brought these beauties home with me.  First closed oyster shell I've ever found.

Every time of year is a good time to go outside and find natures treasures.  Whether its chestnuts just fallen from the trees at Volunteer Park, or oysters at the bay. 

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!



FAMILY TREASURES

Most of us have a few family heirlooms that we treasure.

A few small things handed down through time, and sometimes by fate, to you.

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I love this idea I found from Tattered Style for those old hand written recipes that might have been past down to you by your Great Great Grandmother, or even your Great Great Great Grandmother.

Ya know, back in the time when measurements called for a "Dash," a "Pinch" and a "Smidgen."

Makes for some fun rustic art in your kitchen and you'll always have that old recipe handy when you need it!

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I think they would also look amazing in these floating frames from West Elm!

You can also find these dash, pinch and smidgen measuring spoons at Sur La Table.

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!



WHAT I AM THANKFUL FOR

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for;

 

Blue sky's and wide open foot hills...............

 

 

Beautiful canyons.............

 

Waking up to dear peeking in my bedroom window.....

 

 

That moment when time stands still, and all that really matters is warm homemade sourdough bread.

 

 

I'm thankful for the chance to come back to the milky way.  Those stars were so easy to take for granted until I moved to the city and the stars were all drowned out by the bright lights.

 

 

Most of all, I am thankful for that moment when I pull my car into my old driveway, and I know that I am home.

 

Were all home where we feel loved.

And that is what I'm thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And......

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!

 

A PHOTO FOR EACH YEAR

Here's an idea for all you newlyweds....

When you get to old and wrinkly and you still have the love of your life holding your hand,

wouldn't it be great to have a photo of the two of you for each year of your life together?

You could watch your lives and love grow every year.

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Curt and I celebrated our first year of marriage together last August.

The year just flew by!  It still feels like just the other day I was being serenaded by mariachi's as I met the love of my life at the end of an isle. 

So to commemorate our marriage day we decided to have a photo shoot every year with our most favorite photographer Cleary O'Farrell. Who took the most AMAZING photography of our wedding.

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Your first anniversary is your "Paper" anniversary, so we thought that should be the theme of these photos!

Each year will have a correlating theme to the anniversary year!

It's going to be fun coming up with new ideas every year to fit the theme!

Here are a few photos of our first year PAPER anniversary!

We found this amazing little spot at the Washington State Arboretum right next to this gorgeous little pond covered in water lilies.  It was so pretty! 

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We pulled the paper theme in with paper pom poms, hand made paper roses, the typewriter, a mailbox full of love notes, and of course the paper umbrella.

Yay!!

We also had little treats like lavender cupcakes, and Clementine soda with fun paper cocktail umbrellas!

And of coarse I had to whip out my fun little Brownie camera that I got form my friend Katy's wonderful store, The Classic Farmhouse. 

After all, our old photographs are paper too!

I look forward to looking back on these photos with my hubby when we are all wrinkly and gray..... and still in love.  :O)

Next year is Cotton! What would you do?

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!!

TAXIDERMY AND THE MAN WHO KNOWS.....

Hi everyone!

I know I've been neglecting this blog.

But, ya know what, I'm just going to get right back to it.  We're all only human right?

I showed you guys a little while back our project of moving our pantry into an open shelving unit we built in our dinning room.  Well, the project continues!  We've just transformed the old pantry into a walk in closet. (I will post pictures soon!) It's been working really well! Still struggling to fit all our stuff into it though!

And now were on to converting the old bedroom closet into an office/crafting space!  Whew!

I'm about projected out at this point! 

So now that the majority of our cosmetic house projects are being rapped up, I figured its time to start pulling all my decorative stuff out of storage and start hanging pictures and putting out the chotchkeys and such.  So I started pulling stuff out of hiding and setting them out......Only problem is, and this may sound totally silly...... I just don't feel grounded!  For weeks I've been wracking my brain trying to conceptualize how my home is really going to come together, and I've hit a major stump!  So I started thinking about what makes me, me!

I love most everything shabby and industrial.  I love things that show age and tell a story, but I also love how clean and personal it makes a space feel. Family Pictures, Old pieces of torn down buildings, Relics of history!

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I also have an Mcobb side.  I love strange things! From things that make your brain go "What!" to things that give you a little bit of the heeby geebys.   I actually have a huge old poster of Alexander, "the man who knows." floating head hanging in my living room.  (FYI Alexander was a local Seattle magician that was very popular in the 1920's)  And its a really cool poster!

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I also have a naturalist side.  I work for a farm, I love being outdoors camping, exploring, combing for treasures.  I hate to fly, I prefer to keep my feet on the ground. That is a big part of who I am.

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So, how the hell do I make all these sides of me work together?

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So the other day it hit me!

Taxidermy! Biology! Creatures of strange seemingly uncharted territory!..... Usually Asia.  :O)

Think about it for a moment with me!!!

Each item has a story! A history, just like all of my old shabby furniture and architectural pieces!

Though I know it seems on the contrary, being dead and all, in my opinion, taxidermy actually breaths a sense of life into a room! It makes me remember that there is so much beauty in the world we live in!  Free beauty! So not only does it relate to my shabby/industrial side by telling a story, being able to put something in my every day environment that comes from nature relates to my naturalist side.

And without saying it relates to my Mcobb side.  Taxidermy gives a lot of people the Heeby Geebys, but for me, reminds me that life and death are constantly around us.  That there is beauty in all things and in all stages of life and existence, even the dark stages we all go through at one time or another. 

In all actuality, in a way, it also brings me back to my childhood.  I used to catch yellow butterfly's and metallic blue lizards, and keep them in a secret box in my bedroom.  You can imagine my mothers surprise the day she stumbled upon them!

So its time to start combing the beach for sea specimens, and hounding ebay for amazingly cool died bugs and bats!

Also, West Elm has this beautiful Faux taxidermy wall mount head that's above!  It shall be mine!

"Beep Beep!"  From The Little Road!!!