The problem with Pinterest

Do you use Pinterest? I've had an account for a month or so, but haven't done much with it. Yesterday, though, I was hellbent on finding an attractive solution for sorting laundry and the pinning pining began.Truthfully there probably isn't much more of a so-called First World Problem than too much beauty and overwhelming inspiration, but that's the problem with Pinterest. Pretty pictures will just suck you into a vortex of time wasting and dreams of homey perfection.


Back to yesterday...while looking for pretty baskets and bins and creative ideas for our out in the open and very unattractive laundry situation, I came across a couple images of branches as closet rods. Perfect! I thought to myself--I'd just trimmed some dead branches from the cedar trees that flank the house, and wouldn't cedar be pretty? Plus Mabel's room has sort of a fantastical nature meets vintage thing going on anyway. I'll do it! 

What mom of a toddler doesn't already have enough to do that she can't add whittling a branch to the so-called laundry list of housekeeping? Look at this brilliance!


After the day job, I went home and trimmed a branch down to what I figured was a good length, trimmed off any poky parts and set my mind to shaving off the bark. This branch is cedar, mind you, so shaving off the bark wasn't as easy a task as I'd imagined.

I got about this far. 


And then Charlie became interested. I think it was because I'd literally just vacuumed the room for the first time since Christmas.


He had a magical tool that made the entire process go quickly and beautifully. I kept asking if he wanted me to take over, but he said no. I think he was secretly pretending to be the Woodwright.

Now the branch itself is finished, tung oiled and waiting to be installed. Hopefully that will happen this evening because I've got a strong hankering to get back onto Pinterest and play some more.

Do you use Pinterest? What's your handle?

Do you grow herbs for medicinal use? What is your must-have plant for common ailments? This year I'm going to try my hand at arnica, but am looking for other suggestions so bring 'em on!

Gardening Chit Chat

My oldest brother reminded me that it's a good time to pick up some soil sample kits from our local cooperative extension office. Consider this an annual PSA: send off soil samples now, so when the ground thaws you'll know what you need in order to balance your soil nutrients!

Those of you in Mecklenburg County can pick up soil sample kits at these fine locations.


While discussing gardening, I read a few articles on the topic yesterday:
Poisonous food and how agricultural chemicals hurt people at every point in the growing process.
Seeds, who owns them and what you can do with them.

Both articles strengthen my resolve to produce more of our own food this year. If you're new to gardening and interested in a super easy way to get started in filling your belly with homegrown goodness, check out Biophilia {images from Biophilia's site}. 


Biophilia is Danielle, a NC-based permaculture designer. Her shop makes it easy to jump right into a more sustainable lifestyle through gardening and producing your own healthy food.

A brief intro to our indoor composting station

In case you haven't noticed, we take our compost pretty seriously. There's a worm bin in the kitchen, and passive piles (sometimes hot...but to be honest I haven't had much time to keep turning them so they're passive for now) in the yard. The chickens do a lot of compost work by eating veggie scraps, but we don't give them spent coffee grounds, onions, garlic and a few other things; our worms get those.


The worm bin, though was too awkward for our new kitchen arrangement. In order to get into some of the cabinets the bin had to be moved, and worms don't particularly care to be bothered with that. They like to have little by way of change, so I'd been considering a vertical worm bin for some time. We'd kept them going for 3 years in the storage tote bin, I finally decided it was time to move them to something a little fancier: a Worm Factory. Lucky for me, I know a guy.

I got in touch with my friend (and fellow Master Composter) Stefan and ordered the Worm Factory and a bokashi bucket. {Because if you're going to have worms in your kitchen you might as well have fermenting waste as well, right?}

Bokawha? Bokashi is an anaerobic form of composting. You're basically fermenting the food scraps. I thought we should add that to our composting repertoire because you can add bones and dairy to the bokashi bin.


Adding meat to my diet way back when created a new challenge for our household food waste. Before, when there was meat in our house, it was only Charlie's meals and I wasn't a fan of touching/preparing the stuff, so everything was of the heat-and-serve variety that no longer resembled the formerly living creature it once was. No skin, no bones, no fat to cut off.

Now, though, the meat comes straight from the farmer; it looks like meat, there are bones, there is skin, there is fat. Usually trimmed fat and skin go to the furry kids, but bones pose a risk so they are sometimes used for broth preparation, but ultimately go to the landfill.


After little rearranging in the kitchen, the worms are in their new home and the bokashi has started a-brewing. I'll keep you filled in as things progress, but for now I love the fact that I can open the cabinets without shifting everything around. A bonus for the new set up? The two new bins take up less space than the old worm bin alone!

Clean Up Duty


To anyone with neat and tidy tendencies, these pictures probably don't look too different. I'm not a neat and tidy gal, though, and yesterday's picture of the sofa cover reminded me of just how "cleaned up" our lives on the internet seem to be. Even I, queen of pack rats, tidy up my photos before presenting them to the world.

As I read Sea + Prairie, I'm reminded of the pervasive neatness we see all around us on the internet. Tidy pockets of perfect lives, except this one profoundly honest woman who seeks and speaks truth. Eren reminds us that life is full of learning, truths and even some struggle, but that's okay, that's just how it is.

We've all got pretty pictures to share, but how many of us are brave enough to share the messes that go along with them?