Author Archives: CT

We came perilously close to getting some new appliances this week.  A co-worker had upgraded to stainless steel and was getting rid of her spotless white refrigerator and gas stove.  I’d love me some stainless too but with all the white South City tile in my kitchen, white would be pretty good too.  And hers were priced pretty cheap, another major selling point.  All this appliance talk was giving me flashes of a revamped kitchen.  (While we take the stove out, we’ll tile the floor!  Then I’ll finally paint the cabinets!  Then I’ll install those shelves! . . . )  Come to find out that co-worker’s fridge is a newer bigger model than ours and if we were to transplant it into our kitchen, it would overhang the doorway by 4″.  Pesky measurements. 

But alas, we did do a teeny tiny kitchen improvement.  On my scatterbrain mom’s scatterbrained trip to Ikea, I also had her pick up a magnetic knife rack, the Asker.  I made JT the notorious template . . .

And then he installed it for me . . .

(PS – JT just saw a preview of this post and called this his ‘weekend outfit’.  His words, not mine.)

The cart below the knife rack used to have the microwave on it but I moved it over to the Metro shelving for the time being.  I still have a lot of de-cluttering and consolidating I need to do in here, but the Asker has made a big impact for its diminutive stature.

And yes, that’s a light switch cover I still need to replace after painting the walls, um say three months ago . . . Small steps people, small steps.

We planted our garden about, maybe, a month late.   The weather in STL has been a roller coaster.  And now here’s this post, about a month later . . .  yeah.  Here’s a before shot — not much going on.  The fencing was up from last year and it will stay for this season but after that it is G.O.N.E.

I used that bin in the corner for compost.  So that gets mixed into the soil before planting.  Pretty nasty but great for the plants.

I usually try to start a few things from seed.  JT’s uncle had given us some green bean seeds from his garden a few years ago so I started those earlier indoors.  I think he’s ready to go outdoors now though . . . .

I can see where the story of Jack and the Beanstalk came from.  Those things grow like little mothers.

So one case of heat stroke later, we got the whole thing installed.
We only used about 2/3 of the garden for produce this year.  Last year we bit off more than we could chew and it got real weedy.   The neighbors gave us some extra flowers they had bought and didn’t have space for so we planted them in the back 1/3.  Most of them didn’t make it.  We are kind of bad neighbors.
In past years we’ve had the tomatoes at the back, along the alley where the neighbor’s flowers are now.  I’m pretty sure some of the good for nothings that wander the alley during the day because they don’t have jobs were eating said tomatoes so we decided to move everything inboard.  Not that it will stop all the neighborhood murder birds, squirrels or rabbits, but hey, we had to try. 

Here’s the breakdown:

3 Roma Tomatoes
3 Big Boy Tomatoes
1 Zucchini
1-2 Cucumber (we’ll see what survives)
2-4 Green Bean stalks (2 planted, 2 more on their way)
1 Green Pepper
3 Jalapeno Peppers
1 Black Raspberry
1 Strawberry

Herbs:
Basil
Rosemary
Oregano
Mint (from the farmer’s market and a co-worker)

Shenanigan is frustrated that the garden fence keeps him out as he would prefer to help in the garden.  What a weird dog.

But he is pretty freakin’ cute.  That was him saying hi after I came in from my heat stroke gardening. 

I’m interested to see if all this work and money spent in plants will yield any measurable savings vs. buying at the grocery store.  I might try to keep track of it al.  That sounds like a lot of work though, so maybe not . . .

I’ve been traveling more lately, and was off without JT in Albuquerque this last weekend.  It made me realize how much I miss my little tiny home. 

Here’s one corner of it that I love — the dining room. 

I love how all these little pieces have come together to make a home.  The art was an anniversary gift from JT.  The vinyl MCM sofa we picked up at an antique mall — that was the first furniture purchase that JT really championed.  The tabletop is from my parent’s house but I switched it out to a base from my sister-in-law.  The two Karim Rashid Oh chairs were a gift from my mother.  The orchid lives with a tiny letter “t” in its pot — part of my ever-growing “t” collection. 

 I’ve been thinking about changing out the drapes in that area and maybe also adding a small console table or ledge behind the sofa for more plant/accessory area.  Part of what I love about our little home is that it’s an ever-changing thing.