Kitchen KonMari Session, Illustrated

March 9, 2017

...out the main storage cabinet. I wish I had the foresight to take a before picture of the cabinet, but I did get a “cabinet dump” photo, above, showing what happened when we emptied the contents of the cabinet into the breakfasts nook. KonMari suggests holding each object and asking if it “sparks joy.” When you do this with someone else there are, of course, things that are easy to part with and things that cause controversy. At one point I manage...

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Least Favorite Plant: Bidens

Mr. Homegrown

November 7, 2016

Gardening, Least Favorite Plant

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...e let a few grow. We’ve never seen it before in our yard and had to post a picture to Facebook’s only useful group, Plant Identification, in order to identify it. Bidens is in the Asteraceae family which includes sunflowers, daisies and asters. There are many different varieties of Bidens and an equal number of popular names, according to Wikipedia: “beggarticks, black jack, burr marigolds, cobbler’s pegs, Spanish needles, stickseeds, tickseeds an...

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A Day of the Dead Altar

Mrs. Homegrown

October 30, 2015

Domesticus, Thoughtstylings

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...f our late, much beloved dog, Spike. Ofrendas often have small statues of dogs, which are supposed to help guard the pathways of the dead. I have no doubt Spike would do that for us–maybe is even doing it now–so here, the little Spike doll serves both as guardian and portrait. There’s also a picture of my dad and an icon of the Virgin and Child. I’ve got to get some more framed pictures gathered up in the next day or so. Our poor Phoebe needs a sp...

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What does the loving landscape look like?

Mrs. Homegrown

April 16, 2015

Back to the Garden, Gardening

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...nd. And that’s our friend David Newsom trying to sneak off the edge of the picture. It’s appropriate that he’s in this post, because he has a great garden himself, and he’s also trying to get the word out about loving the land and the importance of protecting insects such as the honeybee and the monarch. For the heck of it, here’s another shot of the same yard, just a little more to the right, so you can see the birdbath. I love the mulch. Mulch m...

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The Ultimate Flipper Fence?

Mr. Homegrown

September 10, 2015

Design

13 Comments

...ven see them as you scurry around your high-security compound. Examine the picture carefully and you’ll see the mandatory san-serif address numbers and the sort of biometric entrance gizmo they have in all those action movies to keep the zombies out. For that $890,000 you also get some Dr. Seuss plants. The real estate listing says, “Completely remodeled and designed with Silver Lake living in mind”. Silver Lake living don’t mean what it used to....

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