Pardon the Garden

Confessions of a lazy wannabe homesteader

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thirty-four

July 3, 2018 Marie Leave a Comment

Well, here we are. 34 years old. This getting older thing gets easier, I tell you. I’m sure that might somehow go away, but I much prefer my 30s to my 20s (though admittedly that first few years in my 30s were hard mostly because I was still adjusting to motherhood and everything about it that consumes my life). Last year I was more embracing of my age, and this year it feels that way even more so.

The day was pretty low-key. Breakfast at Bob Evans. BMV trip to get my car tags renewed. Trying to hide in the craft room a bit to knit and watch Outlander after not getting to knit for a few weeks. Then off to my college class for a few hours before coming home and enjoying some bourbon and fresh-picked raspberries from my little urban homestead on the porch.

Most years I make my own birthday cake as a tradition. This year, the Little Mr wanted to bake me a cake. We’ve been watching a lot of cooking shows, and he had this whole vision of what, exactly, he wanted to make for me. So we had chocolate cherry coconut cake for my birthday, which was quite delicious! (and even if it wasn’t, I’d still eat it because he was so proud of himself!).

Posts baking, Little Mr, Me, summer

Let’s all embrace our shitty decor style

August 13, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

I have spent countless hours on the internet, scouring for ideas for my house. What bathroom colors should I go with? What’s on trend? What goes with the age/style of my house? Do I even need to stay with the style of my house? After all, I see so many people modernizing older homes and it looks fabulous… but can I bring myself to do the same?

What about my bedroom – wood floors or carpet? Do I attempt to strip and salvage my oak floors hiding under carpet? Do I leave them their honey-colored original hue, or do I stain them darker because it’s trendy? Do I go with a light, airy vibe like I see so much on various home blogs? Or do I stick with darker, more grown-up shades for the walls and bedding? Would I ever be willing to paint my gorgeous antique dresser (the answer is always no – I hate when people paint perfectly good wood furniture, especially antique stuff).

I’ve agonized over all the stupid little details. Worried about whether my updates are appealing to other people, even though they’re not the ones that live here. Worried that I can’t choose certain colors for rooms because it doesn’t go with the rest of the house. I’ve spent so much time thinking about all the options instead of just going with my gut and what I like and want to live with.

My contractor, when we first began talking about the renovations, mentioned somewhat hesitantly that my house was “eclectic.” I remember feeling a bit put off by that assessment, because I felt it implied that my decorating style sucked. Eclectic, like it was a bad thing. I’m sure he probably didn’t mean it that way at all, but I’m a woman after all and tend to jump to the worst conclusion.

But in a (virtual) sea of perfectly decorated, on-trend home inspiration and every room “flowing” together, eclectic means my house is my own. I reached a point over the weekend where I gave the middle finger to the internet and the trends. I reached a new level of fed up and decided to stop making myself feel shitty about my home and embrace my “eclectic” style. My home isn’t decorated magazine-perfect. You’ll probably never see photos of my house used in advertisements anywhere. But it’s ours. It makes us happy.

The walls, with all their imperfections of a 100 year old house, display family photos, artwork we love, and a Doctor Who poster. The furniture doesn’t all match, but it’s what we’ve got until we find something we like enough (and money) to replace it with. My antique dresser has been with me since I was a kid, and every time I polish it up with some oil the rich colors come out in the prettiest way. My craft room houses my favorite pieces: my grandmother’s sewing machine/cabinet and my mom’s rocking chair she was given by that same grandmother when I was born. My quilt rack was made by a coworker’s wife for me, and displays the quilts we’ve been given, we’ve inherited, or I’ve made. My piano was free from a relative, and we get to enjoy the sounds of Declan playing it and making up his own songs from time to time. The kitchen isn’t perfect, but I fell in love with it when we moved in and it has been home to many culinary adventures, not to mention hours spent there dancing and singing and playing with Declan.

All the rooms have their own personality, and we’re the ones that tie it all together. A house is made by the physical structure – the wood, the siding, the roof, etc. A home is made by the people and things that live there. And no one cares that your decor isn’t up to date enough because they’re not the ones living there. And your kids aren’t going to care that your house is dated, because they’re too busy being kids (or moody teenagers who probably don’t even want to be home, anyway) to say anything.

My point is, let’s all embrace our shitty decor because the things that are in our home aren’t nearly as important as the people, the moments, and the memories.

Featured, Posts home, Me

And now I’m 33

July 3, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Posts Me

Season changes

September 24, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

img_1512 img_1515 img_1551 img_1557 img_1577 img_1597 img_1610 img_1624 img_1630

Autumn has arrived… kind of. 80 degrees isn’t exactly what I consider fall weather, but it didn’t stop me from wearing my plaid flannel to go pick apples at the annual festival at the local orchard. Normally we wait until after the festival to get the apples at a discounted price, but when you have toddlers you have to compromise – and the idea of a $5/per adult admission for the Little Mr to get to see goats, play in corn mazes, take a trip on the hay ride, etc seemed more worth it than not. We had such a great afternoon that he fell asleep in the less than 10 minute ride home, so we drove around and around looking at houses for nearly 45 minutes just to let him get his nap out. And now I’m left with probably 20-25 pounds of apples that I need to figure out what to do with. Canning probably won’t happen this year, so I’m thinking lots and lots of baked pies and crisps over the next few weeks.

This changing of seasons is marred, however, by the hole in my heart that is my dog, Molly. After months and months of the decision being in the back of my mind, the last month has really taken it from something I needed to consider to something I had to make a final decision on. Her quality of life just wasn’t there anymore, and it killed me to have to make that call, but ultimately she was suffering and it was selfish of me to let her continue as she was. She was 13 years old and a wonderful companion to me for half of that time. My routines are all messed up – there isn’t anyone to let outside in the mornings or before bed, no one cleaning up food behind the toddler, no one following me around from room to room while I try to clean. Coming home from the vet felt… depressingly lonely. She wasn’t there to greet me at the door. Just emptiness. Sigh. I’m going to miss that furry, sweet thing.

Featured, Posts fall, family, Little Mr, Me, out & about

And now I’m 32.

July 3, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

Today I turned 32. I feel older than that. I probably look older than that, to be honest. I have more gray hairs than I imagined I’d have at 32, and it gets worse by the week, and sometimes I worry I look like I’m mid 30s going on 60. Especially when I’m knitting in public. But eh, what are you going to do? The silver strands don’t take dye well at all, so even attempting to hide it just leaves me with some other color hair mixed with silver. So the only thing to do is just embrace it and hope that I can make natural grey look cute, I guess.

Anyway. 32. Most years I bake myself my own cake. This is a long-running tradition for me, and while it started out as a bit of a bitter project because no one got me cake… it has turned out to be a thing I very much enjoy doing. There’s something nice about making a special treat just for yourself, as a celebration of yourself and the one year older you became. This year, though, I took things a different direction. I had that new pie plate… and fresh raspberries in the yard… and we had nectarines in the fridge… Pie it is!
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The thing about pie, in this household, is that I’m the only one who eats it. (Well, the little Mr does, too, but he’s easy to hide it from). So literally there is no one else in this house that I have to share it with. My pie crust skills needs serious work, so it’s a bit messy, but OMG is it GOOD. Summer in a pie, right here. Maybe birthday pie is going to end up being the thing I do, instead of cake. After all, pie has fruit so it’s instantly healthy, right? No? Oh well. Worth a shot.

So after all the pie making, I spent today locked up in my craft room to sew. First up, I finished my sister’s wedding quilt (and I’m hoping my sister doesn’t know about this blog, or if she does she has sense enough to just avert her eyes and move on to another website so there aren’t spoilers… consider yourself warned, sis!)

wedding-quilt-detail wedding-quilt-finished

I’m so excited to have it finished! And… I kind of don’t want to give it away. It was a LOT of work. Do you see how small my sewing machine is? Do you know how hard it was to roll that quilt and get it shoved through that small hole so I could quilt it? SO. MUCH. WORK. But… I’m pretty sure I’m going to make another one so I can have one for myself. Different fabrics, of course, though I do love the black/white/gold combo so much. But, alas, without a gift quilt to gift I’d have to come up with something else and chances are slim to none that I’d get something made before Saturday. I decided to machine the binding, and I thought I might regret it but I don’t at all. It looks fine. It’s still handmade, regardless of how the binding is done. And it was way less stressful to machine it.

akita1

After the quilt was done, I decided I needed a new shirt. The thing with having a uniform for work is that I don’t need near as many clothes as I have. So I need a new shirt like I need another hole in the head… but I can make myself a new shirt to replace one of my commercially bought ones that is nearly worn out, so it’s a compromise. I’ve had this Akita pattern in my library since it was released, but never got around to it. The fabric is some mystery fabric I found for $1 at the Goodwill (score!) that was more than enough to make this shirt. I’m nearly done with it – all I have left to do is hem the bottom and sew on the neck binding. If all goes well, I’ll get it finished tomorrow morning and be able to wear it. It’s purely coincidence that it’s red and tomorrow is the 4th of July. I’m not exactly the most patriotic of people. Mostly, I just like the BBQs and the pie. :) But more on the shirt tomorrow when it’s done – I added a special little detail that I want tho tell you about when I have more time (and when birthday pie isn’t still lingering, begging for me to eat it).

Posts handmade wardrobe, Me, quilting, sewing, summer

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