Spring, it's heavenly!

It's official, it's spring! And here in the deep south it's already feeling like the dog days of summer. I definitely am NOT looking forward to the 100+ degree temps but I can't lie, I'm loving the weather now.

Josh and I planted an organic garden recently and it's taking off! I'm looking forward to having some fresh veggies in the near future. If you want to stay chemical free look into companion planting, we set up our garden like this and have had ZERO pests in our garden! It's amazing and we have chemical free produce to munch on all season.

Try companion planting for a chemical free and pest free organic garden

We have also enjoyed trying new types of gardening like for example growing pineapples, potatoes and tomatoes from their actual fruit. The tomatoes were actually an accident, they started coming up in our compost from an old tomato!

Left: Pinapple plant, Right: Sweet Potato, Bottom: Tomatoes from compost

Some other oddities around the Wright lake house is none other than LIZARDS. These guys are everywhere down here and I have to admit it took me a while to get used to them hopping around. The great thing is that I have hardly any bugs, which is amazing especially since we live on a huge lake.

These guys stay full and keep the creepy crawly bugs and mosquitoes off of me. I have grown to love them for that reason alone :) Even the ugly one is kinda cute when he sits on the mushroom and listens to the gnome's stories...

 

It's so nice to see everything in bloom, it rejuvenates my soul. I think I have come to realize that heaven in my mind is being surrounded by none other than plants, animals and pretty furniture. Random? Well, it is my heaven not yours :)

Plants...

My little herb garden

These bulbs were from my grandmother, she got them in Mexico

Sunflowers are about to pop..the birds love them!

I heart Hostas.

Our little front patio where we sit and look out over the lake

Animals...

 

Emma and Blue (aka the "kids"). I love how Blue (and his dirty nose) is sleeping standing up. Hard life!

These two go at it every morning on my dock..I have no idea what they are fighting about!

Pretty furniture...

My neighbor recently did a trade with me..I got these two circa 1930's beauties! Above is the bar cabinet

Circa 1930's china curio..gorgeous! Try trading with a friend, you'll be surprised what they want to get rid of!

See how I wrapped all of that up nicely? :) What is your idea of heaven? What would it include?

-Rach

DIY Shark's Tooth Necklace

I've been walking past our jar of collected shark's teeth for months trying to figure out what to do with them. Well, I didn't figure out what to do with them but rather one of them...a chic necklace! I was going to document the steps but little did I know within a few hours it was complete and I hadn't taken one picture. So give me credit for at least showing you the finished product, bokay?

We go camping on Cumberland Island every year and collect sometimes hundreds of shark's teeth in one visit. My favorite one has always been a very large fossilized tooth from an extinct Hemipristis shark so I decided to use it in my necklace...


Step 1: Find a shark's tooth. (you can always order them online, check Ebay or contact me) It's nearly next to impossible to reproduce so you don't have to worry about being sold a "fake" shark's tooth.

Step 2: Paint the "gum". I used a gold enamel paint that I got at Michaels Arts store. You can tell where the "gum" and tooth starts because of the texture. Also, the enamel won't stick on the slick tooth so don't worry about being perfect. Let dry for a few hours. I put mine in the freezer to speed up the process.

Step 3: Wrap with gold wire (also got this at Michaels). I used this tutorial and tweaked it a little. I liked the look of one wire around each side and NO wire around the middle part. It's easy to undo and redo until you get it to where you like it.

Step 4. Attach to a long chain with needle-nose pliers. Done!

P.S. My apologies about the grainy photo, we don't have our digital camera at the moment so I had to take it with my phone!

Country Living

Pumpkin picking in a local patch

My canned pickled okra!

Blue LOOOVES the cotton field beside our house (not that you can tell or anything)

Get it HERE

Over the past few months I have been getting used to this new life called living in the middle of NOWHERE. It has had its up's and down's but altogether it has taught me quite a bit. I'm learning things like how to can and preserve food from my sweet 70 something neighbor, what processes it takes to prepare land to be farmed and how to live in a town that still lives off of roadside veggie stands and really lives off of it's own land and agriculture.

Yes, it has been quite a learning experience and with that comes a step back from technology (as you may have noticed) and me being a bit more removed from TV and computer. It has been altogether refreshing. I seriously suggest everyone do it for a bit, just to step back and learn things that you can't get from a web article or TV. You would be amazed at what you get from it. At first you might go through a "guilt" phase just because you feel as if the innerweb needs you (especially if you write a blog or are an avid Facebooker), but once you get past that you really start to see clearly. I definitely had a few weeks of "Are you ok? I just noticed you haven't been posting, tweeting, etc ."(Which in this day I guess means one is clearly unstable or having a secret life crisis??) It is sad, actually.

With this awakening of Josh and my back-to-basics life we have been on this kick of wanting to buy a mini-farm and live more self-sufficiently. If you're wanting to learn how to do anything from keeping a one acre farm to harvesting and storing food to keeping bees to making your own wine I HIGHLY suggest a book we have been reading called The Self-Sufficient Life And How To Live It by John Seymour, it's amazing!

before & after: vintage chair redo

One thing I love about living in Eufaula is the amazing thrift stores and, believe it or not, the random trash piles. Yes, I said trash piles. Maybe it's the large amount of elderly down here but it seems as if there are so many vintage pieces they discard, or maybe they do not know what they have? I'm not quite sure but I see so much potential!

Recently I ran up on this amazing little chair that my neighbor was sending to the trash (see??). Structurally it was in great shape and I just knew it needed to be in my living room. With a little bit of imagination, paint and fabric I was able to bring it back to life.

Have you brought new life into a discarded object lately?

Inspiring.

Settling in..

I am pretty sure we all get some sort of moving amnesia, sort of similar to childbirth, because I would never move again if I remembered how absolutely horrible it is! This move has been a little more taxing than most though, it seems like everything that could go wrong has, in a sense.  We are so out in the middle of nowhere that, when I couldn't get cell phone service and opt for a landline, they told me that it wasn't even available for our area! It's been a test of my patience to say the least! Along with that though comes a sense of calm that I get every time I walk outside. We love in a GORGEOUS place! I am working on getting it set up and will have pretty pics to show of our house eventually. For now though, enjoy these little snippets.

Happy Monday everyone!

Lately

Hello all my blog friends! It has been WAY too long since my last post so I thought I would give you my excuses an update as to what has been going on lately. Let's see...

...My bestie got married!

 ...And my husband became Dr.Wright!

...And we are moving into a new house on Lake Eufaula, AL in 2 WEEKS!

And trying to keep it together in the process :)

I'm really hoping things will settle down soon, for my sanity's sake. I can't wait to get into the new house and show you all! It's going to be the start of an awesome adventure and I'm excited for the next stage!

P.S. This post was for you Amy ;)

Invitations

My cousin/bff is getting married in April. I always find it a bit tricky to design things for family and friends- they're like clients that never go away! Naturally I was a bit nervous about how her invites would turn out and if she would approve.

We put them together this weekend, it was nice to finally see the finished product. She was so excited, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. It was a bit of a challenge, especially when she described what she wanted as follows: (and I quote) "I want something elegant, and romantic but still simple that includes chocolate brown and robin's egg blue with a branch and a birdcage imagery somewhere on the invite".  Ok..got it..I think. The paper doilies made the perfect romantic (and cheap!) touch she was wanting. Success!

Fishies

meh

I have been wanting to share pics of my little finned friends for a while now and finally got around to getting some pictures. Gimme a break, I've been B-U-S-Y. I know what you're thinking, fish suck. But mine don't. They actually have the funniest personalities and are so much fun to watch!

My big boy ( a 6" goldfish) is my little pride and joy..his name is Mad Max. He rules the tank! Josh thinks I'm crazy because when he passes I'm going to try to get him taxidermied (He's a freakishly big goldfish and I'm proud dammit!). My two other little goldies are named Junior ( the white one with the orange head) and Julie ( the all orange little gal).  Junior is just now growing into his brain and is in that weird teenage stage...he looks so funny. They all follow Max everywhere and swim through the tank as a little unit, it's so cute.

My other one, well, he has a story. Sunny was tiny and in bad shape at a petstore (in the goldfish aquarium of death) when I was picking up supplies. I asked them if I could have him for 99 cents and they agreed. Come to find out he was actually a KOI! He thinks he is a fancy goldfish but this spring he will find out that he in fact isn't when I release him into his new home, an actual koi pond.

Do you have pets that you are sort of obsessed with? :)

Spamalot

Last night we had the joy of seeing Monty Python's Spamalot and let me tell you it was SO ridiculously funny. It was by far the most enjoyable Broadway production that I have ever seen. My most favorite part had to be when they busted out the 'His Name Is Lancelot' song ..I was literally crying!

The set changes, lighting, acting, dancing, singing..everything was flawless! Josh even had a good time which, I have to admit, I was a little worried about. Well done cast and crew of Spamalot!