Tuesday Tip: Grow Your Own Herbs

I love using fresh herbs for cooking.  However, the grocery store REALLY loves fresh herbs (for the most part) and buying them on a weekly basis can get expensive fast.  The solution?  Grow your favorite herbs yourself!  Most require little care--just an occassional watering and full sun.  Don't make excuses about not having enough room!!!  I have an 8 foot by 4 foot balcony that I grow chives, parsley, cilantro, basil, oregano, nasturiums, hot peppers, wheat grass, and jello.  I'll get to the jello in a minute.

{I prefer to start everything from seeds because A) it's cheaper and B) I love to watch things grow!}

My cats love to be on the balcony too.  I call it the Jungle because it will get that way by the end of June.  They just love to lay out there, eat my chives, and bird watch.  Just FYI--cats should NOT eat chives, onions or garlic because it is toxic to them.  However, my oldest, Loki, loves to eat the chives and will demolish them in 10 seconds flat if you don't watch him closely...  DARN CAT!

Anyway...  On to the tour!

{Growing some pansies this year!  Pansies are one of the few edible flowers and can be used as garnish for dishes}

{See how I have to have a wheat grass decoy in front of my chives?  Those chives are regrowing from last year's seeds!  I am so excited!}

{Ari--my second cat and the most scaredy cat EVER!  We have had him almost 4 years, and he still doesn't like our sudden moves, loud noises, picking him up, or coming at him in any way....  If you sit or lay down, he is all over you like white on rice!}

{Ziffi--our youngest and most adventurous cat.  She figured out how to get onto the bathroom shelf and top closet shelf...  Both not easy places to reach!  She constantly has a mischievous look on her face...}

{Cilantro growing!}

{Loki--our oldest, chive-eating monster}

{I believe these are violas--whatever they are is beautiful!}

{Parsley coming up}

Okay--the jello story.  The other side of the planter with parsley in it, I planted some 'seeds'.  Nothing was coming up, and I was starting to get worried.  After a torrential rain last week, I figured that something would surely pop up because everything else was beginning (the peppers, basil, oregano, and nasturiums were too tiny to photograph).  I went over to check and had an inch thick of this jelly-like substance.  Being me, I poked it, touched it, and smelled it.  Nothing.  It looked like unflavored gelatin, and I believe that it was.  Since I got the seeds from my mom, I made fun of her about getting old and such.  Then she said, "I had the same thing happen to me!"  So either this was a Monday morning/Friday afternoon job or my mom is getting old, blind, and senile.  (LOVE YOU MOM YOU ARE THE BEST)

I also have a bird feeder (one of those suet cake ones) for the cats to bird watch.  They've run into the sliding glass door more than once, and it has not decreased it's entertainment value!  Mwahahahahaha

So see!  You CAN grow herbs and plants that you like in as little space as I am.  Even if you only like parsley, then grow parsley in a pot on your windowsill.  And if it produces more than you can use, then preserve them.

Do you grow herbs in your space?  If so, what do you grow?

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Apartment Redecoration

Every now and then I get this overwhelming feeling to reorganize, redecorate, and relocate furniture our apartment.  I contribute it to the fact my family moved around every few years so we would go through all of our stuff twice a year and get rid of clothes we outgrew/didn't wear and toys that were broken/not played with and so on.

My recent urge was after the realization that we have lived in our apartment for almost 5 years, and it didn't look like we really lived there.  It took me two years to put pictures and such on the walls (I wasn't really allowed to growing up).  It was another two years before we really started personalizing the apartment (personal knick-knacks, personal pictures, etc). 

Finally, after asking the landlord if they would paint the apartment since the walls were looking pretty bad, and them saying no but we could paint it whatever color we wanted as long as it was a light color; that was the trigger.  We started looking at paint colors, and I started day dreaming about how I wanted our living space to be.  So after 5 years, I have finally gotten comfortable enough to decorate and personalize the apartment.  WOOT!!!

This post is filled with before and after pictures.  I'm no interior designer by any means.  I did a lot of research and thinking and changing my mind.  Ben was very patient with me, and he really seems to love the apartment that much more too!  I love coming home and hanging out--I'm a homebody at heart.  Unfortunately, we couldn't update appliances, tear down walls, or anything else of that nature; we did scrub EVERYTHING down and repaired what we could (after asking the landlord multiple times and them saying--if you want you can repair it yourselves--yes I realize that I will probably not get my deposit back at this point, but I don't care--the apartment looks FANTASTIC).

One more thing before the pictures--My inspiration came from nature.  Ben and I love nature so I incorporated it into our apartment--you won't find much 'modern' furniture in our apartment.  We love a comfortable, rustic feel, and I think that we achieved it! 

Now without further ado....

Bedroom--The inspiration is the ocean so the colors are beige, tans, blues, and white.

Before:



After:

We painted the room 'Toasted Almond" from Valspar, changed the position of the bed, and put all of our shells and sand on display in jars (they are all gathered on our dresser, but they'll be spread out more when we get some more shelves).  We put up a different curtain rod and added some lanterns; the curtain is a black-out curtain which makes it easier to sleep in ;o)

The bedroom is not totally finished yet, but it will get there.  We really don't spend much time in the bedroom except to sleep. 


Bathroom--Painted "Courtyard Tan" by Valspar.  The colors currently are red and brown; we also have green and cream towels when we want to change things up.  I love the versatility of the shower curtain!

Before:

I was/still am sooooo embarassed about how the shower looked that I didn't take a picture.  Just know that the grout was stained, and the caulk was discolored and cracking--just not pretty.  Ben and I tried everything to clean it--baking soda, bleach, industrial strength cleaner--nothing worked!

After:

I have no clue how a cream towel ended up out there!  LOL  Anyway, all we did was slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls and cabinet.  Then we regrouted the shower along with a new smear of white caulk.  We had some nicks in the enamel of the bath tub, and so we filled them in with white nail polish; it looks good as new!  We also installed a curved shower rod and a rain shower head (I've wanted both for SUCH. A. LONG. TIME! that I finally got them for myself for my birthday).  Everything has made such a difference!  I LOVE IT!!!

The bathroom is done--not doing anything else unless we change some of the pictures in the frame.

Kitchen--Painted "Courtyard Tan" by Valspar.  The colors in the kitchen are wood and green with cream/white accents. 

Before:

Sorry for the crappy picture light on two of them...  Basically, the cabinets had knicks and such; they might have been a bit cluttered...

After:

Basically, everything got a fresh coat of paint, and the appliances got a good scrubbing.  We hung some floating shelves for extra space to put stuff. 

It still needs some finishing touches.  For example, I'm still toying with putting the branch and flower idea back up (I change the foliage depending on the season).  I also went through a bunch of my equipment and gave some up to family who needed it more than me.

Living room--The flower canvas painting above the TV was the inspiration for the room so the colors we did were yellows and greens with red and wood accents.

Before:

Ben couldn't wait to get the TV so we kinda got it before we were ready.  We had a corner entertainment center with an 'old school' TV.  The couch had to angled so you could see the TV.  Yes--I have a massive cat tree.  Yes--it might be hideous to look at.  My cats enjoy it, and it saves my furniture--enough said.

 {Where the flat screen is (on the coffee table) is where our old TV used to be}

After:

We painted the room "Tea Cream" from Valspar, hung new curtains, rearranged the furniture, and rearranged the pictures on the walls.  I love the way this looks!!!

This room is done!  Nothing more than some wedding pictures will be done to this room.

Office/Kitty room--This room is attached to the living room so we painted it the same color and kept the same idea.

Before:

Not much to say except boring...

 {We were starting before I realized I forgot to take pictures--oops!}

After:

We installed some floating shelves from Ikea (one of my favorite stores!) and rearranged some pictures.  One shelf serves as a sort of entry table.  When I say 'kitty room' yes I literally mean they have a room that houses their litter boxes, kitty cardboard tunnel, food bowls, water bowl, and toys (for the most part).  I also made new cat boxes that look a bit better than the conventional ones do plus they have more room.  Our desk is in this room too.

 {I LOVED this piece of art from Meijer!  Totally represents us!}

I'm not done with this room--I can't put my finger on it, but it needs something else.  Not sure what yet, but I will soon!

Hallway

Before:

Just boring...

 

After:

I love the look of black and white pictures against a gray wall--so I did it!  Paint is "Modest Silver" by Valspar.  I did want a pop of color so I put my favorite print-from-a-painting "Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh.  I LOVE this!!!



Hallway is pretty much done--I'll probably add some wedding pictures on the other wall space (not pictured) and am toying with printing some of our favorite poems/quotes to put on the other walls which are bare at the moment.

Whew!  That was a long one!  Lots of hard work went into this!  I couldn't have done it without Ben!  Like I said, I love coming home and seeing this beauty.  It feels comfortable and just like home.  I am happy with it, and my family really loved it too.  Ben's parents haven't seen it yet, but they will!

Have you redone an entire room?  An entire house?  Do you have any suggestions for some of my not-quite-done-yet spaces?  I'd love to hear from you!

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Beautiful Flutterbys

Our caterpillars have finally transformed!  We found caterpillars on my herbs and decided to raise them!  The experience has been wonderful, and I would do it again.  In fact, Ben and I saw tadpoles (which I have never seen in person) on a hike at a new park for my birthday.  Don't worry--they stayed at the park!  They were are the stage where they had to breathe air and were growing legs.  Nature is so incredile!

{The first butterfly to hatch!}

{The cocoon turns black about 18-24 horus before the butterfly comes out!  This is the second butterfly}

{The second butterfly}

Both butterflies were released into the world as soon as they were flitting around in the cage.  Their wings had to dry out; plus, I wanted to get pictures of their wings because it will tell us what the gender of the butterfly is.

According to this site we raised-- TWO FEMALES!!!  Awwwww!!!  (No--we didn't name them mainly because we didn't know what they were LOL)

Now when Ben and I go for a walk and see a butterfly, I can identify these (along with Monarchs--that's all I'm good for LOL)!  So awesome! 

PS--I had to clean out the cage with caterpillar vomit since 'I wanted to watch them grow'.  Ben enjoyed seeing it too because he was the first to spot that they both had hatched.  I would do it again in half a heartbeat ;o) 

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The Raising of Caterpillars

So last week I get a text with a picture of the cutest caterpillar from Ben; he said they were on our balcony (which is 3 stories up!) eating all of my herbs.  I told him to get them off my herbs immediately!  They had already eaten all of my parsley and were working on the chives....  Oh well.  Ben decided to use them as fish bait which was fine by me, but then I got to thinking--if those are monarch caterpillars (which is an endangered/threatened species) then we need to ID them before we kill them!

{Original picture}

We looked all over the internet, and finally, we identified them as black swallowtail caterpillars (without any doubts).  We got all of our information on the black swallowtail caterpillar/butterfly was from this source. 

{Black Swallowtail Female Butterfly source}

Then Ben and I started talking about the caterpillars; I had never seen one grow into a butterfly, and he admitted that he hadn't either.  Then he said that I could have one (of the three caterpillars we found) and grow it into a butterfly.  I told him he couldn't just pick and choose which one lived, and he finally gave in and let me grow all three!  He is enjoying watching them too!  (although he might not admit it)

{Unfortunately, we lost one caterpillar to natural causes after day one}

{When you touch them, horns pop out of their heads--pretty funny!  (No animals were harmed)}

{See that green pile in the bottom center?  No--it's not caterpillar poop--apparently when caterpillars are ready to morph, they empty their stomachs.  So yes--it's caterpillar vomit}

{The first caterpillar to start coccooning.  See the silks that attach the caterpillar to the lid?  It was pretty awasome to see!}

{The second caterpillar started coccooning about one day after the first!}

{Can you spot the completed coccoon?}

{Completed coccoon!}

The website says that it will be 1-2 weeks before they are done changing depending on the weather and such.  Right now it's just a waiting game!  See you in a bit with the butterflies!  We also get to find out the sex of our caterpillars!

PS--It's really the little things in life!

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