Victoria • Restoring our 1890 Victorian •'s Profile

I start half my summer flower garden from seed, and fill in the other half with plants I grow from their cuttings.  Makes me feel thrifty.  Giant zinnia in particular will practically propagate themselves-- once it's warm enough, you can just cut and stick in the ground, and it will grow.

Last year, I went to a garden lecture by a native-plant guru and he recommended Deer Stopper (Amazon link)

He said this actually works, and that they use it in their woodland paths… AND that it smells pleasant… AND it’s non-toxic… which sounds too good to be true. But, the reviews on Amazon look great.

I don’t have deer-issues, but my mother does… she has tried nearly everything short of fencing, and I’m ordering her some for mother’s day (nothing says I love you like a gallon of deer-repellant.)

My garden

I’d endorse Benary Giant zinnia over all of these! They are the best flower I’ve ever grown.  SO easy to start from seed, flowers all summer long… and they make a FANTASTIC cut flower—huge blooms, and long vase life!!

As someone with hoarding tendencies… I can figure out how to put anything in the “definitely-keep” category…

I ask myself—if I were shopping right now, would I buy this?

I laughed my way through this—I’m trying right now, to decide if marble will be my own personal destroyer of happiness!

We’re planning our Victorian-house kitchen remodel, and marble would be beautiful, and complement the age of the house… but just LOOKING at the photos of tools resting ON the countertop is giving me hives!!!

We’re restoring an old house… and they think we’re crazy. My mom doesn’t say so, she’s very supportive… but I but I can tell my father thinks we’re insane. He’s very cerebral, and I’m pretty sure he thinks it’s sad that I’ve chosen to spend my time demolishing chimneys and learning plumbing… rather than say—reading Kierkegaard. Regardless of the fact that I wouldn’t do that anyway.

Lovely piece… and so true. For me, at least. I’ll meet someone that I really, really love… but it’s impossible for me to ever really make the jump to feeling like we’re good friends. Part of that is how both of my oldest friends were made when I was thirteen… and now, over twenty years later, it’s redefined how I think of a “friend.”

I guess less than five years, still feels like acquaintance to me.

My love of marble, is only outweighed by my inner control-freak. I’ve seen some gorgeous, heavily-worn marble counters… and if we had one that was ALREADY weathered, it would be great… but if I’m the one doing the breaking in, I’m going to be compelled to baby it.

On the other hand, we put a marble hex tile in one of our bath remodels and it’s my favorite part of the room…

My very first one… My best-friend and I took a cross-country road trip after college, found an apartment in Texas, and stayed for a year…We were 22… The apartment was totally generic, and we had no furniture—not even beds. We bought futon mattresses and slept on the floor.

We still joke it was the greatest space we’ll ever live in.

I had a landlord who swapped out all the ceiling lighting for me, in three different rooms. (Obviously he was handy, and nice.) I bought the fixtures, and he did the work… and when I moved, he took them down for me.

It made a huge difference in the space… way less generic. But, it wasn’t a drop ceiling or one of those square fluorescents… can imagine that wouldn’t work to replace.