The Day the Worms Came

So.  I got another pet.

Well, technically, I got about 900 other pets.

900 worms to be exact.

I'm not even kidding.  I bought worms off the internet.  But not just any worms.  Oh no.  These are the goose that laid the golden egg kinda worms, except, replace goose with worms and egg with worm poop...

Perhaps I should explain further.

Worm castings, or "black gold" as some call it, are one of the best fertilizers and soil correction supplements around. They don't have to be trained.  They don't run away.  They make zero noise and produce no dander.  They require a little prep work, but after that you just feed them and keep them damp.  Then after a few months of eating, digesting and reproducing, you have yourself a nice amount of composted worm fertilizer.  What more could you ask for in a pet??

Alright, they don't wear sweaters... but you can't win'em all.

For anyone who may also be interested in the benefits of worms- whether for a garden or a classroom pet- here is how we started ours.

First we had to find a container to house the worms.  You can buy kits from several places online or your local garden center.  I'm cheap so I didn't do that.  I had this one laying around since I started our seeds last year.  It wasn't really the right size for the seeds, too deep and not large enough across the bottom, so I am using it for worms.

Then I added the bedding- that's shredded newspaper, some leaves from the yard and some garden soil- not potting soil, real live dirt.  It was hard to find real dirt and I was pretty upset about having to delegate some of our precious dirt to the worms, but I figure the return will be worth it.  **The lack of decent soil is why we got the worms.  We are trying to compost in as many ways as possible to try to correct our sandy, clay, soil.**

Then I put in some crushed, cooked egg shells.  We used the eggs for pasta so they were raw.  I had to cook them by putting them in water in the microwave for a few minutes, but this wasn't really a big of a deal.

I gave the box a gentle shake to mix the components.

And added my worms.

Let me tell you, it was super exciting.

** I had to do crazy things to the expose setting so you could actually see the worms in these pictures.  Please excuse.**

Then I left the box out in a sunny place in the house to encourage the worms to dig in.  They actually moved really fast and soon it just looked like dirt.

So now all I have to do is mist the soil every few days (damp, not wet) and feed them regularly   Red Wigglers (our worm breed) can eat about half their weight in food each day.  That means that the two pounds of worms we started with will need about a pound of food a day.  They can eat bread, fruits, veggies, egg shells, and sometimes coffee or tea bags.

Basically, about half of the food we throw into our regular composter will now be used to feed the worms.  The compost in the back is a fairly slow process because it is so large and we mostly use it for "big items" like leaves, grass, garden scraps and the unusable leftovers when we can.  The worms will take care of the smaller, day to day composting from cooking and cleaning out the fridge.

And in a few weeks we should be able to harvest our first worm castings!  Who's excited??  I'm not sure where we're going to put them... probably into the big composter actually.  But then straight into the garden!

Now who's ready to come watch these guys (and girls) go??  Anyone up for a worm party?

Roadside Surprise!

Picked this guy up off the side of the road today. Looks like it's going to be a good day!

What have you found for free lately?

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  This morning I mentioned to Marco that I feel like we've been going for two solid weeks and then I realized that we have.

Not a lot of crafting or home making, but a lot of family and friends.

Between New York City, three Thanksgiving dinners, a wedding, a baby announcement (not ours), friends stopping by and preparing to do it all over again in the next few weeks, we're ready for a nice nap but that's what January is for right?

Here's to the holidays!  Hope they are happy for you and yours too!

**P.S.  Marco and I are running in the Santa Run in Tupelo on December 1st.  The money goes to Big Brothers Big Sisters and you get to run 3.1 miles while wearing a Santa hat and beard.  If you too would like to run- more info here at racesonline.com.**

All I Can Think About

My head is in about 29 places at once today.  I am really stretching my "making" muscles lately and trying to settle into a routine for day to day work.  But we leave for New York City on Thursday, so I am also trying to prepare for that.

I turned in my paperwork today to secure a booth at the art council's Holiday Art Market- so if you're into inexpensive, remade gifts this holiday season, make sure to come check us out at the Powerhouse from December 14 and 15th.

Plus, I restocked the Depot booth today to make sure I have plenty of variety and stock for while we are out of town.

AND I still need to clean some house, finish laundry, and pack for our trip.

So, you know, I'm updating my blog instead.

No, really,  I ran around all morning doing errands, finishing products, and preparing for my next two classes- one at the Lafayette County/Oxford Public Library, call to register and one for the art's council at the Powerhouse.  So I thought I'd share a quick (but apparently wordy) update on a few NYC packing tips I've come up with along the way.  Today I'm going to share my purse.  Is this stuff exciting or what?

Ohhh.  Ahhhh.  What I wanted to show, really, was the type of stuff I carry with me when we travel and how little stuff that is. Today, it's about what I carry on my person.  I have a nice, across-the-body style bag that I bought in Italy.  It's actually fairly small, so I have to really think about what I put in it, which is actually really, really important.

The boring stuff that I put inside?  Chapstick, my camera, bandaids, hand sanitizer...I had to buy a "travel" wallet to fit inside my smaller purse, that's the thing in the bottom right.  This wallet is thin, closes easily, and is leather- which means it creates friction when I remove it from my bag- or if it were to be removed by someone else... See where I'm going with that?

I also carry a  reusable, canvas bag (top right).  This idea came to me at 4 o'clock this morning.  When we travel, I always buy stuff and I always have to carry it in whatever plastic bag they give me.  Well, now at least I'm a little more prepared- a nice, not too big, bag with a decent shoulder strap that I can fit inside my purse until I need it.

Those orange things in the middle bottom?  Those are my hunter's hand warmers.  Honestly.  This morning I couldn't find them, and I started to panic just a little.  Having these things in my pockets make me a much easier travel companion.

And that's it!  I thought long and hard about taking a water bottle to carry, or if I thought I needed "more stuff."  But I don't.  Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to pack a carry on, and not check any luggage.  More details on that tomorrow!

Art in the Darndest Places

Before we moved, Marco and I went hunting for inexpensive furniture.  And low and behold, moving in May in a college town is a gold mine for inexpensive furniture.  Well, we scored (among lots of other things) this chair:

Is that a terrible picture?  Yes.  Moving on.

Well the cushion in that chair was terrible.  See how it bumps up there towards the back?  Well no amount of bouncing or shifting or dog hair could settle it down.  So I pulled out the cushion and replaced it with a square down pillow that was too firm for the bed.  It is MUCH better as a chair cushion.  And this is what I was left with:

Inspiring no?  Well I intended to tear it apart and use it for dog bed stuffing since someone and someone else refuse to share a dog bed unless forced.  And by forced I mean denied access into the bedroom and blocked from jumping onto the couch.  So I started pulling apart the old chair filler and this is what I found:

Springs!  No wonder it was as uncomfortable as all get out...  Well I gently pulled away the two layers of fluff and was left with a nice block of springs.  And a photo bomber who came by to judge.

After the Nooners judged and walked away, I was able to fall in love with my springs.  So I decided to hang them on the wall.  They remind me of the art in Boure, the huge pieces of woven cotton. I love those pieces, and now I have something much smaller and less expensive.

And in the name of keeping it real, this is actually what it looks like on the wall.  Looks like it's about time to start those built in book shelves eh??  Don't judge.  Focus on the art.

And that's how we roll in the D'Emidio/Sanford house.  Have you found any good art lately??

Happy Hanging!

I shared a business update over at Oxford Handmade today!  Things are finally moving along and I am so excited in my new business adventure.

With me being home so much these days I finally have a few hours each day to tackle some of the things on our "It's been nearly two years, surely we should have done that already" list.

Case in point:

I purchased this contraption a while back.  It was only $1.99 at Goodwill and it had the screws taped to it.  (That's what the tape is for on the left there.)  I immediately knew where we would use it and where I would put it and how it would work and what a wonderful purchase I was making.   And then it sat there.  On top of my dresser.  For a while.  Sure it was buried under clothes that I never folded, so I could have forgotten about it, but honestly, I knew it was there.  I knew it and I was just being lazy.  Well, look at me!  Lazy no more!

Bam!  I hung that sucker up in our guest bathroom/laundry room.  There is no way for me to take a decent picture with both the washer/dryer in the back ground and the new hanging thing, so you'll just have to trust me. This is the guest bathroom and behind the camera are the washer and dryer.

So what am I going to use it for?  Well doesn't my mock demonstration explain it perfectly?  When I am unloading the dryer (or the washer if items don't need to be dried- we are in sweater season) I can now hang up the clothes on this retractable metal arm.  No more hanging items on the door frame (where they do not fit) or the door knob (where only 3 items fit and then drag the ground) or around the guest room (where they block my chi when I am sewing).  Nope.  Now hanging clothes can hang nicely on this arm until I have completely unloaded the dryer.  This also prevents (as many) animal hairs from collecting on the items because I do not lay them on the bed while I fold them or put them away.  They are already hung and can go directly into the closet.

Is this a whole lot of words about the retractable arm in our new guest bathroom?  Yes?  That just proves how in love with it I am.  Happy Hanging y'all!!

Dear Vernooner: A Letter to Our Cat

Dear Vernooner,

It has been more than a month since I snuck off to find the most badass cat in the county and brought you home instead.  Sure, you ignored that mouse and could not have cared less about protecting me from that bug, and your instinct to kill that spider was overrun by your instinct to look up at me and demand more food... but you're a sweetheart and I love you.

Some people would be turned off by the way you drool when you purr, but I want you to know that even though Daddy and I have allocated "Nooners Napkins" to wipe your face like a baby, it is purely out of love.  The way you snuggle under my chin when I'm reading at night and the way you fit perfectly into the small of my back when I roll over to go to sleep... those moments are very special to Mommy.  And the way you climbed onto your Daddy's chest this morning for a little snuggle session and then sneezed in his mouth instead, that was also very very special to Mommy.

I am so glad that your big brother was able to get his shit in check and not eat you during that first week we brought you home.  Remember that epic face attack you two shared?  The one that left a giant scar across his nose that is just now healing but still hasn't regrown fur?  I think that moment specifically made all the difference.  So now when you rub against him or curl up on top of him to take a quick nap together, my insides get all warm and fuzzy.

I could continue to write more gushy stuff- about how all of your extra hair has re-awoken my passion for felting or how sweetly you leap into my arms for snuggles every time I bend down, even if I was just bending down to pick up something off the floor... but you are currently bellowing so loudly for breakfast that I am afraid you will wake the neighbors.  Thank you for picking me to be your mommy, and thank you for agreeing to give it a shot, even if we had two dogs who have never lived with a cat before, and super thank you for not throwing up that hairball on the bed this morning.  I am still sorry that my "remove the cat from the bed" maneuver was actually more of a "loft the cat across the room, curveball-style extraction" but I was concerned about the clean sheets I had just put on the bed not five minutes before.  Thank you for understanding.  Mommy loves you my lovely Grumpy Gills.

Weekend Outlook

This weekend I am hoping to get a little more work done on our median here in the neighborhood.  A few months ago I wrote a grant to help develop this:

That's our giant median in the middle of our community.  Notice that greenish grassish stuff?  That is probably the most green I've ever seen it.  I'm sure it's a trick of the light or something.

Anyhoo- I wrote the grant, we got it, and now we have some extra money to spend in order to make this space really nice.  We're already really close to finishing laying the stones we bought for our new patio.  And we've moved all of our recycled bricks for our new fire place and grill.  Very soon we will be installing a new bike rack and a bike storage area.  I am very, very excited to see these things coming together and I hope this weekend will be a great success.  Also, I'd like to have this entire project checked off my to-done list...

But since that picture isn't really inspiring- YET.  I thought I'd share another picture from last weekend.  This is part of Lake Saint Joseph in east Louisiana   Marco and I went down last Thursday to stay with some friends and enjoy a nice relaxing weekend.  This tiny part of the lake was the only picture I took in 4 days, but I think it makes up for all the ones I didn't.  

Happy Friday!

First Day Jitters

Today is the first day of my new job- that is to say, the job that I am creating minute by minute.  I have already spent a good part of the morning "setting up shop" and talking to friendly and helpful people at the Secretary of State.  My paper work is being filed as we speak and very, very soon we will be cooking with grease- as they say.

It still hasn't sunk in that my last day of "work" was yesterday.  Today doesn't feel any different.  Honestly?  It feels like a Saturday.  I ran errands this morning, worked on a few quick projects and cleaned a little house.  But now I'm settling into my to-do list and making plans for next week.  

It also hasn't sunk in that it's actually November 1st.  Halloween was fairly cool, but incredibly comfortable.  I was plenty comfortable walking down the street to the neighbors house with a bottle of wine- I didn't even wear a jacket.  Marco said he didn't think that was the way trick or treating worked, but what does he know?  They don't trick or treat in Italy.

Plus this morning I was responsible for cleaning up the remains of our summer garden.  I picked basil and rosemary and a few egg plants that were still hanging on- and about 4 more pounds of tomatoes.  We still have two plants loaded with green fruits, so we're paying extra close attention to them.  Today these are the last of our "old" plants.  November 1st and we're still making salsa- I could get used to this kind of lifestyle.