Gardening. Cooler than I thought.

I have learned a few things about my husband since we moved to Georgia.  Things I might never have known had we stuck it out in Boston.  For instance, Sean loves to cut wood.  Chop?  He chopped up a huge, old magnolia tree from my parents' yard.  He did it for fun.  I look forward to sewing or painting or making jewelry.  Seans just wants to chop wood.

Timber!!!!!

Sean is really interested in gardening. It is all he reads about and all he wants to talk about.  Everywhere we go he observes the plants.  This works out well because I want to "garden" but my method is trial and error. It's much better when someone involved is really informed and knows how it should be done.  We will probably waste much less money with Sean running the show.  I'm not ashamed to admit my contribution is hard labor and picking the prettiest flowers.

One of the big Azalea bushes in our yard.

Why am I telling you about my husband?  Well, we are in the process of planting a vegetable garden and I have learned something pretty incredible.  In the past, when I wanted to plant flowers in my city-yard (patch of grass) I would go to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy some flowers without much thought.  When our vegetable garden was just a thought we went to a local nursery called NeSmith's where they told us that they don't carry anything that won't grow in this area.  Lowe's and Home Depot will carry plants that are popular even if they don't do particularly well in your area.  Good to know but not the incredible thing.

Old Timey Plant Sale

Then this weekend we went to an "old timey plant sale" at Birdsong Nature Center (which was a cool new discovery as well).  I didn't think much about what "old timey" might mean.  When we got there we found out that all the plants were donated from gardens in the area.  I am pretty sure most of the plants had been propagated because they were really young looking.  It was amazing to talk to the people who had donated the plants.  Plants with stories?  Seriously.  Like antique plants.  How amazing is that?  Really amazing.  We went with the intention of just checking it out but how could we leave empty handed?  We talked to this woman with a really incredible butterfly garden and ended up buying some plants that came from her garden. We also bought some rose bushes, herbs, and a few flowers. 

I learned that many of the bugs important to the health of your garden will only thrive when they can eat plants native to the region. Pretty important little bit of information.  Healthy bugs = healthy poop = healthy plants.

Our spoils from the Plant Sale and NeSmith's

While we were talking to the rose guy we found out that there is a nursery in Tallahassee called Native Nursery  that specializes in.....native plants.  Very simply, they grow plants from plants found in local gardens...like antique pickers.  I. Never. Knew. This. Existed.  This makes gardening infinitely cooler in my opinion.

So here is our veggie garden in its infancy.  Here goes nothing...

Regarding the title.  I know community gardening is pretty hipster-y.  It was the last time I had contact with hipsters anyway.  Well, if you aren't on this already hipsters...get on it.  

Chandelier makeover.

This is nearly a completely unoriginal idea.  I wish I could claim some part of this is at least "inspired by..."...but it's pretty much a total copy cat project.  When I saw Jenny's post on LGN about spray painting her chandelier I had never seen or thought about painting a chandelier.

Chandeliers cost too much at their cheapest for me to buy one that I don't love.  The chandeliers that I love would require some saving and there are many things I would rather spend money on right now.  I had resolved to just live with our current chandelier and look at it as little as possible.  It was a metal multi color rub something something...I would never shop for this look so I don't have a clue what to call it.  I didn't get a before picture...oops.  You can see the bottom of it below.  It had small, off-white lamp shades over each bulb which I removed pretty soon after we moved in.

Whit and Uncle Ryan opening presents.

Also, the hardware in the kitchen is silver:

Oh and the sconces in the family room (seen behind Whit and Uncle Ryan) are brass.  WHAT!?  I don't know how this kind of thing happens.  It bugs me all day.

Ok so.  The light.

I love when you get an idea and know it's the right thing.  I could have so much more done if I didn't spend so much time wavering back and forth between ideas.  The second I read about painting a chandelier I knew exactly what I was going to do.  No wavering.

Here is the wall paper in our kitchen:

I am still surprised that I like it as much as I do.  I like the colors.  I hardly love any of the colors on their own.  I do, however, love how my furniture works with the colors.  There is an incredible flow happening in my house.  I have had flow in small doses in the past but never like this. (Finally!) My crazy bright chairs (here and here) and weird pink chest feel like they have a place in the real world...not just my world.

Incase you are wondering about the flow:  The overall feel of the wall paper is pink which is what works with my dresser and chairs.  Greens and blues are happening in the dining room and formal living room.

I knew immediately that my chandelier would be purple.  Purple things have been working their way into my kitchen accessories over the past two years but I haven't fully committed.  I have a love/hate relationship with purple.  It's one of those colors I like but can't wear or live in...you know?  I love the purple in the wall paper, though...a gray lavender.  Purple but not PURPLE.  Also, purple starts sounding terrible when you say it too much.  Purple.

Purple tray.

Purple canister.

After cleaning it and taping the electrical parts, I hung the chandelier from a tree branch and primed.

It looked so cool in the tree I was tempted to leave it.  Not really, but the juxtaposition was entertaining.

I used Krylon's Gum Drop.  I was afraid with a light color and all the pink happening already that I would get this pastel "ice cream" feeling.  I don't expect that to make sense but that is the name of my fear.  It's like when you go into an ice cream shop and the whole place smells like sugar.  By the time you get to the counter you don't even want ice cream b/c the smell was enough...it doesn't sound like a bad feeling..but it is.  It's just too much sweetness.

It turns out that feeling didn't happen.   Every time I see it I smile...literally.  

That's it.  Purple chandelier.  Even Sean loves it. I phrase it like that because he was less than excited when I told him my plans.  His first question was how much will it cost to replace it?