Post-holiday deconstruction and winter musings. And food porn.

More deconstruction.

Deconstruction.

How is it that I've spend the past three days deconstructing Christmas and my home still looks chaotic and cluttered? Granted, I've had a few hours out on the thrifting trail since Friday and found some a-m-a-z-i-n-g items to upcycle/plant/sew, but still. . . it's a tad ridiculous that it almost looks worse than it did when I started the effort.

All of this work brings to mind the following lines by Robert Frost: 

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promised to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep."

It's appropriate that the title of Frost's poem is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." We are having what Montana NPR's weather peeps call a "High Impact Winter Storm" here in Montana. I personally love the snow and its soft beauty. The whole world becomes a wonder of white after a night of snowfall. Opportunities to ski, snowshoe, or nest are resplendent on a snowy day. And the bonus? The decision whether to swoosh down a slope or trail versus wrapping yourself in a down comforter is always right given that it is a "High Impact Winter Storm."

Anyhoo, enough about poetry and winter storms --- back to the chaos. In an effort to organize and be "smarter" about how I launch Twig & Bloom, I spent a huge portion of the day yesterday organizing the garage. (For reference: it was 3 degrees outside and the garage is unheated.) This effort, complete with the prerequisites of swearing, breaking fingernails, and general surliness resulted in T&B gaining a whopping three shelves for those items I will use to "stage" my booth (about 24 square feet). That doesn't really sound like much (nor did it LOOK like much), but clever use of bins/boxes/bags resulted in most of the T&B staging decor no longer being underfoot inside the house. Now, I'm not a religious woman, but even I can say a hallelujah to that improvement.

Now, you would think after the 3 degree temperature and the growing creativity with my cussing I would just call it a day, but no, the deep dive into Twig & Bloom organizing did not stop there. I then proceeded to tackle an 8' x 8' unplumbed bathroom in our basement and outfit it with three 6' tall shelves (all thrifted or secondhand). These shelves not only hold the growing collection of paint, primer, waxes, polys, and other painting and staining accoutrements (holy crap! I've been misspelling and mispronouncing that word my whole life), but also the bulk of the amazing items I've thrifted over the past 2 1/2 months since launching Twig. These are the items that don't need much work (hence locating them to the bathroom-room), but instead provide the pots for forcing bulbs, glass cloches and birdcages, footed pedestals . . . so many great things that really represent the foundation of my vision for Twig & Bloom. (I will confess to a few poor purchases in the early halcyon days of Twig, but let's keep that knowledge to ourselves shall we?)

This is what halcyon looks like.

After three days spent on this organizing extravaganza, I feel pretty focused and more than ready to return to work on some of my ideas this week. (Don't kid yourself with this early picture - the upstairs workroom is a disaster and definitely needs a couple of hours of my attention before I can even GET to my work table.) And, in addition to grooving on some creative energy, I have a couple of paying gigs this week as well: two dining room chairs are being reupholstered (gotta love that friend "Beth") and consulting a new client on staging her home for sale. An odd mix for a business, but it comes down to loving beautiful homes and gardens and helping people make their own homes lovely and appealing --- even if they are ready to fly to coop.

Finally, I can't leave you without a little food porn (what's a home without great food?). On Saturday morning, kidling-free thanks to sleepovers, we feasted on my husband's fantastic dutch baby --- actually Alton Brown's dutch baby . Sky (that would be my husband) has been making these for a few years now and it is one of the few sweet breakfasts that I adore. (We also had bacon. Duh.) Sky prefers the traditional powdered sugar/butter/lemon squeeze combo while I take my dutch baby with  a dollop of whatever homemade jam or jelly is available which, in this instance, was plum jelly (a gift from Sky's co-worker.)

Yummmmmmm. Isn't that a nice way to start the new year? (That and a *slightly* more organized home.)

Happy New(ish) Year!! Onward for great adventures, great food, and great friends. 

New Year's Eve: Contemplating a shower and grasping at straws.

It's the last day of 2014, a year that started with an idea for change that resulted in change that then changed AGAIN. Ups and downs, highs and lows --- emotions that we all experience in this grand adventure called life. I'm cautiously optimistic about 2015, but then again I have a terrible habit of trying to be optimistic even when the facts are in front of me. I won't let that deter me however. I have places to explore, people to love, and passions to pursue. Be gone facts and let that optimism flow...

Amy's winsome bird.

Possibly my favorite ornament.

Joan B's

First things first though: I desperately need to deconstruct the holiday from my home. Pine needles, Christmas light fatigue, and general chaos consume all of the common areas of the house. But before it took on this slightly decrepit  Miss Havisham patina, my home this holiday season was quite lovely. With some extra time on my hands, I wandered into the woods and collected greenery from many different evergreens (with the exception of the Christmas tree, no plants died from my pruning). With a vision in mind to stick to a simple palette and use items that I had on hand (candlesticks and silvery ornaments), winsome birds (from












the talented Amy Clark), or collected (from the talented Joan Bousilman), the scene came together quite nicely. So nicely in fact, that I dared venture into a friend (we shall call her Beth)'s home and reduce her kick-ass-attorney-mom-of-two-lifemate-to-awesome-guy stress (hopefully) by bringing her mantle together and creating a custom centerpiece for her holiday table. Using some of her decorations and some from my collection, the mantle was a stunner.

"Beth's" mantle.

Pre-iced goodness.

Another new experience thanks to the spare time and subsequent spare brain power was that I tackled  Alton Brown's overnight cinnamon rolls (with yeast!) for Christmas morning. I don't know WHAT my problem was in past years about trying to make these little bundles of deliciousness, but in hindsight the fear of cinnamon-rolls-that-could-double-as-doorstops was a dumb reason not to try. Since then I've even wandered into Tyler Florence's buttermilk biscuit territory and Momofuku cornflake cookies ('Fessing up here. That cookie recipe came in a tin, all ready to roll except the mixin' and the bakin'.). Holy heck yumminess on both accounts. 

I "took" this picture over a year ago. Psychic much?

Finally, all of that craftiness and cooking has led me to today: the last day of 2014 and the eve of 2015. During my interwebs rambling today, I came across a "fact" that is uniquely compelling to me personally. Wait for it....Wait for it...Wait for it...IT'S THE YEAR OF THE GOAT!!! Woot woot! How wonderful it that? (For those of you new to my idiosyncrasies, I love.love.love. goats. If I could have one in the city limits of Helena I totally would. And a couple of alpacas because they are adorbs.) More specifically, as someone born in the Year of the Pig (1971), experts on these matters state that "...the Pigs will finally find the oak bearing golden acorns, so poverty and unemployment are not in your cards. The approaching period will prove so successful for your career that in the future you’ll be sure to look back on it numerous times with the sentiment of great nostalgia..." This seems to me to be GREAT (and totally reliable) advice on how to approach a new year that is in flux, complete with unemployment and an inexplicable yearning to leap into an retail endeavor despite modern shopping being too easy (I'm looking at you Amazon Prime), too impersonal (H'ya Etsy!), and cheaper than sustainable (Oh China...). Who knows what will be the story written during 2015, but I'm hopeful. And that in and of itself is a gift.

Now join me in toasting a fond farewell to 2014 and extending a warm (figuratively, this is Montana after all) welcome to 2015. Find all of those silver linings, remember your blessings, and move toward the light of a new year.

Stacey








More:http://www.gotohoroscope.com/2015-horoscope/chinese-2015-horoscope-pig.html.