Home Tour: The Kitchen

Welcome to Cocina del Sallie! This kitchen is open late and specializes in pies and locally sourced quiche! In all seriousness though, this kitchen is a big part of our home and is a far cry from where it started!

This beautiful kitchen is from when our house was purchased. I pulled this pic off Zillow. Our house had been foreclosed and sat empty for a number of years before it was finally purchased and flipped by my brother-in-law. 

Basically everything in this kitchen was redone. We now have custom cabinets, fresh subway tile, and quartz countertops. Even though our kitchen is quaint and small, we make the best use of our space.

Let's talk about this table, I love this table! I bought it from the same antique store that the bird pictures from my dining room are from. It seats two comfortably and doesn't take up too much room. 

And speaking of not taking up too much room, look how compact and space efficient Lola Butters is whilst sitting at this table.

We also use a bar cart from Ikea for a little extra storage! I think this was $30, and worth every penny. I also love displaying my Rifle Paper Co. recipe box. 

 This up-cycled cookie jar is not only an homage to Lola, but a trusty companion in the kitchen. It has a very wide opening so it stores all my utensils with ease.

I like to use every corner of space we have, literally! This otherwise unused corner is home to my owl cookie jar from Anthropologie, and spice jars. The spice jars say "I totally love you!" -- a little love note from Andrew. 

This is another one of my treasures. A vintage Vitamix! My Papa bought this for my Granny at a state fair in the late 70s. It still works like a charm!

At my sink I have a few more feathered friends. I told you of my love for ceramic animals, and the infestation has spread into the kitchen. What can I say? They keep me company. 

On the other side of my range I have my trusty cutting board, flour and sugar jars. The platter is a Sallie Dale original painted at our local ceramic painting shop. 

We make use of vertical space by hanging fruit and our fresh eggs in these wire baskets. I found mine at an antique store, but my friend Courtney has a great DIY for one over at her blog Always Rooney! you should check it out. 

I also like to keep our cupboards colorful and tidy. Some of my favorite bowls are these from Anthro.  And $6 a bowl?? You can't beat that. 

Thanks for checking out my kitchen everyone! And I would love to know how you make use of the space in your kitchen! Leave a comment below! 

Happy cooking...and eating : ) 

xoxo Sallie

Modern Quilting

Quilting is a great way to use up the extra fabric you have. It's also a useful life skill. Imagine being stranded in your home during the winter and the heater goes out, you're going to need to put a quilt together and fast! It's also a classic pastime -- ever been to your grandma's house and noticed she has a gazillion quilts? That's not by accident. I believe age is directly related to the number of quilts you have in your linen closet. They have to come from somewhere, so before you are gifted another hideous quilt that only comes out for picnics, maybe try making your own modern quilt that can stay out year round and be loved by your children's children!

I became interested in quilting last year when I came across some modern quilts on pinterest. My favorite modern quilter is Tara from Rad & Happy. Go look at her stuff right now, I'll wait for you. 

This quilt is about twin size, which is the largest quilt I've made to date! I figure if I can make this one, I can probably make all my kids bedding in the future. See, useful lifeskill!

This is Georgia, the puppy we are puppy sitting for the week and she approves this quilt. 

This quilt is slightly smaller, and I made it with almost 100% scrap fabric that I already had. It felt good to get rid of a good chunk of my stash! Side note: This quilt is great for napping! 

I also tried something new to quilt the top of it. I used a free motion presser foot and did a meandering stitch. It worked really well for my first try. 

Georgia approves this quilt as well. 

This style cross quilt is incredibly easy to make. If you can sew a straight line, you can make this. I am working on a third quilt, so I put together this pic of how you can make the cross block. I used 4in fabric squares, by the way. 

Start with 3 rows of 3 squares. Make sure you've pressed down your seams!

Pin and sew each row, right sides together.

Press your seams open! Super important or the whole thing will look wonky.

And there you have it, finished square! 

I'd love to know if you guys are working on any projects! Leave your comments below, and happy sewing! 

xoxo Sallie

Home Tour: Andrew's Office

Welcome to the most creative room in the house! The room where crazy ideas come to life, and action figures live rent free on shelves. I give you Andrew's Office!

In the beginning, I used to war with Andrew over how messy his office was. LOTS of prep went into taking these pictures. Andrew tends to hold onto lots of things from projects past, but he did a really great job in helping me get all this clean. Nowadays, I just shut the door when the mess starts to form. Creativity comes at a cost I suppose.

Urban Homesteading

Ever heard of homesteading? It's basically a simpler, more self-sufficient lifestyle -- a sort of "going off the grid," if you will. I think there is a lot of merit to living a more simple life, even if whole-hog homesteading is not in my future -- I don't think I can convince Andrew to buy a farm and live entirely off the land. Recently I've been thinking of a few ways I could have my own "urban homestead," and make or grow more of the things we use on an everyday basis. I have lots of room for improvement, but here are 5 things I am doing this year to start living a little simpler.

1. Gardening

This year I have two flower beds -- one on top of the coop, and another by my back door. If all goes well and we get enough sunshine (it's been a very rainy summer!) I should end up with lots of cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, squash, tomatoes, strawberries, and okra! So far, my cherry tomatoes and cucumbers are doing the best -- I've been able to put them on salads and it is oh so tasty! I am already taking notes on this year and planning to put in at least two new beds for next years crop. I'm also planning to add some blueberry bushes, and a few more herbs. 

Here's my garden when it was just a baby garden. 

And here are two very rare species of chicken plants.

And here, is my garden today! We added a fence so the chickens can't interfere. Hey, plants need privacy, too!

2. Canning

(Insert all the doomsday prep jokes here) But seriously. I feel like canning and gardening go hand in hand, so this is something I really want to try. I'm going to start small this year and do pickles, pesto, and peppers. This also goes beyond just veggies -- I started making my own jelly! It's delicious, stores well, and makes a tasty gift. You can also can your own salsa! My sister-in-law Emily, has a mean salsa recipe -- I'll have to convince her to share.

This is the artsy photo I took when I made my first jam. 

3. Soap Making

For now I am skipping the lye, (*sidenote: "Ain't No Lye" would be a great business name for a soap company!) but I have been making my own soap from bars of soap for a couple of months now. It whips up pretty quick and in the long run saves you $$. I made Andrew a "man" soap out of a bar of Old Spice, he says he doesn't like it, but one of these days I am just going to switch it out and see if he notices. I've also tried my hand at making my own laundry detergent. This is my favorite recipe so far, but I am still trying to work out all the kinks. 

4. Bread Baking

We don't buy a ton of bread as it is because I will eat all of it, but bread is something that is quite easy to make AND you can store it in the freezer for future use. My mom gifted me her old bread machine, which makes bread making a breeze. It's like magic, I put in some flour, yeast and water and 4 hours later I have a tasty loaf of bread. If you don't have a bread machine, this is a recipe I've used to make delicious bread by hand in about 1 hour.

5. Capsule Wardrobe

A couple months ago I realized that while yes, I had a lot of clothes in my closet, I mostly hated all of them. And really what is the point of holding onto things that you really hate. I had heard about this crazy idea of only have 10-20 items in you closet! That's crazy talk, I said! But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Instead of buying 10 cheap things every season that I probably won't like anyway, the idea is to buy a few really nice things that you can wear multiple times a week and pair with other things in your closet. If you've ever been to private school you can liken it to uniforms. Everything goes with everything and it takes you 5 minutes to get dressed. I am still a work in progress but, I hope to launch fully into the capsule life this Fall! 

And there you have it folks! 5 ways I am trying to live a little simpler, and make more with my own two hands. For me, these are extensions of things I already love to do, and are also ways I could save my family $$.

What are you doing to live a little simpler? Share your ideas in the comments!

xoxo Sallie

A Day In the Life of Backyard Chicken Raising Pt. 2

Today, let's talk about the mother-of-all purchases when it comes to backyard chicken raising. The big kahuna, your chicken coop.

There are lots of options these days with chicken coops. With the popularity of urban chicken raising on the rise, you can pick up a prefabricated coop at any farm supply store, or even your local Sam's Club! The other option is to build, and thanks to the power of the internet there are chicken coop building plans galore online. You interact with your coop on a daily basis, so you really want to make sure it's both functional and attractive.

A Day in the Life of Backyard Chicken Raising Pt. 1

A lot of my friends ask me what it is like to raise backyard chickens. I get questions like Are they hard to care for? Do they smell? How often do they lay eggs? Why are you doing this? I thought the best way to answer all these questions (and probably more) would be to blog about it! This is a series of posts that will give detail to what it is like for Andrew and I to raise chickens. 

Every morning, between 6AM to 7:30AM I go outside to let the chickens out. As you can see, they have awoken with the sunrise and are already waiting for me. Chickens are very punctual. 

This is Henrietta, she's top chicken and she usually takes in the lead in telling me I need to let her out.  She's very bossy. 

Once the chickens have left the building, I check their food and water. I refill their water container almost everyday, while their food gets filled about 2 - 3 times a week. 

While Henrietta storms the gates, Pauline and Betty nonchalantly make their way out of the coop for their morning stroll. 

And there's Little Chicken way in the back. She is at the bottom of the pecking order, so she comes out when the other chickens say it's ok for her to come out. 

Once the chickens are out, I check the nesting box for eggs. Here I disturbed Billina -- she wasn't too pleased. Typically my chickens have laid their eggs by 8:30AM. Billina goes first, followed by Henrietta. Again, punctuality. 

Once they finally have laid, I collect the eggs and bring them inside. *Fun fact about eggs -- they don't have to be refrigerated right away. When hens lay eggs, they have a protective coating on them called a "bloom." The bloom protects the eggs from bacteria and other potentially harmful organisms. Once the eggs are washed, the bloom is washed away making them susceptible to bacteria and other nasties, which means they need to be refrigerated. I store my fresh eggs on the counter since we use them so quickly, but I can store them unwashed and in the fridge for up to 7 months! 

Then the chickens free range all day. Look at that fluffy butt. 

And sometimes you look outside and your chicken is in your flower bed.

The chickens spend the rest of their day foraging and looking for worms. Once it starts to get dark, they all move into the coop on their own, and it's lights out by 9:30. Then they slowly drift off to sleep, thinking chicken thoughts and dreaming about large worms. 

Sweet dreams my feathered friends. 

xoxo Sallie