Don’t Worry, Live Simply, & Love Everyone.
I like Words with Friends on the iPhone, its a fun game to play while standing in line at the store. But I love this backyard scrabble idea.
Get together with your REAL friends and play a game in your backyard. Awesome Idea. I want to do this in my backyard.
via Sunset
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There is a story that has been going around the past few days of a Michigan woman is looking at spending 93 days in jail because she planted vegetables in her front yard. Yeah, that’s happening.
The town ordinance says that front yards have to be planted with “suitable, live, plant material.” and they are now spending time and money arguing over what “suitable” means. Really?
The city planners say that her garden doesn’t count. “If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster’s dictionary, it will say common,”
I love when people have to bring out the dictionary to argue. I agree with the statement in the Consumerist, that all of her other neighbors should plant gardens, so that now the un-common thing would be a lawn.
I love my garden. I planted it in the front yard for a reason. First, I was so tired of my front lawn and constantly fighting off gophers and broken sprinkler systems. Second, I wanted it to be a point of talk, thought, or inspiration for others to do something different. I could have planted it in my backyard, and still plan to plant some things back there, but I really wanted to have it in my front yard, and so far EVERYONE in my neighborhood loves it.
I have not yet heard anyone complain about it yet, and its not just because I’m constantly bribing giving them tons of vegetables.
This whole things feels like an incredible waste of time and money and this women should be applauded with her choice not dragged through this mess. This story has become very popular on the internet, so I’m hoping the righteous outcry of people will help throw this case out and get more gardens planted.
Speaking of gardens… Here’s an update on my garden. I have so much great stuff growing now…
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This is the first in a new series I’m posting about the Best Thing Ever that you’ve done. You know those things you do and then every time you look at them or use them you think to yourself,
“Why didn’t I do this years ago?”
Those are the inspiration for the Best Thing Ever series and I want to hear about yours.
What is the best thing you’ve ever done in your kitchen? I love my kitchen and have done a full remodel on it, but the best thing I ever did was the pull out drawers. These things are so tremendously useful I can’t believe I waited so long to do them.
If you have cupboards in your kitchen with all sorts of random items stuffed into the back of them that you haven’t seen or used in years, you should look into getting some of these slide out shelves. They are worth it and you will be so happy you did from that day forward.
I built mine with my neighbor Don. He is much better at woodworking than I am, and he has all the tools 
And yes I did run the LA Marathon.
Here we are cutting the wood to make them. They were very easy to make.
Here are some of the finished drawers setting up for the glue to dry. I made 8 of them and installed 7 in the kitchen and one in the bathroom vanity. That is how much I love these things!
So that is my Best Thing Ever for my kitchen.
What is the Best Thing Ever that you did in your kitchen? Share your best ideas with the world and help make everyone’s lives a little better.
Send me your feedback and I’ll put it all together for everyone to learn and get inspired from.
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OK, I’ve been meaning to do a garden update for a long time. So here we go…
CORN!!! I have corn!!!
I tried to corn last time, and it all grew, but only got about 3-4 feet tall and then promptly turned brown and fell over dead. This time I have several ears that are almost ready to eat. It didn’t grow super tall again, but its looking much better this year. I love corn.
I am trying really hard to get better at planting less veggies as its just my beautiful wife and myself and we can’t eat or give all this stuff away fast enough. I like cucumber, but don’t know that many things to do with it other than salad. So this year I only planted one plant. That one plant then took over the entire corner of this box and shows no signs of stopping.
I have many many cucumbers growing very nicely and will be figuring out what to do with them besides a salad. Any ideas?
Finally got some beans to grow. Those have been elusive until now. Also planted more peas as I LOVE them when I’m out in the garden.
And I cut down almost all of my artichoke plants and they are already starting to grow back. I love it when I don’t have to re-plant anything. Lazy garden FTW!
Same thing here, peppers are coming back nice.
Basil coming in. I’ve missed having fresh basil for a long time now. I need to have it all the time.
Here is the lone carrot. Not sure why I only have one carrot, but behold, here it is.
Also tomatoes didn’t come in crazy like last year. I did get one plant and it is taking off huge. This one plant will probably supply all the tomatoes we need.
Yellow squash. nice.
and yes more zucchini. These things are growing like nuts. Just pulled out another 12+ pound one the other night. Made it into zucchini noodles for pasta. yummy.
And the beets grow huge in my garden again. Started eating these again and they are yummy. Dwight would be so proud.
OK, what is this thing? Is it a weed? Is it a plant? Vegetable? Its growing near my strawberries, where I planted a few things, and then forgot what I planted. Nothing grew, so I put the strawberries there, but then this thing grew up and it looks like its something, but I have no idea what. Any ideas?
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Here are my garden helpers. And by helpers I mean they sit out front and bark like idiots and everyone that walks by.
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A new neighbor moved in across the street. Nice couple with a young kid. They asked me about my garden as its huge and takes over my entire front yard. Since they have moved in she has started a garden of her own in their front yard and has come over to ask for advice. My answers have been filled with a lot of this.
I have no idea what I’m doing…but its working
I’m good at figuring things out. Its probably one of my best skills.
Quick story: When I was really little I found a small piece of gray plastic on top of our piano. It was a few days before Christmas and I stared at that piece of plastic for a few minutes and then I walked up to my mom and dad and proclaimed, “I know you got me the Millennium Falcon for Christmas”
They had indeed bought and assembled the Millennium Falcon and had this extra tiny piece that they left out thinking nothing of it. I had found it and was able to figure out that this was the piece that held on the radar onto the ship and thus discovered ruined my Christmas present early. I was very happy with myself that day. My parents, not so much.
I can jump into a project and not know what I’m doing, but figure it out and make it work. It doesn’t always work out perfect, but those times are few and far between. Most times it works out really well and I learn a lot in the process.
My garden is one of those adventures for me. My grandpa had a garden that I barely remember from when I was little and thats about the extent of my gardening knowledge. I know to grow anything you need dirt, sun, water and some luck. I am lucky that I live in southern California where we have a lot of the sun part of the equation so its very easy to grow things. But for the rest I’m learning and making it up as I go along. And its working
I pulled out a HUGE zucchini yesterday I didn’t even know I had in my garden. It was hidden below the big leaves of the zucchini plants, where it sat among a lot of other zucchinis growing. This thing was giant so I chopped it up and made a big double batch of zucchini bread, my favorite, and gave it away to the neighbors.
I’m working on starting a few businesses right now and its been very frustrating lately at the pace in which they are moving. I had hoped to launch one several months ago, but its been delayed by technical difficulties and working with outside vendors. I am very tech savvy and that only leads to huge frustration when I can’t figure out a technical problem. The flip side of that is when I do figure it out, and I always do, it feels amazing. A huge sense of accomplishment comes when I figure it out, make it work, and learn something in the process.
A lot of people don’t start things because they think they don’t know what they are doing. They don’t know how to grow a garden, so they won’t try. They don’t know how to start a business so they won’t try.
My advice, is just try. You don’t need to know everything about everything. You will learn as you go. You will figure it out. And you will come out on the other side with a huge sense of accomplishment, you will have learned something and you can use that knowledge and inspiration to help others do the same.
What are you afraid to try right now? Go do it.
p.s. I still have half of this huge zucchini left so if you know of any good recipes for zucchini, let me know.
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I love secret compartments. Who doesn’t? Hidden doors, secret passageways, secret compartments, they are all awesome and I think everyone should have them. That is why I love this bookcase so much.
This amazing woodworker, Brian Grabski, has created a masterpiece in this bookcase.
The hidden drawer is accessed via a special combination of the draws being pulled out into specific locations and then a secret nob pops out of a knot of wood. Turning it and pushing it back in reveals the secret. How ScoobyDoo cool is that?
Watch the video below to see this thing in action.
I love woodworking and greatly admire the skill and talent that went into this piece. I need more furniture with hidden drawers, thats all there is too it.
Check out Brians website http://designedandmade.com/
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I want to provide a truly simple way to make people’s lives better.
