Assortment

With What You Have | 38

 

Words about contentment inspired this series that celebrates ingenuity, creativity, and resourcefulness. Join me in the comments and share what you've done with what you have.

 

 

 

 

When the old (ugly) plastic sewing case recently reached its end, a trip through the shed produced it's perfect successor - a vintage tackle box. With spaces to hold the big and spaces to hold the small, but not enough space to hold too much, it was a just-right fit, and who can argue that its sturdy frame and storied patina alone aren't enough to land the part? 

It sits there, now, next to my sewing machine on the shelf in the wardrobe beside my desk. The shelf that holds the fabric and thread, the notions and needles. The making shelf. The shelf that recently underwent a shake-out and freshening up. Back corners and shelves hidden behind closed doors, those are the spaces that tend to get out of sorts and overlooked in the chatter of life humming along in the rest of the house. I stop, open the door, and spend some time making those crooked places straight. Time here makes for happier times there, down the road, when the investment is fully realized in future making moments. There's a settled sweetness in the making when everything I need is in its place, right at hand - even when that place is in an old tackle box.

Do what you can with what you have. 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet. Peruse the study plans & building plans here.

Peasant Foods

 

 

 

  

 

Pulled from the pantry shelves, the olive oil, the chickpeas, lemon, garlic, cayenne, snips of fresh rosemary, and the tahini from the back of the fridge. All of this, together whirred in the bowl of the food processor, became hummus. With celery ribs alongside, it became late lunch-on-the-go as I moved about the kitchen, making lasagna for later's late dinner. Stir the sauteeing onion & garlic with one hand, drag a celery rib through the hummus with the other, pop it in the mouth. Crunch another bite while the white mozarella peels through the shredder into a million curled ribbons.

It's among the peasant of foods, hummus is. Like peanut butter and jam. But like a slice of fresh, hot bread spread with butter that has melted and pooled into wells that fill its jagged-edged craters, covered by salted peanuts crushed to creamy then spread from edge to edge, and a smear of jam, fruit- thick, deep with tang and even deeper sweet glistening heavily on top, you might agree that this isn't peasant at all.

This is simple. This is honest. This is rich.

I'd like you to make some. The recipe for hummus is here; the peanut butter and jam you already know how to do. I'll let you decide which one to make first.

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet. Peruse the study plans & building plans here.

 

Fixings

 

 

 

 

 

Pound a nail, hang the calendar. Unscrew the broken towel hook, replace it with another (good thing there were more than I needed in the lot auction from eBay). Glue the wooden T-cap back onto the bentwood coat rack.

Fixings. 

Sure, there are still holes in the walls to fill with wood filler (from things that are no longer hung where they once were), scruffy places to paint, and tatters in the rug that need to be mended. I'll get to those, but right now, the three fixings that happened this weekend, slipped right into open spots in weekend life, feel pretty good. They are tiny accomplishments in the grand scheme, to be sure, but when there's finally a hook to hang that fifth towel on, it feels rather celebratory. 

I can't always do the big things, but I can do the little. 

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet. Peruse the study plans & building plans here.