little home

Our Athens adventure has been off to a great start.  I have loved settling in our new little home.  There is something so fulfilling to me about making our space our own and creating something beautiful for us to live in. 

They day we moved in John, Michael, and two of my seminary boys unloaded all of our things in to our apartment faster than I thought was possible.  Ever since seeing the place a few days before that I had created and decorated each room in my mind already. I knew where the beds and furniture would go and what pictures I wanted where.

The men all left and I had 6 hours to my self before John and the children came for the night.  I remember unpacking boxes with full steam ahead speed.  I was a machine! By the time they got here there were only two boxes left and almost everything had found its place. The only reason all of the pictures weren't hung is because I couldn't find a hammer. Ha! I'm notorious for banging holes in all of the walls, I have a bad reputation for it according to my mother and sister. 

I love making our home a beautiful place where we feel the spirit.  I love organizing it and knowing where every item is.  

We are so happy here and it is just the right amount of space.  In fact it is so fantastic going from an enormous house that I could clean and tidy for an hour after bedtime at night to something I can clean in 10 minutes flat! I don't even have to unplug my vacuum to get to the whole house. It is bliss here.

So here are some pictures of the place we call home now.

Happy home! 

kale, carrot, chickpea, & ham soup

This soup turned out better than I ever thought it would be! I had several requests for the recipe so here it is for you folks!

I have been trying my hand at finding uses for my leftover pulp from juicing.  So far I have made bread, fiber chews, and vegetable broth out of the pulp.  The broth is by far my favorite thing to do with it.  

I think part of the reason it is so satisfying is because I get use out of my fruits and vegetables THREE times.  1st time: juicing  2nd time: soup broth 3rd time: compost.  We are going to have some great soil to use in our garden this year.

I save about 4 days worth of juice pulp.  This weeks collection included pulp from carrots, beets, kale, spinach, ginger, red and green apples, lemon, yellow peppers, and celery.  I dumped all of it in to a pot and put 2 parts water to one part pulp.  Then I added garlic, bay leaves, cumin, red pepper flakes and salt and set it on medium-low heat to simmer for about an hour.

When it was done I strained the broth from the leftover pulp in to another pot and pressed it down and let it drip for about 30 minutes to make sure I got as much as I could.  Then I dumped the remaining pulp outside in our compost pile.

The night before I made Kale Chips with some Mrs. Dash chipotle seasoning and coconut oil.  Right after they came out of the oven they were amazing!  But I must not have stored them properly because come morning they were a bit soft again.  In an effort not to let any of our produce go to waste I decided to use them in the soup.

In to the big pot I combined the broth, the kale chips, 4 sliced carrots, 2 cups diced ham (leftover from our weekend dinner with my dad!), 1 package of lipton soup mix, and 1 can of organic chickpeas and some spices.  I let it simmer for about 40 minutes until the carrots were soft. 

We were shocked at how delicious it was and even my two year old ate up the kale, chickpeas, and carrots and had it all again for lunch today!

Recipe:  Kale, Carrot, Chickpea, and Ham Soup

8 cups of juicer pulp vegetable broth. (see recipe above) or other vegetable broth

4 large chopped carrots

6 stalks chopped kale

1 can organic chickpeas

1 package Lipton soup mix

1 tbsp Mrs Dash Chipotle seasoning

2 tsp chicken stock granules\

2 cups chopped cubed ham

Combine all and simmer about 40 minutes or until carrots are soft.

announcement: new job!

I am so excited to announce that I have been hired by Holly L. Robbins Photography as her set and photo shoot designer!

  

I couldn't be more excited about this new venture.

  

I look forward to working with Holly and creating beautiful places for people to capture unique images that they are proud of.

If you are interested in booking a shoot designed by me and photographed by the incredibly talented Holly here are the upcoming sessions.

Fall Minis - October 20th + 21st

Santa Minis - November 10th + 11th
Valentine's Day Minis- January 19th

send her an email:

info@hollylrobbins.com

if you have specific design needs/questions feel free to contact me as well.

tunesandspoons@gmail.com

on making it my own

As most of you know, ever since my parents divorced last year John and I have been living with my mother.

It was difficult to go from living in a cute little apartment where I could express myself and decorate however I wished to a space that was fully its own and someone else's.

I don't know what it is inside of us that gives us the urge to create and make a place our own, but I lost a lot of that last year.  I didn't feel like this home was mine and I couldn't break out of that funk for a long time.  There is something so satisfying about creating your own space.  I take so much joy in making our home a beautiful place to live and I find that it really does make me happier when I do so.

With my mother's recent engagement (congrats to my mom and her gentleman emailer!) we have solidified our plan to live here for about two more years while she goes to be with her new husband for a while before returning back to this house.  With this news my mother said to me about the house, "HAVE AT IT!"  So, thats what I did.  Today I made the living room ours.  

I feel brand new.