Pepper Design Blog - Page 108 of 438 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

Home Inspiration: Beautiful Hanging Planters

April 2, 2014 by Morgan

A little eye candy…

Happy Wednesday! Oh man I love etsy too much…

PS more inspiration boards right here.

PPS and – this is so exciting – This Old House features our faux log fireplace facade as one of their featured projects. Thanks, TOH. Makes me so happy + warm & fuzzy. (Same project snuck into the magazine).

A Fresh & Bubbly Good Morning Cocktail

April 1, 2014 by Morgan

Happy 1st of April! No April Fool’s joke for you today, just a really great drink to try. :)

We have been getting a plethora of grapefruit in our csa box as of late and I haven’t known what to do with it. Often it’s too tangy or bitter for me to reach for in the morning (I end up dumping a cup of sugar on a halved grapefruit) and too time consuming to wedge for a salad (I have the best of intentions to try something like this or this before the season’s over). So they’re stacking up like crazy in my fruit bowl.

But! I have recently discovered something wonderful. I really love grapefruit juice – especially if there’s just a teaspoon of sugar in it (to make the medicine go down, the medicine go down…).

I made the perfect Sunday brunch cocktail the other day out of a few of them. It was sort of a greyhound-meets-champagne cocktail blend and it was quite the morning wake up in that perfect freshly squeezed, sweet-but-tangy way. If you use the right vodka, you might not even realize that you’re drinking before noon.

A Grapefruit & Champagne Cocktail

1 part top shelf vodka
1 part freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 part tonic water
1 tsp sugar (adjust to taste)
Splash of champagne

In a shaker mix grapefruit juice, vodka, sugar and ice well. Pour mixture over a cup of ice cubes, add tonic water and finish with a heavy splash of bubbly.

For me, the secret to citrus fruit cocktails is in the freshly squeezed juice. There’s just something about that straight-from-the-source taste…

By juicing a quart or so of grapefruit juice in advance you could easily mix up a batch for friends for a midday brunch. I keep using words like ‘tangy’ but I promise that this is such a yummy drink and one that pulls all of the sweetness out of this pink, citrusy, spring fruit. You will not be disappointed!

PS did you know that the grapefruit was named because it tends to grow in clumps, mimicking grapes but in trees? Also, my new favorite cocktail glasses are actually these candles when they cease to exist being candles. Double duty.

PPS the perfect lavender french toast to serve these with for a spring brunch. More good eats of all kinds, plus a night cocktail and an afternoon cocktail (just to round you out).

Random Thoughts: On Motherhood & Play

March 29, 2014 by Morgan

Let’s talk motherhood for a moment. I’m 3 years into this game and my world constantly changes. It’s not my day job or our diy home or the too-busy-of-a-schedule that we keep that keeps me on my toes. It’s being a mother that, on most days, I find most challenging and most exhausting.

It’s for all of the right reasons. It’s because it’s something that I’m rather new at. Everything is novel, every stage of development is mystifying and rewarding. Going about all of the phases a second time with Taylor feels much more manageable. But having two brings the novelty back!

I am, admittedly, not very great at imaginary play, which is very much a part of the stage of development we are in at this moment. I become too distracted by everything else I feel I should be doing. And I get bored. (Shhhhh… don’t tell anyone.) Because I like to live life on caffeine and at a very fast pace and cooking pretend soup or running a pretend school lesson for the 50th time in an hour is the opposite of that.

I feel the joy that Liv emanates when I become a part of her world though and that makes me warm and fuzzy inside, so I give in.

My ideal play time with the girls? Trips to explore, discover or create. It could be walking to our local park while examining the rocks, pinecones and flowers along the way, or the zoo where we talk about why flamingos are pink and monkeys live in trees (we have passes which makes it easy to ‘drop in’) or the Children’s Art Museum where ‘create’ is at the very core.

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More on motherhood that I’m reveling in at the moment…

6 words to say to your child
How one dad took his son’s pretend play to the next level (wow)
Developing a family culture (still trying to put into words what our family’s ‘charism’ is)
I think about being a working mom and I think about THIS book (weird, I know, but one of my favorites)
And because pretend play is really so great for developing the imagination, body and brain, here are 5 tricks to help embrace it

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What types of activities do you enjoy when it comes to your kids and play? Dressing up? Pirates and princesses? Long walks, art projects or science experiments? I’m always looking for new ideas.

PS more on motherhood on the blog here, and more random thoughts here.

PPS reader Sylvia created a beautiful gender reveal celebration for the newest member of her family based off of ours for T. She caught the highlights on camera in this sweet video, check it out.

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