Kitchen Details.....

Kitchen in The Mushroom House CO via Pinterest 

Kitchen details via Tessa Payne Flickr

Kitchen shelves

Kitchen details via Pinterest

Kitchen details via collier west

Kitchen detail, via Design Sponge

When the dream of buying a home became a realty, I was so excited about the prospect of building my dream kitchen. I was inspired by the years of pretty pictures I had collected for Moon to Moon. I wanted to replace the cupboards with beautiful rustic wooden shelves that would house my jars of spices, brown rice and mismatched blue and terracotta crokery, and I would spend time looking for that perfect vintage style fridge, paint it turquoise and have it overlook a herb garden :)

In reality I do not have a big budget, and annoying things like replacing the front door and getting the heating properly installed is sadly now more of a priority. But that kitchen still needs sorting.

The kitchen is such an important room to me, I want to be inspired to cook homemade soups, spout beans and seeds, bake bread and enjoy being in there when I do so. So I am focusing on the details. Details that dont have to cost a fortune, like a buying a terracotta pot (bottom photo) and planting herbs that I frequently use, displaying some of my pretty jars and containers on the work surface (this will also disguise my awful pink flowery granny tiles until I can replace them),  hanging up my nicest mugs and pans and of course growing my avocado tree. Slowly but surely this kitchen will be great , but on a budget, ebay, etsy and charity shops are my new best friends

xx Gabi xx

How to Grow an Avocado tree....

Avocado tree via Flickr

Who doesn't love Avocado? Sliced on toast with ripe vine tomatoes, a little lemon juice and salt... Mmmmmm, Heaven!! I eat so many of these a week and the Pod goes straight into the compost, but I have a jar, some cocktail sticks and just found some instructions to grow my own tree.

I have been told that I probably wont get any avocado from it, but it is worth a go, and they are pretty trees...

Here are the directions I will be following, if anyone has any handy pointers please comment below.

Directions:

• Wash all the flesh off the pit, pat dry and set aside for a couple days.
• After the drying time, remove the skin and insert 3 toothpicks 1/2″ deep into the pit equally distant from each other around the fattest part (circumference).
• Suspend in a dark glass (pointy side up) with the toothpicks resting on the rim of the glass.
• Fill the glass with water until the bottom 1/3 of the pit is submerged.
• Place glass in a sunny spot. Change water every two days so there’s fresh water instead of stagnant.
• Once you have a 6 inch stem with a couple leaves (this will take several weeks), cut the stem down to 3 inches.
• Wait several more weeks until you have a few stems with leaves, you’re then ready to plant. The roots should now be about 2″ long.
• Taking a 10″ diameter pot, fill with good, well draining potting soil (sandy mix works great). Removing the toothpicks, plant the pit roots down (pointy end and stems up), the top of it should be level with the soil surface.
• When soil is dry, water. Feed regularly with houseplant food once or twice a month.
• If the leaves turn yellow, you’re watering it too much. If leaves turn brown, you’re not watering enough. If it looks sickly, make sure you’re feeding it.
• If you want a bushy tree, pinch the leaves after it grows every 6 inches.
• Can be left outside during the summer months.

Directions from TipNUt

Halona Glass: Terrariums and Sun Catchers

Twiggy Levy from Halona Glass

Halona Glass studio: image from No guts No Glory

Halona Glass: 666 Prism Terrarium

Halona Glass: Small Geodesic Topper

Halona Glass: Stretched Simple Arrow Tail

Halona Glass is the Studio of Twiggy Levy based in Brooklyn. I fell for the 666 Prism Terrarium after seeing a picture of it on tumblr and have been on the hunt for the photo credit for months. It is one of my new years resolutions to get myself a terrarium and maybe one of those Arrow tails.

Hope you are all having a happy new year

xx gabi xx

For more posts about planters and terrariums click here