I Want This!

I Want This is going to be a new "segment" of my blog with no purpose other than showing things I've found that I want!!! For some of these items, I may end up breaking down and buying them, but most of these are just dreams........

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I found this Etsy seller through HGTV's Design Blog (of course), and I love these pieces!!

The Etsy store is "Hammermann" and they have beautiful spoons and and other items.

This is an Antique Spoon Garden Marker. Here are others:

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While sitting in a doctor's office waiting room the other day, I was perusing through a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.  I ran across an article about succulents and a garden shop in Santa Cruz, CA called DIG that creates amazing planters with succulents.  Here are some of my favorites.

This is a concrete top table that was broken in half and has steel legs.  Pebbles were glued in to keep in soil, and succulents were planted to create an amazing planted strip in this table.

These are orbs that start with sphagnum moss and have succulents planted around the moss.  This is an amazing living decoration.

This is a beautiful living picture of succulents in a frame.  Learn how to make this frame here! 

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The last site led me in the direction of living walls... may sound kind of weird, but these things are amazing. I want a house covered in them. It makes it look like you live in a jungle.  Most of my browsing was done on Urban Zeal's site and Living Walls and Vertical Gardens' site.  

These are outdoor living walls.

I am obsessed with this one. I love the pattern and the colors!

There are also indoor living walls.  Some are used for purely aesthetic reasons and others serve more of a practical purpose.

These two living walls are used in the kitchen area to grow vegetables and herbs.

Look! Listen!

I recently found out about this absolutely amazing and creative artist.  Her site is this go-round's Funky Site! I am blown away by her work, and I am so incredibly jealous and inspired and intrigued. I am totally smitten! The artist's name is Erika Iris Simmons. Through her site you can get to her flickr account and her blog. Check her out.........

 This is from her "Ghost in the Machine" collection where she uses cassette tapes to create portraits (Jimi Hendrix pictured).

Here she uses strips of paper from Oscar Wilde's book "The Picture of Dorian Gray" to create his portrait.

This is a portrait of Beethoven made out of his own sheet music. 

Here she uses the "guts" of a baseball and it looks amazing.  

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There is beautiful flow and movement in her art. She uses everyday found objects and creates amazing pieces out of them.  She is an incredible artist and I'm in total awe of her!

Hail Birmingham!

Sometime in mid-June this year it was raining and all of a sudden the rain sounded really loud. We opened our porch door and hail was flying down at about a 45 degree angle.  Here are a couple pictures of the hail.  

This is hail at the bottom of my elephant ear plant, which got pelted by the hail! Each leaf had 5-10 holes in it from the hail - they flew clean through them like bullets and left clean circular holes.  

Homemade Peach Salsa

I picked up almost all the ingredients I needed at the Birmingham Farmers Market - Clanton peaches, tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos.  I just had to get limes and cilantro.  I used 3 ripe peaches, 4 tomatoes, 1/2 an onion, 2-3 jalapenos, seeded and chopped, 1 clove or 1 tbsp. garlic, 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, and 4-5 tbsp. lime juice.  Cut peaches and tomatoes into small pieces and add together in a large bowl (you can kind of smash up the peaches and tomatoes if you want). Then add rest of ingredients.  Add to taste: salt, pepper, and/or honey.  

Downtown Birmingham

I took these at the McWane Science Center in downtown Birmingham and on the walk there.  I work just a couple of blocks from this beautiful church and about five blocks further is the McWane Center.  

This is St. Paul's Cathedral on the corner of 3rd Ave. N and 22nd St. N in downtown. 

This is an exhibit at the McWane center where you make impressions in large walls of plastic pegs.  I thought this one was amazing. It looks like trapped souls!! It reminds me of the movie The Haunting. 

Montgomery, Alabama

I went to Montgomery for the Southern Poverty Law Center's 40th Anniversary Celebration on April 30.  It was an amazing and inspiring event and was held all round Dexter Ave. and historic Montgomery landmarks like Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. once was the pastor.  I snapped a couple of quick shots with my iPhone and here they are :)

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. 

Right down the street from Dexter Ave. Baptist Church is the Montgomery Capitol building.

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Montgomery is a really nice city and is an easy hour and a half from me. I also get to stop by Durbin Farms in Clanton, AL on my way home, which has great food, ice cream and produce!