May is a beautiful time of year. I feel so blessed to have such loveliness around my home and my wonderful husband who loves to garden (and is teaching me to love it too.)
Our Garden – May 2010
05/20/2010
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Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: garden | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Homework
05/19/2010Photography student Cristin Durning from Watkins College of Art & Design (my alma mater!) took some excellent photos of our home for a school project.
There are a few more on her portfolio website.
All photos © 2010 Cristin Durning.
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: cristin durning, photography, watkins | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Thank You…
05/18/2010
to Violet of Viva la Blogette for featuring one of the wedding invitation designs from my shop on her blog today!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: graphic design, Other | Tagged: etsy shop, thanks, wedding invitations | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Help Us Rebuild Nashville
05/18/2010Shortly after the catastrophic Nashville flood 2 weeks ago, a local graphic designer came up with a design for a t-shirt that she hoped to sell and put all the profits toward flood relief and clean-up. She partnered with a company called Render Apparel, which is co-owned by a friend of mine. The idea exploded via facebook and they’ve already sold more than 12, 000 shirts!
You may notice that I added a button on the left side of my blog that links back to Nashville Flood Tees. I realize not many people outside of Nashville will be interested in these, but I still wanted to spread the word. Buy one if you’d like to help rebuild us Nashville. They come in mens, womens, kids and baby onesies!
1 Comment | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: music | Tagged: charity, flood relief, Nashville, t-shirts | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Our Vegetable Garden – May 2010
05/17/2010A few weeks ago we had the first “harvest” from our vegetable garden: a handful of tiny, delicious strawberries. This weekend we shared our first small cherry tomato. Isn’t it cute? It was yummy.
The raised vegetable bed with 4 varieties of tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, brussel sprouts, arugula and romaine.
Baby green pepper:
Better Boy tomato plant:
Looking forward to these in a few weeks! Thanks to our greenhouses, we should have an early crop!
The herb garden:
Raspberry bush:
Peach tree:
Yesterday we bought two blueberry bush stems on clearances at Lowes. Not expecting any harvest this year but I’m looking forward to blueberries in the future!
I forgot to snap a picture of the Key Lime tree Jason bought a few days ago. We’re also considering adding some more fruit trees this year to make a mini orchard – maybe pear and fig. I’m so excited to have all these fruits and vegetables right from our own urban backyard!!
2 Comments | Art, Art: Cooking, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: fruit, orchard, tomatoes, vegetable garden | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Phone Photo Friday
05/14/2010
Cheating this week. This photo was actually taken by my friend Leila’s iPhone during our post-flood clean up last Friday. I was stuffed in her back seat with bags of dirty clothes and she thought it was pretty funny.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Eating Out: Drifters
05/13/2010
Drifters BBQ
1008-B Woodland St.
Nashville TN 37206
Dinner for Two: $15.27 + tip
Cuisine: pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw and baked beans, brisket with coleslaw and baked beans
Impression: Jason and I were pretty thrilled when a nice sit-down BBQ place opened up in East Nashville. The staff was very friendly. The food came out in 5 minutes … I guess that makes sense since good Southern barbeque requires hours and hours of cooking time. The brisket was delicious. Jason started picking pieces off my plate before I even took these [horrible, poorly lit, cell phone] photos. He said his pulled pork was also good. The server brought out a caddy of 5 kinds of barbeque sauces: Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, New Mexico and Drifter (a mix of TX & TN). We liked Texas the best but it was fun to be able to sample. NM was HOT, really HOT. The waiter wasn’t kidding! The baked beans were FABULOUS! I’ve never really been a fan of baked beans until I had homemade slow cooked beans made by my Arkansas/Lousianian friend Laren. These were just as good. (Why can’t they replicate that goodness in the canned variety?!)
Cost Saving Tips: The brisket plate that came with beans and coleslaw was something like $4 cheaper than the platter that came with bigger sides. The cheaper dinner was more than enough food. Additionally, we had just water with lemon to drink.
Come Again? Yummy, cheap, in the neighborhood, and maybe best of all, the kitchen is open LATE! Midnight Sun-Thurs and 4am on Fri & Sat. 4am!
Note: Paper plates and plasticware are because of the water conservation in effect in Nashville due to the recent flood.
2 Comments | Art, Art: eating out | Tagged: BBQ, date night, drifters, East Nashville, eating out | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Wise Words
05/12/2010
“But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior”
I like how it says when not if.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Babies
05/11/2010Tonight my mom and I went to see the movie Babies. On the way we talked about babies, getting pregnant, cooky baby names. It was a funny girls night. I wish my sister could have been with us!
The documentary was cute – lots of oohs and awes and chuckles at baby antics. If you delight in watching babies play and learn and interact, you’ll enjoy watching this. There is no plot or dialog so it’s tempting to keep whispering back and forth about this antic or that observation.
The style of documentary reminded me of March of the Penguins (I’m one of the few who enjoyed that movie and didn’t fall asleep watching it.) I’d recommend it for what it is.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Hope is Rising
05/10/2010
I took this picture because I was going to write a reflection on the kind of week I’ve had, based on the contents that I’ve been accumulating in my purse (rubber coated work gloves, bandaids, augmentin for dog bite injury, receipts for groceries, cleaning supplies and tools for our friends, medical tape, iron supplements, journal of thoughts on scrap paper, disaster area supplies list …) but the explanation of these items would sound like complaining. Perhaps discouraging.
And I was going to share about each of these photos
… something sad about my friend sorting through her drying photographs
…and why my husband is sleeping on a bare mattress
But the truth is, though it was a very difficult week, things are looking up around here. Energy levels are returning, the sun has been shining, smiles are back, there are blessings all around and plenty to be thankful about. The pain is not gone but there is a new level of joy coming. We’re going to be OK down here. 🙂
Thank you all for the prayers and encouraging words!
3 Comments | Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: hope, Nashville Flood | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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