What are you doing this weekend?  I am participating in an ancient ceremony tonight….as part of another new Studio ‘g’ column.  I am excited to introduce it and the columnist who will be creating it, to you on Monday!  Until then, here are a few links…..

• As a certifiable list keeper, this, from one of my favorite writers,  charms me.
• I’ve seen alot of this kind of thing lately…..tell me, do you think it is a trend in floral design?
• No more Latin!!
• I was reminded of this post today — and it still makes me smile.
• A planter DIY that I need to try soon.
• I have been obsessed with Bug Houses this week….I also wrote about them on Apartment Therapy this week.
• And I thought my grandparents grew up in a Black and White world?  Love seeing it in color.
• Clever idea for standing around (rather than sitting around) the garden.

(image of pretty bug habitat from urban hedgerow)

I have this sort of funny potential opportunity.  I has to do with a piece of land, a generous architect, and a farmers market – but that is all I will say about it for now.  But this opportunity has me thinking about buildings that communities or even individuals can build for little in the way of time and physical resources.

Coincidentally, a friend posted a link on Facebook about Jon Jandai.  This is his thing:

“Before I thought that stupid people like me … cannot have a house… because people who are cleverer than me and get a job need to work for 30 years to have a house. But for me, who cannot finish university, how can I have a house. It’s hopeless for people who have low education like me. But when I start to do earthen buildings, it’s so easy! I spent two hours per day… and in 3 months I have a house. A friend who was the most clever in the class he has a house too but he has to be in debt for 30 years, so compared to him I have 29 years and 10 months of free time. I feel life is so easy.“

Jon runs Pun Pun an organic farm (in Thailand), seed-saving operation, and sustainable living and learning center. At Pun Pun they use ancient natural building techniques with readily available, local, natural materials with little embodied energy and salvaged materials to make homes, a practical and affordable alternative to resource intensive conventional building.

One thought leads to another and now I am all hopped up on cool images of earthen buildings; thinking that I can perhaps brooch this subject with the generous architect for the potential project, but at the very least, I can research this for the basis of some garden construction that I would like to do around here (namely of the glasshouse variety).

Check all these out and then try not to be similarly intrigued.

Images from a Gallery of American Natural Homes and even more from Natural Homes.

While I am still hoping to one day re-use all the old windows that were littered around my house and property when we bought this place to make a quirky glass house (similar to these),  I am nonetheless intrigued by the possibility of these (outdoor grade) window part tables created  by designers Damien Hamon and Olivier Papet.  Le Tabouret (which means stool in English) is a stool or table constructed of cut-up window frames from chateaux, country cottages and paris apartments. (très romantique!)

It’s generating lots of ideas for my own version of this type of table.

Images from Outdoorz gallery.

I thought this was a nice modern sleek way to update a campground hand me down.  Plus, the chalkboard paint also gives lots of opportunites for embellishment….that are easily washed away with the garden hose.

Images and idea from Thinking with My Heart

Have you been to Brimfield?  It is a HUGE antiques fair in Massachusetts that happens three times per year.   I find the place utterly overwhelming and without a plan of attack, a day there exhausts and puts me into a state of utter mental overload.   I attended the most recent fair with a plan for Leaf Magazine.  We have a story in our upcoming first issue about trends that we saw there.   So with a mission in mind I was ok for most of the day to stay focussed andpurposeful.

But that meant that personal shopping was out of the question.   I think it is an extraordinary mind that can go to a place like Brimfield and actually be creative and imaginative in the face such excess and stimulation.  Personally, I need a list (a tool with which to focus) – which I am starting now for the spring visit.  It will include vintage linen tea towels — because I just plain love them, but also because I think that a cushion collection such as these:

are the perfect kind of pillows for my garden chairs, or the chairs of a porch… or really lots of places.

(these were  found via Steph Bond at Bondville and were created by Morgan Wills — there are still a couple left for sale at her site)

It’s only a couple of weeks now until Leaf magazine is scheduled to launch and my simultaneous excitement and panic are both mounting. We have spent so much time and effort putting this together, but we have also poured ourselves into it.  It seems like it will be impossible to know when it is ready to go out the door to be shared with all of you.  I am, at the same time, wanting more people to read it – hopefully ensuring its longevity and success, but also hoping no-one does, because I have an unrelenting fear that it will never be quite ready.  Of course I can see the parallels with all sorts of big life moments, and I know it never will be perfect, because nothing ever is, but it will be great.

So I have been starting to think about all the things I have been putting on the back burner for the last few months – my mounting list of house and garden projects among them.   Did I mention we are building a deck? Well, we were building a deck until we hit ledge about 8 inches below ground right were some footings really need to go.  I was trying to figure out a work around but that has been sidelined (due to weather and Leaf) and now I have multiple 12′ long sonotubes in my garage that I have to dodge every time I pull my car in.   Surrounding this future-deck is a whole lot of planting that I am excited to re-design.  At the moment it is an odd and not entirely successful mix of plants that are either remnants of when it was shady (and now it is quite sunny with the removal of a few trees), the typical clients cast offs, and new things that ultimately need to find a permanent home —  but who are just biding their time waiting for the deck project to be done so they can be re-situated.

Amongst all of this is my current herb garden.  I have been needing an herb garden change-up for a while.  It is arguably the most used thing in my garden as the herbs I grow (two types of thyme, two types of sage, lemon balm, oregano, rosemary, mint, tarragon, basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, lavender, bee balm, and lemon grass) make their way into my kitchen on a daily basis.   It’s just not as organized and as handy as I would like it to be.  In all my recent magazine examining and  studying, I came across a great download at Gardens Illustrated (I can only hope that Leaf turns out to be half as good as that magazine).   Jekka McVicar put together this plan for a beautiful herb garden — something that I think is a bit of a trick.   It features a slew of plants that I don’t currently grow and is providing me the template and inspiration for my new herb garden — which I will plan in earnest — once the magazine is launched, and that deck is finished….and things generally settle down a bit.

At least I have a good collection of savory plants to get me through the winter, because I just don’t see it happening before then.