Web Wanderings: Oh please May I?

Before I launch in to whatever this post is about to become, I have news.  Well micro news really.  I changed The Closet's Facebook from a timeline to a page.  I have no idea what exactly that means.  In retrospect, I probably should have figured that out before I did it.  

But then, I'm a do-er.

If you wouldn't mind clicking the like button below, I'd be most grateful.  And it may help me figure out how exactly this thing works...sigh.



I have two lists in my brain.  Well, I have millions of lists really, and the penguins that attempt to keep my thoughts organized have a very difficult time keeping up.  Did I tell you about the penguins?  No?  A story for another day, perhaps.

Anyway.

On one list are all the things we "have" to do.  I have the "have" in quotes, because really its all relative.  We don't "have" to get a new dishwasher- we could continue with the one we have that doesn't so much clean dishes as sterilizes them after I've cleaned them by hand (at least, I'm guessing they are sterilized because putting an actually dirty dish in our dishwasher results in very warm dirty dish after the cycle has run its course).  We don't "have" to cut down the old dead tree in our side yard that shed a limb in a storm a few months back that put a ding in my audi, but I must have my revenge. I don't have to turn the guest room in to a craft room, but I would like to get my sewing machine off the dining room table.  You get the idea.  First World Have-Tos, I suppose.

The other list are the things I would like to have (to do or to get), but can't justify their actual purchase/completion.  Not entirely impractical fantasy things.  No sunken aquariums in the kitchen floor or hidden bookcase/doorways in the library (although that would be sort of cool) type things. 

Any other Young Frankenstein fans out there? Cinemagraph

Just cool things, pretty things, love-r-ly things that all things being equal and a lottery being won & I could go back to teaching part-time I would totally get/do.  Maybe.  

And since this is Yes You May, I thought I'd do Oh Please May I web wanderings for the month with links to all the things.

And not entirely materialistic things, just in case you thought I had drifted off into a consumer reality (although face it, I'm an American & consumerism is kind of our job). Some will be projects or how tos that I would love to get in to, but like the other items on the list, I can't justify the time to learn it or the expense of starting it right now.

Enjoy & mind the penguins!


1. We have a basement.  It floods & is totally impractical for human habitation, but it is a basement none-the-less.  And being a basement, it has stairs that lead down to it-- very dodgy, not to be trusted stairs covered in carpeting that used to be a sort of dirty beige when we first moved in and is now grayish brown.  For a while we toyed with the idea of putting in a spiral staircase, but they seemed a bit expensive when the main purpose would be to go down in to a basement that isn't fit for anything other than storage.  Given a perfect world, we'd waterproof the cinder-block, then put in a gorgeous staircase.  Like one of these...

There are 101 pictures of spiral madness here on The Web Urbanist.  Go ahead, check 'em out...and I dare you to not get dizzy~*

2.  I've spoken before about my love of cottage gardens.  My mom is the most wonderful gardener & has created some of the most beautiful gardens that tread that line between carefully cultivated and naturally unrestrained.  I did not inherit her abilities.  I struggle to keep the little strip of a flower garden we have alive every summer.  I also just figured out that the vine that was growing so prettily along the brick in the front of our house is actually poison ivy.  Sigh.

Anyway.

Given the time & the fundage, I'd love to have a professional landscaper come out here, tear up the odd assortment of bushes the previous owner randomly stuck in front of the house and design a cottage garden for us.  And then pay a gardener to keep up with it.  Anything like this would do nicely.

Tracey Williams has put together a beautiful pinterest of cottage garden dreaminess.  I'm following it.  Because I'm a cottage garden stalker.  Get it?  Stalker.  Like plant stalks.  

3. All the preserves at the farmer's market last weekend got me to thinking about home canning again.  I've been wanting to give it a try.  Growing up in California meant that fruit and vegetables never really went out of season-- things were either available year round, or were replaced by other goodies when they went out of season so you didn't really notice their absence.  Up here in the mountains of Tennessee, where we most definitely have seasons, local organic fruits & veggies  disappear for months at a time.  We already stockpile sauces made from fresh tomatoes and pestos from fresh herbs-- canning seems the next logical step.  
Plus home preserved foods look so pretty.  Like the cupboard has burst in to a yummilicious rainbow of goodies~*



I've had this instructable on canning bookmarked for a while now. Maybe this will be the year... 

With that long introduction, I'll leave my links to 3 for today.  Look for 5 or more next week-- and if you have found any Please May Is of your own, be sure to add a link in the comments!