Inspiration Thursday! Do you have a great idea?

Apparently there's a new reality show in town. Or there's going to be. I'm not sure.

The first I heard of this company called Quirky was through a friend who'd posted an article - "Quirky: The Solution to the Innovator's Dilemma". She'd posted Entrepreneur Magazine's profile of the company and it's owner on FB. It's an amazing article for people who dream big dreams, but have no idea how to make them a reality.

Quirky was founded by Ben Kaufman, a young man who had invented a set of headphones in college and worked his way through the process of getting them produced and sold. Having gone through the pain - and the investment - of getting an invention into the market, he saw an opportunity for a business. Quirky helps other inventors get their products to market. You have the idea, bring it to the Quirky masses, they vote on their favorites and the top pick gets put into production once a certain number of people pledge that they'll buy the product. The catch? Since Quirky is investing the money in the design and production phases, they take a cut in the profits. The good thing for inventors, though, is that you see your product come to life and you too get a cut in the profits.

To learn a little more, you can see the Sundance Channel's new show about the company on Hulu or you can wait for the premiere on the 30th. This first episode follows the design and production of two products. One of those products  - Pivot Power - is estimated to pull in roughly $125,000 this year for the inventor. He's a recently-graduated design student who thought $10,000 was a lot of money! I'm hoping this is the first of many of these shows.

So what about you? Do you have a great idea whose time has come? Well, get submitting already!

**Photo is from Quirky.com - check it out!!

DIY Monday: Estate Sale Score Re-do

I subscribe to the email list of a local Estate Sale company and most weeks I faithfully check their website's "Current Sales" page to see what's coming at the weekend. I spent a good bit of last week in great anticipation of the sale last weekend. You see, not all estate sales are created equally.

Some estate sales are clean and pristine. Someone's already gone through the house and picked through. There are no piled up closets, no hidden cubby holes filled with newspaper and boxes, no spidery basements with wooden crates of stuff in these clean and pristine houses. They may have a few pieces of china and silver and crystal, but they don't necessarily speak to my treasure hunting heart.

This past weekend, however, my MIL (who is also a treasure hunter at heart) and I hit the gold standard of estate sales. It was a sale with a garage filled with boxes, trunks and crates that were, in turn, filled with everything a treasure hunter would want. It was a house with linens galore. It was a house with cubbys and closets full of stuff. A cook, a reader, a collector who had traveled - a treasure hunter's dream.

I was in the last room when I saw them. In fact, I saw a stack of them walking out the door and kicked myself for not getting there even 30 minutes earlier because the price was fantastic. But then, when digging through vintage clothing in the closet, I found them... two of them: vintage metal card catalog files.

I've been looking for a vintage set of these for years with no luck. Granted I've been looking for wooden versions, but what I've found have ranged in price from $800 to $3,000. And here in front of me was a set of 30 for $12. TWELVE DOLLARS!

After controlling my hyperventilating, I found my MIL and explained that if I left these here I'd never forgive myself (upon which she insisted we get them), we found help to get them to the car, quickly paid for them and hauled them home to try and convince my husband of their value.

Although I'm perfectly happy with the set - or would be after wiping them down a little - the hubby isn't happy with the color and insists we paint them. Since I'm not worried about the value of these babies (like I'm ever going to get rid of them), I agreed. But after nixing brown, we've settled on a blue/green... or as blue/green as I can get in a spray paint. I'll show you the steps in the next couple weeks! I'm hoping hubby will forgive me when they're done!

Foodie Friday: Grits Y'all

Since we're talking Southern food lately, I thought I'd give y'all a tip on making grits. The key to making good grits is to use milk instead of water. Mama still uses instant grits, but she makes them with milk to make them creamier!

Just use the portions listed on the side of the box substituting milk for water and stirring constantly as the milk heats (so it doesn't stick or scorch). Pour in your grits and stir until they're done (again, check the box for how long it should take). Put in a pat of butter and you've got some kind of delicious!

DIY Monday: Dreaming up a design

One of the hardest things to do in creating a design can be visualizing how the finished design will look. Some are gifted with a clear vision while others can only see the full picture when the design is finished. Some people buy architectural or design magazines and tear out pictures that they like. Others may search the book aisle at their local home improvement or the design section at Barnes and Noble to find inspiration. Still others may go straight to the source - the cabinet maker, the tile store, the appliance section, or even a craft fair - to get that spark that fires design.

I recently found a site that's helped me with a design. It's called Houzz. My husband and I have been arguing over a project. I see clearly how it should be done, but no matter how much I've drawn it out and explained the steps, he can't see enough to be comfortable to move forward with the design. So I've spent some time perusing the pictures on Houzz, adding to my photo ideabook to somehow convey that this design idea will WORK in our space. It's a wonderful tool to get design ideas and get comfortable with your design ideas. Now on to trying to convince the husband that this dream can become a reality on our DIY budget! You'll know soon!

Foodie Friday: Southern Cooking

Y'all know what country ham is? Or side meat? Unfortunately, I do. And even more unfortunately I find it delicious.

One of my most pleasant memories of my grandparents' house is waking up to a good old Southern breakfast. Daddy Doug (my grandfather) would wake us up just in time to grab biscuits (made with lard) hot out of the oven. He'd have been up cooking up some country ham, eggs, biscuits, red-eye gravy and oatmeal (that he would later douse with sugar, cream and butter). Talk about a feast!

We'd have a difficult choice to make. You see biscuits could hold some ham, be covered in molasses or homemade jam OR be drizzled with red-eye gravy. And because I'd bet many of you don't know what this is much less how you'd make it, I'm here to oblige.

After you fry up your country ham, pour off the grease from the pan (my uncle keeps this fat to season other cooking). You should have little bits and pieces of ham "drippings" left in your pan. Pour in some water - enough to completely cover the surface with extra depth left over. Put the pan back on the heat and stir the mixture until it comes to a boil. Allow it to simmer until the water turns the color of the drippings. You then pour it into a dish or serve over biscuits.


I know, I know: heart attack on a stick. But oh so good!

P.S. Daddy Doug lived to be 87 years old and his wife lived to 90!

Inspiration Thursday! The lessons of a garden.

It's hot as you know where around here and has been for what seems like weeks. Living in a condo, I've tried to re-create my Mother's garden in containers, but my poor plants just aren't surviving in all this heat. Sometimes no matter how much I water, the plants just don't make it.

Growing up, we had a gardener's paradise in our backyard. Our yard had once been a park, so we had a 100 year old hydrangea tree we could climb, an 8 foot tall lilac tree and flame azaleas that created a kind of fence around the yard's border. We had huge clumps of peonies and daffodils that announced the spring. There was a fish pond flanked by bowing rhododendron that when drained made a lovely "house". Stone paths wended their way through carpets of forget-me-nots, blue violets and grape hyacinth through the summer. Many summer afternoons were spent picking handfuls of violets for Mama - they didn't last more than an hour, but she would always carefully put them in a little vase and place them in her kitchen window so she could see them as she cooked.

In the midst of this,  Mama had a rock garden. Her vision was a sustainable perennial garden full of wildflowers. For years we worked to get the soil just right, the sun just right, the water just right. We'd get a beautiful clump of butterfly weed or black eyed Susan going and it would flourish for years, only to die after a particularly difficult winter. We had a lovely patch of pinks that grew on a rock for five or six years, but that too is now gone. As I'm facing the frustration of trying to keep my container flowers alive, I'm reminded of all those years in Mama's garden and the lessons I learned.

First, there's a time and a season. As much as I love the peonies and emperor iris, they don't bloom all year long. They burst in spring with their heady fragrance, riot of color and delicate petals, but the hot sun of summer is too much for their fragile hearts. They bring so much joy in their short season, but their life cycle always ends too soon for me.

Second, sometimes you have to persevere when the odds are against you. Every year, we'd start that garden with high hopes. We'd take our meager budget and pick out a few new perennials to add to our garden hoping they'd thrive, but knowing most of our good work didn't make it through the winter. Still, we faithfully weeded, dug the dirt, added the fertilizer and cared for them through one glorious season. We found the joy in doing when we didn't know whether we'd succeed in the long term.

Third, sometimes it's all in the dirt in which you're planted. Mama loves butterfly weed. Even now, we play "spot the butterfly weed" as we drive across the state. You'll see huge clumps of these vibrant orange flowers in the most bizarre places - rocky outcroppings, up the sunny side of a mountain or even growing out of gravel on the side of the road. Somehow these plants seem to thrive in these terrible, rocky soils. But put butterfly weed in a cultivated garden with rich soil, water and careful tending and it just doesn't seem to make it. We could never get it to thrive no matter how hard we tried. It came down to where you put your roots.

Mama's still working toward her dream. When I was home this spring we went again to the nursery to pick out some foxglove, delphinium and lavender. I weeded the garden to ready the soil for her planting. And even now she's struggling to keep the garden lush in August's heat. But Mama knew - because her Mother taught her too - the lessons of digging in the dirt. And I'm thankful she passed them on to me.

Vintage Wednesday: Finding your passion.

Mama's got a new passion. I can't blame her because it's a passion of mine too. She's started collecting Van Briggle pottery - in Ming blue. And she's taught me a couple things as she's pursued this passion.

It started with the vase above (nestled among another of her collections). She knew it was Van Briggle. She liked the color. She liked the flower (a columbine). She got the vase, and started a new collection.

She found that this particular color was inspired by Chinese pottery. Founder Artus Van Briggle was interested in Chinese glazes - particularly the dead glaze process used during the Ming Dynasty. Ming blue is a color you'll see in all the decades of Van Briggle pottery. Some collectors note you can guess at the decade in which the pottery is produced by the highlights (or lack thereof) made by the darker blue overglaze.

Whether the color of the Colorado sky or inspired by ancient Chinese art, I'm sure it's inspired passion in many a collector's heart.

DIY Monday: Wedding Planning

Another friend has asked me to help with their wedding, but this time they need help with more than just the flowers. I thought I'd use the DIY space to lay out some of the things you need to think about with DIY wedding planning.

I find when I'm planning that it helps to visualize the ceremony and reception to help you think through the process. Since I'm not doing the actual ceremony, I don't have to think about those details. I'm left with the actual reception site.

After you've secured your date and determined your reception site, you might be lucky enough to have someone at the site to help you coordinate. If you're doing this in a back yard or random building lobby, however, you might not have that critical help. If that's the case, I might be able to help you think through a couple things.

First, visualize yourself walking through the reception. What do you see?

I'd start with tables. Are there tables available? How many will you need? How will you decorate them? Will you need to rent china and silverware? How about linens? Chairs?

Start by determining the number of people you think will be at the reception. I've never been to a wedding reception in which all the people invited show up, but I've heard of receptions that had people show up uninvited. Plan on a lesser number of people than you invite (I used 80%) and finalize that number when you've received your replies. Any vendor I've ever worked with has been accommodating with respect to planning and numbers.

Map out the number of guests that can sit at a table - ask the rental company to help you with this. There are different sizes of tables that can seat a different number of people. Ask them to help you determine what size and how many you'll need. The number of chairs will follow from this decision.

Then, think about what those tables will look like. What color tablecloth will you use? What about glasses, plates and silverware? One place setting - including dinner and dessert plate for a simple wedding. Salt and pepper shakers? At least one per table. Do you want a runner or overskirt? Some brides like to layer their tables to add color. Often brides like to coordinate the wedding colors with the reception decorations - including the flowers on the tables.

Make sure you've left room for food tables if you're doing a buffet. Food tables look better if you have a flower arrangement on them. And if you're doing the food yourself, you'll need to rent chafing dishes to serve the food.

Don't forget a table for the cake. You'll also need a knife to cut and serve as well as dessert plates and forks specially for the cake service.

You might want to decorate the reception site. That could include table decorations or flowers. It might also include favors at each place setting. What about votive candles? Think about whether you want place cards for your guests. Will you have a DJ or live music? Do you want space for dancing? How about someone to stand with your gifts if people bring gifts to the reception site?

These are some of the questions you should consider when planning a reception. Next week, I'll talk about another aspect of planning a wedding - the flowers.