Seeds of Love

This is a photo from last summer before we installed the pool. The yard had already been cleared most of the way by Collin's dad one afternoon when he was visiting and bored (thanks, Craig). Still, weeds weeds weeds everywhere.

This is a photo from a couple weekends ago after we took down the pool and started working on digging up the last of the weeds and roots. Potato vines are the worst; the thorns somehow get sharper and more numerous the deeper you go. Some of those ended up about 5 feet long but we dug out some other nuisance roots that were over 7 feet long! I've also been treating the yard for fire ants periodically over the past year and consistently for the past month or so. There are still ant hills that crop up here and there. Oh, and there was a nice surprise of swarming carpenter ants on the garage wall near the hose. I have no mercy for poisonous insects - they were promptly and thoroughly poisoned. We also have a hefty bucket full of rocks ranging in size from <1" to >15 lbs. Other inorganic items we found buried in the yard: a full size fast-food tray about half a foot deep, and old-school home made label from 1983, a t-shirt, several pieces of broken glass and bottles, a razor head, and lots of random plastic film.

This past Saturday, to celebrate 6-months-married (already?!), we finished the job. Our landlord is awesome and gave us a generous budget with which to purchase supplies for landscaping the yard. We still have plenty of money left to add more to the back and even re-do the front yard too. The front will have to wait a couple weeks but I'm excited for things to look good. Working on a project like this is so much better when we can do it together, we're a good team. And planting a garden together is, for me at least, pretty darn sweet.

I researched good plants for our area and walked around the Lowe's garden center taking notes on my favorite flowers and vines. I saw a lot of plants from my yard growing up and, naturally, quite a few wound up on our cart. I know these plants grow well in our hot, humid summers and the drought conditions that somehow combine with hurricane season. Things like angel trumpet flowers, jasmine, and liriope.

Here's collin raking in the good stuff before we plant the border. There are some really huge wild hibiscus plants along the back fence that we opted to keep. Mostly because it was going to be impossible to dig them out without some kind of power tool. They also are pretty. In the late summer they like to bloom bright red drop flowers. We cut them back so much a few weeks ago when we started working on things. They've already grown so much - I think we'll have a lot more trimming to do throughout the season.

This is the back fence line, where we planted flowers and shrubs exclusively. It was so bright when I took some of these, I doubt you can really make out the individual plants too well. On the left though, you can see the jessamine vine that will hopefully crawl all over the fence. That along with the passion flower vine and two kinds of jasmine! I was able to save the longest roots and tie them together to make natural arching trellis for all the vines.

The finished product, including fire pit. We reserved the left side of the fence for a few flowers and all the vegetables. The whole yard is bright, but I wanted to make sure that the little guys don't get burned this summer so the shadow created by the fence line should do the trick. In the ground are tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, yellow crooked-neck squash, zucchini, watermelons, basil, mint, and onions! We saved the jasmine for this side of the fence. I know it will get big eventually and once the veggies are done, or after we move on and they are neglected, the jasmine will keep that side beautiful. We also spread out grass seed on the lawn. I can't wait to see it start sprouting - really I can't wait to break out the lawn chair and get some sun with a bbq going and a cold drink in my hand.

So, who wants to come to the eventual garden party? This yard is going to be perfect for enjoying friends, cooking outside, and eventually playing with our new pup. The pup who was, in part, our motivation for landscaping the yard. We wanted to make sure the lawn and garden were well-established before letting a dog back there. Plus, we wanted a nice place for us to play together; one that wasn't full of thorny vines and fire ants and broken glass.
As sore as I still am, it was a wonderful day.

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make it hot

ENAMELING!

This is my attempt at motivating myself to start making things with my hands again.
Maybe sometime this weekend I can get a few hours in on this puppy. I was having problems with heating last time I fired her up, but I hope the problem is either gone or can be fixed easily.
Let's hope I don't have to order any parts or anything.
I'd like to start working with the "watercolor" enamels I got for Christmas and maybe make a sweet little dish or two.

My "studio" (what was once our dining room table, since the wedding I've moved my workspace to the spare room desk)


Lumps of hard glass enamel make shiny smooth dots and swirls.




Taken during the fourth firing on this piece - melting lumps at 1500F. When they're smooth and molten, I stick a long sharp tool through that little opening and drag it through the melted glass.


Et, voila! It comes out like this:



This is another one I made that night. The two biggest pieces yet. They're about 8" wide and because my kiln is so stout, I couldn't enamel the back. It still looked sweet though, and I painted some varnish on the back to seal the copper fire scaling.



Her are more pieces that I made as gifts for those of us who helped us so tremendously during the wedding. Hopefully they're all being displayed with love in their new homes.







I don't like the idea of the little initials on there so much anymore. I think if I start making these for reals I want to have some other kind of non-alpha marking to brand them. A specific color swirl or dot combo? Another metal piece but twisted into a shape of sorts. A number?
Maybe I could number all the pieces I do, big and small, and that could be their name identity.

I hope that someday I can make a little extra money selling these on etsy. People love their copper enamel jewelry over there and I have found very few people selling larger pieces like mine. Certainly none with swirl and cloisonee work. Walking the Spring Arts Festival this year I wished I could build up an inventory to sell like that. Perhaps sometime this year I can do art walk in St. Augustine, or here in Gainesville?
Someday, maybe.
I always have to remind myself to start small, and keep loving what I do. No need to turn this into a chore.
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The Luck of the Irish

You probably don't know that Collin and I are ridiculously scotch-irish, but we are.
With a surname like McLeod, it's pretty much given away. I've always felt lucky that Collin's last name allowed me to still represent part of my heritage after our marriage. It's probably a big part of why the decision to change my name was so easy to make.

I do consider myself a generally lucky person. Come on, my cat is even named Lucky! Celebrating St. Patrick's day was a yearly tradition for both of us. Growing up two blocks from my paternal grandparents meant I got to go for a dinner of corned beef and cabbage, carrots and potatoes. Nothing fancy, just dinner as usual - but somehow special. Really I'm just another white American girl. But on St. Patrick's day I can remember that of the many families that make up my tree, most hail from the same corner of the globe.







That photo is us two years ago. Yes, I did just erase that last sentence after looking at the file name again to see that it was indeed from 2007. More and more it seems I am reminded of how fast time passes and small the world really is.
That year, Collin's parents took us on vacation to Epcot for a day with a night in a nice hotel before hand. Now, we're in Gainesville so it's not really that much of a trip but any time spent at Disney is what I call a vacation. Epcot is totally my favorite Disney park. I know, you say, "it's boring" but no way! The World Showcase is amazing, and Future World has its finer parts. I went on "Living With The Land" (a ride inside - you guessed it - "The Land") for the first time on that trip and they have the most amazing hydroponic fruit and vegetable gardens. Big trellised pumpkins trained into a Mickey-head shape, canopies of tomatoes and conveyor belts of organic herbs.
Good fun, that trip.
We spent lunch time in the UK of the World Showcase and ate such things as pasties, pastry-topped meat stew, and plenty of green beers.
Thankfully Erin and I thought ahead and made reservations.
I say "thankfully" because food will always play a big part in my celebrating St. Patrick's day. I'm not sure if I only make these dishes once a year because I only crave them around this time or if it's because I want to keep them really special.
Last year was a dinner for two; a quiet night at home after work.
This year was a party!
My fellow Irish lady Rachel (former roommate and actual Ireland traveler) helped me put together a feast for our friends. This past weekend was incredibly fun. Cooking and sharing food with people we love, that's all I need.



The menu for the night was delicious! I have to say, we were pretty creative in altering some recipes to make them party friendly. Things started later than dinner time so that the night could run late and give those working enough time to join us. Traditional whole corned beef and steamed cabbage wasn't going to work too well. I'm not sure how appetizing all of that would be to those who didn't grow up with it either. Instead, we came up with this:

Savory

Shepherd's Tarts
corned beef and peas in pastry shells, topped
with mashed potatoes

Cabbage Hand-Pies
pastry pockets filled with cabbage, potatoes and mushrooms

Reuben Braidscorned beef, sauerkraut, 1000 island dressing and
irish blarney cheese in a braided crescent roll dough

Herbed Cheese and Crackers
okay, not Irish in any way - but tasty!


Sweet

Banoffee Pie
toffee and fresh sliced banana in a graham crust, topped with
banana pudding and fresh unsweetened whipped cream

Shamrock Sugar Cookies

a not-too sweet sugar cookie with royal icing

Car Bomb Cupcakesguinness chocolate cupcakes filled with Scotch whiskey ganache,

topped with a Bailey's Irish buttercream frosting
Edits were made to this recipe from smittenkitchen


Drink

Black and Tan

guinness stout + bass ale

Golden
harp lager + bass ale

Half and Half
guinness stout + harp lager

Irish Car Bomb
guinness + a shot (1/2 whiskey + 1/2 bailey's)

Black Velvet
guinness + champagne

People ate a lot of food, drank good Irish beer (of which very few were green), and in general had a good time. We'd downloaded some music; the Chieftains, Dropkick Murphy's, the Pogues, and the like.

We had plenty of leftovers to share with those who couldn't make it. We even had some left over for ourselves (but not so much that we had to throw any away). Perfect.



Next year I'll be making the car bomb cupcakes again. They are now a McLeod family tradition.
I loved the reuben braid even though I don't like traditional reubens. It was the absence of the rye bread for sure. ick.
On St. Patrick's day proper I used the little leftover meat we had to make some corned beef hash with eggs and blarney cheese. It hit the spot after already chowing down on dinnertime favorites.


Slainte to all the Irish among us!

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon your fields.

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cult of personality

So we saw the proof layout and edited our wedding photo album about a month ago! I should have written about it then, but lazy gets me every time.

We went down to Djamel's place in Ocala and he ordered in chinese food while we (I) went over every page and every picture. There are some more photos that he missed on the dvd's he burned us and I can't wait to get the album and the last disk to share with everyone (like the solo portraits of my bridesmaids, as well as my bridal portraits and more photos of Collin and me). He also let it slip that our wedding was being considered for the special weddings issue of Ocala Magazine. I didn't want to tell anyone because I didn't want to jinx it but he called me a couple weeks ago and they picked us!

Sadly, you see my face in none of the photos.
Just goes to show that editors and brides have very different taste. I still can't get why they didn't use the gorgeous image of the tree with all the guests instead of chelsea's cupcake tattoo. I mean, I love that shot, but in our album it's on a page of 8 photos, not a full spread. Plus, really? Cupcake tattoo and no photos where you see the bride?! Also, the entire wedding party didn't wear checkered Vans. Just me and the Mister. The guys and our dads just wore plain black.

10.04.08
lindsey + collin

Although Lindsey and Collin went to middle school together, it wasn’t until college friends (re)introduced them that their paths crossed again. (“We were both too shy to talk to each other back then,” remembers Lindsey.) It was early in 2005, when Lindsey came to Gainesville to visit Rachel (the future maid of honor), that she ran into Collin — a good friend and high school classmate of Rachel’s. He showed up at a party with his roommate Gabe (the future best man), the sparks flew, and soon after the friendship/flirtation turned into a long-distance romance. A year later, Lindsey packed up her things and moved to Gainesville, just a quarter mile away from Collin’s house. That December, Lindsey surprised Collin with a new drum set, and he surprised her with an engagement ring. Their do-it-yourself wedding was no less inventive: The earthy palette was inspired by the bride’s collection of antique glass (put to good use for the flowers and table décor); flowers ordered online were arranged by friends and family; the reception featured traditional favorites and a pizza bar; and the entire wedding party wore checkered Vans.

I do love that you see Collin looking so handsome and my sweet tattoo. Plus see that shot of our invitations in the bottom left? It's new to me! Part of me is kind of like, what the eff? I wanted all the photos when I thought I had all of them... but then I think, it's just extending the wedding excitement. Hopefully I'll have that album soon and can get the last disk with the wayward photos. I know my mom was sad not to see any real "portraits" of me among all our photos... she'll probably be a little sad not to see me in the magazine, either.

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hello 2009

NYE was the jam.
Very fun, although I wish I'd been able to have a little more to drink. Plenty to eat though :D it was great to see all our friends stuffing their faces and talking about cross-dipping theories regarding the sweet potato latkes and basil dressing. It was a good crowd and not too big, a few people we invited who we really wanted to see didn't make it but overall, the night was a success.
It makes me want to have more parties.

I've been working on figuring out my new year's resolutions... it's hard.
I may make one of those 101 things in 1001 days lists that I see people making all over the internets.. 1001 days seems like a better timeline - but that's a lot of fucking things to do.

Maybe I will just try in the next year to:

Really, actually, 100% quit smoking cigarettes. I "quit" late last spring and haven't bought a pack since, even went over a month with zero smoking to get that hundred bucks from the boss man at work... but I still take drags from Collin's when we're on the porch and that means I haven't yet quit. I think I'm just being lazy.

Read 5 new books... and the His Dark Materials trilogy that I devoured in a week doesn't count. #1 will be Atlas Shrugged because I've been putting it off for years due to the small print and looming 1k+ pages. Whatevs, when I get into a book I could be done with that in days. Others may include the newest Palahniuck book that got a good review by my book soul-mate Regina when I saw her at the christmas party.

Get myself to start hitting the gym before work at least twice a week. I'm hoping I can get this going by March when it's not quite so cold. A reminder: I already wake at 6:40ish to get to work around 7:30. I'm guessing that to get to the gym, work out, and get to work by around 7:30 will require me to wake up on those days at 5:45 or so.
Not terrible, but I'll have to work it out so I don't mess with Gabe's normal morning routine of waking up around that time or shortly before to get to work by 6. Can I make it at 5:30?

Pay off 1/2 of my credit card debt. This is a big one, and it's going to be a bitch because I don't really have any extra money and I'm still sitting on debt incurred from those good ole college days when my loans and scholarships didn't really cover enough. Oh, and those couple months before the wedding where we kind of said fuck it and just put shit on the cards to deal with later because we needed all the cash for vendor payments, rent, and making up for each taking 2 weeks off work.

Finally, I really want to be a better employee. I do realize that I'm saying this while wasting half an hour lj-ing instead of working. Mostly I need to cut the frivolous wedding websites out of my habits since, you know, I'm kind of done with our wedding.


Oh, and Go Gators! Kick ass in Miami tonight, let's get another national championship title so I can run around celebrating with strangers in the streets. Yes, this is my husband and roommate battling to keep control of their "champion cock".
Let's make this year equally as badass.
Watching this makes me want to stop by XTC on my way home to keep the tradition alive - the original was destroyed by people trying to steal it. I think Gabe still has it in his room though.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

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Team McLeod : Down at The Top

The Top. A well-known Gainesville hot spot downtown, this restaurant/bar has been the site of many celebrations past. Both our 21st birthday's and Meggan's 21st were held here, the goodbye brunch sending Rachel and Kara off to move from Gainesville to NYC, countless dinners with Anna gabbing about wedding planning... I could go on.

Really all that mattered in the end was that it was clean, cool and big enough to fit us all. They also have a photobooth which sealed the deal.


The youngest guest at our wedding was baby Havana (the cutest happiest baby I've ever met) with the next oldest being at least 14. We didn't have too many kids at the wedding, but I still made sure to clearly state that the after party was for 21+ only. I would have hated for any of them to come just to be turned away at the door.

The bridesmaids headed over to the bar with Djamel right after the wedding was over. I don't think it took us more than half an hour to finish up at the Thomas Center and home. The walk down felt like it took forever though, I just wanted to get there! Besides, I had an entourage waiting for me out front.
Pay no attention to the jaywalking happening in this photograph.
YEAHHHH - let's party.
I know you! Hey door man, my wedding dress is my ID. Just kidding - you can't really get away with that in Gainesville.
Photobooth love. I had a hard time acting all excited in these photos. I think I would have had more fun if all the girls were piled in there with me.


And the husband arrives! Husband!! He and most of the groomsmen opted to change out of their rented tuxes back at the house. I don't blame him for not wanting to ruin clothing he didn't technically own, even if he looked damn good.
Someone had grabbed a big table by the door and I made a point to park it right by the entrance. If you were coming to hang out I wanted to make sure I saw you and got to say hello. I had been on my feet for so long already that day and all I wanted to do was sit and sip on a gin and tonic.
Sagar kept his tux but added his own jacket. The best suit jacket I've ever seen.


The whole after party was so much fun. We had our corner of the inside and eventually spilled out onto the porch too. I probably could have made more rounds to spend time with everyone but I really just wanted to sit and let them come to me.

The roommates. Awwwwww.
That's more like it.
The best shot of my shoes all day. You can really see the poof that bubble hem added to the dress.
We had strangers coming up to us and congratulating us all night! At one point two generous folks came up and offered up some shots! Later we found out that they are actually the owners of The Top - two really rad people who were so happy to have us that night!
They should be happy! I don't want to think about how much was spent on drinks and sweet potato fries that night.Collin spent some time catching up with Kevin at the end of the night.

See? I'm still in that same chair. This is the photo we chose to close our album. It sums up the end of the night perfectly; talking with friends in a bar, arms around each other and new rings on our left hands.
The bar was open for another hour when we decided to take off. It was time for Djamel to get going (he'd stayed well beyond our contract to hang out with us and keep shooting) and a nameless bridesmaid was way too drunk and hitting on one of the groomsmen. We said some long goodbyes and went back out into the street. There we stopped to say hello and goodbye to our many friends who'd made their way over to the Atlantic for the Joy Division/New Order cover show that was going on. I even posed for pictures with a few random guys who were visiting Gainesville for the first time - I'm pretty sure I made their night.

Inspired, Djamel asked us for one last shot. When he told us his idea, how could I object?
Goodnight Gainesville. Downtown, we love you so. Thanks for giving us gorgeous weather, a beautiful historic site and cheerful strangers on our wedding day.

We walked back to the house holding hands and broke out the leftovers as soon as we got in. We turned on the TV to find the wedding scene of one of our favorite movies while I took out the hundred bobby pins and brushed the hairsprayed nest that was my hair as I sat perched on the edge of our bed. It was the perfect quiet end to a glorious day; in our home with our cat we were husband and wife.
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