DIY Hanging Rope Planter

I've been slowly relocating the plants we had on our screened porch to different spots inside our home. They were actually doing fine outside but I'm clueless about plants and assumed that early morning frost is probably uncomfortable, right? It just felt cruel to leave them out on the porch.

This hanging plant has been thriving ever since we got it back in June and I love its drippy green and white leaves. It's such a well-behaved plant. Giving it a new home in this corner of the bathroom might seem like a strange choice but I'm really loving the greenery-in-the-bathroom look these days. It sort of completes the earthy, calm, spa-like atmosphere I think every bathroom should aspire to. 

(Just don't get carried away.)

When it was on the porch we'd kept the plant in the plastic hanging planter it had come in but once I brought it inside I wanted it to look a little nicer. I had just enough leftover rope from this project so I made another hanging rope planter like the one in my kitchen and kept the plant in its plastic pot ( you can't even tell!). 

It's exactly what this corner needed. I'm not sure this plant will ever make its way out to the porch again. Doesn't it look happy here?

All About Plants

In Alabama my husband and I had two plants and they both had names. Allie and Audrey both survived the move--amazingly--and have since been joined by quite a few other plant friends, too many to even name. Our new house just begs to be filled with fresh green plants. The street we live on has these incredible old trees and wild day lilies that spring up out of nowhere and there's lots of thick foliage surrounding us. Our neighbors' houses are positioned pretty close by but our house and yard feel private because of all the greenery. Even though we live five minutes from downtown, in the heart of Charlottesville, we lovingly refer to our home as our little cottage in the forest. It just has that feel.

Train Travel

I had it in my head that I wanted to take the train.

When my husband and I were making plans for our recent road trip we had to figure out a way for me to get from San Francisco to LA, where he would pick me up. I researched several options and found that taking Amtrak's Coast Starlight was the cheapest ($60), the longest (12 hours 40 minutes), and the most scenic (farmland, cliffs, and hours along the Pacific).

Yes, please! I was sold.

This route goes from Seattle all the way down to LA and back and it's known as one of the most beautiful Amtrak routes in the country. Honestly, I got pretty giddy about it while doing my research. I wasn't looking at it as my way to get from one place to another but as an adventure in and of itself. A way to see California's coastline and have a day of quiet alone time amidst a very social trip. 

Something about train travel feels old-fashioned and elegant to me. Is it the romantic in me or do you feel the same? I picture Edith Wharton-esque scenes of old trunks filled with ruffled dresses and cars for smoking and playing cards and women in their hats and traveling clothes. Modern train travel has lost a lot of this glamor but it takes only a bit of imagination to bring it back. 

The hours actually went by pretty quickly. In between looking out the window and snapping photos I took little naps, read my book, ordered a burger for lunch in the dining car, called my mom, and daydreamed. We took a "Fresh Air Break" in San Luis Obispo and I found myself pacing the platform along with a very sweet old gentleman who also seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the trip. It was fun to notice how people were spending their 12 hours on the train. Some people seemed to sleep the whole time. Other people had carefully laid out their newspaper and snacks next to them and looked settled and content to be there. Other people were mostly gazing out the windows. 

This route is amazing because for much of it, the train is by itself, cutting through fields and along cliffs. Sometimes it ran parallel to a road but even then the roads were often sleepy ones. I loved seeing the fertile California land and I must have witnessed several dozen fields full of perfect rows of lettuce or kale, so vibrantly green and bushy. And when the land gave way to the ocean about halfway through the trip it was breathtaking. Lonely stretches of coast and a setting sun and old ramshackle structures. The scenery we rode through was incredible.

Here are some snapshots I took in case you'd like to see. If you ever have the chance to take this train, do. I have a feeling that when I'm 80 I'll still remember the solo train journey I took through California when I was 25.

Home Again

Well hello!

It feels great to be drinking my tea at home and typing up a blog post this morning. We are back from our cross-country road trip! Our vacation took us across six states (Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California) and to the doorsteps of so many family members and friends that we don't get to see often enough. Between my husband and me we have five siblings and we got to see three of the five. My husband visited a flight school friend, two high school friends and a college friend, I met an uncle on my husband's side for the first time and spent three days with one of my best girlfriends from Notre Dame. In between we had two days to ourselves at the Grand Canyon. Oh, and that train trip I took from San Francisco to LA, the one that takes 12 hours? The countryside was just as wonderful and scenically beautiful as I'd imagined (that train ride is a blog post in itself, actually).

The whole trip was a spectacular adventure we will not soon forget. It was the perfect way to celebrate my husband's newfound freedom and to end our time in Alabama. It was a welcome distraction from some of the stress that's been on our plate and it gave me so much perspective on my own life. 

When we were at the Grand Canyon I remembered a trick I'd heard once. Here it is: when things feel overwhelming or you feel sad or discontented, picture yourself throwing your worry into the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon represents every moment of your life, from birth to death, the past and present and what has yet to come. Imagine today's worry and how infinitely tiny it is when up against a lifetime of joys and struggles and triumphs and everyday life. I had used this trick before but doing it while standing on the South Rim with the Grand Canyon before me was really powerful. Finding peace through perspective.

We got back last night which was exactly, to the day, four weeks from our move to Charlottesville. The house looked a little bare when we got home because of all the packing I did before I left, and it made things feel so real. Our brand new lives are on the horizon! The plans are set, the truck is rented and the piano movers hired, the lease has been signed. June 9th can't come fast enough.

Today will be spent doing laundry and getting groceries and spending some much-needed time alone to recharge my batteries. Regular life after a long and lovely vacation might be a letdown to some people, but to me it just reminds me how rich and wonderful normalcy can be. I've written about it before--traveling is incredible but so is the joy of coming home. 

To all of our loved ones who made this trip so beautiful--thank you! We had the time of our lives.

Mother Nature

Image Source

We had a wicked thunderstorm yesterday that woke me up sometime in the middle of the night. I love thunderstorms but this one was actually quite scary. The thunder was so loud it sounded like it was coming from my bedroom, and the lightning was so bright and constant that I had to turn away from the windows in order to get back to sleep. My husband is traveling too, so I didn't have him here to reassure me.

Anyway, it made me thankful that I've never lived in an area where natural disasters constantly threaten. In Upstate New York and in South Bend, Indiana there are blizzards, but I've found it isn't too hard to stay safe in a blizzard. You just don't drive, and make sure that you have tons of blankets and candles and preferably, a gas stove to keep you warm if the power goes out. I lived in New York City when Hurricane Irene came through in 2011 but it ended up being fairly minor and again, pretty easy to stay safe if you were inside. There are tornadoes in Alabama but they're not very common in our area (there was one this week but it was in northern Alabama). And our soon-to-be home, Virginia, is all-around pretty tame when it comes to extreme weather.

But in so many places, natural disasters are a part of regular life and that's a scary thought. Earthquakes and wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes, tsunamis and avalanches and volcanoes. Mother Nature is beautiful but she is powerful and can be so frightening.

I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to this sort of thing (you know those signs on the side of the road that warn of rock slides?--they terrify me) so I'm very grateful to have lived in areas that are mostly safe from natural disasters.

What about you? Do you live in a place with lots of earthquakes or hurricanes? How do you deal with it? I'm always amazed at how cavalier Southern Californians are about earthquakes--they simply know what to do when one hits and don't seem to stress about it at all!