This picture (above) was a few months back when the fruit was starting to ripen.  I often had to remind Sloane not to pick the lemons yet.  Everything I’ve read about Meyer lemons describe them as “small” lemons, well I’m not sure what got into ours, but they are not small.

See the tag, I trust they truly are Meyer lemons and that my super green thumb just made them grow like crazy.

It rained here for what felt like 40 days and 40 nights and then Sunday morning I woke up to the bluest sky I’d ever seen.  I decided it was a good day to harvest the lemons off the tree, they were bordering on too ripe.  Little bees were all over the blooms, collecting pollen like crazy.  The fruit is mostly on the bottom half of the tree, or perhaps the weight of the lemons just made it appear that way.  The tallest branches on the tree are probably 8 or 9 feet tall.

I should have backed up a little to show the whole tree, but I was fixated on those sunny yellow lemons.  The spotlight and Christmas tree lights protected the tree during some very pretty low temperature dips back in January.  Meyer lemons are very cold hearty, but I hated to risk it.  I didn’t pick all the lemons, but this was a good start…

A couple of weeks ago I thought I would preserve the lemons in salt like this.  But I don’t know what I’d do with them other than admire their prettiness.  So I decided to juice them.

I cut and cut and juiced and juiced.  I went out and bought an electronic juicer, but ended up just using my old fashioned one left over from a photo shoot a few years back.

And just to show the scale, some of these lemons are almost as tall as a soda can.

At the end of the juice fest this is what remained.

And I was left with 89 fluid ounces of Meyer lemon juice.  What pray tell would one do with 89 ounces of Meyer lemon juice?  I am going to freeze it in ice cube trays and save them for smoothies and for iced tea this summer.  I also tend to love a lemon glaze on blueberry muffins and scones and can easily thaw a cube or two for this purpose too.

Point of my story, if you’ve been wondering if a Meyer lemon tree would be a good addition to your family, I highly recommend them.  They also thrive in containers so if you live somewhere cold you could always bring them indoors for the winter.  I was tempted to order these cute trays for my juice, aren’t they fun?  This weekend I plan to transfer the lemon cubes to freezer zip-loc bags, don’t want to run the risk of any freezer burn.

It is the perfect size for my phone, lipgloss, checkbook, a few pens, and my wallet. Sometimes I throw it in my big purse, but usually I just carry it alone.

In random garden news… the moss on my patio is really green these days.  It’s been dreary and rainy which the moss loves.  Do you spy my terriers?

My mom has always said that buttermilk will grow moss.  I haven’t needed any buttermilk, but when I saw this on pinterest I was intrigued.  Momma was right.

I had intentions of blogging on Monday, but the week got the best of me.  A client friend once told us a story about a time she could not form a sentence.  She was a week or so postpartum and was attempting to have a very basic conversation with her husband.  She couldn’t put words together to make any sense at all.  This tends to happen when you have a lot going on.  All that would come from her mouth was, “my words are not good.”  We love that line so much we use it daily.  Our client actually sent us this quote framed in a pretty little silver frame for Christmas and there are many days that I’m tempted to strap it to a sweatband and wear it on my forehead.

My words are not good, but here goes a blog post.

I had a little photo shoot at my house this week.  Not only are my words not good, but neither is my house.  Okay, my house is not that bad, but being in the business makes me extra critical of my own space, which has a serious case of cobbler’s children syndrome.  Nothing like a photo shoot to kick my rear into high gear and order a few things I’ve needed for a while.  I finally committed to pillows.  I love green, so it’s probably no surprise that’s the common theme here.

On more than one account I mistakenly called that Schumacher fabric “opium leaf”  and then joked about eating the pillow once it arrived.

Unrelated, I bought Sloane some moccasin booties last week.

Then I introduced her to painting.  And made the mistake of using the term “finger paints”.

So the next day we took our party outside.

(Table from Target, stool from Ace Hardware) If you look closely you’ll see that she took the colored paint brushes and placed them in their respective paint colors.

Yesterday over my morning coffee I was standing in a daze waiting for the caffeine to kick in and looked over at my rolling pins.  They make me happy.  I also like that my corbel brackets multitask.

Two of the rolling pins are Sloaney’s, but she shares with me.  I share cookie and pizza dough with her, so it works out well.

That’s all for this week, sorry about my words.

]]> http://blog.urbangrace.com/2012/subject-clever-relevant-interesting/feed/ 49 http://blog.urbangrace.com/2012/hi/ http://blog.urbangrace.com/2012/hi/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:52:42 +0000 Erika http://blog.urbangrace.com/?p=4772 Hello.  Sorry for being such a stranger.  Just been working and mothering.

I saw this today and thought it was lovely:

Found it on the Waterworks Blog, here.

A few months back Coastal Living called and asked if I’d do a little Q&A for their February issue, which is on newsstands now.

Marla took the picture and thankfully I don’t look as cold as I actually was.  Many thanks to the folks at Coastal Living for including me.

A couple of weekends back Darby and her family came for the weekend.  A mutual friend offered us a house in Rosemary Beach for the weekend, which is something you don’t turn down.  It was a wonderful little staycation.  Of course, Sloane didn’t quite know how to handle herself in bunk beds with three older cousins and sleep the first night wasn’t exactly peaceful, but we managed and had a blast.

People often email and ask where they should stay when they visit my little beach community, but it’s not something I can answer easily because it’s rare (aside from McBeach) that I take a staycation.  We loved our weekend here (here’s a link to the house).   The house was just one house off the gulf and right on the green, it really was perfect.

Last week I bought this…

a Pop Phone and I love it.

News from the home front, Sloane is potty trained.  We went pantless for a couple of days… no accidents and done.  Easy, peasy.  My girl is getting so big it sorta hurts my heart.  I want to freeze time.  Last Friday evening she accidentally dropped a box of crayons, when they crashed to the floor she exclaimed, “Oh my little goodness!”

Happy Friday, friends!

Lauren Moffatt (above) made her daughter’s dress from a women’s shirt from H&M.  I love it.  Maybe I need a sewing machine.

more here: The Glow

(photography by Kelly Stewart)

]]> http://blog.urbangrace.com/2012/working-moms/feed/ 45 http://blog.urbangrace.com/2012/christmas-funny-farm/ http://blog.urbangrace.com/2012/christmas-funny-farm/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:08:48 +0000 Erika http://blog.urbangrace.com/?p=4743

Apologies for posting too many photos and believe it or not there are a lot more here if you care.  We had a wonderful time at my parents farm in Southern Illinois over Christmas.  My brain isn’t working well today and I can’t seem to put words together… so I will just leave you with some photos and the promise that I will try to be back soon! Happy New Year, friends!

Did you have a wonderful holiday?  I do hope so.

Someone asked in a previous post if we are on Pinterest.  Of course we are, we love pinterest. I’ll link each of our names to our pinterest pages, in the event you want to follow us.

(If you have no idea what I’m talking about… Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board.  An awesome site for people to organize ideas and images they find online.  If you aren’t a member you need to find a friend who is and they will send you an invitation.  Beware, it’s addictive.)

Erika

Allison

Leigh Ann

and our beloved intern, Anne Scott, who is the Pinterest Queen.

Are you on pinterest?  Leave us a link in the comment section so we can follow you!

[alston @ b.wise papers designed our card this year and I took the photo.]

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

]]> http://blog.urbangrace.com/2011/merry-christmas-friends/feed/ 31 http://blog.urbangrace.com/2011/minute-gift-ideas-winners/ http://blog.urbangrace.com/2011/minute-gift-ideas-winners/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:34:20 +0000 Erika http://blog.urbangrace.com/?p=4704 We have managed to pull together a few items on our wish lists this holiday season, hopefully they’ll offer a few gift ideas in case you have some last minute shopping to do.  I also hope my husband doesn’t see this because I told him all I really wanted was a no-tangle flag pole… but let’s just say I wouldn’t complain if any of these items below found their way into my stocking.

(A)  (B)  (C)  (D)  (E)  (F)  (G)  (H)  (I)  (J)  (K)

(A)  (B)  (C)  (D)  (E)  (F)  (G)  (H)  (I)  (J)  (K)

(A)  (B)  (C)  (D)  (E)  (F)  (G)  (H)  (I)  (J)

Drum roll please…. we have 5 winners of the Tastes Orangey giveaway:

We are in the process of contacting the winners so if you are one… keep your eye on your inbox!

In other news, Leigh Ann has been updating our Facebook page.  Our goal is to keep our Facebook friends in the loop on what’s happening in our world, so if you are interested come on over.

Just tell us your favorite Christmas song. We will pick our favorite 5. Deadline for this giveaway is Thursday December 15th.  Mine is “Bluegrass White Snow” by Patty Loveless.