we celebrated easter by spending a fun morning drinking coffee and dyeing easter eggs in our new yellow kitchen. there will be a blog post on the kitchen re-do later, but here are the steps we took to create our colorful and recyclable eggs:

– hard boil eggs
– set up easter egg dye kit (we used a cheap grocery store paas kit)
– add stencils and resists to the eggs*
– stir dye bath and carefully place egg in the dye
– leave egg in the dye for 5 to 10 minutes (lighter colors take longer)
– remove from dye and remove stencil or resist
– place eggs in basket or nest (we used shredded paper scraps for our grass!)

*we created leaf stencils by picking small leaves from our yard and placing them on the egg. we then tightly wrapped panty hose around the egg and secured with a rubber band. small, thin leaves with few veins work best for the stencils. we also used electrical tape to add stripes and lines to the eggs.

yay easter!

deviled eggs for dinner!

– ryan & gub

spring is finally here! we’re excited about the warm weather and spring blooms. here are some photos of the japanese magnolia in our front lawn. it was a valentine’s day gift from gub a few years ago.

– ryan & gub

if you’ve ever lived or travelled on the east coast, you’re sure to have come across south of the border, or at least seen it’s wacky billboards on i-95 from florida to new jersey. it’s this strange bright tourist attraction on the border of north and south carolina that’s been open since 1949, predating disneyland by 6 years and disney world by 22 years. originally, south of border was just a bar which catered to the dry north carolina counties bordering to the north. over time it expanded into a thriving town full of hotels, roller coasters, and crazy tourist shops.

as a child growing up in virginia, south of the border was this sort of mini disney world our family stopped by on the way to visit relatives in florida. there were roller coasters, shops with game rooms and toys, and these bright concrete animals all over the place. what child wouldn’t have fun there? later in high school, i remember stopping there on numerous band trips. we would try and impress each other by drinking spicy blenheim ginger ale.

as campy and touristy as south of the border seems, it is still a unique and interesting part of american roadside history. the fact that it’s captivated children and travelers and stayed in business for over 60 years is quite impressive.

we like to tease gub’s mom because as a child she dreamed of having her honeymoon at south of the border! check out this link for some amazing vintage south of the border photos. you can picture how her honeymoon might have gone.

– ryan

ryan and i are beginning to plan our very first vegetable and herb garden. we’ve been composting for over a year and have planted a few vegetables here and there, but this summer we’ve got big plans. we carved out a sunny 16′ by 10′ spot in the middle of our backyard, found some helpful info on the uga center for urban agriculture website, and we’re off!

we need to do a bit more research, come up with a planting schedule, and finalize our vegetable and herb list based on our garden space; but here’s our wish list:

we took some before photos and will post updates as the summer progresses. the garden will be under the blue tarp you see in the photos.

– gub & ryan

we had another snow day in atlanta! twice in a month is quite crazy for the south. gub and i tried to stay warm while enjoying the beautiful scenery. i ended up taking a ton of photos and filmed a time lapse of the snow storm.

– words & photos/video by ryan

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inspired by gob from arrested development, i got ryan a gift certificate to go on a segway tour of atlanta for valentines day in 2008. with the certificate expiring soon, we went ahead and booked our 10 am tour during the winter blast of 2010. we bundled ourselves up and headed out on a three hour tour…

after the initial awkwardness, the segways were pretty easy to operate and really fun! the smirk, smile or laugh on people’s faces as you whizzed by was pretty hilarious. we felt futuristic! although we wish it hadn’t been soooo cold, it was pretty fun to spend the morning exploring our own city on a weird motorized personal transporter.

– words by gub & photos by ryan

we recently discovered these beautiful old harness and shoe factory buildings in buford, ga. now known as tannery row, the buildings have been re-adapted and are currently home to many businesses and an artist colony.

– words by gub & photos by ryan

i learned how to colorize black & white photos with photoshop tonight. i thought the process looked really cool and wanted to post the results. the photos were taken by our friend miguel martinez. he is a really amazing photographer who works for the mundo hispánico. we were lucky enough to have him take our wedding photos!

-ryan

original black & white and colorized version:

we took a lot of photos last december for our friend kristen’s blog, beauty everyday, that she runs for r. wood studio ceramics. she was doing a post on southern homes decorated for the holidays. i really liked how our photos turned out so i’m posting them here in our first big photo entry. i’m also learning how to grid a bunch of photos while i make this post.

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be sure to check out the handmade soap and shoe shine kit photos. we decided to create handmade gifts for our families since i was losing my job at the end of the year. we went with shoe shine kits in stained wooden boxes for the gentlemen and handmade soap with ceramic dishes for the ladies. gub had just taken a class on soap making and had access to the ceramic studio at her work, so it all came together.

– ryan

we’re finally getting this thing up and going. hopefully you can look forward to regular posts very soon!

-ryan & gub

preview from buford, ga photos: