Best of 17 Apart in 2011

We feel like we've only just gotten started with this here little collaborative blog. While we've only been posting since our launch near the end of July, we thought on this last day of the year we'd share what our most popular posts have been thus far in 2011 — or I guess you could say, of all time!

Look Who Santa Remembered...

 

Amidst all of our personal celebrations (New house! We're engaged!), Basil awoke on Christmas morning to a basket full of goodies from Santa himself...

We're Engaged!

Amidst all of the excitement surrounding our new home, we have more big news to share; we're engaged! Now onto the next burning question: How he Asked...

Secret Fan Dog Park: Scuffletown Park

Well, we uncovered one of the rumored dog parks here in the Fan district that we mentioned in this post after a quick walk and a little exploring.

Our Search for a New Home: A Little Background

We hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays. While winding down from the business surrounding Christmas, we're taking a slower day today to gear right back up for continuing the move into our new digs. Tim and I were able to coordinate taking the week off of our regular work schedules here at the end of the year in order to get everything straight and hopefully move the majority of our old house over to the new. If we're lucky, we might just be able to get a few things organized and into place somewhere along the way.

Merry Christmas from 17 Apart

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas from all of us here at 17 Apart. Throughout the day we'll be celebrating the holiday with our families and enjoying being in our new home.

17 Apart is Moving to a New Home

Big news for 17Apart! We're moving to a new home in the Richmond neighborhood known as the Fan, which is much closer to city living than our current home. We officially closed on the new house on Tuesday and are slowly making our way in. The home will be turning 100 years old this January and has incredible historic charm.

Avocado Pits Update & Sprout Robot

We've got avocado progress coming right along over here at 17 Apart! Since our last update a little over 2 weeks ago, both pits have been splitting open from the bottom and cracking apart near their heads. The outer skin on the smaller avocado has been flaking off on it's own.

Weekend Basics

1: It's wintertime! I've been steadily digging into the firewood pile as Basil and Mary request weekend fires. Basil curls up on his bed right in front of the fireplace and doesn't move for hours — it's pretty funny.

E.A.T. Vintage Wagner Ware Cast Iron Pan Giveaway

In case you missed it, I'm excited to share I'll be giving away one of my vintage Wagner Ware #3 cast iron skillet pans, a $42 value from my Etsy shop, Behind the Screen Door.

Weekend Basics

1: Christmas hard candy from our friends and home brewers, Corinna and Clay Grogan. This stuff is addicting — they were nice enough to share the recipe with us, see below for details.

Behind the Scenes: HGTV's Design on a Dime Etsy Episode

Remember my quick trip to Los Angeles at the end of September? Well I promised a follow up and I'm finally excited to share more details!

At Etsy, we've been working on a special partnership with HGTV on an upcoming episode of Design on a Dime slated to air tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8p/7c.

Basil vs. The Horses

We mentioned over Thanksgiving weekend taking some time out to visit my aunt Donna's horse farm. Tim has enjoyed hunting with my family on the property for a few years in a row now and was looking forward to getting a chance to be back in the woods. Here he is above wearing his grandfather's hunting pants and jacket from the 60's (and his new muck boots) while getting everything squared away for the hunt with my dad.

Weekend Basics

1: I lit up the first fire of the season! We always look forward to what we call our "season for fires in the fireplace" and the upper 20 lower 30 degree temperatures here in VA as of late gave us the perfect excuse to get things going. We used wood still good from last year's haul and it lit right up — crackling and glowing.

Goodbye, November

I'm a November's girl and love to remind Tim of this fact each fall like I'm telling him for the first time that November is my absolute favorite month. Every year, he listens and acts like I've never told him before.

How To: Grow an Avocado Tree from the Pit

On a whim after incorporating avocado slices into some of the most amazing turkey sandwiches I've ever had (Tim sure knows how to transform Thanksgiving leftovers), we decided to take on a new "just for fun" project — trying to sprout roots and stems from avocado pits.

Weekend Basics

1: Yeager is becoming a new regular here on the blog. Basil met up with his favorite weim friend once again for a doggie play date down by the James river wetlands. You'll never guess what happened — they played tug of war and keep away with sticks, Basil's favorite game (shocker).

16 Apart & Weekend Promotions

We've officially entered into the 49 day window where Tim and I are 16 Apart instead of 17 Apart. Not only did we enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving with family and good food, we also celebrated my 29th birthday, which as you can gather periodically falls right on Thanksgiving.


Here's a small sampling from the busyness and prep from our Thanksgiving spread. The whole house was filled with holiday smells and even Basil got his first taste of plain Turkey — it was a winner.

Fall Garden Update

We're probably a little overexcited to announce we officially have broccoli growing in our backyard fall garden!


Little heads and florets of broccoli proudly and quietly emerged late last week from the plants we put in the ground back in September. We're especially thrilled at their appearance since we've been unsuccessfully trying to grow broccoli over the past year — plants have rotted, no heads emerged, and we almost gave up trying after this last round of planting. We'll keep you posted on the progress!

Richmond Virginia Hockey Memories

One might think becoming a hockey fan would be quite impossible growing up in Richmond, Virginia (not to be confused with Richmond, British Columbia) — not true for this fan. Even though professional hockey now exists south of the Mason-Dixon Line, in the 70's there were few teams in the southern market.

One exception to this general rule of thumb was right here in Richmond, which was actually a big hockey town in the 70's. Growing up here introduced me to hockey — namely the Richmond Robins "farm team" for the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers of the 70's were known as the Broad Street Bullies and most of the players came right here through our Richmond team and later winning the coveted Stanley Cup.

I have never played hockey or even put on a pair of skates but I've literally always had re-occurring dreams of playing hockey. The video below is a much tamer version and dream of a sport I love. I found it via Poppytalk while scrolling my reader — definitely a diamond in the rough for someone like me.

Make Hockey Happen from Brian Ceci on Vimeo.

If you are a hockey fan like me who grew up never getting a chance to play — this video spoke volumes to me about the passion of growing up in a town where playing is a little more within reach and possible. Hope you enjoy!

Contrary Jewelry Giveaway: Peanut Pocket Knife Necklace

***Update: This giveaway has ended, find the lucky winner at the bottom of the post. Stay tuned for future giveaways right here at 17 Apart! ***


We're giving one of these Contrary peanut pocket knife necklaces away to a lucky reader! Full details below the dotted line (if you want to skip ahead).

Muck Boots: My Wetlands are Here!

My Muck boots have arrived!

Mary and I laugh all the time at the fact I've owned and been wearing my L.L. Bean duck boots since before she was born. They've been "resoled" twice — a great service offered by L.L. Bean for anyone interested in either bringing a little life back into their own pair or looking for boots that promise to stand the test of time. They're like an old pal I look forward to re-uniting with each time I wear them. They've seen me through many "muddy" situations.

Weekend Basics

1 & 6. While Tim does not consider himself a betting man, a few weeks back he and a good friend from up in Massachusetts placed a gentleman's wager on the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the New England Patriots game. This wager is a seasonal tradition where depending on the winner, either a Virginia ham is sent up North for the holidays or two 2 pound lobsters are sent down South. By the looks of our lobster feast Tim prepared this weekend, I'm sure you can guess who won this year.

Things We Loved This Week: Etsy Edition

Because I spend the majority of my days working on Etsy, I'm continually coming across the amazing work of artisans and vintage dealers. This week's finds all come from shops that stopped me in my tracks. We'd love to get our hands on any one of these luxurious pieces of work!

DIY Holiday Decorations: Metallic & Glitter Acorns

Looking for a quick and easy way to add a little holiday decor update to your home? I've got a project I just finished that's super simple, won't break the bank, can be used in all sorts of ways, and could be done with the kids — embellished acorns!

Richmond Food Collective Canning Swap

Saturday Tim and I attended our first canning swap, organized and hosted by The Richmond Food Collective. The RFC is a local group interested in sustainable food practices and sharing that knowledge with all who will listen.

Weekend Basics

1: Our print edition of Kinfolk Magazine finally arrived on Friday! It came from a limited batch of 1500 reprints — while we love online magazines, this was one we wanted to be able to flip the pages of in person and savor.

Things We Loved This Week

1: Hot sauce butter recipe; via Lottie + Doof.

How To: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

This week we've been enjoying snacking on freshly roasted pumpkin seeds we made ourselves with the leftovers from the drilled Halloween pumpkins we completed a little over a week ago. They are such a savory seasonal snack we look forward to making every year after lighting up our jack-o-lanterns.

7 Years Later & Still 17 Apart

This Monday we'll take a break from our regular Weekend Basics format to let you know we're celebrating our 7th anniversary today. Yes, our anniversary is on Halloween.

A Kid, A Dog, and a Beach

We mentioned last weekend taking Basil on his first trip to the beach, not to mention out of state to the Outer Banks. We were excited to see how he'd take to the beach and he didn't disappoint.

AIM: Antiques in Manchester

Earlier this week we mentioned we were finally able to stop by AIM (aka Antiques in Manchester) after hearing much buzz about it around town.

Weekend Basics

This past weekend was one of fun and firsts.

How To: Drilling Pumpkins

One of my favorite traditions is carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns each October — there's just something magical about the end result in my book. This year was no different and we can say with confidence we have carved the pumpkins without any major pitfalls this year!

How To: Make Apple Vinegar From Scratch

When you go out and pick two bushels of apples you better have a plan for using them up — especially in a timely manner!

Weekend Basics

1: A little project we've been working on over the last week is finally shaping up. More on that later in the week.

How To: Make Homemade Fruit Leather

We're thrilled to let you know we successfully made our very first batch of fruit leather — apple raspberry fruit leather to be exact! We mentioned several weeks back wanting to take on trying our hand at making our own version of natural fruit rollups, but hadn't found the right time until now. Throughout my generation of childhood, fruit rollups were all the craze; every time my mom would wheel us through the grocery store (we'd hide out under the bottom of the cart eating the free cookie from the bakery at Ukrop's), I'd secretly wish it would be one of those times she'd allow us to get either fruit rollups or fruit by the foot to pack in our daily lunches.

We've Got Pumpkins and a Snake Gourd

October is one of my favorite months. The weather begins to cool down, the leaves turn, foods get more savory, our anniversary falls at the end of the month (7 years!) and we get to pick out our pumpkins!

Fall at the Farmer's Market

Take a walk through our local farmer's market with us why don't you...

Weekend Basics

We've spent the majority of this weekend centered around food — even more-so than usual if you can believe it. We've been shopping for food, making food, photographing food, writing about food and of course eating!

Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat Sing Lucky in Love

Weekend before last we drove to Virginia Beach to see Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat play live at the nTelos Wireless Pavillion in Portsmouth, Virginia. I was able to grab a video of their popular song, Lucky in Love, on my phone. While the visual quality of the video isn't that great, I was pretty impressed with the audio.

I surprised Mary with tickets to the show a few months back — did you think I was the one that had a soft spot for these two? I'll cut the guy some slack since he's a Virginia native (grew up very close to Richmond) and is actually very talented.

New Attempts with Separation Anxiety

We promised a Basil separation anxiety update and today we're bringing it. Mary and I have the perfect dog and our only hurdle that remains in the almost year we've had Basil is overcoming his severe case of separation anxiety.

His & Hers: Couples Tattoos

Here's the thing — Tim and I don't have any tattoos, nor are we planning to get one anytime soon, if ever. That being said, we're both in love with the idea of getting one — or two that symbolize something between the two of us. This, however, is something that takes time and lots of planning to make the right decision.

Weekend Basics

Can you believe it's already October? We kept things low key this weekend since it seems like we've been all over the place lately. Relaxing, sports watching, good food and getting outside made for the perfect welcome to fall.

East Coast to West Coast and Back

Over the past couple days I've been on a quick working trip out to Los Angeles, California for a special project. I'll be excited to share the details of what went down a little bit later as plans shape up.

Gulpy Giveaway: Portable Dog Water Bottle

***Update: This giveaway has ended, find the lucky winner at the bottom of the post. Stay tuned for future giveaways right here at 17 Apart! ***

Basil drinking from the Gulpy during our orchard day trip.

We love this crazy little contraption for dogs so much, we're giving one away to a lucky reader! Full details below the dotted line (if you want to skip ahead).

NYC Through Our Lens

Now finally back home and settled into the swing of things here in Virginia, we wanted to share a glimpse of what our week in the city looked like. Amazing views, finds, food and company:

Weekend Basics

Much of this past weekend was spent unpacking from our week in New York, taking care of home tasks and taking a fun day trip to Virginia Beach on Sunday.

Subway transportation in New York City

We always wish there was better public transportation in Richmond. How nice would it be to walk to the end of our block and jump on a trolley like days gone past. After all, Richmond had the first successful electrically powered trolley system in the United States. That said, after a week of subways and taxis we are looking forward to being able to drive to the market and not have to carry everything we purchased the full way home.

How To: Homemade Natural Dog Treat Recipe, Fresh Apples

We've been wanting to try our hand at making homemade natural dog treats ever since we brought Basil home. We've even found a few treats we love including Whoofles and Sam's Yams — both very simple treat concepts we love giving Basil.

Showalter's Apple Orchard Trip

Today we wanted to recap the day trip we took to go apple picking in the mountains of Virginia. I'll warn you the post is a bit image-heavy as we wanted to share the breathtaking scenery and memories we made.

Weekend Basics

1. Inspired by Kimberley Hasselbrink's butternut squash gratin recipe posted this week on the Etsy blog, I just had to take it for a spin in our own kitchen — it didn't disappoint. Find my full variation of the recipe on E.A.T.

Things We Loved This Week

1. As you know, we're on a bit of a garlic kick. This recipe couldn't have come at a better time! French pickled garlic; recipe via food + words.