The Wooden Bowl

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The Wooden Bowl

A few years ago I took a trip to IKEA and bought a lot of neutral,basic serving pieces that I could pull out when we had a party, and over time they made it into our everyday rotation.  Some of the salad bowls are starting to wear down a little so I decided to give them a new life, and hammer out a project that has been on the back-burner for months now, finishing the bathroom.  For those of you that have followed Poppy Haus for a while, you know that we are renting our home and got approval to spruce up the master bathroom, which had very dated wallpaper, and a challenging tile color.  After finishing removing the wallpaper, sanding the walls, priming and painting, and installing new fixtures, I got burned out/the holidays happened.  It's been a white box ever since.  One of the great things about the space is the skylight and the natural wood color on the vaulted ceiling.  I like having plants in bathrooms, I feel like they clean the air, and this bathroom in particular needs something with dimension to fill to draw the eye up.

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Seasons Eatings

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Seasons Eatings

I'll finish off this month of in-season recipes with a great weeknight meal, perfect for pairing with grilled shrimp or a poached egg.  Grits are stone ground corn, similar to polenta, which would also work in this recipe. The way I prepare them here, they are low in fat and vitamin rich, not what you think of when you here the word grits. I wanted to infuse the the meal with flavor so I finely chopped asparagus stems and sauteed them in a little olive oil and sea salt to combine with the water.  I slowly added white grits to the water, bringing them to a boil, then covering and reducing the heat to low, stirring consistently until absorbed.  I then added skim milk and stirred until creamy and fully cooked.  All said it took about 25 minutes. 

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Make What You Pin

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Make What You Pin

Last week was spring break and we were housebound for a few days because of the rainy weather.  I decided to host a little art party for Jasper and his buddies to prevent cabin fever.  It turns out that little boys are not always so into doing art. Fortunately, I also got a couple of pre-tween girls in the mix who were super excited with what I had to offer which really solidified a few things for me.  1. I still sometimes wish I had a little girl.  Not going to happen, but can we all agree she would probably love growing up with Poppy Haus?  2. I need to start teaching art again.  I did it last year with kindergartners and it was so fun.  So I'm thinking about how I might offer classes to this pre-tween set.  Imagine all the Pinterest projects we could do.  Local people, any ideas?  I also wanted to mention that next month I'm going to explore what's "cool for small".  Thank you to everyone who voted on Facebook!  I'll be doing a whole month of ideas for food, play, and design just for kids

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Carrot Cupcakes

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Carrot Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I featured a recipe using carrots and coconut that was really pretty popular with you guys, so I thought I'd reprise the ingredients, this time in cupcake form. Naturally. 

I'm hosting a multi-kid play date today(man spring break has a whole new meaning when you get older) and I can't help but want to give my munchkin visitors a little treat. They'll be locked inside all day hiding from the rain doing a bunch of art projects, listening to bad pop music, jumping on the furniture, eating cupcakes. I'm not going to lie, that's kind of a dream day for me.  Here's the recipe. If you like the soup, you'll probably love these...

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