hump day nuggets: bits of the season in photos and words
At the dinner table last week, Ruby leaned back and the entire top half of the chair crashed to the floor. She – with her bendy, snappy reflexes – was unscathed. The chair remained that way for a few days, the top and rungs in a sad heap on the floor. On Friday, I armed myself with wood glue and a drill and fixed that chair and the other three thrifted chairs that were also all wobbly and crooked. We now have four stable seats around our table.
After months of playing outside and several weekends away, it felt so good to button up, mend, fix and make our home this last week. I love ignoring homestead tasks in favor of adventuring and I equally love turning my attention to the details of our homestead. The seasonal change always lures my organizational muse in for a visit.
nuggets.
:: This old grapevine is nearly two stories tall and produces a ton of grapes every year. We’ve had two botched batches of jelly. This year, I’m hoping for success with the grapes we have left – Ruby has been training the chickens to catch grapes.
:: Our mild fall finally delivered a decent frost two days ago, officially turning all those bright blooms into carbon bits for next year’s crops.
:: We have been enjoying making Alice’s food. Except for the puréeing of bison liver during which time I think about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens while holding my breath. Broccoli has always been her favorite vegetable and our plants have continued to put out little shoots that we steam and chop up in her meals. Ruby calls first dibs though.
:: Margot’s favorite chore is collecting eggs.
:: I spent most of Sunday in the garden, with the rotating company of variety of domestic and wild creatures.
:: We harvested the last of the beets and holy smokes this year’s crop may have finally produced enough beets for our family for the winter.
:: Raking up leaves which we will lay over the garden after we weed and plant garlic. Sculpture by Nathan Tonning.
:: Inside, we tidied and cozied up the space in which we will spend more time during the coming months. The stove is on. The wool blankets are draped over chairs.
My friend started a new business – The Dharma Door – that designs & sources Fair Trade, sustainable homewares and lifestyle products. Their mission is to bridge the gap between ethical production and contemporary style.
She and her family are offering you all a coupon code, good for 15% off your purchases: DIGTHISCHICK.
The Dharma Door sent us a few items and, honestly, I am just in love with them all. We don’t have much storage space in our home so I am always interested in attractive, functional solutions. Functional meaning it works, stands up to kid use and lasts a long time. Attractive being the most important thing to me. I believe there is no need to have anything in my home I don’t love to look at.
Solution #1. Shoes! I try to keep it simple here but still, my daughters each have four pairs of shoes. And then slippers and winter boots. We seriously don’t have anywhere for them to go! Their small shared closet is full and we don’t have a mud room. I am so pleased with the Hessian Sack. It’s beautiful enough to sit in our living room (and smartly covers the giant vent in the wall) and conveniently stores the shoes.
Solution #2. Stuffies! My daughters’ room holds all their stuff, which includes dress up, art supplies, books, dolls, instruments and toys. I’ve discovered that frequent rearranging of their things encourages fresh play with forgotten toys so, I change up their room often. The stuffed toys are a big favorite and the Loomed Basket is the perfect place for them to live. It is generously sized, super sturdy and easy to drag around the house.
Solution #3. Untouchables! I keep certain art supplies out of reach. Like, pastels, puffy paint, the effing rainbow loom, clay and beads. The top shelf is for moms and dads to help. The Hessian Bucket Duos are perfect for storage — they are a great size and are adorable.
Want to win something? Yep. The Dharma Door is generously giving away a Loomed Basket and a Summer Stripes Tote (I also have this tote and LOVE it; it goes everywhere with me. See a snap of it in action here). Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win! Winners will be randomly selected on Monday, November 3 at 8am MST. And, support this lovely company; use code DIGTHISCHICK for 15% off.
*WINNER* of the Loomed Basket: lucky #8. Congrats Jayne!
*WINNER* of the Summer Stripes Tote: lucky #78. Congrats Barbara!
Thanks, Dharma Door!
I’m hanging up my gardening gloves this coming weekend. We will soon be in ski mittens. First, Halloween and Day of the Dead. Then a five year old’s birthday, Thanksgiving. A seven year old’s birthday, Christmas. We are entering a season of big celebration around here. We will be enjoying those mended chairs often, I’m certain.
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153 Comments
I love that nuggets is back! 🙂 That Hessian Sack is beautiful and a clever solution to your shoe/vent in the wall problem.
Congrats on the beets! Love a good harvest. And LOVE LOVE LOVE that shoe storage solution!!!
We are also in a small home and I’m so picky! Functional and beautiful is the perfect mix.
I love the name “The Dharma Door” – it makes me smile 🙂
Diggin’ the pink highlights! Cutie pies!!
Love this!
shut UP! Nuggets! We just celebrated my second’s fifth birthday today – Last night my husband and I kissed him before bed and told him that it was the last time we would wrap our arms around our four year old boy and that 5 was going to be way exciting. And his eyes welled with tears – something we weren’t expecting! Oh, change. Happy early to R. xo
That picture of Ruby hugging the chicken reminds me of a print I bought last week. I think you’d like it. I decorated my kitchen with lots of their garden style prints. Here is their site (they are out of Portland OR but I found them on Etsy). http://www.victorygardenoftomorrow.com/ Another funny thing is I also just favorited the “Go Play Outside” string art that from the same company you purchased your “We’re all in this together” art before you posted it last week. The Etsy community really is a small world!
I am always looking for more storage options – especially as I consider downsizing to a smaller home. The baskets and totes are beautiful!
Your home looks so peaceful and inspiring; I aspire to your lack of clutter. Love the leaf garland! And your weekend sounds like it was lovely.
We are working on functional and beautiful for our small home, too. The Dharma Door stuff is really nice!
Curious what you are going to do with your beets. Can them? Store them? I’m looking at a small pile of beets, wondering what I should with them.
Thanks, as always, for sharing!
PS. I live on the Oregon Coast and was wearing my Geo hoodie on the beach one day, and ran into someone else with a Geo hoodie. That was fun. 🙂
Oh how I ache for my old garden. Some day soon! Is that EBs old coat thru Margot on Rubes? Love love love those big loomed baskets!
Sometimes I get lost in the feeling that our home isn’t nice enough, big enough, new enough, 100 things not enough. I have to remind myself that I don’t have to keep up with anyone. My home is funky and unique. To small, sometimes, but it’s what I have made and earned and I love it.
I am so in need of organization in my kids room! I too, love to combine functionality with aesthetics and would love to win something from this great company!
Love those baskets! We are working so hard to make our space appealing and functional, and I always find myself browsing through pictures of your home as inspiration. I especially love your kitten/dining space–that rake (?) over your window is such a cool piece. Love it all.
I adore baskets and these are beautiful!
Gourgeous home!! It radiates love.
That grapevine is amazing!
Love all of this! I want to learn how to garden from you.
I would love to win! I love those baskets, and who couldn’t use another bag?
Nice baskets!!
So excited to see nuggets today! I love finding something that adds storage to my house and looks good while doing it. Storage is at a premium in our house.
As if the name alone wasn’t enough!
I love the change of season, too. It brings with it a new perspective and new adventures. I am super jealous of your beets. It was my number one mission this year to grow a ton of beets and I failed miserably! My beets are the tiniest little things you’ve ever seen pulled from a garden end of season. I am determine to use them though! A nice big bowl of borscht made with homegrown beets (even if they are tiny!) will be delicious!
I have a lovely pantry. It’s huge, it holds a TON of stuff, but it’s not as well organized as I would like it to be. THESE Lovely products would help me! Hoping to win! 🙂 Check out my blog for giveaways too! 🙂
I love functional & beautiful, especially thoughtfully designed & made!
Fun nuggets you shared, love your sound of music reference 😉
Visiting your blog is always a bright spot in my day, in my week.
I LOVE the basket duo and totes and would love to display them in my home and also put them to work! 🙂 Thanks for sharing the beautiful new business!
Nici, that photo of ruby hugging daffodil makes me want chickens, I love your little ladies bond with them! And those beets!!!! Beautiful!!! Thanks for the giveaway!!! Here’s hoping!
Lovely to have some nuggets this week! My garden is in need of some fall clean up as well!
I am super jealous of your beet crop!
LOVE those baskets! Especially the small/medium sized ones! Perfect to house the random toys that seem to float around the house!!
I cannot believe your beets! How do you preserve them?
We also have a small home, where we are careful to only purchase items we love and we’re always looking for better storage solutions. We need our shoe solution, maybe the basket will do the trick?
Always looking for more storage!!
Thanks for the inspiration for outside and in! You have such a way of weaving your pictures together with words- these humpday posts are my favorite. All the Dharma Door creations are beautiful and functional, too- always looking for that in our home, too!
Love the Dharma Door!
Your garden is amazing…I can only dream of such a harvest! 🙂 Loved all the photos…looking forward to cozy winter months ahead.
Love the Loomed basket and that nuggets are back!
I also had a botched grape jam experience this year! My daughter has been tenderly taking care of a grape vine these past two years (I didn’t even know we could grow grapes in MT! My hubby’s the gardener)…and this year we finally got enough grapes to do something with. I was excited to try to make jam like I do with our raspberries and I have no idea what I did wrong but after burning most of it all over my stove what was left turned out more like grape syrup. Silver lining? Grape syrup is fantastic on pancakes…especially over peanut butter!!
those baskets look SO handy!
and i agree with ALL your storage points…
shoes, stuffies (which i TRY to avoid like the plague, but they still manage to creep into my home), and untouchables all need their special spots.
thanks!
SO happy to see Hump Day Nuggets! As usual great photos…love how the chicken’s “toes” are curled from a Ruby hug! Your garden was a good producer, enjoy the harvest when the snow flies!
Those baskets are the bomb, love the Summer Stripes Tote especially!
Love you, Mom xoxo
I have the same mentality toward home furnishings, first it has got to be nice to look at! I have always loved the warmth and ease of your home style. It feels like anyone could walk in and plop themselves down and have a nice chat.
NUGGETS! I’ve missed you!
Nice company you’ve teamed up with. Love the storage options and you’re sage advice, if you don’t love to look at it, why have it? The main level of my home–except the mudroom–is pretty good (wouldn’t mind ditching that toy pack-n-play for a tote, though) but my loft is in need of serious attention. Thanks Dig! Oh–pretty sure we had snow when you had frost : )
All the beautiful photos of the girls at play in their room and in the garden bring back fond memories of growing up with my big sister. I attempted to train our chickens when I was little too! Hopefully Ruby is having more success! And the Dharma Door products are just lovely!! Thanks to you and them for the opportunity.
Love those baskets and your whole spirit.
We live in a small home with 4 children who range in age from 19 – 6 (plus the frequent extra plate we set, which is always put to good use by our visiting friends). I’m always looking for storage / organization solutions and these baskets/sacks would be perfect for us!
Char has my cedar chest in her room too!!!! Love to grandpa and creating something we could cherish and share with our littles! Xo
Love that! My chest is among my most favorite possessions. x
I would love to win! Awesome!
Love getting little glimpses into your home. It is so inspired.
I long admired those beautiful baskets in your studio! Also, “I believe there is no need to have anything in my home I don’t love to look at.” I love that philosophy. I’m going to work on practicing it. And lastly, some day you must share your secret to growing the world’s most perfect beets with me! Mine are always sad and puny.
I don’t know that I have super beet powers but would happily chat more about it! They definitely like lots of sun and thinning is so important if you want big beets. They will literally double in size if you thin well. And compost compost compost. I didn’t cover half of my garden in compost this year (because of time – I wanted to plant) and it is UNREAL how different the plants grew on the composted half. You could actually see a division of where it stopped. The plants we way bigger and healthier. xo
What awesome ideas! It’d be a really great thing to keep shoes accessible at the door without the mess! 🙂
I have missed your Nuggets!
We have the same problem with storage and especially with shoes. Ours all end up piling up by the front door and then it drives me mad!
Cool stuff! I want!
Beautiful products!
I have been reading your blog for a very long time and I love your spirit!! What a beautiful life you have!!!
Beautiful and practical!! I’d love to add them to our home. 🙂 I love the look of your home, it is so inviting!
I’ve missed Hump Day Nuggets!
These baskets would be so helpful to set up my Little’s nursery!
I love your home and style. And thanks for introducing me to The Dharma Door….just in time for purchasing Christmas gifts! Looking forward to hearing how the grape jelly turns out.
I love the baskets, they are beautiful! I would love for you to share some of your beet recipes though!!
I am planning on a beet post! Love all the beet enthusiasm. Beethusiasm.
Beautifully written post, as always. Loved all of your photos. [Now pining for a more outdoor life for ourselves].
I am SOOOO happy to see nuggets back in action.
I have missed that weekly read. A few years ago, I stumbled across your blog (while coming to terms with my new reality of twin baby girls) and it was on a Nuggets day post. After that I was hooked.
Thank you for bringing this back 🙂
K
Loving the baskets, 4 kiddos, can always use baskets!! Those grapes are awesome, maybe wine would be a good gamble if jelly doesn’t work!
LOVE love LOVEEEEEEEEEEE
posted a comment before and it never showed up.
Here i am again 🙂
Those baskets are beautiful and functional, perfect combination!
I just love reading the nuggets about your life! Beautiful things and beautiful people.
Mmmmm…..beets. And what a cool picture of deer/chickens. I love the “settling down” of fall- looks like you are celebrating the end of the season well.
Nici,
What a lovely blog you have. Your perspective and approach on life are truly refreshing and inspiring. Thank you for sharing your piece of the world with us all!
Now, about Dharma Door. LOVE their products. Beautiful! And love even more their mission. With two little ones in the house, I can always use more baskets!
Take care,
Katie
I LOVE seeing the pictures of your garden — and thanks for hosting this giveaway!
So happy to read Nuggets this morning! Enjoying the season change, and always looking for ways to keep my ‘cozy’ little rental organized – hard to do when it it’s filled to the brim with me, the man, a fat kitty and rambunctious dog – But I try! Your fall garden tending makes me yearn for more space. Someday I’ll have room for more than my little herb garden in antique pots on the window ledge…
I agree with the shoe dilemna. I recently created a shoe “box” but those baskets are definitely more beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
My house also has no storage, so I’m always looking for ways to keep things organized. I’ll definitely be checking out the Dharma Door!
I maaaaaaaybe may eek out enough motivation now to turn my garden around for the winter… Love all those baskets. Big fan of places to stuff things 🙂
Thanks for the heads up on Dharma Door. I am digging those baskets and have been looking for some. It is amazing how much stuff collects in your house with young ones!
What is the black kitty’s name? Did I miss it?
And we had a cat who was severely anemic (she was a stray we found) so I hear you on the disgust of pureeing liver. ::gag:: Hopefully Alice is enjoying her gourmet meals! She looks great!
Sam! But we usually call him Bubbas. 🙂 He is our first fur babe; we have had Sam in our lives for 14 years. He can usually be found on my lap or at my feet wanting to be on my lap.
Love that all of it – – but that tote – LOVE it!
beautiful! we’re needing all the storage help we can get, always!
Oooh! Those baskets sure look lovely – and they fit your home perfectly.
I am an old friend from grade/high school of your mom! Only been doing Facebook for a year or so but am so enjoying all the connections it can make!
Love your “web page” not sure if that is right, but you have incredible photos and what looks like a great life full of family and friends. I have a sister that is a gardener extraordinaire like you. She is kind and shares with me since the only dirt I like under my nails is what I get when I put a worm on a hook for fishing!
So is there a physical place to go to Dharma Door or is it just website?
Keep up the good life!
Love your home. comf, comfy, comfy… the new additions look so perfect, like they have been there all the time. One can never have too many baskets and totes for all the small stuff.
Ahhh fall!
I’d love to win either one! I’d use the basket to store mittens, gloves and hats. We finally had our first “real” frost the other night too but I’m enjoying the last bouquets of flowers, including zinnias, sweet peas and even lavender (rebloomed this year!) set all over the house.
Love reading about your beautiful, simple life. It’s so different from mine but with many similarities too. Reading your blog is inspiring to me and I try to bring aspects of your calmness to our craziness.
With a family of 4 in 700 square feet, these storage solutions would be great.
Your posts always make me want to live in Montana…such a beautiful life you have! The baskets are beautiful and functional and absolutely splendid.
Love your storage solutions and love this little company. We too have a shoe storage issue! Small bungalow style home, no closet space! Also, the pic of your Ruby hugging her chicken melts my heart 🙂
Lovely products! Would grace any home.
Happy to have a nugget post to liven up this week!
beets and leaves and dirty gloves….same scene at my house. these rainy days have had me “nesting” at my art table and sewing machine, but also planning a Goddess Party at the Lake with a fervor. And tomorrow, the festivities begin and carry us Goddesses through the weekend in the golden glow of the larches reflected on the lake! Wheeeee!!
Seriously, your home is just lovely!
Well, I was sure happy to see some Hump Day Nuggets when I crawled into bed last night. I read your words before I dozed off and promised myself that I would comment in the morning. I’ve been nesting here at home and planting garlic, too. This seasonal shift happens in so many areas of our lives, right? Home, heart, mind, garden. Those beets are Krazy with a capital K! Please do share more about your magical beet seed planting. And, I’m looking at the pumpkin postcard I won from you oh so long ago. Remember when you tried to hand-deliver and I missed you at the Valley Ford Hotel? Oh, I hope I win this giveaway from Dharma Door and that you will hand-deliver. This time, we’ll make it stick! Happy Autumn, friend.
I love your “nuggets.” And the Dharma Door baskets look totally beautiful!
I just love your blog! I could certainly use a basket or two for storage. I’m gonna check out the website now!
Nice nugs, Nici (:
xoxo
Your colorful and fun pictures of your home make me want to fix mine up to be more inviting!
Organization would help a lot, LOL! Thanks!
Love those baskets!
We have a 1950s house, so storage is always a big problem, as our closets are really small, and we have a carport instead of a garage. As my husband always says, it keeps us honest! I regularly purge unneeded junk. Love the loomed basket for storage that is attractive and functional!
Oh, how much I missed nuggets!! xoxo
Love the golden beets.
I don’t read blogs anymore. Too busy living my life. Well, except for yours. I feel like if you stopped blogging, there’d be a HUGE hole in my world. I adore you and your children. Feel like we’d be best of friends if we ever met… Just can’t get enough of how you write. Thanks for doing this!!! And for the way you are in your sweet life. xoxo
Whoa! This is so much prettier than my current shoe basket by the front door. Would love this pretty addition to my living area. Loving the photos too. Your girls are growing so fast! 🙂 Happy celebrations!
Love the storage baskets, especially the more muted color ones. seems like they would ‘go’ in any room.
We have a tiny house and lots of toys to store. Love to support fair trade goods.
I love your house. It looks warm, welcoming, and the the people that live in it love each other. I am so sorry about Alice’s health issues. My 14 year old Annie passed last spring and I curled up on the floor and had a hard time breathing because I was crying so hard. She was my friend, running partner, and the one member in our family that snored louder than me. This September we adopted a rescue dog named Bobby, she is not Annie , but I am falling in love. I have a new friend and running partner and when I think of Annie (who was a rescue as well ) I am so glad that she was loved by us and we were loved by her. I still miss her snoring .
Your blog is always so inspiring. I always get something out of it. I’m struggling with small space/wanting simplicity/less stuff. Your comment on how the girls have 4 pairs of shoes…makes so much sense. No one in my family needs as many shoes as we have! This is a good spot to start doing with less.
I love your all your posts. I some how discovered your blog before Ruby was born & have been visiting ever since. Those baskets are wonderful & would be so helpful. Thank you. : ) Have a wonderful weekend! : )
Storage options are always welcome in our household!
Love the baskets. Could really use more storage at my house.
Do you prune your grapes? We’ve had ours for a few years and they almost stopped producing. Thanks.
Nice nuggets, happy to see them back! The baskets are fab. Enjoy all the upcoming celebrations 🙂
holy smokes. all the dharma door products are beeeautiful.
Love these baskets… love that winter is coming, so soon! Snowflakes falling might be my favorite thing of all!
The loomed basket is lovely. I have six kids and attractive storage solutions is a constant ongoing process.
I yearn for your gardening abilities!!
how will you fix the beets so that they will last the winter? Love the storage for the shoes. Was so surprised to see that it is already cold enough that you have your heat on. Have a great day
love this!
What beautiful storage! Would be so thankful to win.
Love me a good shoe bin! But what I really love about your post is that magnificent garden you planted. I’m in total awe everytime I “see” it.
Love the return of Hump Day a Nuggets and the Dharma Door!
Your posts are always peaceful and inspiring, like taking that first deep breath in a yoga class.
Beautiful and functional! Love your home, Nici. It is an inspiration.
Enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for sharing!
Lovely juxtaposition of indoors and outdoors!
Love your storage solutions! Ellie’s favorite is broccoli, too. 🙂
Yeah for the return of nuggets! And beets! I just discovered a love of beets and I have to give you a lot of credit for it. It’s one of those things that no one in my family ever ate so I never had any experience with, good or bad. Now I roast some every week and toss on salads or with rice or whatever I find in the fridge that day.
Both of those baskets are wonderful! We are moving around my daughters room and she might NEED that loomed basket!
Love the idea for show storage. And that tote is lovely!
I’d love to win-my little guy would love the toy storage!
Oh how I would love something to keep me more organized!!
I seem to have a love for baskets…I REALLY love these! Thanks for the chance 🙂
Just perfect! Absolutely perfect! xo
“The effing rainbow loom” . hahahah
Love the look of these baskets, so beautiful!
How practical! With two girls myself, stuffies and shoes rule the house. I love the idea of casual, yet decorative storage solutions!!
Return of the nuggets! Yeehaw!
This was my first year (successfully) growing a garden. Thanks for the reminder that preparation for next season starts now, with tucking it in for winter. We are still harvesting a lot of kale and your kale pesto recipe is a mainstay.
Oh, these baskets are beautiful! I’d love to add one to contain a little of chaos!
How do you keep the critters out of your garden? We have a family of groundhogs that has been gorging on our tomatoes (and almost everything else) for the last 2 years, and the deer got our pole beans this year… I have been obsessed with baskets and crates to hold all of our stuff lately, those Dharma Door baskets are right up my alley!
I’m putting my garlic in this week as well and putting the garden to sleep for the winter.
Love these beautiful baskets:)
Love love love–all the shoes–what a great product! Love the pic of the deer and chickens also 🙂 love your blog
i just kicked my shoes off into the growing pile by my door…..thinking about how I should really have something to hide them in 🙂
Ooooooh! This would be a great solution to our mitten/hat/scarf problem in the front entryway. And now that the snow is here, we need help ASAP!
We have recently downsized… with 3 girls ages 11 to 5 this was a miracle that we could actually pull it off. We now struggle with put everything away… these look like they would be a fantastic solution to our problem.
Love that Nuggets are back! 🙂 Gorgeous beets! I’ve tried for a couple years now and can’t get them to grow for me. We just buy a ton at the farmers market!
I love the new storage baskets!
Every one of your images.. I love to see them. happy for the return or here right now return of nuggets.
erin
We are beet lovers as well! Beautiful baskets!
That is SUCH a snazzy tote!
Oh thanks for the chance!
We use baskets all over our house for numerous things, but none as nice as these!
LOVE baskets! Would love to win any of them! Thank you for your post! Your pictures are beautiful!
Would love one for toys!!
Awesome! Thank you for the chance!
Fantastic piece Nici! And I adore the products. xoxo b