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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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Back At It

January 10, 2014

PSST: We were really excited this week to see that our Azorean getaway was listed on Groupon again. 7-days, 6-nights in the middle of the Atlantic for $799 with airfare. It’s especially convenient from NY or Boston, a short flight, definitely easier to get to than the west coast. If you’re down for a fun and adventurous trip, it’s highly recommended. Keep an eye out for it!

In other news, I’m getting back in the groove after a few months of quiet time taking care of the newbie, sitting on my butt, and drowning in Netflix. A slow climb, you could say. We just went zero to season 3 on New Girl (loved it), spent days re-engaging with Mike Holmes programming thanks to my holiday-hosting parents having cable TV and allowing us to monopolize it, and got re-inspired by Nicole Curtis and her kick-ass-ness. I’m getting antsy to start on a few new missions in this new house–organizationally, decorationally, and functionally–and because my to-do lists are pages long, and cover years of time and investment, I figure I better get on with things and start somewhere.

It’s still a rare day that I can accomplish more than 3 items on my to-do list (including remembering to trim my toenails or respond to a comment on the blog), so this is the year of mini goals:

  • After living with our 1950’s kitchen for 7 months and identifying many of its little quirks, I finally put my pen to the paper and started listing what it was that I wanted to get done. We’re still years away from a major renovation, but from paint to fixtures to removing the gross, sticky shelf liners, the gradual transformation of the kitchen would appear to be a good one, on the surface at least. It might take me all year, but I’m on it. You can read all about those goals in this post on DIY Network.
  • I’m spending more and more time thinking about the main living spaces in our house too; acquiring a new couch with various configuration options will do that to you. Modular furniture has serious musical chairs potential. I’ve been shopping for more, from lamps to rugs to coffee tables, just some of the little things that are going to help make this space feel more comfortable, more like home. More to come.
  • I bought window treatments for the kid’s bedrooms last October. They’re still sitting in the package, although that’s probably because installing window treatments is rarely exciting to me. I’ll get them installed soon…??? Soonish. By July?
  • And have I mentioned that we haven’t put a single nail into any wall yet? We agree that we need to begin cultivating some sort of art collection–one not entirely built around our DIY masterpieces–and fill in some of the empty spaces.
  • Our bedroom will probably be the last thing in the house we complete, but I’d really like to try and find a real bed this year, or at least an awesome headboard. I should set the bar really low and just hope that we can move the dressers back into position after dragging them into the nursery while we finished our floors.

Thanks for hanging in there while I took a few months off to focus on other things and finish other crazy projects that we started. I still owe you after photos of our beautiful floors.

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HGTV + DIY Network Projects  / Organized

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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    Merrypad by Emily Fazio
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    Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️ Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️
    Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garl Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garlic went into the home garden: 10 rows [L>R] 6 whole Nootka Rose as an experiment, 3x8 Mennonite-grown cloves from Aman’s, and 6x8 (and, I think, total 112? notes are cryptic) “normal.”
#gardennotes #growinggarlic #garden2023 #whatisnormal #merrypadathome
    Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of mind! #garden2024 kicks off with my favorite biennial: elephant garlic! 15 cloves planted from small, to medium, to enormous. #gardennotes
    Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this i Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this is getting ooc, and I love it. 👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾

🧄 65% of the planting is in a new plot in the country. 🧄 Seeing if NR grows bigger with more sunlight. 🧄 Big @chasefarms cloves from 2021 were really productive in our home garden; can’t wait to see how they can show up next year in the new space. 🧄

Hand-turned a small bed, but big thanks to my sister, who rolled into town just in time to help me double its size (and did not complain once).
    One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stal One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stalks and 7 scapes, and I can’t wait to see this mammoth looks like when it’s pulled next month. #garlic2022 

Also, fierce springtime performance by parsley, chamomile, and self-seeded cilantro.
    Annual garlic notes #garden2022 ~315 cloves total Annual garlic notes #garden2022
~315 cloves total
50 in new, unfenced garden
Still need thick mulch on everything
Did a terrible job tracking varieties when I harvested, so it’s all a mix of hardneck now 😒
Added some big cloves from @chasefarms and look forward to adding some @fruition_seeds in #garden2023 when @porterfarmscsa delivers.
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