Ashley English's Blog, page 18

A Day In the Life

Today, many good things happened:
~Huxley had play time with his grandmother and great-grandmother.~Hubs and I consumed delicious lattes, courtesy of Battle Cat.~I checked on the hives and it would appear an extraction is imminent (I'm thinking the weekend after this one, as there's just a wee bit of uncapped honey still present).~Much laundry was laundered, dried, folded and put away.~Many

Green Label (+ Giveaway!!!!)

I love serendipity. I really do. When space and time collide in a strangely parallel way, then I just beam, feeling that some sort of order really does exist in the cosmos. Like that time my sister, Devan, and I were on our way home from a week-long trip to Northern California. We had some time to kill before our flight out of SFO, so we drove out to Point Reyes to visit the lighthouse (I have a

Guest Post: Seattle Seedling

I used to be the sort of gal who planted whatever, wherever. If it was pretty, or it smelled good, that was enough for me. Now, whenever I'm at the garden center, or perusing a seed catalogue, I find myself thinking "yeah, it's gorgeous, and yes, it smells good, but can I eat it?" My green thumb wants to enjoy beauty and fragrance and wild pollinator attraction, as well as satisfy my palate and

Small Friends: Barefoot Books

Today I'd like to shine a spotlight on Barefoot Books. Back in May, after my guest post on Soulemama, I received an email from the children's book publisher. They had seen my post there and wanted to send Huxley some books.
I can't speak highly enough of Barefoot. Their selection of reads for babies and children is incredibly well curated. The illustrations are top tier and the subject matter is

Let's Go To the Hop

Huxley and I will be attending what promises to be an incredible music show this Wednesday. Orlando-based Rabbit will be playing at The Hop on Merrimon Ave.. My imminently talented and exquisitely lovely friend Jen Altman worked hard to make this show happen, so, if you're free, let's convene, eat ice cream, get our music on, and show Rabbit some support!
P.S. Did I mention that the show is free

We Put Lids On Things

The first canning class chez English went off without a hitch this past Saturday. Ten lovely ladies made the trek out here to watch me steam it up over a boiling water bath.
We took some of the finest, ripest, sweetest, juiciest peaches South Carolina has to offer and rendered them into spiced peach jam. To cool ourselves in my hot kitchen, we sipped on Hubs' delicious lemonade and water infused

Pollination Station(s)

Sorry for the radio silence, folks! Between prepping for Saturday's t.v. segment (soon as I obtain a clip of the segment-which went really well!-I'll be sure to post it here), prepping for the 2nd photo shoot of the new book this past Monday, and then having family come into town on Tuesday, we've been busy, busy bees chez English.
Now we (we being Hubs, my two sisters, Huxley & myself) are

Guest Post: Crafty Little Gnome

Hi friends. I've got another great guest post for you today. Adrienne, who lives in Bellingham, Washington and blogs at Crafty Little Gnome, is sharing tips for success with Vermicomposting. That's composting with worms, for the uninitiated, but I'll let Adrienne explain all of that to you. Check out the post and be sure to visit her blog, as well. There are many, many ideas that will undoubtedly

Lights! Camera! Boil!

Local folks, tune into WLOS this coming Saturday morning, August 6th. Make your morning cuppa, switch on your television, and find me chatting about water bath canning with Megan Schiering at 7 a.m.. I know it's early, but I promise to put on a good show (disclaimer-I haven't been on t.v. since I was 17 years old, when I would record newsworthy tidbits from my high school at the local cable

Breakfasts of Champions

We take breakfast pretty seriously, chez English. I've long been the kind of person that wakes up completely ravenous (I'm starting to think Huxley may have inherited this trait from me because dude wakes up really wanting to chow down, stat). Since Hubs needs a bit longer to rouse himself when the sun is making its climb in the sky (I'm the morning dove, he's the night owl), I typically let out