Ashley English's Blog, page 4

The Long View

As I write this, my maternal grandmother (known to myself and my brother as "Nanny" and "Ruby" to the rest of the world) is lying in a hospital bed in the ICU at Mission, Asheville's incredible gem of a hospital. After not feeling so well for a few days, she called herself an ambulance last Wednesday, only to discover she has pneumonia in both of her lungs (or, at least, that was the suspected

What I'm Digging

 Happy Friday, friends! The rain from earlier this week has moved on and things are bright and sunny outside. Oh, and cool, too! It's cool outside for the first time in weeks. I even had to put on a coat to head out to the chicken coop this morning, and sleep under the down comforter last night!

Here's a smattering of things that inspired and intrigued me this week:
*Tips for successful

Home Sweet Homegrown (+ Giveaway!!!)

The time of gardening is upon us friends! From spring weather-loving crops to those heat-cravings vegetables of summer, the days of seeds and soil and planting and gathering are here. Hubs and Huxley and I have been out in our garden every day, mucking around, getting dirty, and loving it all!

While I've been gardening for some time, there's always so much more to learn. The gardening

Recent Acquisitions

I love considering other ways of being, of doing. When we were visiting Amanda in Maine this past March, at one point our conversation turned to schooling and education. She articulated her views on the importance of presenting children with different ways to living one's life, that the path from point A to point B, in terms of career and livelihood and education, needn't be always the

Of Food & Friends

We'd planned to host our lovely friends, Jen and Jon, of Decatur, Georgia this past weekend, along with this adorable 2 year-old daughter, Awynn. At the last minute, we discovered Jon had come down with a fever (last I heard there were suspicions of strep throat, which has been rampant around these parts recently). Poor guy! And so, their visit has been postponed by a week.

Our friends

Clean Up Your Act

My Small Measures post is up over on Design Sponge. This week I'm chatting about making several all-natural, inexpensive, supremely easy cleaning products. You can read the full post here.

As I mention in the post, whenever we've used up the contents of an attractive bottle, we give it a thorough sanitizing wash in the dishwasher and then store it away for later use. We've got a basement with

What I'm Digging

Happy Friday, friends! We've been working hard in the garden this week, getting all sorts of goodies planted and watered and gloriously growing. So wonderful to see it all flourishing. I'll take some photos of different planters we've built out there recently and share them with you soon.

A gaggle of friends is due out here tomorrow evening, to make tacos and drink libations and play with

Oh me, Oh my, Oh Pie!

You know when you work, and work, and work (and work and work and WORK!) on something and then, suddenly, it's done, finished, fully completed? And it feels so, so very good, right? Well, that time has come.

I am over the moon thrilled today to share with you a little sneak peek of my new book, A Year of Pies: A Seasonal Tour of Home Baked Pies (Lark Crafts, 2012). The idea for this

I'm Bringing Cake Walks Back

We had SO much fun at the Slow Food Asheville sponsored Cake Walk this past Sunday. Hubs even won a scrumptious cheesecake from Rachel's Delectables. My mom and grandmother joined us at the event and Huxley showcased his best moves for the crowd (he's crazy about dancing; I'm thinking some music and/or dance lessons are in his near future). Locals, I highly encourage you to get involved with

What I'm Digging

Happy Friday, friends! What a week it's been, chez English. While I've been battling my way through the most severe seasonal allergy attack of my life, I've also been reveling in a number of exciting new prospects.

To begin, we introduced Huxley to his training potty on Tuesday. He's already used it a few times!  Of course, he's also definitely, decidedly, without question NOT used it, too.