Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Nesting

We did yard work this weekend. We scooped all the dog poop, mowed the lawn, pulled the weeds, and pruned the bushes that frame our driveway. And, the tulips on our front lawn are blooming, though we had nothing to do with that. The bed of tiger lilies is also starting to sprout, and we planted a bed of wildflowers in the backyard, too. We have high hopes for our vegetation this year, obviously.

Anyway, now that the yard is all neat and pretty, and the weather is lovely and sunny and warm, and we've been grilling out most nights, I've been feeling very nest-y. I'm sure it's nothing like the famous pregnancy nesting, but it does give me a faint glimpse into what that must be like. I want to organize and decorate and plan and cook.

Except, I don't exactly want to cook... I want to BAKE. I want to bake bread and cookies and fancy cakes. I want to bake things that I have no idea how to bake, even at sea level, much less at a mile above. I want to make my kitchen look like this:


Right down to the homemade cake on the little cake stand (and I actually own a cake stand like that already). And hell, I'd take that pantry too, while we're at it.

And, you know, I CAN bake cakes, even at altitude. But then what do I do with them? We don't need a bunch of cakes lying around the house. And I imagine I'd get sick of all the baking. And it would be an expensive and highly caloric new hobby.

Basically, not ideal. So what I really want to know is, how come when spring comes and I get all domestic and nesty, why do I channel all that energy into useless desires? How come I don't suddenly get the desire to come up with a new domestic filing system, or scrub the baseboards?

All I'm saying is, sudden bursts of energy are great and all, but next time I'd like to request that the energy be of the more USEFUL variety.

What about you? Does spring cause any nesting desires in you, or is it just me? If so, how are they channeled? Do you bake too, or do you end up with sparkling baseboards? And if the latter, do you want to bring yourself and your nesting instinct over to my house for a few hours?

22 comments:

  1. OMG that kitchen.

    I like baking too, even though in general I don't eat baked GOODS. If nothing else, it makes the house smell so...HOMEY.

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  2. You don't have to bake just cakes. You can bake a lasagna, scones, casseroles, a whole chicken, pork chops, vegetable dishes ... I love baking too but since my surgery, I don'
    t bake the sweets as much either but I love baking dinner :)

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  3. I bake all year round. :)

    Spring (and fall) bring out the urge to ORGANIZE. I purge old clothes, organize cupboards and get my crap in order. It feels good.

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  4. This weekend I switched out my winter clothes for my summer clothes, swept out all the closets (all the winter shoe grime - yuck), helped Jason scrub off our patio furniture, weeded the yard while he mowed, and am getting estimates to finally deal with getting our gutters and soffit replaced so we can finally scrape and repaint our deck.

    Oh yeah, I'm nesting. Big time.

    (We were outside on Sunday for 6 1/2 hours, and I easily could've been out there for another 6.)

    Love this time of year and getting everything cleaned and organized!

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  5. I always get the urge to organize in the spring and fall too! Closets, garage, toy bins, etc.

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  6. I like to bake for the sole purpose of eating. However, I'm the only person in the house who enjoys these treats, so it's kind of a waste. I have to wait for an occasion, which makes me not want to do it at all.

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  7. I always want to buy plants when Spring arrives. Unfortunately I don't have a yard and I don't have a green thumb. So instead I open the windows, wash the curtains, rearrange the furniture, downsize my wardrobe and make some iced tea.

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  8. I bake a lot. But I dont eat a lot of it....it gets passed out to friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family. I buy seasonal plates when they are incredibly cheap then load it up with baked goodness and randomly take them to people. I LOVE to bake and by giving them away I'm not consuming massive quantities of them. Its really not all that expensive.

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  9. I keep wanting to yank that nasty wallpaper off the hallway and paint it (and the connecting living/dining room) something pretty. But if I do that, then we'll have to have all new blinds/curtains and carpet (oh! you should see the hideous colors the former owners put in here!). Then I remember that I'm out of a job and am about to run out of unemployment, so we STILL can't really afford to make any changes like that. And I get depressed.

    I did thoroughly clean the house last Friday. By Saturday night the kids had completely DEMOLISHED it...and I remembered why I don't usually bother.

    Perhaps it's time to make some chocolate chip cookies? LOL

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  10. Spring makes me want to clean. We are on a roll...still have the third floor and a few closets to get to, but are slowly tackling all the JUNK. :)

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  11. LOOOOVE that kitchen. I get all spring cleaning motivated every spring. Scrub everything, want the house to look homey, update pillows. But not so much bake.

    And when I do bake - we eat a slice or two and then I send the cake to work with B because he can use the calories and I assume the rest of the engineers can, too. But you don't have that luxury yet - that might just be the only drawback to a work from home couple.

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  12. I get insane about organizing and purging. I want to sort through and get rid of everything that isn't nailed down!

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  13. I dream of a kitchen like that! Seriously, if mine looked like that I would practically live in it. And that pantry? Swoon!

    I've been on an organization kick the last couple of days too. In fact, how is this for a spring nesting combo? Not only did I spend a couple of hours starting a new filing system and plowing through some long overdue paperwork sorting & shredding yesterday, later I reorganized some of my bookmarks on the laptop while we were watching tv. The bookmarks I tackled last night? My "baked goods & desserts" recipe folder: 166 items, including 50 cookie recipes alone. Of those I've probably only ever tried maybe 20 recipes. If I figure out how to muster the inspiration to clean the baseboards I'll head over to your house when I'm done here!

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  14. Spring causes me to declutter. I post stuff on Ebay and CL and GET RID OF IT. I love it! It's very freeing.

    I don't bake a lot for Conrad and I either. I mean there are only two of us, right?

    So, when I get in that mood I bake and then bring it to work for friends. I know that won't work for you MS Work From Home (I am SO JEALOUS) but that's what I do.

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  15. Winter around here is so brutal that spring makes me want to get outside. I want sun. I want warmth. I want to run and bike and walk and sit. And I'm usually disappointed, because spring may be sunny around here, but it's never very warm. Sigh.

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  16. hmm... i've HEARD of this nesting / spring cleaning urge thing. must be handy, i sure could use some of it :-)

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  17. Baking at altitude essentially means "add flour", and extra tblsp of water.

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  18. This is the first time I've ever heard the word "nesting" applied to humans. I find it a little disturbing, actually. Haha

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  19. The pregnancy nesting is wonky, too. I want to do weird things like scrub the shower tile with a toothbrush, or polish all the wood in the house, or reorganize my kitchen drawers. You know, because all of those things will be very helpful when the baby gets here.

    I need to clean the carpets, dust the miniblinds and baseboards, but I can't be bothered.

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  20. Oh no you don't. Anyone with the impulse to scrub baseboards or do cleaning of any kind gets sent to my house first. You can have them later if they still have a will to live after cleaning up all our dog hair and detritus.
    Seriously. I can't believe how gross our house has gotten, and how quickly. Just a few months ago it was sparklingly clean most of the time.
    I keep waiting for that nesting urge to hit me, but so far all I've got is tired and hungry.

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  21. Oh, I totally get that. Friends of ours have freshly baked cake at least once a week. When I bake cake it sits around for a month before the last bit gets thrown out. And yet I still get the urge. I also organise books and clothes and do gardening. Somehow I rarely get the urge to clean or do filing. Not hugely surprising.

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  22. I randomly get fits of wanting to bake. I'm like, I REALLY want to bake cookies, or a cake, or a pie, etc. CP always gets excited, but then I think, well, we really shouldn't eat that crap, so then I get sad. I need more gatherings so that I can make these things!

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