welcome to my garden, part one

My garden is growing in leaves and bounds. I thought it would be fun to take you on a tour...


The door- well, for the most part the entire greenhouse- is cleverly (although not always aesthetically) pieced together from the salvage that my husband has squirreled away. I found a cute wooden sign for the entrance (note door to chickens is to the left in this shot) that draws your eye away from the dinge of the old door.

The entire east wall is the raised bed Jay built with the first bit of the bed holding lettuce we've been enjoying for months. Now our salad staple is quickly bolting as the days are warming so I've been slowing pulling the old plants and using them as chicken treats, the long stems ending up in my compost pile. Note how the lettuce leaves hang over the edge; the chickens love to come in the garden and hop up to help themselves to a bite of fresh greens. I sometimes let them come in and scratch around in the compost pile but have to watch closely or they head for greener pastures.

The inside walls of the greenhouse are either plastic, bird netting or various used sheets of wood.

Recently when I stopped at a church yard sale I was inspired by some interesting wallpaper ... 

and ended up with this...

stay tuned for part two of the tour...

out of africa

I found this wonderful batik cloth at the second hand store. When I bought it I was thinking of the dining room table but discovered the size was more suited to the bed. It's given a fun new look to our bedroom.

 

support hobby lobby

My latest paint project ...
painted to match the house trim and hang over the entry door. 

spacial

My living room furniture is in transition.


Last week we started putting down wood flooring. We had some leftover from the bedroom and our friends had similar planks stored in their barn but between this and that we still came up short of the amount needed to complete the project.

While we scour the valley for a good deal on a matching flooring I arranged the couch and chair according to the space left after the bookshelf and entertainment center landed during the work session. After living with this new arrangement for a couple of days I realized I really like the cozy corner the couch and chair make together. Up until now they have resided on opposite sides of the fire place.

Along with the flooring change we also hung the large mirror, formerly located in the bedroom, above the fireplace. The lack of natural light in the living room makes the mirror the perfect choice for the cave-like space. After the mirror was attached, although the reflected light was perfect for that space, I was disappointed that I hadn't realized the size of the mirror was larger than I wanted and didn't leave room for adding a frame. Later, while getting photos ready for the memorial, I remembered a fancy frame (technically pieces of a frame) that Jay had brought home from somewhere. I had him glue the pieces together and used the frame for the memorial project. Now I'm eyeballing that frame and the mirror and hoping they can get together someday. In the meantime, the frame looks nice just propped in front of the fireplace.

black and white november

In honor of the self-designated black and white photography month I am taking up the unattractive, dated, gold carpet from our living room to uncover the gray concrete slab beneath. Actually, I've been waiting for this moment since the first time I walked in the house. We took up the first part of the carpet in our bedroom earlier this year and replaced it with wood flooring I had purchased off Craigslist. I've found that my the hacking cough and rattle in my lungs that I couldn't seem to shake regardless of the remedies I tried disappeared after removing the bedroom carpet. That made me all the more anxious to get the carpet in the living room out the door. When Tracy, our favorite homeless friend, took up one area of carpeting today we found black dots the size of quarters that looked suspiciously like black mold. Although I may have to live with drab gray cement floors for a time I will enjoy the physical and ascetic health benefits of removing the ugly carpet.

huppah-ing

The countdown is on and Lura and I have been jumping through huppahs getting ready for the wedding this weekend. Last week we went shopping at a large discount material store to purchase supplies.

On Monday we set up the canopy and draped it with lights and gauzie material until we were sure we knew we had a plan that would work.

I had to draw a "map" in order to see how the three lengths of material might work together to cover all the ribs of the structure. We took a few minutes before starting the process to anoint the materials and pray.


On Tuesday we worked on design for the chairs.

And today we will work at attaching purple ribbon to the white aisle runner.

the chair

I love this chair.

We stumbled upon it in an unexpected place, a little store front church up north with miss-matched furniture. I immediately fell head over heals in love with it. At first I just admired it from a distance, earthy brown with a hint of summer's past sitting on the porch. Then I let it hold me, ample arms around me, soft cushions with plenty of room to snuggle. Then to seal the relationship, it gently rocked me back and forth, back and forth on quiet, cleverly disguised gliders. Alas, when the day was over we had to part...but I haven't forgotten the moments we shared.

line dance

the gift

This is one of several gifts I was given last week as Tracy sorted through his stash of treasures. It's current state is rather sad but it's potential is inspiring. I can't wait to see what I do with it. Any suggestions?

new view

After putting away the Hanukkah lights and hanukia I needed a new theme for my kitchen window sill. I started with three dollars worth of ivy because green makes me happy.


Inspired by an article I read online I found some nice stones to bring a nature feel and added them to the votive candles that were a carry over from Hanukkah. Voila! A peaceful, light and life look for my dish washing viewing pleasure.

barn dance

This ones for the farmers in the family....

spotted during a recent bike ride...


yard with old tractor and planter as lawn ornaments.

Gotta love those farm boys!

paint brush prominade

Recently the anticipation of company inspired me to get out the paint and bursh and put a fresh coat of paint on our front door. I'm always surprised what a drastic improvement a little paint can make. The door was previously painted a pale yellow. The paint job was poor so at spots you could see through the brush strokes to the previous color.






Along with the dirty, shabby paint job the door was suffering from a screen that was showing signs of wear. I used a decorator's trick of drawing the eye away from the flaw you don't want people to notice. I stiched the "Welcome Friends" sign on the aging screen. Now when someone aproachs the door their eyes linger on the welcome sign and the screen goes unnoticed.


So...if you happen to be in the neighborhood know you are welcome....just don't look too closely at the screen.