One More thing...

If we owned this place, I would do this:

To this:

And so would you. Those slats look out on our back garden and I feel that it would work better to be more open than what it is now...being haunted by the early 80s...

Some Pretties

I went through my back issues and pulled some tear sheets for future reference:

I love doorknobs.

That little pink Ghost Chair at an art Table...swoon.


This + Book + Lemonade - flies = perfection

Happy Easter!

As promised: Air Bed Review

You remember - it took up SO Much room.

It was awesome. A full week and no deflating. Our guest was comfortable and slept better than she does at home. Part of that is because we completely wore ourselves out and part of that is because she just prefers to live on the left coast.

So there you go. Buy it Here.

Here's a photo of us wearing ourselves out:

Ok, really that's just me. But it was taken by Jessica and we had to hike up a mountain to get to that lovely rock. Which I, of course, couldn't stay off of.

Gardening

I know everyone likes a good before and after, but I've just got the before and during...the "after" is going to take some planning. And help. Lots of help. Maybe even from trained professionals:

Before - Lemon Tree covered in Ivy.

After: Lemon tree with ivy removed. All of those green shoots on the trunk are purple-blossomed Lemony Goodness.

This - where the brown/orange filled patches are - had lots of empty/dirt and dandelion filled planters. Some of them were cute and those are in the garage. Just in case. Some of them were plastic and cracked and they're in our garbage bin. I have no idea what to put here, and it appears that our landlord didn't either. He seems to be of the When In Doubt Plant Spider Ferns, Ivy, or Cacti variety. And with little-to-no planning about where they go. I actually found all three in a single pot. Not Kidding.

This is what my kitchen window looks out on. There's an orange tree immediately to the left, which is what is shading it. I think that's all clover, but don't hold me to that.

Those are rose bushes and a random cacti in a plastic pot. I like the tree stump. I think it adds characters. And the neighborhood cats play in it, which giggles me. Back in the corner (on the right by the blue shed thing) are: a fig tree that's producing figs. A tree that's producing some kind of red berry and might be a plum tree? A stand of random bamboo, and a pile of detritus. The pile of detritus will be removed by our (mostly useless) gardener this week.

This is the other side. It's got a lot of potential, except for the randomly placed rose bushes. In that corner where the fences meet is another pile of detritus, also to be removed this week.

This is just sad. It's behind the garage/summer kitchen. We removed a lot of the dirt and dandelion filled pots today and decided that at one point it was a nicely landscaped piece of dirt. Now it's just neglected. Gardener might just get in there and reduce it to dirt. But then what do I plant?

Luckily we have a nursery here that's fairly helpful, but I'm definitely going to have to learn more about what will grow and how to grow it and then do the planning.

Like I said, there might be professionals involved.

I will leave you with something pretty:

In our front yard.

Finally put my hammer to use

Just call me Captain Hammer! (except I'm a girl and look nothing like Nathan Fillion.)

Remember this? Now it looks like this:



That's an antique stereoscope on the left (inherited) and my favorite mirror. Also I have not read those books, yet. Public Enemies is about to be a very promising movie.

But that's not all I did yesterday while our internet was down. I also hung this:


and this:


and this:

That one might be joined by another. I'm not sure yet. It's on the wall of the hallway - to the right is the guest room and to the left the master so I'll walk by it a LOT. Your thoughts?

And then this one:

Yes, that's a certificate for the Children of the Confederacy. It belonged to my great grandmother, Pauline. That is not her in the picture. Those are husband's grandparents. The only thing that might change here is that I'll move Pauline's picture to the table. And replace the lamp, which belongs to our landlord and which has remained strictly out of function.

(It amuses me the impact this might have on our homestudy..but I'm not moving it!)

Happy Friday!

ps - LOVE that I got to use Captain Hammer in this blog. Love.

Something's been eating my oranges

It fell from the tree in the backyard at some point over the last day, and when I went out this morning all I found was an empty shell...and some exploded bits. Wonder what could be doing this?

Whatever it is has opposable thumbs, a deep love of overly ripe citrus, and was clearly not a girl scout. Good thing all I do is sweep the fallen oranges into the shrubs anyway and let them decompose. Natural fertilizer.

Infected

So right now when I walk outside it smells like orange blossoms, lemon blossoms, and roses. It's heavenly.

Then I walk around to the front of the house and see this:

My peach tree leaves are turning red. So I get closer:

Peach Tree Leaf Curl is what it's called and this is not even the grossest picture. So I'm off to the Orchard Supply place to pick up something that will help this. Although it might be too late.

Our gardener is worthless. Unfortunately, it's totally worth $30/month for him to come twice and mow. For now.