Weekend Highlights

Never again will I let so much time go by without a vacation! Husband & I finally went away. What did we do?

Walked a mile into Jack London State Park to look at the ruins of Jack London's House.

Drove 30 miles to see the sunset, twice.

I pretended to be attacked by birds in front of a church in the town of Bodega Bay where the movie 'The Birds' was filmed; forgetting all the while that Husband needed me to stand still for the photo. Later, watched the movie just to see if it's really as scary as each of us remembered that it was. It is.

Strolled around the town of Sonoma, stopped for brunch, wine tasted and visited a few nice shops there.

Purchased a jug of wine from a great winery in Healdsburg, explored their vegetable garden for ideas and even had a picnic.

Had a nice time.

A Plan Put Into Action

Have a good weekend, We're off to the Napa Wine Country!!

Possibilities

This headboard has gotten my attention today. From Wisteria, it's two individual headboards used as one king. It's a french style and is available in white also. It could be really nice to use in our master bedroom after the walls have been painted although I'm not certain about using a wood headboard for a couple of reasons; I'm worried about it being uncomfortable to lean up against and I think it may be too much with the chest of drawers that we have on one side of the bed and the desk on the other. We may need something upholstered just to add a bit of softness.

Knock, Knock

Germi, can you come out and play?? Is there anyone who agrees that it's just been too long without the Germinatrix, plant & garden blogger formerly with Domino? If you know where to find her, please share. I know she has fantastic advise about interplantings and the like to help with my insecurities on the subject.

*Update- 4/2- She's back!

More Garden Planning

We've decided for the most part where the raised beds will go in our yard, now it's time to decide on the plant placement. I'm making myself crazy with it. Should we go with a French Intensive Method or traditional plantings? All vegetable or ornamental as well and if so, what it the best combination? I want dimension and varied height. Of course I want the plants that need the most sun in the right place in relation to those that will shade them from it if in the wrong place. I'm worried that I don't have enough room which is crazy since I'm probably tripling the garden size we had last summer. See what I mean?

Association

I love illustrated children's books. Pierre a Cautionary Tale in 5 Chapters and a Prologue by Maurice Sendak, The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber and Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats are a few of my favorites. I think of those illustrations when I see these pillows by Bridget Davies.

Next!

Ever since Husband painted the bathroom, I've been amazed at how freeing it is to have someone else do the work involved with my ideas! Follow through is not my strong point.

This week, Husband stripped the paint off of two old dressers from his mom's garage and painted them a glossy white. We added some silver retro knobs and tomorrow they'll be fully functioning in the younger girls' bedroom.

Next week, maybe this paint job in our master bedroom. I've enjoyed the green but he's never liked it. This look is perfect. Most of the room is a light grey right now so we'll just leave that color on the ceiling and top of the tall walls and add the dark grey to the rest. I'm looking forward to this sophistication.

Good Stuff

When I saw these on the front page of Etsy this evening, I was immediately in love. Embroidered Astrology?! I clicked over to the shop, Miniature Rhino, and found there's even more there to love. Last, I visited the blog, so much good stuff. This is the kind of creative I long to be. Go take a look.

Inspired

Last year when this I saw this photo in Traditional Home, I became obsessed. I had to have a pear tree like this one. So, imagine how ecstatic I was to find a bare root dwarf pear for less than $3 on clearance at Lowe's. It was the tiniest thing and I wasn't sure it would survive but it was worth it to try. There are four types of pear grafted onto one trunk; Anjou, Red Bartlett, Bartlett and Flemish Beauty. It has been in the ground for a year now and we are excited to see it beginning to bloom. In the course of a year it has grown 3 feet so I know that it will look like it's inspiration in no time at all (what's a few years in the life of a garden?).

Looking Ahead

If I ever redo my kitchen, I think I'll go this route. The rustic simplicity is very appealing to me. It makes me think of potatoes and onions in baskets and bread baking. I don't know why.

All Set

Found these two fantastic vintage suitcases last week for roughly $10 total and grabbed them knowing that a vacation was near. Divulged my plan to Husband then scoured the internet looking for somewhere appealing to go nearby (2 hours drive or less) on the cheap. Found. Arrangements have been made. It's all very exciting.

Dedicated Space

{Flor}

{Martha Stewart for Valspar}

Our children sit down together each afternoon at the kitchen table to do their homework. Some are there for a few minutes, some are there for a few hours. These two dedicated spaces seem like they could be a nice quiet, structured space for getting things accomplished. The first image reminds me of the cardboard partitions that we put up on our desktops in grammar school for test taking. I love it. It would go along way towards putting a stop to arguments, at least the 'he's looking at me!' complaint would be foregone.

Happy Day

Oh, how I love change! Really. I know that there are many who abhor it. I am not one of them. I get to a place where it's a necessity.

At this moment, Husband is taking down blue tape from our main bathroom. It's been like a dream, never has this happened before. Husband said to me, "Pick the color and I'll paint it." What?! So, I did. I'd been scouting out the exact color in my head and realized on Monday that I was wearing it. My shirt was the exact shade I was looking for so I headed over to Lowes and started comparing swatches. It is close to the color above and it's perfect.

We changed out the black metal blinds (yikes, I know) that had been up for too long for faux white wood, ordered the print above and just have to figure out where to get this fabirc for the shower curtain for even less and it our mini makeover will hold me over nicley until the bigger things like tile, mirror and sink can be addressed. Yeah!!

Dear Husband,

Can you build this too?! Maybe adapt this tutorial from Sunset to be more upright...what do you think?
Smith & Hawken