Under a blue moon

5.6.13

Sorry for the lack of Friday's Favorites last week.  The week just got away from me with work being incredibly busy and with getting ready for a garage sale.  

Goodness garage sales are hard work!  I was very organized.  I had everything sorted in big boxes, labeled and priced, had my fanny pack with lots of small bills to make change.  We scheduled to start at 9:00am and at 7:30 people were already pulling up and going through my unpacked boxes.  

My goal was to get rid of things I haven't used in years or just didn't have the need or room for in the new house.  Making money was secondary.  I sold almost everything so I feel good about that.  It was a joint effort with my mother in law (held in her driveway) and it was fun to hang out with her all day.  We were both exhausted though.  

Anyway - enough of that.  

This week I want to finish up with the house tour so we can get on with decorating and projects.  So first up front yard.  

Here is the view from our front door.  Rick deadheaded the roses yesterday but even so there are still tons left on the bushes.  I feel like Alice in Wonderland walking down our pathway.  I love looking out at the houses across the street.  They are really, really cute.

Let's talk about the brick at the front of the house.  I'll show you a better view of the front yard in a second - but take a look at it here.  We'll eventually paint the house and I was thinking of toning down the orangey brick a bit.  I would whitewash it so it isn't so bright.  I don't want to completely cover it because I like the contrast, and frankly painting brick is one of those things where you need to be completely committed because once painted it is near impossible to reverse.

Does anyone have any experience with whitewashing brick?  Any tips or advice?

Orange just isn't my color.  We'll probably paint the house some version of a light taupe-y grey with white trim.  I think whitewashed brick would look nice with it.  

And finally here is a long shot of the front of the house.  If you remember the pictures from the inside far left is the garage.  The first window to the right of the garage is my office/craft room.  The second window (going left to right) is the window over the kitchen sink.  The rest of the windows are kind of hidden but the brick part of the house is the living room and there are corner windows on each side (so four windows total).  The front of the house has a southern exposure to it is very bright and sunny on that side.  

In the next post I'll show you the little courtyard in the front and some shots from the backyard.

6.25.11

Glamorous before and after pictures of my shed.  Try to contain yourself.  

This eyesore is just to the right of our garage.  When you drive up to the house it is pretty well hidden by large azaleas and a mimosa tree but our neighbors get the full glory of the mismatched, hodge-podgy mess. 

On Friday afternoon I got a notion to finally paint the thing.  I had some left over paint from when we had our house painted a few years ago.  The before pictures show the paint scheme the house had before we painted it.  

First a little history of the building.  In a previous life it was a kennel. The front and back are actually made from chain-link fence and the two sides are wooden, each with a door.  Inside there is a concrete slab that makes up 2/3's of the floor.  The rest is dirt.  

Ignore the pile of rocks - they are left over from the landscaping we did last year.  Same with the brick.  We just haven't figured out what to do with them yet.  

We covered the chain-link with bamboo fencing material.  It was cheap and easy to attach.  The camera isn't quite picking up the true color of the after - it is a light taupe color. I still need to paint the underside of the over hang but I ran out of paint and motivation.

Not the prettiest building or my idea of what a garden shed should look like but it is an improvement.  It's still held together with termite poop and cobwebs but at least it looks better.

This is what it looks like inside.  No way I'm ever painting the inside. I've already had one black widow spider crawling on my arm in here.  I try to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Sheesh - I rarely blog and this is what you get?  Prettier pictures later on this week - I promise.

 

5.9.12

Last year was the Summer of big outdoor projects.  This year we fully intend to reap the benefits of all that work.  We have been spending the last couple of weeks replanting the pots and getting the drip system all dialed in.  

Normally I do more of an eclectic mix of plants in the pots, aiming for a casual, cottagy look.  This year I wanted to do something slightly more formal and lower maintenance.  That casual look takes a lot of work!  

I have five pots that line the railing.  I planted a daphne in each one and then a mix of bacopa and calibrachoa (Million Bells) in shades of lavender and pink to spill over the edges.  I love the scent of the daphne and how it has an elegant look to it.  

I bought that standard rose bush at the grocery store.  Let's see how well it holds up.  Usually I'm not quite so impulsive with my rose purchases but it had so many buds on it I figured I would just pretend it was like buying a floral arrangement.  If it doesn't do well at least I'll get a few weeks of enjoyment out of it.  

Lots of naked cherubs in that picture.  

This is the view from my kitchen window.  Kind of a cock-eyed picture but I wanted to capture all the elements.  We hung hummingbird feeders all around the house and there was a visitor to this one while I was taking pictures.  Not very shy, those hummingbirds.

Now we can just sit back, sip our evening libations and enjoy the view.

4.4.12

Just a quick post on a quick project.  I have had this hose-bib hose hanger** for years.  Not sure where or when I got it but I've had it for about 10 years.  It started out white but years of sprinklers and inclement weather have taken their toll.

It didn't matter that it was slowly rusting because it was hidden behind a rose bush.  

When we did the landscaping work last Summer we removed all the plants along the front of the house (where the hose hanger lived). They have since been replaced with lower growing plants and the rusty old hose hanger stood out (and not in a good way).

We also did some work at the back of the house - replacing the decrepit walkway behind the garage.  

I decided the hose hanger could live back there but would need a face lift since it would be very noticeable (no hiding behind a rosebush).

This was an easy fix.  I just took a wire brush to it and scrubbed away at any loose paint and dirt.  Then I painted it with a rust inhibiting spray paint in a dark grey/brown color.  

I ended up putting three coats on the front and two on the back.  My painting skills are really deficient but I am getting a little better with spray paint.  The trick is multiple light coats.  No rushing (as I am wont to do).  

This isn't a very glamorous after shot, it is the backside of the garage after all, but I like how tidy it looks.  The hose was just in a heap on the walkway prior to hanging it.  We will fill the area with some stones to keep the dirt from splashing up on wall.   We just planted some hydrangeas and rhododendrons in the planting bed.  They are joining the azaleas that we transplanted from the front of the house last Summer.  Hopefully they will fill in quickly and provide some color and interest along the backside of the garage.  

 **I've been calling it the wrong thing for years!  It's not a hose-bib (which is the faucet) it is a hose hanger.  Sheesh.  Slinking off now....

 

9.10.11

Normally I don't post on Saturdays but I couldn't resist the date.  I love when the numbers line up like that.  

Yesterday I made my friend Keith come over and pick apples with me. Our two trees have been very prolific this year and the apples were starting to jump off the trees.

I have no idea what the varieties are - one tree produces apples with a vaguely Golden Delicious flavor to it and the other one has tart apples on it.  Neither are particularly good eating apples but they do cook up nicely.

Luckily for Keith and me he brought his daughter with him so we made her go up the ladder and pick them from the higher branches.  She is infinitely more agile than either of us.  

Next year I want one of those old three legged orchard ladders.  I think it would a look a little more charming than our day-glo yellow fiberglass one (which is stage left, out of camera range).

I baked one pie and have a pot of apple butter simmering with my windfall.  

The pie recipe is used is this one.  It has a ton of great reviews and I like the story of how the woman's grandmother wouldn't have known what all the fuss was about - it was just her standard apple pie recipe.  And her granddaughter loves how, with one simple little recipe, her grandmother has entered so many kitchens and has joined many families at their tables.

Even though it is still in the 90's today there is a suggestion of Fall in the air.  That subtle breeze and the first of the leaves dropping from the trees.  The smell of apples cooking sure adds to that Fall feeling.  

There is something really rewarding about taking something that grew in your own garden and making something out of it.  

8.24.11

Our first tomato.  Is it from the one gallon heirloom tomato variety it took me 45 minutes to pick out at the nursery?  Of course not.  

It is from a tomato seed pooped out by one of our intrepid, self-sustaining chickens.  Of course her placement could have been a little bit better.

It's on a slope leading down to the chicken coop.  On the other side of the coop we have a veritable garden of corn and other tomato plants popping up.  We aren't cultivating those, however.  This one Rick put a support around and we are watering it just to see what kind of tomatoes it produces.  

In other gardening news we finally got the driveway circle planted. And by "we" you know I mean I picked out the plants and Rick did the actual digging and planting of said plants.  All sixty of them.  

The space has morning and late afternoon shade and direct sun mid-day.  The hardest part was figuring out how to place the plants.  We will have a crab apple tree as a focal point near the center and we wanted a variety of flowering shrubs and ground covers to provide interest throughout the year.  

We still have some filler type plants we want to put in and everything needs to grow and fill in but it looks really pretty already (in my humble opinion).  Please ignore the stack of firewood in the background.  It will be removed in the next few weeks.

We'll have to wait until Spring to get our Crab Apple since the variety we want isn't available right now.  For now we just have a stand in Crepe Myrtle to help with the placement of all the rest of the plants.  

The only problem we have at the moment is keeping the chickens from digging up the smaller plants and for some reason Belle is totally smitten with the Scaevola Mauve Clusters and wants to lie on them.  

8.18.11

I can't believe my two week, stay at home vacation is almost over. The theme for the two weeks ended up being sewing.  

Our patio furniture cushions are in dire need of recovering.  I would love to just replace them but the cushions (the seat cushions anyway) are an odd shape.  It dents in on either side at the front to accomodate the armrests.  

Finding replacement cushions is tricky - I suppose we could just get square ones and squish them in but the cheapest set I could find (and not even in a fabric I would consider) was about $50 or $60!  I have eight chairs and two lounge chairs.  That would add up.

So I decided to make a prototype chair cover.  Took two separate tries (and many trips to the fabric store) but I think I found the fabric I want and have created a pattern that works.  

Now I just have seven more sets to make.  Plus the two lounge chairs.   

I was thinking of taking them to a place that does machine embroidery and have a scripty monogram put on the back cushion but Rick looked at me skeptically when I mentioned the idea.  Personally I think it would add a nice touch.  

As you can see the deck is nearing completion.  The deck guy thinks it will be done by next week.  

In other parts of the yard....

Knock knock

Who's there?

 

4.11.11

 

I have to start this post by saying that I certainly do have the most accomodating husband.  I come up with an idea, no matter how cockamamie, and he figures out how to make it work. 

This is the view from my kitchen window. 

Let's look a little closer, shall we?

 

I don't recall where I first saw this done (old porch post with birdhouse on top) but I know that I've wanted to do it for a long time. 

I didn't want to lose any of the height of the porch posts.  Not knowing the ways of post construction I wasn't sure how that was going to work.  But not to worry - Rick knew exactly how to install them. 

Here's a little mosaic of the process.  Now since the posts were slightly different sizes (one was from the days when a 4 x 4 was actually 4" by 4") one of them had to be modified a bit so the bracket (which is made to fit a modern 4 x 4 which is about 3.5" x 3.5"). 

The larger of the posts had to be chisled away a little bit in order for the bracket to fit. 

He also had to reinforce the bottom of one of the posts since it was splitting.  Nothing a little wood glue and some carefully placed screws couldn't take care of.

 

The braces in the bottom right picture were removed after the concrete set. 

One birdhouse I've had for a number of years.  It is actually a bird feeder/bird house (the attic is the living quarters).  I got it for a song because one of the finials on the top was snapped off.  I had Rick snap the other one off and put two sparkly glass cupboard knobs on top.  Rick also had the idea to put decorative brackets underneath it to give it a little more visual weight.   

I painted the roofs of both a slate color.  One had a blue roof and the other had plain, unfinished wood. 

Now I just need to wait for some birds to move in.

 

11.8.2010

 

It was a lovely Fall weekend around these parts.  We don't get too many days like this - where the weather is cool, but sunny and the leaves are gently falling from the trees. 

No our yard is not on fire.  It was a burn day so Rick pulled a bunch of dead limbs down into a natural hollow in our yard and burned them.  It just helped add to the ambiance. 

I spent the day puttering around and reading magazines.  The day before was spent - and there is no way to say this delicately - cleaning Ina's backside.  The cochins are quite beautiful with their very fluffy feathers but they can tend to have an undesirable build up of chicken poop.  Which needs to be cleaned off because it won't go away on its own. 

So poor Ina had to be captured and wrapped in a towel.  Rick held her while I took warm wet rags and had at the business end of things.  I'm not sure who was more traumatized - me or Ina.  I'm thinking Ina.

 

Le Palais de Poulet

 

The chicken palace is done!  Well almost....We are thinking we'll put a small window in that front wall on the left.  For extra ventilation and so the girls can look out. 

My intention is to have a separate chicken palace page with all the details of the construction and some tips and lessons learned.  I'm working on that and when it's done I'll post a link.

In the meantime here are a few pictures.

My favorite part - the screen door.  The brackets came from Anthropologie and the door knob was knocking around in Rick's spare hardware drawer. 

The backside of the palace.  The nesting boxes are on top and there is storage below.  This design inspiration came from Heather Bullard's coop except hers is on the end of her coop.  Actually I have to say a LOT of the inspiration came from Heather's coop and a set of coop plans that we purchased.  We kept referrning to both during the construction.  We just made adjustments to suit our particular needs. 

The end of the coop.  Those are the clean out doors.  Sorry the picture is a little bit crooked.  I had to climb up on a weedy hill, alive with ticks, to take that picture.  I wanted to just snap and get out of there.

The inside of the coop.  Arched openings to the nesting boxes are another design idea borrowed from Heather's coop.  We ended up putting a lower, portable perch in here until the chickens are big enough to get up to the higher perches.

One of the girls checking out her new digs.  They didn't like the ramp at first.  We had to pick them up and put them in their coop.  We ended up buying some non-slip material for it and now they march up and down the livelong day (you can kind of see it in the picture below - it's a medium grey color).

I've named all the chickens only I can't tell them apart yet.  Well I can tell one of the Buff Cochins because her tail is shorter than the others, but that is it.  I'm waiting for their little personalities to develop so I can properly assign their names. 

I have Rick to thank for this beautiful palace.  He was very patient with me and my design demands.  He made it sturdy and safe and didn't roll his eyes when I walked in with Anthropologie bags and insisted on returning the ugly plastic waterer for a more esthetically pleasing metal one.  He asked me where the chandelier was going to go (and he'd hang one for me if I asked).

The girls and I truly appreciate his efforts.