Garden Indulgence

This is the third version of the back yard, in three years. What are we? Nuts? You could say that. But isn't that grass glorious? We live and learn and if I had seen more ideas on Pinterest, earlier, and been truly honest about how many zucchini, green beans, peppers and tomatoes we actually eat, I might have ended up with this garden from the start.

I really think grass is a waste, but we have to sell, so there you go. 

 
Three plants that I threw away last year, and found growing again in the dump. Baptisia, which by the way, cannot be transplanted because it has such a long tap root, and is way finicky...NOT.  There it was, waiting for me to reclaim it and now it is about to bloom. Then two of my darling Bleeding Heart plants, one red, one white.

 That loooooong back bed is starting to fill in,, and is just glorious with red verbena, and those Knock Out Roses.

 Anyone can grow Knock Out roses, as can be attested by our neighborhood. They are all in bloom all at once and it is spectacular.

 I am taking most of the hosta with me, in pots, and leaving a few for the new owners, should they be hosta cognoscenti. They look good at this time of year, but by the end of June they suffer from the heat on this side of the house. Hopefully they will be at the new house way before that happens.

Post Without Pictures?

Well...almost.
The cabinets are in and actually have progressed from this point to now having the handles on all the doors and drawers. Counting the four interior cabinet slideouts, there will be 15 drawers in all. FIFTEEN. Holy cow!
My head is spinning and my patience is waning. This is the last week of April and we are due to close on May 31st. Can I stand it until then?
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Thursday and Friday we held a garage sale and got rid of an amazing amount of stuff.
Meat grinder, canning presser cooker, air compressor and hose, four crutches, a shelf unit, a box of wires and cables, hundreds of cds, books, dishes, 16 picture frames, and various pieces of junk. Not all of it was sold. A carload went to Goodwill and another carload went to the construction dumpster around the corner.
It is such a relief not to be moving this stuff, again. Now that I look at the kitchen cabinets, and pantry, it seems I have so little to put into the space. So....just for fun I ordered these dishes.
 Tsk, tsk. Shame on me.

No Holes

 Since I discovered Command hooks and picture hanging strips, I have become committed to preventing holes in my walls. Starting with the design wall which I have moved from upstairs to my main level room, and again moved it from three different spots in the studio, leaving no holes to repair.

Moving forward with more ideas, this attractive metal hook holds four pounds. I may use these in my new bathrooms for towels, rather than a towel bar. Definitely in my kitchen for pot holders and maybe even for curtain rods. Two of these will definitely hold sheers on my windows.

But this is the Eureka moment for me. I am always trying to hang quilts without holes in the wall and this hook, attached at or near the ceiling will hold the fish line which is attached to the rod that holds my quilts. 

The hook swings and can be positioned at a 90 degree angle from the ceiling, allowing for needed space when hanging a rod/quilt combo. Genius!

It's coming along

The gables are painted to match the siding, no more of that off-yellow primer, and the front door is Firecracker red, both inside and out. Vibrant against the all white interior.

 

 

The floor tile in the bathrooms, is grey altho these two fotos make it look brownish. The planks are like a yard long. 

This week we had a walk-thru after the first coat of paint, just to check that everything was OK. It was, thank heaven. When we stood in the long narrow room adjacent to the main living area, we tried to figure out how we would use this as a TV room. It has four ceiling pot lights and a center light fixture, two high windows and three doors, two of which lead to the screened porch.

  Here is the open door to that room, from the main living area.

At home later, we changed our minds from this being the TV room to switching my studio to this smaller room and having the big master, as the 'family TV room' with couches and chairs, library and stereo. Making these changes now, made us sigh with relief. It makes sense to have this smaller room for my studio, with only the necessary furniture in it, and plenty of wonderful light and wall space. My big walk-in closet in the master will be full of the supplies, but out of the way. I will truly enjoy the clutter free space, even though it is smaller in dimensions, as only the essentials will reside there. For me, it is easy to imagine what will fit and work in the space. And of course, it is my duty to open the door for the dogs frequently and we assume they will inhabit the screened porch during nice weather. 

April is half over and the end of May is our closing date, so it is just a matter of weeks now. Woowoo!

Rapids

 Rapids
Acrylic on canvas, 36x48"
I have been playing around with paint, making non-objective paintings. I say 'non-objective' rather than abstract, which I admit is a little of my art-school-thinking rubbing off on me. This isn't a loose interpretation of anything and no plan was afoot as I painted it, other than painting over something else which was dead boring and safe looking.
I want to have big luscious brush strokes of color and movement and that I finally did get... on the third try.

Here's a section or two that makes me happy I kept going.

Pillows

I've given up trying to keep my house 'perfect' for possible buyer viewings. Altho, I admit I am avoiding using the sparkling clean oven and cooktop, and relying on the slow cooker and electric frypan, the real pain lies in keeping my studio clean, ugh. NO MORE.

Last month my sister and I went to IKEA and I got fabric and tables and pillow forms and more stuff, and finally decided to make the pillows today. Yay! I didn't use the fabric I bought there however, instead I used some leftover plaid, cut from a too big bedspread. A nice heavy cotton which I have not found anywhere on a bolt, so using it made me happy. It is flanked by two premade pillows in velveteen from IKEA.

For the remaining two, I used a linen/rayon floral and some long zippers that were previously found on vinyl packages holding comforters.  Zippers have suddenly (to me) gotten crazy expensive and so I am eager to save good ones from otherwise superfluous packaging.
The pillow forms are called Fjardrar  and are filled with duck feathers and are 16x26".

OK, now the machine is warmed up and I think I'll keep playing.

The New Decor

Y'all know my love of color, but I am planning on a black and white based decor for the new house and that will be accented with colorful quilts and paintings on the walls. But wait...what about a black and white quilt? This just occurred to me today. I saw this pin on Pinterest (my daily addiction) and it looked so right in this setting.

 OK so that painting isn't exactly whammo! but it did give me pause, and made me consider making a black, white and gray composition. Not a painting, but a quilt. Recently on my trip to IKEA I got a bunch of new fabrics, and adding my black, white, and prints to this collection gives me a palette for new work.

We have these chairs, which we will arrange as sofa and loveseat in the new home. Pillows and throws will soften the white leather.
 
And there will be curtains instead of blinds, adding more pattern from this Nate Berkus fabric.
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The builder sends these pictures of the progress so I am not driving over there daily, and the trim is now going in and painting is next. All white, including the floors which will be shiny white with two coats of polyurethane for protection from un-manicured pug nails.

Notice those two narrow windows on the right? The space in between is calling out to me to make something long and skinny to fit below them.
There will be touches of red, just so you know. Red pendant lamp shades.

Spring Garden 2016

Ah Spring! I got this pink dogwood last summer, reduced for clearance at Lowe's. Since it had already bloomed, I guess they figured no one would want it. ha! We waited all this time for the flowers to open and now aren't we happy, feeling like a smartypants for getting this beauty at half price.

The Coral Bark Maple branches are sooooo red and the leaves are limey green and bringing so much color into the garden. It is planted in a large pot and will be coming with us to the new garden. Not so the Dogwood... o well. 

 The figs are starting to leaf out and lo and behold are also showing fruit. Who knew? Remember that I dumped these trees into the vacant lot across the road, assuming they were dead after the first year, only to notice they had leafed out in the dump! So I got my trusty wheelbarrow and brought them back home to live again.
And live they did, growing five feet in one season. I enjoyed lots of figs too.

The first leaves of the hyacinth bean have appeared and I thought ahead and made use of my old tomato cages as supports for them. I plant this easy to grow flowering vine every year, since it is such a vibrant purple in the summer garden.


 These clematis were also dumping victims. The two vines were sprouting leaves a few weeks ago, and as I walked the dogs I noticed them and brought them back home. These may or may not be white or pink or red. We had several that didn't bloom the first year. We'll see. Hopefully we won't be here long enough to find out, but if we are at least we'll have the mystery solved.

Speaking of dogs, at Walmart we found this bike trailer and Dave wanted to get it for the pups. I thought he was nuts and that they would never sit still --together-- and let him ferry them around. But he was determined and patient and it worked! He got them into the thing, and happy to be passengers and with any luck, I'll get a photo or two to show. They looked so cute. A neighbor remarked that they were spoiled rotten, and I gotta agree. But in the city, we can use the bike lane and then take them with us to the various parks.