On to other things

I'll get back to the tiles and hopefully finish them later this week, but today was for more fun stuff. The Man is off today and it was lovely to have him home. We ran errands and did a bunch of things that we hadn't had time for.

We picked up a little fire bowl at Lowes for the backyard. Nothing spectacular, but it wasn't terribly expensive and we're both pleased to have a fire. I made him homemade graham crackers (from the June 2008 Country Home) and he's been making s'mores. He's plain old addicted to s'mores.


I bought a few more flowers and hopefully I'm done buying flowers now. For awhile anyway. My house is going to look like the crazy flower lady took up residence. Which I guess, I am, aren't I? I've always been a flower girl.

So here's a tour of my garden. Close up. Cause to back up and take in the whole thing is still quite scary.

alongside the driveway

Under the front window. I planted white caladiums in either corner too,

that don't seem to be liking that spot. Oh well.

Maybe they'll make a comeback.

Sage

Lupines

Lady's Mantle

Tree peony

Roma tomato

Lavender

Fading purple & white alliums

Parsley

Basil

Are we done yet?

I've finished painting all but a couple tiles now. There are a couple that are just easier to leave in than to take down and I haven't gotten to those yet. I spray painted the vent for the air conditioning a nice white, but I couldn't figure out how to get it back up by myself. I put the remainder of the tiles up, except for a few that I just can't get back in. I was so irritated and frustrated that I gave up.



I'm secretly hoping that The Man will help me, but I'm not holding my breath. He's been away more than he's been at home this week and has not been getting enough sleep, so his patience is very short with fiddly things like this. I can't really blame him. He had to get up early this morning for something and ended up sitting on his butt in an un-air conditioned building waiting for 6 hours for exactly nothing. They didn't need him. Well, except he got a nice bit of OT. But still. That's been his week and it was grand fun for both of us.

But it does look better and brighter. I had to run around with a little artist's paint brush and touch up some scratches that I left on the tile trying to get it in and trying to get all the smudges off my nice clean tiles!

I can't believe that amount of dirt that taking them all down created.

There's plenty more. And wires. Wires for what? I have no idea.

I just stuffed em all back in.

Think anyone will notice that I broke a corner off? Some of them were ridiculous to get down.

Oh, and did I mention that I managed to fall while doing it? Yeah. I'm that bright. I was standing on the edge of a bench that tends to tip over and I attempted to step directly onto the ladder. I managed to fall on the edge of the treadmill and onto the bench AND knock over the ladder too with the air vent on top. Awesome. It really wasn't that bad, except that I have a lovely purple bruise across my butt. I'm sure it sounded and looked quite entertaining. Agh. I'm too impatient to always be careful. Very bad.

On the up side, the weather has been lovely this week and the little man is getting better slowly. Today, he actually looked out the window for awhile and made half-hearted attempts to play with his toys. This is progress!

I've been planting lots of things and I'll get around to showing those, but for now, this is an quick and easy project that I actually finished. I painted a plant stand that my brother made for me for a wedding present. It was a royal blue color and I painted it a stone color. I think it blends in with the brick better. And you know me. Less color as usual. But yay!

Stupid Projects I Love to Start . . .

I am the Queen of Stupid Projects at my house. I have this burning desire to start things that no one in their right mind really wants to do. I start off with a bang and get bored and annoyed with myself for doing them. This is my latest:

I'm taking down all the acoustic ceiling tiles in the basement and priming & painting them. Its grand fun. They're filthy and hard to put back up. They are easy to paint though, and it looks much better and brighter. You just have to go around and wipe up all the black fingerprints and smudges on the tiles and the wall that result from fighting with them to get them back up and flat in the grid.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through and have been working on them when the dog doesn't guilt trip me into laying on the couch with him. I know. That job is really rough. Guess how hard it is to talk me out of working on the tiles. . .

I almost convinced myself that I ought to spray paint the metal grid a nice white color when reason finally prevailed. Even I'm not that stupid. The gray will blend nicely with the London Fog paint that was supposed to be taupe, but is really just plain old Gray.

Sick puppy

My little man is sick. He's been sneezing and snorting around since Monday and just wants to be cuddled and his head seems warm. Poor little guy. Since he is so little, we thought we ought to check with the vet. They gave us some antibiotics, but he's still not feeling well. I feel bad for him. He seems like his nose is stuffed up or something. I'm happy to cuddle the little guy, though.

Recent Etsy Love

These are some of my recent favorites on Etsy.

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade barefootdaydreams.etsy.com

Ruflle Pots

I went over to Lowes yesterday, because I needed a flower "fix." They had some nice ferns out, so I grabbed a couple to hang on my porch. I also found some ruffled pots that I liked, but they were mustard yellow and purple, so I got some white enamel spray paint and painted them. They're so cute! Yay! I'm so excited to plant flowers. Bring it on!

My favorite part of Spring

My favorite part of Spring may very well be the first pair of flip flops. Yay!

Mom and I bought matching pairs today.

Spring Show at Phipps

We managed to get to the Spring Flower Show at Phipps Conservatory the other day. I enjoy going there to spend some time with flowers and take some pictures. We ended up having to go on a Saturday, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend, since more people are generally out and about then and I'm so not a people person. But it wasn't too bad. The flowers were lovely, so here they are. Enjoy!

Dog Collars

I found a link the other day at another blog for Pattern & Paw, who has ribbon leashes, collars and harnesses for dogs & cats. Very cute. I am tempted to buy. I love this collar, but its too big for my tiny dog.

So I decided to play around and see if I couldn't make my own collar. I had to look around to find a clip for it, but Joanns had little parachute clips that I figured would work. I used 5/8" ribbon and backed it with twill tape from Martha's crafts line. I slipped in a small D ring and ta-da!

Its a bit big and I haven't fixed that yet. I was having a hard time measuring Dutch's neck, since he really hates collars and harnesses and leashes. Yeah. He's 8 months old and we never make him wear one. Gonna have to break him of that, aren't we? But its cute.

**edited to note that he's already chewed and broken the parachute clip. As I said before, it was loose and he got his mouth around it and took it off all by himself today - the first day I decided to make him wear a collar.

New Lights!

I've finally picked out some light to replace some of the awful old ones in the house. I am on a mission to eradicate all brass in this place. This was a small step, anyway.

This light was in both the bedroom and the hallway.

This lovely floral chandelier has four painted flowers - each a different shade.

I won't be missing it!

Photo from West Elm

This is what I bought. I love this capiz shell pendant from West Elm. It is a plug-in fixture, so for now, I'm going to hang it in the bedroom over the chair in the corner. I don't see why it couldn't be converted to hard wire sometime in the future if I want to put it elsewhere. It went on sale last week and I decided that I just had to have it.

Photo from Bellacor

This is the light that The Man and I finally decided on. Its ridiculously hard to find something we both like that isn't way too expensive. We finally stumbled on this one at, of all places, Home Depot. It wasn't available and I found it for a better price at Bellacor. They were on sale too, and the shipping was free. They said 2 - 4 weeks, but it came in less than a week. Pleasant surprise!

Photo from Bellacor

This is what we're putting in the bedroom. Its also from Bellacor.

These pictures are really lousy, but its gray and blah here today, as it has been way too often lately! I still need to get a hook put up over the chair, so this is where its hanging for now, just so I can look at it!

These lights are bigger than I thought I wanted, but almost all of the lights I've looked at are. It has two sockets, at any rate, and really brightens up the kitchen.

I actually think that the size fits just fine. Yay! I still have to get The Man to hang up the bedroom fixture. We can't possibly do everything at once, you know.....