Texas flood

It has been cloudy and rainy since Sunday. Boo.
And it is supposed to stay partly cloudy with good chances of rain until the weekend.
So, I thought I'd share what I WISH our back yard looked like right now...

This would be a great time of year to camp outside for us - during the midst of summer, it doesn't cool off too much at night.

Okay, so this isn't a back yard, but how great is this picture?? I love the look of containers lining a walkway! Container gardening is great for small areas that you can't have a traditional garden.

On a postitive note, at least it looks like our weekend will be nice. Our lawn and plants better be green and growing after all this rain! I'm just sayin'... because I think I'll be sad if they drown or wash away.

*all images from Desire to Inspire

Too funny to not share

In the grand tradtion of Sabrina's "Picture a Day" posts, I give you this:

I'm sure they meant "Pottery" or "Planters". But it's on a greenhouse.... come on... ;-)

Friday Inspirations

I'm so glad it's Friday!! Fridays are wonderful days, so full of hope and promise of the weekend (and sleeping in a bit!). They always put me in a good mood.

I thought I'd repeat what I did last week and show you some of the images that have struck me this week.

This first one is from Carolyn Quartermaine, a British designer. I love her fabric designs!! So unusual and pretty.


This next photo is from Claudia Bryant via Desire to Inspire. Just after we hung up our gallery picture wall I see this, and now I'm wondering how to incorporate this into what I have.
I also love the lightness of this room, as I've been pondering painting our living room (again).



Same with this room - Rebekah posted this on EAD Livng last week, and I just love it. I love the lightness, the haphazard frame artwork, the orange pillow, the green to balance it...

But then, I'm also drawn to darker and moody rooms too! I love the color on the walls here, and how it is complimented with the salmon and the green. (Picture from Casa Sugar)

A medium neutral color, like in this picture from Decorology, is really pretty and is flexible enough to go into most rooms. And how awesome is this antique desk??

This pile of blue pillows, also from Desire to Inspire, caught my eye.

As did the colors in this picture from Claudia Bryant.

And of course, here are a couple of designs from one of my newest obesessions! John Derian's decoupaged plates.


I hope this Friday finds you all well! Have a great weekend!

Kitchen tile options: which do you like better?

Here is my dilemma: We bought some tile on sale last year for our kitchen countertops. Now that we are getting ready to do them, I am not 100% on whether I like them or not.
Well, let me put it this way: if I could spend any amount of money in the world and was not poor and on a budget of next-to-nothing, I wouldn't probably pick this.
But, since we are on a budget, our house is not worth the amount of money to put in marble or a slab of granite, etc, our options are limited.


So, I give you the choices.


Choice #1: The existing tile we already have. We would be using the larger tiles for the counter, and the small squares for the backsplash. As they were on sale when we bought them, there wasn't enough to cover the entire wall from the counter to the cabinets. What we would do would be to use a strip like this, which is about 4 inches tall, and then top it with a small strip of painted moulding to finish it.





Choice #2: Use the existing counter tile we have with plain tile, which we would buy, laid in a subway pattern for a backsplash. Subway tile. I love the look. But, it is time-consuming to put up. And since I've decided that the tile on the left doesn't co-ordinate well, we'd be using white tile, like the tile on the right. So, would it be TOO white and shiny? Would it look kind of cheap since the counters would be nothing-special tile and not granite or marble, etc.?? I'm not sure about this, and the last thing I want to do is spend all weekend tiling a backsplash and then not really like it. Plus, Chris would refuse to re-do it, so I'd be stuck with it.





Here is a (poor quality) picture that shows the 2 choices again, with the (dingy and in need of a paint-job) white cabinets. My kitchen is small, doesn't get a ton of light, and is visible from the living and dining rooms.



The other option that we could do is to put down granite tiles for the counter, maybe with a 3-inch tall cut piece on top for the backsplash. We found a place that is selling certain colors of the tile for a very reasonable price. But if we bought them, we wouldn't have any money to buy anything (like subway tile) for a full backsplash. The color of tile we liked the best is close to this in the picture:
Option #3


If we end up purchasing any tile (granite or subway), then the tile we have already purchased will be used in our bathroom - which will also need to be redone in the near future. So, no wasted tile.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

What is this?

Is it some sort of sculpture? Is it supposed to be art? Or is it some kind of construction that just isn't finished and looks artistic?

For the record, I think it's supposed to be sculpture. It's a serpentine curve, and the posts lean towards the direction of the curve. It's very fluid looking.

It's pretty cool, whatever it is.

Meet Charlie

Our new foster pup! He is the cutest, most fluffy poodle-mix, and is very very sweet. We just need to work on firming up that potty training, and getting him to like to eat dog food (because he doesn't right now.... we think his previous owners fed him tablescraps exclusively).

My Garden, part deux

We spent Sunday working in our yard, and I have some more finished pictures of my flowerbed to show. We still need to add mulch, but for the most part, it's done.
Now it's just time for these plants to grow!

This first picture is of our tiny apple tree (that's still hanging on, after nearly dying each of the last 2 years). From the left of the picture is some Stonecrop (a small, low, groundcover), my pomegranate bush, and 2 perenial pin-cushion flowers. In front of the tree and to the right are 4 strawberry plants, and a coral autumn sage bush. The decorative rocks came from my parents' place in Granbury - lots of rocks there!



This view is to the left of the apple tree. From the right side of the photo we have Paprika Yarrow surrounding another rock, an Indian Hawthorne bush, blue Veronica (a perenial with little blue flowers), a Texas Sage bush, a Calla Lilly plant (pink), an orange Day Lily, another Indian Hawthorne bush, another rock, and my Japanese Maple with purple clover and a Holly Fern underneath.

It all seems so small and sparse right now - I'm looking forward to everything growing and blooming! The Pomegranate bush blooms with these beautiful orange flowers, and the Texas Sage with small purple flowers!

I'll be sure to post more once it all starts blooming and filling in.

Friday inspirations

I'm not sure if everyone knows this or not, but before we had issues with our computer at home (it was a faulty cable), my computer at work died. After a new hard drive, a new DVD drive, more memory, and a totally clean slate - I'm back to normal. Unfortunately, though, all the little interior pictures I had stashed away were gone.
So, I've been surfing around and saving all new things I've found and loved.

Here are some of those things that I came across this week:


This plate collage is perfect. I'm in love, and would copy it in a heartbeat if I could afford to. I've now been introduced to John Derian and his decoupage plates, and I think I've just found something of value that I want to "collect". These would look great in my dining room.


*image from Carolina Eclectic via Desire to Inspire


This next image is from Kelly + Olive, and is definitely an idea I would steal. If I could figure out where to hang it.... It's a DIY ceiling paper-lantern project that uses an existing light fixture base. Very cool.

*image from Kelly+Olive

This is a rug that I'm working on right now. It's made out of those plastic strips that used to be used on those older outdoor folding chairs - those kind of skinny see-through plastic strips?? Well, anyways, this is going out by a pool area at a boutique hotel here in Dallas. How cool is this?? I just wanted to share.

*picture from me

I love the quality of light in this next image - so warm. And I love the wood ceiling, and the tall wainscotting. It's just a very welcoming room.

*image from the Remodeling Guy

This cupboard has a great finish, and I love the glass doors. I've always loved glass doors on cupboards. But the finish is old and stripped-down looking, which I find very interesting right now. I would love to refinish my cabinets this way in my kitchen.

*image from In This Instance

I love this next picture - I could frame it and hang it on my wall! But what draws me is the wall texture. This is another thing I'd love to try and recreate. I'm sure it's a multi-step plaster process, but it's beautiful.

*image from the Style Files

Lately I've been considering using a really neutral palette in my living room - pale neutrals, with an accent of green (our big leather chair). If I go ahead with that, it will be sort of a "guerilla" job as I'll try to get it done next time Chris is out of town! But this next picture is anything but neutral. The pink walls, the blue and red accents - it's fun. The dark floor grounds it, and the white keeps it fresh. I like it.

*image from Urban Grace Interiors

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Check back next week for pictures of our new foster pup, Charlie. I'll have "before" and "after" as he needs a haircut and bath, badly. Right now he's looking like a Mongolian Sheep... really really fluffy. Hopefully we'll be able to lighten his load a little, which will cool him off quite a bit, but still keep his cuteness.

Agri-art

I found these shots over at the Style-Files and thought they were just so cool!! Tulip fields! Just amazing. Had to share.

**On a side note, our foster dog was adopted out to a wonderful home last Saturday. While we were sad to see her go and will miss her (because, seriously, she was an awesome awesome dog!), we were so glad that she's getting such a great permanent home! Tonight we are possibly getting our next foster dog, a poodle mix. I'm hopeful and keeping my fingers crossed that this one will work out as well as the last one did. More details tomorrow.

Seeing spots

My new leopard print hall runner.



I thought that having an animal print runner in the hallway might be kind of fun. There's nothing really else going on in there, so I thought it could liven it up a bit.
Which it does. Not sure yet whether or not I think it's TOO lively, but I'll give it some time. The nice thing is that it's not permanent, so if I do end up kind of hating it there, I can always move it. But I think it's kind of cool. We'll see - my mind's not quite made up one way or the other yet.
Riley and the other dogs seem to like it though.

Riley needs a haircut, by the way.

April showers

Heeeellllloooooo........
In case anyone is wondering - busy work, no internet at home, sick, sick, planting flowerbeds, adopting out foster puppies, making curtains..... whew!

I wanted to share some pictures of my still not quite done flowerbed! I have been wanting this for 2 years now, and FINALLY we are getting it in. I have had a couple of bushes still in the nursery pots for over a year!! Basically, I had some things I wanted to transplant to a sunny locale, plus looking at a graying fence all the time is boring.
So the first step, after marking where you want the bed to be is to rent a tiller and chop up the ground and all the grass. This is not as easy as it may sound. It is hard, as the tiller is jerky and vibrate-y, and after a while you loose feeling in your hands. I highly recommend having a husband, brother, dad, male friend, or hiring out the task to a very strong person. I thought I could have done it myself.... HA! Right.
So, this is after step one:

After you clean out the bed somewhat, removing all the dead chopped up grass bits, we added a layer of composted leaves. We also added/put in the green metal edging that you can shape. We had just spent about 30 minutes trying to get rid of the grass, and I don't want it coming back. At least not in my flower bed.

Now comes the fun part of planting things! I got a great deal on a Japanese Maple tree at Home Depot - very excited about that. I started with planting the bigger things that I knew where I wanted them to go. Since then, I've also transplanted 2 larger bushes. I'm now left with a few smaller things to plant, and mulch.

I'm hopeful that I can get this all finished up this weekend - that is if we can stay healthy!! But once I do, I'll share more photos!

I've also been busy making curtains for our bedroom! Easy no-sew kind. I finally found some fabric that I liked, and that was within our budget. You can go check them out at Elizabeth Anne Designs.

Hope everyone is doing well!

It's Britney.... and other things keeping me busy!

Well, with my work computer dying over the weekend (2001-2009 RIP), having numerous house projects (hello big stack o'mail), and going to see BRITNEY SPEARS on Tuesday night, I've been a busy girl!!!
Britney was great - it was more fun that I went with my sisters, but it was a good show. About what I expected with lots of cool dancing and stage theatrics, and the great probability of lip-synching (we were too high up to see for sure, but it was pretty much a given). But it was a fun fun fun girls' night out! On a Tuesday, so it wasn't toooo wild.
At home I've been trying to get things ready for the garage sale I thought we were going to have this weekend but have now decided that we're going to put off another couple of weeks. I've also been tackling our huge piles of old mail/bills/papers/etc. Fun fun fun.
But I get my work computer back tomorrow!!! Hooray!! So you'll be hearing from me a little more often.
Hope everyone's been doing well!