Hold your tongue

Many projects taking place around here……Kenny has repotted one of his “mother-in-laws tongues”…..it was HUGE….I think he got it at a garage sale and it was in a really ugly plastic pot…..then he got a beautiful cobalt blue pot to put it in…..where did the repotting take place…..in the dining room….where else?

Here is a picture of the plant on the dining room floor….it’s HUGE!  Look at the other “mil tongues” in the window….I think this is what people are used to seeing.

Here it is repotted…..an old, antique type of plant in a modern vessel….makes all the difference in the world.

Today, I started a DIY project….more on that later this week….or maybe tomorrow.

A big smile and hope….

A big smile because Gretchen has finally found her forever home…..I’m not sure how long Gretchen has been featured on my blog, but I know it’s been for months…. I got a nice e-mail from Kim of www.clumbersinneed.com today letting me know that one of my blog readers had told her about Gretchen on my blog and she kindly let me know that Gretchen had found her forever home……YAY!

So, after a little searching I’ve found this cutie who needs a home…..let’s hope he’s as lucky…..Pogo is an 8-year old silky terrier…..just look at those eyes…I’ve picked out 2 of my dogs from looking at their eyes….they are windows to the soul….this little guy, I think, is very wise and sweet. Click on his picture to find out more…..he’s right here in Springfield, Missouri if you are one of my local blog readers.

A little bit of this….

I haven’t been hooking very much lately…..still obsessed with the new eating plan and now I’ve added exercise to the mix…..feeling good….just re-wiring my “habit circuits” I guess.

Here are some pictures of Kenny’s “salsa garden” …..peppers, tomatoes, cilantro…..

…..all in a huge pot on the back deck…..

Kenny calls this area of the back deck, “Mexico”, …..there are lots of cactus and agave back there…..he’s thinking of painting the bare tree trunk in a really bright color….this is what is left after we had this tree removed from the ice storm a few years back…..

…..I think the stormy skies that we’ve had for days on end

  are supposed to come to an end and we’re supposed to have a sunny weekend….YAY!

By the way, still talking about paint colors to finish up the living room……

In between the raindrops

I shot these pictures of the garden….

Scripted Rugs

There was a discussion on RHD (Rug Hooking Daily) on having quotes on rugs…..this is one of my favorite things to do…..as much as I detest hooking words, I love having something you can read as you go by it every day….either to remind you of where you have been or where you want to go.

This is the first rug that I hooked that had words incorporated into it….our basset hound “Geairmo” loved to go for walks….I remember him on a daily basis when I see this rug in our living room.

This next rug is in our entryway…..the design is from the cover or a vintage book and the saying is from the book, “The Little Prince”…..actually my husband picked the picture AND the quote.

….And the fox said to the Little Prince… “Men have forgotten this Truth.  But you must not forget it.  You become responsible forever for what you have tamed.”

It’s a daily reminder to be responsible with animals….even though there are no animals in this particular rug.

The next two rugs are on the floor in my hooking room….they are reminders to me to follow my dreams….

I don’t really have any quotes in mind for future rugs, but I’m sure that when I come upon one I’ll be able to dream up a rug to incorporate it into.

More cooking, less blogging

Is it bad when  new eating plan is pretty much all-consuming?  I picked up this magazine at Borders the other day and I’ve started their 14 day plan.

This involves whole foods, no preservatives, no processed sugar, no white flour. Lots of fresh foods means lots of cooking and shopping more frequently.

However, I started on Monday and I’m feeling great….haven’t felt hungry so far….yes, it’s a bit about losing weight….Kenny took pictures of me cleaning out the pool this past weekend and I was like, “OMG….I’ve got to do SOMETHING”…..so this week it’s focusing on the eating….eating FRESH….next week I’ll introduce more exercise while still eating FRESH.  I like lifting weights…it’s just getting to the gym that is the hard part for me.

I’ve been eating a lot of things that I don’t normally LIKE…….carrots

and cantaloupe

  are topping the list of things that I’m MAKING myself eat….but there are a lot of things that I DO like….salmon, strawberries, cilantro, whole wheat tortillas….and a few new things that I”m trying out….red quinoa, making my own hummus,

trying out new recipes….tomorrow night….Spinach and Dill Rollatinis. Of course the store close to me doesn’t carry silken tofu or soft tofu….just firm tofu….so, looks like a trip to Mama Jean’s after work.

I got to have a small portion of pork loin tonight, so don’t cry for me. Maybe this is the eating plan that I can LIVE with…..a lifestyle change.

Over the top

55,000 square feet of statuary, plants and things for the home…..totally over the top…..home-decorating on crack…..that is Sandstone Gardens in Joplin, MO.
Sheri of Shabby Sheep and Dulcy of Dulcy’s Doorstep and I headed there on Saturday for a day of inspiration and lunch.  Let’s just talk about the inspiration because lunch took FOREVER….over an hour to get seated when they said it would be a 15-20 minute wait….let’s just say it sucked up a lot of our time.
I digress…
On
to
inspiration……
Big antiqued picture frames that had alarm clocks and vintage photos hanging from them with organza ribbon.
Cloches galore…..

I think I’ve found my new decorating color for the living room…..I’ve fallen in love with the look of these parakeet green walls…..so cheery….

More glass containers and cloches, layer upon layer of decorating…

Sheri fell in love with the look of these pillows….

Oops, more photos of the parakeet green walls…..I’m seeing these in my house…..as Dulcy said, “it’s just paint….paint it green and get it out of your system”…..good advice me thinks!

How cool is this?  Found treasures mounted in a frame….

Yes, yet another picture of the green walls, but I took this to give you an idea of the SHEER SIZE of this place….it’s HUMONGO!

……HUMONGO I say…

After Sandstone, we headed off to a few flea markets…..these Scandinavian inspired cookie jars called to Dulcy…..we ran across a lot of them….so happy!

I ended up buying these troughs for Kenny’s garden…..okay, I bought both of them, but had to return the larger one because it wouldn’t fit in my trunk…..we may be headed back to get the larger one today in Kenny’s truck….he LOVED the smaller one that I brought home.  I’m in love with the wicker trunk, but trying to think of a spot to put it…..hmmm, at the end of my bed in the hooking room, with the top open to hold my hooked rugs….possibly?

We all fought over this beaded Mona Lisa curtain…..sadly we left her behind :)

A cute set of dishes in Dulcy’s color palette…..does anyone use “snack sets” anymore? We probably should, but where do you store “extras” like these.

We also stopped by “Crazy Junk Man’s” on the way home…..always an experience.
Enjoy your day!

Final coat

If you follow my blog, you’ll remember that Wednesday I had a bit of a “meltdown” about the silver painted…..trying to paint the silver wall.  It’s been a roller coaster ride for sure.

I sent pictures of the “stripy-mosaic” wall to Chris, the “paint angel” that I ran into at Home Depot when I was buying the paint.  Low and behold he came through for me again…..he e-mailed me back and told me to use the 4” roller and make small multi-directional strokes and to feather them and to give him a call and he’s come out and show me his technique.

Here is his WEBSITE…..what beautiful work!

This is a sky scene with clouds that he painted on a ceiling….

So, I drug my paint back out and got to work……here is the result….just what we were looking for….we’re both so happy with it….it looks like rubbed silver now instead of a “bad faux job”…..you know what I mean….when you go into a house and you see a wall and think “yup, they tried to faux paint their wall”.

Now we just have to decide on furniture and the color to put on the other 3 walls.

Here are more color combinations I’m looking at…..this is the part of redecorating that I DON’T like……SOOOO many options!

I’m still in love with the idea of the red couch or red chaise, but not sure how it would look by the red/burgundy windows….I know those are staying in the room because we both love them….so maybe a chocolate brown leather couch under the church windows and then the red chaise on the other side of the room….I love the DRAMA in this photo, but it’s also rather earthy…

But then I’m also drawn to this cheerful color scheme with the red and that light lime color….very cheerful, but not sure it goes with the “silver wall”….

We will most likely go with something more earthy, just because our entire house has a more earthy/organic vibe to it.  We’ve also been looking at some of the paint colors from Restoration Hardware…..

I’m leaning towards “pumice”

Or perhaps “pale silver”

 

or “silver sage”

Any ideas?