Two of my favs- my BFF Kim & Gardens

Being married with three kids, I don't have as much time to spare as I would like.  With that said, I've committed myself to nurturing my friendships and to getting out on garden tours more.  So, when an Open Days tour for Olympia came up recently, I invited my BFF to go with me. 

My BFF doesn't garden as much as I do but she has an fabulous sense of style so I figured we'd have a wonderful day together.  I was right! 

Garden #1

Very ornate

Greek Gods were waiting for us to leave so they could get back to their....

....palace in Lacey, Washington?

Absolutely my most favorite part of the tour at house #1! We need one of these at our house!

Formal garden in the side yard

I love this feature as well.  It's so much more PNW then the rest.

Garden #2 coming up next...

Gayle

I'll Show Him...after I get back from orange

...with some new pieces of cut wood for the legs of my table.  As you can see below, I've run into a few problems.  There are three issues, can you name them?

Did you get them all? If not, see below for my mistakes.

The way I see it, I can spend another $10 (still less than $50 total) and get a straight board, a taller table, and an even cut.  Win, win win!  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow at orange.  Hmmm, might need to hit a different one because I got the best of the wood yesterday and I doubt if anything new is on the floor.  Hmmm.

PS- here is a picture of my yummy dinner tonight.  Why yes, I really did prepare some dinner tonight.  And it was so yummy, scrumptious!!  I can't wait until tomorrow just so I can eat my lunch!

<Heaven>

PPS- I saw these tonight and think they would look so cute on my new table. $4 each, maybe a cluster of three?

Night,
Gayle

I'll Show Him

I have found the most inspiring website, Knock Off Wood. I want to make something from it in the worse way. 

However, The Husband just yammers on about how hard building furniture is. He hasn't looked at Ana's plans otherwise he would know how easy and logical they are.  He hasn't looked at the pictures submitted by real people who had no prior carpentry experience.  So, tonight I took matters into my own hands.

I picked my first project, an easy entryway table, and modified it just a bit to better suit our needs.  Then I went to orange and found the wood.  Next I figured out how I wanted the wood to be cut and found a smiling associate to help me out.  Tonight I got home, after picking Zack up from football, with a small pile of cut wood, just waiting for me to whip it into something special.  The picture below is a better representation of the modifications I made.

I'm so excited.  I'll keep you posted with my progress. 

The Husband gets home Friday, and I'm going to show him! 

Night,

Gayle

Bedroom Redo #1- Erin

It's time to redo Erin's room.  Currently her room is wrong on so many levels.

1. Bedroom is 12' x 12'- she has at least 100' x 100' worth of treasures and toys
2. Paint job done 4 years ago, was never finished with the required chair rail - thus a white line around the middle of the room, so not cute
3. Full size bed- see above re: massive amounts of "stuff"
4. Fuzzy purple comforter with satin backing.  Fuzzy is nice, but the satin hinders it's ability to stay OFF the floor on the bed.
5. And I'm tired of trying to clean it without homes for everything and everybody

My ideas for this bedroom redo are:

1. Move bed under the window- leaving one full wall empty
2. Put a built in/storage unit/wall unit onto the above-mentioned full wall (ie. Madison or Cameron wall collections by Pottery Barn kids)
3. Built in needs to include a desk and a tv
4. It also needs big storage drawers, I think
5. Before doing all of the above with big, heavy furniture- PAINT!
6. Before I paint, figure out better bedding so I don't have to repaint
7. Purge!

These are the forces conspiring against me:

1. My daughter. Yes I know it's her room, but if I don't love the vision and plan, it will never get finished.
2. My husband. See #5 above re: big heavy furniture.
3. My husband. He is an anal retentive better painter but is never a willing participant.
4. See #1 at the very top- MASS QUANTITIES OF CRAP!!
5. I can't figure out the bedding so how can I start the whole project?  I do have some ideas and feedback/input would be greatly appreicated. 

So, all of you out there following this blog <crickets>, which set do you like best?  And, what color(s) would you paint to go with it?

#1-  

http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6E.aspx?GrpTyp=ENS&ItemID=14262b3&cmsitelet=true&cmcatid=PPRELATED-FACEBOOK

or this one

#2-

http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6E.aspx?GrpTyp=ENS&ItemID=1557420&cmsitelet=true&cmcatid=PPRELATED-FACEBOOK

Adios!

The List

I have a list. I have lots and lots of lists. I forget I have lists and then stumble upon my lists and find things listed that I had forgotten about.

On my list, at least the one I'm writing about today, is all the "stuff" and projects I want to accomplish, try, learn, and do. My list generally grows. I cannot recall the last time I crossed something off of it. Hmmm....

Here is my list, at least what I can recall right now (yes, the physical list is missing...again).

• take a class and learn how to take better pictures with my camera
• Zumba
• Gardening- tours and classes.  Beautiful gardens are so inspiring and make my soul smile.
• Refinish a piece of furniture
• Make my bedroom a retreat- not beige, brown, tan, or taupe
• Learn to weld
• Build something using power tools, a tape measure and have it turn out like I had envisioned
• Learn to sew- see above for the part about it turning out as envisioned
• Strip and refinish my front porch
• Scrapbook
• Bake & cook new recipes regularly
• Nurture my friendships
• Have date nights
• Go back to college
• Build concrete stepping stones
• Create a blog

Look for updates and additions to the list. Hopefully, I'll even get a few crossed off.

PS- Welcome to my our blog!

Gayle