Archive for June, 2011
Fab Freebie: Tek For Dads
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!***
According to random.org, the winner this week is… Kat (who celebrated Father’s Day with cards, dinner for her husband and a called to her dad). Congrats!
In honor of Father’s Day (yes, I realize it was yesterday, but why not keep the celebration alive?) we’re giving away – you guessed it – TOOLS. But these particular tools are Ryobi TEK4 tools, a series of ten cordless gadgets that look pretty darn sleek, are crazy durable, and run on a long-lasting 4V rechargeable battery. And come to think of it, ladies would look just as good slinging these guys (so they’re not just for dads). We picked our three most go-to devices from the TEK4 line and are giving them (plus an extra battery and charger) to one lucky guy or gal this week. So without further ado, your trio of tools: the Self-Leveling Plumb / Cross Laser, the Professional Stud Sensor, and the Compact Drill / Driver (and the handy battery they all share).
- PRIZE: The three Ryobi TEK4 tools shown above, plus extra battery and charger.
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “TEK ME!” and…
- BONUS QUESTION: … share with us what you did you celebrate Father’s Day yesterday. A special breakfast? A family dinner? A card from your dog (Burger makes me one every year). Maybe just a phone call to say “hello” to someone special? Or was yesterday just your average Sunday?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, June 22th at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: The contiguous 48 United States
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday for the announcement of our winners. Good luck…
Note: We weren’t paid or perked for hosting this giveaway, we just like rewarding our lovely readers. See our Giveaway FAQs page for more info. Pics from Ryobi.
Twenty Yards O’ Fabric
That’s how many yards I knew I’d need to make eight living room curtains. It generally breaks down to five yards of fabric per window (or sliding door) for two floor-length curtains that I can hang high and wide over each one. So five yards times four windows/sliders = eight panels (two for the big back window, two for each of the two sliding doors to the right as you face the window, and two for the sliding door to the left (that leads out onto this balcony to nowhere). So that’s where the whole 20 yards thing came from. And yeah for those who can’t picture it, that’s a lot of fabric (60 feet of it to be exact). Even at a great price of oh let’s say seven dollars a yard it would have been $140 (not including curtain rods, etc). And it’s hard to find extra wide upholstery fabric for under $15 or so a yard (which is what we usually like to use), and that would add up to a heart-stopping $300 price tag).
Eeeks, eh? (<– that’s my Canadian impression). Anyway, so that’s probably the reason our living room sliders have sat around naked for over six months.
Oh yeah, and those pom-poms from Clara’s party hung around in the sunroom until this weekend when we finally decided to retire them to the playroom. Anyway, back to the curtains (or lack there-of). Originally we thought we wanted something bright and bold for the fabric. Just because we’re having so much fun with color in this house and also because the walls are soft gray, the beams are darker gray, and the sofa is also dark gray. We had a whole lotta gray going on so we thought some bold textile might break things up. But then we tossed up some bright place-holder $5 art (made here) and got Kermit (our big green cushy wool shag) and mixed in some brightly colored pillows, and brought in two big gleaming silver lamps on the back of the console that we built, and – can you see where I’m going with this? – we stepped back and realized we no longer wanted bright curtains.
Our big bright green rug was enough pop o’ color for us (and the bright art might get adapted but the tones will probably stay) so after our little course correction when it came to our fabric hunt we landed here: something with tone on tone texture. Not too bright. And not too expensive.
Then we realized that we had grabbed some fun tone on tone leafy guys from Ikea a few months back (they were on sale for $29 a pair, down from $49, so we tossed two packs into our cart with intentions of hanging them in the playroom someday). So since we already had four out of eight (and they worked out to be just $15 a panel) if we hung the four that we owned and liked them, we figured we could just head back to Ikea and grab two more packs and be done-zo. No more nekkid windows. So we grabbed some oil-rubbed bronze curtains and ring hooks from Target and hung our four panels on the two sliding doors on that right wall. And we liked it. Obviously they needed to be ironed and hemmed, but we loved the sweet and soft leafy sophistication that they layered in. Especially at $15 a panel. Sold. Just needed two more two-packs.
We miraculously heard that John’s mom would be up near Ikea the next day so we begged her to stop in and pick up two more packs for us. Before she left I popped over to ikea.com to find out their names for her. I like to play a game where I make up an Ikea-ish sounding product name to see how close I am to the actual product name (I’m never even close but it keeps me entertained) so I came up with Vika Lund and Skiv Rast as I searched. And searched. And that was the first sign that something tragic was about to happen. They weren’t online anymore. Nowhere to be found. That little know-it-all voice in the back of my head whispered: “They stopped selling them- you almost solved the naked living room window problem but you didn’t buy enough packs and now they’re gone. You lose.” But I’ve seen other things in the store that aren’t online (a bunch of rugs and mirrors for example) so I tried to convince myself that they were just were among the other in-store-but-not-online items.
About twenty four hours later we got the call I had been dreading. John’s mom was standing in the curtain aisle after asking a sweet guy about them and he confirmed they had in fact been discontinued. Hadn’t been sold since April. As the Brits say: majah bummah.
Of course that spurred on a marathon ebay/craigslist/google hunt for any and all available identical curtain packs. I turned up a few two paneled packs for around $75 a pop, but that hardly seemed reasonable when we paid $29 (they’re called Alvine Kottar by the way). So I gave myself permission to mope around and drown my sorrows in Oreos after throwing myself on the floor and telling John that the living room curtains would be the death of me. You know, totally normal behavior for a 29 year old.
Then as I was sitting on the sofa with Oreo crumbs all over my chest and lap (you’re welcome for that mental image), my eyes kept wandering over to the four panels that we had already hung. My one beef with them was that they were too bunchy. Too wide. All ganked up. See? Note: This is a terribly lit shot – sorry. I was too depressed to check my settings.
Yup, slowly it dawned on me. They were waaaay too wide. Especially since we’re not curtain closers so we always have them thrown open to let in maximum light (that area of our house is wooded and fenced so there’s not a privacy issue anyway). This next thought had me getting a wee bit excited. Picture my pace quickening and my chest rising and falling a little faster (just enough to make those Orea cookie crumbs do a little happy dance). What if I cut them down the middle thereby creating eight curtain panels from my four too-wide ones? Oh man, that would be sweet. The excitement was quickly followed by my good ol’ inner Debbie Downer voice saying: “But what if they look too skinny and you ruin them? Then you can’t even use them in the playroom because they’d be lame little slivers of fabric. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Darn that evil inner voice. She was right about Ikea no longer selling my curtains. Cue more Oreo eating. Then it dawned on me that I could test-drive the half-width by just unclipping them from my ring hooks and folding them in half and rehanging them. That would “simulate” the width that they’d be if I snipped and hemmed them without picking up the scissors (give or take an inch for the new hem). So I ate brushed the crumbs off of myself and gingerly got off the sofa to try it. Lo and behold, they looked pretty darn good. Not super full and mondo wide, but I didn’t like them that way to begin with (remember the word ganked came to mind?). And since they’d never be drawn and would always be smashed all the way open to let in light (and facilitate sliding door function) it was the perfect solution for us because we wouldn’t want anything much fuller anyway (which would just get in the way). And you’d see more of the pretty leafy pattern instead of ten million folds. Done deal.
Out came my neurotic “no John cuts” fabric scissors (more on those here) and I snipped those babies right up the middle. The best thing about the cutting-in-half process was that they had been perfectly folded in the packaging right down the middle, so they still had a center fold that I could just follow down with the scissors to end up with two exactly-the-same-size panels. Then I just hemmed them with my trusty iron + sewing machine technique (no pins required – yay Team Lazy). More on that here. Oh and this time I actually folded over and ironed the hem twice before sewing the hem (last time I folded it over once with the iron and then folded it again on the sewing machine as I stitched).
I must admit that ironing down that second fold made it even easier to slide through my sewing machine. So hemming the sides of all eight panels probably took twenty minutes (once they were all prepped with the iron, which probably took thirty).
Then after stitching that 1/2″ side hem (which looked exactly the same as the Ikea-made hem on the other side of each panel – thank goodness they didn’t do anything too fancy that I couldn’t replicate) I tossed them into the wash on cold (and then tumble dry lowed them) to pre-shrink ‘em before hanging & pinning the bottoms.
I grabbed them right out of the dryer (they were still a little damp, but hanging them that way kept them from getting even more wrinkly from sitting in the dryer) and clipped them all up on the four oil-rubbed curtain rods (from Target, along with the ring clips) which we hung 14″ wider than the trim around the sliding doors and the window. Except for the sliders leading to the balcony to nowhere (there wasn’t as much wall space to go as wide on those, so we went 8″ wide on each of those). As for the distance down from the crown molding, we went with three inches so all of the rods would hang at the same height. That felt high enough to draw the eye up without completely crowding the dark beams above. You know I love a good oil-rubbed bronze rod hung high and wide like dark eyeliner on a window. Me-ow.
Then I pinned the bottoms of each panel so they’d just graze the floor…
… and hemmed those bottoms pretty quickly (I gave them a longer base hem since a few folks told us that nice drapes have 3-4″ base hems – yay Team Fancy). Oh but I used iron-on hem tape for the bottoms because I was tired and wanted the thick 4″ hem on each one to be uninterrupted by thread that you can see from the front (I’m still very very not-sewing-machine wise, so I couldn’t figure out how to get such a thick hem without seeing a telltale line of stitching 4″ off the bottom of the panel which I thought would interrupt the flow of the panel). I guess I could have tried to hand stitch them from the back so you couldn’t see it from the front, but I’m not so good at that whole thing. But the hem tape worked like a charm and I ended up with nice extra wide bottom hems in around a half an hour. I even hemmed them right from the rod (as they hung there after pinning them). Didn’t even unclip them and rehang ‘em. Yay Team Lazy.
As for the curtain length, we definitely didn’t want our panels extra long and puddled since two of the three sliders are used often and we didn’t want the fabric to get all grungy (even though they hang to the side and aren’t in the path of anyone walking, we worried if they were too long they could drift underfoot).
Anyway, enough chitchat. Here they be:
I should mention that sometimes bright sun + window = blown out curtains. Oops. But in person you can see the leafy goodness from across the room, even on a sunny day. And as that over the top dude on Million Dollar Decorators says in his intro: it’s delicious.
Like this:
Only further away (so the leaves look smaller). Ok, now I’m giving you a little primer on perspective. Somebody slap me.
Oh but you can see the lesser-pictured sliders on the left side in the photo above (the ones that lead out to that odd patio that we someday want to revamp).
Who noticed that Burger literally gets up and repositions himself to face the camera? Diva much?
We love how the sweetness of the almost sheer-like curtains contrast the big chunky rustic-ish wood console we built:
And they play so nicely with the big round mirror too:
It was fun to add in a few pops of blue thanks to the hydrangeas from our patio and two awesome blue decorating books that I love: Domino and Decorate (the latter of which is Holly Becker’s new book that I got on Amazon – it’s great).
Hydrangeas = so pretty. But also pretty quick to wilt. I clipped these guys five days ago and some of them already look kind of… spent. Oh well. At least they were free.
See the curtains in the background of the pic above? That’s pretty much how they look from across the room in real life (the sunlight just blows them out in photos so they’re harder to read in the wide shots in this post).
Oooh artsy. Hydrangeas in the mirror:
Here’s Burg-dorf Goodman posing again. And here’s another shot of the lesser-pictured slider across from the two that lead out to the patio/sunroom on the other side of the living room. I love how the soft tone-on-tone curtains don’t steal too much attention from the frame wall nearby. They play well with others.
Oh and did you notice I had some fun switching up the pillows. Zero dollars spent (and proof that I have too many pillows). Pillows are like nomads in our house – they never live in one spot for long. These guys were all in the playroom and the sunroom (originally from Bed Bath & Beyond on clearance) except for the floofy one in the middle (which was originally from Target but has lived in our bedroom for a while) so I brought them out for more of that fun texture-y, layered, tone-on-tone thing.
Now the room is a nice little blend of happy (the shaggy green rug and the bright art that we might just switch up soon) + contrast (the dark sofa, the gray-washed beams, the chunky console, and the oil-rubbed bronze mirror) + softness (the faux sheepskin, the white frames, the white desk, the patterned curtains, the lighter toned pillows). Although I’m pretty sure those pillows will continue to get swapped around (Sue the Pillow and her bright friends are now living in the adjoined sunroom, so I can still see them from the sofa). And when we get around to building/refurbishing a media cabinet and refinishing the floors we’ll really be in business in here. Someday…
Let’s wrap this baby up. We love them. They’re our cup of tea. They add come-on-in-and-flop-down-on-the-sofa-and-eat-Oreos ambiance. And they were just $58 for four curtain panels (that we sliced up the middle to make eight). Which breaks down to $7.25 a panel. Which would mean that we’d have to find fabric that was $1.45 per yard to get this good of a deal if we were to make them from scratch. Pretty crazy how things work out, huh? Wait, I guess if we knew we could have cut our fabric in half (we wouldn’t recommend doing that unless it’s a really wide bolt, like 60″ or more, and you’re certain you won’t want to draw them for privacy) we only would have needed to find $2.90 a yard fabric. That’s still pretty tough though.
One thing’s for sure. This room has definitely evolved over the past six months. Here’s what it looked like when we moved in:
Yowsa. So yeah, we’re thanking the curtain powers that be. The only real bummer is the fact that cutting, ironing, hemming, and hanging my curtains probably only burned about one tenth of the calories from the curtain-drama-related cookie binge that ensued. Oh yeah, and it’s impossible to photograph how cozy this room feels (maybe because it’s so big it looks less inviting than it feels in real life?). Annoying. Anyway, here she blows at night. All glow-y thanks to the lamps:
And that brings us to 2,762 words on our living room curtains. Who do I think I am? I’m calling it. Have you guys ever split curtains up the middle or added extra length to them with banding at the bottom or top? Ever heard of Ikea selling out of things in April? Seems like a random month to decide not to bring stuff back, right? But maybe that’s why the panels we grabbed were on sale for $29 in the first place…
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It’s Friday. Let’s talk about TV.
Is it just us, or has HGTV gotten better lately? I say “lately” very broadly. As in, like, the last several months. Sherry and I have both been thinking it for a while, but it wasn’t ’til reading this emotionally honest blog post from stylist/host Emily Henderson that we felt inspired to making our feelings known in a public proclamation of sorts. So here it goes: whatever it is that you’re doing, HGTV – we’re down.
We’re no strangers to chatting about design-related TV (well, any TV actually), and although we were totally on the Design Star train during Season 1, it got a little shaky during Season 3 for a hot second. Which is why it’s really surprising to us that the latest Design Star winners seem to be leading the change-for-the-better charge. Emily’s Secrets From a Stylist and Antonio Ballatore’s The Antonio Treatment seemed to welcome a new era of glossier production quality, more diverse concepts, and more authenticity than we’re used to (in a good way).
The blogs have been abuzz about Secrets From a Stylist for a while now, so most of you are probably already familiar. Emily uses a “style diagnostic” to label the individual styles of a couple and then designs the room… twice. First with one person’s style in mind, and then a second time by layering in items from the other’s. Frankly, it looks exhausting (which is why we’re not surprised to read that next season’s show will feature just one layered look via Emily’s blog).
As cool as the double-dose of makeover per episode has been, what we really love are the colorful, risky, and eclectic rooms. Emily mixes patterns, textures, and colors in ways that make us want to be braver. And she always incorporates a lot of vintage finds that give her “afters” that collected-over-time look (even though we watch her throw them together in what seems like five minutes). Halfway through we sometimes find ourselves saying “um, this room isn’t really my thing” but just in time for the reveal we’re usually 100% on board. Which is always a good reminder to hold out for the end result instead of giving up and screaming “this is all crap” in the middle of a room’s evolution (not that we ever do that – nah, we’re totally level headed, self-assured, and confident every moment of the day).
I’ll admit that a lot of her finished rooms have a bit more visual stimulation than I’d prefer to live with (this iconic gold wallpaper, for instance) but as a viewer and admirer of design, I like looking at – and taking inspiration from - Emily’s rooms. As does the wife (who says that she could totally live with and make out with that wallpaper, and also likes checking out Emily’s wardrobe).
I feel the same way about Antonio’s rooms (not the whole making out bit, the I-appreciate-the-new-approach thing). Sherry is less into Antonio, so maybe it’s a guy thing, but I like that he has a set design background, which means that giving a room the “treatment” usually involves incorporating a few (or several) over-the-top visual showpieces: huge graphic murals, flashing lights, bright colors, etc. They’re definitely not things I’d want to live with everyday (or maybe even any day) but he’s undeniably creative and each show is full of ideas and inspiration (which I like to think can be adapted and used without being too over the top in an average home if it’s toned down a little lot).
The kitchen above has circuit board schematics printed on the face of white cabinets to “lend a tech-y vibe.” And the backsplash is made from antiqued metal panels to round out the industrial look. Crazy and unexpected? Yes. But the idea of printing something on cabinet fronts (like a grasscloth texture for example) could be cool (or even just stenciling or wallpapering them). And repurposing something old to create a paneled backsplash (like rustic planks of barn wood or antique tin ceiling squares) is a fun idea too. I think I’m most jealous that Antonio always seems to “know a guy” that does something cool (like printing on weird surfaces like wood or wallpaper, or working in graffiti and pyrotechnics). That photo above really (reeeeeaaally) doesn’t do his stuff justice btw, there weren’t very many pics online. He once made a bullseye bar wall that I really appreciated though.
And remember when every design show was a cheesefest? Emily and Antonio have managed to dodge the corny hosting style bullet that once seemed mandatory. No forced banter (“oh hi Miranda, I was just antiquing this mirror- care to join me?”) or fake dilemma’s (“oh no, the homeowner will be home any second and we still have to hang the curtains!”). Antonio is remarkably laid back (we joke that his pep talk to his team is always: “…yeah, and we’ll just knock it out and get it done”) and Emily has a quirky I-don’t-take-myself-too-seriously sense of humor that makes us kinda want to hang out with her. Plus, Emily earns points for blogging the good, the bad, and the ugly stories (and sources) from her show to help round out her real-person-ness. Bravo to HGTV for letting her do her social media thing (and allowing her to tell it like it is – which isn’t always unicorns and rainbows).
But as much as we’re distracted by the shiny new(ish) kids on the HGTV block, we haven’t forgotten some old faves:
Candice Olson and Genevieve Gorder are each rocking new shows (Candice Tells All and Dear Genevieve, respectively) that seem to have gotten the higher-def, higher-quality, more authentic treatment too. Not that Candice’s designs ever felt low-budg, but there’s no more scatting in the intro (but you can bet $herdog still sings “sweeeee-dah, ba-dah-be-daaaaaah-doh” every time we hit play). And of course the wife wants me to mention her girl Sarah Richardson (she usually watches her while I do something important like read Wired magazine or look for my hat). Are you guys noticing the HGTV upgrade or are we completely nuts? Are there any other design shows that you’re loving lately? We just started watching Million Dollar Designers on Bravo and can’t get enough (Bravo is basically our default channel btw). Or are you just a House Hunters International addict like the rest of the world (us included)? Man we watch too much TV.
Pssst- We didn’t get paid or perk’d by anyone to write this. We just felt like babbling about it so we indulged our television loving selves.
Antonio pics from here, Emily pics from here and here, Candice pic from here, Genevieve pic from here.
Mood Board Making: Just For Fun
It feels like years since I made my last mood board (you can see over 125 of them here). What the heck is up with that? So I’m breaking the dry spell with this just-for-fun creation that I tossed together with some cheerful and sunny summer color. I wanted to pick some fun accessories that anyone with a neutral toned sofa and neutral colored walls could use as a springboard for pulling together a room with a warm, happy, and inviting vibe:
1. The color palette for the room is full of warm tones like sunny orange and yellow along with some rich dark wood tones, some basic neutrals like mocha and tan, and glossy white trim. As for the exact wall color, since I cobbled this board together with the intention that these items would seamlessly slip into an already neutral room, I added that strip of warm cream paint along the top of the board to represent the wall color (like Water Chestnut by Glidden), but really any warm-ish neutral on the wall should work.
2. I actually thought a bunch of these fun plates with a pop of citrus-y orange from Crate & Barrel could look awesome hanging on the wall in a little cluster above a mantel or over the sofa to add interest and dimension. They’re only $3.95 a pop (on clearance) so you could grab ten of them for around $30 and just mount them on the wall in a big cloud-like cluster using plate hangers from the craft store.
3. This is the pillow that started it all. I love it so much, and thought it would be fun to build an imaginary room around it. So it got dragged into my little photoshop doc first (yup, I use photoshop to make these, but I’ve heard great things about mydeco.com and polyvore.com – which are both free). Anyway, ain’t she a beaut? Two of these on the mocha sofa along with one solid pillow in one of the colors of the patterned pillow (like orange or yellow or even pink) should do the trick.
4. Since I was making this imaginary board for someone with creamy neutral walls and a tan/mocha sofa, I figured they’d already have some standard wood end tables. So instead of a matchy-matchy wood coffee table I thought it might refresh the room if they switched out the coffee table for these nested little texture-filled woven tables. They could be casually placed in front of the sofa and work along with the basic wood end tables they already own. Just to bring in another tone/texture/finish instead of more wood. Oh and I bet they’re DIYable for anyone with the patience to make them out of hardware store wood and wrap them with rope for the same effect.
5. These Ikea curtains are elegant yet playful – kind of like fancy little coffee bean sketches dancing up the wall. The cool thing about them is that they’re super neutral so they’ll layer into the room so easily (while adding a bit more texture thanks to the geometric detail). And they’re just $15 a panel even though they’re extra long. Ikea for the win.
6. These great sculptural lamps will add even more interest to the room while allowing the pillows, wall plates, and rug to be the happy little punches of color among other classic and neutral touches. Oh yeah and they’re just $49 each (down from $100 a pop!).
7. This handmade Thom Filicia rug from Overstock.com had me at hello. First of all, it’s really well priced (just $143 for a 5 x 8). And second of all, while some folks would be scared to bring in color with a rug, sometimes it’s just what a room with neutral walls and a neutral sofa needs! Take our old living room which sported a cheerful yellow rug with a cream sofa and tan walls for example.
8. This is just a mocha sofa that I threw in to “complete” the picture (even though I was assuming that folks might already have one). If you don’t have a sofa this color (say it’s cream or soft sage or white or something else) just bring in the accessories that you like and see how it goes. It could totally work. You can always go for a slipcover if you think the sofa color is the only thing throwing the room off (they sell them pretty affordably at places like Bed Bath & Beyond and Target- although I’m not sure how well they’ll fit your individual sofa, but you can always try them and return them if it doesn’t look right). And if slipcovers don’t do it for you (or your current sofa is shot), this guy is only $699 thanks to a big JC Penney sale (he was originally $1200!).
So there you have it. My little imaginary neutral room mood board. If you end up getting some of the items and pulling them into your house I’d love to see pics over on our Facebook page! Do you have any favorite things? I’m kind of in love with the rug and of course that pillow had me at hello. Ah pillows, you make me happy. Have you guys been making any mood boards these days? Do tell.
Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you.
Patio Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes
Don’t get too excited. It’s not so much aesthetic progress, as it is functional progress. We got our old spray painted metal and glass coffee table from our first house‘s living room…
… back from John’s parents (they used it when their house was on the market and then it accidentally got hidden away in storage). Then it dawned on us that although we didn’t have a spot for it inside, a ton of outdoor furniture is spray painted metal and glass (like the round table that the old owners left on our upper patio). So out to the patio it went.
Is it perfect for the space? Nope. Is it great for resting my pasty need-to-be-shaved mom legs? Yup.
Sometimes you just gotta work with what you have (whether it’s a pale set of stems or an old $30 thrift store coffee table). At least until you upgrade (when it comes to furniture, not so much with legs). Here’s another table shot sans any pasty appendages:
And check out the happy surprise going on in the background. Yup, our hydrangeas got all booyah on us and bloomed. We wondered what color they’d be (and actually guessed they were white when we saw the buds) but they surprised us with happy blue flowers when they opened. I know we’ve said it before, but it’s SO much fun to experience the first spring/summer in a new home just to see what sprouts up to surprise you. It’s kind of like Oprah saying: “You get a hydrangea!”, “You get a hydrangea!”, “You get a hydrangea!”
And although the patio looked so charming with some not-outdoor-friendly furniture that we stuck outside for the big patio reveal (John thinks I’m weird but I just got such a kick out of trecking stuff out there for the afters – you know, to help with scale)…
… this is what it’s looking like these days:
Yup, that’s a baby pool in the shape of a whale. It was a gift from a friend who had the very same one when she was a baby and Clara couldn’t love it more. And yes, being the protective momma bird that I am, I totally put a bunch of towels under it so it’s not too hard on those swim-diapered buns of hers.
Oddly enough, although the patio is faaaaar from being “done” when it comes to outdoor furniture and pillows and all the other things that we eventually want to work in, for now… it’s paradise. And it’s such a nice reminder that spaces don’t have to be styled within an inch of their life and filled with perfectly scaled and coordinated furnishings to do the trick. Sometimes a whale shaped baby pool plus an old coffee table = happiness.
Oh and before I go, check out how much our backyard continues to fill in since our first house tour. Here’s a shot of the left side of our backyard that John snapped a few months back:
And here it is now:
Va-va-voom, right? And here’s the right side of the back yard a few months back:
And now:
Crazy lush, eh? Welcome to the jungle. Burger and Clara seem to love exploring. And check out what an old bush that we couldn’t identify turned out to be…
… roses!
At least I think that’s what they are. I’m plant illiterate so that’s my best guess. One thing’s for sure, there’s enough monkey grass to tickle my pale legs for hours.
Anyway, do you guys have any spaces like our patio (laughably unfurnished but blissfully functional)? Did you own the same whale pool that Clara plays in (apparently they’ve been around for decades)? Are your legs as delightfully chalky as mine? You can tell me. I promise I won’t gossip about it. Much.
