Tuesday, August 14, 2012

House Tour - Dining Room and Guest Suite

So......it was "kindly" pointed out to me that I posted lots of pictures while our new house was being built, but hardly any since we've moved in. Ok, Ok! I hear ya!!

I've been waiting until the rooms were "finished", but I agree......are rooms ever really finished?? Guess I'll have to just show the "work in progress" rooms. Feel free to look away if you can only look at finished and picture-perfect rooms!!

It's been my intention to let our home "tell our story" and I've worked hard to do just that. It isn't a magazine-worthy house......It's our HOME and we love it!

Dining Room

This is the left wall inside the Dining Room. My old radio once belonged to my great-grandmother and I love it! The radio part worked the last time I checked, but that was years ago. Sure, I've thought about getting it refurbished, but never have pursued it.

The large painting is a Thomas Kinkade and is one of my favorite possessions. My family gave it to me when I received my Master's Degree. I love to imagine living in that beautiful cottage surrounded with all those flowers! Ahhhh!!


Another thing I love about this room is this basket of stones. When we got married, we asked all of the people who attended the Rehearsal Dinner to write something special to us on these stones. We wanted our marriage to be "built on the rock" and this was one way to symbolize our love for each other and the love and support we had from our closest friends and family. This was long before pintrest or blogging!! Anyway, these rocks now live in our home and are a constant reminder of our blessings.

  
  


We hung our picture windows on this wall. I think this is the perfect place for them. Again, I made these windows long before I had even heard about pintrest. You can read more about the windows here.

Our "Sitting Area" garden is just outside this window.

Guest Suite

The other room that's pretty close to "finished" is our Guest Suite. (Hee Hee.... I had to get this room ready pretty quickly. My parents came to stay with us about 3 weeks after we moved in!!)

This view is from the doorway, looking back towards the sink area. The shower and toilet are on the other side of that wall.

The closet is on the other side of this wall.


From this shot, you can see the window in the Dining Room. We adjusted the original floor plan so we could have this Guest Suite and we're really pleased with it. Our guests truly feel like they have their own private space.

Well, that wraps up the home tour. I have lots of other projects to work on and then I can post some more rooms. Until then, thanks for reading and be blessed!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

I Cooked Supper!!

Now, I know that for most people, this is certainly not blog-worthy news, but for me -- well, this merits a world-wide press release!! Ha Ha - I do NOT cook. Luckily, I am married to a really good cook. Tonight, I decided I would make supper to surprise my love.
I found a great recipe on pintrest that I thought even I could do. The picture looked so yummy, so I tracked it back to this blog to find out exactly how to make it.

Pizza Casserole

(I had to take a picture of myself cooking in order for anyone to believe that I actually did it!!)


Here's the finished product - all ready to go into the oven.


It turned out great and he even had seconds!! Yay me!!
(Now I just hope he doesn't start expecting me to cook!!! YUCK!!)
 

Sunday, August 5, 2012

New Flowerbed

Whoo Hoo! We dug a new flowerbed today. I call it the "Street Garden". It still needs a little work, but it's basically done.

The focal piece is our new Chitalpa tree. I really like this tree. It is a cross between a Catalpa and a Desert Willow. I am not a fan of the Desert Willow because I don't like the seed pods. The Chitalpa does not have those pods. In the spring and summer, it's covered with little pink flowers that look like mini orchids. It grows really fast and tolerates both our super hot summers and our freezing winters.

Right now, she just looks like a tall shrub, but in a couple of years, she'll be about 20 feet tall with a beautiful pink and green canopy.


We plan to put in a small landscaping boulder, but right now a paver holds its place.
The only flowers that I have so far are a yarrow and a small lantana. I'm not sure which cultivars I have. I bought both of them on clearance and neither one had their id tags. Guess it will be a mystery! Yippee!! : )

More fun stuff....

One of our favorite nurseries is closing and they had a huge sale!! (The closing part definitely isn't the "fun stuff". I will miss TG Trees!!) We purchased several things for our yard. (Including the Chitalpa)

Cedar Elm
Can you believe it -- this guy only cost me $44!! SCORE! It's hard to tell in this picture, but it's a 30-gallon tree. It was 80% off!!! WHOO HOO!! He's leaning right now, so we had to put it against the fence until we can get it in its permanent home.


Juniper
We paid about $25 for this tree. It was originally cut in a spiral, but they let it go. Fine with me. That's a lot of work. I'm happy to let it grow naturally. It will be anchor on this side of a new flowerbed along our back fence. This will be the next bed that we'll create. (But with 100 degree days, we're not in a major hurry!!) That little pot beside the tree is the other half of the lantana from our Street Garden.

Vitex
The Vitex will anchor a new bed along the side our house, inside the "courtyard" part of our backyard. I don't have this bed designed yet, so we'll probably just plant the Vitex and then create a bed later.

ALL of these new plants cost less than $200!! Not too shabby for a crazy hot weekend in August!