Sunday, March 30, 2008

weekend projects

DH and i have been keeping ourselves busy lately doing some projects around our house.

last weekend we replaced the light in our stove room with a hanging pendant.

don't be fooled by how serenely this is hanging...this took hours to install. part of living in an 103 year old house is discovering each and every issue that all the homeowners before you have left. in this case, the existing light was only hanging on by a wire...literally! so we had to cut into the ceiling, find the studs, create a light box to hang light hardware from and then install the light.

in the end, it was worth it, as now we have a much more functional, not to mention safer, light in an area that badly needed it.


also last weekend, we started our tomato and basil seeds. here is a pic of our tomato seeds keeping warm on the top of our fridge.


the basil seeds have already germinated, so we transferred them to DH's work table in the basement and rigged a light so they can continue to grow.




our tulips that we planted last fall are starting to come up.


all over the garden, there are spots of green starting to show: day lilies, chives, mint, crocuses and various tulips.

the big project for this weekend was to take down the h-u-g-e forsythia/honeysuckle bush that was overtaking our deck. we are replacing the deck sometime in the near future, but i wanted to get rid of this monstrosity before it started to bloom and wreak havoc on my sinuses!

we both worked on cutting the bush away from the railings and the side of the deck, and then DH was able to push it away like it was a huge, floating piece of tumbleweed.


the resulting pile was bigger than our car!


thankfully, after a visit from 'baggy' the lawn waste man, we were able to clean up the yard.


one hour and six lawn bags later...


we have an allergy-free deck!


Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Announcing, LimoncelloSTYLE, LLP

yup...i bit the bullet and became and LLP today. it was expensive, but in the end i believe it is worth it.

if only the cost of becoming an LLP covered all the questions i have now that i am an LLP : ^ )

we interrupt this easy-going blog for a bit of reality...

last night i was on my way home from having dinner with a friend in the city. i had driven to the commuter rail parking in my town earlier that morning, but when it was time for me to come home, it made more sense to take the T and then transfer to the bus at the end of the line.

i got off the T and there was a bus right there waiting so i quickly ran to catch it. i had my headphones on and was listening to my ipod, but per usual, i had the volume down low enough so that i could hear what was going on around me.

there was a 30-something, stocky man in the aisle of the bus, talking to the bus driver when i boarded. i had to excuse myself to get around him so i must have caught his attention. shortly after i passed him, the bus driver indicated that he needed to take a seat so he followed me down the aisle of the bus.

the bus was full, but not crowded and i spotted a seat near the rear exit of the bus. not realizing the man was behind me, i moved over into the seat closest to the window because that is proper bus etiquette around here. annoyingly, the man decided to sit down next to me and then he started trying to have a conversation with me.

he was clearly inebriated so i took off my headphones to be as alert as possible. i didn't want to make him angry by flat out ignoring him so i answered his questions in one word answers, although i did make it a point to say that i was headed home to meet my husband and he was expecting me.

and then a small miracle happened.

the woman sitting in the seat in front of us, turned around quickly, pretended she recognized me, and pretty much demanded that the drunk man switch seats with her because we were old friends. he protested a bit, but eventually moved. and i spent the next 10 minutes chatting with a complete stranger about where i had just had dinner. i wanted to tell her my name and i was able to slip her my business card.

there are three stops in our little village and the second one was where my car was parked. the man actually left the bus at the first stop, but made a point to say goodbye to me. fortunately, the stops are about 3 blocks apart, so i knew that even if he had been walking in my direction, he wouldn't have made it to the parking lot.

anyway, when i got to my stop i basically ran out of the bus, up the stairs and got into my car, locked it and sped away to my house.

i only had a very brief moment to thank the kind stranger who was alert enough to recognise my needing help and to act upon it. had she not, i probably would have kept riding the bus until the man left, however long that might have been.

i did give the woman my card and she mentioned she would check out my site, so i am hoping maybe she has read this and knows how truly, truly thankful i am.

ok...now back to our regularly scheduled inspired design.

Friday, March 21, 2008

jewelry give-away over at handcrafted


for my faithful readers, i thought i would mention that the handcrafted wedding is having their biggest give-away to date.

The prize is jewelry for your bridal party from Redot Designs up to a $300 value!

Entries will be taken through handcrafted's blog site Handcrafted: the cure for the common wedding. All the details are posted on the blog.

good luck!!

Friday, March 14, 2008

diy bride

many thanks to diy bride for featuring me today in the Fab Finds Friday section.

You can click the picture below to enlarge it or check it out here: www.diybride.com.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

the flower show

the flower show in philadelphia was such a fun experience; albeit very crowded. i took lots of pictures, and saw lots of wonderful ideas.

**some of my pics are a little blurry. i know how to use my SLR settings for my camera, but i am just not fast enough to get it all set in a crowded atmosphere. so for the most part, i used the automatic settings...which, of course, meant that my shutter usually ended up to slow for my handshake.

ok...enough with the caveats and on to the pics...