One Is Just A Number

No, this isn't my backyard. This is Monet's garden at Giverny. About the only thing I could relate to in this garden was this We call this polk in Oklahoma and I was so excited to see this invasive plant growing in such a beautiful place. In defense of polk, you can eat it but according to my father, it is more trouble than it's worth to prepare. Right now I have a love/hate relationship with the word grow. By this time in the year, I can usually stop having the lawn guy mow my grass and spend that money on something fun like new sweaters for fall. And by now I can usually spend some time outside getting rid of volunteer plants like polk but Saturday's high was 90 and I don't do yard work when it's that hot. Here are some before and after photos of my backyard. My dad helped me clean it up this spring. Unfortunately, things have grown back some since then but I hope to get back out to my yard when the weather cools off and get the backyard whipped in...

This is why I'm a bad neighbor, the outside of my house. I feel so bad for the very nice guy that lives across the street from me. This is what he looks at every day. The awning shredded by hail and snow. The paint experiment that is the pea green shutter on one side but a brick red on the other side. The web worms that have taken over my whole city. And the overgrown nandina (which I just discovered when I googled it to make sure I was spelling it correctly is also called heavenly bamboo) that I can't bare to chop down because it grew in my grandma's yard. Oh, and there's the crepe myrtle that is taller than my house that showers my next door neighbors' cars every time that back out of their driveway. The outside of my house was where I was going to start on my house projects before my income became uncertain. So I am taking photos of the outside of my house, publicly embarrassing myself, but documenting what it looks like so that when I do feel comfortable...

I have thought a fair amount lately about my possessions and what I value. A friend's mother recently survived the devastating wildfires in Northern California. She spent days wondering if her house was spared from the flames, thinking about the treasures, like a box of recipes in her mother's handwriting, that were left behind. Luckily her home was still standing and the recipes are still an heirloom to be passed to her children and grandchildren. Living in Tornado Alley means you see a lot of news footage of people sifting through the debris that was their home, looking for anything of value that wasn't destroyed by the house falling on it or ruined by the rain that always follows tornadoes. You hear stories of family photos found counties away and returned to grateful people. When my city is under a tornado warning and looking at the radar I fear that I might be in the path of a twister, I walk around my house thinking about what I will need if my house is leveled...

Purple is my favorite color. I guess that's kind of obvious by the design of my blog. My birthstone is amethyst and it has been a jumping off point for some of my decorating choices, like this wall. That is a wall in my bedroom, painted with Garden Pansy by Behr . The link has a much truer representation of the color than this photo taken with my cell. My bedroom is the second room I painted after X moved out. The first was my tiny bathroom, which is painted Honeydew . I started out small and it didn't seem like as bold a choice as a purple bedroom. I think painting my bedroom purple may have been my way of admitting to myself that X wasn't coming back. I spent a Saturday peeling wallpaper off all four walls. It took me an entire college football game. Then I got really brave and patched a couple of places on the wall. I'm not sure what used to be there, maybe a heater or the aftermath of an angry fist going through the wall. Then I started painting. I love the color ...

This is my house on a lovely winter day. Before the awning above the front door shredded from the years of sun, rain, and snow. Before the shutters on the right were painted a pea green as a test for all of the windows and trim. Before straight-line winds took out the tree. With all its imperfections, this little 1200-sq-ft bungalow is home to me. It is my haven. Even though it holds some sad memories, it is the place I want to be in more than any other. (Well, besides the Hotel Minerve in Paris ). I have grand plans to replace that awning, one full of vibrant colors instead of the muted greens and reds it held before. I have plans to match all of the shutters and windows with a bright gold or yellow. And I may even plant a new tree to provide the shade that would keep my west-facing house so much cooler in the summer. I have so many plans for this house. To finish all of the projects started before he left. To cover all of the white on the walls with cheerful hues. To finally i...

I have had an ad for this shade from Schoolhouse Electric taped to my kitchen wall for five years. Last May, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered it along with five other shades for my kitchen and hallway. I am so glad that I did because when I went on the website a week ago to order the surface mounts for the shades, they had discontinued it. Today, the fixtures came via UPS and it was like Christmas morning all over again. Unwrapping them was so exciting and inspired me to get busy fixing up my house. If for no other reason, to get rid of the three fixtures like this that hang in my house. I'm sorry, but this light looks like a certain body part and I can't wait to replace them with this. The wallpaper is down in my hallway and the walls need the cracks filled before I can put on a single coat of paint, but I REALLY want to go ahead and hang these new fixtures anyway. To make some progress. To make my vision for my house visible and tangible. To do.

Living on my own is an exercise in trial and error, even when it comes to a task as simple as cleaning a shower head. There's something about the water in my city that clogs my shower head frequently. Cleaning the clogs is as simple as soaking it in white vinegar but it's getting the vinegar into the tiny holes that can be tricky. I used to have a shower head that was easily removed and I could just take it off, put it in a bowl of vinegar and I'd be back to comfortable showers in no time. That one had to be replaced for a reason I can't remember and the new one is a bit trickier. The screw doesn't seem quite long enough to make putting the head back on an easy endeavor. It's like playing the game Operation with your eyes closed and tweezers made out of cooked spaghetti. The first time I did it, I was extremely lucky and it all went without a hitch. This gave me a false sense of confidence and no fear of doing the task again. The second time did not...

I read at Apartment Therapy that wallpaper is rising in popularity. I'm fairly certain some of the wallpaper in my house caused the last demise of the trend. Here is what I'm trying to strip off my kitchen walls. I was fooled by the ease of the removal of the wallpaper in my hall - two episodes of NCIS and that awful brown with weird geometric flowers was off the wall and out of my life. With that success under my belt, I thought, "how hard could the kitchen be, there's even less wallpaper in there." I think the kitchen walls laughed at me when I said that because 2 1/2 years later, I'm still struggling to get not one but three layers of wallpaper off the kitchen walls. Now that I hear wallpaper is making a comeback, maybe I'll just paper over those three layers and call it good. Here are 25 patterns from the Apartment Therapy website to choose from - which one do you like? http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/add-color-with-wallpaper-pretty...

I was just looking for some earrings to wear with my Halloween costume (a zombie Joan Harris) and as I was looking, I was amazed at the junk I have. I've kept boxes from watches that no longer work, every gift bag I've ever received, and packing material just in case I move. It is amazing the things you can accumulate when you haven't moved in over a decade.  At times I sit in my house and feel almost strangled by the things I own, like the walls are closing in.  I have a friend that recently sold her house and moved herself for the first time in years. In her previous relocations, a moving company was hired to get her things from the old place to the new place. When she physically laid her hands on everything she owned, she was in shocked by how much stuff she owned. One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was packed up my whole room, move my things to the living room, rearrange my furniture, and start fresh in a "brand new" room. I'm th...

I live in a bungalow built in 1930 in a quiet neighborhood near a college campus. Luckily there is no homeowners' association because I'm sure I would be THAT house that was always being cited for rule violations. I probably am THAT house that everyone points to and says, "why doesn't she do something about (fill in the blank)" to which I would respond, "I'm getting around to that." The problem is, there are a lot of things I need to get around to and I'm not sure where to start. There are major things like the roof and the paint that need to be addressed and there are minor things like the crop of weeds I'm cultivating in my flower beds that are simple annoyances. And that's just on the outside. On the inside there are projects that have been started, projects that need to be started, and projects that are pipe dreams. A major element to this blog will be taking you along for the ride as I take on those projects. I'm no ...