Run Lori Run!

Sunflowers

This is my first successful season of sunflowers... Drop Dead Reds, this dwarf variety and a few others. I love having my own stash of flowers to bring inside to enjoy.

The garden is starting to wind down and quickly becoming an overgrown mess! In the spring I am all energy- pruning, weeding, planting. In the fall I have no more motivation to deadhead let alone plant anything for a cool season harvest. well, maybe some kale...

I've been fantasizing about moving to a hobby farm lately. I need more room....

Summer Color

I have to say it's pretty satisfying to see how much progress we've made in the garden. The lawn is finally gone and the flowers are flourishing.










My dad made this arbor for us...it's almost finished!


Hope you guys are enjoying your summer so far. Do you believe it's summer solstice already?

These Days

These days I've been:

• Planting flowers- Dahlias, Liatris, Euphorbia
  
• Planting veggies- Copra onions, Red Zeppelin onions, Sugar Snax carrots
• Listening to– this song (Thanks Colleen!)
  
• Smelling- Rosemary in the garden, lots of curry in the kitchen
  
• Watching- Alias (so I'm a little behind), The Life of Pi
  
• Reading- Wildwood, The Years of Rice and Salt, maybe Daughter of Smoke and Bone
  
• Eating- Honey glazed salmon, Salad rolls
• Hoping- to build this bench this summer
  
• Planning- my next vacation
  
• Loving- Spring! Finally there's some action in the garden!
  
• Feeling- grateful for more sunshine, amazed when things actually start growing from seed on my windowsill.

What are you up to these days?

Creating Color

We spotted this beauty on the way home the other day and it reminded me of all of the photos like this one:

...that I have collected on Pinterest. And since I will never actually have room in my home for a rainbow library, I decided to make myself my very own rainbow bookshelf.

It's the little things, isn't it?

 And do you want to know what else is making me smile these days? Having my daughter text me photos like this one from art class. You know how you think your kid is pretty talented at something and then they turn a corner and *POW* they are amazing?   

 

What's bringing happiness your way these days?

For When The Sun Comes Out

 The infamous baby blue wall:

I cannot decide what to do with this wall. Every time I consider putting some lattice and vines over I think this might be a better idea:

I can absolutely see myself parked out back with some margaritas (still in cinqo de mayo mode) and the fire pit and a good movie on the wall. 

We shall see...

Pimp My Coop

As many of you know I want chickens. Well not roosters like this bad boy. I want nice little lady hens to lay me some eggs. And I will walk out my back door and gather them all farmer-like.

And I think my shed would make the most awesome chicken cook ever.

So I found this website and have been trying to convince my husband that this is a perfectly realistic thing for us to do.  We live in Portland so having chickens in your backyard is like having a dog.

So I've been doing research and have found some interesting designs out there. People take this coop thing seriously.  

Maurice, the car chicken coop.

The urban coop.

  The mansion. 

Cluckingham Palace.

The A Frame.
And this is kind of what I envision, with the chicken run enclosed and attached to one side.

I know some of you have chickens, so what do you think?  Is it a high maintenance endeavor?  Is it worth it?  Any coop ideas? What do you think?

New Year, New Way to Put 20 New Holes In the Wall

The is how we spend New Year's Eve. Every year:  fireplace, movie (The American) and bellinis (peach).

Then I start planning for the new year... Home improvement, gardening,  organizing...

I have been wanting to organize our wall hangings in our bedroom like this for a long time.  Ever since I saw this post. She provides a detailed strategy, a logical process for arranging your photos...which I of course completely ignored and just started hammering.

Feels good to have one project down.  37 to go. I informed my husband last night that we need to build a root cellar in our basement..... Better keep the hammer out.

What are your projects or goals for the new year?

These Things Make Me Happy

A beautiful card sent to me by the very talented  Sally Magundy.

My very cool husband painting the shed a more beautiful shade of blue.  I have some plans for this shed and I will share photos when the transformation is complete!

 

My Silpat Mat. Seriously, nothing sticks to this thing. That makes me very happy.

 

And sewing makes me happy. But as you can see I have no photos of any sewing projects because I NEVER HAVE TIME!

 

I Can't Tell You How Bad This Smells

This is how we spent our "lazy" Sunday... ripping up old carpet.

 

And by "we" I mean Bert.  Bert ripped up the smelly, pet stained, baby blue carpet.  I stood by and held the camera.

Lo and behold, there was nice a Fir floor underneath. But...We have Fir in one part and Oak in another. And they aren't going the same direction.

As some of you know, we've done quite a bit of renovation work in the two years we've had our house.  Ripping out the carpet was our first priority but other projects got started and now we're finally getting to the floors!  This is the before picture of the kitchen.  YIKES!  Yes, that is NEON GREEN Formica! 

This is the after picture of our kitchen. Big changes!  

Our house was built in 1928 and remodeled in the 1980s, hence the baby blue everything. Paint, carpet..

We remodeled our bathroom too but that's another post. :)