My Fern Fury

I did something really dumb this year...

I wintered my precious, precious ferns :-(

When I found out about a local wintering program this past Fall, I was ecstatic.  I was on my second set of hanging Boston ferns (the first set didn't make through our unusually cool Spring) and they were thriving.  I was worried about keeping them inside our house for two reasons.  One--I wasn't sure if we had the proper lighting levels and two--I didn't want to deal with the constantly shedding fronds.  I knew that by wintering ferns, they obviously wouldn't die, but they would continue to grow and just get bigger, and  bigger and BIGGER.

I have to admit that when looking at this picture, they don't seem THAT big.  This picture was taken in the summer time and they had grown even more before I took them to the greenhouse.  In fact, I could only fit one of them in the backseat of my Altima, if that says anything about how large they had gotten!

I took my sweet, precious ferns in around late October and picked them up in early April.

I thought I was going to cry by the time it was all said and done.

When I walked into the greenhouse, I saw two itty-bitty, wimpy ferns planted in old buckets sitting by the door.  I didn't pay them much attention because heck, mine were insanely huge compared to those!  In fact, I kinda felt sorry for whoever was getting those ferns!

I filled out the paperwork, paid the bill and asked where my ferns were--I was so excited to have my "babies" back!  The gal said, "They're right there!" and pointed at the wimpy ferns planted in the bucket...I looked at the ferns, then looked at her and said, "Uh, those aren't my ferns."

After a few minutes of trying to convince her that those were not my ferns, she showed me the stake that had been stuck in the dirt.  Lo and behold, my name was on the stake.  I explained to her that my ferns were huge--like, big enough that one of them alone took up an entire backseat--and had been in hanging baskets...not buckets.  I was convinced that someone had gotten a set of ferns confused and some lucky person walked out with some impressive "growth" in their ferns.

She explained that my roots had outgrown their hanging baskets--which, I didn't doubt one bit.  Thus, they transplanted them into the buckets and clipped off all the dead foliage.  I knew my ferns had a few dry fronds, but enough to trim them down to absolutely nothing?!?!  I wasn't buying it.

In fact, I'm still not buying it.  She tried to ease my fears by saying there are "millions" of babies just waiting to pop up--again, I don't doubt that one bit.  But I thought the point of wintering plants was to have them ready to put on display when the weather was nice again!

At this rate, I'm not sure when the ferns will be big enough to hang.  I could go ahead and do it, but they'd look so ridiculously unproportional to our porch.  Just thinking about it starts to bring tears of fury and disappointment to my eyes.

My two ferns in their new "home" on the porch floor.  I have to admit, they HAVE grown since I picked them up a month ago--but they're still nowhere close to their original size.  Oh, well!

Ever since picking up the ferns nearly 1 month ago, J-Money and I have been going round and round about buying a new set.  Of course, I want to get two new ones--and it really didn't help any when all the local stores starting bringing out their big ol' full ferns.  It was like they were just rubbing it in my face!  Justin keeps telling me to be patient and accept that at some point, they'll be big again--and my response is, "Yeah, like next year."  I want my ferns NOW!  And yes, I am being a whiney little kid about it :-)

Finally, last night, J-Money gave in.  I got my mileage reimbursement check in the mail and it was a whopping $25.  Yeah, gas is $4/gallon, but you know our reimbursement rate still bites when I'm getting paid $25 for all the driving that I do.  I digress...but anyhow, Justin told me that I could take the reimbursement money and go buy a set of new ferns.  So, I did.  Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

In all situations, I try to find the positive.   I figure this experience may actually end up working out very, very well.  My need for instant gratification was met when I picked up my new set of ferns...if the wintered ferns ever catch up, then I'll have the 4 hanging ferns that I always wanted!  Then, our porch will really feel like the Southern porch that I want to create for my husband.  Granted, I'm not sure what I'll do with the ferns come winter, but we may end up with a house full of shedded fronds and a super happy fern-crazy lady before it's all said and done :-)

Our "Outdoor Living Room"--The Final Touches

We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of Spring in our house.  The turn of the season means plenty of yardwork (yay!) and time to enjoy our "Outdoor Living Room."

When we first bought our house, we really liked the front porch.  But I don't think we knew just quite HOW MUCH we would use it!  From March until October, we spend many evenings on the porch...we also spend quite a few weekend mornings drinking coffee, watching people walk to the Farmer's Market and reading the newspaper on our front porch.  It is literally our outdoor living room!

However, we have a few projects we want to tackle in order to make it a "complete" room!  But...we can't make a final decision so we're soliciting your input!

For starters, we need to put in some decent lighting.  I'm too embarassed to even show what we currently have as a light fixture!  It's a flood light screwed into a remnant of a ceiling-mount fixture that is covered in dead bugs...yuck!

We would prefer to hang an outdoor ceiling fan to help circulate the air during muggy months--but I'm not sure if that would look right???  Reason being, the wiring is smack-dab in the middle of the porch.  And our front door is slightly cocked to the left.  Thus, any light fixture will be about even with the right side of the door frame.

And for those of you who don't have our porch memorized yet *sarcasm*, this is what it looks like from various angles and during different seasons.

And this is the color of our fence (that's not in any of the pictures)...we want to make sure whatever we end up with coordinates with the house AND fence.

Anywho, as far as fans go--we're down to 2 options that we like.  What are your thoughts???

If a ceiling fan isn't a good fit, we'll just go with a hanging lantern. 

Here are just a FEW (hehehe) that I like...again, any thoughts/suggestions???  Do I need to go with a completely different style, maybe something more traditional?

 Aside from the lighting, we have just one more thing we want to change...the porch swing!  We love our current swing but unfortunately, it's falling a part and the paint is peeling.  I'd love to repair it, but you'd end up with a new porch swing if you tried it.  So with that, we are just going to replace it! 

This is the swing we have decided on.  Luckily, it comes unfinished so now we just have to make one last BIG decision....do we paint it white (like the one we have now)--or do we stain it to match the fence (and our dark wicker rocking chair set)???   Regardless of whatever color it ends up being, I can't wait to enjoy the ergonomic, rounded design on a beautiful Spring night ;-)



Hurry Up, Spring! I'm Dreaming of Hardscaping!!!

Our mild winter has me yearning for Spring's arrival.  Last year at this time, we had snow on the ground for weeks at a time and a blizzard soon approaching!  This year, we have had a few flurries and that's about it.  It's a bit disappointing but I'm ready for Spring.  My creative juices have been flowing and I'm ready to get my hands dirty!

Last Spring, we built a flowerbed in front of our fence and put in 200-plus plants.  It took us the course of  the entire Spring and Summer, but we finally got all 100-yards of our fence stained.  It was mind-numbing work and I was glad to have it behind us!  While I tended to the plants, Justin volunteered to be in charge of the grass.  He was slowly but surely getting rid of the crabgrass and Bermuda grass that came with our house.  His hard work was paying off!

After spending who-knows-how-much on chemical concoctions and grass seed, and hours working in the yard, we have since found out that in order to COMPLETELY get rid of the problem grass, we have to start all over!

 I figure that if we're going to tear up the yard, we might as well put in some hardscaping while we're at it!  And hell, if you haven't noticed, I find projects for us to do that DON'T have to be done!  So why not keep adding to our project list?! lol...

One of my hardscape projects is to build a permanent fire pit...kinda like this one:

After all, we have the perfect spot in our backyard for one.  It would be far enough from any fire hazards and it would be pretty to look at (unlike this picture that was taken in the dead of winter last year)!  I'm kinda thinking down by the patio area??? 

And just between us, our current fire pit scares the daylights out of me.  Justin thinks it is just fine.  When I say we could burn down the neighborhood with it, I'm not kidding!  See what I mean?!

One of my other goals is to tear out the garden from behind our house.  Our garden was HORRIBLE this year and ummm, we could walk the 1-block to our Farmer's Market if we really want fresh produce.  The other thing is that the garden would get big and overgrown--it drove my OCD/neat-freak self nuts!   My idea is to take this space:

And build a raised-flowerbed...either for flowers (gasp!) or herbs.  I'm leaning towards flowers as it will give us some color and something pretty to look at!

And while we're building walls, I want to tear out our existing "retaining wall" by the "patio" and build something more substantial.  Right now, we have crumbling cinder blocks separating the grass and former parking pad.  Not only is it ugly, but grass manages to grow in the little holes of the blocks. It is a pain to either pull by hand or weed-eat! Plus, by having an actual retaining wall, it could double as extra seating space ;-)

The big thing will be getting Justin on board with all my ideas--he's all about making things look better, but he's not so excited about all the manual labor (especially the digging) that comes with doing things ourselves.  But something tells me, once Spring comes around, he'll be excited about working in the yard again!

'Twas The Night Before Christmas and All Through Our House...

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.



Yeah, RIGHT!

Both Justin and I were off work today so it was time to get some things done around the house!

Rather than hanging the stockings by the chimney with care, we replaced our living room ceiling fan and kitchen ceiling fixture.  They were LONG overdue for an update!

Here is the ceiling fan that came with the house--it is quite, well, ugly.

 And it just threw off the feel of the entire living room!

After making sure we had all the pieces and putting on some comfy work clothes...

We have a much improved ceiling fan!!!

And then we moved into the kitchen...and yup, another ugly light fixture!  We had put off dealing with the kitchen light because when we tried to change out the fixtures in the guest bedroom this summer, we discovered the wiring had been done incorrectly.  After numerous trips to the hardware store, LOTS of internet research and calling in the professionals, the light fixture was hung one week later.

However, we lucked out and all the wiring was correct!  It's not the most unique fixture but hey, I scored two of the "nipples" (as my brother calls them) for $10 and it looks better than what we had :-)

The lighting was one of the last updates to our kitchen.  After new paint, new window treatments (I love the bold print), shelving, tile tattoos, etc, the space feels a little more put together.  While I'm posting pictures, I might as well show you the progress thus far!

This is what the nook under our counter looked like earlier this summer:

And this is what it looks like now!  I wanted to use two boards to create three shelves, but they would have been pretty short shelves and thus nearly impossible to reach anything in the back.  Once again, it's better than it was!

For $50, we were able to change up the appearance of our backsplash with our tile tattoos.  Because of the age of our house, we were faced with a $500 fee just for having lead-based paints somewhere in the walls.  Then it would have been nearly an additional $1,000 to install new tile.  Ummmm, no thanks.  I think $50 sounds much better!

And finally, after craning our necks all day, we sat down to supper.  Thai Cashew Chicken with Sriracha Crab Rangoon!  Unfortunately, Justin can't stand nuts in his food so we really had No-Cashew Cashew Chicken.  Regardless, it was delicious.  Maybe, I'll try posting the recipe one of these days.  Until then, HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!



Decking the Halls...and Our Walls!

During the past few weeks, we have been busy decking the halls--and decking our interior walls! 

First on the agenda was decking the halls for Christmas!  I had purchased an amazing Pine-&-Poinsettia adorned swag to go above the front door and a coordinating old-fashioned street lamp to go by the door.  I was anxiously awaiting holiday decorating because it was going to look FABULOUS!  Then just two days later, all the Halloween decorations in our neighborhood went missing so I promptly returned the street lamp and swag to Hobby Lobby.  I should have known better than to sit out anything "loose" because the following story will prove my point:  When K-State kicked back into session this past August, a professor up the street from us had a tree stolen out of her front yard.  Yes, a tree!  It wasn't sawed off, or knocked off...using only their arms, the kids literally removed it from the ground and took off with it.  Anyhow, their antics made me realize I would have to become super creative with my outdoor decorations!

After some thinking, I decided that hanging wreaths on our windows might be the perfect solution.  After all, the potential thieves would have to enter our fence and I don't see that happening.  When Hobby Lobby had their wreaths marked down to $5, I picked up a dozen of them and talked Justin into helping me hang them one evening after work.  Honestly, I think I picked the coldest (and darkest) evening of the month to hang them.  Luckily, Justin was a good sport and went along with it.  However, my fingers were frozen solid and we called it a night before we could put the bows put on.  Finally, last weekend, I managed to tie the bows on the wreaths--I think the addition of the bows proved to be the much-needed finishing touch!

Our porch still needs some work.  I need to pick up more garland at the After-Christmas sales so I have enough to drape it on the railings next year...the straightness of this year's garland drives me nuts!  I also want a tall, skinny tree to go by the front door but I can't figure out how to tastefully secure it to the porch.  But in the meantime, I hope this little arrangement will bring a burst of color to our drab porch!  I picked up all the supplies at Jo-Ann's for a little bit of nothing and it came together pretty quickly.  The red things (whatever they're supposed to be) are super-glittery and look awesome when the sunlight hits them!

Last Saturday morning, we finally installed a hood over our stove.  The hood had been sitting in our basement for almost a year!  Last winter, we decided we were going to overhaul our kitchen and for whatever reason, we went ahead and bought the hood.  Needless to say, the overhaul didn't happen and I was finally tired of the hood collecting dust in our basement.

This is what the "stove area" of our kitchen looked like when we bought the house about 21 months ago:

And this is what it looks like now!  New stove, new flooring, new wall paint, running of additional wiring (can't see that part!) and the stainless steel hood.

It didn't dawn on us until we went to hang the hood, but the cabinets on that wall are all super deep.  Upper cabinets are generally 12" deep--but these cabinets measured 24" deep...meaning a previous owner hung "lower" cabinets as "upper" cabinets...???  Don't get me wrong--the extra cabinet depth allows for tons of storage space.  However, we realized that if we hung the hood flush with the front of the cabinets, the front of the hood would have stuck out far enough that we could not easily see nor reach the back burners.  If either one of us were shorter, it wouldn't have been such an issue.  Thus, we ended up installing the hood flush with the back of the cabinetry and thankfully, it doesn't look too out of place.

The last project on our agenda involved the long wall in our living room.  After  ayear of looking and months of saving up, I ordered some wall art that looked gorgeous in the catalog. After hanging the first set, I broke down and bought a laser level--it made the second set MUCH easier to hang!  I don't want to sound like a Negative Nancy, but the collage was not worth the money--the frames aren't square and don't lie flat, causing them to look a little uneven on the walls.  But hey, it was the best find for the amount of money I was able to spend, so I'll just live with them!

Our Kitchen "Re-Do"

Since this winter, we have been trying to slowly update the kitchen.  Our justification was that since bungalows naturally have small kitchens, it wouldn't cost as much as a large scale make-over.  Then we realized that regardless of how quickly or slowly you update things, the final price tag remains the same.  I know, a genius moment, huh?  Lol.

In fact, I shared some pictures of what we were wanting our kitchen to eventually look like a few weeks ago.  Do these pictures ring a bell???

The pictures showed the use of white cabinets, black counters, green glass tile and oak floors.  That's what we wanted but it wasn't the same "style" we were hoping to achieve.

Then, I stumbled across THIS picture.  It's a much more accurate representation of what we were hoping to create...A more modern space with touches of vintage charm.

As much as I love the kitchen above ^, the $8,000 estimate to update the kitchen just wasn't sitting well with us.  We weren't trying to change the layout, cabinets or anything like that.  We just wanted to replace the floor, countertops and tile.  After all, this isn't our "forever" home and it didn't make sense to spend that kind of money.  There had to be a way to fix up the kitchen without breaking the bank!

Back to the drawing board we went.  A few weeks ago, I decided to paint the kitchen an Antique Silver just so we'd have some change from the bright orange walls.  It only cost $10--yes, $10--to paint the entire kitchen! Turns out, my buddy at the paint shop mixes up "sample sized" quarts of paint for a little bit of nothing :-)

As it turned out, I actually liked the countertops with the grey walls (the hubs was indifferent) so we're keeping them.  Nothing beats a "Free-Dollar" countertop when the replacement counter was going to run $3,000 :-) 

And as a huge ego boost to myself, I found a picture where someone had the same countertop as ours!  Maybe our counters aren't so gawd-awful anyhow????  I just wish my pictures had such good lighting.  If I would stop taking pictures at night, that would make a big difference...

Back to the story...With the use of grey walls and a khaki countertop, it became apparent that we were heading far, far away from our dream kitchen of black granite and green glass tiles.  But hey, it allows us to save big money and surely I could find some affordable alternatives that would still give our kitchen some personality!

First things first--I found some awesome tile tattoos that allowed us to update our backsplash for just $54.  The original quote was close to $1,800 just to have the existing stuff ripped out and new tile installed. I think the tattoos already look great and heck, it's nearly impossible to tell they're not real tile.  Check out the stock photo of the tattoos:

After a trip to Sarah's Fabric in Lawrence, I am the proud owner of 5 yards of fabric for which I will make curtains for the windows.  Hopefully the round medallion print will help soften all the hard lines in the kitchen and add a nice pop of color.

While in Lawrence, I also scored an awesome deal on a LONG, black gel pro mat for the kitchen.  I've been wanting one forever and I'm not sure who's more excited to use it--me, or my feet?!  But I do know it looks great in front of our sink and dishwasher :-)

 

At some point, we need to order this sconce for over the sink...it's much more proportional than the existing sconce and I love the schoolhouse design!

And a matching ceiling light to go with the sconce--our current fixture is OUTdated for sure!

For almost six months now, we have had a range hood sitting in our basement. It's not really doing a good job of venting the air from its' box!  Our kitchen was never wired for a hood but we have an electrician friend willing to help run the electrical for it here in the next few weeks.  It always helps to know people!



We're working on having some built-in floating shelves installed in the awkward space under the counter.  I'm hoping they can look original to the kitchen and give us some much desired extra storage!  We had been storing our trashcan and recycling in the cubby but who wants to look at our rubbish?!  Oh, and I apologize for the quality of this photo--I busted the camera lense on my phone earlier this Spring.  Oooops.

Finally, we need to finish up the accessorizing! I would love to get new hardware for the cabinets but I just haven't found the right pulls yet. In the meantime, I am displaying a bunch of my yellow enamelware that we received as wedding gifts above the cupboards. I also saw some super cute plates and canisters at Pier 1 that would look great mixed in with all the enamelware!



The kitchen currently has some Multiple Personalities Disorder going on right now--you can see bits of the "old" kitchen peeking out just when you see hints of the new style emerging.  With school starting soon, I'm not sure when we will get everything done and when "the after" pictures will be ready to post.  Regardless of when it's finished, it will be nice to have a "new" kitchen that didn't cost us an arm and a leg!