Our garden - Spring '09

Recently some of my on-line pals at the forum where I hang out requested that I post some more photos from our garden. What better day than Earth Day, right?








Here's one of the wild violets that grow on the west side of the house. They are the #1 reason why I won't use harsh chemicals on our lawn.











We have 8 azalea bushes in the back garden. This is my favorite one this year. The color is amazing!




Millie loves soaking up the sun, too.


And that's not all! I took some pics at the gorgeous Duke gardens last week, so I'll share those next time. Hope you can get out & enjoy the beauty around you this Earth Day.

Ten random notes ...

1. Mom and Dad made it home safely from the Holy Land. Apparently it was a great trip, but I haven't heard many of the details yet because both of my parents caught a terrible bug that made it very difficult for them to speak. It's been nearly 2 weeks since they returned and Mom's voice is still rough. Funnily enough, they started feeling sick shortly after visiting the pyramids in Egypt, so Uncle Buster has concluded that they've been hit by The Mummy's Curse. And we thought that was a myth!

2. I discovered that my aunt makes the BEST yeast rolls in the history of time. So soft and pillow-y and amazing. And the dough raises to heights that are not to be believed. Check it out.

Crazytown! I watched her closely & found a recipe on-line that looks extremely similar to hers, so I think I'll give it a try this week.

3. We ate a LOT while visiting the fam. Tim was introduced to Cincinnati Chili (he likes it "4-way"). We tried to take him to Ann's Ice Ball shop, but it's closed for the season. Boo! We took him to the ol' Dari-Bar instead.

Remember how I'd reached my goal weight? Ummmm ... that was kinda short-lived! I'm sure I'll get back down again.

4. Hollywood descended upon the Bull City this week. A movie called "Main Street" is filming around town & causing a bit of a stir. It's pretty amusing, actually. The movie stars Colin Firth and Orlando Bloom (among others). Definite heart-throb material. If you want to know where they're filming, just look for a small crowd of women with hopeful looks on their faces & cameras in their hands. You'll find them outside of buildings or lingering on street corners around town. And if you miss them, just watch the evening news. Every night this week - EVERY night - the TV news has gone out & interviewed these women. My favorite interview was of a 50-something lady who hoped "that little hottie" Orlando Bloom would come out & give her a hug. The reporters response: "Well, uh, I hope you get what you want." Snort!

5. I've been pretty busy doing all sorts of stuff. I'll post more info in the next day or two. My problem is I took more than 100 photos & I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the volume. I'll definitely have to spread it out over a few days.

6. One week until auditions. Eep. I found a monologue that fits the time limit (from "Stop Kiss"). It isn't the most spellbinding monologue on the planet, but it'll do. Guess I better work on memorizing it now, right? Ugh.

7. Watching the first season of the following shows: Veronica Mars, The IT Crowd, Mad Men. All of these were new to Tim, but Veronica Mars was the only one I hadn't seen before. Tim bought Mad Men as a surprise for me. I think I won him over when he learned that the hot redhead from Firefly was on it. Hooray for delicious eye candy!

8. My 2 closest local gal pals are really busy with school right now. It really sucks because I feel like enjoying some girly time. Within the next few weeks, Jennifer will defend her masters dissertation and Shawna will graduate with her Bachelors in Architecture. Shawna says she won't be able to come out from under her pile of books until May 9th. Poor thing! Luckily, Jennifer has a little more wiggle room & we've made some plans, but not much. Le sigh!

9. I've been thinking again about how desperately I need to paint the kitchen. Still having trouble settling on a color, though. I want something light and warm that will look good with the oak cabinets. However, I don't want the kitchen to look like a bland cliche. I've been stewing over this for nearly 2 years & I think I'm now frozen with indecision. Maybe Mom can help me with this when she arrives in a few weeks.

10. Speaking of which, I can't believe my family will be here in less than a month! Mom has already told me that she's looking forward to relaxing with a cup of coffee & taking in the view of our backyard. Well, Mom, here's a little something to tide you over.

Happy House-iversary

As you can probably imagine, not a lot happened this week, but that's not a bad thing. It was actually rather nice. Last Sunday we met up with some people from an on-line forum where I hang out. And I did some yard work. Watched some episodes of "Gilmore Girls". Went out for Mexican. Checked out the new pastry and chocolate shop in Carrboro. Read some more of "Eat Pray Love". Rubbed Millie's tummy for hours and hours. Stuff like that. Nothing big.

The only pseudo-important event of the week was our first House-iversary. We have now been living in this house for a whole year. Hooray! Funnily enough, this week I finally filled the memory card I bought for my camera shortly after we bought the house - almost exactly a year ago. So here are some of the final shots from that card, all of them taken around our house this week.

Mary Mary ...

When people first meet me and hear that my name is Mary, they often do 2 things in quick succession:
1. They accuse me of being "quite contrary"
2. They ask how my garden is doing.
And they always say these things in a peculiar sing-song tone.

I've never said it out-loud, but a part of me is rather offended by that initial accusation. Why do they think I'm contrary? I've always thought of myself as a rather friendly, approachable, easy-going sort. How would you like it if somebody met you and the first thing they did was call you a grumpy old coot? Wouldn't like it much, wouldja? Especially if it was said in a mocking, sing-song tone. But what is there to be done? If I call these people out on their rude behavior, then suddenly I'll seem argumentative and difficult and, unfortunatly, contrary. My attempts to proove them wrong would only show that they had good reason to think ill of me in the first place. See? I just can't win.

Hmph.

As for my garden ... well, I honestly haven't done much with it this year. I took out some dead bushes and planted some grass seed (damn you, Drought of 2007!), but I've yet to put my own stamp on our garden. I tried visiting a plant nursery for inspiration, but I was overwhelmed by choice, paralyzed by indecision. It was just like picking paint colors. Dizzying. So far all I've managed to bring home is a hanging basket of fuschia. It's a lovely basket, but we need more. The flower bed around the mailbox looks particularly sad since, well, there aren't any flowers in it. Indeed, there isn't anything at all growing in it right now. It isn't a flower bed as much as it is a patch of barren dirt and mulch. I really need to fix that this week. And since I'm mentioning it on my blog, that means I have to do it, right? Because now you people will ask me about it. You'll call and say, "How does your garden grow?" and I better have a response ready or you'll give me what-for, right? Right.

So yeah. I'll get on that. In the mean time, here are some photos of my fuschia plant. Yay.

Painting madness: revisited

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I painted the living room and hallway? Remember how I had trouble posting the pics? I think I found a solution. It's called PictoBrowser. Check it out.



Thanks to Jessica over at "How About Orange" for the heads-up.

C? Really?

As is the case with so many people, the new year has inspired me to think about changes and improvements: Things I can do to improve my environment, my relationships, and even myself. Being the person that I am, I started to do research. In my quest towards improvement, I came across the following pamphlet.

Here is The Big Question, kids: What is this pamphlet attempting to sell? Is it ...
A: A local theater company's upcoming season
B: The latest is anti-depressant medication
C: Countertops

Yes, that's right. The answer is C. Baffling, isn't it? Take another gander at that picture and tell me what about it makes you long to spend thousands of dollars renovating your kitchen. Honestly. I find myself deeply concerned about the mental state of the marketing department at DuPont, because they have got to be seriously messed up if they think this is a successful way to market their quartz countertops.

Anyway, The point is that, yup, I'm thinking about the kitchen. I have finally decided on a color scheme. I'm going for red. Red with creamy white. My inspiration - other than my pots - is a set of coasters I found at Target last week.

My other inspiration is this little piece of art from Patricia Zapatra. It's called "Hiding". I bought it for myself as a reward for all of that painting I did a couple of weeks ago. To see more work by this artist, go to her website: ALittleHut.com

Inspiration isn't everything, though. At some point you have to do something. I decided that new countertops are just a little too expensive for us right now, but there are other things I can do. I finally got sick of looking at the old navy blue, pock-marked backsplash, so I covered it in primer. It took 4 coats, but the room looks brighter already. Also, Tim and I ordered our new over-the-range microwave to replace the one that died last summer. Thanks to the advice from a timely issue of Consumer Reports, we ordered a highly-rated model by LG. Gotta love LG. They make the best stuff. Did you know that they even make quartz countertops now? It's true! And based on my research, their marketing department seems far happier than those poor souls at DuPont.

Painting madness: Living room and hallway

Every time I've spoken to my mom over the past week, she has asked me if I've put pictures of the new paint job on my blog yet. Well, Mom, this post is for you!

Unfortunately, I've been having some trouble posting pics. Until I get this straightened out, just click here to see the before & after shots.

Dining Room: After

On Saturday afternoon I made a roast chicken with potatoes for lunch. While everything was cooking, I started cleaning up the dining room with the idea that we could eat lunch in there. The chicken was ready before the room, but that's okay. The point is that by Saturday afternoon, we finally - FINALLY - had our dining room back. Here's what it looks like now. And I must say that I am in LOVE. My love for this room now surpasses my adoration of my washing machine. Didn't think that could happen, didja.

The sad truth is that, for months now, the only table we've eaten around is the coffee table. We haven't even had friends over because we had no place to put them. Well, we did feed Kevein and Shawna in the living room that one time, but it was a bit of a headache. But those days are behind us now! We wasted no time in taking advantage of our new dining room. On Sunday night, Kevin and Shawna came over for dinner, video games, and a movie (the last in the Bourne series. The four of us have been catching up on them together). Very fun & a great way to break in the new room. And they were impressed by how nicely it turned out. Yay!

The other great thing is that we now have our breakfast nook back, too. For months it has been crammed with furniture from other places, but no more! Now we have two proper tables where we can eat! Will the wonders ever cease?!?!

Painting madness: Success!

This, my friends, it what is commonly known as a vast improvement.

This is a before & after shot all in one. Above the chair rail is the original color. Below it is the new lovely green. I think the old color looks a lot better in this photo than it does in reality. Just please believe me when I say that it was foul.

And here's a bit of what the dining room looks like now!

I still have some work to do on the ceilings so I can't completely remove the rosin paper yet, but I thought I'd pull back a corner just to see how the wood looks with the green. Don't worry about the white stuff on the floor to the right; that is NOT paint! It's leftover dust from when I scraped the ceiling.


Speaking of Scooby Do, I ordered a rug off of Overstock.com. My hope is to put it in the living room. I'm a bit nervous, though, since I wasn't able to touch it first, but Laura says that she's bought tons of stuff on Overstock before & has always been happy with her purchases. Fingers crossed!

And speaking of Laura, I went to her house on Wednesday and met a bunch of REALLY wonderful ladies! A couple of them asked me if I'd be interested in having lunch with them sometime which thrilled me to bits. Two others have invited me to their home to watch Project Runway. And Laura and I decided to organize a tea party at a local tea house for sometime after the holidays. Talk about a successful evening! I'm especially thrilled because it means that I have something to look forward to after returning from Oklahoma at the end of the month. Leaving "home" & returning here can be so difficult for me, but I think me new-found friends will make it easier.

Must run. Tim's work place's holiday party is tonight & I need to make sure there's no more paint stuck in my hair.

Painting madness: Buying!

I made a decision. I bought paint! Wee!!! I was inspired by a video I watched on the TED website about the paradox of choice ( Click here to watch it ). Basically, he talks about how sometimes when we have too many options, we become paralyzed & cannot decide which choice is right for us because we're so worried about getting it wrong. If you've ever been to a home improvement store & stood in front of a wall of paint chips, you can understand why this message resonated with me. So I just said, "Screw it! I'm buying paint!" Maybe I'll start working on the dining room tonight. We'll see.

In other news, the weather madness continues. My parents & about 600,000 other people in the Tulsa area still do not have power. Dad says that most of their trees are damaged. At least George and Derek still have power ... or at least they did when I spoke to Derek last night.

On the other side of the coin, it has been extremely warm here. Yesterday's high was 81F - an all-time high for the entire month of December. And here's the forecast for the rest of the week.

It's suposed to be much cooler this weekend, so I better get all of this painting done quickly!

Painting madness: Testing

My mother called this morning to let me know that they have no electricity at their house. An ice storm hit Green Country last night & she is trapped at home with nothing to do but watch the icicles grow.

Meanwhile, it is unseasonably warm here. Check out the weather forecast for Raleigh & Durham this week.

Madness! Yesterday we went to the Durham Chorale's Christmas Concert (Jennifer was singing) and it was so warm that we didn't need jackets. Some members of the audience were wearing shorts. Granted, I'm grateful for the warm weather because it means I can get a lot of painting done this week, but it certainly doesn't feel Christmas-y.

Speaking of painting, we tested some colors this weekend. I am in love with Oklahoma Wheat! Or rather, "Safari". You see, there's a particular type of paint that I want to use (Benjamin Moore's Aura). It's very durable, washable, & has low fumes. In the Aura line, Oklahoma Wheat is known as Safari. It's the same color (the paint chips look exactly the same) so I'm just going to keep on thinking of it as Oklahoma Wheat.
Anyway!
I put some patches of it in the living room, downstairs hallway, and upstairs hallway. It looks 1000% better than the dreary beigey-lavender-grey that we currently have all over the place. It's warm and homey, while also feeling light. It's yellow, but it isn't YELLOW, if ya know what I mean. The house is going to feel so much happier & more welcoming when we're done. I can't wait!


Meanwhile in the dining room, we're tinkering with different shades of green. We've tested 3 so far & found a lighter green that Tim likes (Croquet - the color on the right in these photos), but I'm afraid it has a little too much grey in it. Honestly, I'm so sick of looking at paint that I feel an urge to just paint that room Oklahoma Wheat, too. Kevin & Shawna were over on Saturday night & we asked them what they thought. Kevin was noncommital. Shawna said shes like the old color. Clearly these people cannot be trusted.

Maybe I should look at the other side of the color wheel. A part of me thinks that a warm pink could be a great color for a dining room. Or not. Hmm.

Painting madness: inspiration

Once upon a time, I worked in a costume shop for a university. We made all of the costumes for every play, musical, dance, and opera that went up on our university's stage. It could be stressful, but we had a blast. I worked with 3 flamingly gay men, which made it all the more interesting. Just me, a drag queen, a couple Bears, and all the fancy, creative costumes you could possibly imagine. How could that not be fun, ya know?

My specialty in the costume shop was hand sewing - or as the boys loved to say "hand jobs". As in, "Hey Mary, I need you to give me a hand job [snicker]". Note that only gay men speaking to their beloved fag hags can get away with this kind of humor. Note also that this never. gets. old.

The reason why I became Queen of the Hand Jobs is because I have meticulous attention to detail. If something needs to be done just so - if you really truly care about the placement of every single stitch - I am your girl. The only drawback is that perfection takes time. Also, there are very few things in stage costuming that require fine detail work (the audience was always at least 20 feet away from our university's stage). And yet, I had this urge to make ALL of my work perfect. Therefore, I was slow. My boss, Robert, learned this sad fact about me. Whenever he gave me a job that needed to be done quickly, he would tell me to be a Speed Demon. If he saw me poking along on my machine on some silly sleeve for a supporting character, Robert would bellow, "I need you to be a Speed Demon, Mary! Speeeeeeed Demon!" & I'd wake up from my reverie of obsessive focus & pick up the pace.

Ah, if only Robert was still in my life now, for I have gotten myself wrapped up into my little perfectionistic world again & I need someone like him to come over, slap me around, and remind me to stop sweating the small stuff.

The small stuff in this case is painting. I know, I know, I picked out paint colors ages ago, right? But getting started on the painting project is scaring me. Paint costs money! Plus, this is Our House - a major investment! And if I spend all of that time preparing the walls and painting and then I don't like the results, then that could affect the value of the house! Plus it's a lot of money & time wasted. Never mind the fact that I'm already wasting a hell of a lot of time agonizing over this. At least I'm not wasting money yet, right?

My biggest hang-up in the paint department - the sticking point that is causing me the most grief - is the kitchen.



Oh, the kitchen. Why must it torture me so. There are lots of things about it that are ugly, but we aren't in a position to change out things right now (well, except for the dead microwave/hood seen in the breakfast nook in these pics. We got rid of that last week). We can paint, though. And boy does this room ever need painting. I hate the blue paint in the kitchen with a loathing that I usually reserve for Jefferson Starship and The Eagles. However, I can't settle on a new color. And seeing as the kitchen is connected to the living room, hallway and dining room, I feel that the color I paint the kitchen has a major influence on the colors I paint the other areas. So of course I can't paint anything in any room until I've nailed down a final color pallet, yes?
Bah.

Anyway. I know this is getting long, so I'm just going to post some inspirational pics. You see, I've been feeling a leaning towards happy, colorful prints for the kitchen. Madness, I know. But the stereotypical yellow kitchen is such a boring cliche & I want to avoid that. I want something a little different. So here are some inspirational pieces that have caught my eye.

First: The sheets I recently bought at Target. Cuter in person, too. If you are smart you will buy some today. Only $20!


Concert poster for everybody's favorite band that features a trumpet, Cake! I don't own this poster, but I'm thinking about getting it despite the fact that I've never been to Milwaukee.


Third, this print from The Black Apple's on-line shop on Etsy. I don't own this yet, but I fully intend to. I've bought other things from Emily before & I think she's super fab.

Lastly, my Le Creuset cookware.

Luckily for me, I do own this. I have 5 pieces of Le Creuset cookware. And I LOVE their gorgeous red color. I have enough storage that they don't need to sit out all the time, but I don't mind at all if one is sitting on the stove just 'cause.

So that's my color story. But what does this say? What should I do? Well, besides paint the kitchen cabinets white (don't go there). Decisions, decisions ...

Camellias

I am a wimp. I spent a lot of time working on the garden, which has resulted in a blister on the palm of my left hand. Typing is kinda painful. At least the garden is looking better. Sadly, a lot of the plants are trying desperately to die (the drought here is terrible!). But somehow the camellias are thriving. In fact, they started blooming this week.

Paint chips

From left to right ...
Southfield Green, Oklahoma Wheat, and Teacup Rose
All colors from Benjamin Moore

My thought is that I'd put the green in the dining room, the "wheat" in the living room and hallway, and the "rose" in the kitchen. Very colorful, yes? But is it too colorful. Hmmmmm. This evening I set out these paint chips for Tim and asked what he thought. He said to go for it. I suspect he may have just been humoring me. We shall see.

First film

I can be such an idiot sometimes. I have owned this new camera since last Christmas and only recently did I realize that I can record movies with it. Picture me smacking myself in the forehead.

So this morning, just as an experiment, I made a little video of one of my favorite things. :)

Good-bye Friday

So what does one say after neglecting one's blog for a while? I know it is customary to apologize, but that's boring. So forget that mess. ;)

It's been a week now since we walked away from the old house. That was a sad day for me. I really grew to love that house. I enjoyed the colorful walls. And I will desperately miss the enormous bathtub.



And of course, Dinosaur Duck, the bizarre bit of statuary in the back garden that (at least, in our eyes) looks more like a brontosaurus than a bird.

There are oodles of things I like better about our own place, but ... well, it's always hard to say goodbye to something. So last Friday when I shut that door for the last time, I got a little misty-eyed. Plus, the old owner of our new house stopped by one last time before flying out to Italy. And then my mother flew back to Tulsa that evening. So it was just one good-bye after another last Friday. No wonder I've been feeling low since then!

Luckily, before Mom left, we found a little time to visit a tea shop in Raleigh. The place is called V's and it is located in a Victorian house that, oddly enough, is laid out almost exactly like the house where my mother grew up. It was the perfectly, girly way to end her visit. The food was soooooo good. Tim likes a nice cream tea, so I'll have to take him there sometime.


So that was last week. And I've felt a tad low this week as a result, but I'm starting to perk up a bit. I have plenty of projects lined up in my mind. And I'm meeting a potential new girlfriend Saturday morning! So now that things are starting to happen in my life, maybe I'll actually start posting a few times a week again. Ya never know ...