lively decorating

candace, an old friend who i don't get to see often enough, & her adorable daughter came for an overnight yesterday. we went to lunch & then headed out to bart's, which is an awesome flea market in town. we had a blustery afternoon, so spending an hour in the indoor flea market/antique store was perfect. my favorite section is the plant booth {to which candace rolled her eyes in disgust}. last winter i got a creeping charlie plant for our bathroom and almost bought a string of pearls, but didn't feel like i should buy both. i later regretted that and went back, but there were no more pearls left. yesterday they had some so i didn't hesitate!

some jade & the string of pearls to give us some
more greenery & life in the house.

my mom has had these plants before, so i will think of her each
time i water this guy.

turns out now is the time to buy gardening supplies. the pot
that the jade is in was originally $10 (not too bad for a
decorative pot, right?). i thought i was getting a deal on it for $5,
but it rang up for only $2.50! gotta love
needing/buying things out of season!

i also found this yellow enamel bread pan at the
flea market. i wish i would have chosen the larger one so it
would fit more fruit, but i am not totally sure that i am
going to dedicate it to that purpose.
although i haven't decided how to use it, i sure do LOVE it!

Garden Party

we have ears of corn!
brandon's hopefulness paid off.

the broccoli is finally coming around. supposedly it
does ok into the cold fall. lets hope!
i love the feel of this photo. who knew
broccoli could be such a fabulous subject?

i had tomato dreams last night, willing them to turn red!

our only sizable squash. i was too zealous & planted my seeds too
close together, resulting in humid conditions & ultimately,
powdery mildew. next time i will trust the
seeds &give them the space they need.
this might be the only squash we will be able to
eat this year. bummer!

our little forest of peppers

an antique, a few plants in colorful pots, & an expanding garden--all of these things make me happy to have a little more growth & life in our house.

wild rumpus

*disclaimer*: this is an all-dog, anthropomorphizing post. ignore if: 1) dogs drive you nuts, 2) specifically, harvey drives you nuts, &/or 3) you think i've lost my mind for posting so many pictures of dogs. no offense will be taken.

having grandma & grandpa last night was wonderful! we had a quiet evening with a nice dinner. {i was terrified to cook for stan, but he didn't complain about our uber healthy salad or the quinoa. at least he didn't complain to me!} 

most of the evening centered around getting their scottie dog, fergie, & harvey to play well together. despite her pint size stature, she held her quite own well. all the while maintaining her scottie dog dignity, of course.

 harvey tried to lure her off the couch to play with this move...

...to no avail.

then he tried to wrestle on the couch. as you can see, fergie was having none of it.

  

we also realized late last night that it was harvey's birthday. he is two & sadly none of this puppy energy is showing signs of disipating. {in case you were wondering, no special treats or gifts were bestowed upon him for his bithday. i don't take my anthropomorphizing that far!}

the grandparents are coming, the grandparents are coming

i have never had a grandparent stay at my house before, but that record is about to be broken: stan and delores arrive in an hour or so! brandon is out of town (yet again!) so i am on my own to host tonight, but i am excited to have them in our home. they are also bringing their adorable dog fergie, so harvey will have a bit of entertainment as well.

in other news: school is rough. classes haven't even started yet and i already feel behind. it seems we have over 1,000 pages to read before class starts friday. how did this happen? i just hope this isn't indicative of the semester... i hate starting out defeated and behind. at least i just have one more year of this academia business. i suppose i should savor the student lifestyle as i am sure the year will race by.

remixology

it seems that blogs these days are for showcasing how you salvage & remix old furniture to be more hip, more your own. being the late-to-catch-the-boat person that i am, i finally got around to refinishing a side-table/night-stand that i was never too fond of. almost all of our furniture {except for our dining room table & bookshelf} have been hand-me-downs or gifted to us. we are grateful for the generosity of our friends & family, but most of our furniture just seems so random & not, well, us.

the side-table in its original state. boring & bleh to those handles.
it was functional though, as it fit our printer, housed our small dvd collection,
& hid our printer supplies, but was beat-up & ugly.

i trusted the advice of young house love & put some good ol' elbow
grease into making this table new to us.

i wish i would have gone with the blue on the lower half of the
paint chip, but i was being cautious since this was my first project.
the paint name: "totally scientific". who has the job of
naming paint colors anyway? they are so random!

there's that elbow grease i was talking about.
i did every step of this project, with no help from brandon.
{except for when he showed me that i was using the sander wrong.
it would have been a miserable project if he didn't correct me.}

then...
this is what this corner of the room used to look like.
we love the central oregon painting, but it didn't really fit there.
i'll admit, we just hung it on an existing nail when we moved in.
isn't that design laziness at its worst?

& now...
this is the corner with the new blue table, a candle from ross & jordyn,
an awesome fabric basket my mom made for us, photos of our
godson rowan & my sister hogan, & a cheap DYI
knock-off of {expensive!} crate & barrel prints.
we have two more prints on the other side of the room,
above a matching nook.

seriously, i love these prints! i also love this corner of
the living room so much more!
i'm not terribly fond of the tall{& ugly} lamp in the corner
that was left behind by the previous renter,
but it works for now. i foresee a future project for a hanging light...

to keep the light blue from looking too much like it belonged in a nursery,
i roughed up the edges. the scuffs & scratches make it look totally better!
 plus, it keeps me from worrying about it getting dinged or scratched...
it will only add to the character right?

so there you have it: my first furniture refinishing project. all the rest of my furniture better watch out, because i am on a mission!

postage stamp possibilities

we have a little postage stamp of a garden, which i have posted about before. actually, it is more envelope-shaped. but a garden it most definitely resembles. things are actually growing and we've been eating them from time to time. here are a few photos of the recent harvest. 

the carrot came up by mistake when i was pulling weeds, but tasted EXACTLY like a carrot! who would have thought?

our kale and lettuce, which we have been eating like crazy. my mom is always so happy when we sit down to dinner and she can say, "the lettuce is from the garden!" i never fully appreciated what that meant and used to think "gross!" but now, i get it! i can totally taste how much better, fresher, and safer this food that i grew actually is. way to go mom for continuing to grow food for our family, even when all of us kids were mistakenly thinking store-bought was better. 

in our family we have a christmas tradition of "find the pickle ornament on the christmas tree". this summer we have a new tradition, called "where's the pepper?"--sort of like "where's waldo". if you squint just enough you can see we have three peppers growing strong!

tassels, our corn has tassels!

these pictures aren't about the garden, but about the other theme of our summer: mountain biking! brandon finished his 70 mile race in about 8 hours. can you imagine being on your bike for that long?!? no thanks. that is why i volunteered, although i ended up riding about 25 miles myself because i got lost on the way to my volunteer post. typical. i also fell in the mud multiple times, so my shoes have been living on the back deck. even simple green couldn't revive them.

i was so impressed with brandon though. he did amazing and is even thinking about doing it again next year. he wasn't sore the next day at all, just a little tired.