summer blooms

i am so glad summer is almost here! it is truly my favorite time of year. i love planting flowers in my big pots out front (and watching them stay alive! i have, not so much a green thumb, more like a black thumb that desperately wants to be green! but i think 2009 just might be my year!) my hibiscus are incredible right now. there are so many blooms on them. everyday i look out, and another one has bloomed!

as you can see, my sweet potato plant is going wild! i'm afraid it's going to take over my whole pot. i can't remember what the purply-blue flower is (maybe lobelia?) but in real life, it is so vibrant and pretty!

this is a day lily that i just got this past weekend. i really hope i can keep this alive because it is so beautiful! i love the orangy-yellow color.

here are some of my herbs. the big pot on the left is garlic chives, rosemary is in the middle and the pot on the right is filled with: variegated oregano, spicy globe basil, lavender, tansy and lemon thyme. (i still need to plant them.) the pot in the back is a banana plant and will be huge by the end of the summer!

lastly, here's my little pot of oregano that i can't wait to use!

when i plant all my different kinds of mint, i will post another picture. they smell so good!

maybe i should do a post at the end of the summer updating what i've been able to keep alive!

dining rooms

well this friday is dining rooms on kelly's tour of homes. here are various shots of mine. in the spring/summer i put out this bamboo looking table runner and my "summer flower arrangement!" i love my dining room because it's one room that never gets cluttered!


hope you enjoy the tour. sorry if there's too many pictures.

on that blank wall i want to add some big canvases of pictures of our vacations.

sorry...just realized this is the same picture and i don't know how to erase it!~

this is how the dining room looks in the fall. i usually just have that metal leaf bowl with decorative fruit in and the tall candle vase on the table. (dining set from world market, rug from home depot, wall hanging from kirkland's)

this is looking into the dining room from the kitchen:

i missed the kitchens tour, so i decided to include my kitchen here in dining rooms! this was one of the best selling features of this house--when i saw this kitchen, i didn't want to leave! this is standing in the laundry room looking into the kitchen.

this view is from the dining room:

this is looking from the mud room into the kitchen.

i usually put something on the top of the refrigerator and the counter that is for the particular season we're in. it's spring now, hence the flowers. (my sister would tell me to take it all down--it doesn't look very "pottery barn"! i know she's right--but i still put it out! hee hee :)

this is my little area where i keep my calendar, schedule, keys, etc. it tends to get very cluttery and drives me crazy! i love it when it's all clean and neat like this picture.

i love this window! i put a bird feeder in that tree and have seen some of the prettiest birds there. (and i don't even like birds!) the framed piece is a little project i did with the caps of honest tea bottles. each one has a wonderful quote on it and i couldn't bear to throw them away, so i got a big frame for 50% off at hobby lobby, took the glass out and glued the caps on a sheet of cardstock. i think it turned out cute.

the area behind the cooktop changes too. right now there is this metal piece i got from michael's. sometimes there are 3 metal leaves or various other things there--sometimes it's just plain!

this is the breakfast nook. table and chairs are from pier 1. i also love the bamboo window shades. they were there when we bought the house and went with our decor, so we kept them. i never close them--i love the light filtering through them! the picture on the wall is not what i want to keep there, but for now it's staying.

thanks for looking!

creativity at work

wednesday was my stamp class at jackie's house. she is one of the best demonstrators! we always do the cutest projects at her classes. (and we don't have to pay for the class. we just have to commit to buy$15 or more each month--very easy to do!) the girl in green beside me and in the glasses across from me go to our congregation. the woman in red and the one in blue go to a different hall. we always have a fun time. today, all of my brain cells weren't working, though. i messed up and jackie had to give me another sheet of paper, then i didn't score it right, then i attached things wrong and it was upside down! what a morning!

this is a demo of the box and card we made today. isn't it cute? we used different papers that i didn't like as well, but the idea was darling. here are pictures of cards that she had displayed that i wanted to try and copy:

this is the cutest thing! it's made out of all different punches!

come back tomorrow...it's dining rooms and kitchens on the friday home tour!

organized...finally

i can take some disorganization. things are not always neat at my house and i'm fine with that...up to a point. the junk drawer in my kitchen was beginning to get on my nerves. it starts out with a few extra markers, a hairbrush (or two), menus from different restaurants and it escalates into dozens of pens and markers that don't work anymore, pencils that are maybe 1 inch long, a handful of pony tail holders and coupons for mayonaise and razors that expired 18 months ago! anyway, i couldn't take it anymore and completely cleaned it all out. doesn't it look nice? now i've just got to keep it that way.

meal plan and chalk art

because i don't like posts without pictures, here is what kept mckinlee busy for quite a while last night!

here is my meal plan for the next week:

saturday: mini meat loaves, homemade mashed potatoes, broiled asparagus, crescent rolls
sunday: eat out after meeting
monday: broiled tilapia parmesan, couscous, carrot souffle
tuesday: taco salad (ground beef burrito for mckinlee)
wednesday: chick-fil-a (gymnastics night)
thursday: salmon patties with homemade tartar sauce, tomato-y green beans, brown rice or buttered noodles
friday: going to waco

when i have my meals planned for the coming week, i feel so much better! i can't stand the feeling of not having any idea what we're going to have at 5:30 that night! so now i can enjoy the rest of my weekend and not worry about dinners!

have a great weekend!

guest room

well this friday at kelly's korner, the home tour continues with guest rooms! i can't wait to see other people's so i can get some ideas for mine. i love my guest room simple, without a lot of clutter, but it still needs some things. i'm looking for some sort of valance for the window and i need some picture on the walls, probably right over the bed.


this is the view standing at the entrance to the bathroom
(the headboard came from world market, the black table from hobby lobby, the chair is an antique, bedding from marshalls, pillows from world market)



the view of the bathroom


(starfish from michaels)


view from the other side of the room
(black furniture from hobby lobby)

looking in from the hallway

thanks for looking!

sick day and headbands

all this crazy weather has caught up with mckinlee, i think. she's had a tickling cough for a couple of days now. last night i heard her coughing in her room for almost 2 hours. she finally came and got in our bed, chris went to the guest room and i spent the next 8 hours listening to the lovely sounds of her hacking cough and the loundest grinding of teeth i've ever heard. i finally put in ear plugs and got a little sleep! poor thing--i felt bad for her. so she stayed home from school and has been just relaxing and keeping calm.

so since flower headbands are all the rage, i decided to make some. mckinlee has a bunch of skinny headbands she doesn't wear and i had all these pretty flowers in my scrapbooking stash. we made these this afternoon and, if i do say so myself, i think they turned out pretty cute! what do you think?