Highlights of our July

• The garden is producing a bit, not a lot. Tons of strawberries, a handful of greens and snap peas. Carrots, tomatoes & radishes are slow. Not sure we'll ever see squash. The corn gave up around 6" in height.Started planning our trip to Disneyland this November!
• Celebrated 4th of July with family at the lakehouse. Loving this tradition, blowing stuff up on the lawn.
• Last-minute camping trip with friends, including crabbing and an awesome thunderstorm, to Saltwater State Park.

• After a harrowing 15 minutes in the garden with a slug, a spider and a dragonfly, we decided it's time for chickens. In research & development.
• Bartered a box of jars on craigslist for 20lbs of Rainier cherries. Happymaking. 
• Participated in a focus group for Starbucks. Get paid to sit around and talk Starbucks for an hour with 7 like-minded people? Sign me up!

• Painted our shutters. (They were green when we bought the house, grey a few years ago, and are finally their destination color: black!)
• Built a vertical herb garden out of two pallets and some great plant-hangers.
• A little updating in our living room: new area rug and replaced the bookshelves with dyed crates.

Some Almost-Finishing Touches

When we moved in, our bedroom got the treatment I hear is common among those who buy fixer-uppers. It got ignored.

Sidenote: That's not entirely true. As soon as we had the keys, we discovered than the flooring in the master bedroom had completely rotted through thanks to the over-watering of a rather questionable indoor gardening hobby.

But other than new subfloor and carpet, a fresh coat of paint, and a matching bedspread, it really did get ignored.

Reminisce Gag with me. Here's what it looked like when we moved in. Check out that carpet. And those baseboards. And the creepy lock on the door - like we're trying to keep curious children out... or in...?

Before we moved in, the flooring was replaced in two rooms, the baseboards were tossed, and everything got a fresh coat of paint. We picked chocolate brown for our bedroom.

Somewhere along the way, we got a new bedframe/headboard and added a little artwork, but it never really felt like "us". I guess you could say it just took me 3 years, and the advent of Pinterest, to decide what to do with it. Here's what it looks like today:

 

 

I don't ever have an original idea, but I'm great at adapting other people's ideas. So, what you see here is largely inspired by Pinterest. The headboard was inspired by this thing of beauty right here, and the wood-grain pattern was painted on the wall in a high gloss mix of our same chocolate brown, thanks to this idea here. The mirror/photo combo was inspired by a beautiful bedroom, but now that I need to find the photo, I can't.

I call it "almost-finished", because we still need to do some more fixer-upper things - like replace the nasty old baseboard heater and put in real baseboard trim. (Yeah, 3 years without baseboard trim. Don't judge me.) Then it will be finished. Or at least ready for me to paint again. I'm also weighing my options toward spray-painting the side tables and dresser, but there are other projects higher up on my list right now.

 

Couldn't/wouldn't have done it without this guy - handsome AND handy: