Take a Trip With Me...

...inside my mind and how it works! Sometimes even I don't know how I get from point A to point B. Many times there is no plan...and yet, somehow, I get led around a convoluted path that, in the end, is right where I would have wanted to be if I had planned it! Does that even make sense?

On the morning I was waiting for my brother and sister-in-law to arrive to begin the pool deck, I happened out to the "other" side of the back yard. This is where the swing set used to be and where we still play some family games when the whole gang is here. But, it is an area I don't get to very often as it is pretty shady and really not conducive to gardening...at least not for me. As I was walking around, I noticed that many of the fence slats were rotting off at the bottom. This fence was built a long time ago so I would expect that to be the natural progression but, I noticed that there were piles and piles of leaves blown up against the bottom of the fence not to mention a lot of bricks and pavers left over from other projects. I know that that is not a good thing but, somehow over the years, I have just not realized what I was doing until this morning. And that's when I saw it with those darn "new eyes"!

Since that was the morning that would start many mornings of heavy duty cleaning and staining, I didn't get very far...and, quite honestly, didn't think of it again until the other day. Since today was supposed to start out fairly cool, today was the day!

I had forgotten just how many bricks and pavers there were so as I was moving them so that I could rake out the leaves I thought about the area where I store the garbage cans?! Wouldn't everyone?

This is on the side of the garage and I built that fence section years ago so that the garbage cans are not visible from the front. The area has a very deep slope away from the wall and with each rain, it seems to get worse so I am always out there trying to level it off. That is when the thought hit! Why not take all of these bricks and pavers and make a level pad for the cans? And so, as I raked and shoveled the leaves away from the fence, I took the piles that were full of dirt as well and moved it to this spot to start to build some sort of ramp to make moving the cans easier.

Then, I laid the bricks and pavers. I didn't think it would bother me that they were all different...and it wouldn't have but there was something about the bricks that made rolling the cans up difficult.

 And so, the bricks were out and the pavers were all in. Of course, now I need to buy about 27 more to make this as large as it needs to be...assuming, that is, that they are still available. We'll soon find out. And the rest of the bricks will be gone soon. I am still not done raking and shoveling the fence area but, I am done for today!

When I got up this morning, this caught my attention:

And then this:

I think I will spend the rest of the day on this side of the yard! The fruits of my labor are finally paying off over here. Maybe they will be on the other side soon as well. Stay tuned.

Movie Matinee Day For Sure!

I am just starting to hear some grumbling in the skies and am optimistic that we may finally get some of the rain that the weatherman has been predicting for weeks! I am ready for an afternoon of movies...without the guilty feeling that I should be getting something accomplished that is still sitting on my to-do list. Honestly though, aren't there ALWAYS things sitting undone on everyone's' to-do lists?

In any case, I snapped a few more pictures before it got too terribly dark in here. Let's head to the family room.

Do you remember this sign that Michaels almost paid me to take off their hands? I wasn't sure where it would go but then I decided to give it a try in the family room. I knew I wanted to use the basket to mimic the basket on the back of the bicycle and add the flowers but, after doing that it just didn't "read" correctly. Then, all of a sudden, I spied the sun hat in the front basket of the bike and it was an ah-ha moment. Luckily I had just the thing in my closet. I truly don't understand how silly little things like this can make me so happy, but they do.

That's it for the family room. This is turning into a wonderful, unexpected weekend-which I am not complaining about after the last two super busy weeks I have had. Yesterday, we were off for a lacrosse game in Gainesville. It seems as if my oldest grandson has decided to add lacrosse once again to his already pretty full agenda. We met my brother and sister-in-law there. It was early enough that the weather was perfect and Team Ocala got a win!

Then we headed to Depot Park. It is a wonderful new park in Gainesville full of all sorts of play ground equipment and water features. Just the perfect place to be as the sun got a bit warmer. Daughter #2 joined us here and after lots of fun in the water, we headed up to get some lunch. There are 2 food areas as well as a food truck available so everyone was able to find something to eat.

 

We were so busy visiting that we really didn't remember to take pictures but you can tell by this one that a busy time was had by all.

After a really nice visit with all, we were ready to head home to Ocala but Presley wanted to stay in Gainesville and spend the night with her aunt and uncle. Here's where they ended up just a few minutes later...smart kid!

Jen, Hudson and I decided since we were driving right past one of our favorite little towns, we would make a stop in Micanopy for some ice cream. This town really does remind you of old Florida-so peaceful and quiet-at least when there isn't some kind of a festival going on. It was a lovely way to wile away a bit of a lazy Saturday afternoon. 

And then, we were off for home-or so I thought. As we were driving through McIntosh, my daughter decided to make another stop at an antique shop. She is always on the look out for unusual things for her clients but today she was in search of an iron gate for herself. Funny thing is that we forgot all about the gate when she saw an old rusty arbor for sale...and then a few other treasures-including a Mother's Day gift for me! And then the topper was meeting the owners 3 Golden Doodles-one of whom looked exactly like my daughter's 2nd dog. We spent way too much time there but the addition of the dogs made it OK with my grandson so we did lots of looking and planning-might be another trip back soon.

And now, it is Sunday and the skies have finally opened. I have to be careful what I wish for but I know my lawn and gardens are saying a prayers of thanks. It has been pretty dry of late. Of course now there will be tons of branches and moss all over to be picked up once again but hey, I always say I love a project. A bit more spring to come so stay tuned.

Time for the Unveiling!

It has really been a long time coming! It was just about a year ago when the whole pool re-do began. And, thanks to weeks of rain so no concrete could be poured-not to mention many other "unexpected" finds that I guess just go hand in hand on a project this large, it wasn't until almost the end of summer that the pool was officially done. Lucky for me, I live in Florida and we had an incredibly long and HOT "summer" last year so I got to get in a lot of use before the temperatures changed.

But, along with that beautiful new pool came a very unbeautiful deck. Because there were piles of bags of concrete covered in plastic, metal tools, huge boxes of liner, etc., the deck came away bleached in spots and stained in others. I always pressure the clean the deck every year but, this year it was once again time to restain as well. Let me just say, this is a pretty large and heavy duty project-starting with the removal of all of the furniture and moving to the pressure cleaning, staining with lots of hand cutting in and touch-ups to moving all of the furniture back in place.

I had hoped to do my paint touch-ups on the furniture while it was off of the deck but that didn't happen so that will be a project for another day!

Luckily for me, my brother and sister-in-law came down to help me with the staining. Just lifting the 5 gallon container can stop me in my tracks these days. We really had a great system-my brother started at one end, I started at the other and my sister-in-law was doing the cutting in. We were going to town and pretty close to being done when I kept looking at the color and feeling something wasn't quite right. The sun was so bright and the stain wasn't dry yet, so we kept trying to convince ourselves that it would look like it was supposed to any time. I am pretty sensitive to color and this stuff was reading a lot more like an adobe color than the Mediterranean taupe that it should be. And, to make matters worse, it really clashed with the tile work on the pool liner.

I finally looked at the container and saw the color name and when I got my paint swatch, it didn't match. I was pondering what to do next when I went to find my receipt and came upon another paint chip...this time with the same name as the color on the container.

After trying to figure out what happened, I realized that I had given them the chip from my deck from many, many years ago. I know, I know...why in the world did I still have it? But, I did.

I called Sherwin Williams and was assured that if I would bring in the second 5 gallons, they could do something to make it better. When we got there, they discovered that the 2 colors we were looking at had EVERY color the same with the exception of burgundy added to the wrong one.

They did some of their paint computer magic and got the old color to almost the exact same color as the one I wanted. Of course, that meant painting EVERYTHING again but, my brother and sister-in-law were great sports and we got at it again and finished in time for dinner. And, the deck had 2 coats of stain now, so that can only help, right?

In any case, here she is in all her glory-ignore the chipped furniture-I'm calling it "rustic" for right now!

Do you see the new bird feeder that I just added by the fountain? This is where you will find me sitting most afternoons. I love the sound of the fountain and noticed how many birds come over to drink from it. I decided to try a feeder to attract even more birds as all of my other feeders are on the other side of the yard.

I knew this was not a squirrel proof feeder but I didn't think the squirrels could climb that skinny, slippery pole. I guess I was naive. All of my other feeders hang and I know how ingenious those squirrels can be to find ways up there but, this was my first experience with a pole. Every time I looked out the door, there was a squirrel emptying the feeder about as quickly as I could fill it. I ended up spraying WD-40 on the pole and, for now, that has done the trick. I don't mind feeding the squirrels at all-I was just wishing that this feeder could be just for me and the birds. What with the fountain, butterflies and birds, this is the perfect relaxing spot every afternoon!

Here is the deck all clean but not restained yet.

And here it is all done. Do you see how much the deck had faded?

As I was sitting pondering life one day, I looked up and really saw those trees over my house at the other end of the yard. We actually had 3 more down at this end that got removed for the pool. They are beautiful but for each sweet, little new green leaf that appears, I see large brown leaves falling before I know it... sigh

And, the gardens are coming back too. The alstroemeria is really filling in and taking over some other plants not doing as well-and, I'm OK with that. As long as something is blooming, I'm good.

There might still be a bit more fine tuning to do (like putting down about 40 bags of mulch!), but compared to this from a year ago:

...we've come a loonnnggg way baby! More spring to come. Stay tuned.

Finally Seeing the Light

I have been working non-stop on my "catch-up to-do" list and am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only did I have lots of little finishing up details from all of the outside work to do but, I had so much catch-up on inside things that I had neglected while I was spending my entire days outside. Whew! Spring is just that time of year where I feel the need to clean and refresh everything!

Now that I have a pretty good handle on it, I thought I would show you the next room of spring decor. I always feel a bit of a let down when I'm posting spring because, in my opinion, even though it is a gorgeous season outside, it lacks the same pizzazz inside-at least in my house when compared to other holidays or seasons.

Never-the-less, here is what the kitchen is looking like these days. Somehow, I skip the real springy stuff in here and go back a bit of just a traditional kitchen look.

As I post these blogs, I am always amazed by my "new eyes". I have walked past that bucket of purple tulips a thousand times and I am just realizing that there is not another hint of purple anywhere in this area and it is now driving me crazy. I will probably change that as soon as I am done here-but, too tired right now to get up and do it and then take all of the pictures again. Sorry. You'll just have to imagine how gorgeous it is going to look. Lol

 

Oh wait, there's a "hint" of purple!

And yes, I see a bit of purple on those dishes!

I have always loved this canvas that we bought at our Fine Arts Show one year. It is a print on canvas and the picture of that beautiful potting room has always spoken to me. When I did this vignette this year, I realized that my tobacco basket could kind of mimic the garden trug in the picture. And now I'm thinking I might just have to track down a real trug!

So that is it for today. I'm off to tackle a few more things on the list but I will be back. Stay tuned.