The Perfect Sideboard For the Perfect Price

This one didn't come with measurements but barring that, this one is pretty much EXACTLY what I'm looking for and the price is right at $165.00.

Look at all that storage!  Granted I'd have to paint this one but I was planning on that anyway.  Unfortunately, I'm riddled with a cold and don't even have the energy to find out anything about it or go and buy the darn thing.  But I'm going to wish I pulled the trigger one day.

Oh yeah, remember that perfect sideboard with all the storage Christmas party?  Too bad we don't have it for today.

The Buffet Search

I've had "buffet" and "sideboard" rss search on craigslist for a few months now, maybe longer.  Today this one showed up in my list.

Isn't it adorable?  I'm thinking hard about this one.  I was hoping for more storage than 2 drawers but this one has me written all over it.

The State of the Backyard

I'm about to blow your mind.

This was the backyard of the blue house around the time that we bought it.

Inside that really decrepit shed (I wouldn't even go inside) there were toys, a little kid used to play in there.

But, never fear after Brian and a friend spent many days beating up the concrete with a sledgehammer and clearing the brush and putting in a new fence along the sides, it looked like this.

When we tried to sell the blue house we planted pittosporum and oleanders. That winter was unusually cold and all the oleanders died leaving just the pittosporum in the corners. Notice how flat the yard was.

One of our tenants was thrilled with the backyard and said she wanted to have a garden and we were so excited. When she moved she left this monstrosity behind. She had put out a lot of bricks that I had to remove and the ground was no longer level. When she would plant something she'd leave the extra dirt in a pile and eventually there were unlevel areas all over the yard. It's still not perfect though I've tried to get it level with a rake.

I don't have any photos of last summer but I managed to plant a couple of camellias and transplant a few things from the yellow house and put out endless bags of mulch and attempt to grow grass.  Last year I also painted the fence white, which caused me to break down, luckily Brian came to the rescue and we finished it up. 

This year we planted more things and today it looks like this.

These photos are after the camellias bloomed and before the hydrangeas but you can see it's come a long way.  I'm still working on the grass.  Some of the grass is really tall and most of it is so short and it doesn't grow, it's so bizarre.

Wish List - New iPhone Case

Don't get me wrong, I love my iphone case.

Agent 18 - Lux

But ever since Rifle Paper Co released their new iphone cases, I've really wanted to get one.  I can't decide between the Botanical Rose and the Spanish Rose.  I like the colors of the Spanish Rose better but I feel like the Botanical Rose will suit my white iphone better.  Ah, maybe one day.

Rifle Paper Co - Botanical Rose

Rifle Paper Co - Spanish Rose

The Striped Rose

In the past I haven't had much luck with mail ordered plants but my love for striped roses was too strong to overcome and I couldn't find any local so I decided to give it a shot.

link

Most offerings were red and white, leaning to burgundy and cream (not my bag) so when I came across a pink and white variety called Rosa Mundi from David Austin Roses I decided to go for it.

link

It doesn't look like much now, a twig basically, but I'll let you know how it goes.

I Feel Totally Violated

Holy Cow, you guys.  I just found out an entire copy of my blog from way back was copied and it out there completely published on the internet by some person I can't even contact.  And blogger's method for handling the whole thing is kind of ridiculous.  If anyone has any pointers about helping me get my copyrighted work off someone else's blog please let me know.  There's no email address unfortunately so I can't even contact the copyright infringer myself.  So I'm kind of freaked out about that because I thought all that stuff was moved to a private area.  I can't even believe it's possible to steal my entire blog and post it someone else under another name.

Hopefully it will get resolved very soon.

The Deck

When we moved in one of the things I knew I was going to miss like crazy was the screened porch.  I had the deck extended to allow for the sliding glass door and I had hopes that somehow the deck would be comparable but part of the fun of the screened porch was letting the cats have free access and hanging out with them on the porch.  The deck would just never be like that.

Also, the space is exposed.  There's no cover, it's completely exposed to the elements and two very large trees and their droppings and because of that I wasn't sure really how to decorate this space.  Now that we're going into our second summer here, I can tell you one thing:  buy furniture for your deck that has no cushions. I'm just sharing what I've learned, you will thank me later.

Last spring I had to have this white wicker loveseat I found at Pier One and I also picked out this beautiful yellow cushion that was something crazy like $80 but it was so pretty I bought it anyway.  And the year has not been kind on this cushion.  I have washed it a couple times in the washing machine but it's too stained now to make much of a difference.

I also bought a chair cushion for the wicker chair I already had from One Kings Lane that I just washed and it doesn't come clean anymore either.

I've looked all around for cushions that a) fit my outdoor furniture and b) zip off for cleaning and it appears to not exist for any sort of budget mind.  I was debating replacing the cushions with solid black cushions that I found locally for a pretty decent price but I'm having a hard time parting with perfectly good cushions.   Plus I want that area to be a little more jazzed up than just black and white (though, I still may go in that direction).

What I have decided is to try to make my own slipcovers that I can easily zip off and clean at will.  I decided to go with this fabric that I found on fabricguru.com:

Fabric Link

I'll let you know how it turns out.  I've done slipcovers like this before and though I thought they were passable someone stole the cushion off the front porch so I must have done a fine job.