flowers in the house

We had a party at our house this weekend and several of our dear friends brought flowers, so I have a few bouquets to share:

Yellow daisies and white azaleas.

Lovely pale pink tulips - at this point I had run out of vases and had to resort to using a water glass!

There are other bouquets around the house but I haven't taken photos of them.  But while on the subject of flowers, here's whats going on with flowers outside the house:

I know most people who live in the south will probably agree that wisteria can be a pain in the ass, but for those few weeks in the spring, they really are pretty, aren't they?

The purple iris haven't started blooming yet, but the white one are making a spectacular show this year.

One of my favorite things about living in the South - Dogwoods.

Even buddha is blooming - with moss.

Here is where I would usually have a gratuitous picture of Jack.  But this month I thought I'd surprise everyone with a gratuitous picture of...

Louise (aka World's Best Cat), instead!  Here she is doing what she does best - relaxing.

I need this...

Oh, I do know the difference between need and want.  You're right, I don't really need this, but I surely do want it!

Image from Pinterest

Have you ever seen one of these?  It's a wood fired hot tub! You make a fire under the stainless coil (there on the left, above) and the water heats up as it travels through the coil.  Apparently you can even cook on it as you are filling it up (according to the pictures on the website) and you might have to, because it takes two hours to heat up.  It also takes quite a bit of wood (the website says how much wood depends on your ability to make a good fire hahaha!). It's made in The Netherlands and I can't find a US distributor, so on top of the pretty hefty price of the tub, I'm sure shipping would be outrageous.  All in all, it's a pretty capricious and whimsical item but I can dream, right?


We are expecting temps in the mid to upper 70's again*, so I'm looking forward to getting some more garden clean up done.  Hope you all are having an equally beautiful weekend!


*not to be Darlene Downer or anything, but I'm sure we can all agree we are going to pay for this beautiful, amazing Spring all Summer long, right? Oh! Just realized today is St. Patty's Day! Have a happy one!

roller derby!

Last Saturday afternoon the bf and I did something new.  Roller Derby!  We have a local team here and one of the young women that I used to work with recently tried out and made the team!  I remember watching the Los Angeles roller derby team on TV when I was a kid and always thought it was such fun! It's even more so in person!

And this little lady rocked!  She's just the kind of girl you would never associate with such a rough game - I didn't, anyway.  She's little and so cute and as soft spoken and sweet as can be.  Until she puts on her skates, I guess. This cute little thing kicked ass and took names! Definitely a fun afternoon and we'll do it again.

pictures

of Paris...

It dawned on me the other day that I have never posted pictures from our trip to Paris, back in September.  So, here are a few.

We stayed in a wonderful little apartment in the center of the 4th Arrondissement (The Marais).  I would definitely recommend renting an apartment over getting a hotel room.  We almost immediately felt at home and like we belonged in the neighborhood.  It was so easy to get around all of Paris from there, as well.  We were walking distance to many good restaurants, which I'm sure is true all over Paris.  They are not wanting for good restaurants!

Our little kitchen - we didn't use it very much, but it was nice to be able to make coffee in the morning.

The Master Bedroom.  Odd to us, but apparently common in Europe, was the fact that there was a ensuite bathroom that had a bathtub and sink, but no toilet.  That was in a room of it's own, down the hall.  We never did use the TV.

The Living Room.  The stairs go up to the Master Bedroom.

These are the outside stairs - five flights of them - that took us to this door:

Home Sweet Home!

We went to all of the tourist-y places and saw all the tourist-y things, like Notre Dame, where besides all the beautiful stained glass and the just-plain-awesomeness, there were these cute little rows of seats with teeny little kneelers.  We didn't go in while there was a mass, so I don't know if the priests still use these, but my guess is that they don't.  They were so tiny!

While we were in the neighborhood we went to the Catacombs - Lovey #2's special request.  I have to admit it was fascinating.  I kept thinking "all these people were alive at one time...". It was incredible how they stacked all those millions of bones so perfectly.

Of course we spent one day at the Louvre.  The biggest surprise?  How tiny the Mona Lisa is!

And where we had to fight off the paparazzi who were so intriqued by #2's tattoos.

And  of course, the Tour de Eiffel.  It was beautiful.  I mean beautiful.  The girls got a huge kick out of it when a Chinese gentleman, a fellow tourist obviously, tried to hit on me in the tour de Eiffle park. I got a giggle out of it, too!

We spent quite a lot of time talking, over espresso and cappachinos in parks and cafes all over Paris.

And picnics!

We saw and enjoyed the many gardens all over Paris.

And all of the open air food markets were incredible - although the girls enjoyed the "real" shopping a lot more!

We laughed til we cried, and enjoyed spending some real quality time together.  Something we don't get that much of anymore.

It was everything I had always hoped it would be.

I am one hell of a lucky woman.

finally...

You may - or may not - remember a while back I mentioned some big news coming up.  Well, I can finally tell y'all what that is.

Our kitchen is in the April issue of This Old House magazine! For real, people! Check it out!

Yeah, that's a before picture at the bottom. Thanfully, I can hardly remember it.

All the yellow and green items are from the stylist.  I guess all my white dishware wasn't colorful enough for the photos?

Here's how it all came about: 

Last year we entered our kitchen in a This Old House Magazine home remodeling contest.  At the time that we entered I didn't realize it was an online popularity contest where entrants were supposed to encourage family and friends to vote for them, and the homeowners with the most votes won, so we never asked anyone to vote for us.  We didn't win.  Live and learn and life goes on.  A few months after the contest was over I got a phone call from one of the editors of the magazine.  She said that, while we obviously didn't win (the winner had already been announced and their picture was in an earlier issue), the editorial staff liked our kitchen, and the fact that we did it all ourselves, so much that they wanted to do a story about it, and would we be willing to do that? Yeah, I could hardly contain my hysterical laughing.  I'm sure she thought I was a lunatic. Or maybe she hears that all the time?

The photograper and stylist came out one day last fall, and then the interivew took place just after the holidays.  In the meantime we had to sign a contract stating that we wouldn't tell anyone about the whole thing until the magazine came out.  Although the editorial staff has been in constant contact with us, it seems likes it's been forever since this all started.  It has been more fun than I ever imagined, and I'm so excited to finally reveal all!  And I can tell you - although we were a tiiiiny bit disappointed that Norm didn't come out with the crew, (Not really.  Obviously we knew he wasn't coming. But it would have been pretty damn cool.)  the people at This Old House are awesome! Our thanks to everyone there.

So that was my big secret!

flowers in the house!

I'm linking to Jane at Small But Charming, for her Flowers In The House party today!

My Camellias have been blooming since New Years, and though they are starting to get a little ragged, I think they're still beautiful.

Sorry, I just can't seem to get enough Jack!  And he's such a willing model!

It's Saturday as I write this and I find that this is the first weekend in the last several that I haven't had anything pressing to do.  It's cold outside - or least colder than it has been in a long while - so it's good to stay inside.  I think I may just curl up on the couch with my little footwarmer (shown above) and my latest book today.  Hope you all enjoyed your weekends, as well!

a busy weekend

I know it's Wednesday, but this is the first chance I've had to say it - hope y'all had a wonderful weekend.  It was beautiful here in NC, and though I was busy all weekend long, it was a good busy, so I'd say it was a nice weekend.


Saturday afternoon was spent outside, working on the garden (me) and the pond (bf).  We did lots of cleaning and tidying up to get ready for (real) Spring.  Here we are in the middle of February and I was outside in a t-shirt! LOVED it. Saturday night we went to a fundraising event for our favorite non-profit.  The story behind the organization, and the man who started it, is interesting and inspiring (it's all  here, if you're interested - I promise it is a compelling story).  Beyond the fact that both the bf and I are inspired by this man and what he's doing (bf volunteers often), we consider our lives enriched by his (and his girlfriend's) friendship. You want to talk about someone who can tell incredible, funny stories at your next party?  He's your man. His girlfriend is pretty spiffy,too.  Anyhoo...the party/fundraiser/event was lots of fun and we ran into a few people we hadn't seen in ages, and you know that's always a good time! And, it was sort of a dressy affair!  Living in a beach town means living in a casual town.  No one ever gets dressed up here. Ever.  So I kind of like putting on a dress and some heels once in a while!

Before

After

Sunday was not quite as nice as Saturday, in fact it was drizzly most of the day. I didn't really mind because I had to meet my boss at a local bar/hang out/music venue in the afternoon, to help set up for yet another fundraiser - this time for our local state Representative's re-election campaign.  Is there such a thing as a "fundraising season"? If so, this must be it. All of the invites to this event went to folks in the film industry here in NC. This party was fun, too, although I was supposedly there to "work".  And work I did - pimping for my oldest lovey and her boyfriend, for jobs in some of the new film production companies coming to Wilmington this year! Keep your fingers crossed, would ya?