Christmas Stick

The tree is nice this year...traditional...

 but here's my favorite tree...I cut a ten foot stick tree from the woods...then tacked it to this beam.

the beam sits in the foyer...Its a four foot section of a floor support that was removed from the house during the renovation...the contruction folks tossed it on the trash pile...I snatched it to safety, cleaned it up, added

levelers and it is a permenent item in my house.

it is hard to see in the photo, but I dressed the stick tree with old metal & crystal icecycles,

gold dipped acorns and tiny ornaments.

I did the same thing on the console on the opposite wall...

a Xmas tree treatment not for everyone...but it works for me!

Remembering Garden 2012

I have really been so busy professionally this past year I've neglected my blog schedule.  I keep finding photos and notes I had plan to post but never found the time to do so.  The other day I ran across a few photos from this years garden.  It was a big year for peppers, tomatoes and beans - and perennials.  Now that we've had our first frost it's nice to look back on these photos and remember the results. 

Cat VS. Solo Cup

You've all heard me mention Bandit the Obnoxious Yard Cat.  Here's a photo of what he looked like as a kitten. 

Here's one of him from last summer. 

And, here's how he looked this past Sunday morning. 

On Sunday I woke up, headed downstairs and found C staring out the porch door howling hysterically.  Bandit the Obnoxious Yard Cat was standing on his hind legs peering in the blinds of the back door; typical since it was morning nugget time.  But, what was unusually stupid about this morning was that the little fucker had a plastic solo cup around his neck.  The  bottom half the cup was missing and the wider top  half circled his neck like a giant red cat collar.  At first glance it looked like it was tight around his neck, but considering he's a lean pussy and mostly fur, it actually wasn't tight at all.  Even though it was not tight around his stupid little neck it was a bit of  a snug fit pulling it back over his head removing his newly found jewelry.

  

I'm sorry about the quality of these photos, but its quite difficult purrrsueding a cat to pose for a photo when the only thing on his mind is breakfast.  He didn't seem to  mind wearing the cup and he certainly seemed far more interested in breakfast.  I have no idea how he got the damn thing around his neck in the first place!  I don't even own any red solo cups! Someone had to have put it over his head.  But, it's not like we live around a lot of people, and the cat would have had to do some traveling to find someone to stick it on him.  And even odder is that it would have had to have happened in the middle of the night, considering I saw him laying on the porch around 11:00 PM. 

He generally spends his time asleep on the porch - day and night.  But evidently he had his own little kitty rave on Saturday night.  I also noticed he had a tiny patch of fur missing on his ear; as in "I was on the winning side of a cat fight!"  Other than the ear (and of course the cup around his neck) he looked none the worst for wear!

My Saturday night was rather tame in comparison.  I feel asleep on the couch watching a SNL repeat.  Bandit cut loose.  Most strange!  And for anyone who may be concerned he's just fine.  This pic was taken moments ago!

New Year...New Hole...

...in the ground...

The poolman cometh...

Two days after Xmas I woke up to find this outside the backdoor.  Doesn't everyone want a cement mixer for Xmas?

The Pool Dudes were here most of that week...

...removing the old liner.

When the liner was installed years ago it was a very dark blue.  Once Pool Dudes drained the pool you could see that below the water line the liner had been bleached white!  Can you image what that shit would do to a bad dye job!  I may need to rethink my Miss Clairol color choice!

After the liner was removed...

...we were left with an ugly concrete shell...

they framed for the new steps in the shallow end of the pool.

Today they removed all the framing, including around the new party shelf we added in the deep end...

One will now be able to sit in the deep end and dangle your limbs in the water while sipping a summer cocktail. 

The shelf is large enough for two people or three if your closely aquainted...

The new entrance steps are SO much better...allowing me to gracefully glide into the water.

The dudes will be installing the liner soon...I hope...

New Year Blooming

A friend of ours sent this amaryllis to us over Xmas.  Everything she does works out perfectly and her intent was that it would bloom on New Years - and of course it has!  My late blooming papers whites should be in full bloom by tomorrow, so I taking both of these as a sign of a new awaking for a new year!

...here's to a crisp, clean, beautifully simple new year...

The Good, Bad, Ugly & Unfinished of Xmas...

I thought I was almost ready for the holidays...

Guests arrive on Friday...

The tree is up...Looks good...And the lights are working...So far...

Yesterday I finished my Xmas shopping and wrapped presents this morning...

I even used tape and some ribbon as opposed to just mashing the paper around a box...

One year I promise myself I'm going to do a really bang up job with the wrapping...

But until that day gets here used ribbon and gift bags will have to do...

The cookbooks and food magazines are piled on the kitchen island and the menu is 90%...

The wine delivery is here and C made a wine tree! 

That C, he's so creative...

I need to decorate the mantels...

But if I lose interest I'm stripping them empty,

tossing a couple of silver ornaments at them and calling it clean and modern...

I emptied the console in the front hall...The plan was to load it with candle lights and fill the branches with dried sliced oranges, limes and tiny ribbons...This is as far as I've gotten...

Every year I go to a nearby small town to buy paperwhites...

Every year the Junior Leaguers beat me to the nursery and scoop up all the paperwhites...

This year I decided to plant my own...

I waited too late and they're only up this far...

By the rate of things I should have a house full of blooming paperwhites the third week of January...

I'm out of town the third week of January on business...

I hope C enjoys the paperwhites...

I went beyond my usual wreaths on the doors this year and even the pool is decorated a lovely shade of Grinch Green...

We started lowering the water level so the poolman could drain it for the new liner...

He was supposed to be here the week after Thanksgiving...

The water level is now too low to turn on the pump...

The frogs seem to be having a festive holiday...

...oh well...I have a couple more days to get it together...

The Pool Make Over

I am happy to tell you that decisions have been made on how we’re going to manage the pool makeover.  The pool man has been scheduled and will be here the week after Thanksgiving to drain the pool!  After much conversation we’ve decided to go with a pebble look liner.  We have to pay an up charge to have it made without a border.  Which makes no sense to me because in my opinion we're getting less!We tried to make ourselves learn to love at least one liner with a border, but it just didn’t happen.  We never could find anything we liked. 

For a moment I was pushing this dark gray number simple because it’s not awful. 

But, then I decided I didn’t want the pool to look like a swamp so I ruled it out.  Then we were leaning toward this one. 

We weren’t in love with it, but it does tie in the brick around the courtyard and the concrete.  But in the end it just didn't excite us and we opted for the pebble. 

Pool Man tried to convince us to add a stone or brick copping.  It’s certainly a nice idea, but considering it was going to cost an extra five grand and he did not agree to my idea of throwing it in for free we declined that option.  However, we are going to have the concrete resurfaced.  It will probably be in one of these neutrals. 

Also, we think we’re having a narrow color change in the concrete added around the edge of the pool, probably in one of these grays which will tie in all the gray decking from the house. 

Or one of these reds to tie into all the brick.

We’re also having steps built in the pool.  Somewhere between this...

and this…

I've said before that all pool liners suck.  I think my next career will be that of a Pool Liner Designer.  Just to show you that I would be quite good at it, here's a few quick designs I've pulled together!

 Grass border with Mud interior....

OR

 How about a border of fish bones and an interior of blood plateletts?

If that's not your style try a border of vegetables with an interior of chicken broth...

 Then there's could be a border of flames with a chacoal interior!

I think all of these are fine options and are far better than anything currently on the market.  I'm going to make a fortune.

But first we have to decide on our concrete color and the step design this week.