We had a couple of goldfish when we lived in California. Eli picked them out just after he turned age two. After helping the pet store clerk net them and helping me get them from bag to tank, he named them "Scoop" and "Pour."
Scoop was a crazy goldfish who often swam upside down. Wish I had a nickel for every time people thought he was dead! When we had parties, I used to tape a note to the tank so people wouldn't freak out.
Knowing they wouldn't like a month-long trek in a hot summer car, we gave away Scoop and Pour as well as their tank when we left. I've been wanting to get fish again and somebody even gave us a tank. Camp Rainbow's "Wet and Wild" (aquatic animals and habitats) theme was just the nudge we needed. One of the Camp Rainbow moms whose family is going to be out of town most of the summer even offered us some fish. My plan all along was to get neon tetras and she had some needing a home. Perfect!
Eli helped set up the tank, selecting gravel and decor as well as rinsing everything to make it ready.
We've had our fish for over a week now and they seem happy. So relaxing to watch. Trying to photograph them, though? Not so relaxing. My camera's focus mechanism struggled, but here you go...
Saturday afternoon Uncle Eric rolled up with a surprise for Eli. My sweet niece, Margaret, gave Eli the trampoline she no longer uses. Needless to say, Little Guy was thrilled.
Eli handed springs to us as we put the main part together in the shade.
Once the main trampoline was together, we lifted it across the yard and nestled it into a shady spot under a huge oak tree.
And now Eli is just a blur...
A year ago, my brother had to replace the mat of this trampoline. It was under a tree at his house and falling limb during a storm put a hole in it. But even if the same thing happens in our yard and even though we'll always be sweeping leaves off of it, this was absolutely the right spot.
In the heat of summer, the trampoline is in the shade. It will get a lot more use this way and provide some kid-energy-burning on hot days. But it also transforms a corner of the yard into a secluded, leafy bower. Kids need that. It is a spot close enough to the house that he feels safe yet set far enough away that he can retreat there to think and be alone. Yesterday after we got the trampoline set up and while Eli was in the house taking a break, I went out there and flopped down. It was so comfortable and peaceful that I drifted off for a nap. Bird song. Green light sifting down through the leaves.
When my other nieces and nephews were small, they also got a trampoline. During family gatherings, the whole crew of kids often urged me to come out and bounce. What I discovered is that we'd jump and laugh and cavort around until tired. Then each person found a spot to lie down and look up at the sky. Almost without fail, I found that my best conversations with them happened there. Side by side rather than face to face, they began to confess their crushes and their struggles, the worries and their triumphs. I loved getting to know them better as they grew and treasure those memories. For that reason, I always said I'd get a trampoline when I had a kid.
Thank you so much, Cousin Margaret, Uncle Eric, and Aunt Jennifer!
That's what one of Eli's buddies said on a recent play date to our house. She stood at the top of the stairs to the basement, her eyes wide and her feet solidly planted.
Um. Okay. Time for another home update!
It is actually quite cheerful down there. The basement of our new house has windows along two walls, sunny colors, and is mostly finished (just lacking a drop ceiling in a few areas). The stairwell, however, was sponge-painted red, a color that seemed to suck out light to create a disorienting tunnel. There was nothing about that stairwell that led you to believe there was anything pleasant at the other end.
Here's the top of the stairs near the kitchen. It was dangerously hard to tell that there are two steps down to a landing. We also followed the previous owners' lead, storing brooms and such there.
The one good thing about that berry-red sponge paint was that it matched one of the colors in a lovely baby quilt a friend made for Eli before he was born. The quilt always hung over Eli's crib in California, but his bedroom here has less wall space. Thus I borrowed that quilt from Eli for a few years and designed the stairwell around it.
I picked an apricot yellow for the walls and used thick painter's tape to preserve two lines of the sponged red. The rosy hues harmonize with the quilt at the bottom of the stairway and add visual warmth yet also provide enough of a contrast that now you can safely tell where the floor drops down. Much brighter!
Our upstairs is mostly shades of green, so I hung two of my old art pieces that have greens but also yellows and rust shades. It gives the landing a little visual appeal and helps harmonize surrounding colors. (The companion pieces are torn paper collages with a motif of leaves, trees, scanned old handwritten documents, and mother-of-pearl buttons.)
Here is a before-and-after of heading down the stairwell...
For added visual interest since the ceiling is so high, I hung one of my favorite art pieces that hadn't yet found a spot in our new house. It is a line of pegs along a polished, undulating piece of wood that I found at an art show in Savannah. I hung it with ceramic and metal stars collected over the years. In my mind, it adds a touch of whimsy -- sort of a star harp that gently plays by itself in the slight breezes up the stairs. It also hides some scrapes and nail holes from the previous owners!
Here's a before-and-after of the stairway landing in the basement and coming back up.
At the top of the stairs I hung Brian's print from a piece artist Michel Delacroix created for the 1996 Centennial Olympics. (A little lower might have been better, but there were several holes that didn't patch smoothly and the print covers them.) The scene combines historic and modern aspects of Atlanta, so as history geeks we've always loved this piece of art. Unfortunately, the movers weren't careful with it and the glass broke. But yesterday I discovered you can buy sheet glass at Michael's (using a 40% off coupon) and they will cut it to size for free. Thus my whole stairway makeover cost less than $50. Woo hoo!
Now when I head down to the basement, I no longer feel like a corpuscle in a red artery. Eli no longer has to be coaxed into going down to his playroom and folks aren't constantly leaving the stairway lights on anymore because now the overhead light has a true effect. Why didn't I do this sooner?!
We love our new house. But the back yard has always been a problem. The previous owners installed an above-ground pool and surrounded it on three sides with a deck. The pool was fun last summer, but we found we just didn't use it enough to justify the expense and upkeep. And, most of all, I never felt safe having it there with a kiddo around. In the fall, we hired a company to tear it out. (Click HERE for that post.)
Once we saw how deep the pool had been dug in, we immediately set about finding estimates for a company to repair the yard. That ended up being quite the odyssey. Landscape folks have to juggle their schedules and the weather. Although important to us, I think our one-time job was "small potatoes" to most companies. While waiting for the estimates, the ground eroded under one of the pieces of decking we hoped to keep. In the end, we salvaged wood off of it until we were too exhausted to do more and let it go.
Then this week the bulldozers finally rolled! We found a company that did a great job. Hooray!
Ahhhh. So much better!
I had two days of making a happy sigh every time I looked out the window. I wish so much that this blog post could have ended there. But two days after the landscaping, a gullywasher storm rolled in overnight. I'm just sick. I know it is a "first world" problem, but it is definitely disheartening. The rye grass seed didn't have a chance to grow so the raw soil only had a layer of straw to protect it.
How to fix it? I have no idea. But the basement leak is still unfixed as well, waiting for a warm, dry weekend. And my long-trusty scanner died last night just when my book project is moving forward and I'll soon need images.
G'bye. Silly small problems or not, I'm going back to bed to cover up my head. Please send mint Girl Scout cookies.
This spring when we found our house, I kept saying to Brian, "Oh, I just wish it didn't have a pool!" The above-ground swimming area was nicely designed and complete with a deck, but there were just too many down sides. Even when Eli's swim lessons finally pay off, I don't know that kids have good judgement to be safe around over-their-heads water for quite a few more years. That made our backyard perpetually off limits unless a grownup was there and we had to go get a key every time we wanted to get through a gate.
Worrying about our child's safety was the biggest pool headache, but there were others. Making sure neighbor kids and animals couldn't gain access. Almost every play date became a pool party whether we wanted it to or not plus being responsible for visitors' safety. Skimming leaves out of it was a daily chore because of all the trees in our yard. Chemicals run about $600 in the summer and the pump really cranked up our electric bill. All this and we didn't find ourselves using it enough to justify the work and expense. As winter approached and we knew we had to either keep maintaining it or devise a pricy cover system, it was the last straw. Bye bye pool!
We hired a pool company to come and remove it since they had experience as well as proper tools. We preserved two pieces of the deck since they are in great shape and make a good place to hang out in the back yard. We have plenty of lawn for soccer practice and such, so the former pool space will most likely become an oval garden with raised beds for herbs, flowers, and seasonal vegetables.
I love the color green. Maybe it is all those walks in the woods my dad took us on when I was little. Maybe it was spending so much time on the coast as a child, the live oaks and salt marshes stretching away in all directions. However it started, green is now peacefully neutral to me; it rests easy on my soul when I'm surrounded by it. In all the years that I lived in rental properties with cream or white walls, I kept acquiring more green items so that the house could feel alive and woodsy. Here in this new house, however, I wanted some color on the walls themselves. Thankfully, Brian agreed. But how many shades of green can one room hold?
The lovely thing about green is that mixing greens gives a forest effect. A mixture is actually good. At the same time, though, the effect should be purposeful rather than haphazard. To achieve this, I knew I needed artwork of many shades and it needed to be large enough in scale to carry a room with a high ceiling. I would love to do a quilt to hang on the wall above our sofa, but since I don't actually know how to quilt, that isn't in the cards anytime soon. Then I found some great vintage embroidery hoops at an antique store...
I found a few old shirts at Goodwill with nice fabric and the rest came from the cotton quilting sections of a couple of fabric stores around town. I stretched the fabric into each hoop, trimmed away the excess, and then hung it using straight pin. Since the room is already home to a large grapevine circle over the fireplace as well as a wrought iron tree in a circle on the opposite wall, I wanted the pattern of circles to feel organic rather than geometric. Or was that just an excuse. At any rate, I just winged it rather than measuring. And instead of making a block pattern, I had the circles ascend vine-style.
I had to do some restretching of fabrics and also made a run to the craft store for some tiny hoops to go with the larger vintage ones. For a day or two I kept walking by only to stop and swap one circle with another. Now I'm really happy with it. Although we still don't have the large area rug we need, the room feels pulled together. And woodsy.
A few days ago I posted about finishing up Eli's collages, showcasing some of our favorite images. (Click HERE to see that post.)
When Eli started learning his alphabet, we'd search for interesting letters and I'd snap a photo. Simply learning letters and having fun was the main point, but I also had a goal to create collages for the letters "E" "L" and "I" for Eli's bedroom once we bought a house. Some interesting and battered metal letters from antique stores rounded our collages out. Here's our results...
Each collage has thirty images. Twenty-five of those are letters from signs, product labels, graffiti, and the like. The remaining five images are favorite snapshots of Little Guy printed in black & white. I printed each collage at 11 x 14 inch size and then placed them in matching silver frames. Eli is pleased with the original artwork for his bedroom. I'm more than pleased. Now my favorite Eli pictures are gathered together and I also enjoy remembering where we found various letters. For me, each collage is a stroll down memory lane.
I think 'housewarming' is one of the best descriptive names ever.
We had a drop-in gathering yesterday to show extended family and friends our new home. Although admittedly busy and even a little chaotic with folks coming and going, when the door closed behind the last guest, the house indeed felt glowy with goodwill. It was a great excuse to get to know our new neighbors, which does wonders for making a location feel homey. And we also had an excuse to enjoy dear folks who live nearby yet we rarely see due to the bustle of daily life.
Speaking of excuses, the housewarming was also a handy deadline to hang pictures and finish projects. (Many thanks to my kind father-in-law with help there!) And on Saturday Brian and I worked as a team to deep clean the house. That was a relief. After a big move, you're so busy getting organized and settled that some of those ordinary household tasks slide by undone. This morning the house is filled with good memories but far fewer dust bunnies.
For refreshments, we went with a homebaked cookie theme -- Cinnamon Chewies, Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin, and Mama Ralston's Sweetbread fragrant with molasses and ginger. (I timed that one coming out of the oven right before party time because there are few treats that make the house smell as good as that one!) Little Guy blended generations by helping me make Peanut Butter Cookies from my mom's old recipe. He whipped up his first-ever batch of Rice Krispies Treats too.
Today the countertops are filled with lovely little gifts -- bottles of wine, food treats, seasonal decor, and flowers. It all brings lovely color on an overcast Monday morning. I was so busy at the party that I didn't take any photos, but I will share some of the remaining colors...
Ha! Ha! It's enough to make a busy parent cackle with glee!
I finished revamping our laundry room, which also serves as the entry from the garage. In addition to fresh, cheerful paint (that is washable), I put up two bulletin boards, a dry erase board, a pencil/pen cup, a set of four hooks for Eli's jackets, one sturdy coat/backpack hook (secured to a stud) for each member of our family, a calendar, and three wall baskets -- one for receipts, one for the day's mail, and one for older mail or papers soon to be filed. Now there's a place for important messages, letters waiting to be mailed, and items we need as we walk out the door.
The other we were in Baskin Robbins for a cool scoop to ward off the end-of-summer heat. Standing over the glass case gazing down at the tubs of ice cream, I suddenly blurted out, "Oh, that's it!" The older lady behind the counter cracked her gum and said, "Know what you want then?" "Yes, I know what flavor I want and I now I also know what color to paint my laundry room!"
Our laundry room does double duty as the short hallway leading to our garage. This is the way we usually exit and enter our house. It is clean and gets enough light thanks to windows at either end. It has never been painted, however, and wall across from the washing machine was quite scuffed. I knew I wanted to paint it with washable paint and I knew a color would make it more cheerful. Also, because it isn't visible once you are outside that hallway, I knew I had some liberty with choosing a color. I wanted something different than the green or blue color scheme through the rest of the upstairs. Hmmmm.
Daiquiri Ice.
This flavor from Baskin Robbins has been around since 1962 (according to the company's website). A sorbet-like blend of lime and rum flavoring, it has long been a favorite even when I was a kid and couldn't pronounce it. (Da-quor-ee? Da-queer-ee?) I loved it even when I felt a little odd ordering it, thinking some grownup was surely going to pounce on me for ordering liquor. (It turns out the rum flavor is just from an extract. No alcohol involved.) Apparently Baskin Robbins' recipe has changed somewhat over time. I found fan websites and a Facebook page dedicated to this flavor, but also recipes, praise, and longing accolades for earlier formulations. Still takes good to me! The frozen treat is cool and lovely, and so is the color -- a sort of pastel teal.
A few days later returned to Baskin Robbins armed with paint chips and ordered another scoop. The color match winner? Lowe's Valspar "Sprinkle." Today I started smoothing the color on with a roller and the result has me whistling with happiness. The hall looks so clean, crisp, and welcoming now.
One more coat and then I'm off to celebrate with a scoop of ice cream. I'm sure you can guess which flavor.
Newsflash: Did you know Baskin Robbins has something called a Freeze, which is ice cream, sherbet, or sorbet blended with soda? I had them make me a Daiquiri Ice Freeze using Sprite. It was so sweet that I couldn't finish it, but very refreshing on a hot day.
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My primary camera is a Canon EOS Digital Rebel T5 with a Sigma DC 18-200mm lens (1:3.5-6.3) or Canon EFS 18-55mm lens. On occasion I also use my iPhone 6. For crisper images (when I'm not in a hurry to grab the shot), I use a Dolica Proline B100 tripod. I often tweak my images using Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.
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