The Hallway And A Gardening Question....

Okay, I didn't end up priming or painting the hallway yesterday.  Instead, I edged the lawn and helped my neighbor move some rocks for a little project she was working on.

Here's photographic evidence of my edging.  It looks so neat and tidy now!

 

I wonder if anybody knows anything about Lilac trees?  I'm having an issue with one of mine.  I've asked someone who has never seen the issue, and I didn't like her answer (ha!).  So I'm going to ask you all about it.  Here's a photo of the problem: 

See the tree to the right of the steps?  Now look at the one to the left of the steps.....see how sad the one on the right is?  Any ideas why it's like this?  They're dwarf Korean lilac trees and have been here for 10 years.  I would say for the last 3 to 5 years the one on the right has been looking stunted and spindly.  What say you?

Okay....Now you can see photos of the hallway I will be embarking on: 

 

There are a whopping 6 doorways in this tiny little hallway!!  And I've got to tell you....I had all of the doors closed while I photographed this spot and it was pitch dark.  The door that's already painted white is Noodle's bedroom.  As you can imagine, painting these doors is going to take FOREVAH!

Are you having a fun summer so far?  What are you doing?

I Need A Change......

I like change. I really really do.


And you know what I've been doing all day this week? Looking at blogs.


Blogs with before-and-after shots.
Carefully staged with messes out of camera shot.

And I love that. LOVE IT!!!!
But I can't live in my house that way. Mainly because I'm too messy to live without a mess. That poses a problem.

Also? My current budget isn't allowing for any before-and-afters at this time. Only "before-and-oh-wait-nothings-changed-here" shots.


And that is very sad, because right now I have no decorating budget and a sweet little house full of rooms that I really want to change.



So I'm trying to find ways to spruce things up with no money. And I just saw something in someone's blog. Please don't ask me to remember which blog it is. I cannot answer that question - I've been looking at so many this week. Anyway, she had some faux chinese lanterns (still on their stems) in a vase.



Hey!



I have real ones in my garden! (Yeah, I know....it's looking a little errrrr....WILD back here.)

My pal Gretchen dug them up from her own garden for me a couple of years ago and assured me that I'd hate them because of their noxious nature.

I don't.

Yet.

So I picked a bunch and put them in this basket. I'm waiting for them to dry. I'm also going to dry some on their stems.

In the meantime? It's time to show my house some love. I cleared off the top of the contact-paper-covered piano and dusted.

And washed my clear vases.

And changed out my blue and white river rock vase-filler to my old fall stuff. Sorry. I didn't take a photo of the river rocks.

The cat helped me enormously.

That's actually not true. She just lay there in her bed. Enormous.

Here's something that makes me laugh. Zuddy's "man purse". Do you see it there? In the shoe basket to the left of the piano? Ha! It's the Target bag.

I really want to find some stuff to hang on the wall to the right of the mirror. I want a big "Z" for sure. But it's going to need more than that.

I do like these vase-fillers, but I'm getting sick to death of them. I just don't know what else to put in there.

So I'm feeling a little better because of the sparkly glass. Sparkly glass is always a great pick-me-up, isn't it? Crisis averted.

For now.

Because what I really want? Is a built-in wall of shelves and storage here:

And creamy painted woodwork.

And a white slipcover for my sofa:

Man.

I've got it BAD. Help me.

Hey!

What's happenin' friends? Whatchya up to today?

AAAAaaaargh! It's so rainy here. It was nice when I was snuggled up in our attic bedroom listening to the rain on the roof, but now that I'm downstairs in our playroom/office? It's much less cozy and more......I don't know.....wet.

I was hoping to take the Noodle tromping through the woods today, but that's not going to happen, I think. And we never got that cake made yesterday. Noodle was invited over to the Sparkplug residence for a play date.

Oooo! A long time ago, Sparkplug Mom shared a picture of what the tile work would look like in her bathroom! Well, they're almost done and it looks JUST like the picture! Wanna see the picture?

Their sink and mirror isn't the same, but Sparkplug Dad totally recreated the tile work (The photos you see are a display at the tile place.) Isn't it just a great-looking room? Sparkplug Dad totally gutted the bathroom and has done all the work himself. That's one handy dude. And Mom has such great taste. I tell ya, they are the greatest family!

I took Franklin over there to drop the Noodle off and he was oh-so-happy to see all of the Sparkplugs! Then I took him back to our house and fed him some carrots, banana and crackers. He loved it! He was kicking his little leggies and chatting to me.

Here's a gratuitious Franklin shot:

SIGH......isn't he just the cutest? Believe me - those cheekers got LOTS of smoochies yesterday.

So I made that soup. Deelish. Roasted Tomato Basil from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook. Soooooooo good.

I've been in such a cooking mood since the weather has turned, but believe you me, it hasn't been like this in a looooong time. The Noodle is such a picky eater that I end up feeling like a punching bag at meal time. In fact, she made a face at the potatoes the other day and I let her have it.

Here's the deal at our house: You take one bite of everything. Don't like something? Fine. Just find something on your plate that you like and eat it, dammit! I'm not fighting with you and I'm not making you a separate dinner! I got this tactic from my dear friend, MJ. And every other day or so, I serve something I know the Noodle will like. So why is it so hard for her to get this? Still! I get a scrunched up face coupled with a whiney voice! I let her know how rude this is (for the umpteenth time) and told her she'd better not react like this at someone else's house! I'm sure she does, though.

Oh! Speaking of which: Mrs. Jones, you had to have seen Oprah when Jessica Seinfeld went on there and gave Oprah a taste of YOUR SPINACH BROWNIES!!! I hope she BOUGHT that recipe from you!

Okay. Today? We need to make that cake. I have a chocolate cake mix on hand from Target - their Archer Farms brand. It's the best cake mix out there, people. Then, I'm going to make the scratch buttercream from The Barefoot Contessa.

Then? We are cleaning this playroom. I started the other day and then someone called me and invited me to go for a walk with them. And exercise is more important than cleaning, right? Right. Especially for ElChubbo here.

Oh! I will leave you with a picture of the Clematis from my garden!

Oh! And some chinese lanterns!

Question: Does anyone out there know if these dry well?

Have a great day!

Where Do I Start?

Man.

Getting into the groove of back to school is tough this year. I feel like the days just FLY by and before I know it, it's time to go pick up the Noodle from her bus stop. And what have I accomplished?
Nada.

So what's been going on here at Elizabeth Hill?

Well, last Friday my sis-in-law, Myrna, (I don't like the whole in-law thing. From now on, I'll just call her my sister) had a jewelery party and right when it started, her 79 year old Mom (Fran) got sick. Faint, weak.... the whole scary 9 yards for a woman that age. Myrna was pretty cool about the whole thing. She has a gazillion siblings (11 or 12), so her sisters were taking care of Fran and ended up taking her to Urgent Care.
Well, from Urgent Care Fran was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Then Myrna decided to leave the party.

The jewelery lady gave a couple of pauses and, "oh my's" during the whole goings-on but largely ignored the whole thing. It was kind of weird......I don't know. I guess she already had it all set up, but.......you know, the hostess LEFT!!! HELLO?!?

So, turns out Fran is okay. Though I'll need an update from Myrna to be sure.....But she was in the hospital all weekend and probably went home yesterday (Tuesday). Poor Myrna (and her gazillion siblings, I'm sure) was soooooo tired. I always feel so helpless when stuff like this happens. What can I do for someone in this situation? Pretty much nothing. I just watched the kids.

So anyway, that all happened during the weekend. Then, Monday I had the whole Sparkplug group over. Remember Sparkplug? I talked about her here. Sparkplug Mom (Noel) had a class and Sparkplug Dad (Joel) is a scientist and out of town working in the field, so they all piled on over and we all went to swimming lessons and then I took them home until Mom got home.
These girls are so great. They put on a "birthday party" for the Noodle! They all dressed up in some finery, Noel made cupcakes during the day (as if she doesn't have enough to do. But, hey...she is a Sparkplug, too! This is where the children get it from!), and they even gave the Noodle a great big Build-A-Bear gift card! What the heck? Those girls are sweet as pie, I tell ya. Here they are:

Aren't they the CUTEST? Such nice girls, too. And this is the first time I've gotten to hang with the youngest Sparkplug, who is on the far left in the yellow. Sooooooo cute. I had soooo much fun with them.

So, earlier that day, I picked up some kale at the new Lowe's near us. Ooooo.....I LOVE that place! And the kale was only $2 a pot. I'm making the big ol' pot o' kale from Cottage Living magazine. Here is a photo of the Noodle with the kale from last year:
Oh. I guess I'm kind of late in getting this potted. This was her back to school picture from last year.

Anyway.

I had Franklin yesterday.
He hates me.
He's all smiles once Mom gets back to pick him up, though. We did have a little break through moment of singing and play, which is HUGE. But he pretty much cried the rest of the time.
But look at that FACE!!! He looks just like Mommy. Maybe a little bit like Dad, too. His dad (Richard) is a freakin' riot. Really, he should be a stand-up comic.

Last night we had the "Second Grade Dinner" at the Noodle's school. I TOTALLY didn't want to go. I thought I had a hair appointment, but when the shop was closed and locked up tight when we arrived, I realized the appointment is TONIGHT. GOAH!!!! I do stuff like this all of the time!
So, basically, I had no excuse not to go. AND I was so confident I wouldn't be going, that I didn't bother to make anything (it was a potluck). So we rushed home, stopped at the market to purchase a couple of ingredients for the casserole I was planning on making, and by the time I got home, I decided that I didn't have the time to make that casserole. So I went out into the garden, picked some grape tomatoes, and made a yummy Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Red Onion and Cilantro.

Oh, and of course we had a great time. The parents in the Noodle's school are awesome. I've made some great friends there.....Sandy and John, Kris, Noel and Joel, Linda, and Bill and Stephanie. And the weird thing is, I've met them all by coincidence or there's been some connection in a "7 degrees of Kevin Bacon" sort of way. Seriously. And then our kids end up in the same school. St. Paul is really just a small town.

Like, Noel? The Sparkplug Mom? I met her at gymnastics when our girls were three or four. I found out that she teaches at the school I went to as a child (well...kind of. It was torn down and re-built in the same spot). Not only that.....she and her husband come from a town a couple of hours north of here and went to high school with my dear friend Hilary's husband. And they were both teaching at my old neighborhood school!!!! AND Hilary and Paul bought my Zuddy's childhood home.

Is that confusing enough for you?

So that's what I've been doing. No kitchen work, no special projects....my ceiling in the dining and living rooms still isn't finished. The end panels of the kitchen cupboards still aren't painted, the hutch hasn't been touched and I have piles of laundry downstairs.

Wish me luck.

Sweet Angel is Three!

I can't believe it! My niece, Sweet Angel (not her real name :) Is three!! Isn't she cute? That face is a girl's version of my brother and the hair? Courtesy of her Mommy. She had her birthday party yesterday and it was all Shrek, bay-bee. My Brother and Sis-in-law treated everyone to Shrek 3 at the theater, isn't that nice? It was a really fun party.

Especially because we sent the Noodle to the movie and then Zuddy and I went on a date. Of course, our idea of a fun date is walking through a certain warehouse-type store. I'm not naming names. Because the parent company is the epitome of Evil.....at least that's what I keep reading about them.

Other than that, not much is going on. I spent 3 full days weeding the garden. I don't know which weed it was that decided to explode in there, but it was so thick with weeds that it took me forever and I'm still not done. THEN?? On Saturday we had a massive hail storm and it pelted my garden!! Here are a couple of pictures:



This poor coleus never even made it into the garden :(






I love this plant. It's called False Indigo and those spires had a bunch of sweet-pea-like blooms. It still looks okay, but it's lost a lot of petals.




Poor Hostas!


On the kitchen-front, I used the 3 to 1 vinegar solution to strip wallpaper. It works pretty well, but you know what wallpaper really wants to help it detach from the wall?

Hot water.

In the form of steam.

Yup. Kim was right all along (of course). I was really trying to avoid buying the steamer. I know it's only $40, but it's not at the tippity-top of my list of desired ways to spend my money. Ya know what I'm sayin'? Mmmm hmmm. I knew you would.

I went to the Farmer's Market yesterday....so many nummies! Remember, this is Minnesota, so there hasn't been much growing yet and my CSA wasn't starting delivery until the 13th of June. Well....we've gotten some much-needed rain so the CSA is delivering this week instead and the Farmer's Market had peas! We had them for dinner last night and didn't even bother to steam them. We also got radishes, some lettuces, and I bought some meat. It was excellent.

So, today I'm cleaning. This place is a wreck.

Hope you have a great day :)