Sarah-isms

Sometimes, when I’m bored or looking for inspiration for a blog post, I re-read my old posts.  They make me laugh.  I am one funny girl! :)  So, tonight I have collected a random sampling of Sarah-isms as stated on the blog, in case you missed them the first time.  Feel free to LOL.

1. If it weren’t for pesky things like the potential for electrocution and circuitry and what-not, I could be my own electrician.  –Moody Blue Bathroom Makeover

2. What, you don’t use your pool table to store cake parts, too??  –Princess Castle Cake

3. You know what they say:  “Good things come to those who break their backs”…  I mean, “Beauty is pain.”  –Guest Bath Progress

4. Luckily I have my Papa for that part.  –Office Desk: Dream to Reality

5. Yeah, like all good things in life, it’s plastic!  —Mirror Makeover

6. We repurpose repurpose repurpose!  –A Very Guthrie Christmas

7. I hate doing that part… so like a good blogger, I stood around and took pictures.  —Paver Patio: Take Two

8. How to cut down a tree, Guthrie style:  Step 4. Hide on the deck while Papa cuts down the tree.  –A Fence for Riley: Part Two

9. I don’t usually keep a magazine rack full of cat toys in the fireplace.  Honest.  –Trimming the Den

10. That’ll have to be a GPDIFU project.  That’s “Get Papa to Do It For Us”.  –Master Suite Reveal

11. I just can’t be friends with wet paint.  –Operation: Paint the Dining Room

12. Bombay Mahogany for the win!  –New Couch Reveal

A Zeal for Teal

You probably know I have a thing for the color teal.  Be it turquoise or teal, I can’t seem to get enough of it lately.  It’s starting to pop up everywhere around the house.  The guest room, living room, den, and the guest bathroom are all sporting some variation of that hue.  So while I was perusing last month’s issue of Better Homes and Gardens I came across their paint color of the month:  Timeless Teal!  One in particular caught my eye—Teal Zeal by Olympic.  It’s “undercurrents of green and brown” sounded like a perfect fit for my house!  My next decision was where to put it.  I first considered repainting the office since it’s got nothing but gray, brown, and black going on, but I knew Michael would never agree to let me paint our shared office teal.  The guest bath was my next vision!  (It was due to get a new paint job anyway because the flat paint I used had three years of water spots on it.)  I knew it would work with the brown vanity and the neutral linens, so off I went with my magazine page to the paint store.  And last weekend I got busy repainting the guest bath!

I started by clearing the room and repainting the ceiling which was sporting off-white with a little line of old wall paint colors around the edges.  Gah!  Then I trimmed out the walls with teal (this time using satin paint!) and rolled on the first coat.  The next day I trimmed the whole room again (good thing it’s a small room!) and rolled a second coat.  Then I commenced to scrubbing, caulking and trim painting.  I can officially say that today that bathroom is clean from top to bottom.  That’s not to say it will stay that way long. :)

And now all my hard work has come to fruition… it is gorgeous!

The new color almost matches the blue on the bottom of the shower curtain.  And it highlights all the white and neutral accessories in the room.  I love how the white trim pops against the dark walls.  This is my first time painting walls a dark color; I am usually a “top-of-the-paint-chip” girl.  So, I am proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone this time. 

I am so happy with my little jewel box of a bathroom!  What do you think?

  

Now we just need a new faucet and maybe a new rug, because this green one doesn’t match anything anymore! ;)

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!  And Happy Fourth Birthday to It’s a Horvath’s Life!

Yep!  I’ve been blogging here for four years today.  243 posts later and still going strong.  Thanks for joining me here!  It’s been a real pleasure to share our life with you on the blog!  And while you are here, I wanted to share our Independence Day decorations with you.

I decided to decorate just the front porch this year since we aren’t having any kind of party, like last year.  I put our flag up and added a few more flags to the ferns on the porch.  And then I put my painted flag art on the front door.

The hydrangeas are really looking good, but apparently they didn’t get the memo about red, white and blue, so they are jumping in there with some purple and pink, too!

I moved my former porch arrangements up to the deck where they could get some more sun and in their place I put these two ferns.  They seem to really like it here and have sprouted all new fronds.  Yay!

Very patriotic, no?

Hope everyone has a Happy Independence Day!

Little Pretties

A random sampling of beautiful things that make me smile…

    

    

    

    

    

giant pink hydrangea blossoms, plush new pillows on the bed, dried rind flowers, pink peonies, fluffy pink astilbe, delicate purple and blue hydrangeas in a thrifted milk glass compote, my new butterfly pillow, a coral non-stop begonia, fuzzy kitten, and old books.

Hope you’re finding reasons to smile this week, too!

English Garden Patio Update

I have all these little areas in my yard that have their own particular names.  We have the patio, the fairy cove, the cutest flower bed, mailbox bed, front beds, back beds, fence bed… lots of beds.  Well today we are going to talk about the English Garden brick patio.  You know, the one formerly known as the swing patio?  Well, since the swing is no more, I’ve taken to calling this the brick patio.  It’s not even big enough to be considered a patio, really, but what are you gonna do? 

Anyway, back in April when we mulched the English garden, my Mama and I decided to level the brick patio.  Little did I know that this reveal would be so delayed.  I promised to show it to you when the swing was hung back up… well that didn’t happen. :)  Ooops!

Now that we have had a chance to landscape behind the patio as planned, I am back to show you the whole before and after scenario!  Here we go!

First things first, we took up all the bricks.  They are actually brick pavers with no holes in them and they are way cool.  They must be old or reclaimed pavers because they are irregular in shape and size, plus they have neat-o moss growing on them, so we were careful not to disturb it too much while we were rearranging them.  After clearing the space, we raked it all level.  It is mostly sand down here from the original installation so that part was easy.  Then we pulled a string to create a straight line for ourselves to work from. 

Then we proceeded to put all the pavers back evenly spaced in the same layout that they were before.  Because I liked it that way. :)

I find it is helpful to employ your puppy-dog digger, too, if you need any digging done.  Riley is a great digger and she has to be laying right where you are working so she can supervise effectively. :)

She is checking out our handiwork after all the pavers are down.

All finished.  Now it needs rock dust to fill in all the cracks.

We just dumped the rock dust on top and swept it into the cracks with a broom.  Then after a couple of good rains, I swept off the top of the bricks.  It also helps that the yellow bushes in back leafed out and we planted two rhododendrons on the right.

Now, for the landscaping!

We added a continuing row of liriope in a sort of curving design behind the patio and three more hostas to fill in the space. 

And now for that before and after comparison.  Before (from 2011) where you can see the patio caving off to the right:

And After, now it is all level and surrounded by beautiful plants!  I am a little ashamed that this seemingly simple project has taken me so long to check off my list.  But at last, it is done!

Now I just need a garden bench (like this one) to make this space useful! :)  I do have a little something else planned for the English Garden this Summer.  But, it’s been rainy so I haven’t had a chance to spray paint it yet. :)  Stay tuned!

Roses, Petunias and Geraniums, Oh My!

It’s finally June and the summer flowers are getting ready to put on a show!  So I figured I’d better finish up reporting on the Spring flowers.   My knockout roses have been busting out blooms and the petunias are getting bushier every week.  I have been adding some more flowers to the mailbox bed since I decided not to put tomatoes in there this year.  In front I added a row of dahlias and pink petunias.  The dahlias are slow, but the petunias are looking good. 

I brought up another knockout rose from the front bed to match the other side of the mailbox.  It’s a hot pink one.

The other one is pale pink, and HUGE!  I’m going to have to trim it back.  It’s taking over!

And in the center I added a potted bougainvillea.  I love this plant!  I have never had one before, but it looks so cool!  I hope it does well up here.

And there behind the mailbox post is my clematis, which is being overshadowed by the monster rose bush. :)  Poor thing.  It’s looking pretty, though.

Meanwhile, I got some new plants for the porch pots, too.  I took out the yellow violas and put fuchsia and pink geraniums and some white lobelia in its place.  They are very pretty, but I’m thinking about moving them to the deck where they might actually see the light of day…

In other container updates, my fence baskets are flourishing!  I didn’t remember how small they were until I looked back at the original pictures, but they are so tall and bushy now!  And the sweet potato vine is really taking off.  Yay!

We also added blue salvia plants in front of the fence.  They are so pretty!

I am loving all my summer blooms!  The hydrangeas are about to bust out and there are a few lilies and astilbe starting to bloom in the back.  Plus I have an update from the English garden coming soon!  Stay tuned!