Wish List - Champagne Taste

Ugh! How come i always fall in love with something that is 10 times more expensive than I need to spend?

We have fully functioning patio furniture that we use on our deck. It's an aluminum set we bought in 2006. Maybe 2005. It was when daughter #2 graduated from high school. Bought it from K-Mart. It's a nice set - but it would be an understatement if I said I was NOW bored with it & want something new.

This week I got a new issue of Southern Living & they have a spread about porches in Charleston. Lots of wicker. I have had a love affair for wicker furniture for a LONG time. I think my Mother gave me the love. She never had a set. I wish I could have got her one. Fast forward to this week again.......I SO want new deck furniture.

I had a white wicker set about 7 years ago - but I didn't have the money to buy "all weather" wicker. it didn't last.

I found what I want!! Yipee! But there is no way I can buy it all at once. Pretty sure Prince Charming wont' jump at it either.

If I can't have exactly what is pictured below - it has to be super similar.


I don't want white. I don't want bulky. I want traditional. And I want it dark brown or black. I only want 2 rockers, 2 chairs, 2 side tables & only 1 sette. Maybe only 2 chairs.....Picky, huh? Well, if I spend what they want for that set, I better get EXACTLY what I want. From Orvis - The Champlain Set. Let's see...how many "gift giving days" are there in 2011? My birthday is already passed, Valentines Day is already passed, Anniversary is already passed..... Pretty sure I can't get a "gift" for The 4th Of July. But hey! I still have Thanksgiving & Christmas!!!

I can DREAM, can't I ???

Sam

Edited to add: Ha! My friend Donna Reminded me that MOTHERS DAY is next month!!! And....I do have wicker furniture. It's on my front porch. 4 chairs & 2 end tables. We don't use it. It's eye-candy for the front of the house. It's not the style I want for the back deck - that's where we spend all out time in the spring & summer.

Spring

This is an old quilt. Well, old for me! I made it with a pattern from a Fons & Porter magazine that was published in 2000. A freind in Alabama asked me for the pattern just last week.

Changed the sheets & quilts on the bed & since everything was starting to bloom - I decided that I wanted something cheery on the bed. This particular quilt can be VERY girl-lee so those dark green walls are toning it down some.




We're sitting here, watching the weather channel to make sure that there are no tornadoes to get into the basement over. They are still about 30 miles west of us. Getting closer. I hate those things........Tornadoes, I mean.

Sam

Weekend Work

QB1 is probably going to skin me alive, as I was supossed to have her charity quilt completed. I got the backing loaded & that is as far as I have got.

What did I spend my weekend doing?

Landscaping.

Saturday, Prince Charming & I laid down 110 bags of mulch. Yes. 110. Why bags? Well we priced mulch by the yard (buckets) One place had it @ $20 per bucket (less than one yard.) Another had it @ $33 per bucket. Looked like a full yard. Wal Mart actually had it the least expensive @ $2.88 per bag. Lowe's had the EXACT SAME brand @ $3.44 per 2 cf bag. Decided the bags were a better idea too because then we wouldn't have to use the pitch forks to get into place. We got it at Wal Mart. Had to make 3 trips to get all the bags becasue we didn't want to drag the trailer through the yard that Prince Charming just seeded & fertilized 2 weeks ago.

ANYWAY.....

Last weekend we put down 1500 square feet of landscape fabric & then Tuesday of last week there was this horendous storm. No joke. It was bad. Straight line winds & rain. (that is something to see!) Worst we got was that our plastic storage doo-hickey thing got blwon off the porch & it was full of empty planters (& not cusions it's designed for!) and the planters blew all in the woods of my neighbor's house. But I was afrid that when I got home all that landscape fabric that we had put down was going to be strung up in the trees through the whole block. This didn't happen & I was glad. Seems overdoing the little metal pins/stakes paid off.

This weekend we put down mulch & filled the planters on the front porch. Prince Charming made the planters out of some old oak that we have. (we have a HUGE pile of it...lots & lots....it takes up a lot of space in the garage!) - we filled those planters with trailing petunias, caladiums & gladiolas....Some calla lillies (they did really well there last year) and soemthing else that I can't think of. The petunias should cover up the front of the planters in a month. I hope. We just wanted some COLOR out front without doing anything permanent. I still lack filling the containers @ the front door. You should have heard the conversation about the planters @ the front door! It went something like this:

Prince Charming: What are we going to put in those planters @ the door?
Me: Ferns
Prince Cahrming: What kind of ferns?
Me; Faux Ferns.
Prince Charming: Pho Ferns? What do THOSE look like?
Me: PLASTIC !

They have not arrived yet. I can't keep a fern alive or without drying out for anything. So I'm going with faux. They live longer.

Anyway - below are the pictures of what we got accomplished this weekend. Notice the black geese. I painted THOSE last weekend too. I should have left them in the back yard - they seemed to keep the blackbirds away from the bird food. They LOOK better on my front porch.






Funny thing happened @ Wal Mart today. One of those "you know you're getting old when...." times. I'm standing in line behind this couple that are buying a boat load of cleaning supplies. I thought they were going to drag out a notebook full of coupons becasue there was THAT much cleaning stuff...Kid @ the register says to the lady "wow it looks like y'all are doing a LOT of cleaning" - Lady says "Yeh, we been doing it for 2 weekends in a row" (well since I don't ever know a stranger) I say "yeh, I know how you feel, we have been doing yard work for 2 weekends in a row too!". Lady turns to the kid & says "Keeping up with the Joneses is a b!tch", I said to the lady.."I told my husband that the Joneses can kiss my @ss." We all have a good giggle & the lady & her husband leave & the kid starts scanning my groceries. The kid says to me "So? Y'all live on the same street?" I look at him & say "No." He says "But you both KNOW the Joneses???" I didn't know what to say! So I said "Yeh, we do..." I guess you know you're getting old when the younger generation doesn't know what "Keeping up with the Joneses" means....I nearly laughed at the poor kid's face. Bless his heart.

Y'all have a good evening. I'm looking forward to sitting at my desk at work tomorrow. No mulch!

Sam~

April 1st!

Prince Charming & I took Friday off. It was our 22nd anniversary. Yep! 22 Years. What did we do? Well we started the day by dropping off the F250 @ the Ford dealer. It's a 2006 and the engine is still under warranty & there is a "check engine" light on. Something to do with the turbo. They'll have it fixed next week. No, we're not down a vehicle. It mostly sits in the driveway. Prince Charming has a company truck. Then we went & had breakfast @ Cracker Barrell. I always get the same thing. Momma's French Toast Breakfast. Then as we were headed to the Plant Ranch to find Hydrangeas, I got a phone call from a guy from Clarksville. He used to fix industrial sewing machines & agreed to come & see if he could get the hook timed on my longarm. He'd never done one before.

Let me tell you about my longarm. It's been a wonderful machine. Perfect. I have NEVER had to time the hook in the 3 years that I have owned it. (really a little more than 3 years) But once it got OUT of timing & I fiddled & fiddled & adjusted & re-adjusted, I was So aggravated that I was desperate to take it to the closest dealer. The "closest" dealer is in....get this.....Agusta, GA. 6.5 hours drive one way.

So, he came & looked at it. Adjusted the hook. SHOWED me how it's supposed to look when I have to do it. We tested it multiple times until he felt I was satisfied with the stitches. It sews perfect stitches now. I quilted up some sheets that the dog stained up. I'll use what I quilted as a car blanket for Bourbon.

After my machine got fixed (really though it wasn't broken, just out of time...) we went back to the plant ranch. got 2 hydrangeas and 4 rolls of landscape fabric. Then spent about 2 hours pricing mulch. And vinyl siding (siding for the shed) You know? you can spend a LOT of money on plants.

Fast forward to Saturday - Bourbon had a hair appointment. He's not such the fuzzy duck now. He is so prissy after a hair cut.

Prince Charming is making planter boxes for the front porch. He's making them from rough cut lumber that we have in the basement. You won't see them with the plants we'll fill them with, because hopefully they'll cascade over the sides. I finally got off my dead butt & spray painted the iron geese a fresh coat of stove black. Took me all of 40 minutes & that incleded drying time. Why'd I wait so long? They are positioned back @ thier post on the front steps. I want to tie some pink or yellow ribbons around thier necks! Yes, they are named. Petey & Penny. We had a set of geese when I was a kid & that's what my Mother named them. So? that's them again. Beter than Morticia & Gomez though, don't you think?

Tomorrow we are putting down the landscape fabric in the flower beds in the front yard. Next weekend we'll buy mulch & spread that all. Then? maybe the Joneses can keep up with US. (Probably not, as the new folks in the house at the corner just put in an in-ground pool....)

Oh! Forgot to tell y'all this though. On top of all we're doing, going, and making. My allergies are absolutely awful. I have taken pills, get medicine head. Nothing has stopped my running nose. I look like a 3 year old with a cold. My nose is SO raw, and I am applying burt's bee's LIP BALM to my upper lip, below my nose becasue I look like I shaved myself too close! I gave up using kleenex. Now I'm using a dishtowel. It's softer.........My head feels like it's going to explode & my eyes look like I been petting long haired cats. but Hey! Once I get through this little ordeal I'll be good to go. 23 years ago, when I lived in Califonia, I had perpetual sinus problems. Not so much now. Maybe once a year.

Prince Charming (there's areason he's PC, you know!) told me that I'm beautiful, Rudolph nose & all. Ah! True Love. Who can live without it?

I'll post pics of the ugly dog blanket when I get the binding on it.

See Ya!
Sam