Post 1 - "The Good"

Camping in Calaveras Big Trees along the Stanislaus River:





Jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (I wish I had a better camera here):

Sunset on Carmel Beach:

Post 2 - "The Bad and the Ugly"

I thought I'd share a little taste of the pain of prepping our house to paint. This doesn't even show the walls! It's pretty brutal. Suffice it to say, none of the previous paint jobs were done properly and we are paying for it...especially in this heat.






But when all is said and done, hopefully we'll have a nice little green cottage...a non-craftsman version of this beauty. (BTW the neighbor's went with light green, the SAME light green as our light green patch that I showed in a previous post in fact! It looks fabulous, but we are happy just the same as we kinda like the loden green better).



OMG - I don't think we're ever gonna finish. And when we're done, moving on to the front yard before the rains start. I've got a good game plan in mind and have been googe-image searching cottage gardens and xerioscaping and driving/walking around looking at other yards. I have it pretty figured out. I think I'm gonna hire someone to do some of this shit though. We have so much to do! I don't feel like digging up the lawn myself, or having poor Joe replace the water main with copper (we figure, while the yard is dug up, might as well). So much work!

Hmmmmm.....

Which green to pick? We've determined either option is sufficiently different from our neighbors' greens to go with. Right now we are leaning towards the darker color "Villita" which is kind of a loden green. Keep in mind all trim will be white. The other color, "Lemongrass" is lovely but I'm concerned it might look a little washed out once it's on the whole house. DH actually likes the darker one too and is happy to go with it...we are just a little nervous I guess! It's pretty dark...though I know outdoor paint looks lighter once its all on there. My friend suggested, and I agree, that the darker color is very Oakland/Berkeley cottage...and would go nicely with the type of garden we are planning for the front. Any and all opinions are welcome.

Vacation begins on Friday! I swear that I'm as excited for this vacation as I have been for either of our European jaunts. We are starting off with a weekend of camping with friends (many thanks to the beauteous Gypsy Junk for watching my doggie doos). Then we return for a day, then we are off to Monterey and Carmel for a two day anniversary trip (thanks here to the beauteous Jenny for the doggie duty). Other then that we plan on working on the house. A Stay-cation. I'm sooooo excited. Did I mention I was excited? If we manage to get all the prep and priming done by the end of our vacation I'll be pleased. Then we can paint the following weekend.

In closing, here's a lovely shot of my hubby-kins with miss Bendeja, looking proper.

Bloom Sequence

I love sunflowers! Next year I'm gonna plant way more of them, and this time in places that get more sun. I have quite a few more that are blooming in slow motion because they don't get enough. Not much else to report. Very tired this week. I've been staying up later then normal getting my Olympics fix. I'm a "Phelps Phan" like the chick on the stupid wireless phone commercial! Anyhoo....this weekend will be devoted mostly to prepping the house for painting. We are back on the green tip...despite it all. Our next door neighbor told us he was planning on re-painting his house soon and I put up a bunch of color chips and Joe still likes the two green options best - even better then tan, which is what I expected him to like! So now it's between a nice Loden green and a lightish green called "lemongrass". White trim...despite some rather vocal advice we've had to the contrary. We like the clean and crisp look of white trim.

Maybe I'll have an official color decision to report next week. Or pictures of paint swatches or something. Until then...

My oh my..

...another weekend come and gone in a flash. The windows were finished this weekend...well mostly finished. DH is taking the day off today and the guy is still there and needs only to do some stucco patching and caulking etc. My favorite part now is the new garden widow in the kitchen. You can see above how it was just a run o the mill window. Below shows the transformation. I love it! I feel like I had an addition put on the kitchen because it's so big!

The neighbors keep coming by and complimenting us, which feels good. Now we simply must decide on a freakin' paint color!! Lots and lots to do still, inside and out. I don't know how it will all get done before the weather changes.

Speaking of which, when I woke this morning I had a realization that its a bit darker then it's been at that time in the morning. And I noticed the sun setting well before 9pm again. I smell fall approaching! I do love fall...I love the breeze and the smell of the air, and the crisp mornings and ren faire and such. But I really have work to do! And to top it all off the family struggles continue. This has been some year. I must really focus now...I need to get on top of all this stuff.

Have a good week everyone!