Debating between the two

I have been looking for a stool for my kitchen island forever and finally I found something I like. Problem is there are two of them. Which one should I get.

#1 Smart and Sleek Stool from Wisteria 

#2 Twist Swivel Stool from World Market 

I like that #2 is more versatile because height is adjustable and I think it will be nice to have that feature for the kids. It's cheaper but currently out of stock. I don't know if I can wait any more. I want something NOW.

I like #1 because it is smart and sleek! I like the modern look of it. Mr. Practical (a.k.a hubby) said you have to put the felt all the way along the bottom. 

Decision decision decision. What do you like?

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Posted in: My house

Spring is here

I posted about library ladders here. I promised to post a picture of mine recycled. It's been so wet to get out to take photos. Finally, here is the picture of my library ladder being used as a lattice for my climbing evergreen clematis. Hubby helped me to cut and attach the galvanized live stock fence leftover from building the trellis.

While I was at it, I got a few photos of signs of spring. Here are some snow pea sprouts growing.

And I love these baby daffodils.

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Posted in: My house

My master bedroom

High Gloss via Elements of style

It's been already 2 years since we moved to our current home and we haven't done anything to our bedroom. It's currently mismatch of all the furniture rejected from other rooms and we don't even have window coverings. When I saw this picture I gasped. This is the image I struggled to make come alive from my mind for my bedroom. It is so much easier to negotiate with hubby when I have a clear picture in hand because he sees what I'm envisioning :)

Have a warm and nice weekend.

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Cloud Mountain Farm

We made it to Cloud Mountain Farm over the weekend. Jen was right about that place. What an amazing nursery. I loved the setting, friendly and knowledgeable staff and wonderful selection of plants. 30% off was just icing on the cake!

If you've been to the farm, you probably noticed the paperbark maple in front of the store. I've always loved that tree. It gives year-round interest. It is low maintenance and is perfect for a small garden. What else could you ask for?  I recently saw a paperbark during the Whatcom artist studio tour in front of  Lisa Mcshane's  studio and I thought it was my destiny to have one even though I had no clue where I can put it! (Hi Lisa!) Then, I saw the one in front of the store at Cloud Mountain which just confirmed it was indeed destiny... I loaded up all my trees, including some apples and beeches and drove home. Along the way home, I realized I forgot to tell the staff I wanted a paperbark, too. Haha. So the next day, of course I had to go back to get it and it was a good excuse to get some more plants. :)

These came home with me today.

Two apple trees- hubby wants to espalier them to hide unsightly chain link fence to the storm water pond behind our property.

It's hard to imagine though that my ugly twiggy little tree can become something like this. 

Three columnar beech trees- this will give nice vertical element to the backyard while providing some screening to the neighbor's yard. I hope Ian (he's my landscaper and brother-in-law) will agree.

One Methley plum tree - this is self pollinating so I only needed one. How fun it will be to harvest juicy plums with the kids.

An added bonus was that there was a pumpkin patch at the Cloud Mountain and my kids had lots of fun. Thank you Stephanie for baby sitting my kids at the farm!

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My teeny evergreen tree

I've been busy shopping and planting trees in our yard. I got this evergreen called Abies Koreana 'Aurea' .  It's gorgeous as is and it bears insanely beautiful purple cones even at young age.  

It's suppose to anchor the corner of our property so it needed to have good presence in size but the biggest size they had was still tiny. Oh well. I had to have it.  If anyone has good potion or spell to make them big and strong, please let me know. Grow, tree, grow!

I still need a lot more trees to plant. My good friend Jen loves Cloud Mountain Farm in Everson and I haven't been there yet. If the weather is good I will finally check it out tomorrow.  They are having 50% off sale on trees in burlap. Yipee!!!   I can't wait! Who's coming with me?

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Dreaming of a play house

I once had lots of fun making a playhouse from a cardboard box for my kids and they absolutely adored it.

Sadly, it was left outside one night and got rained on. I had to throw it away.
Now I'm dreaming of a play house that all of us can enjoy. One that I don't have to worry about getting wet and destroyed. When my kids grow out of it, perhaps I can use it as my pottery studio.

I'm crazy about Purestyle home Lauren's fun-shed.

To read the full story click here.

Can you believe it is actually a Lowe's standard shed?

Here is Michael Devine's shed redone from another Lowe's standard shed.

Oh,  how I wish that I could just say a few magic words and it would appear in my backyard.

Let's see... the first step would be convincing hubby that we NEED one. Wish me luck!

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Posted in: My house

Chickens in the city

So the Iowan farmer side of my hubby wants to raise a few chickens for eggs (no rooster) in our back yard. I'm not sure how I feel about that. So many questions came to my mind: are we allowed to do that, will it be a lot of work, will they annoy the neighbors, will they make our back yard messy, will they attract their predators to our yard? Sure, it will be educational and fun for the kids to learn responsibility, help to feed and collect fresh eggs, but as you can see those questions are all worries. We live in the city and I know there is quite a big community of chicken-raising families in Bellingham. But maybe it is for people with huge lots. I don't know.

I think, ahem, I think I might consider it with a chicken coop this cool.

Source: Backyardchickens.com

 Please share your experience with us if you have raised or are raising chickens in your own yard or have a neighbor  who does. What are your thoughts on raising chickens in the city?

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Story of Mr. and Mrs. Fu

Do you see what I see?

Source: House Beautiful

There are lots of similarities, but I was immediately drawn to the old Chinese paintings. A Chinese friend told me long that in China people used to commission artists to get their ancestors painted and hang them in a temple for good luck. So I guess they are antiques.

Let me introduce Mr. and Mrs. Fu waiting patiently in my closet to be framed.

Aren't they cute? It is one of many possessions from Craigslist that I had to have at the moment but ended up in our garage or closet. It's not because I don't like them. In fact, I adore them. They are such an intricate realistic painting but the frames are kind of ugly. Plus the paintings pressed against the glass for a long time so it was going to hurt the painting eventually if it hasn't already. I say they deserve better.

The seller of these paintings was a local business man who's moving to Thailand to get remarried and  had lots of interesting stories to tell about the process (but that's for another posting). He told me it is from an antique store in Hawaii that his ex-wife used to own many many years ago. I brought them home and found a corner of the frame's paint was peeling.  Hubby said let's just hang them. I said no I want to make them look better. So I started "making improvements" and scraping off the finish from the frame and that's how they disappeared in the closet. You can see I deliberately cropped their frames. 

Now I have some inspiration from these living rooms (don't worry honey, I'm not redoing our living room) and know I need to bite the bullet and re-frame them. Hopefully Mr. and Mrs. Fu will be able see daylight soon and who knows, it might bring me some good luck. Ha ha

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Veggie garden

Today I was looking at some of the photos of our yard from last year and I couldn't believe the difference. It's still a work in progress (well, who am I kidding. It will always be a work in progress) but I'm very happy with what we have accomplished so far. Here are the before and after pictures (not quite the completed after but you know)

Before

After

We had fun creating our front veggie garden with great design help from my brother-in-law, Ian, at Private Gardens, and our neighbor, Bob. He built the fence and gave us all sorts of great ideas and amazing help. We are so blessed with great neighbors. I should mention my hubby built the raised bed. (Thank you!) The incredibly talented interior designer, Brooke, at Velvet and Linen had this post about her kitchen garden, and it was so inspiring. 

Brooke's garden

My mom planted this kubota squash and they are doing great. (Mom , I miss you)

I'm loving these sunflowers. Our beans did really well covering the trellis on the right entirely. On the other hand, our cucumbers were suppose to cover the left side trellis but they didn't do so well this year.



I couldn't agree more with Brooke that having a veggie garden can help kids eat healthier. Our daughter Ella loves eating our home-grown green beans, lettuce, and carrots (cooked at least). Before we grew them in the garden, she crinkled her nose every time she saw them on the table. Here she is harvesting strawberries right into her mouth.

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