Springtime Blooms Both Outside and In

It’s been spring around here for a while, but I’m just now getting around to posting about it.  Frankly, I’ve been either working through it or sitting out on my back deck enjoying it.  Now that nearly everything is in bloom (azaleas still to come), I’ll show you what I’ve been enjoying for the last few weeks. The quince was the first to bloom, and what a show it puts forth.  These bushes are quite humdrum throughout most of the year—little foliage and thorny branches—but they sure make up for it in the early spring when they fill with beautiful pink...

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Learning How to Paint and Add Baseboards and Molding without Blowing the Marriage

My husband and I have recently remodeled a room in our home. This room was billed as the master bedroom when we bought the house, but we use it as the family room (read: where we watch movies and play the Xbox). It was a hideous shade of blue. Somewhere in the sky blue family. I think some people may consider this color appropriate for a baby boy’s room, but they are wrong. This blue was offensive. The carpet is also offensive, but that change will have to wait for more funding.

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Matchy-Matchy or Mix-and-Matchy?

Having to no longer save every penny for application fees and moving expenses for grad school, I have been doing some furniture shopping.  I’ve learned that furniture is hard to buy—it is either too expensive or doesn’t match anything I already have.  Nonetheless, I have acquired quite a few pieces in the last several months.  I originally took the feel-good approach by buying what I liked when I saw it and hoping to somehow make it fit in the room when I got it home.  The results of this experiment have been hit and miss, but collectively a miss.  I’ve...

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