In The Garden

That is where we have been these last 12 weeks or so ...

in the garden.

I've always loved to garden. But this year it has been our refuge/escape/happy place!

I thought I'd share a little of what we've been doing.

Fresh air and sunshine always helps my mood!

I'm a long time gardener. I spent every Summer with my Nana and she could put a dead stick in the SC lowcountry soil and grow a tree!

I always think of the line in Steel Magnolias where Shirley McLaine as Ouiser Boudreaux explains why she gardens: Ouiser: "Because I'm an old Southern woman and we're supposed to wear funny looking hats and ugly clothes and grow vegetables in the dirt. Don't ask me those questions. I don't know why, I don't make the rules!" 

My beautiful grandmother (in a dress and her Keds designated for garden work) wore an old hat of my uncles to garden and mow her large yard - which she preferred to do herself even though everyone around her tried to beat her to it. 

She didn't like the marks that riding lawn mowers left in the grass :)

And this year Mollie has jumped in and joined the gardening game!

So, here's to another generation of gardening Southern women!

(It was a result of having to shelter in place but I'll take it.)

Mollie has done the bulk of the planting 

and I have been cleaning up and painting all of the garden furniture. 

There are regular updates on our trough veggie garden on my IG highlights!

I normally have a very tight color theme to my annuals. (and perennials for that matter!) This year, due to the pandemic, we had to take what we could get. A couple of the flats we were able to drive up/pick up were "assorted." I never, ever purchase an "unknown" color plant but this year we are enjoying the surprise of bloom color and are appreciating how they look beautiful to us because we are thankful to have them. Pandemic lesson right there! 

We have also been very appreciative of all of the perennials that we already had in our backyard. They gave us joy as they started peeking through the ground early this Spring. 

We are still working on a few more projects before we hang up our shovels and rakes

 and sit back and enjoy the backyard. 

I'll keep you updated!

My 9th-ish ORC and WASH Your Hands

   Week...?? ... I just don't know at this point...

I had a setback with the wall repairs and the painter's tape I was using for the stripes but, good golly, I won't bore you with anymore posts about painting this itty, bitty powder room. 

So let's move on to slightly more exciting things.

The mirror is painted SW Anjou Pear to match the new vanity cabinet (to be installed) and is hanging in its place. 

Yes, we have all been home on lockdown/quarantine/social distancing without a sink in the ONLY downstairs bathroom for about 5 weeks now. Good times.

I polished the vintage brass chinoiserie container that I use for a trash can in here. 

Any progress is celebrated at this point.

I'm going to make a decision on knobs or pulls for the cabinet and get those ordered. 

Scratch that - all of the faux bamboo knobs on Etsy had a projected delivery date of July 30-August 10. 

I'm all for waiting and finding the right thing but this is 2 little knobs

 and all the sheetrock delays have made me ready to wrap some details up ASAP. 

So late night googling yielded a possibility at Home Depot available to be delivered within a week. Sold. 

I also wanted a rug from Anthropologie but it won't be available until late Summer. I know us. 

We need a rug in from of the vanity before August. We are drippy people :)

So I googled around looking for something similar and found a couple of contenders on sale with free shipping

 so I ordered both. 

Maybe we will vote to see which one stays!

 I think Cooper has made a decision :)))

But we can't make that decision until after I do what it is I'm going to do to the floors.

So that's up next on my to do list!

Oh, and the powder room door is finally white.

 Several years ago I painted all of my interior doors black. I love the look but it just didn't work for us. Now all of the doors downstairs are back to white. For now ;)

Time is running out on this ORC. Hopefully I can show you finished floors next week. 

Fingers crossed. 

Be sure to see what everyone else is accomplishing here.

Summer 2020

Summer. The true start of the Summer season, the official "start date" is almost here.

I have always, always waited "all year long" for Summer. 

Summer is my favorite season. 

When I was young it always meant long lazy months in the Low Country of South Carolina, staying with my grandmother or aunts and running along the SC beaches with my cousin. We had amazing vegetables out of the garden, ate fresh catch, stayed out too late or too long in the sun and it was perfection. An idyllic childhood.

As an adult Summer has never been that free but it is always my favorite time of year. 

Even with responsibilities there is a different feel to Summer. Meals are eaten on porches , it is sunny and warm, flowers bloom, and there are things that happen in Summer that happen at no other time of year. 

I don't mind any of the things that people complain about during 

the Summer- bugs, heat, you name it. 

I can handle it because it's Summer.

But the Summer of 2020 has been long awaited in ways I could have never imagined.

We have struggled as a nation. The whole world has struggled. Human kind has struggled. 

We have been isolated in our homes watching one terrible thing after another unfold. 

I'm not going to dissect them. 

We all know what they are and we have each of us responded

 in the way that our hearts have dictated. 

I don't think a single person on earth could honestly say they haven't been touched by the things that have happened so far this year. We haven't. We have lost more than one loved one in 2020, we have watched friends and family struggle financially, medically, mentally and spiritually. We have watched good people be harmed. We have examined our personal thoughts and beliefs on equality and caring for our fellow man. 

And it has been overwhelming. And hard. 

But the thought, the belief, that keeps me going is that we CAN do hard things. And we will do them. We will make changes, we will find ways to seek joy. We will heal financially, medically, mentally and spiritually.

We will grow. We will work at these changes and I think we will be better for it. 

I have faith that this is true. I have hope. And I'm seeking joy. 

In any little way, in any place I can find it. 

And I am going to celebrate that it is Summer. 

I have always thought that everything is better in the Summer and I'm setting out to make that true for myself and my family. And for you, hopefully, if you follow along here or on Instagram. I'm going to post the pretty flowers, the perfect watermelon, sparklers, fresh shrimp, sunsets, a quote or a verse, and anything else (even if it only last for a few seconds or it's just the littlest thing ) that brings me joy. That makes my heart feel hope. I think finding hopefulness is what is going to get us all through. Hopefulness and kindness. (Feel free to disagree. As I've said before - you do you through all of this but I'm keeping the faith! And I won't be participating in negative or unkind comments toward others on social media.)

So I am hoping, wishing, praying that the Summer of 2020 is our season!

My 9th-ish ORC and WASH Your Hands

Week 4 

In many ways time has flown by during this Pandemic. Days can seem long but the weeks seem to fly. I know that makes zero sense but I can't figure out any other way to explain it!

In past ORC's I would be rushing around at this point looking for all kinds of things. 

This ORC I'm happy to have the walls, cabinet and mirror painted at this point!

Small victories. 

The initial plan of solid white walls gave way to a subtle stripe. Yes, stripes again. 

I've had a couple of color variations of stripes over the last 10 years in there and I was just going to go with plain white to change things up and to enjoy crisp white walls. Also, I had white paint and love white walls. After many hours of working on the walls and sanding and cleaning up sheetrock dust and doing it over again. I caved. The stripe will camouflage the issues that I can not resolve. Having a sheetrock person in to redo the whole room is not an option.

I had some blue paint on hand that I diluted with my white paint so I could solve the issue without going to a store.

I used my leftover Naval by Sherwin Williams. I used it in my Kitchen ORC that I didn't finish in time last go round and now need to photograph and post. Then Mollie used it in her bathroom and now I'm using it to mix a stripe color! Such a great navy!

Cooper seems to have an opinion on the stripe color :)

And if you think this bathroom is large enough for me, Cooper and all the paint stuff then let me assure you it's not!

Finally moving on from paint and sheetrock repair. 

And we all like the stripes!

I also wanted an outlet on the wall opposite the vanity. This is the wall that the bamboo shelf is on. I have always had a lamp on the vanity in this bathroom. The previous built in vanity was big and had a large countertop. It took up a lot of space but having a lamp in there was nice. 

I basically love lamps and have them in every room - including the kitchen and all the bathrooms! Now with the new, smaller footprint vanity I may need to put the lamp on the opposite side of the bathroom and there wasn't an outlet.

We completed the electrical work easily as there was an outlet on the other side of the bathroom wall and was inside our pantry cabinets and wasn't accessible. We just flipped it around to the powder room. All we had to do was cut a small hole and do a minimal amount of wiring. 

That's a win!

Solving the flooring issue is on this weekends agenda and then the powder room is ready 

for fun things to start happening.

Next weeks' update should be more exciting!

Stay well and check out everyone else's progress here.

My 9th-ish ORC and WASH Your Hands

Week 3 doesn't look much different from Week 2 where I showed you the wall damage from demoing the vanity.

I have been sanding walls and then cleaning up sheetrock dust. 

And then sanding walls and cleaning up sheetrock dust. 

The cabinet base is painted. I'm starting to paint the mirror. 

And the walls are getting their first coat of white paint. 

And even though I don't have a lot of firm decisions made, (partly due to the current shelter in place situation) and some decisions may change based on item availability and such, I absolutely love the cabinet paint color. It's Anjou Pear by Sherwin Williams and it's so rich. Perfect - not too bright or yellow-y and not too brown and mustard-y! Does that make sense?? :)

So sheetrock dust and watching paint dry. #week3

And while working on something else I did come across a few "before" pictures 

of this Powder Room after all. 

The wall opposite the vanity had a gallery wall full of art purchased on my travels. 

I'm relocating most of those so I'm beginning to think about what I want to hang in this space now. That's a lot more fun than sucking up sheetrock dust and watching paint dry!

And the other wall had this large Audubon Flamingo on it. It inspired the pinky-coral cabinetry. I think it might move someplace else but it or another Audubon might show up in here yet. Still looking at what I have and might move around the house. 

Can't get more #shoplocal than #shopthehouse! :)

I'm planning for the bamboo shelf to stay in here 

but I need to do a better job of utilizing it and styling it. 

Next week should be about more interesting things than sheetrock dust!!

All of the priming and painting should be behind me.

Please check out everyone else's progress here!

My 9th-ish ORC and WASH Your Hands!

 Week 2, I guess. 

Time runs together in some ways during all of this shelter in place, social distance, slow reopening of life period in time. 

We are really doing okay and keeping busy. 

I hope you and yours are well and you are spending this time in whatever way makes you the most at peace. 

So, what's up in the ORC project?

The bathroom cabinet was a very sturdy, built into the corner of the powder room, nondescript late 80's thing. The formica countertop had a 5 inch or so back splash that was glued to the sheetrock wall and, wow, was it glued. The wall damage was more than expected so this week has been about mud and sanding dust. 

My 9th-ish ORC and WASH Your Hands!

To make a long (One Room Challenge) story short this is my 9th-ish ORC.

Working back from last Fall...

Fall 2019 - My Kitchen (2nd attempt) PS. I did finish my kitchen I've just never photographed and blogged it! Maybe soon!

Spring 2019 - My Kitchen (Another Incomplete, yet I keep trying!)

Fall 2018 - My Porch 

Spring 2018 - I took an Incomplete :(

Fall 2017 - My Entryway

Spring 2017 - My Guest Bedroom

Fall 2016 - My Master Bathroom

Spring 2016 - My Library  which has been my most viewed and commented on ORC 

and it got a little refresh here.

Fall 2015 - Mollie's Bathroom   

Spring 2015 - My Guest Bedroom  which was my very first ORC and a learning curve for sure!

That's why I gave it a second go in the Spring 2017 ORC.

Since I have a bit of a hit or miss record with this thing it seems only fitting that I attempt another One Room Challenge during a Pandemic!

Right?

And since the most important thing we can do in the midst of Covid19 is to wash our hands it is either very fitting and timely or completely nuts to refresh our downstairs Powder Room where we wash our hands a gazillion times a day.

We are still sheltering in place so items that I use must either be what I have on hand or available for curbside pick up or delivery from online ordering. 

(This has been a difficult situation for so many in so many ways and I am aware that participating in a non-essential decorating challenge could seem insensitive. However, we all cope differently and "busy" and/or being creative is my coping mechanism. You can read about our particular Pandemic situation here and here.)

I'm all for using #morecreativitythancash and shopping the house too!

 Our bathroom vanity top is just not in the best shape and has needed replacing for ages. I've painted and decorated around it but it is past it's prime. I priced a new top and basin but it was far more economical to get a cabinet/basin combo from a big box store and it gives me the opportunity to get something less bulky and fit it in the space a little better. 

I shopped online and purchased the simplest, most clean lined vanity I could find. 

It's pretty basic and budget friendly but I knew I was painting it, changing the hardware and pairing it with a fabulous faux bamboo mirror already in the powder room. 

That was the utilitarian part of this project. Check.

The rest is the fun stuff.

I have had in my mind for a long time that when I redid this powder room I was going to use a mustard-y yellow color as my inspiration starting point. 

My plan all along was to paint the vanity and mirror a soft mustard. 

But I needed a fabric for the window treatment that would work with this color idea. 

My favorite part of redoing a room is wandering the fabric store aisles 

and falling for a fabric! 

Again, no open fabric stores so I had to go about this differently. 

So I started online. 

I looked and looked and googled 

and then I remembered a bolt of fabric I bought at a thrift store last year. 

I had thought I might use it for some pillows on the porch but it wasn't quite right after all. 

So I dug it out and it has a great colorway!

And the mustard-y background matches my favorite mustard-y, goldish Sherwin Williams color, Anjou Pear!! ( I used it in one of Mollie's college apartments!)

Yesss!! Hoarding Thrifting for the win!

A quick call to Sherwin Williams to order a gallon of paint for curbside pick up. 

I have the white paint for the walls because I'm basically never without white paint! 

I'm going to scrounge around but I'm pretty sure I have the paint for a fun painted floor project. 

The rest will just fall into place as I look around the house and decide about art and accessories.

I didn't really have any inspo pictures going in to this - just the color in my head but I found this on Pinterest and it pretty much sums up what I've been thinking (plus some blue and white chinoiserie, of course!)

lorenzocastillo.org

Thank you for following along, be safe and stay well and...

WASH your hands!

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