Life in a Small Town

If you wanna hear my daughter's "anger management class" story go read it and have a laugh. Yep, we're alike in the humor department. But this is absolutely a true story!!! THIS is who I took along with me on this day!
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I'd like to show you our little town in Idaho. We like it here and it's a relatively middle size town of 80,000 people but has a small town feel to it. This is a small new strip mall down the street from us. It contains an Italian eatery, a physical therapy office, a home decor shop, a bookstore with coffee shop inside, a Don Aslett cleaning supply store and 2 physicians offices. They have a small little picnic area next to the bookstore to sit in the spring, summer and fall to have a drink and chat. Nice little area. There is an upscale housing development behind this little group of offices and stores.

The day I took this trip around the town was a cloudy day during thanksgiving holidays.

This is a neat old victorian style house that I pass each time I go to the grocery store.

Another house on the same street.

And another one decorated for the holidays.

Arriving downtown, I parked near this grassy park area. The mural on the building is original to the building and the small band area allows "concerts" of local talent if there happens to be something going on downtown.

"Main Street America." My daughter from California was visiting for the holiday and we started down the "main" street of town. Here we have a little antique mall and tiny coffee shop. I guess you don't even have to ask where we "started" the tour.

This was originally a bank but has been abandoned for many years and is now an office.

Further down the street is a cafe called Little Kitchen. I haven't been to it but it has been recommended to me and we plan on going there in the next few days for breakfast. It was quite crowded this day. But a friend said they have fantastic breakfasts. We'll see!

Here we are at the tiny coffee shop having a chocolate muffin and a drink. Next we'll show you the antique shops. That's my daughter sitting there.

I really do like being in a town this size. Just big enough to be a small fish in a big pond but small enough to not have to travel very far no matter where we go to shop or eat.

Photographers and Stylists

When I read a magazine or book, I read all the little, seemingly inconsequential, things in it - who did the photographs, styling, editors, staff, date it was published (if a book) and all those little things with which we don't concern ourselves very often. I can actually tell when the editor of a magazine has changed just by perusing the magazine even before I sit down to peruse it leisurely. They each have a certain "style" as evidenced by the "recent" (few years ago now) changes in Romantic Homes magazine. I noticed it immediately with Country Home and Country Living through the years.

But besides seeing who the writer of the article is, and let's just talk about magazines in this post, I look for the stylist also.

I didn't think it would be a particularly hard job, but certainly glamorous, and would have loved to do it. But since I've become a photographer, and I use this term very loosely here, I learned how hard both jobs can be! Getting the light just right. Cramming all the lovely items into a small space to add pizzazz to the photo. Hard work I'm sure!! I don't even come close to being good at either. I am barely adequate when posting pix for this blog. So with great "reverence" I salute the photographers and stylists of those truly beautiful stories we read in the magazines today.

Now, the the proofreader I've noticed is slacking on the job though. The current issue of Romantic Country, summer 2008. Have you noticed that on page 21 in the top left picture the clock is running backwards? And just below that one the clock looks like it's upside down. Now, that can't be a reversal of the photo but what's with those people hanging the clock upside down???? Page 28 left photo of the buddhas. Read the description and look at the buddhas. They've reversed the photo. Then we have page 50! Whooooa chicks! The pink telephone dial is backwards, the writing on the shadow box on the wall is reversed and the clock again is running backwards. I know, I know, not a big deal, but those proofreaders should have caught those "goofs"! Yoohoo, Romantic Country, I'm available!!!!! I'm not cheap though!! :-)
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The shutters were put beside the archway on the dining room side. I'll probably spend the rest of the year patching nail holes........uhhhhh, only the visible ones though!

I've put one french wire basket under the picture off center. I could not get it centered with all the other stuff. AND since I worked so hard to get it out of my daughter's shed and home to Idaho I'll be darned if I'm NOT going to put it up somewhere! Now I just have to figure out where the other one will go. It will have to be low because of not being able to see what is in it up high. I also hang items HIGH and low on walls. I think it adds visual interest and love it. I've even put pictures leaning on the wall on the floor or on baseboards too.

Be creative in what you do in life and how you decorate your home. It sets you apart from all the "cookie cutter" or "accepted" decorating styles and shows YOUR style, not your friend's style or the show room salesperson's style, but your unique style! I do and I highly recommend it. :-)

Today I went to Boise since Love Bunny is away. I bought these 2 feather pillows for $24.99! Squeeeeeal, yes for both! That's $12.50 each for a 20" x 20" feather pillow. I am truly blessed. :-)

Now for this next part you're going to have to use your imagination since I didn't get "before" pictures but they're in some picture somewhere on this computer but I'm too lazy to find it so I'll just describe the "before" to the best of my ability. Ooooohmygosh!!!! Yep, that's what it was before. (I bought it but for the life of me I can't remember WHY I would have bought it!!) An "ohmygosh" lamp! Dark wood with a beige shade and amber crystals hanging down. Pretty ugly let me tell ya, chicks! Soooooo, I decided to take my handy dandy spray can of white paint and spritzzzz it. I had that other shade - remember, I stuck a faux fern in it till I could figure out what I was going to do with it?? Okay, after taking off the amber (yuck!) crystals and painting the lamp white, I then decorated the lamp shade.

Now, a sweet friend named Sharon gave me a little charm last year and I wanted to do something reeeealllly special with it since it is so teensy tiny. I don't see how she paints on them. Very tiny! I decided to put that little pink roses charm on the new lamp. Voilà, the new frou frou lamp with parchment roses, lace and Sharon's lovely exquisite charm!! Very little effort for spectacular results!!!



Sharon's hubby is really into western movies. He watches them frequently. I have this art print by Chuck Haan in my hallway. No, I am not into western art, but when I saw this many years ago in a little antique shop in the Niles area of Fremont, Calif. it touched my heart. It's an Indian brave looking sweetly at a little bluebird on a snow covered branch of a tree in the dead of winter. It just stole my heart away and I had to have it. So even in a romantic, shabby, girly pink house this print holds a place of honor. I thought Sharon might like to show it to hubby.

The point of this story is: If you love it, if it touches your heart, then you should have it no matter what the decor of your home is. Ooooooh, and btw, please don't tell Love Bunny I said this. It DOES NOT apply to model trains!!! No no no no no no no no no!!

Miss Molly Moo!

I took a "hint" from a comment - sorry cannot remember whose it was - and jazzed up Molly Moo a little bit!

Now, Molly likes ribbons - PINK ribbons - hanging on her bell. She also LOOOOOVES flowers, in particular roses because of the meadow.......uhhhhh, smell so we gave her a little remembrance for her "necklace" in the form of a garland of roses. She also adores being remembered by her name so we wrote it on her jewelry for all the world to see. Now, we know that Molly isn't really a "chick" but we're giving her "Honorary Membership" into the "Hot Chick Club" headquartered (in Molly's case we might call it "hindquartered" ;-) ) right here in IDAHO.......round of applause please. Thank you...... You may be seated, please.

Her "motto" is on the back side of the bell. Moooooo! Molly isn't hard to please at all - just an everyday morning "teat squeeze" and she's purring.......uhhhhhh, I mean MOOOOO-re than satisfied for that day. Loooove chick cows that are easy to please, don't you?! This positively makes her quiiiiiver in her little hooves. (Author's statement as Molly is just too embarrassed to admit to this. She's a bit bashful, ya know. But I've seen that "contented" look in her cow eyes.)

If I Could Live In A Rose Garden

Edit: I just noticed that on the first few pix it looks like I had the "proportionate" button on my PhotoShop "unchecked" and the pix look distorted and thin and elongated. Wish I could capture that look on this bod, chicks!! I'll try to be more careful from now on, promise!! AND I'll post pix of "Love Bunny's new T O Y, tomorrow along with the finished wall. Now, understand it'll take me a while to hang things again. I want to study a scheme for putting things on the wall before I dive in haphazardly hammering in new nails! Oooooh, and I love all the tips people have been giving me on the "growing" of all my plants. I truly need all the help I and hubs can get.
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Hubs and I spent the day trying to stay out of our contractor's way but we don't do a very good job of it. Well, hubs does; I don't! He's through today with the walls - texture is on and it looks really lovely. He has to come back on tuesday to put in the stainless steel sink I purchased a couple of months ago. (His name is Bob Robinson and he lives in Nampa, Idaho if anyone wants any remodel work done I think he'd be thrilled if you gave him a call. He's very reasonable.) Anyway, I've stepped in his "mud" on the paper he puts down on the carpet with my bare feet and tracked it all over the place, stuck my finger in his mud, and I've also brushed against his texturing and he's had to redo it once. But all in all, I think I've pretty much stayed outta his way! He, on the other hand, might just disagree. ;-)

But hubs wants to buy a pop-up trailer and has wanted one for a couple of years, diligently searching ebay and Craigslist for one. He found one today and we went to look at it. We offered a price to his wife because he was out getting their dog mated. :-) Dogs must really love this one!! Anyway, he came home, called hubs and accepted his offer. Now, I told him if we got a trailer I was taking over and "shabby chic-ing" it up. I don't think he has a problem with that really. His aim in life is to make me happy! But it's a hunk of change I tell you to buy a small pop-up trailer. I'm truly not that much into camping any more. It's not that I don't like getting out in the woods once in a while - like once a year or every other year - just fine for me! It just takes a lot outta me to get things ready, plus I have to be away from my computer for a few days and to tell ya the truth, my little cherubs, that scares the heck outta me and almost makes me shutter!! Truly, when Smokey the Bear puts in wireless and the U.S. Forest Service can run tech support with the cable/ISP company then I'll give it more thought! Until then, pass that router please and keep your hands off my browser! But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Soooooooo.........sigh........another decorating project for a "trailer"!! Whoopydippydoooo......... Mom never warned me about these kind of situations! Aaaaaaacckkkkk!!!!

Then we went to Greenhurst Nursery over on Happy Valley Road - don't ya just love that address??!!! I picked up a hibiscus and a beautiful english vintage tea roses bush with the most luscious smell. I've pictured it below with a caption telling you which one. Love Bunny/hubs has already dug the hole and put the hibiscus in it and also is in the process - prior to receiving the call that the aforementioned trailer was HIS - of digging out a forsythia bush to put in the new rose bush. He just HAD to rush over to Middleton to pay the guy and pick up his new trailer! Now, you and I would say it could wait till monday, right?? Nuuuuuuuu, hubs has to waste a gallon of gas in the gas guzzler Montero to run over and pick it up. After all, ya never know when aliens from outer space just might decide to invade this planet and set their beady little eyes on that exact trailer he just purchased to transport back to their home planet and disassemble it to find out what in the world this civilization is doing with these tiny little "houses" with canvas tops rolling along on wheels, right?!?!?! Sheeeeeesh.....

With all the wallboard dust it's another night of eating out. Last night Applebee's and tonight Qdoba's for mexican salad.

This is what he cut and pulled out for the hibiscus. I didn't like it anyway.

Hibiscus is on left.

Just some summer roses blooming.

Aren't these just lovely?!?!?!

The new rose called "Medallion". It is a very pale pink with a bright sort of pale yellow center and kind of ruffley petals. Very lovely!!

The hydrangea is getting bigger and the bougainvillea is growing in just a week!!