Under a Blue Moon

Decor, cooking, organization, all the pretty things

Quickie post

Coop progress

Palace progress.  I think there might be more paint on me today, than on the coop.  I just have the primer coat on so far.  I still need to paint the inside of the coop and the back side.  I also have to crawl under the coop and paint that area. 

That ought to be fun. Not.

I will hopefully finish primering today and then I can get the finish coat on the run part so Rick can put the screen up. 

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I'm thinking about growing a climbing rose up that front section.  Or some kind of climbing, flowering plant.  I'm partial to pink and may do Cecille Brunner.  It can scramble up the roof if it wants. 

With all the rain and mild temps we've been having the roses and pansies along the front of the house are doing fabulously.  As soon as the coop is done we can sit back and enjoy it.

Vingette_Pansies

 
 

Andrea Filed Under: Garden

Friday’s Favorites

Birds

Flickr Favorites

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  • A couple of noteworthy links via Martha Stewart Living: Nostalgic looking striped paper straws.   Baker's twine in different colors (other than the ubiquitous red and white) Loving the aqua and white for giftwrapping or the orange and white for Halloween treats.
  • Feel like a retro roadtrip? Check out the Retro Roadmap.
  • My favorite warm weather beverage:  San Pellegrino's Aranciata.  Sparkly, not too sweet and very refreshing.
  • Loving these earrings from Babette's World.  Very graceful, right down to the earwire.

Evan is home from the hospital and resting comfortably. Now to keep him quiet and still for the next eight weeks….

Happy Friday Everyone! 

 

Andrea Filed Under: Favorites

How long was I gone anyway?

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Long enough for mysterious things to happen to the potatoes…Whoops.

We had a lovely visit in Michigan.  I'll share more in the upcoming days but right now I wanted to show some pictures of a fabulous B&B we stayed at in Marine City, MI.  It's called the Heather House and it was just amazing.

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It's located right on the St. Claire river so we had beautiful water views and watched a few ginormous freighters go by. 

We had the entire house to ourselves.  The owner's mother (the original Heather) met us there and gave us the keys and left us to our own devices.  Her daughter (the innkeeper) was recuperating from hip surgery so we didn't get the breakfast portion of the B&B (they did knock the price down because of that) but they had breakfast pastries and fresh fruit for us along with coffee makers ready to go. 

We had two rooms but the rest of the rooms were open (and no other guests were staying there) so we explored the whole house.   

It's one of those houses with staircases all over the place and rooms tucked into turrets and balconies off of most rooms.  A big wrap around porch (for freighter watching) and a lovely garden out back.

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The house has a really interesting history.  When Heather came back the next morning to collect the keys from us she told us how the house was originally built by a shipping magnate named Sauber in the late 1800's.  He used to play cards with the town's Lutheran minister who had a tendency to cheat.  When Mr. Sauber found out he insisted that his daughter call off her engagement to the minister's son.  Either the son or the minister snuck down into the basement and set the house ablaze.   The damage was extensive but not fatal to the house.  They fixed it back up and added on the wrap around porch at the same time.

The minister cleaned out the church's coffers and disappeared and was never caught.

Here's an old picture they had showing the damage the fire caused.  You can see the broken window and parts of the roof burnt out.

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I'll post some more pictures later on, once I've had a chance to down load them all. 

Evan's surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday.  I'm nervous and happy they are finally doing it (initially they scheduled it for June 9th.  Sheesh.). I'll try to post something before then but no guarantees.  

It was a lovely visit but it's nice to be back home.

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Edited to add:  I got a very sweet email from Sherry and because I am a dolt with my iPhone I accidently deleted it before I could reply.  I just wanted to say thank you for keeping Evan in your thoughts (and for helping to allay some of my fears). 

 
 

Andrea Filed Under: Musings

Sweetpeas

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Sweetpeas courtesy of my sister Kate and her fabulous garden.  And a special thanks to Kate's husband Robert for not taking the weed-whacker to them this year.  Oops.  Should I not have brought that up?

I think my Cannon is starting to get jealous of all the pictures I take with my iPhone.  I found a fun app called ShakeIt Photo that turns your iPhone pictures into Poloroids.   I have been having a lot of fun with it.

I am getting ready for head out of town for a few days.  My dad, Nicki and I are heading to Michigan to attend my aunt's 81st birthday extravanganza.  Both are fabulous travel companions.  We took a cross country trip to visit our sister Mary in Wisconsin a few years ago and it was a lot of fun.  Well, except for the part where my Dad and Nicki tried to drive off without me at an Oregon gas station. 

Mary is going to meet us there and we'll spend the weekend visiting relatives and my Dad's old hometown.  I guess it's Mary and Nicki's hometown too.  We moved to California when I was six months old so I think of myself as a California girl.

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We are making progress with the Palais de Poulet.  And before you start questioning the "we" I actually have helped.  I helped dig the trench for the foundation.  And helped hold the posts level while they were being nailed into place.   I'm also serving as the project photographer.

Since the job foreman job was already taken:

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She's wondering where the cat door is going.

We got it all framed then had a few days of rain.  Construction will resume tomorrow.  I think the roof joists are going on.

In the mean time here's the front of it.  The coop will be on the far left side.  Smack in the middle is the opening for the screen door.   The rest of the area will their run.

The chalk lines in front indicate where the raised beds and paths will be for the fenced in garden area.  There will be four raised beds inside a picket fenced area.   The raised beds will be used for both vegetables and flowers.   The path will line up with the screen door to the coop. 

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I'm thinking I need a sweetpea trellis in there somewhere.  I better go consult with the foreman.
 
 

Andrea Filed Under: Garden

Friday’s Favorites

Whites

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Have a fantabulous Friday everyone!!

 
 

Andrea Filed Under: Favorites