Beach Weekend

Awwww, Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer.  For many people, it's spent away, preferably around the water, and if at all possible, the beach!  Living here in Orange County, Southern California, I'm anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour's drive away from the coast, depending on which beach I wish to be at.  So I thought I'd share a few photos of some of the beaches I've visited, and perhaps you have as well.  This first photo is taken at Santa Barbara, my husband and I were there to see Celtic Women in concert and spend a few days by ourselves a couple summers ago.  I loved the light there, it just seemed more mellow, like it cast a more etheral glow over the ocean.

This next picture was taken in Lake Tahoe, as we were walking back from the lake to the parking lot.  I loved how the old fence in the wooded pasture framed out the distant view of the lake.  You can barely see the people relaxing on the shore by the slab of blue water.

GOOD WILL HUNTING

In browsing through all these wonderfully inspiring blogs, I come across people who have the most gorgeous items from Goodwill.  I haven't been in a Goodwill store in ages, mainly because I never seem to have any luck bargain hunting there.  But I was motivated to do a quick run into the one on my way home from work.  I was for the most part disappointed, and amazed. Am I truly the only one who feels like their prices are more often than not, not bargains?  So many of the objects, many of them just shabby, as one would expect in a second hand shop, are priced at full price.  I know when one goes into these places, it's to hunt for bargains, and its a matter of a good eye, a number of visits, and just plain luck.

But I did find this bill organizer.  No, not that bill organizer at the top of my post, I didn't buy the one I was looking at. And it was a bargain, $3!  It was white, in a shabby chic glaze, it needed some cleaning, but it had a lovely glass drawer pull and beadboard siding, and was very substantial.  Why didn't I get it?  Because I always second guess everything with 'Where will I put this?'  I don't have my own ladies' desk, tho it's on my list of things to get, a tiny corner table for when I finally have my own computer in my bedroom, but I couldn't imagine both this bill organizer and a computer monitor on the table small enough to fit in the corner available. Plus, since the slots are intended for bills and to-dos, I didn't see a real reason for me to utilize it.

Then I drove away.  And thought about it. Thought about how these creative ladies on these blogs would have figured out what to do with those slots. I thought if I was into sewing, I could maybe file patterns in them. Thought if I was into card making or stamping I could keep different papers and finished products in the slots. The slots were too deep for pictures and postcards, but wait, couldn't I stuff the bottom of the slots to shorten that depth?  Or couldn't I even pleat a continuous piece of cloth into each slot, lining it halfway down, and store pictures, postcards, and the occasional notecard in there?

Tomorrow, I am going back and if, God willing, that organizer is still there, it is mine!

Trying to make it all fit.

Because I live in a condo with what would be considered a generous side patio, but a patio nonetheless, I have to be considerate about how much garden art and potted plants I can feasibly fit out there.  Right now I have some good sized plantings, but they've reached a point where we struggle to fit my family of four around the patio table.  Liz squeezes past the sago palm and gets scratched by it, Jen pulls out her chair and about breaks off the fuschia branches behind her.  My husband has to duck around the finally lushly flowering jasmine to do his barbecuing, and I bat back honeysuckle vines as gently as possible working towards the garden hose.

New Garden Arch

My husband bought me this wonderful arch for Mother's Day.  I'd wanted one for a long time, and we just happened to come across one when shopping, and guess what - it was on sale!  I'm coaxing my climbing roses up one side, and hoping my honeysuckle on the other side gets really serious about it's vining.  So now what to do about the poor little shabby bench underneath.  I like the bench, cheap plastic thing that it is, but I am dreaming of making a romantic ruffled cover for it, such as those I've seen on some of the other ladies blogs.  How to put together one that will take getting wet and being subjected to the sun and dust on a regular basis?  Anything I put there I'm sure the cats will use a lot more often than me, but I do imagine myself out there.  Let's see what progresses.

Growing and Learning

I am hopefully doing both.  My patio garden is always a work in progress, some years more successful than others, depending on how much time, money and effort I can apply to it.  I feel that I'm having some good progress out there, although there's a few plants, including my fuschia and jasmine I am waiting to see results on.  I am also learning to manipulate this blog.  I made a nice header for it, I don't if I did it how others do, but there it is.  I am looking forward to learning more about how to share and link and join in with the wonderful people I have been following in blogland.  I am also looking forward to sharing more of my patio and home with everyone.

I had tried to take a quick photo of the little hummingbid who visits my feeder without opening the screen door wide enough to scare him away.  Too bad I didn't have the camera on zoom, he's there  but not very easy to find.

Deer in the Garden

I have a charming new piece of yard art I found for my back patio. It's a lovely deer. I found it Sunday when we were touring a favorite antiques store in Old Towne Orange, called Country Roads. I'm so delighted to have her reposing in my little garden space. It's a little early for my jasmine to be blooming, I anticipate it bursting out in another couple weeks. My honeysuckle is looking fine, tho I need a larger trellis for it.

I finally got my computer fixed to allow me to repost to my blog. Before it always told me to turn off 'cookies' and I didn't dare. I can restart my aborted attempt to join the group in blogland, and will soon!