Yard Work "Before & After"

I love Before & After Photos, it makes all the backaches, scratches and soreness worthwhile. Okay, so my parents helped out here tremendously with cutting things down; but I did too :-)


This is what my side yard looked like back in July of 2007 (during closing time). You can't really see much here; but GREEN. My house is on the left with a sun porch towards the rear. The white thing you can barely make out along the back is my garage.




And now for the big reveal...cue music please !!!

Yep, it's the same yard, can you believe it?? Come on, you know you want to scroll back up to the Before photo and then down to the After photo. I've done it several times myself-it's okay.

Eventually, there will be a while picket fence in the front, with some lovely flower beds and maybe a bistro set.

What I have already started is the first of many plantings. I found this "thing" at Lowe's. It's called a Contorted Filbert and when you look at the photo you'll see why.

Yes, it's supposed to look sad like that. It's this amazing bush/tree thing that grows all crooked. Now you might be wondering why I would buy such an ugly plant. Those that know me well understand perfectly.

I do want you to take a good hard look at that free form rock wall, my Dad built it with some of the rock that was lying around the yard. Sometime soon, I need to mulch this; but for now here it sits.

I'm including a closeup of the awesome branches here.

It can grow anywhere from 8 to 10 feet wide/high and it's "flowers" are these long yellow dangley things. I'm anxious to see them.

Fun Stuff & Charitable Donations

So, you ask what have I been up to...since my last posting was two weeks ago. Well, my sister has finally moved in. She is mostly unpacked and getting adjusted to her new life here in St. Louis. She had been living in Cape Girardeau for 5 years, while attending college.

I've also been doing a lot of outside work; which I'll share with you in a separate posting.

Yet, this posting is all about my latest sewing adventure. It is a wall quilt I made for the St. Louis Zoo. They have an annual event called Bowling for Rhinos, where they have a fundraising bowl-a-thon and raffle off donations. I've been donating quilts for 3 years now, I believe.

This idea came from the book Design Essentials by Lorraine Torrence; which by the way is a Must Have Quilting book, in my opinion.

Overdue Photos

So in a previous post, I mentioned that I found another old wood door at ReStore and included some photos of the cleaned hardware.

Well, here is the door and it's finally finished and hung in my sister's front bedroom.

My question is this, has anyone seen this door style before? I tried doing a google search; but came up with nothing. I'd be interested in anyone had any clues.

Also, I finally found a home for this little gem. I bought this cast iron door number at an Antique Mall about 5 years ago and as you can see, it's quirky and perfect for the door.

The sad part is that I really like the hunt for these old doors; but I don't have a need for anymore of them in my house :-(

$3.69 ...can someone explain this to me??

How is it that gas can now be $3.69 a gallon. I understand the whole oil special interest-hands in the till thing, the US$ sucks in international markets, etc; but seriously when did this get out of control??????

After the Hurricane Katrina disaster, I can clearly remember the government stating that they would not stand for price-gouging. In all reality how is this any different?? Is there anybody seriously doing anything to stop this ridiculousness.

Plus, I'm tired of hearing companies using the high price of gas and the housing market as sales pitches for why you should shop with them.

When did this get so frustrating? and when will it ever stop?