Friday, May 13, 2016

Morning Glories

Last week I planted Morning Glory seeds in a few pots around here.
I figured it would give me lots of green and color for little money.
I soaked the seeds in water over night after piercing each seed with 
a nail to cut through the tough outer coating.
This lets them sprout much faster.
Three days later I had little sprouts coming up. 
I'm watering twice a day and waiting for them to grow.
 In the past I only thought about Morning Glories growing up on trellises.
But they can grown from hanging pots downward too.
I love that a dead tree is covered in Morning Glories in that photo above.
Have you done Morning Glories before?
I did a few years ago in one pot in back and I really loved them.
This time I planted on the front side of the house.

I have not forgotten about showing you my friend, Keith's 
pea gravel patio.
His yard is amazing!
I got to the party just as the sun was setting because I worked late.
So I am going over again next week to take photos.

I'll share when I do.
all photos from my Container Gardening folder on Pinterest.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Impatient for Impatiens

Pink Impatiens
via
 For Mother's Day, Robert one of the other designers at the store brought each
of us a girls a hanging basket of impatiens.
Mine was a huge basket of pink ones.
I was thrilled to get them!
via
 The light coral pink is my absolute favorite.
I mentioned to one of the other designers that I was so happy to get them
because I've been too poor to buy flowers for the back deck and yard this year.
She immediately suggested that I take cuttings from the plant and 
root them in water so that I'd have lots of flowers to plant.
Why didn't I think of that?
I've rooted Hydrangeas with great luck and coleus but it never occurred to me
to root impatiens.

So today I trimmed back my basket of flowers and rooted in little jelly jars
lots of sprigs of the original plant.
Here they are lined up on my kitchen window sill. I have four jars full.
I also tried rooting directly in soil outside. We'll see which one works best.
I just looked up how to do it online...but it's very simple. Just snip and pull off 
the bottom leaves so they are not in water. It said to remove the flowers too
and I did on most but it just seemed so sad to take the pretty blossoms off
so I tried a few with the blossoms on. We'll see how that works.
  via
Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have lots of new impatiens to plant. 
Aren't the mounds of these amazing?
 via
How about a stream of impatiens?

Today I worked on the living room.
It's really been kind of a mess ever since I painted it and started a new job shortly after.
The last two years...I've struggled to finish projects.
A few weeks ago I kind of accidentally quit taking my anti-depressant and all of a sudden
I was so much more motivated to get some things done around here.
I started taking the antidepressant when Newman died and Shelly died shortly after...then my friend Shannon died the next year. It was a lot to cope with and I managed better with just a little help.

I was taking the smallest amount possible but oh...my it made me so sleepy!
On my days off...all I wanted to do was sleep. I couldn't imagine doing any projects around here.
I just didn't care. 
I could get to work every day and focus on work...but once home I was immediately 
asleep.
Life is just a balancing act. I've had time now between those tragedies that I'm not obsessively 
thinking about the losses. I still cry at the thought of them.
But I can pull myself out of the crying jag and focus on things I want to do.

Every time something really bad happens in my life...it sends me into such a spiral down.
The drugs helped me not reach the bottom but I wasn't flying again either.
It was time to let the help go and fly.

I'm flying and looking forward to being creative again.
First thing on the list is to paint the dining room.

I'm going to have a couple of days off soon and that is top of the list to do.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Open House Sunday

 built 1937
This house in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Oklahoma City.
I was in this home maybe 10 years ago and my it has changed.
 It has all new finishes throughout. It had good bones when I saw it before but super terrible finishes.
 Now I wouldn't have necessarily made all these choices but it's very nice.
Lots and lots of gray so hold on.....including a giant gray zebra!
 
 I kind of love all the shutters in this home. Something I normally don't really like.
But in this home they work.
Wing chairs are usually a good choice for host and hostess chairs in the dining room 
but these are too large and the side chairs too small.
 The kitchen turned out really pretty. I really like the nook the range top is sitting in.
I wish there was a full on stove in that nook, though. But then I prefer stoves to cook tops.
 That looks like black stainless on the wall oven. That's the newest color in appliances.
I still prefer white or regular stainless. I just think these appliances are too dark for this kitchen.
But then I can't really think of a situation where I'd like any kind of black appliance.
 Love that this room opens up to the backyard pool.
 Will I ever tire of white marble? I don't think so.
I would tire of all the gray in this room...and those black mirror frames.
 Big fan of this room. In this room I really like all the gray and like that there is a door outside.
 Precious little room in the attic. This is where I'd want to sleep.
 Fun kids room.
 I believe this is the upstairs bath.
 basement
 Backyard pool


See the full listing here.