The new fridge is in!

Whooo hooo, it's time to have a party! Hubby used a planer and sander to remove that pesky 3/4" from the side of the upper and lower cabinets and the refrigerator is finally in it's new home! The perseverance paid off. Well, perseverance and a comment from our son about Mom's new refrigerator and funny how now Mom will get her new cabinets too. That one spurred him on! ☺

Good bye old fridge and UH OH!

A couple of weeks ago, our Maytag refrigerator began gasping and warming. It was time to either call the repair folks or buy a new refrigerator. (I was pushing for the new fridge...) After a couple of days of dragging our feet, the problem hadn't improved and we decided to shop seriously for a new one. (We'd already shopped a few times when nothing was wrong with the old one and had found the perfect model.) So off we went in pursuit of the best of deal.

Long story short, we found the desired LG refrigerator model at Sears and it could be delivered in a few days but hubby wanted to check out Home Depot to see if they could beat the delivery date. They couldn't, so back to Sears we went. Then the bad news came. Someone bought the last LG refrigerator with the earlier delivery date while we ran around and we would have to wait a couple of weeks for delivery, BUT they would also match Home Depots better price. We decided to go for it and wait, lost the food in the fridge and freezer and have eaten a lot of take out.

Yesterday was our delivery date between 4 and 6 pm. The new bright and shiny model was brought in, the water line was connected and they tried to slide it into the space and UH OH! It's too wide... We had measured every which way that we could think of BUT hubby didn't pull the old one out before we measured - we just measured around it. It's hitting the tile on the counter and we need to lose about 3/4". This is not a good thing. It's in the middle of the floor and we have a very small kitchen. Hubby drilled away the grout and cut the tile today and it's still too tight. Now we also have a new scratch on the side. There's not enough space to move the offending little cabinet over, and I'm all for removing it but then we'd have an untiled space on the floor. We'll see if a planer works on the cabinet tomorrow.

Oh yeah, we're still eating take out! Too much dust to turn on the new fridge...

Waiting...

Chief, Bailey and Roxy are waiting for Dad to come inside. ☺

Thank you my friends! You're all the best for leaving those sweet comments and waiting so patiently for me to return. I've been MIA from blogging with a bad case of blogger's block. But you know I need my daily blogging fix and of course I just had to drop by to visit your blogs. I was also hanging out on Face Book, very busily farming on Farm Town, as well as decorating and baking on YoVille.

I'll have some fall pictures to share with you this week and they include lots of pumpkins!

Hugs!
Diane

Outdoor Wednesday

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. We're in the back yard again this week, and here's how it looked earlier today.

The miniature calla lilies are blooming! I was so thrilled to see this.

Hubby is making one of the flower beds larger and I'm trying to decide on a spot for them.

The Limelight hydrangea is blooming.

The flowers are huge!

A child's school chair rescued from the trash.

The wind mill is on the back hill next to some rose bushes.

The bike planter got a new look. Purple petunia's in the basket and sedum in the little pots. I hope these plants handle the heat better than the last ones.

Susan, thank you for hosting this fun weekly event. You can visit A Southern Daydreamer to see the other Outdoor Wednesday posts, by clicking HERE.

A Thrifty Birdcage!

I'm sharing my new birdcage arrangement for Rhoda's Today's Thrifty Treasures and Diane's 2nd Time Around events. This is the first time I've participated in their fun weekly events.

While wandering in Joann's Fabrics not long ago, I stumbled across the most adorable black birdcage. It was 60% off and the last one in the store. I was tickled pink and almost did a happy dance, as I whisked it into my cart.

Isn't this just too cute?!?

I had a couple of bunches of red and white geraniums in my flower stash and a small clay pot on the patio. A quick prime and paint job transformed it to a shiny black pot. A little heart shaped birdhouse that I painted many years ago adds color and detail to the bottom of the cage.


The top of the hutch over the desk has a birdhouse theme, and the birdcages seemed to fit right in. I'm trying to think of a something whimsical for the green birdcage. It may become black very shortly. ☺


Please click on the buttons to visit our gracious hostesses for the other participants of these fun events.









Enjoy!

Diane

Outdoor Wednesday

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.

I thought you might be tired of seeing the flowers in the back yard, so I'm sharing pictures of the front yard this week.

Starting at the left, assorted day lilies, Billy Graham rose bush, ivy leaf geraniums, more day lilies, Henry Fonda rose bush, more day lilies and a brush cherry bush.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

See the house on the left? We lived there for 20 years. We bought our next door neighbors house 10 years ago. Our son bought our old house and remodeled it. Pretty cool, huh?

I've alway loved houses with front porches and suggested to my husband several times that we add a porch to the front of our house. (Well, actually I nagged at him constantly). Whenever I found a picture, I'd show him. One day I found the perfect porch picture in an advertisement. I cut it out and stuck it on the refrigerator. Our porch is very similar to that little inspiration picture. I just wish the flower beds were a little wider... ☺

Susan, thank you for hosting this fun weekly event. You can visit A Southern Daydreamer to see the other Outdoor Wednesday posts, by clicking HERE.

Enjoy!

Diane

I'm another Farm Town-aholic....

Oh no, I've fallen under Farm Town's spell, thanks to Justine's evil plot to recruit unsuspecting blogger's to start new farms. I'm not her only recruit either, there are several other blogger's busily working on their farms.

I really need to devise a better method of planting so that I can go to bed at a reasonable time and not have to run and check on my crops late at night. I discovered, much to my dismay the first night, if I don't harvest the crops in a timely fashion, they wither and die, then I lose coins.

This is so sad, I was ecstatic this morning when I found out how to move a blasted tree that I've had to plow around, (Thank you Picket!). Oh my, what have I gotten myself into...

Have you visited Farm Town on Facebook yet? If you'd like to take a little peek, and be quick about it or it'll put a spell on you too, then click here to enter the land of farming.

If you'd like to visit Justine for more details on her amazing farm, click here. She really has gone all out and created a farming wonderland. Too bad RMS doesn't have a Farm Town category!

Wordless Wednesday - Blogger's Choice!

This week's Wordless theme is blogger's choice:

Intruder Alert!

(Click on pictures to enlarge.)

Dixie, thank you for hosting the always delightful Wordless Wednesday event. Click HERE to visit Dixie's blog for the other Wordless Wednesday participants.

Enjoy!
Diane

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House.

Pictures of the garden this evening.

(Click on mosaic to enlarge)

Please visit our charming hostess Mary @ Little Red House
for the list of other participants.

Enjoy!
Diane

A Cloche Party!

While frantically working on a dual Tablescape Thursday and Cloche Party post last night, and suffering from blog block I might also add, my internet connection disappeared. Poof! It was gone. A little pop up message was saying something was unplugged, so I checked every cable I could find, while crawling around on my hands and knees, and Zip! Nothing! So I retired to a bubble bath to regroup. One last check later and still no internet. I was irritated now and called Comcast. Shortly after I began pushing numbers, the power went out and the house was dark. Hmmm, what to do now? I wonder if Comcast caused the outage? I sat in the dark for a bit, then gave up and went to bed. The power finally came back on about 7 hours later and it was morning. Well morning came and went, and I'm well into the afternoon. I've scrapped the idea of a dual post, and began editing the post I started yesterday for Marty's Cloche Party.

So, without further adieu, Welcome to Marty's Cloche Party!


Several of the lovely blogs I read have cloche collections, which I've drooled over on numerous occasions. After seeing all the marvelous vignettes that I could create if only I had a cloche, I was on a mission to find one. Unfortunately I wasn't able to locate one until Christmas was over, but what a perfect cloche I found. I was in Pier 1 looking at Christmas ornaments when I suddenly spied the cloche. I had to move tables and chairs and it was look out for anyone who got in my way! That baby was coming with me! Once I got it home, all my grand ideas fled. Oh my, what do I do with it now? I tried a little of this, nope, and a little of that, nope... Then I found a sweet little cake pedestal at Marshall's. It fit very well and the elevation made it seem more important. It lives on the piano and I usually rotate figurines in it. I'm sure all the creative ideas shared at the party will inspire new wonderful vignettes!

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

My first Pier 1 cloche has a sweet humming bird figurine in it. (I have the hardest time with glare when I try to photograph a cloche. I think it's time for a new camera.)


The little mini cloche covers fresh plums and sits on a sweet little blue and white stripe plate that I found at a thrift store a few years ago.


My latest treasure! I've looked at the wire cage/cloches at Michael's for several months and finally bought one. It's just so sweet with the little bird on top. I bought 3 daisies to use with a candle in it. It's just too cute. (I hope you think so too!)

A last look.

Please click HERE to visit Marty for the list of the other cloche party participants.

Enjoy!

Diane

Wordless Wednesday

This week's wordless subject is Father.
(Dad, Daddy, Grandpa)

(The first two pictures are of my husband & son Chris, 1973.)

(Chris & Grandpa, my dad, 1974)

Dixie, thank you for hosting the always delightful Wordless Wednesday event. Click HERE to visit Dixie's blog for the other Wordless Wednesday participants.

Enjoy!
Diane

Mosaic Monday: Day Lilies

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House.

I'm sharing a picture mosaic of some of the day lilies in the front and back yards today. You know how much I love roses. Well, I like to plant day lilies next to the rose bushes. Besides being beautiful, the day lilies also camouflage the bottom of the rose bush when it sometimes begin to look a bit leggy. I think it's fascinating how some of the flowers look like carved wax. They're so pretty.

Please visit our charming hostess Mary @ Little Red House
for the list of other participants.

Enjoy!
Diane

Pink Saturday

Welcome to this week's Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers and I enjoy sitting at the table just looking at them. The hot pink hydrangea is Glowing Embers, Endless Summer is to the right and Nikko Blue is in the back. I used a time release Rose fertilizer granules on them this year and loved the result. Glowing Embers are more of a hot pink color, Endless Summer was a soft baby pink and now has soft pink, cream and violet shades, and the Nikko Blue is such a vibrant blue. I won't worry about having azalea fertilizer on hand anymore.


In honor of Pink Saturday, I cut a few flowers for a sweet cream colored vase with little pink roses on the side. A vintage pink table cloth is covering an old iron table and a crystal candle holder holds a pink candle.

Please visit Beverly's by clicking HERE to see the other PINK Saturday participants.

Happy PINK Saturday!

Diane

Outdoor Wednesday: Summer in Sweden

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.

My friend Winnie, who visited with us in April, sent pictures of the backyard garden at their house in Sweden. (This is a momentous occasion - I'm always asking for pictures and she always forgets to take them!) When they bought the house, the yard was quite an overgrown challenge that she's worked on for a couple of years. The stones in the stone wall were all dug up while the yard was being leveled and she built a wall out of them. She's so resourceful!

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Winnie has a new nickname this summer. She's been weeding and planting on the hill area which is quite steep, so we're calling her Ms. Mountain Goat. She's discovered a few muscles in the process that have protested the mountain goat routine. ☺


Beautiful blue flowers, (and I can't remember what they're called).


Hubby Steen is admiring the garden. See those huge boulders - she dug up the topsoil that was covering them up!


The deck area was added last year to the yard. Quite a difference a year has made.


Susan, thank you for hosting this fun weekly event. You can visit A Southern Daydreamer to see the other Outdoor Wednesday posts, by clicking HERE.

Enjoy!

Diane

Outdoor Wednesday

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by Susan at A Southern DayDreamer.

My neighbor had the afternoon off from baby sitting her little granddaughter yesterday and we headed for Santa Cruz. You'll never guess what I forgot to bring with me.... Yep, I forgot the camera. So no pictures of ocean waves and surfers, or the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, or adorable cottages with white picket fences and pretty flowers.

We wandered around town a bit, dropped by Starbucks for some caffeine, then drove around looking at houses and the ocean, all the while dreaming of living there. On the way home, we stopped by the Green Thumb Nursery in Los Gatos. It's like walking into a gardening wonderland and me with no camera again.

This is such an adorable giant teacup planter my daughter in law found at Walmart, but was at a loss of what to plant in it. We've both looked, but nothing was appealing to either of us.

I almost did a happy dance when I found the perfect plant at the nursery. It's an angel vine wrapping around a little rusted metal arbor.

Look how sweet the angel vine looks in the teacup planter. She's thrilled with her new plant in her beloved teacup planter. I told her it's an angel vine for an angel... She liked that...

I'm amazed the amaryllis is still blooming and couldn't believe my luck when I was able to take Sammie's picture without the usual squinting her eyes, or running for cover whenever I point the camera at her.

(Click on the photos to enlarge.)

Susan, thank you for hosting this fun weekly event. You can visit A Southern Daydreamer to see the other Outdoor Wednesday posts, by clicking HERE.

Enjoy!
Diane

Pink Saturday's First Birthday!

Did you know Beverly's weekly Pink Saturday event is celebrating it's first birthday? A pink tea party would be a wonderful way to celebrate and since the weather is so beautiful, we'll have an outdoor party.

Let's shop the house for a pink tea party tablescape! Pink roses from the grocery store are arranged in my grandmother's cut glass vase. Mom loved table linens and had a pink tablecloth and napkins, lucky for me, and to jazz it up I layered her crocheted tablecloth over the pink cloth. Crystal candle holders with short pink candles add a little more sparkle to the table. It's a little breezy, I hope they stay lit.

A pretty hydrangea teapot filled with blue berries and white tea is perfect for our tea party. The cup and saucer have sweet pink flowers on them, so lovely for our Pink theme. A slice of bundt cake with whipped cream and raspberries on a hydrangea plate will be delicious!




The birdcage was almost perfect, all it needed were flowers inside. We'll just "borrow" the pink hydrangeas from another arrangement. The finishing touch - a little bird on a nest resting on the flowers.


I hope you enjoyed shopping the house with me, now would you like visit for awhile and have some tea and a piece of cake?

(Click pictures to enlarge.)

Please visit Beverly's by clicking HERE to see the other PINK Saturday birthday celebration participants.

Happy PINK Saturday!

Diane