Mid Summer Gardens

Just a few glimpses of the flowers and vegetables around our place at this time of year.

The zinnia seeds I planted along the front of the garden didn't grow, so 

there is a lot less color at the vegetable garden than I had originally planned.

Next year!

And let me not forget the impatiens that are thriving in

their window boxes. The play house sits in a nice shady spot, 

so the soil doesn't dry out too quickly.

Faucet Luxuries

We've finally completed another phase in the kitchen. We held off on installing a tile backsplash for a couple of reasons. One was because we wanted to install a potfiller. Both are done! And it's one more thing to check of the list. We hired out the plumbing and the tile work. Part of me wishes I knew how to tile, but I have zero motivation to learn and even less to buy more specific tools.

Before:

Ungrouted Tile:

Tile Finished, Potfiller Installed

We chose a white arabesque tile (this brand came in 12x12 mats) and went with white grout because I really didn't want the tile to draw too much attention.  I'll be honest, I do like the look of arabesque tile when a contrasting grout color is used, but in this case, I just didn't 

want that to be too much of a focal point. 

I've found I also like the look of the curved tile with all the straight angles in the rest of the kitchen. My first thought was that we had "fancied up" our kitchen. We decided to only tile the wall where the stove and fridge are. The stainless steel countertop has a backsplash, so a tile one wasn't necessary behind the sink. Plus, I like the warmth the paint provides.

Splashes of Color

What do you do when you can't decide between two different colors for your doors? Well, if you're me, you use both colors and have multi-colored doors.

I painted the outside of our front (above) and side doors about a year ago, but the other exterior doors were untouched. Shortly before Susanna's birthday, I decided I was tired of looking at white primed doors. I painted the inside of the side door but still need to paint the inside of the front door.

The side door

(inside followed by outside)

The Back Door

The Garage Door