Picture of the Day: Detail of Trajan's Column in Rome

Rome,Italy
03.19.2012

Vinegar & Soap Weed Killer

This winter while I was looking on the internet for gardening tips getting ready for spring I kept seeing people mention using vinegar as a weed killer so I thought that I would try it out. After reading about various solutions I decided to try a vinegar and soap mixture and use it on my patio since it apparently kills indiscriminately and that is one place that I never want plants to be growing.

I bought a jar of white vinegar from the grocery store and put three squirts of dish soap in it. I stirred it up and attached a squirt nozzle from an empty bottle of cleaner that I had saved. With the soap now in the vinegar I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't confuse it with edible vinegar so I used a sharpie to clearly mark "Weed Killer" over the vinegar label.

Armed with my spray bottle I set to work spritzing the weeds poking up out of the cracks between my patio pavers. After letting things sit for a day the weeds didn't look much different so I tried pouring small amounts of the vinegar solution on them. This did the trick and after a day my weeds were all dead. With a power wash I think that the patio will look ready for summer. I'm ready to try this on my pesky sidewalk weeds now but I think I may try adding a bit more soap and maybe some salt to see if that works better.

What tips or tricks do you have for killing weeds? Any good suggestions? I need some good ideas for spot weed killers in my lawn.

Picture of the Day: Entrance Gate to Angkor Thom

Siem Reap, Cambodia
08.19.2011

If My Walls Could Talk

When I gutted my house to the studs I discovered a lot of things. Some things were unpleasant surprises, like a huge raccoon nest in my entryway wall. I evicted them.

Some things were really interesting like deducing some history of the house based on the wall framing. My house was originally about 18' x 26' and only one and a half stories tall. It was neat to discover the original roof line when the walls were opened up. At some point the roof was raised making the original section a full two stories and a back addition (where my kitchen and craft room are located) was added on. A side wing, which I was told by a few older residents in my neighborhood was at one point a little local grocery store, completed the building of my house. I think it is neat that my house evolved in four stages and I wish I knew more about the history behind each of the additions.

Besides uncovering some of the building history, opening the walls also revealed an unintentional time capsule of objects left inside the walls. Many of the items, like newspapers or calendars, were paper and were almost completely disintegrated, but some items, like the whiskey bottle in the picture below was salvageable. On the left is a photo of how I found it and on the right is how it looks after I cleaned it up. I wonder how it came to be in my wall and who it once belonged to. I'll never know, but it is fun to uncover these little bits from the past from my house and think about what a long history my house has had.

Picture of the Day: Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris

Paris, France
03.17.2012

Baby Quilt for Audry's Little Lady

Like the baby quilt I made for my friend, Susan, I also made this quilt for Audry while I was living in Japan back in the Spring of 2009. Since Audry's style is a little more modern I was inspired by some quilts I saw online at West Elm to make this baby quilt for her little girl.

To make the quilt I chose five fat quarters in different patterns of pink fabric and sewed a strip of 24" wide cream fabric on either side of the fat quarters. I then cut 3-1/2" strips from the resulting pieces I had made. 

To make the quilt top I then arranged 18 of the strips, staggering the way they lined up to make a fun pattern. Once I had everything the way I liked I sewed the strips together and then trimmed the excess cream fabric off so that the quilt top was a nice rectangle. It came together fast and was probably the simplest design I've ever used for making a quilt.

I finished the quilt with a pink backing fabric and cream binding. I think that the end result was a cute quilt that works with Audry's style. Now I need to get finishing the quilt that I have started for her little boy...

If you are interested, check out some of my other quilts: Baby Quilt for Vanessa's Little Man, Baby Quilt for Susan's Little Lady, Baby Quilt for Carla's Little Man

Picture of the Day: Statue at the Grand Palace in Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand
08.20.2011 

Back to Las Vegas

Hello from Vegas! Wasn't I just in Vegas in January? Wasn't I just on vacation two weeks ago? Have I not even finished writing up that trip? Well, yes, but my previous Vegas trip was for work, not fun, and things just worked out with schedules that this trip and the Italy trip were close together.

This trip is short (just Monday night through Wednesday night) and is a little pre-wedding celebration for some friends getting married in May. After being non-stop on the move during the Italy trip I am looking forward to two days of nothing but trying to relax. Last night we had a great time and randomly saw Carrot Top getting drinks with some people in the bar in the lobby of our hotel. Today is gorgeous outside so I'm off to grab some sun by the pool...

Picture of the Day: Ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

Vatican City
03.19.2012 

Back of the House: Then & Now

When I first got my house the front wasn't so bad, but the back was an absolute disaster. After priming the siding the previous owners never actually painted so the wood wasn't protected and was rotting in some places. It looked terrible, like a condemned haunted house.

Right after I bought the house in September 2007, I prioritized having the rotten wood replaced and painting the house before winter came so that there wouldn't be any more deterioration to the siding and trim. I continued my chosen house color scheme of pale yellow with white trim and dark teal accents. Also, that fall the kitchen window (bottom left) and my scrapbook window (top left) were replaced with new, large double casement windows which gave me a lot of light inside while also making things look more uniform from the outside.

That was the extent of what I accomplished in the back of the house before I moved to Japan and I didn't do much else until the summer of 2010 when I had a large half circle patio put on the back of my house. With the patio in the back I also had to have the gutter reconfigured so that the downspout ran down the side of my house instead of the middle of the back. That summer I also built myself some patio furniture but I never got around to painting it or making cushions for it. Last summer I focused on the front of my house and my herb garden so I didn't do much in the back so right now it looks pretty much the same as summer 2010 back there.

Long term, I have some grand plans for the back. I want to add a planter bed around the patio and fill it will boxwood and annuals. That may need to wait for a bit, but this summer I definitely want to paint the concrete foundation around my house a pale grey and then paint my patio furniture white. I also want to finish up making the cushions for my furniture so that I have a comfortable lounging spot back there.

Do you have any plans this summer for the back of your house? Have you recently completed any big projects back there?