Happy Earth Day

I urge all of you to reduce, re-use and recycle.

However, the post I want to today is more about decorating your home- your own personal earth. Today, we are talking about wallpaper.

Wallpaper has recently made a resurgence back into "young" decorating. For the last 10 years or so while the hip kids have forsaken wallpaper in preference of using every possible color combination and faux finish paint job you can think of some very talented artists have been busy creating beautiful wall papers.Content no longer with covering every inch of wall with the paper, decorators are coming up with great ideas on how to use wall paper to enhance the feel of a room without overpowering it.

In the above photo part of intricate wallpaper pattern was meticulously cut out to add a burst of pattern that comes across more like a piece of art- then the busy feeling it would give if it covered more of the room.

The bold pattern and color of this paper, although possibly an older design feels very modern since it was used to cover not just the wall as you might expect but also the door. I think this would be a good look for a closet or a powder room.

I had never this this technique done before and I love it. Wainscoting or chair rails are done at predictable heights and so often out of beadboard or just paint (I have done it, it's an easy way to perk up a room for not a lot of money). But this high molding about 2 feet down from the ceiling with the wallpaper on top seems to make the room feel taller and the pattern of the paper gives weight and interest to what is otherwise a sort of plain room (I know they have great windows and a giant chandelier but you know what I mean).

This final wallpaper idea is the genius of one lady and is a very earth-friendly suggestion. She takes old wallpaper in interesting patterns and re-purposes it as animal cutouts to decorate children's rooms. She offers a group of small birds, a giraffe, a monkey, an elephant and the above ostrich all in varying patterns. I hate birds and I would still love to have a pair of these ostrichs mingling on the wall at the end of a long hallway.

I just checked and the ostrich with wall adhesive retails for $105.00 plus tax and demand is so high they are currently out of stock- good job lady! (I was unable to find her name, but if you google "recycled wallpaper ostrich" you can find out more.)

Busy Saturday

All kinds of things happening in the great Northwest yesterday! Tyson's parents came to town. Jan helped Katie pack and move her kitchen to Katie and Jamie's new apartment which has an awesome view off the back of Capitol Hill. Gary and Tyson went to the Woodworker's Show at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall and I went the Friends of the Seattle Public Library Book sale at Magnuson Park. Busy!

The book sale was HUGE, the had tables filling an airplane hangar with books piled on top and underneath. There was fortunately for the sale but unfortunately for me LOTS of people, the kind of people who so lack the idea of personal space that nothing surprises them. I literally saw a man hop over the back of a lady that was crouched down in the isle looking at a box of books, so that he could get past her and on to looking at more books. I don't think the lady even looked up.

Inbetween fits of judge-full sighing I found a handful of good books (including one on paper mache that I want to try out) and at $1 per book maybe you can deal with the crowd and the Library's REALLY old friends running the sale- when is the last time that you were directed to "the lady with the pink flyswatter" as the next available cashier?

I paid and was on my way to pick up the guys at the Seattle Center and then onto the Gunter's new digs for a tour and to get Jan. The apartment is a neat space and with the clear view of Mt. Baker really did make everyone feel a little like we were back in Bellingham again (which according to my last poll, half of you would think is great, the other half would be wishing they were in Bend OR and Dad would be hanging out at Puget Island).

After the tour, we scooted off to City People's Garden store and had a good time looking things over and picking out plants with Jan and Gary. We have already decided next time they are in town and have time to shop we are going to the larger City People's Mercantile out by UW to see what they have.

With our treasures loaded up we headed home and towards some more of Tyson's wonderful cooking- the man can't help but make delicious food! he BBQ'ed up some flank steak, made a great potato, green pepper and tomato salad, a new style of salsa to accompany the meat and a whole pan of mouth watering corn bread. Here is a snapshot of Gary's plate before he dug in.

Sarah's Container Garden

I planted a nice little container garden today with three different types of pretty grass and a yellow-green shrub. I purchased these great plants at City People's Garden Store yesterday, Tyson and his Mom helped me pick them out.


The tall blue green one is:Magellan Wheatgrass.
The shrub one is:Pinocchio, it gets purple flowers later.
The wispy one in the back of the box is:Fescue.
The little guy in thr front is:Northern Lights- hairgrass.

I will post pictures of the grass garden every now and again so you can see how much they grow. The shrub can get up to two feet tall but I don't think it will in this pot. Everything else is in the 6" to 18" range.

He plays his banjo at night!

(Go back and sing the title, like the song "I wear my sunglasses at Night", it's more fun that way.)Tyson has recently taken back up his a pickin' and a pluckin' of the banjo. Such a great instrument- he has a song or two down but just about any noise you can get from it makes you want to say loudly, "Well boys, that was some mighty fine a 'pickin and a singin'" a la the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? after The Soggy Bottom Boys radio performance.

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Seeing yellow...

Yellow is the most difficult color for our eyes to adjust to, yet it is often used in home decorating. I saw the image below in magazine years ago and have always loved the shade of yellow. I have thinking about having a room this color in my future house but can't seem to decide if it would be overwhelming. I definitely like the more saturated shades- no pastels, thank you, but I feel like this is ones of those things where you actually have to paint the whole room- give it a few weeks and then decide if you have made a huge mistake.

Another interesting twist on yellow in home decorating is that they almost always pair it up with black. I'm assuming this is to make the yellow "pop" and read to the eye as even brighter. But I think it gives the room a formality that not all of us would want, as in the picture above.

Happy Easter Families, we love you!

Good news!

Today at work, I was given a promotion and a small raise- live it up!

We moved and this is the view from our new apartment!

Just kidding. Look for another decorating post like the perfect pouf one coming later this week. Until then I hope you are enjoying the heck out of the sunshine!

Inexplicably pulled to crafts that seem possible to make whether they are neat or not….

…these however are in my opinion pretty neat as well as they seem likely possible to make. They are tiny houses with little yards all set in a teacup, so you get a feel for the scale. I found them online and the lady that makes them also makes $300 handmade cloth dolls. These are cooler than the dolls. Pick your favorite. I like the second one or the white house with the tweed yard best.

Yesterday

We slept in, had waffles, took a nap, went to the garden, got ice cream, walked the two mile loop at Seward Park, bought groceries, invited Kim over for dinner, Tyson made steak, potatoes and beans for wraps, put out all kinds of snacks and made delicious corn bread again, wonderful day!

This Past Weekend

If you know what I do for a living than you know that this past weekend was my busiest of the year- everything went well and Sunday in Seattle couldn't have gone better. Everyone at work was happy with the outcome and I am very pleased with the results- it was worth all all of my hard work these past few months.

Two Sundays Ago

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. Tyson broke out the BBQ for the first time this year and cooked up some great pork. Dani and Jason were in town from New Mexico and came to visit. Kim came over and we had a great evening of catching up and remarking on how it seems like they have been here all the time. That Monday after work I picked up Kim and Dani and we drove up to Bellingham to meet up with Jason and Tyson at Calhan and Liz’s house. Liz made a delicious dinner for all. Their roommate Mike was home and we had an impressive and funny few rounds of charades. I unfortunately didn’t have the camera-but even without photographic evidence just know that we have wonderful friends and it has been way too long since we have all been able to get together.

FREE SOUNDERS GAME FOR US!

A girl I work with has a friend with season passes and none of them could go to the game to Saturday’s ago- the second in the season. We got the tickets and the Sounders won again, this time 2-0. It was a great game to watch and I am looking very forward to April 11th when we get to go again with the tickets Tyson got.

Fun facts about the game:
1- We took the bus in because traffic is horrible around the stadium and parking is expensive.
2- The entire lower ‘ring’ of seats in the stadium, which we had tickets in, stands for the entire 90 minute game- after 45 minutes it doesn’t even seem weird.
3- High-kicking and slide tackling are not against the rules in major league soccer.
4- It is possible that the ball was hit with players heads almost as much as their feet.