My Summer Backyard View

I just had to post this photo of our backyard this morning.  Rob and I sat sipping espresso and watching a hawk on a nearby tree decide what to catch for his breakfast.  The weather here in the south east has been perfect for all of June, and July is looking up!  Sorry my iPhone photo is blurry, I guess the two double espressos caused my hands to shake a bit.  You get the gist.  

Oh, and my fabulous lounge pants are from Anthropologie, flip flops: Old Navy, thanks for asking.

Our New Sunroom (post tree crash)

Remember this?  On January 17th a HUGE tree crashed into our home taking out our screened patio, chimney, and sunroom roof.  The first photo is just a fraction of the tree showing.

Because of really good home insurance (insert Cincinnati Insurance Company plug here), everything was replaced and updated.  While we always loved our sunroom, it was not the wall color or flooring we would've selected.  

The chocolate wall color was just a bit too dark for our taste, especially since this is a sunroom and should be bright.

I actually always liked parque floors, it's the flooring in almost every apartment in NYC, but since it didn't match the rest of the house, we knew we would change it someday.

Below is our new sunroom... ta da!  We love it.  I need to post a better photo someday, this was taken with hubby's iPhone.  The contractor chose oak floors to match the rest of the home and stained them perfectly to the rest of the home's wood floors.  They had to create the stain to match and titled it, "Long Island Iced Tea."  Our wall color is a light linen color. They repainted all of my trim a creamy white AND washed my windows, score!  

 We use our sunroom as our family room where we watch TV, use the computer and play!  We just love it now.  It's so light and bright and with the blinds open almost feels like we're in a tree house.  

What do you think?  

Stay tuned for the new screened patio shots.

Spring is Here! 2013

Spring is blooming here in North Carolina so I just had to share a few photos.  This Weeping Willow just started budding little pink flowers last week.  They have faded now but are still gorgeous and lacy. I didn't even know that Weeping Willows bloom flowers in spring.

Oh, and remember that giant 85 ft tree that crashed into my house?  Here is my new 30 year roof, all paid for by an excellent home insurance policy.  Now THAT is God's favor!

Here is a view of our neighbor's front yard from my front yard.  Because of the rain here the grass and leaves are neon green.  It's unreal.

If you noticed a flowering white tree in front of my neighbor's, it is their Dogwood.  It usually blooms by Easter but Easter was early this year.  I had to snap a picture close up.  I just love Dogwoods.  We didn't have any in Southern California.

By next week these Azaleas will be full and neon and cover most of my backyard.  Today they are just budding.  Seasons are so much fun!

This is the root ball of the 85 ft tree that crashed into my house from the cross-section top view.  The tree guy cut the rest of it away, but no way to take out a 2-3 TON root ball.  It's a bit of an eyesore but these pretty yellow flowers help camouflage it. 

Here I am aiming my camera up to the sky through my front yard trees.   These small budding leaves  were not even here 4 days ago.  They sprout overnight practically.  By summer we won't even be able to see the sky through the trees they will be so dense.  

Check back next week when all the flowers and colors will be in full bloom.  It's like a fairy land looking outside.  

Happy Easter 2013

Wow, has it been forever since I last posted?  I've been a bit busy learning a new career in Art Education. 

 I love Easter!  Today is the first day of Easter vacation for both Gracie and I so we decided to stay in and dye eggs and make cupcakes.  I just had to share how colorful and darling it came out.  It's so much fun having a little girl!  She makes everything in my life more enjoyable and memorable.

Aren't these bunny toothpicks cute?  Nana sent them with matching polka dot cupcake liners.

Here's the trick to really colorful dyed eggs, cleaning them with vinegar first, rinsing under cool water, THEN boiling, OR drying off raw eggs before dipping in dye.  We opted for raw since no one in my family really eats hard boiled eggs.  I think they turned out great!

Here is Gracie enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Happy Easter!  

Art Teacher

 Many of you don't know this yet but I just accepted a job as a part time substitute art teacher for 1st through 8th grade at a local private school.  I LOVE it!  I get the privilege of teaching kids about artists and techniques that I didn't learn until college, for crying out loud! ( And I had many art classes in middle and high school.)  My, how curriculum times have changed.  I can't post photos of the students, for obvious reasons, but I can post a few fun shots I took.  

Today's project was self-portraits, "Modigliani" style.  Here is their example to follow and here are their vivid chalk pastels.

Isn't this great?  This artist is only 12!  I didn't learn chalk pastels on black paper until college.

This artist is actually a boy.  It almost looks like he made dreadlocks on himself.  He actually has short, dark hair.  This project was about expression and not "reality."

I love the way this artist used heavy black outlines to emphasize the elongation of the portrait.  It's SO Modigliani!

I'm so proud of these guys!  Check back for more artwork......

Our New View 2013 (its all about perspective)

Today marks 5 days since a giant tree crashed into our house.  This morning Jason of A1 Tree Service came to tackle and cut down most of the tree, taking enormous pressure off of the roof over our family room.  He will come back Thursday to cut the remaining trunks (yes, there were two trunks stemming from one base) down to haul away, as they are still resting on our patio deck.

What a lovely new view, don't you think?  So bright and sunny!

The french doors to the right enter into our sunroom, {a.k.a. family room.

Here is the new view from our master bedroom window.  So open!

Here I am sitting on my deck aiming the camera up to the sky, what used to be the patio ceiling.

It's a gorgeous but chilly day, about 37 degrees.  It was also quite breezy today and while you can't tell from the photo, those trees towering above me were swaying quite a bit.  Very unnerving after what I've experienced.  I asked Jason if anyone gets more than one tree falling on their house in a lifetime and he told me just around the corner a family had 2 trees fall on their house in one month's time.  He admitted that was a rare case, but he has seen it.

 Earlier today I read about all the Tent Cities that STILL exist in Jamaica, even years after the quake.  They are now being nicknamed "Rape City."  Puts everything into perspective.  I am so fortunate to live in America, and I am so fortunate the tree only took out our covered patio and partial roof.  I have a good roof over all the living spaces of my home AND food, AND health.  I am blessed for sure.  

Stay tuned for DEMO day!

Tree House 2013

I always thought it would be cool to have my own tree house, however, I never wanted a tree IN my house!  Seriously, only an hour ago we had a giant tree crash into our house taking out our covered patio and roof.  Fortunately none of the living area of our home is damaged, yet.  We are emptying the sunroom/family room as we speak since it's connected and shares the roof of the patio.  It is storming today and they are predicting snow tonight so we need to move all of our furniture and electronics out of this room asap.  Good times!

Well, there goes our view.

I never did like that old ceiling fan.

Here's the other side of the house, that is our sunroom below the tree.

And here is how it started, snapped off above the root system.  Looks like the root ball is still in the ground.

The lights on the lower level is right where Gracie and I were sitting when the tree came down on us.  We had a front row seat, yay!

Well, our insurance man was here within the hour and told us we bought the cadillac of all home insurance plans so other than a $1000 deductible, they can rebuild everything even better than before.

Now I need a job more than ever to pay for this, ugh!