Sunday, February 13, 2011

Spring fever weekend.

Holy hot weather, Batman!  It was 45 degrees out there today.  And internally, our house made it to 67 (surpassing its own setting of 65!).  This is the warmest it has been since...November?  Oh yeah, the first time it snowed.

Warm weather=direct correlation to higher productivity.  Today Louis and I managed to walk the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis and around Lake Como in St. Paul.  I think every Minnesotan was out today!  And surprisingly, I only saw two people in shorts.  I had a lot of fun taking the Rebel outside for the first time since the failed attempt on New Year's Day where I nearly lost all my fingers to frost bite.  And around House on Hubbard, we were busy this afternoon...

We chopped the 2-3 inch thick layer of ice that had formed on our driveway and shoveled it up.  Me thinks this will continue to be a problem as spring comes and goes (c'mon, no one really believes spring is here to stay on February 13th, right?).  I've been thinking a lot about mud-jacking the driveway come summer to prevent this problem, but it also needs some type of drainage...things that keep me up at night (no, really).

While the sun was still shining I made my way to the front yard where I've wanted to attend to our three little trees for some time.  The harsh winter and heavy snow knocked the middle one to the ground.  The twine has been sitting for over a month as I've waited for a warmer day to give the tree a boost.  Before that, though, I put myself through a torture exercise called un-stringing the Christmas lights 2 1/2 months later.  Thankfully Louis wound them up while I got to the real task of anchoring the tree.  Because of the close proximity to the house, and the mounds of snow still in the way, I simply tied the two limbs of the tree together so it can support itself.  So far it's standing up taller than it had before.  When more snow melts, I'll see about additional support.

And last, I took apart our Christmas wreath and donated it to the compost pile.  Whew!

But I couldn't let this post go without some photos...photos of our latest furniture find!  Louis and I were at Flamingo's Divine Finds in Minneapolis yesterday.  We almost left empty-handed except for a look in the last, tiniest, couldn't-possibly-be-even-10-square-feet room.

I can now cross this off my "furniture I would like to have" list.

I have very much coveted a bench just like this to sit in front of the window to the porch.

Now I we have one!  The artist actually hesitated a little--he didn't quite want to give this up.  I love the unique-ness of the added shelf underneath.  You know, so I can continue to further ignore the mail that I've shoved into that basket (like a Netflix rental from pre-Thanksgiving that is going back tomorrow-I swear!).

Here's the thing.  I'm not really sure in front of the window to the porch is the bench's destination.  I'm thinking about swapping that side table to the couch's other side and giving it a shift in the other direction to see if that helps balance things out.  I don't know what to do about the one leg on, three off the rug.  And I do plan on either glazing it or "mudding" the color with the aforementioned can of nutmeg paint I currently possess to soften the bright yellow.  All in good time...Wait!  Where that'd dog come from?  More on him later...

Close-up on the bead board.  Why?  Because I love bead board.  Random fact.

Oh...and the chipped marks.  Yeah, the artist did that himself as he was attempting the scuffed, shabby chic look.  Um, not quite.  I will find a way to fix that.



So there you have it.  Earlier when Louis asked if we were celebrating Valentine's Day (and I questioned him outright), I told him if anyone asks, he can say this was my present.  Now, I'm off to make some non-belated V-day cards that just happen to be red, pink, and have resemblances of a certain holiday that I did not forget.

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