Photo a Day Week Three

I was much better this week.  I got them all done and I really like what I did.

sunset 

flower

something you don't like

hair

orange

something you drew

bottle

What do you think?  I never realized how long my hair was.  I'm really learning how to use my camera (the point of this exercise) so I'm pretty happy.   

All Wrapped UP

Hi!  I'm Chance from Designed by Chance.  I write a little blog about crafts, home decor, gardening, and my life.  Type A is one of my favorite blogs, and I make sure never to miss a post.  I'm so excited to be a guest on Tammy's blog.  If I lived anywhere near (but I don't) her I would give her a big hug right now.

Today I want to show you a little project I put together to keep all my wrapping supplies "under wraps" (sorry I could not resist the pun).

I don't have a lot of space in my little cottage, so I decided to keep my "wrapping station" under the guest bed.

I used a large roll-away bin to store all my wrapping supplies.  Be sure to get the longest one you can find, otherwise it won't hold the long wrapping rolls.

Next, I collected all the wrapping paper from all over the house.  For some reason I leave wrapping paper all over, and I can never find the tape or scissors when I need them either.  It is good to have everything in one place now.  

I really like the solid paper because it can be used for multiple occasions.  As you can see I have a few Christmas papers too, this year I used brown paper and twine (you can see that here).  This paper is from other years.

This paper is really great because it has both solid red and polka-dots on the same paper.  I love the different sides, and the polka-dots make me so happy.

I save tissue paper.  Here is my collection of papers, there are all different colors and styles.  I use the tissue paper with these boxes, which I save from year to year as well (I seem to be quite low on boxes this year).

Don't forget the scissors and tape.

Put it all together, and you have an easy simple system for all your wrapping needs.

Cover, 
                                .....slide under the bed, 
                            

                                                        and you are done!  
                                 (Bye bye wrapping station.)

I would love to have some fancy wrapping station with tons of space that takes up half my house, but that is just not a reality.  In truth, I prefer to have guests and friends, not a wrapping station I will never use.  This little set-up is just perfect for all my wrapping needs.  I don't have any kids yet, but I have a feeling this will be really handy when all those birthday parties start up (one day).

Garden Update

My bulbs have come in.  I posted last fall when I planted the bulbs and now my work has come to fruition.

I started with this.

Now I have this:

Much better.

I made four beds and they are all in bloom now.

I'm really excited that my tulips made it.  We have a lot of deer in the area, and they love tulips.  I gambled that the deer would not venture to the front of the house.  My gamble worked and they have not been eaten.

My garden is looking good, and in fact, it is looking even better than these pictures.

The tulips have bloomed and they look better than any grocery store tulip I have seen.

I even planted some hyacinth, yum they smell amazing.

I love spring for all the bulbs and new life.  So let me just share one other plant in bloom ....

... my cherry tree.

Hope you are enjoying the spring.

Photo a Day Week Two

This is my second week, and to tell the truth I have not been a very good photographer.  I cheated.  Most of these pictures were taken on two different days (shhh don't tell!).

So lets get to work.

Day 8:

inside you wallet

Day 9:

younger you

Day 10:

cold

Day 11:

where you ate breakfast

Day 12:

stairs

Day 13:

something you found

Day 14:

how you feel today

I'm pretty happy with my collection of pictures this week.  What do you think?  How am I doing?

I Love Stalking Houses

One of my favorite parts when driving around with my husband is getting to look at all the beautiful houses along our routes (when I'm by myself I tend to swerve a little if I look too much, hehe).  I love to "window shop" and see all the amazing houses here in the Hudson Valley.  Poughkeepsie, where I used to live, has some amazing Victorian houses that make it almost worth living in the not-so-fun city of Poughkeepsie.

So of course it would not be too big a leap to know that I love to look at exteriors of houses on the net as well.  And where on the net?  Why Pinterest of course.

Today I realized I have 187 followers on Pinterest, that is a heck of a lot more followers over there than here (but who is counting?).  So let me highlight some of the fun my followers are getting over there HERE.

Below are seven  of my favorite exteriors from my board apply named "Exteriors."  I decided to go with the theme of spring and gardens.

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I love wisteria.  My father grew some amazing wisteria in his old house, and he had dreams of growing wisteria on the exterior of my stucco home.  I would love that.  I want my house to be yellow with the purple vine all over it.

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This house just makes me happy.  I love the little cottage with the daffodils in the yard.

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I have an obsession with wrap around porches, I just love them.  I especially love when said porch has a curve in it.  I have always loved these kinds of houses ever since I was a kid.

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This picture just makes me see a whole story.  I can see the garden and ocean beyond the house.  And of course, there is that wrap around porch.  I love the walk too.

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I pinned this picture for one reason: the pergola over the garage.  That is just a brilliant idea.  If I had a garage this is what I would want to do.

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This house is done really tastefully well.  I love the red accents and the roof is just fabulous.  See a trend with the porches?

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This house was featured on bhg.com and I just love it.  It has the porch I love with a nice big section on the corner, the gardens are fabulous and the shutters are so adorable.  Except for the tropical palm trees (because it's too cold up here) I would want this house.

I hope you enjoyed my virtual drive around the neighborhood.  Maybe one day I will take my camera and shoot some of the houses I have "stalked" (shhhh the owners don't know I rubber neck it every time I drive by) in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Photo A Day: Week One

I have decided to participate in the photo a day challenge for April.  Each week I will post the six pictures for that week and on the last week I will link up all the previous weeks.  I'm also working on my photography skills so these pictures are all taken with the semi manual settings (I'm not ready for full manual yet).

I hope you like my photos.  Each day has a different theme so I will list those under each shot.

I hope to keep the writing down to a minimum on these posts and just give you the shots.

1. Your Reflection

2. Color

3. Mail

4. Somebody Who Makes You Happy

5. Tiny

6. Lunch

7. Shadow

And there you have my first seven photos.  What do you think?

Small Improvements

Last week I had my big reveal, now back to some small improvements around the house.

Hubby and I took a little trip to BB&B (Bed Bath & Beyond) and bought some little things that made my life easier.

First, we bought some small tension rods.  We got three of them for the following two projects.

I am always frustrated when my cutting broads and cookie trays fall all over the place, so I installed two tension rods to keep them in line (ha).

Before

Messy boards.

 After

Neat boards

See the white tension rods keeping my boards from the cat food?  Good stuff right there.  Even hubby noticed (now that is an achievement, just kidding, he is pretty observant).

Next I fixed my ribbons on my desk.

Before

Messy ribbons

After

Neat ribbons

Before I had a horrible not-working-very-well tension rod with a screw (who uses those? They are terrible) and now I have a nice easy one.  I finally cleaned up my ribbons got rid of the empty rolls and made them pretty again.  Yay.

Finally, I saw a sale at my beloved BB&B for glasses.  Now we had the worst collection of odd glasses that were inherited from various places.  I was hankering (yes, hankering, that is a word) for a bunch of glasses that all matched.  So for $10 (actually $9.99 but who wants to squabble about 1 cent?) I bought a bunch of matching glasses.  I packed up the old ones and put in the new (after I washed them of course).

Before

Miss-matched glasses.

After

All the same :)

I'm constantly improving the house.  Soon we hope to get the water system fixed (that will be really good).  For now, I will be happy with my little improvements around the house.

What do you think, have you jumped on the tension rod bandwagon?  It is so easy to do and so helpful.  What small projects have you done to make life better?