Author Archives: Dianne

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About Dianne

Domestic goddess, wife, mom, gardener, paper and collage artist, geocacher, local traveler, cross stitcher, baker, crafter, Facebooker, blogger, decorator and photographer.
Jun2

Photo Hunt-Taste

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Mom-mom’s chili con carne, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Nothing tastes as good as my Grandmom Ruth’s recipe for chili con carne. I use celery and ground turkey with a sprinkling of cinnamon and lots of chili powder (love).

Bathroom update…I did a really stupid thing and could have saved myself a ton of time. The glass mosaic tiles came yesterday and I decided to put them up. I by mistake ordered a multi-color sample and that was glued securely on cardboard. The other two colors were on brown paper. All I really had to do was put the adhesive on in the space, cut the squares, ‘while still on the brown paper’ and push them into the space. I knew the 3/4″ squares wouldn’t need to be cut at all. So why I took them off the paper is beyond me! It meant I had to stick 100 squares on ‘individually’. So that being said, it was messy and I had a lot of cleaning and scraping today. I need to grout it now. Brian bought me the adhesive and we were in Lowe’s today to get grout and lo and behold, they sell adhesive and grout! Why he didn’t get that a few days ago.

Here is what it looks like without the grout. And guess what? Bri is hooking up the sink and it’s going to be even harder for me to grout this! I can’t get to the bottom row at all now unless he unhooks the pipes for an hour.

I got the shower curtain up and the hooks were a little tricky. I noticed Sean knocked two off the pole after showering last night. I hope they work okay.

Update-the sink is installed! Can’t wait to put the white grout in those mosaics!

It sure is more modern! Not sure if we can get rid of the soap and toothbrush holders without hurting the tiles.

I did get to work in the pond garden and got some pretty filler plants like Ornamental Pepper, a pretty raspberry color Salvia, bright yellow Lantana and a few other plants.  They should all fill in nicely around the pond. I noticed if I stand where the gazing ball is, the shape is almost heart shaped!

A few of my gardens are disappointing so far-the Sweet William/Asian garden. It’s not a good year for them.  My woodland garden was pretty when the Bleeding Hearts were blooming (and they bloomed a month or so!) My Nicotiana looked nice, but the Salvias never took off and are getting nibbled even though I used insectide soap on the constantly. I will probably pop a few marigolds in there.

Last but not least, I couldn’t resist to pick a yellow rose to enjoy. It smells wonderful!

May31

Scored two geocaches!

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I had to get Brian away from the sink for one day. He needed some other pipework, but he is having trouble with the plumbing part. I wanted to go to a park where Brian use to take Sean fishing many moons ago. It’s so pretty there! We walked around a pond, went down to a lower level and through the woods, past runners and a couple smooching. : )  The ‘key’ to finding these seems to be reading over past logs. When the clue said look for a ‘beech’, well I knew I’d have to go to the one identified by the marker about 10 feet or so off the trail. There were old tree limbs leaning against the tree-very unnatural! I moved them and lo and behold, I found cache #3!

I think I’m getting the hang of finding the larger caches, though the second one was in a sandwich sized box, so the micros have to be easier to find soon…I hope!  This one hardly had anything in it and the log book was soggy! I had won some geocaching buttons from eBay and left one. It was suppose to be a music CD share, but there were none in there. This ones been around for 10.5 yrs!

We were very close to another cache in a cemetery. We pulled in and didn’t I get out to a fairly new grave next to me-dirt piled high and just a paper name tagged at the end. Luckily, you aren’t allowed to put caches right in the graved area, so we walked to the back of the cemetery where the hint said to go. There was a pile of old gravemarkers in one area and vault covers in another. We were thinking the spouse passed and they got a larger marker-maybe, right? So the clue was it was under a tree and a white stone. I sent Bri in to look….and he looked. I decided to come in the weeds and right in between some old markers was the next cache! Yay!

I was glad to get out of there. I saw later there was a micro in there-some other time, but I don’t think in the same area where we were.

We walked at least 2 miles at a the park There’s another one in there and we’ll go another day-it’s only 3 miles away. I still need to find the one in my other walking park. So glad we went as I like ponds, etc. and this is a nice place to walk. BTW, I used both my phone’s GPS and the Magellan-still getting the hang of the later one.

We later went out to dinner with Sean to Friendly’s. A lady next to use gave use a $5 off coupon! We went to Kirkland’s, like a Pier One kind of store, and I got a pretty ‘collage’ picture for the bathroom ($10-marked down from $25) and some jeweled shower curtain holders for $5. I got a shower curtain yesterday. I have a striped plastic one and got a solid Wedgewood blue. The jewels are green like the sink. I figure my accent colors will be sea glass green, blue and white.

We stopped off at Whole Food Market that just opened in April. It was nice, though pricey. I prefer Trader Joe’s and Fresh Market more. There was a ‘micro’ cache right near the store, but though we were in the right spot, it was dusky and the security guy decided to park near there. I should have read the log better as a guy said exactly what it was and where. At least we know now. ; )

 

May30

Slowly but surely

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Brian found the floor tiles that were left from this job and installed them. He had to make a Lowes run for some wall adhesive for the tiles around the bottom. When the toilet paper holder was, our patch job is mainly hidden by the vanity. I put in two tan ones I had saved for the 6 missing above (where you can’t see). I’m waiting on the mosaic samples now. Brian cut the hole for that lovely drain pipe in the vanity last night. He ran into a snag getting the marble top screwed on, so called it a day a  little after 9:30. He’ll get that and the sink in place and work on the plumbing. It will look pretty. It’s tight in there, but can’t help that.

May29

Unexpected renovation delay

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So we were moving (actually Brian) right along and the toilet got installed on Thursday. Friday morning dawned and Bri said he was going to install the vanity and sink. The thing with him, it’s 2-3 in the afternoon before he gets started. I know, it’s being unemployed and he’s on a schedule like Sean and me-stay up late, get up late. Glad we have light until 8 pm. : )

So he turns off the water, unscrews the pipes and takes the vanity out-it’s much worse than we think-it was just crumbling from water damage-just not usable anymore.  So then we see the floor next to the wall. It’s in bad shape-there’s rotted wood there. Bri starts digging at it-ends up with about a 2 foot by 6″ hole. He spent many hours finding wood, making sure it fit well and was level. This will be covered up-we have to find similar linoleum tiles though-guess we’ll look for those tomorrow or the next day.

He did saw off the foam overflow. We have tiles to put up along the edge there-the dark brown ones. You can see the 52 yr old original floor and the newer one we put in which is like parquet.

This will be covered by the vanity and I think I’m going to redo the floor down the road too.

A few rows below the toothbrush and soap holders were 4 tiles with holes from the original pedestal sink. Brian carefully took them out. I ordered 3 sample tile sheets from Susan Jabalon tiles, the place I used when I did the kitchen. I figured one color or design will be the right one and I’ll save the rest for art projects. 3/4″ mosaics will fit perfectly without me cutting them- 5 x 5 = 25 a square. I just have to grout them in place and fix a few that came loose. I saw some river pebbles that they use for floors. I ‘may’ order a sample just to see how it feels. We have less than a 5′ x 5′ space to worry about-yes, our ‘main’ bathroom is small.

I was going to get a new medicine cabinet. Now I think I’ll tidy up the old one, maybe paint it. That should brighten it up.

I also planted more annuals and am weeding the pond garden. It’s been very hot and humid these last few days. Can’t stand that! I lasted an hour on Sunday and did indoor stuff.

Wish us well with getting that floor fixed and the vanity and sink in! Hope to show pretty photos next!

May26

Photo Hunt-Creative

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Close-up of wavy videos, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I think what I love almost as much as seeing the flowers and plants in early March at the Philadelphia Flower Show (especially if it’s been a cold winter) is the ‘creative’ aspect of the show. You’ve got to make me go ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ when I see it to be spectacular. The theme of the show this year was Hawaii (and I was thrilled my brother invited my son and I to go, but alas we aren’t speaking again…). This was an exhibit near the entrance called ‘The Orchid Wave’. There were flowers of course, but the blue part was a video of sea turtles and fish swimming over your head. I will see if someone made a video of this.

Pretty darn spectacular to me.

May23

Sorting and stuff

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Wednesday night already! Wow! The week is going by quickly. Monday I was changing out my winter to summer clothes-a job I regret as I have so much of everything. Letting go of stuff is hard. I made myself try on long sleeved tees (I prefer 3/4 inch more) and many were shrunk up in the front. A certain brand ‘Basic*Editions’ from a Mart with K were all this way. I am happy to say I filled up a big bag for charity, but I still have too many summer tops. If I don’t wear them yet again this year, they aren’t going in storage, but in the charity bag.

I got out in the yard and took some photos too. The Clematis both have been outstanding this year

Near the pond

Sean gave me this lovely chair seat for Mother’s Day. Brian and Sean went to get it in Delaware last night at another Wally World. Brian assembled it for me today. They are really comfy and because you have a leg rest, they are like a lounger. The table is nice, but the textured glass is upside down and will be flipped.

We have a few huge boxes in our living room-one had a new toidy in it and the other has the new vanity in it. Brian and Sean will do the toilet tomorrow. I think 52.5 yrs is a long time and our old one can be disposed of now or used as a planter-lol! : )

I have a little more planting to do. I haven’t bought mulch yet, but there are a few areas that look better with it.

This is what’s going in soon! : )

May18

Photo Hunt-Magical

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Long shot of rose garden, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Brian, Sean and me took my mom back to the Scott Arboretum on the campus of Swarthmore College (Penna). to see their spectacular and magical Bond rose garden.
From a website-
Yet by far the crowning jewel in this already impressive collection is the shockingly gorgeous Dean Bond Rose Garden. Housing 650 roses of more than 200 types, it was established in memorial of Elizabeth Powell Bond, the Dean of Women at Swarthmore. It’s now tradition for graduating seniors of the college to pin a rose on their gown for commencement.
We’re going back in a few weeks to see them in further bloom!

Here’s an Artist Trading card I made and had to keep, but I did make a similar one to send my swap partner. My Grandmom Ruth use to call babies ‘baby birds’ so this reminds me of her.

The one I sent my partner:

May17

Mom and Me at the arboretum

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Mom and Me at the arboretum, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

The fellas and I took my mom back to the Scott Arboretum on the beautiful campus of Swarthmore College. It was really a sight to seen as it was breathtakingly beautiful. The roses smelled delightful too. I have some of my own roses, but I find them difficult to take care of and grow. I tend not to trim them at the right time. Then they get black spot, etc.
As you can see it was a sunny day in the middle 70s, though not humid at all. I will add more photos soon.
The students all get a rose pinned to them when they graduate.

~By the way, I had a sore elbow, so I had a band on it and forgot to take it off at the arboretum.

May14

May Blooms and Victorian Flower Swap

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This is the front little walking path under my very tall, messy, shedding and kind of half ugly evergreen tree.  I am wishing it wasn’t there anymore to tell you the truth as it was allowed to get too big. I guess I’ll have to live with  it for a while.

I still get some lovely irises coming up, but I think many aren’t blooming as they need to be separated. I’ve done it before and it’s not an easy task. I know there’s about 15 varieties hiding in that garden.

Brian dug up another round garden, which I may have mentioned and recycled some old plastic fencing. He’s not sure how sturdy it will be, but hopefully it will do it’s job of keeping critters at bay.

I really like the Victorian cards I sent off. The hostess was inspired by old seed packs, and I found some cute images on a Flickr group. I hope the people I sent these to aren’t expecting seed packets, because that wouldn’t be original.

Back to gardening… I have lots of seeds to put in soon. Of course we are expecting rain and I may be delayed. That will give me time to figure out what goes where. I want to try pumpkins and watermelon this year. I have plenty of room for them.