Holy Cow

It is really hard to believe that this is what my house looked like just a year ago! You couldn't even really see the house from the street through all those bushes. And the yard (if you could call it that) was just sand and weeds.

This picture helps me put things in perspective when I have my moments where I feel like nothing is getting done and I want to throw a fit.

3030 - I love you, thanks for being so solid.

Why?

The really scary thing about this "table" is that it would set you back over $200!

Seriously , who buys this kind of stuff?

How Time Flies

A year ago today my real estate agent and I sat down at my mother's dining room table and wrote up an offer for my house.

Some days it hardley feels like it's been a month since I got my house, other days it feels like it's been years.

Virtual Shopping: Wicke(r)d Lighting

While my house does not lend itself well to hanging light fixtures it does not mean that I don't want one in every room. And with summer* now in full swing it only seems right to be checking out whats available in wicker -

(Ikea, Z Gallerie, Pottery Barn, CB2)

*South Florida really only has two seasons - Summer & Not Summer

Why?

I want start out by saying that I have nothing against tabletop fountains, in fact they can be be very soothing. . . but come on, this thing is like a cracked open disco ball on acid - and I mean that in the bad way. . .

Is it wrong that I want to buy this bag and carry Emmett around in it?

Rare Local Finds

This weekend my mom and I hit up the Rare Fruit & Vegetable Council of Broward County's annual plant sale. Until last week I didn't even know Broward had a rare fruit & vegetable council! We were looking forward to adding lots of strange and interesting fruit and vegetable plants to our garden, but we were not prepared for the insane crowd that beat us there. For being out in the middle of nowhere the place was packed! We only really ended up looking at about 25% of the plants they had for sale because it was just too hard to try to get down the rows. In the end I purchased two pepper plants and my mother got herself a blueberry bush.

I really wanted to buy a grapevine or two (or ten) but they require a bit more knowledge on my part, so they weren't ideal for being purchased on a whim. It's a good thing the council has multiple plant sales a year, my mom and I decided that we will be better prepared next time and pick up a large variety of rare fruits and vegetable plants.

You can check out the Rare Fruit & Vegetable Council of Broward County on their website.
You can also check them out on Flickr.

Virtual Shopping: Movie Posters

I love love love me some old school movie posters. The quirkier the better. I currently have the three movie posters below along with a poster I designed for a film my sister made for her school's film festival dorning the walls of my "great room"

While I am out of wall space and have no intention of replacing any of the posters I already own, I want more. . . so I spent a little time browsing about on AllPosters.com and found these beauties that would make a lovely addition to my "great room", or yours. . .

Yes Please

If I didn't already have canisters I think I would have to buy this bad boys and put them to use in the kitchen -

American Science and Surplus

Sad

When I was about 13 or 14 this was my dream house. . . My father owned it as a rental property, it was about 2 blocks from the ocean. I really loved that house, it was (and is) the only house in south Florida that I knew of that still had it's original hard wood floor. It was the perfect beach cottage. I cried when my father sold it. Now it's going to get bought up by a developer and turned into condos like all the old cottages around it have.

It will be a sad day.

edit: link no longer active

Why?

I have no words. . .

Why?

I would like to introduce you to the garden pirates. . . Yeah, I said garden pirates. Garden pirates? Seriously, they're garden pirates. . . Yeah, I don't know where to go with this one. . .

(today is your lucky day, I'll be posting a second "Why?" this afternoon)

Should I?

I am having a debate with myself over these side tables -

(excuse the bad cell phone picture)

They're from Target and I've had a thing for them since they got them in and now they are on clearance. . . but I don't really need them, and I'm not so sure how they would work within my "great room". . .

What should I do people?! They are 50% off!

Another Wacky Weekend

I'm not sure what is going on, but it seems that as of late I haven't been able to have a weekend that goes as planned.

Friday started out well, took Emmett to the vet for his annual then headed out to lunch with my roomie (surprisingly we don't get together often). As we were leaving the restaurant we both were going over all the things we had planned to get done that afternoon - but were quickly sidetracked by a baby mocking bird on the sidewalk. Poor fellow had fallen from his nest in the TGIFridays sign and was about to become lunch for some ants. Being that we were in the middle of a parking lot there was no way to get the little guy back into his nest and there wasn't a safe place nearby to move him to so that his mother could find him later. After a lot of calls (my vet, a bird clinic, the local pet shop) we found about the Wildlife Care Center in Ft. Lauderdale. So we spent our afternoon driving to Ft. Lauderdale with some precious cargo. The WCC is awesome, they took Howard (I had to name him) right away and he will be released into the wilds of south Florida as soon as he is old enough. I know feel that my bird karma is somewhat restored, being that Elsie averages a bird a week. . .

(I had my camera with me but I forgot to take a picture of the cutie)

Saturday started out as planned as well. I went to my mother's to do some laundry and then we headed out to run some errands. It was while running our first errand that things went off course. My mom had to return a dust ruffle to Tuesday Morning in Boca, after the return was complete we spilt up to browse a bit (you can't go into a discount store without browsing). While we were browsing an older woman in a CRV hit the gas instead of the brake and went flying into through the window of CPA office next door -

See the window just to the right of the SUV? My mom was looking at baby clothes right inside of it when this happened, so she was a bit shook up. There was also been an older Latina woman who had been pacing back and forth in front of the store waiting on a ride, the SUV missed her by just a few feet. The two ladies in the SUV seemed to be okay, more shaken than hurt.

It was just a crazy weekend all around - I did manage to spray paint a little table for my front porch, but again, I forgot to take a picture of it.

Why?

I know that no one wants to see your toilet bowl brush just hanging out in the bathroom, but come on, how is this any better?

Weekend Gone Awry

My friends and I headed up to Orlando last Friday for what was suppose to be a relaxing 3 day weekend, but like most of my adventures, things did not go quite as planned.

While my friends frolicked around a water park I spent Saturday in bed, a hotel bed. . . At least we stayed somewhere nice, I'm not sure if I could have spent an entire Saturday laying in bed at some discount motel.

I did feel well enough to hit up Downtown Disney on Saturday night. The food at the House of Blues was yummy, and of course I had to do some shopping in the housewares section of World of Disney (more on that later).

This past weekend also marked Laurendy Home's first blog-o-versary!! A year ago I put an offer on a 4/5 bedroom, 1 bath major-fixer-upper and started this here blog while I waited for a response. . . I didn't get that house, and while at the time I was upset, I now know I am much better off with the house I did end up with.

Lessons Learned in the Last Year:

• bigger isn't always better
• banks suck
• a good realtor is an amazing thing
• a homeowner's work is never done

and

• going away this 13 people is just too much