Once Around the Store

I love doing these once around the place posts - gets me moving and looking at what needs to be done. Today I am here at the store and snapping some pictures before I go about changing the displays and changing out some display shelving. It helps to have something to reference so that when I decide I can't stand what I just did I can always fall back on the old plan and do an update instead of major overhaul.

It seems to me to always be a major undertaking to try to compose a display. I know that all the retail gurus say that in-store signage is a must, but I somehow manage to ignore it. I know that I shouldn't, and this time I am committed to doing something about it. Instead of just making nice looking vignettes, I am going to actually put the maxim to the test.

So, this is what we look like right now - before! The next post should have some subtle changes as well as some dynamic ones complete with signage. Of course, I will be taking a small holiday in between, so maybe that will impact what you see when you return as well as my attempts at first-class merchandising!!

Once Again Around the House

You may have noticed that there hasn't been too much going on around the house lately. I must confess that I have been a little distracted (again, already?) for the last week. Taking advantage of a challenge thrown out by Susan at http://www.homedigz.com/ I submitted pictures of my "laundry room" as an entry in her Help This Home project. This is indeed an exciting adventure and I want to share with you what has happened so far. But, before we start in on the project, I'd like to take some looks at the rest of the homestead so you won't fall down in disbelief when you see the Laundry Room!

Here is a rather placid view of the family room, pretty common set-up, not a lot of fuss or muss.

And from here we can go into the kitchen - getting closer to disaster area but not quite there yet!

Behind this door lies a sight to behold. You will either kill yourself laughing, or immediately sign me up for ADD-Anonymous. So here you go!!

Now! What could I be thinking? I was obviously thinking that this is a walk-in dumpster!!

Once Around the House

Okay, we started out with our walk on the patio and then I jumped the fence there to include that daylily. Let's get back to what we have here. Dr. Deeds specializes in "pots" - anyplace that he can fit a pot he puts one. I, on the other hand, like to place them with great precision. What with the ADD, I can only stand so much visual confusion in one place at one time. My newest project is to secretly hide some of the pots and see if anyone notices. Until then, let's take a look at what currently resides in some of them.

Pink is a special color for the patio at this time of year. In fact, we have some very lovely "weeds" that are a delightful pink. In fact here is a picture of them -- in a POT!

Next is a lovely variety of Hydrangea that will really be beautiful in a few more days of this high 80's-low 90's temps we've been having. I know that there is some magical stuff that you can do to change the color of your hydrangeas, but I really like these just the way they are.

One time Dr. Deeds brought home a lovely exotic plant for beside the pool - naturally in a pot - that is a lovely shade of yellow and orange. I am not sure what they are, but they certainly lend an air of the tropics (or maybe the desert?) to the poolside. What do you think - and better than that, do you have any idea what they are?

Probably my favorite right now is the bright pink Bouganvilla. We used to have one that grew all up the side of the house. It was just tremendous and didn't even look real. I'll check to see if I have some old picture of it for camparison one of these days. In the meantime, here is what we have to look at right now!

To finish up this pink story I took a picture of this fine plant. I don't know its name either. Did I mention that Dr. Deeds also is an avid gardener and never met a plant he didn't love? He is so crazy about them that he just has to bring one home - or two, or three. I have lately taken to telling him I am stealing his Lowe's chargecard if he brings one more plant home (but really, it could be worse, right). We now have an entire slew of these beauties - some white and some pink. Don't worry, we'll get to the white ones later. Remember, we haven't even left the back patio yet! We have an acre of so to cover before we get to the dog days of summer and an entirely different roundup of blooms! You can see by all of this that I almost never lack for a flower to make "everyday special".

Pick a Favorite?

What's your favorite color? What do you think the chances are that we can find it out here in the garden? Betcha a donut that we can! Now, let's take that walk around the yard we've been promising ourselves while we get in our workout and stake a bet. Okay - ready to go?

First, I think RED! Yes we can still find some red out here if we look closely enough. Actually, red is a pretty common color in this landscape. I hadn't really noticed before. Right here on the patio are two really nice "reds." The first is a really lovely vine and I notice this one and a few others of different shades. We'll snap a few pictures of them too, and add them to our "colorlog." Next we find a really beautiful "tree" - well at least it looks like a tree to me. Or maybe a bush. Think I need to start some research and study into floraculture?

And then, there is this Day Lily (daylily?) out here behind the pool stuff. It sits here amongst a sea of yellow cousins standing out like the brave soul it is. There is just something really lovely about these lilies that "make everyday special."

Another Look

Well, for the past few weeks now I have been a bit busy and not really posting here as usual. I got myself involved in three online courses, a major store spring-cleaning, a photography project, and a migration of three websites. I have been a bit pre-occupied to say the least. And now I am planning the coming week and making lists and lists and more lists. I almost always make these lists - don't you do that too? And then I actually do try to work my way through them - it's just that I can get really distracted really quickly. So I am telling you right here and now, this time it will be different. This time I have a real determination to get through them all because they are the blueprint for the future, so to speak.

It is time to take a look at what's been happening and all that I have been trying to do, and make some sense of it all. For starters, after tonight's post I am going to work on a few design tweaks to the blog site here. Nothing radical - at least not at the beginning. But it is time for some change, and change is almost always exciting and certainly a lot of fun. I have pages and pages of sketches and definitions of "ftp stuff"and html and all that techno-talk. What it comes down to is this - we won't know what we are getting until I hang it out here. So it may be changing on a regular basis until I get it right!

So take a good look at it now, because with the next post it will surely look different, maybe even better (depending on how you look at it.)

PS And did I mention that I have been having a real bang-up time over at Twitter also? That, my friends, is the place to really learn some stuff!