Outside Progress and Inside Plans

I can't figure out how a yard the size of a postage stamp can suck up so much of my weekend time.  Even weeding a postage stamp takes time, I guess.

Morning glories are beautiful, but they are impossible to control, multiply faster than you can weed them, and grow everywhere.  I'm trying to fix this issue with landscape fabric and mulch.  Landscape fabric accomplished.  Mulch, not yet.

In addition to morning glories trying to stage a take-over of our yard, the cucumber plants are trying to break out of their planter.  They have completely taken over one planter and are expanding into the surrounding pathways.  They suffocated my canteloupe plant and have the butternut squash plant in their sights next.  Who knew cucumber was so vicious?

With all my focus outside, I'm still itching to make some big changes in the dining room.

I've been debating between two different moulding approaches.

Board and batten

or

Picture rail

I wanted test out these theories without actually any construction or painting, so I tried out the different divisions of the wall with painters tape.  (I also was testing out a potential future built-in which would utilize the dead space above the basement stairs)

I'm currently leaning toward the picture rail.  When I walk in the room with the higher tape line, the room seems to feel a bit larger.  The lower one had much less of an impact.  Either way, I want to get started soon... I'm sick of talking about it!

Behind the Objects: Israeli Art

In the land of design blogs, we talk a lot about things.  Furniture, art, accessories... material objects.  What really makes a home's design special to the occupant, however, is the meaning behind the objects.  In this series, I celebrate the personal significance of the things I surround myself with.  The stories of my home. Today's object is a piece of art that I 'inherited' with Hubby

He brought this original artwork home from a trip to Israel as a child and we got it reframed a few years ago. The colors are so vibrant, the picture really does it no justice.  The gold background is tough to capture, but in person it just glows.  I just wish I knew what it meant!  Hubby claims that he used to have a piece of paper describing the meaning of it, but it disappeared along the way.  So if you have ANY inkling of what it says, by all means, share - I'm dying to know!

With such a variety of colors, it could really live in almost any room of our home.  It's current place of honor, however, is in the dining room where we walk by it daily.  It's a beautiful piece, but beyond that, I love that Hubby feels so connected to it.

Wanna Know a Secret?

I'm finally ready to divulge the mysterious secret of the desk that I told you about here.  But, you'll have to wait until the end of the post.  Unless you're just THAT impatient and scroll down right now. I've been working like crazy to refinish this $80 craigslist find so I could deliver it to my sister in law this past weekend.  $80 is probably more than I would have spend on a regular old desk, but as I mentioned, this is no regular old desk.  It's original state was sad, though.  I would have loved to salvage the wood, but the veneer desk top and drawer fronts were beyond help.

Naturally, the solution to that was paint it bright green.  Naturally.

I'm kind of in love with the color.  It's so glam.  Good thing I can't cheat on Hubby with a color, he might have competition.  The flower knobs are from Anthropologie, and for the amazingly inexpensive DIY ring pulls, I followed Sarah M. Dorsey's tutorial.  But, we all know by now that this desk is more than meets the eye.

It's the PERFECT piece for a spatially challenged NYC apartment.

I have never seen one before.

ever.

Is the suspense killing you??

Ok, fine.

I'll tell you.

How cool is that?!

Shared at the link party at Primitive and Proper