Farmers Market time...

While on vacation we went to check out the Cedros Design District farmers market in Solana Beach. I was in camera heaven... all of these wonderful textures and colors and lighting...

Ok - face it, it's so hard to find bad looking places in Solana Beach. So, I was in heaven. And I was with Heaven... my niece. Isn't she adorable? We had a blast... and we met a guy who told us he was Jesus... it was a fun-filled day.

A one time event... or the beginning of another revolution?

When I talked to my Mom on Sunday she mentioned that one of the things they are doing this week is participating in a TEA Party... wait, what did you just say?! My mom?! Participating in a TEA Party?! GO MOM! (In this case "TEA" stood for "taxed enough already.) For more info on the BOSTON Tea Party, go here: Wikipedia

So, here are some interesting statistics about paying taxes... this year, 2009, most of us will work until April 23 before we are free of our annual tax burden. Meaning, the money we make between Jan 1 - April 23 all goes to pay off our individual tax bill. After that we're working for ourselves... finally. According to The Tax Foundation we're paying more in taxes this year than we will spend on housing, food and clothing combined. This is amazing to me (AND a little disturbing) ... more details on their website.

And for some humor... see this song on You Tube. Kinda puts it into perspective, doesn't it?!

So around 5 pm yesterday I journeyed out of the house (WHAT?!) to see what was happening about a mile down the road. You can read more about the North San Diego protests here in the North County Times article: article

Or you can see with your own eyes what I saw...

























And this morning's breaking news headline read something like this "Obama talks about revolutionizing America's travel... more to come... "

REALLY?!

Living room makeover... out with the old...

This is a picture of our lil' living room BEFORE the popcorn was scraped off the ceiling, before we got a different couch / chair ensemble, before the re-arranging, before the introduction of new / fresh colors... Stay tuned... work in progress... more to come in a few weeks...

We may get it set up in the new arrangement and want to move it back to this configuration. But, we'll see... so far I've painted two of the walls. See how the wall on the right is darker than the other walls? Well, we're bringing it all back to one color. It's the same color (Olympic's "Camel") that was used in the kitchen and the hallway and the bedroom.

Our plan is to simplify, de-clutter and refresh with an easy paint job. As of yesterday (4-11-09) the back wall (one w/ the art hanging on it) and the darker wall on the right are now painted. This next week we will be rearranging furniture so I can paint the other half of the room. Stay tuned...

Hubby works on the weekends... he's happy he isn't being recruited to paint. But moving that large entertainment center... with all those cords... ick! I'm glad he knows his technical stuff! Phew...

Outside painting done... NEXT!

Well, it's done... actually, it was done a few months ago... I'm just now getting around to blogging it. In the Fall we had some work done on the house... painting the outside was the big job. I'm so happy with the results. What do YOU think?



The tricky part with our house is that the only entrance to the front door is through the alley. Wow - I just LOVE living in the historic district. (Sense the sarcasm?!) While it is intriguing... no one can find us. On the other hand, we never have door-to-door sales people or trick-or-treaters. I guess it does have it's benefits.

So this is the walkway to our front door. Narrow and cozy.



And in the image below I wanted to show how we decided to continue the paint below the clapboard, and onto the cement foundation. We saw this with a neighbor's house and noticed how it just "cleaned up" the look of the house. So, we stole their idea. I don't know if it's technically "right" or "wrong" to do it this way - but we're glad we did. This continues all the way around the house where the foundation is exposed.



This window is next to our dining room table. It looks out onto our front walk ... this picture was taken before the hand-crafted shutters had been re-hung. The shutters sure makes a difference, don't they?!



And this is the back of the house that rises above the garden/yard, since we sit on a hill. All of those windows back there? That's what I get to look out of when I'm in my "den", aka "craft room". I get to look out over the tree tops and house tops of Old Escondido. It's just a beautiful place to abide...



Next project? Getting the back yard in order so I can enjoy the view even more... today we have planter boxes being built. And I might stroll through a nursery or two today and come home with a rose bush. Hmm.... which one should I get first?! The yummy smelling lavendar or one that symbolizes something important?! hmm....