It's been a while since I've posted anything on the blog. I will hopefully, be posting a little more regularly in the future =) Here is a brief update of things that have been happening around here. The garden guest bedroom is now a pretty shade of Lilac.

 I did try to paint it green first, since the hubby wasn't a fan of the lilac color.

 But the room just kept telling me it wanted to be lilac =) Does that happen to you?

 We've already had several guests stay in this room, picking it over the blue room, so I must have done something right.

 I shopped the house for the pictures on the walls, picked up the owl print at goodwill, painted the little owl on the dresser at a paint it yourself pottery shop. The chair came from a consignment store near my sister in Utah. I still need to recover the seat, but haven't found fabric I love yet.

 I collected the bedding, lamps and purple pillow at TJ Maxx, and made the coffee sack pillow. The comforter at the bottom of the bed came from Costco. The best part about this room is that it looks out onto the back courtyard.

 I love to bring a cup of something warm out here in the mornings and watch the squirrels and birds.

 Listen to the birds chirping and the water fountain. We extended this patio this summer, we added about 10 feet in length and took out a huge bed of plants and weeds. The hubby has been rebuilding the fireplace, he has a bit more to do to it before we can have smores.

 We brought in all new gravel to create this dining area under the tree, just so I could hang my candelabra from the branches.

 Added new gravel, extended the walkway and rebuilt flower beds.

 We had the house stained and all the trim painted. We had College Painters do the work, they were wonderful!

 We added all new gravel down this path also, we gave away our chickens and turned the chicken coop into a garden shed, for now.

 We fenced in the garden, built new raised beds and added hazelnut shells to keep the deer out.

 I bought the cute gated arbor at a store near my sister in Utah.

 We added blocks and pavers around the backside of the driveway and took out 2 trailers full of brush and bamboo.

 I can't even tell you how many trips to the yard waste dump we have taken, probably close to 10? maybe 12.

 All the trim was painted, along with the shutters.

 We cut quite a bit of the wisteria down, including all of it near the kitchen door. Moved a few bushes, and took a few completely out.

We also cut down a total of 5 trees! Whew! Oh, and I have 150 tulip and daffodil bulbs planted in the front and back of the house. It should be beautiful come spring! It feels good to be back! Have a wonderful evening!

 The grout in the bathroom is DONE!

 I am in LOVE with how it turned out!

 Just as I pictured...

 Victor did an amazing job!

 Now we are just waiting for our contractor to come back in and finish... he will be finishing out the cabinets, adding trim around the door and window, and beadboard on three walls. He should be here Friday. I was hoping to be DONE Friday, but not gonna happen =(

The plumber will come in next week to finish installing fixtures, tub, toilet etc. The shower surround will be installed Tuesday too! Then I can start adding the finishing touches =) The fun stuff!

While I was snapping pictures of the bathroom, I noticed the last rhododendron was finally beginning to bloom. Want a closer look?

I think the color may be my favorite, a pretty peachy color.

 We have soo many projects going on right now it's hard to keep track! Remember when I did a little updating in the laundry room? Well I removed some of the cabinet doors...

 The cabinet doors have just been hanging around for about a year now!

 I knew what I wanted to do with them... I took the hardware off and painted them.

 Loving this color... I think it is called Strawberry Field by Valspar. I am making the cupboards into chalkboards! I forgot to take pics of the others, I will post when I am done with them!

 I picked up four of these "drawer fronts (?)" from ReStore the last time I was there for .50 cents each. I thought they would be perfect for  a couple of signs! This one is getting painted the Strawberry Field color. I am thinking of having it say Strawberry patch... for the garden ;)

 I have primed all the trim for the contractor. It is sanded and ready for him to install.

The hubby has been busy too! He is revamping the fireplace! Wait till you see it now! What? You don't remember what it looked like before?

 Before I remind you of what the fireplace looked like before, I found these pics of the bathroom, before we moved in!

 Wow, eh?!?

Here is a pic of the fireplace, before we moved in. Ya, remember? The small hill and bushes are gone now too!

Today... a day of rain and fog... which means a lazy day in the house! My favorite kind of day =)