fancy-pants tulips

I'll miss my window for planting tulips this year, but next year I fully intend to plop those bad boys in the front yard. My consistent favorite has been the Apricote Parrot Tulip. If we end up going to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival this year, I might have to pick up one or two (or ten) of these beauties.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. ~Claude Monet

ruminating over antique mason jars...

I just can't get them out of my head! Perfect for flower arrangements etc.

I found one at Antiques At Pike Market, but they only had one blue one in the size I wanted. I'm going to look on ebay for 2 more, plus I think I'll get a better price.

Bead+Backer Board

This week's bathroom progress! Kip put beadboard on the wall where the shelves will be, then he and Craig installed concrete backer board in the shower. Back board is what the tile will go over. It's the best stuff to use because it's more water resistant than drywall, plus they guys put a vapor barrier of plastic sheeting behind it. The yellow square is the in-set they installed for shampoo etc.

I love having creative friends

My friend Robin is getting married this summer, and this is her 'save the date' card. She and her fiance designed it. I love it.

silly kitty

Chibi gets cozy wherever she darn well pleases! Today she chose the air compressor hose.

Babycakes

I made zucchini muffins from my Babycakes cookbook, served with Rooibos tea. I decreased the amount of shredded zucchini by 1/2 cup (made them last week and Kip said they were too chewy) and added about 3/4 c. of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Oh my goodness, they were SO wonderful and super good-for-you.

channeling martha

There's nothing like a pristine kitchen scale.

I heart cast iron!

www.anthropologie.com

Shower pan, man!

"Before" pictures...

Kip cleaning up the tile pieces...

Creating more space in the floor for the shower pan...

This weekend Craig and Kip installed our new shower pan! During the week Kip had prepped by removing the current shower stone tiles with a jackhammer (just a little dust, folks) so on Saturday they could remove the wall material behind the tiles. One wall was backerboard and another was some sort of drywall. This proved to be a bit of challenge, as not only had the wall material been screwed into the wood planks (I think it's called a sub-wall), it had been GLUED so it came off in small chunks and not without a fight. After stripping the wall down, they installed a small plywood wall to put our new shower tile on. What a long day for the guys (my mother in law took me out for high tea for my birthday) and so worth it!

New Lights!

I'm behind in my updates! Eek... but on the bright side that means we're getting a lot done! We replaced our bathroom fan and put in 2 new recessed lights, with my father in law's expert help and direction. The first picture is the 'before' of the ceiling and fan situation. After putting up the fan and lights, we used plywood beadboard (which we painted a semi-gloss white) to seal in the asbestos ceiling tile. Plus it's just pretty!

Spring-ly blossums

Lilac buds...
Flowering quince...
Euphorbia bloom...
Forsythia...

Wormies!

Kip and I bought one pound of "red wrigglers" worms from Sky Nursery for composting our kitchen scraps. They seem to be adjusting nicely. Right now we have them in our kitchen but we'll move them outside once the first frost is over (around March 20th).