Power Flower

My parents gifted me with a Pier One gift card for my birthday. When we were near Pier One that same day eating lunch I couldn't resist visiting the Pier to see if there was anything I might need. There was no intent on using my gift card ... I wanted to keep it for when there was something there the Bungalow really needed. Lucky Bungalow, I stumbled upon some wall jewelry that was 60% off!

Mike and I saw this gem about the same time and gave each other puzzled looks. Did we like it? Was it too big? It seemed we both thought the same thing. This monster might actually look cool one one of our gigantic bare walls in the stairwell. So we took a chance and I spent my gift card. All but $7 of it. And guess what ... we love our powerful flower!

The flower (I feel like I should type FLOWER) is about three feet in size. It works perfectly with our artwork hanging below it, too. We moved the downtown Morgantown print and we're still deciding on where it will be placed. We may hold off to see what other artwork goes up before committing it to a new location.

This flower (FLOWER!) demands attention. It commands so much of your eye when walking up or down the steps that now the rest of the stairwell looks extremely plain. We must work on finishing its walls.

For more perspective, look at this shot. Look how far the petals stick out! She really wants you to look at her!

Lilo's View of the World -- Improved

Lilo likes to peek out the front window. She does this when we leave the house. Sometimes she does it when we come home. She does it when Thunder, the German Shepherd down the street, walks by. Her peeking has taken its toll on many of the blinds in the house. She has been most rough with the front window. We eventually got rid of the sad pieces of blinds hanging on for dear life and ended up with this neat square hole. Lilo's forlorn face poked through it every time we left her at home:

A view with blinds open:

While Mike was away vacationing, I mean, working in Miami, I wanted to try something new. I installed the Basic Blindz faux wood plantation blinds from Lowes.

 A look at the blinds closed:

 Much better. And much easier to keep clean. We have been leaving them open when we leave the house so Lilo can look right through them. It's been working well so far. But now we need replace all of our blinds. See the window on the left ... she attacked those blinds at some point, too.

We will slowly transition to the new blinds. I already have two additional sets to install. This is a welcome change because of the horrific condition of our kitchen blinds. They're just nasty. Can't wait to tackle the six foot window over the kitchen sink. Yes, I'm accepting any volunteer assistance for installation of that one!