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!

American Horror Story

Things have been slow around the Bungalow as far as home improvement or nifty additions go. We got caught up in a way-too-busy schedule of work and holiday grind. But now it is time to show some love to our sweet abode. Before doing that we have to embrace her faults (and ours).

We are messy. Terribly messy. My plan is to corral this mess and make some sense of our house. First on the list are the Guest Room and its closet and the Basement. The closet needs shelves and I need discipline as far as not treating the whole room as my closet. The basement is going to remain ugly for a while, but it doesn't have to be such a mess filled with things we don't use. It is time to clean, purge and organize! With that in mind, the first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem. Well, I admit it:

 Guest room after Christmas. It's a little bit better now. Not much.

This is from a different angle.

Then there is the corner of the stairway to the basement and the basement. Terrible.

 

 

 

But not ALL is terrible. Our living room looked nice for the holidays.

For 2011 I had a mile long list of resolutions for the bungalow's upgrades. That list is still quite long. This year I'm keeping it simple -- Clean up the mess and keep it clean. Fingers crossed. Whatever we get accomplished on top of that (hello, new living room ceiling?) is icing on the cupcake.
Happy New Year!

Art deco

Get it? Art deco ... meaning I acquired more art to decorate with.

Our evolving staircase is still mostly a blank slate for art I want but cannot afford. I did make my yearly trip to WVU's Mountaineer Week craft fair and visited artist Annie Morris Simco. We have prints of her work in the living room and a small original piece, also in the stairwell, I splurged for last year at the fair. And now we have a new print in the stairwell!

 Isn't it lovely? Of course I would love to the have giant original of this, but it is not in our price range.

 

I also hung up my print taken by my friend, Jill Olexa. It is a shot of the mural painted on the back of the Chic N Bones building in downtown Morgantown. Check out Jill Olexa Photography if you're interested!

 

 

I like the two new additions to our gallery. Just gotta keep on movin' up ... the wall.

Not-So-Scary Halloween

I have always wanted to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. I came close back in 2009, but with a choice between it and Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights on a trip with hubby and friends, my choice for Mickey was vetoed.

With the help of deal shopper Courtney, I acquired a few not-so-scary Halloween friends for our porch and brought a little of Mickey's party to Short Street.

Hopefully they make it through the season without walking away.

Four More Years!

Mike and I celebrated our 4th anniversary last week on the 25th. We enjoyed dinner at Lira on High Street where I arrived to meet Mike and was greeted with hot pink roses in our orange vase at our table. Mike was so thoughtful to go to the restaurant early and infuse our dinner with our wedding colors. After dinner we headed to Lake Manor, a bed and breakfast in Cheat Lake where we had a gift certificate. It was a nice retreat complete with a private courtyard and hot tub attached to our room, the Esquire Suite. No, miss Lilo did not join us. Courtney was kind enough to baby sit her.

Mike and I celebrated with traditional 4th anniversary gifts of fruit and flowers. He gave a floral print cover for my new cell phone to me and attempted to gift me with a black pineapple from Antigua (where we honeymooned). Hurricane Irene put a stop to the shipment of the pineapple from Florida, so I missed out on the fruit portion of my gift. It's ok, because I gave Mike two melons for his gift. Why is that so funny? I needed to give him some fruit and melons were on sale. He also received a St. Francis de Sales charm to wear. Years ago I gave him one of St. Peter, a patron saint of writers, and he's worn it ever since. Alas, St. Pete bailed on him recently and is no where to be found. St. Francis stepped up to the challenge of protecting my writer instead.

The bed and breakfast was a welcome break for this busy couple. Things are about to get busier with football season kicking off this weekend (Go 'Eers!). Here's to four more years ... and then some!

Meet Elle Woods

We have been trying to find a piece of furniture for Mike's basement office that is both a comfy seat and a decent place to sleep. We would like to have a double bed/loveseat combo. In the meantime, our friend Courtney offered up a very economical (cough, free, cough) loveseat. It has no pull out bed. But it's comfy.

Meet Elle Woods.

Elle came to us from the Sigma Kappa house, hence her name. She had a good steam cleaning before we acquired her. Just sayin'.

Like her namesake, she makes the best of her situation. Look how cute she is tucked away in the corner of Mike's office. Go, Elle, Go! Bend and snap it, gurl!