LoLo Lodge: Master Bedroom (work in progress)

Would you like to see the master bedroom? In all its glory? All done up and pretty?

There it is. That is the extent of it. My dresser top. We found the rusty picture frames at Pottery Barn on clearance, and the starfish are from a shop in Seaside, Oregon. Some day I will even print out pictures to go in the frames. The woven basket is a souvenir from a trip to Hawaii when I was a little girl, and the brick was found in the yard of my Connecticut home, prior to moving to LoLo Lodge. It has “CONN” imprinted on the side, so I decided to keep it. You know, to remember our time in CONNecticut.

I have plans for the room, though. I’m feeling a kind of Beachy Chic for the master, and I want to start with a headboard that sets the tone.

Like this.

And I want to build it myself. (Plans here.) (Actually, I think there will be a Group Building Day. At least two of my girlfriends want to build their own headboards, and one of those girls is a WHIZ with power tools and makes her own furniture all the time. Folks, hold me to this – I NEED to make this happen.)

Oh, and a new bedspread. The current one is pretty, but the colors are too dark for my taste. All golden wheat and inky black. I’m kind of loving this palette, though…

(Bedspread found here)
Of course, now that I look at it…it’s still golden wheat, but now it’s grey! Much lighter than black! *facepalm*

Ugh. Sometimes I wish I understood my decision processes better! It’s not that I don’t like the golden wheat color, but I need something brighter…more like dandelion, you know? And, of course, I want to make it myself…so I’ll be trolling the local fabric store for inspiration. (Oh, who am I kidding. I only quilt with thrifted bed linens. It’s a nod to the quilts my great-grandmother made, out of clothes that could no longer be worn, and it saves tons of money. So, I’ll be keeping my eyes out for fun prints and colors at the local thrift shops!)

Anyhow, there ya go. The LoLo Lodge master suite. In all its un-finished (and indecisive and planned for!) glory. Because making plans is easy. Way too easy.

LoLo Castle: A New Front Garden

A few weeks ago, we spent some time tearing out our DREADFUL lawn, and replacing it with something…not dreadful.

I can’t even tell you how relieved our neighbors were. Heh. It started months ago when my neighbor casually asked me if we had fired our gardener? Because the yard was not looking as spiffy as it had before?

 

Why yes. Yes, we had.

 

Then we got the great idea to replace the lawn with…something else. Anything else besides dead grass and moss. So I cut a 12” strip out along the driveway, and planted half a dozen “steppable” ground covers.

As it turns out, the 12” strip next to my driveway is REALLY really wet. And the plants didn’t do well. And there was still dead grass and moss.

So we went to Costco, and bought Plants. Hydrangea, carnations, azalea, more ground cover. I plopped those pots down on the grass, to see how the set up would look. We went to Lowe’s and bought more plants (knock out roses, little daisies). I put stuff in the greenhouse, and waited for it to be ready to plant (lavender).

And I left them there. For at least a month. (That’s how I make decisions, you see – try it on, see how it feels…and wait. A long time. Until it feels natural. Then I get someone else to do the hard work. Heh.)

We arranged a work party, and some fabulous dudes (hi Dad! hi, J!) showed up and WORKED. The sod was ripped out, holes were dug, plants were planted, bark was spread and pavers were placed.

 

And, finally, our front garden was done. Ming Wai calls it Stepping Stone Path, and she and her cousins run around and around the loop of paths, much more than they ever ran on the grass. I love it because it attracts bees, and I feel like I’m doing my part to help them.

Oh, and our house finally has a name. Welcome, y’all, to LoLo Lodge.