Spanish Moss in Savannah

Here is a view of some Spanish Moss in Savannah that I took pointing toward the sky as we drove around in our rented convertible.  The moss jumps from tree to tree and creates a canopy overhead in many places.

The Family Room/Den Now

I would like to change a few things in the Family Room/Den without spending a ton of money.    For now we are keeping the couch since it has a few good years left in it and it is a decent extra bed when we have guests.  The rug is also staying since it is a fairly new wool rug purchased from the Crate and Barrel outlet in Kittery, Maine.    The room is over our garage, and an area rug that covers most of the room makes a huge difference in the winter.  The walls are painted a Martha Stewart color called wicker white and has some undertones of yellow and pale green.

Below is a floor lamp from Ikea that serves us well and provides nice light.  On the wall are 2 original paintings. The upper is by my grandfather of our house, and the lower is by an artist in Cottonwood, AZ named Sallielou of a city in Pennsylvania.

Above the couch is a Marimekko wall hanging from CB2.  We wanted something oversized over the couch and this was an option that was less than $100.  Looking at the below picture makes it pretty clear that I need to replace the freebie lamp on the left.  I’m thinking of this as an option with the soy base, but I can’t quite establish if it will be tall enough.  I also really like these, but thought that I should probably go with a squarish shade.

The Curtains need to go since they don’t quite match.  I’m thinking of something simple and white.  I never have good luck shopping for curtains.  I also think it is finally time to buy an actual piece of furniture for the stereo instead of using the trunk that I packed all my belongings in when I left for college.  I have been searching for a low L shaped bookcase in white that is not too deep.  My second choice would be a normal bookcase to be positioned in the same way as the trunk.  Once we have a new piece of furniture I’m hoping the artwork doesn’t seem like it is hung so high.  Two more original pieces of art are in this corner, one by my grandfather and the other is from a Vermont Artist.  The room is not very large so we don’t have many options for rearranging.  It only measures 12′x10′.

Here is the TV corner.  We are keeping the TV stand and TV.  The corner unit allows us to make the most of the small space.  I’m thinking of packing up the kite over the television and saving it for flying instead of collecting dust.

Lastly, here is the light fixture that I bought at the Todd Farm Flea Market a while back.  We don’t tend to use it often, but it fits with the house.

So if only I could get the impossible to find items I can finally pull this room together.

The Den/Family Room Before

Here are some pics of our Den/Family Room when we first got the house.  Some pics are with the previous owners furniture and the first two are with our furniture soon after we moved in back in 2003.  I will be posting more recent pics soon.  Since this small room at the back of our house is where we spend the majority of our time I want to finish it off finally.

Spring Break Adventure 09

We started off in Venice, FL with beach weather, where we flew kites, searched for shark’s teeth and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day.  Click here for more Florida pics.

Next we drove to Savannah, GA cruising the city with the top down.  Somehow the cheapest rental car available was a convertible.

We really enjoyed exploring the Savannah area.  Highlights were an architectural tour of Savannah, gators in the Savannah wildlife refuge, Tybee Island, a cookout and more wonderful weather.  Another great find was the coffee shop and honey at the Savannah Bee Company.  I had a honey latte that was to die for, and am now so pleased with the purchase of the Sourwood honey and the Beeswax Hand and Nail Salve.  Their natural body care products don’t contain any parabens.  We also really enjoyed the coffee at The Gallery Espresso.

More pictures of Savannah here.

My Earth Hour Video

This is my small attempt to represent and participate in Earth Hour. I intended to have some footage of the Boston Skyline as well, but the fog rolled in as soon as it was time for Boston to turn down the lights.  I limited the amount of time I spent on it to the hour the electricity was off so it isn’t anything fancy.

Several Trips

I haven’t posted any snippets from our adventures at the end of 2008.  Here are links to pictures.

Chicago in November
Roasting Marshmallows at Cosi

Xmas in Asheville, NC
Pisgah Forest Waterfalls on Xmas Day

Arkansas in December
Cruising around in Arkansas in a 1966 GMC pick up.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is on March 28th, 2009 at 8:30pm.  I plan to participate.  Join in.  More info. at http://www.earthhour.org

X Marks the Spot

Views from the Charles River from this past weekend:

Light Bulb Recycling

Halogen bulbs contain a small amount of mercury and need to be recycled, along with CFL light bulbs.  These websites have some helpful recycling information:

LampRecycle.org

LightBulbRecycling.com

Compact fluorescent light bulbs are a great way to save energy, but since the bulbs contain mercury more work needs to be done to develop effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.  At the very least, a backup plan is to safely store old bulbs until a recycling option is available in your area.

Bookshelf Organization by Color

A while back I took the plunge and organized my book shelves by color. There is actually a Flickr group devoted to Rainbow Book organization. We didn’t have quite the right mix of books to make a true rainbow, but I’m happy with the results. I think it looks neater and occasionally I can remember what color a book is and locate it quicker than I could when we didn’t have a system.