The new door and the badass list

We have a monster master list of “things to do for the house” that reaches from here to New Orleans. And when that badass list gets to New Orleans it will order a drink or two on Bourbon Street, dance on the table and say to us “you will never ever get everything done on this list so you may as well have a drink!” Seriously. The list is that badass.

We are not afraid of that list. In fact, we crossed off item number 856 (well you didn’t think we did things in order, did you?) just recently with the installation of our new storm door.

The old door.

The old door was probably beautiful, even stylish, in 1966. The people who lived at Lydia Street when it was installed were very happy with the way it looked. And it did its job, keeping the drafty cold air from seeping in around the original craftsman style door.

New door

But this new door is just as hard-working but instead of hiding the REAL door of the house, the storm door tries to disappear.

Painting the porch is also on the badass list, at item number 642. We’ll get to that on another day. Sigh.

Bringing the outdoors in

Inside the house you’ll find reminders of the outdoors. A vase of flowers, fresh picked vegetables on the kitchen counter, and a bowl of rocks in the living room. I don’t know why we seem to collect rocks. After a walk in the forest, a stroll on a beach or almost any outdoors excursion we’ll find small souvenirs in our pockets — rocks or shells or sometime pinecones.

Each one has a memory.

Thoughts

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” Gautuma Buddah.

First caprise salad of the year

We harvested some basil to make the first caprise salad of the year this week. Fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil with a splash of balsamic vinegar — yum!

Look

“Look beyond every single thing you see. There’s always something behind.” – Wilson Kanadi

Look

Our historic Schnitzelburg neighborhood

Lydia Street is part of an historic neighborhood called Schnitzelburg where the houses are close together, there’s a tavern on every third corner and every other house is being lovingly renovated. We went on a recent neighborhood history walk to learn more about where we live.

According to our tour guides, the neighborhood was settled in the late 1800s by German Catholics. The guides pointed out sites where, during the 1940s and 50s bakeries, butchers and barbers once were. In some cases, those old businesses are being revived in a hipster kind of way. While others are are still going strong.

You can still get a good haircut in Schnitzelburg.

The famous Check’s Cafe.

The tour guide took us past an ordinary-looking house on Mulberry Street where the new owners discovered it had once been the site of a dairy. They found a box of milk jar lids (and everyone on the tour got one to keep).

Souvenir from the Schnitzeburg history tour.

We also learned that a neighborhood group has a grant from the city to plant redbud trees to replace some of the older trees that have died out over the years. The plan is to create street after street filled with redbuds (which are city-sidewalk friendly) and to eventually host a neighborhood festival in the early spring when they’re in bloom. Nearly 100 trees have already been planted.

We love our historic neighborhood.

All Wool & Yard Wide Democrats live in Schnitzlelburg.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today

This week’s challenge asked us to pick up our cameras, look around, and shoot a photo TODAY. What a good challenge — to observe our surroundings, to find beauty in the everyday. Very zen.

These smooth stones are stacked in a window where they catch the afternoon light. Zen Buddhists say that the art form of stacked stones brings us back to mindfulness. I think that was the point of this week’s photo challenge as well.

What in your home brings you back to mindfulness?

Photo Challenges from Other Blogs

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Today (BUTTERFLY) (picturesinlivingcolor.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Today (anitamacphotos.wordpress.com)

Outdoor rooms? Porches are wonderful

Most of the houses in our neighborhood were built in the era when front porches were essential outdoor rooms. Our porch gets full shade all afternoon and evening.

On our porch we added comfortable seating, tables for cool drinks and put some candles inside a couple of old railroad lanterns for soft lighting. We think we’ve got the best gathering spot ever on a warm summer evening. Pull up a chair and join us sometime.

Front porch at Lydia Street

Bring life to your walls with paint and imagination

By now you’ve probably realized that our decorating style is far from traditional. You’ll find bold paint colors and unconventional choices wherever you look.

This mural was painted by Christe and our friend Mary (who also painted the kitchen ceiling) and we love the sense it gives of soaring high and free.

Mural on bedroom wall

Who says ceilings must be plain? Go wild with color and design

Our kitchen ceiling

With a little paint (okay, a lot of paint) and some talent (okay, our friend Mary is a professional) and inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright we were able to transform our plain white ceiling into something much more interesting.

Our design starts on the ceiling and then continues down the wall. Christe drew the original “pattern” (and also designed the curvy lighting fixture). We used all of the colors from our house, both interior and exterior to achieve the wild boldness. The purples are from our bedroom and sitting room, the yellows and golds from the living/dining room and hallway, the green from the exterior and the dark blue from the office/library/music room.