Ceiling Fan Accoutrements

Because every ceiling fan needs something to make it feel special and unique.

This was a fun little project. See those little baubles hanging ceiling fan #1? That's the project to which I'm referring. Those little baubles hanging from the pullchains for the light and fan motor control. Ever since we've installed this fan, it's lacked the pulls. Not a serious issue, obviously, but chain pulls do make it easier to pull. So J. and I decided we'd buy a pair for each fan.

The pulls for ceiling fan #2 were easily enough to find at Lowes for a few bucks each. The chain for ceiling fan #2 is not like the other two fans; it's silver in color. We thought that silver or gold pulls on black chains look strange, so that cuts our selection at Lowes by 95%, and the remaining 5% of the in stock selection were not good matches for our house.

Google was our next option. And here's where we become very cheap. We found lots of "that's cute but it costs HOW much?" and several "that's....interesting" and several "no way, not it my house."

But then, while roaming our local Hobby Lobby, it came to me: beads. (Bees? Beads.) A few dollars in beads plus some wire from home, and voila: custom ceiling fan pulls. It's like earrings, for inanimate objects.

This is the bauble hanging from ceiling fan #3, in O.'s room. O. was impressed at least.

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We're in the swing of summer now. Air conditioning, popsicles, drumming up excuses to douse my head in the hose, and the daylilies at their best. And in other news, O. has decided to climb the castle and slide down the slide without adult involvement. It happened one day when I was busy and couldn't help him climb when requested (demanded). The next thing I know, I hear "I did it!," look over at the castle, and see O. at the top.

Ignoring as a parenting device: genius.

A Little Landscaping

For the past year, we've had an empty space in the rock bed on the front of the house, just below the office window. Two of the bushes in that bed died, finally, although they were probably on their last legs when we bought the house. I dug out the bushes last year and then was too busy/indecisive to replace them. For a few months, I was looking for a spirea of the right size and able to take some shade. Then I was concerned that this is really a hot spot since although this is a shady spot, it is the West side of the house and receives a few hours of direct afternoon sunlight. Finally, I decided to wait for inspiration to strike.

Three events coincided this weekend which enabled us to finally fill in the empty space on the West side of our house: 1.) a relatively quiet weekend, 2.) a drop in the relative humidity, and 3.) a 40% off plant sale at our local hardware store. The two shrubs on the sides are leptodermis, a flowering shrub that matures to about 2'x2'. The middle shrub is a hummingbird sweetspire, which should mature to about 3'x4'. I hope we've made good choices.

I also hope that the leptodermis doesn't live up to it's name ("thin-skinned" if I'm interpreting the Greek roots correctly). This spot has the worst soil for digging in our yard. It's all hard-packed clay, and there's rocks from previous application, plus the usual tree roots. A shovel gets you absolutely no where, and we dug these by hand spade instead. There's no way we ever want to dig holes here ever again.

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O. Photos

O. is posing for the camera these days. Here he's doing his best (and unintentional) Home Alone impression.

What's with the blue and yellow shoestrings on his feet, you ask?

These are laces from a lacing set. He wraps them around his feet and calls him his "beautiful princess shoes."

Those laces come in handy for other accouterments. I call this photo "I love belts, Momma!" (actual quote from this morning).
Yeah, I don't know what he's doing with his leg in that pose either, but he was insistent that that was how he wanted the photo to look.

One more photo, and this one is future blackmail: O. in his "beautiful princess dress." The dress is the table runner that Mom quilted for us. He likes to spin and twirl around in it.

Ah, June

I admire June (the month, that is). June turns spring into summer. Schedules change: the academic year ends and the summer holidays begin. The weather changes: on June 1st, you may need a light jacket in the evening, but by June 30th, you sweat at the mere sight of a hoodie. With the weather change comes the end of the spring flowers and the beginning of the summer flower, and is what I admire most: June's ability to change the color palette of the landscape.

Par example? My herb garden is no longer the spring colors. The purples, blues, and pinks are gone. The summery colors are here: orange and red. Even the yellows are different; brazen and warm, no longer the chilly daffodil yellow.

Case in point: marigold, started from seed.

The yarrow is gorgeous right now and attracting bees. I like to think that yarrow is doing its part to save the bees.
Some cute annual daisy that I can't remember the name of right now.
And the nasturtiums. Have I mentioned what I've learned about nasturtiums? I've wanted them for several years. I like their foliage and their bright colors. As a bonus, they're edible, which makes them kid- and pet-friendly. So last year, I started a pot of nasturtiums from seed and set the pot on the West side of the house. I babied this pot: fertilizer, good organic soil, and plenty water. I had beautiful foliage...but zero flowers.

This winter, I read up on nasturtiums. Some say that nasturtiums don't like containers. Some say that fertilizer promotes leaf growth over flowering. So this year, I sowed them directly in the herb garden, and didn't add any fertilizer. And -voila- flowers and lots of 'em.

Sometimes doing less is better. Good to know.