Home Goods Happy

Home Goods is running a commercial with the slogan "Home Goods Happy" and that's what I am!  They have the best deals there and really cute thing for the garden.  Sometimes I find the things at TJ Maxx which is the same company and while they have a smaller section for items for the home, they often aren't as picked over as the actual Home Goods store.  I found all of these things at TJ Maxx which is literally just down the hill from where I live.  I've often walked with Jacob in the stroller there.  On Friday, I showed you the lantern I bought which I had planned on using on the patio until Jeff suggested using it in the house.  But I did buy these really cute planters that I used for herbs.  I don't think their actual color shows up too well in these photos but they have that green tint that copper gets when it ages.  In this planter, I have mint and oregano.

    

And in the planter below, I have basil and cilantro

I saw these exact planters at a nursery for more than twice the price.  I had my shopping cart full when I spotted something really unique.  It was a big wooden planter that was put together with pieces of wood like a puzzle.  It was by a designer named Danny Seo.  I texted Jeff to come meet me at TJ Maxx and I showed him the one of a kind (no others in the store) wooden planter.  He liked it but wondered what I'd plant in it.  I didn't have a really good answer for that so I said, "Okay, let's forget about it and just get the other things." I was still thinking about it a few hours later wondering how I could use that planter.  It had a plastic insert so all of a sudden it occurred to me that it would make a great fountain!  A few weeks before, I had seen at Home Depot a display that said, "Make any container a fountain with this kit!"  So I told Jeff my idea and off he went to TJ Maxx to get the wooden box.  Thankfully, it was still there.  The kit has 3 different nozzles so you can choose how you want the water to spray.  We chose the bell shaped spray.  It also lights up at night.  Since I didn't want to cut a hole in the planter for the cord, we just went over the side and I found a cute handpainted ceramic sunflower to hide the cord.  Of course, it turned into a much bigger project than anticipated because we had to run a waterproof extension cord out to the spa and Jeff didn't want it just laying on the ground so he bought black ABS (which is like PVC but not white) that he could run the cord through.  Here's Cooper and Kanan checking out our new fountain before I added the sunflower to hide the cord.

    

Watering Hole

We thought we bought a new fountain for our patio area but Cooper thinks it's his personal watering hole.  He can't stop drinking out of it.  I think he thinks it's a babbling brook.  We ordered this fountain a month ago but the first one arrived at OSH in pieces.  Something had fallen over on it in the truck and smashed it.  The second one left from the West LA OSH but took a detour up to Tracy, California which is up near the Bay Area.  We finally got it on Sunday.  It's larger than it looks in this photo and it has lights inside that light up the water.  We bought a pink Trumpet Vine to put behind it.  We'll unwind the vine from the stick that it's on once it gets established a bit.  In front, we planted some New Guinea Impatiens.

We had a fun weekend.  Saturday we went to the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach with Justin and Sarah.  They are now planning a trip to Costa Rica in a couple of months.  On Sunday, we met Chris and Liz at the beach in Ventura for a car show.  The boys will be back today and Jeff will be mowing the lawn which is one of the things they look forward to.  They like to "help!"

      

Bloomin' Begonias

Annie posted a photo for a blog project called Beauty in Your Own Place.  I've been meaning to show you a photo of our begonias so even though it isn't really a little vignette like Annie's pond, I thought I'd share it with you anyway.  I've never grown begonias before because I thought they looked a little delicate and wouldn't stand up to our dogs who often traipse through our flower beds.  I decided to plant some on both sides of our garage in a little planter bed where we have a new bush that has pretty colors.  I put the sticker for the bushes on our gate post so I'd remember what they are called.  Good thing because I had forgotten that they are named Coprosma Tequila Sunrise.  This Sunset Magazine link also calls it a Mirror Plant and it's a good shade plant that grows to 5 feet.  Ours is growing slowly but 5 feet would be just about the right height.  But I digress.  Surrounding the Mirror Plant are a mass of begonias.  I bought them in little inexpensive pony packs and they just took off.  I have pink, red, salmon and white flowers and some of the foliage is green and others are almost a maroon-color.

  

Yesterday, Jeff spent the whole day at UCLA with his mother.  She will be participating in a study on Alzheimer's.  We don't really know if she has Alzheimer's but she does have dementia.  She often gets confused about things, loses things and she forgets to take her medicine.  Jeff has to call her every morning and evening to remind her to take her medications.  He has finally convinced her to stop driving and he's getting her car ready to sell.  That's going to be really hard for her but she's close by and Jeff picks her up often and takes her along to the dog park and they stop at the market.  He also takes her to church on Sundays.  

Ryan's Prickly Cactus

When we take Ryan and Jacob on this one particular local hike, Ryan always looks forward to a spot on the trail where there is a grouping of cacti.  He's intrigued by the sharp needles and always wants to put his finger near the needles poking out.  He's very careful, though, and has never been stuck.  On Friday, we saw that the cactus had flowers on it and he wanted to smell them but I warned him not to put his nose too close.  I know where you think this is going but it's not...he never pricked his finger or nose although he did have a week of falling on his face and he looks like he's been in a playground brawl.  So when we went to Costco on Saturday and I saw a big arrangement of cacti in a big bowl, I had to buy it to put in our backyard.  Ryan will be so excited when he sees it.  However, when Jeff and I were looking out from our family room and saw it sitting on the spa bricks, we realized it was slightly obscene looking.  Or maybe it's just us.  What do you think?

We had a busy weekend looking at tile, granite, bathroom cabinets and faucets.  We have a project coming up that I'll write more about later.  No, not our bathrooms as we've already done all three.  We're going to remodel one of the bathrooms- the one the boys use- at the house in Thousand Oaks.

Superheroes

Ryan is obsessed with The Avengers and Iron Man in particular.  I have the Iron Man DVD and he watches it over and over and runs in circles around the family room sofa.  When we were at Costco the other day, we saw a Spiderman tent, sleeping bag and pillow set for only $23.00.  I thought it was so inexpensive and Ryan was really excited about it but I asked him, "What happens if next week they have an Iron Man tent?  Will you want that because I'm not buying another one if you get this."  He assured me he really needed this Spiderman tent so I put it in my Costco basket.  We set it up in the family room and here he is playing inside.

Remember my annual flower bed where I planted the Gerbera Daisies and Marigolds.  It is taking off like crazy, especially the Marigold border in front.  On hot days like we've been having, I have to water twice a day.  The Marigolds seem to hold up well in the heat but the Gerbera Daisies wilt.

In the Eye of the Beholder

In addition to planting my annual flower bed in the front yard, I added a few new patio plants to brighten up the backyard patio for our party.  Ryan was so cute when he went downstairs and saw them.  He said, "Oh Nani, pretty new flowers!" and then he told me about new rose bushes at his house.  I thought it was funny that a little boy would be so excited about flowers.  He does like to help me plant and go after weeds.  The trick is making sure he digs up the weeds instead of the plants.  There must be some quote about weeds vs plants along the same line as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" because some weeds can be rather pretty.  I had to google that and came up with one anonymous quote:  "But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else.  In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit.  Weeds are people's idea, not nature's."  We were tidying up the garden for the party and came upon this row of weeds.  I was about to start pulling them up when I realized they made a pretty border and would look better than bare earth as we didn't have time to replant.  What do you think?

  

I even think they get tiny blue flowers.  They will go eventually when I find something else to put there.  Here are a few photos of the flowers that Ryan approved of.  The first is a tree rose and I should've taken the photo from the side to show that it's a tree rose but wanted you to see the pretty colors.  It's called Rainbow.  Reminds me of a climbing rose bush I have called "Joseph's Coat."

I also got two huge pots of Impatiens.  They need shade or at the most partial sun so will have to move them under the balcony instead of out on the spa where they are now.

Finally, for some instant color, I got an enormous pot of petunias to put in a hanging planter on our patio.  It's pretty spectacular!