And I thought I was so clever!

So the how-to-camouflage-my-TV dilemma continues. I somewhat shamefully admit that one of my first purchases after I moved in was an enormous television set. Red did a beautiful job hanging it on the wall for me, and I do love it. However, the black beauty is very stark on my (still) white wall. And it is rather an attention getter in my livingroom, which I admit is unfortunate. And so, I've been crafting up clever ways (nearly weekly) to soften it. Friends and neighbors have contributed many ideas, and good ol' HGTV fills my head with dreamy DIY options.

Among the discussions:
Big movie theatre drapes (dust collectors - discard)

Those sliding ceiling/wall panels from IKEA (side view of the TV still visible - discard.)

Build a faux entertainment center (complicated, and visually too heavy - discard.)

Build a wall bookcase on the whole wall, and surround the TV (meh - discard)

Relocate the TV (what?!  No!  LOL - discard.)

Which brings us to last week's idea which is still viable. And made even more viable now that I have seen it done elsewhere!   This is a bulletin board at the Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity's Restore:

Being the tree-hugger that I am, of course I love it.  I figure a back panel for the wall... (color?) and then slice up some logs, get some wood glue, and....?  Yes?  No?  And, I could creatively stack them to make them a little more 3D and give me a sneaky way to hide the cords.  I'm diggin' it.  And doesn't it seem green and economical?

One of my neighbors told me about a huge tree that has been cut down not far from here -- as in much-too- large-to-put-your-arms-around kind of large -- and said wouldn't THAT be cool, to have really large diameter slices??  Definitely.  But who would I hire to slice them for me?  The pieces of trunk would be ridiculously heavy (ahem, speaking from previous experience) nor do I have a saw blade anywhere near large enough to cleanly slice through anything like that.  It would be uber cool, but I suspect the economical portion of it would rapidly fade.

Color Me Happy

I have the best neighbors.  Of course, I already knew that.  Yesterday evening 2 of my neighbors (and then it became 3, and then 4 and 5...) descended upon my house and finished painting my dining room.  In fact, not only did they finish the two remaining walls, but they went back and touched up my painting on the previous two walls!  I thought I had done a fine job... I'm an experienced painter... I tape, and use drop cloths, and... well, and my efforts paled considerably next to these two.  Free hand painting, no blue tape and just beautiful work. 

Painting walls in a house as old as mine is somewhat challenging:  The trim around doors and windows in addition to having an obscene number of layers of paint on them (read, "lumpy edges") is also sort of half sunk down into the sheetrock.  That makes it tricky to choose what line you are going to follow denoting where the trim ends and the wall begins.

Nonetheless, for a  mere $17 in delivered dinner, at the end of the evening I was presented with this:

It was sort of hard to get decent photos this morning; I probably should have waited until afternoon to have better light. And then I had to aim strategically to avoid capturing all of my dishes from my kitchen cabinets in the photo -- not asthetically pleasing -- and I was not entirely successful. I think though, that in the end it's enough to give you an idea of what it looks like.

I used Martha Stewart low VOC paint and the color is Clove. We all agreed that it was sort of a thin consistency that made it a little drippy, but it dried quickly and 2 coats did the job over a white wall. Clean up was freakishly easy. Martha has a couple of things going for her.

I saw the paint crew while on my dog walk this morning. One asked me how the dining room looked this morning (fab) and was I happy with it? (Yes.) The other one asked me if we were going to knock out painting my livingroom walls before my company arrives on Wednesday (unlikely -- I haven't even chosen a color!) But you've gotta admire that enthusiasm.

Butterflies

Blue Daze

I found the plant tag for the new plants I bought... Blue Daze. I am not sure if they are butterfly attracting or not... and I wish I had bought 3 instead of 2 so that it isn't so symmetric.  You know me... I do not like the matchy-matchy!  I think they are a really great vibrant blue, though.  (Oh, and in the background... evidence that I still have not spread out the remaining 18 bags of cedar mulch!  Hmmmm.....)

Update: Seeds from a Neighbor

You may remember me writing a few weeks ago that I had stopped and chatted with a neighbor while I was on a dog walk, and asked them about some great little orange flowers they had growing in their front beds.  Judy, the neighbor, didn't miss a beat and bent over, scooped up some seeds, wrapped them in a tissue and handed them to me.  Now I have the same happy little orange blossoms in my butterfly garden! 

This photo doesn't really do them justice -- in person they look very airy and light.  Just a couple of days after I took this photo, the number of blossoms had doubled.  They are perennials, and I am told they are prolific, so I am looking forward to their bright little bobbing heads all over my garden!