Chillin' in Charleston

Our Condo in Charleston, located in James Island is the perfect place for our daughter and two roommates to live while attending Dental School at MUSC. The only drawback was this postage stamp- sized weed filled yard.





No matter what we did to it, the weeds were relentless and the girls had no time to weed and no mower to keep them under control . I racked my brain to come up with a plan as to what to do with this little piece of green. It needed to be pretty much maintenance free and we were hoping to give them a place to relax and to have a meal al-fresco every once in a while.





First step was to get rid of the weeds and lay some top-soil around the circumference of the yard. I was thrilled with the progress at this point, I thought it already looked 100% better!

The gate opens up to a small pond with a nice fountain that the residents share. It's so tranquil and nice to hear the water and see the turtles sunbathing on the rocks.


It's such a nice little area, but seldomly enjoyed because they feared walking thru the knee high weeds of their yard to get out to the back.


Okay, back to the work..
Here, we layed down two layers of weed block plastic... not easy with the wind lifting up the plastic as we were trying to anchor it down.



After a few trips to Lowes for sand and patio blocks, we felt that the yard was finally looking promising. While hubby built the patio, the girls and I planted flowers along the borders.

After mulching and planting, hubby put down the last piece of the puzzle.

Although grass would have looked so much better in this space, we opted for mulch so that the girls wouldn't have to worry about mowing. The little round stepping stones were added to break up the mulch and also to save bare feet as they made their way to the gate to enjoy the pond outside.


After one and a half days of work, the patio was ready to be enjoyed...




It didn't take long for them to get their suits on and enjoy their little backyard paradise!





Even Duchess appoves...


Please enjoy more transformations at Susan's Blog: Between Naps on the Porch !

Aint it the truth.....

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine and I mentioned that I have a blog. She said that she didn't know what that was, but just to be safe, I should see my doctor!!!

Anyway.... I was trying to explain the concept to her and said that it was like having a diary, just one that the whole world could read. " Wow", she said, "what on earth possessed you to do that?"
"I don't even have the old fashioned kind of diary, for fear that my family would read mine!"

So, here's the thing... I enjoy blogging, although I'm not as faithful as most, with a paltry 2 posts per week (on a good week!) , but I could not fully express my motivation for blogging to her. I'm not sure why I blog, but here's a possible explanation:

*** It's the best way possible to procrastinate... Need to get my house cleaned for my dinner party?...Yeah, but first I'll just take a minute to check my blog to see if I got any comments on my latest post.... then.... after reading comments, visiting all of my virtual friend's blogs, commenting on all of their posts, trying to come up with a new topic for my next post, playing with my photos, finding the right music to go with the topic I chose and maybe revamping my wallpaper..... 8 hours later....
"Gee... I didn't "get" a chance to clean the house. Oh well... It'll be a romantic atmosphere, I'll turn off all of the lights and light candles, surely they won't notice the dust bunnies that are going to be waiting to nibble on their honey glazed carrots ." ***

So here's the million dollar question: Why do you blog?

Serious or funny, I want to know what makes this little blogging hobby of ours so appealing and addictive. So peeps, come clean and be honest with me! (....and by the way, I am expecting company tomorrow, so it would be very helpful to me if I got a ton of comments, so that I could have a good excuse not to clean...LOL )

Let's go to Charleston this weekend...

I'd like to take you all to one of my favorite cities of all time.
Charleston is a place that will take you back a century or two and will always leave a beautiful image in your mind.
We are so lucky that our daughter is living there and is a dental student at the Medical University of South Carolina...MUSC.. This has given us a chance to truly savor this "southern bell" that is Charleston.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will let them speak to you with little commentary.
As you will see, I am a big fan of wrought iron, so I hope that you will enjoy the tour as much as I did taking these pictures.






























































From here forth are photos that I didn't take myself, but thought it was important to include in your tour of Charleston, to give you the complete flavor of this beautiful city.

Cinderella Goes to the Ball

me


I'm so excited to participate in Susan's Met Monday! I have to say that out of everything that enjoy creating.... a trash to treasure is surely my favorite!

I picked up this little orphan at the thrift store for $ 2.00 . This had been someone's dining room chair for many years. The right arm had been gnawed on either by a dog or a baby, not sure which... had to get the trusty sander out and smooth it out a bit. It had seen better days and even the cashier looked at it and just had a pitiful expression on her face.




.. I really think she felt sorry for me for having to buy such a sorry piece of firewood... But I had some grand plans for this little baby....


A little white paint, black accents and a dashing black and white damask fabric was all it took to get Cinderella to the ball...

POOOOOOOF !!!!!!!!



So you might call me the "Fairy Godmother" ..........





One of my favorite creations. As most of you know I have a little addiction to chairs and this is one is close to my heart.

Thanks for poppin' by, now go see some more amazing transformations at Susan's blog, Between Naps on the Porch.