Sprinkler System

I was debating about whether to blog about our latest home improvement project.  A sprinkler system for our lawn.  Want to tackle that on your own?  Here are some questions to ask yourself first:

1.      Do you enjoy 12-14 hour days of hard labor?

2.      Does creating small scale drawings of your property and cutting tiny circles to denote sprinkler water reach make your heart go pitter patter?

3.      Is using a ditch digger on your bucket list?

4.      Can you think of no better way to spend a Friday night than soldering plumbing joints?

If so this is definitely the job for you!  Otherwise…hire out. 

Beautiful Backyard Wedding

I haven't posted much this summer because instead of home improvement projects I've been enjoying a summer of weekend trips, days at the pool and water ice dessert runs.

Mixed in with all that relaxing we also took part in one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to.  Set in the backyard of the bride and groom's Zabroso Restaurant (convenient right?) on a gorgeous day my sister and new brother-in-law welcomed 50 friends and family to witness their vows and celebrated with a wood fired pizza dinner.

Guests were welcomed to the ceremony with a casual timeline of the evening.

Fans were given to keep guests cool in the August sun and doubled as a heart-felt thank you.

 The bride and groom walked down the isle together.

They said their vows against a gorgeous, natural backdrop of ferns and a babbling creek.

The bride surprised her groom, of Puerto Rican, decent with her vows said solely in Spanish.  Not a dry eye!

 

 She even made her headpiece!

Cocktail hour consisted of drinks (obviously), cheeses, crackers and fruit.  Do those chalkboard labels look familiar?

The wedding had a casual, elegant, rustic feel.  Vintage crates from my great-grandparent's apple orchard, covered in burlap added some heigh variation and all the serving pieces were borrowed from my mom's awesome collection.

Plywood and chalkboard paint created a casual menu.

Tables were set up in two family style tables.  Table runners were cut to size using landscaping burlap.

Flower arrangements were mason jars, wrapped in burlap, tied with a ribbon and filled with grocery store flowers.  Lemons, limes and corks were sprinkled throughout to add to the full look.

When you hear "wedding food" you probably conjure up images of rubbery chicken or tough prime rib.  Not here.  These two are cuisine experts and the food was amazing.  It looked beautiful and tasted even better.  They had a coal fired oven set up to bake fresh and perfect pizza served with lots of colorful salads.  Who doesn't love pizza?

A salsa band played into the night and most people, literally kicked off their shoes and salsa'ed into the night!

Living Room Drapes

Done!  96" West Elm Scribble Curtains in midnight blue, hemmed to 92" to hang floor to ceiling.  I swapped the wimpy rod for an 1.25" diameter rod.  The triple window has 2 panels flanking each side to get the scale visually correct.

Before = too short, drab and not enough fabric for the scale of the window:

After = much better.

I still can't figure out the piano placement.  It looks like we could just shift it down towards the door but is actually a few inches wider than the door.  We can't shift it the other way toward the wall because then that side of the room is too heavy with furniture.  We can't move the couch because it faces the only wall we could put a TV on and still have it hidden.  What to do, what to do.

 Also I think I forgot to fill you in on finishing the door headers.  Remember how we couldn't find the 12 more feet we needed to finish off the headers and left it looking like this? You can't tell from the picture but the header stuck out further than the crown so we needed more crown to sit on top of the header so it stood out away from the wall, to look one one connected piece.  

Well after lots of searching someone from Home Depot recommended a lumber yard about a half hour away that took all the leftover molding from Home Depot.  Score.  Sure enough they had it!

Now the doorway has the depth we were after:

So the doorway went from looking like this...

To this!

Stick a fork in this living room.  It. is. done.  

For now.