Garden Updates

Grape Hyacinth
Tulip
Bradford Pear
Dwarf Pine
My Chinese Dogwood 'Wolf Eyes'

My Baby Bank Robber

Every time we put this pink hat on little caterpillar, she immediately pull it all the way down. She looked like a cute bank robber! Haha! Cannot stop laughing everytime I see this picture.

Here is how the playroom, aka the living room, looks like now. We moved half of the sectional sofa down to the basement, so we can set up the playpen and still have space for little caterpillar to practice crawling. But it looks like we are losing the crawling space. Need some organizing.

Spring Cleaning Yard Style Part 1

After 5 years, our decks and porch are in desperate need of some TLC. We bought this new toy a couple of weeks ago, finally I got the chance to use it. It rained for most of the weekend, so I rested two days inside, and worked like mad the entire day yesterday.

First I tested it on the front porch stairs, which in the shade and got mildew and algae growing. Not bad, right?How about the small deck outside the kitchen door. Worked pretty well too.

Then I worked, and worked, and worked, until dinner time, and my hands and back couldn't take it any more. Here are some WIP pictures, will take some after shots later. But look at the difference! How about the chipping paint on the railing? Worked pretty good as well. Just wish I got the soap to come out. I had to wash everything with just water.

Forgot to take before after picture of the patio furniture, but trust me, they look much better now. Now I just have to wait till weekend to paint everything. When we first bought the house, we stained the deck floor, and painted railing white. It looked so gorgeous on brochure, but we forgot one important fact. Their beautiful deck was in the shady spot, vs. ours in full sun. It was pretty, but toooooo bright, blinding even. So, we could not really enjoy it in summer. Now we got another chance to make it right. What color should I choose? (We cannot go back to bare wood, too much work to remove all the white paint from the railing spindles) Oh, just found a great blog posting on Dover Projects about how they refinished and saved their deck. So, maybe I should sand the boards before I stain it again.

BTW, here is a picture of my greatest curb finds every. Picked it up on the side of main street the night before the garbage day. When we drove by it, I thought it might be those thin wire type of shelf, but to my surprise, it's very heavy duty metal shelving, like those in workshops. And it was heavy. So instead of putting it on the top of the car, I had to fold the backseat and put it inside. It's about 5' long and the short section is about 2.5'. Don't really like the chipping black paint. Might go for a fun color (maybe aqua?), since it's going to be outdoor, holding all my orchids and jasmines.

Spring Training

OK, this is not me, but my goal. Got an email from Fitcorp yesterday. They want the old members back, so they are giving us a "Alumni Spring Break", $39 for 20 visits. That's increditable, consider how much you pay normally. Of course, it has a deadline, May 31. I cannot go on the weekends, since I have too much to do around the house, never come into the city. Counted the weekdays, there are only 33 days. So, I basically have to go everyday to every other day. Wow! That's a lot of mileage, like running a marathon, just in 20 days instead. That's not too bad! And I do want to lose that last 10 lbs of baby weight, so I accepted it as a challenge to myself. Just came back from my first visit, not as bad as I thought. Maybe carring a 20lbs baby around all the time helped a little. So from now on, till the end of May, I will be in the gym in the morning, and have lunch at my desk, instead of the Cafe, to make up some time. Hopefully, by the time we start going to beach, I will have my body back. Really hate to have those "muffin top" kind of body. (Read that on Family Circle lately, and thought that's mercyless accurate, and very funny.) Sorry there won't be any before and after pictures for this. It's too embarassing.

My Green Thrumbs Are Itching

The weather is getting warmer, and days getting longer. Birds are busy nesting, and trees are blooming. (which means my allergy is pretty bad. ) All my spring plants are blooming, tulips, daffodils, forthysia and azalea. Other summer flowering plants are waking up as well, oriental lily, tiger lily, iris, clumbine, purple coneflower, and Gladiolus. My young peony and dogwood survived another winter, probably will reward me with some beautiful flowers next season. My little caterpillar already had some garden fresh organice asparagus. Everything looks greener and happier.

Hello, I'm A Flickr-a-holic!

or as some people might call it "Fladdict". I am so addict to flickr, it's insane! I search on flickr, like nonstop, orchids, handmade toys, baby dress patterns, crafts ideas, thrift finds, furniture before and after, etc. Then I don't really have time to try them, you know, the baby and all, I get really frustrated! "projects" piling up around the house! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?! I also take tons of pictures, especially of my baby and orchids. I have to spend lots of time with Photoshop! And my computer will explode soon if I keep up with this.

Oh, I MUST NOT START 365 DAY PROJECTS! I MUST NOT START 365 DAY PROJECTS! I MUST NOT START 365 DAY PROJECTS! That is a death trap for flickr-a-holics / fladdicts! It sounds so innocent at first. One picture a day is no big deal! Then it turns to many, many, many pictures a day!

Oh, the other common symptom is checking contacts' newest photos all the time. Like I don't have anything else more important to do! Com'on, my house is a mess now!

Also if you want to know what other fladdict symptoms are, read this and this, or just google "flickr addiction". Apparently, this is a common disease, and spreading quite rapidly.

So, anyone has a cure for this disease? Please share and help.

Flying Kite

This past weekend was so warm, we couldn't believe it. And just enough wind, not too strong, but enough for flying kites. Stubborn bought 3 kites from China this time, for our little caterpillar, but I just think he wants to play with them. Anyway. The first one got caught in our tree in no time. So we had to go to a nearby baseball field to try out the big one. There is about 1200m string, but we didn't want to fly it that high, in case the wind dies, and it will be caught in some trees far far away. But it must went up at least 500m, it looked teeny tiny, and so 'close' to the airplanes. Letting it fly up high was easy part. Taking it down took forever, and we had to take turn, as our arms got so sore!

Love this one! Took this picture when the kite is almost coming down to the ground. Looks like a giant octopus is attacking our baby!

And I waited the whole winter to take some good pictures of her chubby feet. Finally got the chance. Something about baby's feet, just makes me want to kiss them again and again.

Spring Inside And Out

of the house, I meant. Here are just some shots of the happy flowers in my garden and inside my house. Enjoy the warm sunshine! Can you see all the flower buds? This baby is loaded! The smell is just heavenly. Cannot wait for my new pink jasmine to open. That one has lots of buds also.

BTW, that beer water thing really worked. The spike stuck at about 2"! Watered with half water half beer a couple of times, now it's about 10" tall. I can actually see the flowers! Wish I had done it earlier. But better late than never, right? This one is not like the common clivia, the flowers are not as orangey (is that even a word?). They are more like water color painting. Just like one of my lily.

I lifted the spike and supported with a stick after four flowers already opened. That's why the lower flowers look funny, turned sideways.

Love Spring! Hate The Rain!

Basement flooded again, and more water than last time. But at least I didn't have too much stuffs on the floor this time, so not many things to throw out. Just have to clear all the water, and bleach the basement again. Hope there won't be any storm like this before we can call someone in to seal the basement.

Now, try to make myself happier again. Found some wonderful spring flowers on flickr. Oh, it reminds me, where is my Claritin?

spring_flower_tulips1, originally uploaded by phamp197x.