tbf: dusty

Sometimes things have got to get messy before they can get clean, right?

tbf: garden time

Things are growing in our garden! I'm so excited about it.  It's funny to me how every year when the seasons change, I get just as excited as the year before.  I hope that never changes.  I have been stalking the peonies outside (these pictures are actually a few weeks old and the peonies are all gone now. tear.), watching them unfold and bloom and keeping my fingers crossed that more buds will appear.  I don't want them to go.  

Yes, I know these are roses and not peonies, but they deserve a photo, too, right?

However, mother nature won't leave me sad for long.  Just as the peonies have gone our first tomatoes have begun to sprout.  The thought of a perfectly ripe, mid-summer tomato makes me salivate.  I'd be hard pressed to find anything more delicious. Again, these pictures are a bit dated, so the tomato plants are much larger now.  I enjoy being able to document this and have concrete evidence of how they've grown.

lettuce

peas, please!

tomatoes

The tomato plants have grown so big and now require cages.  There are little fruits about the size of a...well...I can't think of anything that size. Smaller than a golf ball, bigger than a marble...Help me out here?

And again with the peonies.  Aren't they just beautiful? There's something about their vibrant hues and delicate nature.  I know I'm not the first person to oooh and aahh over peonies and I know I'm far from the last, but let's just take a minute to sit here and bask in their glory (even if it is only in a photograph).

tbf: light

I have been enamored with the way the light comes into our home.  Especially in the late afternoons.  I feel like all of its luxurious warmth belongs to me.

the bungalow files: choosing a paint color

I am so bad at choosing paint colors. I just get stuck in a wash of indecision.  The four colors below were options for our current bedroom.  Guess which color we chose? I'll give you four guesses.

You're wrong.  We didn't choose any of them! The two in the middle looked so light at the time.  They didn't look any different from white. It's perplexing the way a color can look so light and barely there when you just paint a little square of it, but then once you paint the whole room they look so much darker.

Anyway, we didn't choose one of the darker ones either, because they already looked so dark and we wanted to lighten the room up.  I ended up going with one of the same family as the two lighter ones, but that was in between the two.  When Dan and I went back to the store, not really satisfied with any of our options, we settled on one called something like Old French Grey.  Obviously, I was sold on the French part.

No pictures of the final color yet! We need to get our room all set up first. It came out significantly more blue than I had envisioned, but I still like it. 

There you can see the two shades we tried in the living room.  I limited myself to two, because I knew I could have tried 15 and still not been satisfied.  We went with the one on the right.  It really brightened up and modernized the space.  It, too, is more blue than I had anticipated.  Evidently, I'm really drawn to blue undertones. 

Ok, that's it for now!

the bungalow files: bathroom

Stepping into our bathroom is definitely like taking a step back in time.  From the wallpaper, to the light fixture, to the incredibly solid tub (sans shower), nothing feels modern.  However, it doesn't really bother me that much.   I kid you not, but everyone under the age of 40 who has come into the house has touched the wallpaper (it's raised) and said, "I actually kind of like this."  I actually kind of like it too.  

It's a pretty and classic pattern, even if its color leaves a bit to be desired.  Although I suppose if you called it chartreuse or citron, people would be all about it.  I think once you update the light fixture, mirror, and vanity, it would look more modern.  It feels better already with the wall to wall carpeting out ;)

Sorry about how blurry this picture is. But I wanted to illustrate the lack of shower capabilities.  Also, the old people support bars.  All of this will get renovated at some point...I'm just not quite sure when that some point is. It's okay though, our shrunken basement shower is working out surprisingly well. I'll have to show photos of that at a later date.

And there you have it in all its glory! Old people bars, built in cabinets with dated hardware, and all of that wallpaper.  What do you think?