Howe Home Heaven

I know, I KNOW its been a while since my last post. Who knew that I would procrastinate doing something that is fun because there is so much to tell! Its embarrassing to tell you that one of my newer hobbies during the day is to actually think of funny and witty things to post here. Yes, my life is that sad.

FYI: The length of this post is 100 percent reflective of the length of time that has passed since my last entry. Hold onto your pants!

Since I last blogged, there have been a few things going on. Hold the phone - total understatement, alot of things going on. Not as much in the ways of inside house reno, but more along the lines of outside house reno, wedding, and visitors! Needless to say the inside of the Howe House is looking much the same as you remember it in the last blog post. According to a telegram that I received from across the way a few days ago, the Worker Bees will resume work on the floor today. In the mean time! Lots of things to tell you! 

Kate Hosies' Wedding was really great. It was the first time that I've ever been seriously involved in a wedding, and it proved to be a lot of work! But we all had so much fun doing it. The ceremony was on the beach, and the reception up at the Farmers' Institute. We thought that the transformation there was pretty stellar (nothing compared to After Grad, but definitely gives it a run for its money).

Setting up the tables

A small glimpse at what the hall looked like the morning of!

 And one last wedding - related one:

I like this photo because of Molly's expression (far right) and the fact that all four sisters and their children are in the same frame!

With weddings come visitors, right? Always the best kind of visitors, but what would Sarah do in any situation of the like? Work her magic, obviously!

Wall before the pew . . .

Wall WITH the pew. Awesome, right?!

The front porch before the magic  . . .

The front porch after . . . for which you'll have to turn your head because I can't figure out to make them @!*%#$ rotate!

The deck was also further transformed . . .

Which has also turned more recently into an outdoor theater (hence the curtain on the RHS):  No need to be jealous:) In other news (no particular order): 1. THEBABYBIRDS that made the front of the house look charming rather than symmetrical have fled the nest! (or so we hope). Proof! I don't think I have any pictures of the front of the house now looking more symmetrical, but I hope you can trust me when I say that it is! 2. The other baby bird, AKA Chris (not really a baby - more my big friendly giant) has also recently fled the nest! To this place!: More specifically to city called "Moshi" which is just at the base of Kilimanjaro. He'll be doing some volunteer-esque work there for give or take three months. Who knows whether he'll fly back here at the end of three months or to Ocktoberfest in Germany . . . 3. To continue the bird theme . . . I've created a mini-encyclopedia of the birds of my deck for you (ie: I sat on the deck for three days straight after the wedding and had nothing better to do). Enjoy! The chestnut - backed Chickadee. Enjoys sitting, rather than perching, on the feeder, and is exceptionally picky. Ie: eats maybe one in 10 seeds from the feeder. Obviously not a conservationist.   Pine Sisken:  In INSANE numbers at the feeders. Have varied personalities . . . which makes for interesting bird watching. Junko: Black, recognizeable head. They like eating the seed off of the deck in particular. Curious . . . Ruby - coated hummingbird: When thinking how many times their wings beat a second, the only thought in my mind was: "That's something Bob Howe would know". (10 seconds later . . . ) 125 Beats per second! We actually have three H.B's at this feeder. Promptly named Lucia, Pearl and Priscilla.  And no, I'm not a half - decent photographer. I just have a camera that makes things look like I am.   We also have nuthatches that like our peanut feeder a lot, but somehow I missed snapping a picture of them. And just for funzies, I have one that you can identify! 4. Critter update: My theory on the deer coming up to eat all of my colourful plants is this. As soon as they know that I've decided they aren't going to come up and eat anything, they'll do just that. Note to self: jimmy a deer gate before it gets really dry here! The raccoon battle on the other hand, is still ongoing. Solution to him eating my birdseed: put a bungy cord around the feeder so he couldn't knock the top off, naturally. I obviously win this battle. The raccoons' solution to not accepting defeat:   Sarah's thought before seeing this: "oh YES, I can't wait to see that my bird feeder is still full of seeds". Sarah's thought after seeing this: you have GOT to be kidding me. How does the raccoon even leave the bungy cord HANGING AS A PUNCH LINE?!! No new solutions other than replacing the feeder are being considered at the moment. Stories from Howe Household today, specifically: Well, this morning I basically wandered the house until about noon because I had no idea where to start any sort of organizing. Pace around upstairs, go downstairs to eat a cookie, pace downstairs, go back upstairs, check facebook, repeat. Then I decided that I wanted to be outside instead of inside. Step one of doing something: deciding what you're going to do. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that there's been a lot of stuff going on outside. Here's what the fenced garden is looking like these days:   Sidenote: I transplanted the plant above a few hours ago - it was in a pot outside the fenced garden which clearly wasn't the best place for it - the deer were definitely getting at it. It almost has arbutus - like bark. It's peeling at the moment and is a light green underneath. Any ideas? We will wait maybe until some of the leaves have returned. I had to sacrifice some spinach to put the poor guy in there! Hopefully it was worth it! This garden at the very most, is a complete experiment! There's even a marker that I put in that says "Mystery" on it, because I have no idea what the bulb was when I put it in. Was anyone else's first summer garden total overkill? And I only mean that because I will have so much spinach and beans and so many beets by the end of this thing, I am not going to know what to do with it all. Seriously. But really, truth be told, I'm just having fun with it. So whatever makes it to the top of the soil, makes it and what doesn't, doesn't. Not concerned! In the last couple weeks, Emilie and I have planted: lots of herbs, carrots, garlic, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, beets, peas and most recently, beans. Before I tell the hilarious bean story, a view from the garden to our deck, which I don't think you've seen. Bean Story!: Last night I was at my Aunt Catherine and Uncle Scott's house and Catherine mentioned that she had some of my Grampy's (my Dad and Scott's Dad) scarlett runner beans that she has been reseeding every year. She had wet soaked them that afternoon and asked if I wanted some on the condition that I put them in as soon as I got home. Sure! I said and trundled off home with 50+ beans in my hand. Needless to say previous to this I had already filled most of the space in my garden . . . I basically put these beans in with a headlamp because it was so dark out (if you can imagine me in a headlamp, squinting my eyes, warding off mosquitoes, and punching finger-big holes in the half of the garden), and had to add a small circular trellis as well as start 30 of them in plastic pots because I didn't want to waste these 'scarlet runner beans' from my grampy. I will be putting out a call for bean eaters in the coming months as they will literally be taking over my garden . . . at least they are cute looking in bean form!: The floor, as it was before this afternoon, looked like this: The floor today made it to past the dishwasher so we will see if the kitchen area gets finished tomorrow! My project (one I had decided) today was to reorganize the potting shed! And, just when you thought I was done talking about birds, think again. Meet Bertie. The fat kid of the pine siskens that frequent our deck. Actually, I don't even think i've seen him on a feeder just because he can't actually FIT on the perch. So he has to eat off of the railing. Poor guy. Meet Bertie! I've exhausted my photos and likely, your patience. I promise that the posts won't be nearly as long as this one, but, to escape my feeling of guilt in not keeping you up-to-date, it was necessary. I have a habit of making things much longer than they need to be. The past couple weeks have taught me a lot about my patience levels when it comes to renovations. A month ago, I was the girl who wanted to flip just one house in my entire life. Just one, just for fun, to learn about Home Renos/DIY. I mean, I consider myself a pretty handy person; I love putting together IKEA furniture, I'm not scared of power tools, and I like getting my hands dirty. Now whether or not that qualifies me for flipping a house, I'm not sure. BUT I now know that I don't think my heart would be in it to do it. My patience is just not there! I think renovating my future house to make it my home will be more than enough lifetime renovations for me, thank you very much. Everything going on here makes me appreciate the time and effort that goes into reno-ing a house! Want to hear me talk more today? Just kidding. Worker Bee Sarah OUT!