I apologize for the lack of posts lately. My manager is on paternity leave at work and a few people were on vacation, so I’ve been working a lot of overtime to keep the department caught up. I have basically been going to work, coming home, eating dinner, and going to bed! It’s exhausting!
So today I thought I would share with you the view from my office, since this is what I have been looking at lately. Enjoy!
A few of weeks ago, we hired some people to remove the wallpaper in our dining room and bathroom. The original plan was that I was going to do the removal, but after hours of work and a beat up wall, we decided it would be best to hire someone. Especially since we would probably have to hire someone anyway to repair the mess I made of the wall!
The plan was that the workers were going to remove the wallpaper, patch up the walls, and then prime them. Which they did, but they used a clear primer when they did it, which meant that every patched area, the pencil lines from when the wallpaper was installed, and any other wall ugliness showed through. It was pretty gross to look at! (But still nicer than the old wallpaper!)
Finally last Sunday, I couldn’t stand looking it at it anymore! So I painted. Which was both good and bad. Good because it looked much better, but bad because I only had time to paint one coat. Which meant I had to squeeze painting into my already busy schedule! But I managed to do it, and I’m so glad I did because I LOVE how the dining room looks now! Below are some before, in the middle, and after pictures. (Sorry they are not in order! I’m using the WordPress App, and I have some learning to do on how to move images around after you have imported them.)
We recently bought a new bird feeder, and it has been a hit! Especially with the squirrels, which upsets Nick. He runs outside to try and scare them away. But they are pretty bold. They will sit and wait until he is almost within arms reach, and then they run away. And they come back shortly after they have been scared off. They’re really cute, but they will sit at the feeder for hours, stuffing their faces, which scares away all of the birds. Apparently, we need to get a squirrel feeder soon as well!
This cute little guy has discovered a routine that works well for him to get all of the sunflower seeds that he can. He stands on the deck, and then does a backflip onto the feeder so that his head is at the bottom (that’s the only place he can get seed from). After he gets some seeds, he jumps back onto the deck railing, eats, and starts the routine all over again. Even with him doing this over and over again, I was still only able to get a few really good shots. The rest were all so blurry because he’s so fast!
For our anniversary this year, Nick got me flowering jasmine tea from Tea Source. I had never heard of flowering tea before and was excited to try it. It comes in the little pods that you see below. You put them in a clear glass and pour water over them. As they steep, they expand to become a flowerish-type thing. I was so excited to see how this would turn out, that I had to break out the camera and flash.
During my initial photos of the pods, I was so enthralled in photographing, that I missed the electric tea kettle going off, and I had to start my water over again! Luckily, the tea was too hot to drink for awhile, so I was able to snap away without being stuck with cold tea.
I think this was a really fun experience, and the flowering tea is both beautiful and eerie at the same time. As for the taste of the tea, it was good, but I don’t think it was any better than any of the other jasmine teas that I have. I will definitely enjoy it, but I don’t know if I’d get it again.
This is the first year Nick and I have had a bird feeder in our yard. We were surprised by how quickly the bird seed needs to be refilled. At least every three days, if not every two days. It was hard to understand why we had to fill it so much. We mostly see chickadees, cardinals, and some blue jays eating. Although they tend to go back multiple times, they are not large birds, so it was a bit confusing. Since we’ve never seen a squirrel anywhere near the feeder, we just thought it had to be the blue jays who were consuming so much. They did seem to be around the most, and they are the biggest birds that we had seen at the feeder. And then this weekend, we saw the turkeys…
Melonie Lavely 
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