Outdoor Decor: Before and After

I've been inspired by daughter Portia's blog to do a Home Decor Before and After. We're trying to spiff up the house before Babs' upcoming wedding because we will have out of town friends and relatives stopping by. So above you see the "Before" picture of the courtyard just outside our front door. Nice "bones", but boring. Too brownish-grey don't you think?

"After" I made a trip to Pottery Barn and sprang for some colorful pillows I think it looks much more inviting! Olivia likes it, too.

Beatrice hopped up on this chair and demanded a close-up so you can see how pretty she looks in front of the new red floral pillow.

And lastly--isn't this the cutest? I found it in Dolores Hidalgo when we were visiting Mexico last month. I couldn't believe some artisan had put the seal of the State of Texas on a fabulously decorated big vase. Obviously these guys knew their market.

But what makes my courtyard and patio so gorgeous today isn't anything I bought--its the fabulous spring weather God sent to us. What a great start to Holy Week.

No Good Deed Department

Notes from the No Good Deed Goes UnPunished Department:

As I've mentioned before, El Jefe and I are preparing to downsize and move to a smaller (but way cooler!) house. Knowing there was no room there for my piano, I donated it last week to a church in Galveston that lost its instrument courtesy of Hurricane Ike.

All well and good.

But.

Three big black stains appeared on the hardwood floor where the piano legs sat all those years.

So I trotted over to Home Depot and, following their advice, rubbed spirits of mineral oil on the stains and then, using a very very fine sandpaper, tried to erase the stain. It worked, sort of. But it took about 2 1/2 hours of diligent elbow grease. Then I put the finish renewer on it. Wow, am I stiff or what?

Huh. It looks a lot better, but not good. The marks are still pretty obvious. I'm not about to have the floor refinished at this point.

Advice, anyone?

My Faucets Are SO '80's

The fixtures in our "powder room" next to the kitchen decided that the week before Christmas was a good time to go on the fritz. Fritz as in not repairable.

The plumber just called from the plumbing supply house to report that polished brass fixtures are not kept in stock anymore--it seems they are just SO '80's.

A special order is required. It takes 2 weeks. But we'll have 9 houseguests next week and need everything to work. So we'll have to find something in stock, though it won't have the same finish.

The 80's don't seem that long ago to me. Who are the Design Police anyway?