My business partner and I recently booked some entertainment for a client and we had a chance to go and enjoy the festivities of the grand opening.  It was a car showroom grand opening for pre-owned luxury vehicles.  Know what I found out?  Ross really likes cars.  I mean really really likes cars.

Okay, so he likes his sister too, but boy are we going to have trouble when he is older.  He looked at each and every one and was in awe.

Francesca liked this one, an old BMW Isetta.

He was beaming from ear to ear the entire night.  He loved the cars.  Oh, and they had cupcakes.  And cookies.  Good Italian cookies like Zia makes.  So there was that too.

It started out innocently enough.  I took down the kitchen curtains to wash them.  I decided to put up some valances I had in the linen closet that I had picked up from Target on clearance for only $3 each.  The valances alone made the kitchen brighter, no easy feat since there is a Florida room off the kitchen that blocks and diffuses much of the light coming into the kitchen.  I did not take proper before pictures of the “project” but this will give you an idea of what was before.  Cafe curtains with upper valances and bottom curtains. Off topic - is that not the biggest hydrangea bloom ever?  Why are they all no longer white?  Now they are all greenish.  Still pretty but not white.

So anyway…I put up the new valances and the light just poured in.  And then I could see the dirty windows in all their, ahem,  glory.  So I cleaned the windows, inside and out and in between.  Not easy.  Especially since these old windows don’t open up all the way.  I have good leverage under the window by the door but it must have been quite the site to see me feet in the sink, trying to pry open the window enough to get at the storm windows.  Between standing on a stool over the sink and standing in the sink I was able to lower and raise the storms, I couldn’t pull them out.  So now the view out the window looks like this.

If you look closely out the windows by the storage canisters you can see the tippy tops of our garbage cans.  Nice view.  So again, no “before” picture.  You’re just going to have to trust me that it wasn’t pretty.

So that’s what I was working on yesterday.  I ran to Home Depot to get ideas only.  I have no budget for this and was just going to move what I had planted on the other side of the fence in the side garden over to this spot, but I knew eventually I’d like to add some height.  I had one Pieris (Japonica) bush that was in the side garden that will grow to about 5 feet tall.  I thought an Arborvitae or 3 would be perfect for hiding the garbage cans and the fence but wanted to see what else would work in this area.  I get part sun in this area, a lot of the day it is shaded.  I hit the jackpot at Home Depot as many of their prices were slashed.  I picked up a very small Arborvitae for $5.99 and a small Azalea for $6.99 and two tiny garden Mum plants for $19.

I cleared the section where the garbage cans were and carved out an area for the garden.  I then  removed the Hostas and Pieris bush from the other side of the fence/gate (on the side of the house) and replanted them in the yard, along with the new plants.  It took about 3 hours total and I am so happy with the results.  You still have to pass the garbage cans if you walk through the gangway to the backyard but we rarely do.  We mostly enter the yard through the kitchen door and I spend a lot of time at the sink doing dishes and looking out that window.  The view is so much better now.

As you can see from this side angle, the garbage cans are on the other side of the fence.  I can’t see them though, from my kitchen window.  I think I’ll slat the fence or plant something that vines over it to block the view until the plants grow into their own.  everything is teeny tiny but if you use your imagination, you can see how it will fill in.  As things grow I’ll have to move some of the Hostas, but I love using them as “place holders” - it looks pretty and helps keep the weeds down.  I still need to add mulch.

Far left you can see the Arborvatie and in the back corner is the Pieris.  Once they grow it will fill in that area nicely.  The Azalea is the lime green plant just behind and to the right of the white potted annual plant.  They say it will get between 3 to 6 feet tall and just as wide.  We’ll see.  The mums are the really tiny purple plants to the right of the picture.  I may need to move those as they might need more sun.  I bought them because I love mums and couldn’t bring myself to buy two big pots of mums yet.  I can’t mix them with the annuals - it looks funny to me and I’m not ready to lose the potted annuals yet.

I’m so happy with how this looks.  Such a small change that makes such a big difference.  And super budget friendly.  And, since this is such a hodgepodge of how one small project went astray I’ll post another example of how things lead from one to another.  As I was outside taking photos, I noticed some ripe tomatoes in the garden and so I walked over to pluck those.  Here is todays tomato haul.

Mmm. Off to make Caprese salad.

We went to the Radio Disney Studio in downtown Chicago recently to fulfill a Cub Scout requirement; communication.  The kids got to see what Radio Disney was all about, how they make money and then the kids got to record their voices in the recording studio and then play them back.

Adam, DJ extraordinaire and all around great guy led the tour and the kids loved him.  After the tour, the kids got a great Radio Disney goody bag and got to have lunch and hang out downtown for awhile.

They enjoyed tossing coins into this fountain.  But want to know what they really thought was cool?

Riding the “el” to and from Chicago.  They were daring and tried to balance when the train started and stopped and loved being thrown off balance.  This was the best part of their great day!

Image from poppyproject.coach

So, have you seen the http://poppyproject.coach.com poppy trails all over your favorite blogs?  It’s a cool concept and from a  marketing perspective I think it’s a great, fresh idea.  The viral marketing plan is “popping up” all over the place.  And I sure wouldn’t mind winning one of the “surprises” if I see a Poppy Coach bag on any of the blogs.  I love the new line and Coach was my go-to brand when I was working.  Now that I am not, I do not foresee a new Coach bag in my near future.  Even when my student teaching is over and I have my teaching certificate, the salary of a first year teacher simply doesn’t scream “Coach”!

Many of the blogs I read have embraced the Poppy Project and have Poppies growing all across the headers and along the sides.  The problem I see with this, from an advertiser’s standpoint, is that as the poppy trail grows, it covers up other advertisements.  Maybe I’m being picky but if it were my ad dollars (although much less, unfortunately, than other mediums) paying to be on select blog sites, I’d be a bit unhappy with this free, virtual, viral campaign.  Wonder if any of the bloggers or their media representation are getting any pushback?

Image from www.poppyproject.coach.com

Can you fight City Hall?  We’re sure going to try, or to be more specific, fight the police department.  Sam received a $50 parking ticket for parking directly in front of our house.  No, it wasn’t street sweeping day.  The ticket reads for “parking within 10 feet of the centerline of the driveway”.  What?

He has a big Ford Econoline van, which is a 15 seater; which is neither here nor there.  It was parked directly in front of our house, not blocking either our driveway or our neighbors.  What the heck is this 10 feet from the centerline of the driveway ordinance?  I have never heard of such a thing.  If that’s the case, I wonder if you can ever even park there when you go out 10 feet from my centerline and 10 feet from my neighbors centerline.  I’m going to measure tomorrow.

We have parked there for the 8 years we have lived here.  Never once id we get a warning or a ticket for this.  We have however, been sideswiped twice, had mirrors broken off and had a full on other vehicle back into my car while it was parked in front of my house.  All hit and runs.  Where were the police then?

This is absolutely ridiculous.  I wonder what quota the officer was trying to reach when he issued this citation.  I am so glad my tax dollars are being put to such good use here.  I will call tomorrow morning to complain, let’s see if I get any where.

How cool is this?  It is called Earth Ball and it is from a company called Orbis (http://www.earthball.com/orders.htm).  Earth Ball is a graphic ball featuring the latest NASA satellite imagery and it has a feature that shows “Night Glow cities” - basically, glow in the dark populated city areas.  As a mom, I think this is such a cool educational tool and as a teacher candidate/future teacher I can think of a ton of lesson plans and uses revolving Earth Ball, particularly with elementary students and those with special needs.  The larger, meter size one is a little out of a new teachers salary, but the smaller ones are reasonably priced.

I have an ever growing list of resources that I am compiling so that when I have my own classroom I will have the resources handy.  This goes to the top of the list.  I love the idea of incorporating the Earth Ball with on-line technology; NASA has a great teacher/student website that would tie in nicely with lessons revolving around the Earth Ball.  Social Studies and science would be “hands on”, no pun intended, with this teacher tool.

As a mom, what child doesn’t like a blow up, oversized ball?  This would be great fun in the yard, and you could tie in educational lessons with the kids being none the wiser.  The smaller ones would be awesome in a playroom or in a space themed bedroom.

I have been working this summer with my 5th grade observation teacher and helping her set up her classroom and I look forward to aiding in the fall, mini teaching in the early spring and finally - student teaching in late Spring.  This time next year, hopefully, * fingers crossed * , I will be setting up my own classroom!  In the meantime, I will be subbing while Iching can.  Hmmm, I may even pick up a couple of small Earth Balls to put in my substitute teacher bag in the off chance I am left with a classroom with no lesson plans.  It would be great to pull out and create some impromptu lessons on our home, planet Earth.