Manolo for the Home » Outdoors

Quickie Garden Swing a la Sweet Paul

Christa Terry — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:59:28 +0000

Brilliant! Sweet Paul, a noted food and Prop stylist and blogger, took an Ikea garden bench, sawed the legs off, drilled some holes, threaded in some rope, and ended up with a darling garden swing that is definitely inspirational. How much more simple can you get?

Front Door Upgrades In Pictures

Christa Terry — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:09:37 +0000

How easy is it to upgrade your front door? I’d say it’s pretty damn easy!

Switch out your old doorknob for something shiny and new
… or distinguished and old works, too (via)

Get a sweet doorknocker (via)

Put up new nameplates or numbers (via)

Paint! (via)

Add a pretty or interesting doormat

Or frame it with potted plants (via)

House Signs: Yes or No?

Christa Terry — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:26:11 +0000

Sometimes a house has just the right amount of doors and windows and eaves and things to fill up all the space one needs to fill to please the eye. And sometimes a house doesn’t – ours, for example, has a big dead zone between a first-floor bedroom window and the front door. There’s just nothing… nothing but boring blank siding. Until recently, we filled the space with a Penn Dutch hex – one indicating friendship, supposedly – but it’s begun to look a bit worn around the edges in recent months. But what to put in its place? Hanging plants? We can’t afford to put in another window there or push out the front door at this time. At some point, signs came to mind. Specifically, signs that advertise who lives in the house to which they’re affixed.

The thing is, though, I eventually nixed the idea. While it’s easy enough to find out who lives in my house – search for the address online or have a peek in the mailbox – do I really want to advertise that the so-and-so lives here and, oh yeah, we got married in such-and-such a year? Not to mention the fact that it feels a little hokey-boasty to me. What do you think? When you see a sign that says something like “The Johnsons – Established 1994″ or whatever, how does that strike you?

Love ‘em? Find em here: 1, 2, 3

Think Pink! (Seven Ways)

Christa Terry — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:55:40 +0000

One of my favorite bits from the movie Funny Face is the Think Pink! routine. And seriously, I’m a huge sucker for pink, more so now since having a girl baby. Not, mind that I set out to pinkify her life – but everyone else in existence apparently did. Now that I’m finally working on her room, I’ve chosen a deep pink, black, and white scheme, mainly because it’s solid, girly palette without being immature, and as a combo, it never has been terribly unpopular in my lifetime so it won’t look ridiculously out of date five or ten years from now. Pink can be babyish, of course, but it doesn’t have to be.

Here are seven sweet examples of how one might use pink inside and outside of one’s home, with not a single nursery in sight:

(Images via here, here, here, and here)

Where I’d Rather Be

Christa Terry — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:10:37 +0000

The Beard and I have a porch. It’s pretty beat up. A priority project this summer involves scraping and painting it, cleaning our outdoor furniture, etc. Step one is important because pressure-treated wood can contain arsenic that can be absorbed through the skin during direct contact. That means the baby hasn’t been allowed to play on our porch. Like it says here:

Painting exposed wood surfaces with water-repellent finish, paint, or stain will protect your skin if you lean or kneel on the sides. And if you have small children, it will also prevent CCA compounds moving from little hands to little mouths.

So, yeah, painting is high up on the list. Having a porch we can’t use is no fun. I want my porch so I can having a pretty pink breakfast with homemade cappuccino and pretty flowers and a nice egg and perhaps even some freshly baked bread and jam whipped up by someone I love.

(via)

Take Your Work Outdoors

Christa Terry — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:10:26 +0000

Telecommuting rocks, but it’s easy to let work get derailed by a sink full of dishes, a pesky bathroom faucet leak, or other tasks that you’d normally try to avoid doing. Isn’t it funny how the boring-but-necessary becomes so palatable when one is searching for ways to procrastinate? Telecommuting gets easier when you have a home office, but still that sink full of dishes is just a short hallway away. What’s a work-from-home employee to do? There’s always shedworking, which is apparently what’s hot in the alternative home office world! (Suck it, coffee shop!)

Oh em gee, I love it! It’s scads nicer than the home office I have now, I’m ashamed to say.

Unfortunately, while I have a shed, it’s currently full of a wheelbarrow, a push mower, grass seed, trowels and things, and about a gajillion lady spiders watching over egg balls. Creepy. Not conducive to work. Also kind of dirty. But I suppose I could haul all of my outdoor gear into the basement, tear down my yucko shed, and replace it with some chic Swedish work/life shed.

(Image via Shedworking)

Inspired By: Forsythia

Christa Terry — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:50:02 +0000

You know it’s spring round here when the forsythia buds start busting out all over. I’m sad to say that The Beard and I still do not have a single forsythia bush in our yard, but our neighborhood more than makes up for it. The blooms are a cheery yellow that never fails to make me smile, but they’re also impressive above and beyond their mood-improving qualities in that they both produce lactose and can predict the coming of snow! We’ve not achieved true spring weather just yet, if the forsythia bushes are any indication, but lucky for me there are plenty of forsythia-inspired prints, tablescapes, paper goods, and artworks that can stand in for the real thing until things warm up!

(via)

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I don’t know about you, but I am *this* close to running out for a forsythia cutting for my yard.

Dreaming of Summer

Christa Terry — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:22:02 +0000

Raise your hand if you’ve had quite enough of winter, thankyouverymuch. If you’re not raising your hand I’ll have to assume it’s warm where you are, you’ve just gotten back from a long and warm vacation, or you can afford to keep your heat cranked all day and all night. None of these conditions apply to me and mine so I am ready for summertime to arrive, even if it means chilly (but not cold) blustery days and a glut of April showers before the truly warm weather shows up. Here are some pics of summery gardens that may help you last out the winter!

(photo by Randy Son of Robert)

(photo by epSos.de)

(photo by Fr Antunes)

(photo by Margaret Anne Clarke)

(photo by Crinklecrankle.com)

Where I’d Rather Be

Christa Terry — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:28:06 +0000

Brrr, so cold here. And the snow that’s still on the ground has turned that dismal gray color that means it’s no longer at all nice to use for snow ice cream. I’m entirely sick of winter at this point. I’ve exhausted my to-do list of indoor projects needing my attention, and I’m itching to tackle some outdoor projects. Alas, it is too cold for exterior painting and too wet for sanding, so I’m SOL. The worst part is my brain keeps retreating into itself where it can dream of places like this uninterruptedly.

Maybe not places exactly like this, as those lovely little bungalows are in Wells-Next-The-Sea, a seaport situated on the North Norfolk coast in England. I’m sure Wells-Next-The-Sea is quite picturesque just now with all those pretty colors, but I can’t imagine that it’s at all warm, which makes it less than inviting in my mind. Summer (or at the very least springtime) cannot come quickly enough, in my opinion.

(Photo by russelljsmith)

Pull a Tom Sawyer On the Neighborhood Kids

Christa Terry — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:21:11 +0000

When I bought my house, I inherited an old, ugly fence. It’s sort of leaning over in some spots, and I’m ashamed to admit that a small (but rather unnecessary) portion of it fell in not too long ago. What really irks me about my fence is that the paint is peeling like a banana skin almost everywhere. We’ve been so focused on other things that the poor fence has been ignored for more than two years, most likely because it is a backyard fence and thus mainly visible only to us.

Perhaps I should do as Better Homes & Gardens says and invite the neighborhood children to a fence painting party? The recipe is easy… you need some willing youngsters (just don’t mention it’s a chore), some brushes, and a whole lot of paint. I’d also suggest adding numerous drop cloths to the mix unless you’re a fan of technicolor grass. Of course, a fence painting party will really only work for those who don’t mind a fence that looks like it was painted by children or less-than-talented adults, I suppose. But like I said, my fence is in the backyard, so I’m golden.