Superstars!

The boys are officially superstars. A friend of mine e-mailed me this week to tell me she had copied one of the photos of TED and HENRY off of my blog to use as her screen saver. For some reason this was so exciting for me….I feel like they have made the big time….the show! I guess I really haven’t talked too much about the dogs since I’ve started blogging…..And I really don’t know why…..maybe I’m a protective mother? I know…ha ha ha. But….those of you who know me know that I talk about them every chance I get……. you know TED and HENRY are my kids. The apples of my eye. The mushers of my heart. They are two of the most incredible companions a person could ever have. Jon and I feel like the luckiest people in the world to have these guys in our life.

TED
We came about meeting Ted because we were looking for a companion for Georgia, my 9 year old Cocker Spaniel. We wanted to give her someone to spend time with in her older years and we wanted to have a younger dog around for us…you know, for when it came time for Georgia to leave us. Originally, we thought we’d like to get a Jack Russell Terrier, but Jon had owned Dachshunds as a boy and convinced me to go look at puppies. The moment we walked in I was in love. Ted was the only smooth puppy and the only black & tan male. He was also the only puppy that stood up and looked us in the eye….on this day he was only 5 weeks old and was as big as a real hot dog. He was only about six inches long and only one inch high. Today Ted is 8 years old. He has been through a lot with us over the years….moving from Beaufort to Batesburg, Batesburg to Red Bank, and Red Bank to Lexington. He has grieved the loss of Georgia with us, suffered through a cervical neck surgery, a round or two with a bunny that wanted to live in HIS yard, bum teeth, a new dog coming into his house, and a ‘bout with fire ants. The thing about Ted that is most amazing is what a loving, caring dog he is….to me, Jon, and Henry. He doesn’t really care too much for visitors and, although he does try to share his toys with visitors, he also spends the entire time barking at them….and barking at them…and barking at them. Regardless, Ted is the smartest pup I’ve ever known. He actually knows English….seriously; he probably knows 50 words or more and will react to those words. He is mommy’s little man. I can’t (and don’t want to) imagine him not being in our life.

After Georgia passed away, we knew it wouldn’t be long until we added another puppy into our home. Not only for our sake, but for Ted’s sake as well. He loved Georgia so much and he missed her. I went on the Internet and found a website called Dachshund Rescue of North America. Here they have dachshunds from across the country that have been abandoned and rescued that are up for adoption. I surfed through to see if there were any from SC and there he was. The sweetest face I had ever seen.

HENRY
Henry had been rescued – along with five other dachshunds – by a family that just happened to live across town from us. You see, he was rescued from a hoarder. This woman had almost 100 dogs on her property…..ranging from Great Danes to little Pomeranians. They were malnourished, had heart worms and other problems, and didn’t even have fresh water to drink. The county came in and took the dogs. More than half of them were so severely ill that they had to be put down. Henry was one of the lucky ones. He only weighed about 5 pounds, was heart worm positive, and had several rotten teeth from the malnourishment. He also had his ears bitten off and scars along his head and back. He had been through so much that we will never know. We had to go through a rigorous application process to adopt Henry. He had over 50 applications and was in high demand. But we got to adopt him. And thank goodness we did. He is probably one of the sweetest animals I have ever met. From the very first day he has attached himself to me…so much that we call him my tumor. I cannot even sit down without him being right there with me. He was very weary of people and things and would shy away if you picked up a toothbrush…..and even sadder, he never wagged his tail. We are not sure of his age but guesstimate he is around five or six......even though his face is turning gray. He has been with us for 3 ½ years now and is such an important part of our family. He weighs about 15 pounds, loves to sleep in the bed, lay on the couch, and will dance like a bucking bronco to get a treat. And he wags his tail constantly.....like a drum beat! He is mommy’s little angel. A blessing to all that meet him.

New pots....new plants....

I've always loved plants in my home. I think my mother gave me this gene because as for long as I can remember she was always growing something in the house.....even if was just a cutting that she was rooting in a glass in the window. So...from the time I moved out on my own, I've always had a houseplant or two.

I wanted to share two of the new plants I have placed in our home. The first plant is located in the entryway and is just wonderful. I bought a beautiful glazed piece of pottery at Woodley's and it blends so well in this hall, as well as, giving it a comfortable earthy feeling. Right now the plant is only about "thigh high" and its pot is bigger than it is....In the future, it should only grow about 4 feet tall and stay pretty compact in its spread. Unfortunately, I do not know its official or common names. You can see from the photo below that it is a black frond umbrella palm of some sort. If anyone knows who this plant is.....please share! I just know that I am lucky to have found it....

The second plant that we have added to our home is in our dining room. My friend, Kathy, with whom I worked with at DHEC, gave this plant to me as a going away gift when I just recently left. As you can see from the photo below, it is AMAZING! It is a Bird's Nest Fern....the only thing is.... I have never seen one this big before. It's lovely curling arms reminds me of Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors....so that is its name. At first I thought it would go perfectly on my dining room table, but in order to give it room to grow and a big enough pot, I decided to place it on the floor in front of the windows. Fortunately, I found a great pot at Walmart (yes....Walmart!) that was glazed pottery and matches just perfectly in this room!

So...as you can see....the houseplant tradition has continued. These plants unusual foilage and odd shade of their leaves adds contrast to the decor and just makes me happy! My suggestion to you is if you don't have anything alive and green in your home.....get something soon....it will definitely make you smile!

The Dining Room...

The dining room is quite a transformation. It is actually the last room in the house that we remodeled. It was painted a hunter green color and had floor length tapestry curtains. As you can see from the photos above, the color was not horrible, just outdated. And it clashed with the olive green shade of the kitchen. At first we were not sure what we were going to do with this room. We did not have a formal dining room at our other home so we did not have any furniture. We discussed purchasing a baby grand piano and making it a music room....although neither one of us play. I even went as far as looking at used pianos but when I discovered the cost of the instrument - even used pianos - I decided it was too much to spend on something that neither Jon nor I could use!

That's when my mother and father offered their dining room set to us. I just couldn't believe it because I can remember when they purchased it over 30 years ago in an old antique store on Two Notch Road. It was covered in dirt and grime and the story goes that my grandmother even told my mother there was no way she would bring that furniture in her home! It is actually quite the antique and is supposedly over 100 years old. The twisted legs on each piece are just lovely and the glass and mirrors are aged. It has alot of style.

I decided to paint the room a darker brown and trimmed the molding in bright white. Many months ago I found a hooked rug that has rust, reds, olive, and golds in it and chose to go with long, puddling silk curtains in gold. I recovered each chair in a striped silk and was pleasantly surprised to see that the original leather seat covers were still there....cracked and used but still in tact! The room is still a work in progress as I need to add some artwork to the walls and need to figure out what I plan to do for a center piece on the table. We also plan to change the light fixture out eventually. I will keep you posted on any updates. However, I do think its been a wonderful change. Its so wonderful to come through the front door and see such a formal and beautiful room........

New Kitchen Rugs UPDATE...

So....as you know from my previous post I have changed out my kitchen rugs with something that could withstand the wear and tear of kitchen use and was a better quality. Shortly after I wrote that post, Jon and I were standing in the kitchen and I was staring at the new rugs. Of course he asked if there was a problem.....and there was!!! It had just hit me that they really didn't match. He then admitted that they did not match the walls (not the same green and not enough green), but he knew how excited I was to receive them and didn't want to burst my bubble. How incredibly sweet, huh? Anyway, I immediately went online and checked out the other rugs...they had the same rugs in a different color - called sage. I called the vendor and sweet talked them into picking up the old rugs and sending out the new rugs and within the week we had these..........a much better match!

Another Lee Vandergrift original....

In keeping with the earlier post about spare bedroom #2, I thought I'd share the latest piece of artwork we have from Lee Vandergrift. We actually commissioned him to do a drawing of Ted and Henry based on the photo you see on my main blog page. This was the finished product...they are absolutely gorgeous in their little coats!!!!

Spare Bedroom #2

The spare bedroom across the hall from the red bedroom I highlighted yesterday was also a child's room. The interesting part about this room is that the previous owners had nailed a wood border around the walls to separate the two colors they chose to paint the room. They used extremely large nails to do this....They also attached a real basketball net to the wall! I say a "real basketball net" because it was made of steel and extremely heavy and they used four huge nine inch bolts to hang it with. Obviously this made it hard to remove without - again - having to patch, mud, and sand the wall. As you can see from the BEFORE photo above, it was a sports themed room........a sports themed room that I turned PINK........

I decided to paint the walls pink and use black and white as my accent colors. The whole basis around this room is that we have some original artwork by Lee Vandergrift (see his website link in my favorites) that we had matted/framed in black. The pieces we have are animal prints.....or dachshunds I should say. If you click on the photos you can see two of the pieces we have in this room. Anyway, his work is very colorful and full of life and usually has some shade of pink within it. There was no other way to bring out the colors than to accent it with black. Because this room is small it was perfect for Jon's iron bed that was a twin size. Jon had used the bed through college, but it was originally a naval hospital bed - an antique to say the least. We painted it black and added it to the room with a trendy black and white comforter set and two floating black shelves to hold my Boyd's Bears collection. We also have my cedar chest and my antique oak chest of drawers in this room. In keeping with the theme of the red room across the hall and because they are the two bedrooms on the front of the house I added long silk panels to the windows. The black is a nice contrast against the pink walls and white woodwork. It is not your usual room, but it is "quirky" and "fun" and anyone who sees it in person seems to think it works. And....I've always wanted a pink room......it makes me happy!!!!