Bedroom "Before & After"

Over the last 6 months (!) that we've lived in our house, we've slowly been transforming our bedroom. We've done enough now that I think it's done. For now.

The bedroom we sleep in isn't actually the official master bedroom; that one's downstairs, but we both prefer to sleep upstairs. So the master bedroom is currently the computer room, and one of the secondary bedrooms is where we choose to lay our heads at night.

Here's how it looked when we moved in:

Pale blue walls.

Pale blue closets.
Dark blue carpet.
Dark blue curtains (not shown).

Since then, we've:

• painted
• replaced the carpet
• lugged our 1/2 ton bed up the stairs
• installed a ceiling fan (We actually did this all by ourselves! Well, mostly it was Gus, but still....)
  
• bought bedside shelves
• bought new lamps
• hung light-blocking drapes
• hung some of our art - the rest is waiting for me to remember to do it
  

Here it is now!

Same angle as the "Before"
(drapes open)


In the evening light (drapes closed)

The New Arrival

See what we just got??






It's a Weber 6'1" grand. :) Without me knowing, Gus did a little research and found out that the Piano Gallery in Dallas is a good place to buy pianos. He surprised me with a trip there on Saturday afternoon, and I spent 2.5 hours playing all the pianos in the store and picked this one out! It was delivered at Noon today.

It is such a pleasure to play - beautiful tone, perfectly weighted keys! We are going to get so many years of enjoyment out of this beast. (And yes, I said "we" - Gus says he enjoys sitting on the couch, reading a book while I pound away at the piano!)

Gus is the best! :D

Cats = Progress!

So, if you'll recall, the neighborhood cats have been lurking around our property and have been known to watch us from a safe distance. (See this post for our first installment. Note that the black and white cat in pictures 1, 3, and 4 is not the same as the cat in picture 2; it took us a month to realize that!)

We found out that the two black and white cats are brothers, and they belong to our next-door neighbor. They're indoor-outdoor cats. More outdoor, though.

Over the past few months, we've been trying to woo them, but they've been pretty skittish. We've put out cat food, sat outside while they observed us, and started leaving our patio doors open. Their feline curiosity eventually got the better of them, and they stepped over the threshold and into our den! At the slightest movement on our part, they'd bolt back out the door. But they kept coming back. One day they made their way into our living room. And then our computer room.

Here's what happened today:

That's Boots on the left and Hector on the right!
("Boots" is short for Lieutenant Fuzzy Boots.
Why yes, Gus did name him! How did you know?)

Are they not the most adorable things you've ever seen?? :D

Wisconsin wildlife!

Today, at my parents' place in Wisconsin, we were outside working in the garden when we heard a very strange bird call, which none of us had ever heard before. My mom investigated, and this is what she found!

There are two of them, one directly below the other.

Wildlife

So, about a month ago, we were in our kitchen and detected movement (in the near-dark) in our screened-in sun room. Gus pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, and this is what we saw!

It's an opossum!
It was eating the cat food we'd left out for our friendly neighbor cats

From the front, it was evident that she had a pouch full of babies!
In this picture, a few tails can be seen.
Sorry about the poor picture quality, but my camera was set on "night",
and she just wouldn't sit still long enough for a portrait.

Italy Part 19: Vatican City - Art

Of course, the Vatican had lots and lots of paintings and mosaics, too! Here is a small sampling of my favorites.

On a ceiling:






Why, you might ask, am I so fond of these? Because they are paintings on a flat surface, not carvings or sculptures! Look again! Amazing, eh?


Then there's this floor mosaic:








This one may look familiar:

Raphael's School of Athens

Deliverance [or Liberation] of St. Peter - again, painted on a flat wall!

Amazing source lighting effects!

One of many ornate ceilings

ceiling detail

...and thus ends our tour of Italy!

Italy Part 18: Vatican City - Sculptures

The Vatican museums have so many priceless works of art: tapestries, sculptures, paintings, murals.... It really is overwhelming! Here are just a few of the sculptures.

This is a sculpture of Augustus' head.
For perspective on the size, click here!
This sculpture is located outside, in the Belvedere Courtyard
(mentioned in this post).

Hall of Statues

Check out the ceiling!

Statue of Hercules,
description below:

Boy with Flute

Laocoon and his Sons

(Yes, I'm citing Wikipedia,
but the information there matches what our Vatican guide told us!)

Old Bacchus

Antinous

And then there's *this* guy....

Summer is here, and I figured it was about time to show some pictures of how our yard has changed since January!

As a reminder, here's the front in the winter:

And here's the front today: 

Yes, the hedges are getting a bit unruly!

The backyard in the winter:

Today:

That thing on the bottom of the pool is a Kreepy Krauly.

The pool in the winter:

Today!

See the shark in the pool? :) He's our chlorine dispenser.
Sadly, at the moment, our pool seems to have a leak 
(which is why the water level is so low.)

Everything's so much prettier in the spring/summer/fall than in the winter!

Italy Part 17: Vatican City - Architecture

The Vatican has an overwhelming amount of priceless paintings, sculptures, tapestries, etc., and I'll post pictures of those soon. However, right now I'm going to show you some photos of domes, staircases, lamps, and buildings!

 Vatican spiral staircase!

Too bad I couldn't climb on the ceiling to get an overhead view.

St. Peter's Basilica's dome viewed from the porch/patio near the beginning of our tour

 Zoooooom...

Belvedere Courtyard. See the pinecone?

 After we saw the Sistine Chapel 

(where photo-taking was not allowed, but that's OK, because check this out!)

we walked down these stairs. 

The doors at the top open into the Chapel.

 We also came across these stairs, which are apparently reserved for the Pope.

From a courtyard below the Sistine Chapel.

 The top layer of building, with the buttresses, is the Sistine Chapel.

Near St. Peter's 

 Swiss Guard eying the camera