Why I Oughta...

If you walk by (or drive by) the playground outside of Whittier Elementary School on Grand Avenue, you'll see a bit of a construction site taking place on the playground area.  When I snapped this photo, there were concrete forms set up and a new perimeter curb was being poured and set.  They had also dug up quite a bit of earth in what looks like a perfectly-timed summer project for the school. I poked around a bit and it turns out that this is a major project that has taken five years to ideate and fund and now they're moving on to the construction phase.   From the Downers Grove District 58 site : Over the years, Whittier’s playground has received regular safety maintenance and minor changes, such as the removal of the teeter-totters. However, the playground itself is decades old and was built when Whittier’s enrollment was half its current size.  This discovery prompted the moms and Whittier PTA to launch a four-year planning and fundraising effort to upgrade Whitt

It was just a few days ago that I posted about a vintage plastic Menorah that I came across at an Estate Sale in Elmhurst.  But, today, I'm sharing a photo of another ' one that got away '.  This time, it was at a Church Sale on 55th Street where I found an entire box of these three-candle vintage holiday lights.  With those pretty awesome red/orange flame bulbs.  There must have been ten sets of these in the box and it was a 'name your own price' sale.  But, I leaned on my collecting mantra and passed on them.  Feels like we need to go through a Christmas season before we add more decor for our new place. These things would look awesome perched in the windows of an old house, wouldn't they?  I bet they'd cost a fortune to operate in energy costs, but it would be worth it for a few months, right? Oh, and we have SO.MUCH.STUFF.  We (I) have to stop buying things.  The garage is loaded.  The basement...it is LOADED.  Once we sort things, I think we

I took little Lizzie out for a walk around Barth Pond  after the kids were put* to bed ( *note...put doesn't mean 'staying' in bed.  And 'put' doesn't mean that Nat doesn't do MOST of the heavy lifting involved with wrestling them into submission each night... ) one evening recently and if not for the enormous piles of goose turds everywhere, it was quite lovely.  There were other folks walking, a few people down at the water's edge with fishing poles and some families on the playground.  The weather couldn't have been better.  The sun was about to set and the water reflected a beautiful blue from the sky.   The summer heat hasn't hit yet, so most everything was green and not yet yellowed. Turns out, the path around the pond is .45 miles, according to a post marker, so a few laps around gets a mile in for me and the dog. With the days being so long right now, this is a nice little way to end the day and wind down.  Who knows?  Maybe we&

Via RealCedar.com I came across this pavilion on the RealCedar.com site and I'm posting it here so I can later reference it when the time comes to think about such a structure in our #newoldbackyard.  Those of you who have been following along for years might recall that we had a pavilion at our old place.  All the way back in April of 2010, I posted the original inspiration photo here on the blog .  That one was anchored off a structure (garage in our case) and came to life over a series of posts .    The one you see above has some modern touches - like the horizontal slats, lights and some of the flat cuts - and is unanchored to another structure.  The slats remind me a lot of the raised bed planters that I posted about over the weekend.  The simple, single-plane roof is interesting to me in that it requires less framing work.   The #newoldbackyard is much bigger than our old one, so we have space to do a few things.  Pizza oven.  Greenhouse.  Sports court.  Veg

In the basement of an Estate Sale in Elmhurst,  I came across this vintage lighted menorah amongst the pile of old Christmas and Halloween stuff.  I picked it up, took this photo, then set it down.  I didn't buy it, so I'm filing this under [ One that got away ], but now that I've gotten around to posting this, I'm kind of regretful for passing on it.  Those of you who know what has happened/been discovered in my Mom's family over the past year probably have a little smile on your face.  I can only imagine whipping it out at the holidays this year to uproarious laughter. Thus, part of me is regretful and part of me is remembering my collecting treasures mantra .  Say it with me: It is enough to enjoy the existence of things without possessing all of them.

How lovely are these raised beds?  There's both an example here with and without the cold frames.  The horizontal slats on the outside that run all the way to the ground are a great way to hide the legs.  Leaving this here for reference when we build out our own beds next summer.  Or after the pizza oven gets built.  Or before. The cold frames appear to be two independent pieces with the bottom folding down and the top hinge-ing upwards There's so much to do in the new yard but we have to start somewhere, right?

Nat and I were watching the show "Feud" and I gasped when I saw the lamp next to Joan's bed in this scene where she's 'resting'.  That lamp!  We have one of those!  My Dad bought two of them back in the early 1990's and they lived up in Coloma for as long as I can remember.  Now, the floor lamp is destined to be in my office of our #newoldfarmhouse in the next few days.