oh! and a quick tour

of some of the work I accomplished last week while working at the condo in FL-
first I worked on the kitchen display shelves- on cabinet tops-

the window was already done but I tweaked the arrangement just a tiny bit- LOL

above the stove/microwave etc...

then I was working on groupings of the paintings I had been collecting (http://semifreelife.blogspot.com/2013/07/i-collect-art-part-2-sort-of.html)

 

the grouping in the entry of palm pictures- includes a moonlit palm which I show below so you can see it in greater detail- I am quite pleased with this group-

 

 

then in the living dining area I did a group of sea/beach related paintings-

there is a gap because one of the paintings didn't make it back from the framer's in time for this trip-

all in all, fairly successful so far-

then I worked a little bit in the lanai- found perfect pillows with crab motif in the turquoise and blue colors of that room- and got an extra lamp to shed more light into the Phil office space-

still have a few things on the list to complete that area but making real progress-

on to the guest room which did actually reach completion this trip- with the addition of some decorative pillows and some art work- in the photo below you can't really see how cute the pillows look on the bench but trust me - the coral colored starfish was a perfect find- and it picks up the color of the lady's bathing suit in the 1950s French school poster of a swimming pool...

found some shells and sea glass to create a potpourri basket on the dresser top-

outside in the courtyard everything has been growing in our absence-

the ferns filled in- after the extreme thinning during the process of adding landscape lighting... the other vines are also coming back despite my decimating them in June when I installed the sprinkler timer and hoses-

and perhaps most impressive the cactus I was going to throw out in the fall is now growing another plant altogether and looking quite nice- next to our little Buddha statue...

 

here is what it looked like in June-

 

 

in March when I left the pot only had the raggedy looking cactus and I was going to throw it away but since there was no pick up for yard waste scheduled before I left I decided to just leave it in the courtyard--- so this is kind of a cool development...