Fancy Interior Designer & Gardener

OK - we didn't really hire these folks, instead we tried to tackle some projects on our own.

On our weekends we try to have some fun, get projects done around the house, spend quality time with Cotton, and use the rest of the time to relax. Over this past weekend we managed to fit most of that in - although I must say we were very disappointed in the weather. I keep saying we moved to California partly for the weather, but in the year plus since we've been here it has definitely been cooler and wetter than an average year. I still can't complain though, because I know those of you on the east coast really suffered this winter.

On Saturday afternoon we decided to go out to lunch just to get out of the house. We packed up ourselves and the kiddo and off we went to Camarillo - which is basically the next town over from us. It is actually down a seriously big grade and it is always an adventure to drive there. The restaurant we chose is called Brendan's Irish Pub. Yes, they have Irish pubs in California too. This place is relatively new and it came recommended to us by some friends (do our realtors count as friends?!?). It was actually pretty good and not crowded which is always nice in case we have to deal with any baby fussiness. There was even a road sign pointing to Mitchelstown inside - for those who don't know Mitchelstown is a large town very close to where my mother grew up in Ireland. The funny part of the restaurant is the exterior - it just looks weird to have a cozy Irish pub housed in a strip mall in a large stucco building with a tile roof. But that's California and we just have to get used to it.

One of our cool new nightstands - the lamp is relatively new too!

After lunch at Brendan's we decided to check out a consignment furniture shop where we bought our media cabinet a few months ago. We were in need of new nightstands for our bedroom, especially since we still had two lamps sitting on the floor next to the bed. I'm happy to say we had great success and found some really unique tables for our bedroom. We specifically decided not to purchase a matching bedroom set so that we could have a room with some character and the challenge of creatively decorating our space.


On Sunday we made a trip to the Home Depot - how very suburban of us. We had a few areas in our yard that needed some color so we decided to get out the "garden weasel" and get to work. Most people around here pay gardeners to do this type of stuff but we really enjoyed digging and planting and are pretty happy with our handywork. I actually went back to Home Depot today to buy some more flowers and am ready to get back to work!

Next up - fixing the leaky faucet...