A guitar mural and question

So, I got the boy this guitar mural for his wall..it's HUGE and I have no idea how to hang it.....I am thinking grommets on hooks (It's temporarily up on alligator clips right now so I can get a visual...) but there's also the rigid foam back that's an option....I just don't know. I'm usually much more decisive than this.... it's this stupid hot summer that I blame...

beach....

It's super hot and steamy here...miserable outside and honestly not very nice inside either.... so I took the boy to the beach...

it was great- and the water was COLD! I love summer!

We've come a long way baby!

We have lived in this house for a little over 8 years in October. It's gone through a lot of changes since we first got it. It had sat empty and abandoned for 3 years prior to us getting it....the outside was trashed and the inside was 1970's ranch in all it's glory- shag, mirrors, paneling, you name a bad decor trend and we had it. Well, here's the outside...

This first pic is really of the horrid wood thing someone had attached to the house. It had lattice on it too..but this pic was taken after we removed that and had painted the house green.....

see, here's the house being painted green.....those big things aren't flowers by the ladder, those are weeds...

So, below is two pics of the house that I have combined so you can see what it looked like once we removed the portico thing, made the porch (out of that wood) painted the house green and added shutters.

Here is what the house looks like now....

and here is with some of our flowers blooming.

We still need a new front door, and soon, it's be time for a new roof and new siding. Yippee (not) but it's come a long way baby.

keep dreaming!

The bottle tree....

I have 14 different planting beds and areas around my house. There is the front area that is broken down into 5 areas, the east side is 3 areas, the south side is 5 areas on two different elevations, and then there is the rock garden. I had to break it down into that many areas just so I could work on them without killing myself. I tend to go 200% in at breakneck speed and wear myself out. Breaking it down I can focus on one section and get a sense of accomplishment and completion and stop. I don't know- it works for me.

Today I worked on section 8. That is on the south side, behind the deck. It's the upper area with my bottle tree bush and birdbath. Friday I went into it and pulled a wheelbarrow full of underbrush and limbs out of this small (10x5 ft) area. Today I planted a few new (and some transplanted) plants and mulched. It's cleaned up!

I looked all over for a before picture...but can't find one. Just picture it covered in undergrowth, poppies (I HATE poppies) and odd small bushes before Friday.  Next year I have plans that include more daylillies behind the fence (which is really an old iron head and footboard) and some more traditional bottle trees on the hillside...but that's next year. This year it's just cleaner.....

OH! I just found a picture of this area from 2009.... imagine it like this but really overgrown..

I don't know why there is a chair in there...I don't ever remember that...

Untitled

Untitled by lojo43 featuring rick owens jacket

It wasn't the biggest fireworks display.....

but it was a lot of fun!

                                          from the tailgate of the truck!

Deep in the heart of Texas....

The Austin botanical gardens

At a gig out in Dripping Springs with my brother- the band he's in the Twilight Trio was playing at a venue- it was hotter than hell that day

We went to the Tx History museum on the day the new NASA space craft based on the Orion was visiting on it's way from California to Florida-making one of it's only 3 stops so the public could view it. We lucked out- we were there early before any lines and the boy got to talk to a former shuttle commander who was in space one on one and some spokespeople from NASA who talked to us about what this craft can and will do. He looked inside the craft and everything.... It was super cool....