* T h e * V i s u a l * V a m p *: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Would You Put Fake Grass In Your Yard Or Garden?

My yard is a big hot mess. There's a beat up gravel driveway that leads to a patch of sandy crab grass.

This is not my ghetto grass yard, though the crab grass is just like mine

I'm ready for a change. Nothing will grow in the crab grass patch, except, uh crab grass. I have some beds on the sides with some stone gravel. The bedding plants are pretty good: Banana trees, Night Blooming Jasmine, bougainvillea, a palm tree, and a huge tree like lantana.
The current (August 2009) Veranda has a story called Botanical Hues Nuances From Nature. Memo to Veranda, please put more photos from the magazine on your web site.

There's a double spread centerfold (page 69) that is just perfect. Instead of the pool pavilion, we have a garage that is never used for cars, so I want to do a center piece of lawn surrounded by gravel paths in front of it.

I saw this HGTV show where the garden makeover was very Frenchy. There were gravel paths around a nice grass lawn in one section, and beautiful stone patios in another section. This is what I have been thinking of doing!

The part with the patch of grass was under some trees, and it was deemed too shady for a good lawn to grow.

So the landscape designer suggested fake grass! Like most of us I associate fake grass with Astro Turf in a stadium, or that bright green indoor outdoor carpet used lovingly by the great old guard suburban housewife, or by a mini golf course owner. Uh, like kind of tacky.

Moi use fake grass when my visions of lavender lined pathways in France or Italy fueled my homegrown garden desires?

And yet the HGTV finished product was so good looking and so charming. And the owner's dogs loved it. So I did some research, and apparently you can just hose off dog pee.

It's pricey though. About $2700. for a 600 square foot patch (which is about what I need).

My yard guy is going to give me a quote on digging up the crab grass, making the gravel edges, and planting a new lawn. He's got a driveway guy too, who is going to give me a price on doing a concrete (or cement - seeeement - as they say here in the South) driveway. I asked for the concrete to have a larger than usual ratio of small rocks mixed in, to sort mimic my dream gravel (or shell) driveway.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Happy Weekend! And Check Out A Web Site Reaching Out To Old Fans Of Domino

See more fab photos of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward HERE

We're off to teach tango this weekend in Florida.

The above image came from the Architectural Design web site, which is getting to be pretty darn good!

Ever since Domino folded, Conde Nast has honored Domino subscriptions with the only home decor magazine they have left in their once mighty stable. It's AD, which at first seemed like a slap in the face to most Domino readers.

The current issue of AD is pretty good. They seem to be hipping it up a bit, with features like $100 and under, and a little less stiff in the editorials.

Great Design $100 and under HERE

So check it out.
If you go to the web site enter the readers non professional living room photo thingee. You send one photo of your living room to them, by June 30, and they'll post ones they like the best on July 7, for readers to vote on. Kind of reminds me of the Domino Decorating Contest.

Go HERE to enter

One of my favorite features on the AD web site is the section called Hollywood At Home. Their archive of photos is incredible, as you can see by the two I used (Paul and Joanne, and Judy Garland).

You can also get a tote bag if you subscribe. Though not as cute as the Domino tote, it's a start from AD to reach out to all the hip, color loving, Ruthie Sommers fans, the self decoraters on a real budget, the Domino girls and boys.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Two Hundred

So many words are bandied about on the subject of why we blog.

Whether it's because we like the sound of our own voice, we're bored, we're inspired, we want to make friends, we want to make business connections, we like to do something fun and creative, well, we all have our reasons.

Among those reasons, are the readers of the blogs. Without them the sound of one hand clapping would be all the fun we would have.

Visual Vamp had a milestone of sorts today. A tiny one, but an important one to me. My followers list hit 200! Now I see other blogs that have 900, 1000, 5000, a zillion followers, and I think that's incredible. For me, a little guy just blogging for all of the above reasons, it means a great deal to me, and touches me, to have people identify themselves as regular readers.

I have clicked onto many of the links of the fab followers, and there is a great cross section of you.

I'm posting all of my fab followers so everyone can find you, and you can find each other, and to salute you all, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your intrepid reading.

Followers (200)