Towler Life

When I arrived home Friday after work, a package was waiting on the front stoop.  Dan had given me specific instructions to ignore anything that may be sitting by the door, so believe it or not, I did as I was told.  Although... I was dying to know what was inside.  As if barstools weren't enough, when Dan got home I was able to open another Birthday surprise.  This time I unwrapped a handmade, custom leather camera bag.

Gone are the days of lugging around my dorky old black, stock camera bag.  Thanks to my new friends at Porteen Gear, I am now the owner of a fashionable + professional camera bag.  How exciting!!  

Now we HAD to get to Duke Gardens on Saturday so I could sport my new camera bag and catch a glimpse at one of the top ten public gardens in the US.  Luckily the weather was in our favor- off we went, Abbey in hand, early Saturday morning.  The gardens cover around 55 acres so you won't be surprised to hear that the hour and a half we were there didn't give us a full tour (we will be back, of course!).  Our time was spent walking the Asiatic Gardens and the Rose Garden.  What a fun time!  Since I can't remember the names of basically anything we saw, I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

Don't even think about throwing your own bread into this pond-  it affects water flow!  Just buy some duck food at the Terrace Shop.

Check out those butterflies!

I also met someone this weekend who has changed my life.  Meet Ana White.  I'd heard about her from a friend who had recently convinced her husband to build a sideboard with the help of the "Free and Easy DIY Furniture Plans to Save You Money" touted by Ana White's website.  When I came across another person who had used AW to construct a fabulous dining room table, I navigated my way to her site and felt the inspiration bubbling inside of me.  I let my mind (and my mouse) wander for a while at the plethora of ideas and designs that we could now easily bring to fruition thanks to this life changing website (please click the link to understand exactly what Ana White has done for the DIYer-  blueprinted projects laid out down to the precise cut and measurement of each piece of wood, size and number of specific nuts and bolts, etc).  Then, I reigned myself in and thought realistically about how we could utilize this resource in the here and now...plate rack!  We have been displaying our china in an absolutely fantastic piece passed down from generations in my family.  Problem is, it's not a true "china cabinet" so it does not safely hold all of the dishes we want to proudly display.  I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how we can show off the left over pieces that did not make it into the cabinet and thanks to Ana White, we have a stunning solution.  I stumbled upon this gem and knew it would be a piece of cake for my Handy Dan.  

Here you have it-  our pallet to plate rack in under an hour!

What do you think?