YOUR PLACE A GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS FOR HIS MOM ... AND YOURS.

A hillside garden beckons you to stop, to rest and dream. There is a cascading waterfall and a serene pond surrounded by soft grasses. Have a seat and enjoy a cup of tea, a picnic or a good book.

This is landscape designer David Reyes Villafana's tribute to his mother. A garden he calls ``Los Suenos De Mi Madre,'' (Dreams of my Mother) at the Pasadena Showcase House of Design.

``We are a very close family, and when I saw this space, I wanted to make it a place my mom would enjoy, a place where she would come to sit and relax,'' said Villafana, a Woodland Hills resident who owns Flowers at the Cottage in Pasadena.

Villafana has created his garden at the Pasadena Showcase House of Design on a hill that separates the Italian villa and the pool. The centerpiece of Los Suenos De Mi Madre is a pond with a waterfall. Ferns, grasses and ivy grow at the edge of the water.

Around the pond, Villafana has made little areas to sit, each complete with reminders of things a mom, or anyone, might love doing in this idyllic place. An open book sits on the bench waiting for a dreamy reader to pick it up and forget her cares. A picnic basket, possibly for a mother and child excited that summer is coming, is ready and waiting. And a small table waits for a couple to enjoy the sunset over a glass of wine.

``With all my garden designs, I want people to have a place that is warm and comfortable,'' said Villafana. ``And in this garden, every place you sit gives a different view of the garden. Mom could sit and enjoy the gardens from the grass on a blanket, or she could choose the lounge chair or maybe the relaxed curved stone benches around the tree.''

And when his mom, Rachel Villafana, came to visit the garden from her Pacoima home, of course she loved it.

``I love her very much, and without her - along with Dad's - support and excitement for what I do, I never would have gotten to where I am,'' Villafana said. ``That is why it was very appropriate to create this garden for her.''

- Jennifer Errico

To not sleep, perchance to get a great new bedroom

Brigita Pukite of Glendale couldn't sleep, so she attended IKEA'S first- ever Insomniac's Dream Come True Event at the Burbank store and entered the drawing for a free $2,500 Bedroom Makeover.

And won.

``I was so excited when I found out that I had won, and now my room seems like it's doubled in size ... and I can actually find stuff when I need it,'' said the Hoover High School student.

Pukite had a typical teen's room with bunk beds, posters covering the walls and an assortment of furnishings that went beyond what parents would call an ``eclectic arrangement,'' but the design experts at IKEA transformed her room into a more modern, clutter-free space with new wood flooring, a desk for her computer, shelves, dressers, a double bed and bedding, and decorative accents.

For those who think it sounds impossible to get a designer look for $2,500, they're right. She went over the limit by $1.85. All sales during the Insomniac's sale, which reached $20,000 that night, were donated to the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Woman and Children in Los Angeles.

- Barbara De Witt 

Orchids: They're not just purple

Dancing maidens, lady slippers and pansy orchids will be among the hundreds of exotic orchids on display today and Sunday at the third annual Orchid Festival at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.

The two-day event will include floral displays for sale, lectures about orchid care and culture, and demonstrations on how to make your own Mother's Day corsage.

The free-with-admission Orchid Festival is presented in Association with the Orchid Digest and underwritten by the J.W. and Ida M. Jameson Foundation. Admission to the Huntington is $8.50 for adults, $8 for senior citizens, $6 for students, and free to children under 12. For more information, call [phone].

- B.D.

MAKING A SPLASH

RESIDENTS: Ronald and Sherri Weingart of Agoura.

SIZE OF POOL: Main pool is 20 by 44 feet.

UNIQUE POOL ATTRIBUTES: The Weingarts went beyond the basics, taking several years to design and build their personal oasis. It has a series of seven pools, including a Jacuzzi spa, with a like number of waterfalls.

``I used to be an aircraft engineer,'' Ronald explains, ``so I was very involved in the project, beginning with the design of the pool that began with a drawing on the ground and ended with the water system that uses nine pumps and recirculates hot water from the Jacuzzi so that you can have the hot water cascading on you as you recline against the wall.'' He adds that they used general contractor William Moretti to turn their ideas into reality.

WHY THEIR POOL IS SPECIAL: The pleasure of the pool for the Weingarts is the visual effect it has as it blends into the landscape, but Ronald says the swim-in cave under the main waterfall, which features built-in underwater benches around the perimeter, is very popular with younger people - and also birds. ``Every spring, we find birds nesting in it, so we have to wait for the birds to hatch before we can go in there. One year we were surprised to see a mother duck and her ducklings swim out,'' he says.

And for toddlers there's a children's wading pool.

- B.D.

Do you have a pool that makes a splash? Send your name, address and phone number along with a photo and/or brief description of the pool to: Daily News, L.A. Life, Making a Splash, PO Box 4200, Woodland Hills, CA 91365-4200. Or send the information via fax to the attention of L.A. Life, Making a Splash at [phone] or via e-mail at dnlalife(at)dailynews.com. (Do not send photos via e-mail, please.)

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) no caption (``Los Suenos De Mi Madre'' garden)

Walt Mancini/Staff Photographer

(2 -- 3 -- color) BEFORE and AFTER (Brigita Pukite's bedroom makeover)

(4 -- color) no caption (Orchids)

(5 -- color) no caption (Ronald and Sherri Weingart's swimming pool)