our lush backyard paradise

Two years ago yesterday, we closed on this house that we love. We've done a lot of fun things and have countless wonderful memories. This is the longest that either of us has lived anywhere in 10 years! Here is what the backyard looks like as of this weekend.

The planter on the deck with butterfly bush, vinca, vinca vine & ranunculus

crepe myrtle with strawberries, pansies & mums in the forefront

oregano, sage, strawberries along the fence on the left

blueberry bushes on the left, tomato plants & peppers in the middle (just planted them, I got them at Lowe's for $.25 each :) and strawberries to the right of the crepe myrtle. a couple cukes in there somewhere too

tomatoes and asparagus with some zinnias & vincas for decor & carrots for companionship

raised beds with lettuce/veggies on the left of the magnolia bushes (which smell divine!) and squash & a raspberry bush in the raised bed to the right. The raspberry bush is in there because I saved it from the dead plant section at Lowes last year and just 'stuck it in' to hang out for the winter. Apparently I didn't find a new home for it quickly enough b/c it got BIG quickly.

tomatoes to the right, perennials to the left

all perennials (except the zinnias). liriope in the back, assorted in the middle, and carpet phlox in the front. Same thing on either side of the steps.

um, let's see if I know what it all is... vibernum (tall shrub far left), spirea, asters, hollyhocks, lupines, salvia, blue balloon flower, echinacea, shasta daisy, scabiosa, with vinca in the front calla lilies that I saved from last year and plan to use for cutting, gladiolus, and day lilies

vibernum & rose of sharon shrubs were there. I wish someone would come tell me how to prune them correctly!! The rose of sharons are HUGE. Day lilies, dianthus & violas under the birch

lettuce & kale from the garden. Yum!

Boy on a horse.

the before and after

here's our laundry room before.... and after!!! (notice how I just have more room to make a mess :) Here are the hilights... we repainted it some blue/gray color I can't remember the name of, put up an extra wire shelf (thanks, Allison!!), and Craig built and installed a countertop - almost entirely with his Dremel tool, I might add.the countertop is 30" deep and 5' wide, and since they didn't sell the right depth at Lowes and we weren't about to order it custom for $45/sq ft, Craig bought the wood and made it himself with a sheet of formica. It didn't take him long, came out looking beautiful, and the whole project cost less than $100!

Taking after Daddy, Joshua's fixing his bus. He actually got this battery cover off with the screwdriver when Craig and I weren't looking. I think we just looked at each other and said "uh oh" but then congratulated Joshua because he was so proud of himself. And so were we :)

As for me... I did not need another hobby!!

I don't even have time to do the ones I already have! I guess I liked doing my first quilt because I immediately started another one. I blame the fabric, though. I have a huge box of fabric taking up space, and the idea of not only using it, but using it to make something cute is obviously irrisistable to me.

I forgot to mention that I batted Zoe's quilt with Craig's receiving blanket from when he was born. This next quilt, I made with all the receiving blankets we had from Joshua and Zoe. Some were really cute, and I didn't want to just throw them all out, and I didn't think anyone would want a bunch of used receiving blankets.

I would like to try stippling with this one, but I'm not sure I can do it on my machine, so I'll have to do a practice piece first. I have the top finished but still have to piece together the back from the receiving blankets I have left. I'm planning on using big blocks of it. Also, I'm going to use one of the many quilts we've gotten but no longer use as batting. I'm sure you with children know all about having an overabundance of certain gifts. We loved them all, but it's time to repurpose.

This is what got me started on this quilt. Who wouldn't want a quilt this cute??!! I only used 20 squares because (a) that's how big the batting is and (b) I didn't think it would be wise to start a twin sized quilt for my secong quilt ever. I would be likely to sit unfinished in a box for years.

plus, using child labor makes the whole project a lot easier. It's all about outsourcing.

Oh, by the way, this is where I sew. I know!!! How horrible! I sit on the floor between Craig's bed and dresser. I need to figure something else out!! And the ironing board is set up in the middle of my bathroom so I can shut the kids out.

HGTV up in here...

Our neighbors came over yesterday and told us our garage looked like HGTV. We've got 4 furniture refinishing / painting projects going on (of course I forgot to take 'before' photos!). I did some home improvements while Craig was away too. In addition to the photos below, I installed a 12' shelf in our closet, and did a few organization projects in the garage.

Zoe eating her oatmeal and yogurt with a spoon. She did well with the spoon but it was faster for her to use her fingers so she mostly did that. Needless to say, we've been doing bathtime in the morning.

Joshua wearing Daddy's baseball shirt. Look how my darling husband destroys the bed when he sleeps.
Such a big girl! We gave her this mug for her bday and she is pretty good at drinking out of it already. All that practice she's had trying to drink out of things in the bathtub. yuck.

here's the birthday girl. More pictures of the party in the next post

here's the pendant light Joshua and I installed while Craig was away. big improvement over the fluorescent light, and I didn't have to come up with a valence for our nice open pass thru. here are some of the first veggies from our garden. this zucchini was the only one on the plant. It was about 6" long when I let for NY and about 13" long when we came back 6 days later. Not exaggerating. The peas are about done now, and the tomatoes are about to start ripening faster than I can eat them. The jalapeno was super hot... I'll be making some good pico (w/out cilantro - yuck!) pretty soon!

I also painted a few (4) rooms while Craig was gone as a surprise. We both HATE painting so I knew Craig would be happy if he didn't have to participate. Once I got going, I enjoyed it, and it passed the time quickly. Joshua and Zoe watched A LOT of movies while I painted (and painted, and painted...) I painted our bedroom 'sand 3' (aka beige) and painted the master bathroom, closet (which it 6 x 12, so it's as big as a room), and massage/guest room 'vale mist' (benjamin moore 1494). We love it! My across the street neighbor is an artist so I commissioned her to paint something for the massage room and paid her in massage for it. I love it!! (she has an etsy shop - search for Erin Wardell - if anyone is interested :)

Zoe watching baby einstein and playing with a remote that doesn't work

prissy little missy!

on a roll!

due to the overwhelmingly positive response from all 3 of you, you blog junkies, I shall now post again. what can I say, I'm a sucker for peer pressure.

Here are a couple more pics of the deck that Craig built with some help from my Dad
I love it!And him!!
And him too!!! He's proudly displaying his gecko hat and dino robe. I love his silly outfits! He runs to the mirror in my room about 10 times a day saying "I'yy be wight bak. I hap to go check my seylf" (I'll be right back, I have to go check myself)
Here he is with all his loot from the last day of school (aka mothers day out)

catching up again!

This is how Zoe feels about table food... she's been wearing her bows all week, they finally stay in her hair! SO cute!!
Here she is eating fistfulls of ground up chicken nuggets (that Joshua didn't want) with her 4.5 teeth
Here she is modeling the poncho that Rosemarie made for her. It fits perfectly and she'll be able to wear it for a while. My favorite detail is how Rosemarie left a little extra room at the neck for her 90th percentile head.
Zoe's not the only one growing up fast... here's Joshua pushing his new John Deere tractor stool. We got it for him so that he can get on/off the potty and reach to wash his hands. Notice how he's not wearing any pants - we're down to 2 diapers a day when we're at home, one at naptime and one at bedtime. He hasn't had an accident all week!Here's an updated view of the deck and a few of my projects. The border by the fence has day lilies, butterfly bushes and magnolia bushes that were here when we moved in. Between the day lilies and magnolia bushes are my veggie gardens, and in front of the butterfly bushes are pink petunias that I put in last weekend. Up close is one of two hanging baskets with petunia, verbena and vinca vine. We'll see how it looks when it fills out. The larger pot on the deck has mint, salvia and lemon thyme and the smaller has a petunia and stevia seeds.

Here we have some light & hot pink begonias planted among daylilies that will be yellow, and under the river birch are hot pink dianthus and yellow marigolds.
petunias, imaptients, verbena and vinca vine. I will of course be taking pictures when all these fill out.

I know this window box doesn't look like much. On the left is mint and on the right is red salvia. The rest will be herbs - there are tarragon, stevia, rosemary and oregano seeds in there. Maybe I'll actually use them, maybe they'll just look pretty. The planter on the deck, constructed by my wonderful hubby, has pink petunias and some lavendery blue things I can't remember the name of now. Behind those will be a butterfly bush to replace the one we had to dig up to put the deck in. We liked watching the butterflies and hummingbirds from the kitchen window so hopefully this one will grow quickly!

more impatients, petunias and vinca vine

tulips from the garden in the front yard. No picture yet, but in there now are some red & purple petunias and verbena, and I have a bunch of red salvia to put in once the rain stops. Joshua and I planted some gladiolus bulbs a couple months ago and they're starting to come up now so we'll see how those look by the front steps.

to be continued...

Hold your breath no longer... here are the pictures!!

First, we have Zoe. Potty training? No. She just likes a comfy seat for watching the news. Sometimes, she likes to sit on the floor with her hand on her booty. She does this all the time and it looks so funny... just sits or lays there and pats herself on the booty, or sits or rolls around with her hand thereHere, at long last, is a picture of the deck. I love it. Craig & all his helpers, especially my dad, did such a great job! We still have to finish 1 set of stairs, putting latice up, the railings to the upper deck, a bench, a planter, building the flower borders around it, planting stuff, and a few other things I'm sure. Mmmm... like staining the whole thing. Here's how the front of our house is looking these days. Notice the non straight lines on the lawn. Wonder who did that. Most of my tulips survived the frost, as did the annuals under the shrub on the right. The big tree there is the one we just adopted.

I was going to post a few more but the hamsters powering our computer are getting tired and I just don't have patience for a slow computer at the moment. Sooo...

The End.