around here lately

Commercials seen while watching the CBS Evening news tonight: the bacon bowl. . . because everything's better in a bacon bowl, and my spy birdhouse. . . stick it on your window and watch the secret life of birds whilst you wash the dishes. Must be 18 to order. Seriously?

Christmas presents mailed to Ohio yesterday afternoon. . . because nothing says Merry Christmas like presents delivered in mid-January. It's the Christmas that keeps on giving!!!

Spotted at the grocery store today. . . because nothing says home quite like Bob Evans. Even if it is premade macaroni and cheese.

Lowe's really needs a few more shades of gray. . . because I just really want a gray gray. Not a (L-R) purple gray, blue gray, or green gray. (But in case you're wondering, out of the three, I'm leaning toward the blue gray.)

We're trying to pick a gray for the walls in our currently peachy-beige family room. The creamy white and peeling trim has been painted ultra white (which I love) and I've been working on the fireplace. This is really another post for another day, but here's a preview. The multi-colored rocks that someone tried to paint with the uneven and unfinished white caulking are now primed white. It's been an eyesore for the 2+ years we've lived here, and I can't even begin to tell you how much better it looks with just the white primer. Now imagine it all white smack dab between two lovely gray gray walls. It makes me happy just thinking about it, but I still have a lot of work to do.

Scrapping some Christmas memories Project Life style with the mini album. . . because nothing says Happy New Year like Christmas pictures. I need like 50 of these albums. The one I love the most is called Rain. It's almost the exact color of my bridesmaids' dresses. I hope to share more of this particular project on another day.

Date night roses. . . because nothing says I love shopping with you for a new dog bed after a fabulous dinner at Gustav's like pretty pink roses.

This week we're trying out something new in our dinner rotations. Actually, a few new recipes and quinoa. . . because nothing says super food like quinoa. 9 grams of protein per serving.

Grabbed this on my way out the door at Costco today. . . because it's ok to dream about where you'd like to spend your 10th anniversary together.

around the house lately. . .

The other day my dad wanted to know what I've been up to. Well, Dad, here you go. 

This summer we've been working on the landscaping quite a bit. Here's our front yard as we first saw it in February of 2011. Right in the front we have these two big evergreen holly trees. They provide a lot of privacy. Notice also that there's an over-abundance of river rock.

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More rock. Some lilacs (which really need to be moved to a sunnier spot because the trees cover most of them up), a Japanese maple tree, some irises, and more rock.

An aging planter box with some spring bulbs and lilies, and a window box with lots of potential.

Fast forward to August 25th when we got the keys. Here's the view out the master bedroom window. . . see how the lilacs get shrouded by the trees? 

The traditional we just bought a house and here's the sold sign to prove it picture. Notice the wild and crazy looking lilies in the falling apart planter box. Don't forget about the rock. So. much. rock.

 And another view. There's a little water feature in front of the living room window that you can't really see.

Have you noticed a theme here? The river rock goes on forever. It's even by the mailbox. Oh my gosh. I was so sick of river rock. Such a pain in the behind. It's so hard to weed and it just looks so blah.

Well, thanks to my strappingly strong and handsome husband and the kind folks who use Craig's List that came and scooped it up for free and took it to their homes for some odd reason, a lot of that river rock is outta here!!! Well, some of it is now in the garden between the raised beds. We've changed some things around, planted some new stuff, and got a truckload of dark hemlock bark dust delivered. Take a look at it today. . .

We haven't had much rain the last two months, so the grass is looking pretty dead, some of the flowers are passed their blooming days, the irises need to be trimmed back, the window box needs some sprucing up, but it looks so much better to not have all that rock. The mums in the front are just getting ready to bloom and the daisies are still going strong.

Kind of hard to see, but in the corner behind the hummingbird feeder are two new hydrangeas. Babies for now, but they'll grow.

There's still lots of room to plant more things in the future, and I can't wait to see the bulbs come up in the spring. They're all over the place now. The rocks by the mailbox are gone and I moved two of the daylilies over there.

 Here you can see where there's still some rock. We haven't gotten rid of all of it. Yet.

To me it seems like everything just stands out greener and brighter. I'm in love with my dark hemlock bark dust. When in doubt, go dark.

chopping down the cherry tree

So we had this dying cherry tree in our backyard. It barely grew any leaves this year. We knew it was time to be adults, get a few quotes, pay a lot of money, and say farewell. Today was the day.

Before:

X marks the spot. Or in this case, the tree.

 Three guys from Pa's Tree Service came and took her down.

They hit the house with this branch. And underneath that sucker is one of my prized hydrangeas. It seems to have survived.

 Didn't take all that long til they were down to one final branch. . .

 which looked like this from the front of the house. I wouldn't do that job in a million years.

Now it's time for some campfires. I see a firepit in our future.

After: a much sunnier backyard.  (Of course it helps that the sun came out and burned off all the clouds.)

 And check it out, our heart-shaped tree!

We also had this big tree limbed up. There were some dead branches and a few of Wilson's throw toys that needed to come down. We've lost some shade on our deck but gained a sunnier garden. The dining room also has a lot more light now.

The stump grinder guy came this evening and now we have a lot of work to do before my big birthday bash on Saturday night. We'll be celebrating the big 4-0 with polka dots and costco cake. Good times. Today I went through about 40 years of pictures to select a few to hang up. Oh. my. word. Those will have to be in a blog post all of their own.

if you plant them they will grow

The ol' flower beds are brightening up these days. Flowers make me happy. One can never can have too many flowers. Just this weekend I scored some perennials on the clearance rack at Lowe's. $2.49 a piece? Heck ya. My color scheme is mostly pinks and purples with some white. But there will also be a smash of yellow and some shades of gold as the summer progresses.

The first buds on our fuschias. Baby plants from the annual Fred Meyer's Fuschia Saturday sale.

Pretty purple African daisies. 

My three year old hens and chicks. Nearly too big for the little square pot they've been growing in. These remind me of my grandma. She had these growing in a small bed by the garage when I was growing up. 

 Salvia buds about ready to burst into purple blossoms.

I had my doubts about these. The hostas that I planted as roots last year came up this year. Well, two out of three came up. Big huge green leaves loving the shade on the back side of the house.

Second year for all our roses too. They also just started out as dormant roots, but you'd never know by looking at them now. Isn't this beautiful? It's kind of white on the outside and red on the inside.

 The last of the irises.

I've been digging up stuff, moving plants around, and edging the beds. We had to move some things because we made a big-time expensive adult decision to have a dead tree cut down today, so now I'll have a big bare spot to think about.

landscaping berglandia

Well, we've been spending quite a bit of time out in the backyard recently. No, not because we're throwing big ol' parties late into the night. (That would be the woman in the house behind us.) We have been attempting to landscape and it's finally at a point where I feel like sharing pictures thanks to the truckload of bark dust and Phil's awesome weed wacking abilities. Disclosure: we are not professional landscapers. I really don't know what the heck I'm doing to be quite honest, but I come from a long line of farmers and gardeners, and I can usually make things blossom and grow with a healthy application of poop from a bag, some mushroom compost, and a little bit of Miracle Grow.

So here's the view from our deck last February, right before we put our offer in on the place. Pretty much a blank slate.

And here it is as of this morning. My raised bed-shade garden first. . . with hostas, ferns, a hydrangea, and some impatiens. I attempted a small curve, it'll be more noticeable when the grass grows back in that one spot.

They are small plants, and will take a few years to really fill in like I want it to, but baby steps, right? Grabbed some rocks from around the yard and the driftwood came from the beach a few months ago. Should've gotten more, but you live and you learn. The hydrangea was in a teeny tiny pot three years ago, an end of the year gift from one of my students. It is loving its new permanent home.

And now, round the corner there in the sun and you'll see some more. The tree in the corner was one of our clearance trees. We got it for $10. (Actually, we got two. One of them is going out front.) On Monday we were at a nursery looking around and saw one just like it for $59! The Asian lilies were another student gift that have just been in a pot all this time. They'll be blooming soon. The mums (in two places) were another transplant, a gift from our realtor, Diane. The peony bush and daisies are new.

So is this Norwegian weeping spruce. Another clearance deal for $15. We just need to get some sturdy stakes. The two rose bushes were dormant roses that we got for cheap. They are greening right up too.

A couple more plants, one that's already done blooming and something else that's supposed to get pink flowers on it. Then I have my hydrangea corner. . . for future plantings. Because you can never have too many hydrangeas. That tree is dying, so it'll probably have to come down sometime.

Other side of the backyard: the shed area before. . . (the only thing there was a blueberry bush)

and after. . . ala Wendy's herb garden. Some of it was replanted from pots, some of it is new. The blueberry bush has blossoms on it. Add a couple perennials and call it good. My oregano is going crazy and I've had to buy a second basil because the first one isn't looking all that great.

Next, the garden before. . .

and today. . . We think that purple plant in the front corner is sage. It needs to be split and replanted elsewhere. It got huge!

I thought I'd do the whole thing based on this square foot gardening thing I read about on pinterest. It sounded like a good idea, but you see we didn't get very far with it. I do like the neatness of it, but it was a lot of work. The red leaf lettuce is about ready to be cut. My plan was to try to grow everything that I need for my salsa recipe, and I think besides the cilantro (which I never can get to grow) and the garlic and red peppers, I think we did it.

The dog is new and so is the bush by the deck. Yep, a $5 clearance deal. The bush, not the dog.

And that concludes our tour. Come see me for real and I'll fix you a salad.