Blooms

Rain and sun make for a happy garden.

Heading out and a Winner!

We're about to get in the car and head to LA where we'll catch a flight bright and early tomorrow morning bound for Ohio! The hubs and I are spending four days with his sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids. I'm excited to get the heck out of CA for a few days and hang out with them - they're refreshing and fun and their kids are darling. There will be pictures! I promise!

And now for our winner of the Great Brick Guessing Contest... We had quite a range of guesses! From 179 to 1500! But our winning number is almost smack in the middle!
Congrats to Kristin G. who guessed 630 bricks! We currently have 550 bricks living in our garage and Kristin was closest at only 70 bricks off the total!

I'll be sure to post pictures when the patio is done, which will obviously be at least a few weeks since we're headed out of town...
Have a great weekend!

Weekend Recap: Patios, Pits and a Contest!

There's something about a long weekend that gets me and the hubs all excited about projects! And this weekend was a big one. We've been talking about ripping up the grass in the back yard between the house and the garage to make a patio and this seemed like the perfect weekend to get started. Between the electric tiller, several shovels, and plain old man-power we were able to get the grass out and dig deep enough for our patio base.

Here's the space before - we've got a nice big piece of grassy space to the right of the back door, so we weren't concerned about getting rid of this square. It's just begging for a fire pit or some patio furniture.

I promise, I really did help. But we only have one electric tiller so while the hubs did some tilling, I did some research. Someone has to provide the brain power. 

We started by using the de-thatching attachment on the tiller to thin out the grass. As it got thinner, we put the tiller attachments on and ripped it up. Once most of the grass was out, we attacked it with shovels. And more tilling. And more shoveling...
The hubs's parents came up on Sunday to celebrate the his birthday - and to help dig our hole. They were fantastic! We wouldn't have accomplished as much as we did without their help.

We found all sorts of treasures in the grass and dirt as we worked. My favorite is the little elephant. I know we found at least three more marbles in there, too. They were everywhere!

That's as far as we got with the hole this weekend but we also spent a considerable amount of time between Lowe's, Home Depot, and the internet deciding exactly what we wanted to put in the hole. I had no idea there were so many kinds of brick pavers and choices for patterns, or that I'd even care so much when the time came!
In the end, we decided on Harvard Pavers from Lowe's. They're a nice light red that will fade in the sun just a bit over time but won't be too dark against the light blue/grey of the house.
The fact that our pavers are still sitting in the garage didn't stop us from setting up the fire pit and roasting up some hot dogs for dinner. And a fire pit isn't a true fire pit without some mallows.

And now, on to the contest! I had no idea that this space would require quite so many pavers! So for those of you still reading, I've got a little prize for the person who can guess how many pavers we bought to make our patio! Here's a visual aid - my own little Mayan Ruin of bricks!

You have until Friday, June 3rd, at 7:00p.m. (PST) to place your guess by commenting on this post. The person with the guess closest to the number of bricks in the pile wins a $5 Target gift card! One guess per person, please.
I'll even throw in a brick if we have any extras. And you gets dibs on the first s'more next time we fire up the pit. How's that sound?
Happy guessing! Good luck!

Lazy Saturday

Apparently, when you order almost 400 photo prints, your local one-hour Costco photo center reserves the right to take several hours to process your order. Phooey. Guess I'll be picking up my prints tomorrow afternoon.
We've had a lazy Saturday around here - the hubs and I have both been working overtime for the last few weeks and needed to take things slow. Other than hitting my head on a bicycle (hanging from the garage ceiling) and getting my thumb caught in the dryer door, it's been a good day. Full of sunshine, sweet tea, and laundry on the line. I love days like these.

The roses are in their first bloom of the season and it's always the best bloom of the year. My yellow roses are huge and they smell amazing! There are at least 12 buds on each rose bush.

I also have little flowers on my blackberry bush! Does this mean we'll get berries this year...?

This is Sammi's favorite spot to sit while I'm in the yard - middle of the sidewalk that connects the house to the garage. If he gets too warm, he moves to the shade but he'll lay here for quite a while!

Call me crazy but I actually like doing laundry - especially when I can hang it on the line to dry. There's something relaxing about the process. Or maybe I just enjoy being out in the yard on a sunny day, regardless of the chore...? (It helps to have a little vintage clothespin holder, complete with vintage clothespins - a gift from a friend. Isn't it cute?)

Yep, it's definitely Spring around here! What's on tap for your weekend?

Springtime!

It's raining off and on all weekend but I managed to snap some photos of our flowers - we planted bulbs months ago and they're all blooming! I snipped a bunch to put inside the house. I love how colorful and cheerful they are!

Photos are mine. Please ask before reposting. Thanks!

Creature Feature: Meet our Neighbors!

For quite a while now, we've had some feathered friends living in our tree.
Readers, meet The Birds.

They frequently drop into the yard and peck in the dirt around the roses. Sometimes they can be found hopping along our back wall or perched way up in the telephone wires. Most mornings and evenings you can hear them cooing up in the tree, cozy in their little nest.

The Hubs often comments that he's so glad we have such a hospitable yard. I concur.

Gardenhomes.

I certainly wouldn't mind having a little gardenhouse all of my own, tucked away in a corner of the yard. I'd share, I promise. The perfect place for a book and some sweet tea - or hot chocolate, depending on the season.
Aren't these gardenhouses from Piet Hein Eek just amazing?





All images from Piet Hein Eek. Originally spotted on sfgirlbybay.

I Grew Something!

I never thought I'd be the kind of person who puttered around a yard. We used to tease my mom because she'd wander out to the yard for "a few minutes" and disappear for hours, only re-appearing when it got too hot or it was time to start thinking about dinner, her knees dirty from weeding and her hands muddy from the hose.
Boy, am I eating those teasing words now. Because I putter. For example: One Saturday morning, not too long ago, I wandered out back with the dog and a cup of coffee and didn't reappear for at least an hour. The hubs found me on my knees, weeding the roses, my hands muddy from the hose and the dog patiently waiting for his morning breakfast.
Most of the plants in our yard were established when we moved in (and completely buried in ivy, mint, dead leaves, or a combination of all three) so they've been doing pretty well now that they've been cleaned up and are getting regular watering and pruning.
But these little plants - these I grew from scratch. Er, from seeds.
They started out looking something like this - plain old, boring potting soil.

Then after a few little weeks of watering (and the occasional song, 'cause plants like it when you sing to them) they turn into this!
Purple star:

Pink Sunbursts:

This plant has a bunch of little buds, just waiting to bloom:

I'll admit - I'm pretty proud of my little blooms and feel a little more confident about my gardening skills in general knowing that these did ok!
Have you had any gardening successes lately?

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers...

The month of June sure was good for our yard! All of our plants are exploding with blossoms and large green leaves. The morning sea-mist and late afternoon sun seem to be a great combination for the flowers and I love putting them all around the house. I tried to put flowers in every room but soon discovered that the hydrangea and rose blossoms have to go on top of the bookshelf or Pantaloup will eat them and then get sick... but they're still so cheery and happy to look at.
All the roses are blooming and they look so much better than last year. These yellow ones are so delicate and smell amazing.

These red ones all bloomed at the same time one the same bush - perfect for a table-top arrangement.

This bright pink hydrangea now lives in our side yard. I wasn't planning on buying a new one but this color was too cheerful to pass up and our local nursery had them all on sale.

I got quite a deal on this royal purple bougainvillea - it's going to live along the back wall and give our yard some real color. I've been told they are difficult to kill and that's the kind of plant I need!

Our two fuschia plants are literally dripping with blossoms. I love that we can see these from our dining room window.



What's blooming in your garden this summer?

It's an umbrella! No, wait, it's a clothesline!

It's that time of year again! No, I'm not talking about the World Cup or Wimbledon... It's the time of year when the weather is warm enough to hang your laundry on the line and actually have it dry by dinnertime!
We had to buy new clothesline after my rope from last year got dingy in the winter rain and windiness. This year we upgraded to the plastic lined - it should withstand the weather a bit better. After discussing the "ideal clothesline" with the hubs - and a little search on amazon.com - he ditched his effort to simply hang some line between the house and our tree and went in pursuit of pure greatness.
Despite the loads of crap taking up space in the house and garage when we moved in (we filled a dumpster!) there were a few small treasures - like the large yard umbrella laying against the garage wall. The cover was dirty and faded but otherwise in great condition. Within a matter of hours, the hubs had transformed this large yard umbrella into a fully-functioning clothesline just for me!
First he magically turned the umbrella frame inside-out. I don't know how he did it because I'd fallen asleep on my lawn blanket in the sun.
What I was doing:

What he was doing:

Then he carefully drilled holes in the umbrella frame and strung the clothesline through the holes. Pull them tight and tie them together!


I'm not sure how long our assembly will last but it held an entire load of clothes with room to spare. They're out there now, spinning in the breeze.

My man has great ideas!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's project!
I won't spoil it for you but here's a little riddle as a hint:
What do you get when you cross a plastic wine barrel with a shovel handle and a drill?

Attitude Adjustment.

Just when I was starting to get annoyed at my husband for trivial little things that don't matter - like not bringing in the trash cans from the alleyway; or leaving the dishwasher door open or his dirty dishes on the counter - he goes and does something totally awesome without me even hinting or nudging or flat-out asking that it get done.
After dinner tonight, he completely cleaned up the dishes (I didn't even find a rogue spatula on the spoon rest or a wadded up napkin on the table!) and then he went outside. Thinking he was going to putter around in the garage, I was surprised a few moments later to hear the hose hitting the side of the house and find him doing this:

Yep, that's my hubby cleaning the windows. He even took the screens off, sprayed them clean, and laid them out to dry.

What can I say... I married a keeper.

Not to be outdone, I grabbed the Best in Glass and some paper towels to do the inside and now all of our back windows are clean and shiney! Maybe this will inspire me to do the front windows tomorrow...

And a few other random shots -
Pantaloup in her usual spot, peeking over the windowsill to check out the outside world:

Toys we find in our yard when we garden, leftover from the previous owners. These sad little guys got washed off the windowsill:

These little flowers are popping up all over the bushes in the backyard and they smell amazing.

Today we bring you...

... the rose from the yard that is as big as my face.

Literally.