Late Spring Garden

It is time for a post about my garden, which has come a long way in the last couple of years.  Here is what I started with.  And here is how it looks now.  I have put in a lot more perennials and it's filling in pretty well.

 Nothing much has begun to bloom yet, except for the azalea which already is finished, and the clematis, which is looking beautiful right now.

And a little coreopsis.

Peonies are getting ready to open, so I'm excited for that.

And my roses and hydrangeas will be blooming before too long.

I put in some zinnias this year and hope they can thrive.  Overall I'm happy with how it's coming along. 

Added some new planters by the door. 

 
I think I need a new doormat and maybe a few more plants in the lower part of the garden, depending how it fills in over the summer.

Happy Memorial Day to all!

Welcome Spring

I'm sure I'm not alone feeling glad that Spring is here.  Though we may get more cold and more snow, we have had a bit of warmth and some signs that Winter is nearly at an end.  My crocuses are coming up and the birds are singing, and that is enough to make me happy.  I took some photos of the nest that was built and abandoned in my front door flower basket last year.  I felt so bad for the poor mama bird, she was too afraid to come back to the nest after I disturbed her several times coming in and out of the house.  I left it out there for a couple months but she didn't come back so I brought it inside after one of the eggs disappeared.  It's hard to get a feel for how small the nest is from my pics, but it could fit in a teacup.  The eggs are very tiny.

I am not a Winter person at all, so I'll admit that the Easter decorations went up when the Christmas ones came down.  Now it's finally appropriate to show pictures.  :)

I haven't been doing any projects around the house lately, but now that Spring is here, I'm feeling nest-ish.  Today I am going to paint my kitchen island.  It could be the start of a streak.

Christmas 2013

 
Hi there.  Ok, I haven't blogged in a while.  About a year.  I didn't plan to take a break, but I sorta lost my decorating mojo.  I won't bore you with the details, since this is a decorating blog, I'll just pick up where I left off, more or less. 

Some of what I am doing this year is a repeat of last year, like the dresser above, other things I am tweaking.  I decided to put my dining room tree on top of the server in front of the windows.   It's a little more dramatic than last year when I had it in the corner.  The details are not clear in the photo, but it has a nature theme, a twiggy tree wrapped in grapevines, and decorated with birds nests, glass pinecones, little bird houses, owls, icicles, as well as some blue and brown balls.  I wrapped the base in burlap and added some greens.

My kids were home briefly at Thanksgiving and decorated the living room tree, which is always our family ornaments; things that the kids and I made over the years, things my mom made and gave to us, sentimental ornaments sent to us by special friends and family.  One thing I changed was that I didn't use my red wooden bead garland, or the red skirt.  I decided instead to tie squares of white tulle to the tree branches and to use my white ruffled tree skirt.

My youngest (above) was home for 2 whole days - senior year of college and she is in the marching band, which performed at a game on Black Friday.

Manda was home for just a few hours, and I put her to work.  She didn't mind, she's a good helper.  Next week at this time, all my kids will be home - can't wait!  Here are some more pics from around the house. 

If you are reading this, thanks for coming back (or just visiting).  I won't make any promises but I hope to get back to blogging more in 2014. Hope you are having a nice holiday season!

Not another china cabinet? ... um, yeah

The number of china cabinets that reside in my relatively small home has become something of a joke with my kids.  They mock me.  I think I have 4 of them right now, but that could change at any time.  I probably have more buffets than that, to be fair.  I just really like china cabinets, what can I say?  Here's the one I recently painted:

Here is the before shot, which shows a perfectly nice cherry cabinet.  I really didn't like the color of it against the wall, so I painted it in ASCP Pure White.  I think I have gone through 6 or 7 cans of that stuff already. 

 Also added glass knobs and silver bin pulls for a bit of an update.  I bought a real drill, so now I'm wondering what else I can put holes in.  Here is the look for Christmas - sorry for the bad lighting, this room does not get good light in the winter.

Hope you are having a nice week!

Ruffled Tree Skirt and The Box 2012

Everyone ready for the holidays?  I'm getting there slowly.  I still have a lot of shopping to do.

This year I'm doing kind of a nature-meets-shabby chic look for the Holidays.  I made a tree skirt ala Miss Mustard Seed using a $4 twin flat sheet from Walmart.  It took a couple hours to rip it up and hot glue the ruffles but it was easy to do and I love it.  I have it elevated on a table because my cat would make a mess of it otherwise.  The rest of the photos are more detailed pictures of the decor in my dining room/kitchen area, including this years version of "the box".  For last years, click here.

Hope you are enjoying the season!

Deck those halls!

Here's some of what is happening for Christmas in my Comfy Place:

Hope everyone is enjoying the season!

Pumpkin Box

Last year my dad made this centerpiece box for me in time to decorate for Christmas, and ever since I've been looking forward to filling it for fall.  I used grapevine ball lights, faux greenery, pinecones and fresh pumpkins and gourds to fill it.  I still feel like it needs something - leaves maybe?

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you are having a nice week.  :)