Outdoor Update

This is one of those years where summer seems to be wizzing past even though it's just started.  Where has it gone already?!  I'm totally behind with our gardens and haven't even finished mulching the veggie garden.  I feel like this should get finished before July hits.... tomorrow... we'll see what kind of motivation I come home from Grover with tonight. Nothing has changed drastically in my back yard/garden in the past year, but I like to share it here each year anyway- it's like my little garden year book.

It's going to be positively paradise once the hydrangea start blooming.  It's my little suburban sanctuary.  When everything is in full bloom late summer, and I've hopefully finished mulching, I'll give you the full 2014 yarden (yard/garden) tour- which will probably look very similar to 2013's.  Between the front, back, and sides of the house, our yard takes 30 bags of mulch and only has 170sf of grass.  Definitely skewed a bit, but I'd rather play in gardens then mow a huge lawn any day.

The newest addition to our yard is a monstrous rain barrel.  I convinced Hubby that we needed one for when our town institutes a water ban (usually during a long hot spell in the summer) and we still need to water the veggies.  When I tried to put the barrel directly under the water spout as I originally intended, however, it looked gargantuan and beyond ridiculous.  I settled on hiding it in a corner, but now have to deal with re-routing the downspout.

Although I ventured to Home Depot for all the parts (which I did get), I got distracted by picking out plants for Grover and subsequently spent my afternoon playing in the dirt at the flip instead of installing my own rain barrel.  I have a feeling this will be the story of my life for the next couple weeks.  We are T minus 14 days before we hope to list Grover, the latest fliphouse.  One-track mind may not even begin to cover it.  I'll do my best not to talk exclusively flip here.  I wouldn't want to bore you with daily updates of what trim I painted or what light fixture I installed.  Enthralling, I know, but I'll keep it to my weekly updates.

Returning to my own abode and veering slightly off topic- guest what finally got ordered!!!!!

After 3.5 years of complaining about my over-sized budget furniture store sofa, he's getting replaced with the gorgeous Diane from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams!  She's certainly a splurge and will be the most we've spent on any piece of furniture ever.... but I intend on having this pretty lady around for a very long time.  Now I only have to wait about 8 weeks for her to come in (sadface).  Oh well, at least she's ordered!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?

I'll be daydreaming of my new velvetty sofa whilst I manage to cover myself with dirt, mulch, and paint over at Grover.  Happy Monday all!

Herbaceous

It was a pleasant surprise on Saturday when the predicted rain decided to clear long enough for Hubby and I to get started on this year's garden.  Since the weather was still threatening a downpour while we were at the garden store, we only bought about half of what will end up filling up the garden, but we're off to a good start!  Until we plant a bit more and put down some fresh mulch, the flower beds are nothing to write home about (mid-summer will be a different story- flower explosion and I love it!). My current quandary is the herb garden.  After planting 7 new herbs this weekend, I'm left wondering what I want this baby to look like this year.  Aside from some minor leaf cleanup, all we've done is place the new herbs in last year's set-up.

For the past 2 years, I've had the herb garden planted in pots, 'planted' in the ground (inspired by this) and I've liked the look.  With fresh mulch and flowering peonies on the left, it looked pretty sharp.  But this year I'm itching for something different.  I'm thinking of going vertical.

This vertical garden from Better Homes and Gardens would probably be the easiest.  Hubby loves the idea of smaller pots that can be brought inside in the winter.  I love the idea of making the herb garden into living art.  Win/win!

This lattice garden from Hammers and High Heels might be even simpler, but still clean, classy, and effective.

Naturally, I'm gravitating to the more complicated set-ups:

More complicated, yes, but Curbly spells out all the steps on their How-To.

This one from Ryan Benoit Designs is probably a little too industrial for my own yard, but it makes me swoon nonetheless.  Yes, those are ammunition canisters.

Back to simplicity

This indoor mason jar version is very simple and chic.  For years I couldn't find the original source for this image, even google image search leads me back to pinterest, but a friend was able to locate the designer.  This project, by Suzie Frazier is stunning, don't you think?  I'd need to scale this up for an outside application, but this would be a great idea for easy herb access in your kitchen.

My brain has all of these beautiful examples swirling around in it, and I have a feeling that the application that I decide to attack will be a conglomeration of them all.

Which one is your favorite?

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Overcoming PTCD

Christmas decorating is going to be a little bit more exciting for me this year- my wheels are turning with ideas!  Why so different?  Well, for the first time in 5 years of living together, Humbug Hubby has given the green light on white lights- on our porch. As a young Jewish boy working in retail during the holiday season, Hubby was traumatized early by Christmas music on repeat and garish, in-your-face decorations.  Being the good wife that I am, I have tried to be sensitive to his PTCD (post traumatic Christmas disorder) and kept the decorating rather simple.  The extent of our previous exterior decorations was a kissing ball.  Last year, in a moment of clarity (or slip of the tongue) Hubby mentioned how nice tasteful white lights can look.  Yes Dear, I agree, we should totally have tasteful white lights on our porch this year!  What a great idea!

Oh the possibilities!!!

So I was thinking of doing something simple like this:

Too much?

I can only imagine what our electricity would cost with that on!  I kid of course, I was more thinking along the lines of this.

The puppy completes the ambiance.  Think I could get Charlie to pose in a Santa hat?

I love the not-too-traditional-but-still-traditional look of magnolia garland.  Mix in a few metallic leaves and it would be magical (IMHO)

No lights that I see here, but if you imagine this simple garland with lights, I could see that working on my porch.  I also love the wreath (I see a non-traditional greenery theme emerging)

This is also a leading contender.  Take away the large red bows and maybe add a simple burlap bow and now we're talking.

I know it's probably taboo of me to say in blogland, but I have no desire to spend exorbitant amounts of time and money decorating when it'll be mainly Hubby and I seeing it.  I'd rather have a few festive vignettes that put a smile on my face and get us into the holiday spirit.

I'll probably bust out the tree and ornaments and get started this weekend- I may even force Hubby to help.  It'll be good therapy for his PTCD, I think.

sources 1/2/3/4/5 If you know the original, non-pinterest sources, please share- I'd like to give credit where it's due!