Progress on the Yard

Our yard received a little needed attention yesterday. As we try to balance out a rather long "to do" list around our new house, the nice 60s temperatures this weekend had me wanting to make progress on at least one of the flower beds I wanted to add. A lot easier to do the digging and planting in cooler weather. I've had my eye on this mailbox garden plan from BHG for several years, but the mailbox at our last house was surrounded on all sides with curb, driveway, sidewalk, and inground telephone cable box - limiting what I could do. Now that I have plenty of space, it's time to play.

The first round of plants - similar to those specified in the plan.

I used the plan for general plant guidelines and layout. I'm adjusting the layout to include the existing crepe myrtle. I still need to buy and add a few of the smaller infill plants and, for now, I've left some existing bulb plants from previous residents (directly in front of mailbox - curious to see exactly what they are).

The "almost complete" flower garden.

Our other completed project that's the favorite of a certain little boy - the new sandbox! We had debated whether or not to add one beneath the playset. Finally decided to give it a go.

A very happy little boy enjoying his new sandbox.

Trent prepped it while I was working on the flowers and all 3 of us added the sand. It was hard to get Dylan to come out of there last night! Hopefully it will help give him additional entertainment while Trent & I work on other yard projects in the coming months.

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[almost] Wordless Wednesday: Red Peppers

Grown by Dylan! He's so proud of his red pepper plant and was giddy yesterday morning when we cut off the first two. :)

Linking up to Wordless Wednesday: July 25 and Sarah Halstead's Boys & Dirt {WW #50}

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Sprinkler + Toddler = Cool Fun

It's been a tad hot to say the least. Literally record breaking temps. On Friday evening, Trent hooked up our sprinkler to try to give the grass and garden in our backyard a bit of relief. He encouraged Dylan to run through it - a completely new experience! The photos cracked me up when he showed me later. I need to get a copy from him (they're on his iPhone).

Last night when he put the sprinkler out again, Dylan was quick to run to the sliding glass door and ask to go out. I grabbed my DSLR and 55-200mm lens to grab a few shots from a safe, dry distance. This one was my favorite:

Supplies: True Blue Solids by Angie Hinksman; Enroute Masks by Erica Coombs; Genuinely You elements by Karen Funk; the Sprats alpha by Gennifer Bursett; Just the Way You Are and Script BT fonts.

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Father's Day Superhero

My inspiration for Father's Day this year came from all the superhero elements I had seen (scrapbooking kits, movies, pillowcases, etc). I had the general idea of getting a photo of Dylan in his Superman shirt with "Dada, you're my superhero!" It took a little coaxing to get my now opinionated child to participate. He likes to pick his own shirt and I had to work hard to convince him to wear the Superman one for at least a few minutes. He also likes to choose at times when and where he wants his photo taken. Naturally, my suggestions originally were ignored. I snapped shots regardless hoping to get something and I did by patiently following his lead.

When he finally moved in front of my herb garden (better background and no direct sun) plus blew a kiss and made the best smile - I managed to get not just the one photo I had hope for, but three! I edited each using Ashley's Nice & Easy and Momaziggy's Gold Glory actions, cropped and outlined to mimic a comic strip. Then added the text in Marker font below (I see now I made a typo in adding a space between super & hero - oops!) and had it printed at 8x10 for Dylan to give to his father along with a card he made.

After breakfast and gifts, the three of us went to Bond Park to spend some time together. We had fun strolling the paths, watching the boats and playing at the playground. I haven't even had the chance to look at the photos I took on my DSLR, but this shot taken with my iPhone and edited with Instagram is a favorite:

Like father, like son. :)

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[almost] Wordless Wednesday: Hummingbird

We regularly have visits from hummingbirds in our yard. Amazingly, this one was determined to enjoy our honeysuckle even with Dylan & me close by. Still need some practice on photographing those quick little guys - but glad I did "catch" him with my 55-200mm lens even if the focus was off.

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Dino Garden

During a visit to Virginia last week, my mom was showing me her new succulent planter on her front porch (note to self: photograph it on next visit - so pretty!) when she suggested we help Dylan create his own. After a shopping trip to get a small, clear plastic container and digging into the toy bag in my car for a small dinosaur - we were ready to visit our friends, Karen & George, at Morningside Farm and Nursery.

With instruction (and a little assistance) from George, Dylan started the project by putting soil into his container:

 

Next he arranged the succulents:

Filled with a little extra soil. Then added a few small rocks to the top:

 

Finally, he placed his dinosaur into it's new "home."

I can't begin to describe how much he loves this little garden! I think it has visited every room in our house. He attempted to give it a ride on his trike (I intervened quickly fearing a crash). And even sat with it in chairs by our dining room sliding glass doors - chatting to it and sunning with it. So cute! Thanks, Karen & George!

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Wordless Wednesday: Dirt

ISO 400, ss 1/160, f5.6

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Rainy Day Fun

This week has brought plenty of rain which we needed (although not quite as much as we received) and mostly trapped Dylan and me indoors.  We ventured out a bit to splash in the puddles early in the week (note to self: we need to get him a good pair of rain boots).  But I digress, the real story here is the fun we had yesterday afternoon.  Who says you can't have a good, dirt filled adventure in the rain?

The pickle pot at our front door had a beautiful arrangement that I bought in the spring and managed to keep alive through the summer.  A very hot September, a forgetful waterer (yes, that would be me) plus a vacation led to this:

Not exactly a warm greeting on our porch.  Looking over the October issue of Better Homes & Gardens (how I love this magazine!), I saw

the perfect solution.  Admittedly, I regularly see ideas in their issues and have great intentions of following through and trying them, but instead life gets in the way.  This time, I decided to seize the rainy day and find a bit of adventure for Dylan and me.  The idea looked simple enough - I needed a pot (check), sedum (check - it was grown from a clipping from my mom's plant and desperately in need of a new pot), ivy and pansies.

Off Dylan and I went to purchase our supplies. I arranged it all at the end of our driveway with the pot in the grass.  This way we wouldn't be standing in the soggy yard, but also could just brush our extra dirt into the grass and not have to sweep up.

My little assistant had a blast playing with the trowel and dirt:

After we finished, I returned the pickle pot to it's location with the "welcome" rabbit next to our front door and added 2 pumpkins my step-father grew in his garden for Dylan.  We were both a wet, muddy mess but it was worth it for the fun we had.  Today the sun reappeared in time for a photo of our much more welcoming entrance:

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Wordless Wednesday: Life is but a Dream

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Picture Summer

After seeing some of the fabulous photos my friend, Laura, took a few months ago while participating in Picture Spring at Big Picture Scrapbooking, I knew I wanted to join in on the fun when Picture Summer started.  Unfortunately, I forgot until Friday night (it officially started on Thursday).  So on Saturday morning I just jumped right in with the prompt for Day 3.  I'm loving the inspiration in my inbox each morning and seeing the gallery full of photos from the other class members.

Here are my first shots:

Day 3: Centered - blooms on a shrub next to our front porch

Day 4: (New) Tradition - celebrating the holiday as a family of 3

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Beautiful Day

We've been suffering under a thick layer of yellow green pollen this week.  According to news reports on Wednesday, our pollen count was 3 times normal.  Overnight we had a good thunderstorm which washed it all away.  And while I'm sure some more may appear in the next few days, it was nice to walk outside this morning and find the world clean & colorful again.

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I Have My Eye On You

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spring

A few photos of our flower garden last year for Terri's weekly challenge at Scrappin' Mojo and the Two Peas March Super Sketches class:


Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; Autumn Leaves patterned paper; Making Memories tiny alpha stickers and patterned paper; Maya Road chipboard bird; Martha Stewart Crafts sepia pen; EK Success corner rounder punch.

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Lilies

Still searching for my energy and mojo, but I managed to create one quick digital page last night using a template. I love the gorgeous blooms of our lilies. They were such a steal too - I found them on clearance for $1/plant!


Supplies: Press Plate (no. 2) template by Paislee Press; Sunburst paper from Tropical Popsicle kit at Peppermint Creative; Hyacinth paper from Tia Bennett's Spring Time Fever kit; Futura Bk and Hannibal Lecter fonts.

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Here's Looking at You

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This Fence is Made for Walking

Earlier in the week we caught a neighbor's cat perched on top of our fence. He was just hanging out on one of the front corner posts. My best guess is he was bird watching or interested in the catnip I was growing on the backside of the fence below him.

Thursday morning I glanced up from my kitchen sink thinking I saw a squirrel out of the corner of my eye. That is a normal scene near our bird feeder as the squirrels come stuff their cheeks at breakfast. Instead, there was the cat again. I managed to grab the camera and snap a photo as he came around the side yard - walking on top of the fence the entire way. It was rather amusing to watch him walk half on the pickets and half on the 2x4.


Yes, buddy, you've been caught. LOL He paused long enough for me to snap a couple photos and then continued on his way - on top of the fence.

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Garden Gnome

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Weekend In Review

This weekend didn't turn out exactly as planned. Not that we had many set plans- mostly just "would like" to's:

1. Clear weeds and re-mulch landscape bed along south side of house
2. Sort through master closet removing old & unwanted clothing
3. Take box(es) of donations to Goodwill
4. Attend USA Baseball game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Saturday
5. Dog sit for neighbor
6. Grocery shopping
7. New cell phones

Most were completed. The yardwork, we'll hopefully complete tomorrow. I still have a little more sorting to do in the closet. Trent hasn't started yet (he was outside working on the weeds while I was doing mine on Friday). And while I picked up a new phone from Verizon today - Trent ordered his online after we came home since it was almost 90% less on their website.

Looking over the list now, we accomplished more than I thought. And a very good amount considering I had a migraine almost the entire time - from a mild headache Friday evening to a raging migraine by 3:30am Saturday to mild pain during the day to an even worse (I didn't think that was possible) migraine last night to mild pain this morning. I'm guessing it was caused by the heat. Who knows. It was about noon today before I felt like myself (ie, no pain and not groggy from meds) . And it is nice to feel normal again. :)

One of the highlight's last night - a rainbow just outside of the stadium:

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First Bloom

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Day 16 - Spread Your Wings

After Ter asked how high the bird's nest was, I decided to take a photo tonight and show you. See the hanging basket to the right of our front door? That's where the nest is. So when the mother bird gets fussy because we come out and are near her nest, I laugh - she could have picked one of the 2 at the other end for more privacy. ;)

We've had birds nesting in our hanging baskets every summer since we bought the house in 2003. Typically we get 2-3 nests a year so I'm keeping an eye out for our next set. Once I know there is a nest, I take the basket down each time I water it. I'm careful to not touch the flowers or nest - just the outside of the basket. And gently water the flowers without watering the birds. Perhaps they would be ok, but I don't like the thought of dumping cool water on those little guys. It's the softie in me. :)

After photographing the porch, I took down the basket with the bird's nest to water and found this:

*sigh* The little ones have already flown away. The pictures I posted yesterday were taken Tuesday night. They looked so young. Too young to leave which is why I thought maybe it would be this weekend. Kind of sad to see them go, but grateful I had the opportunities I did to peek in on them. And, I'll be watching for our next set of houseguests. :)

Day 14 - Bird's Nest / Day 7 - Bird's Nest / Day 1 - Houseguests

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