around the yard

Part of staying in our house still means that I'm ready to get rid of all these bare patchy lawn spots and create a "lush oasis" for our backyard and a place for the kids to play. 

The before, with the neighbor's tree.

This was a huge bare spot, and we chopped our neighbor's tree down (with his permission) that was hanging over onto our side. But it created a big spot where we could only see his sheds. Doug planted these climbing hydrangeas, which in several years though (unfortunately) will be tall and lush and a beautiful visual. 

(there is fencing between those poles so the hydrangeas will be able to climb up and branch out.) 

After planting the hydrangeas and the fresh sod.

Several years ago, mom and I dug up all the stuff around the deck and planted violets, but sadly none of them stuck around. And it's just been this yucky dirt and bare spots for years. 

We laid sod all around the deck and also later planted some shade grass seed when we ran out of sod. 

Sod is actually pretty hard to take care of. We watered it forever for weeks, but one too-close grass cutting and it messed some of it up. Sigh. So we are going to see how it grows back next spring, and maybe come then, rip of some of those spots and do the grass seed instead. But hoping it grows back better!

This very splotchy spot in the back gets a lot of downed leaves and not much sun. 

Another leafy, weedy area by the side of the house. Cleared it all out, laid down some weed barrier, and then covered with pond rocks. 

Looks so much better!

Also laid 18 bags of brown mulch around my flower beds, and 8 more of cedar mulch on the other side. Seems like I'm always pregnant when I do my mulch beds and it's so much work! But it makes everything look so nice.

And finally blooming:

Blooming!:

And my garden growing away:

Mini living room update

One of my new year's goals was to have a little update to our living room in the form of a new rug and lamp. This was the previous rug, it had a deep pile which was soft, but difficult to vacuum and often crumbs of stuff were found deep in the depths. Ew.

We bought a rug off Wayfair that was 100% wool and had a really pretty pattern.

So apparently these are the only pictures I took of it! One with August playing on it, and one with me doing my exercise last month! Anyway, I loved that it was natural fibers, and I loved the pattern. What I did not love was within 30 minutes of rolling it out, September came and scratched it and instantly there were long loose threads in the pattern >:( and also since it was wool it constantly shed little cream hairs that got all over the floor and just made it look dirty and dust-bunnyish, and they'd cling to our blue couch. Eventually it had to go!

This time we just opted for a cheapie from Walmart.

It clashed with the couch pillows, so just swapped them out for the cream ones from the playroom futon couch:

And we're done. A couple months ago I searched high and low for new lamps (I like this blue one, but the shade has a rip in it). Probably 5 or 6 lamps were bought home and then returned in an effort to find one that looked good. No such luck. And no luck either with just a replacement shade. So we decided that this one will have to still have to do, and just face the rip towards the wall. Haha.

Cozy evening

Just a lovely evening cozy on the couch with the hubby, talking, sipping our teas, listening to a "crackling fire", smelling pine scented candles, kitty on the lap, with the baby sound asleep.

Feeling very blessed.

home updates: kitchen sink and coffee table edition

We finally got rid of our old constantly stained sink. No matter how hard I scrubbed, or how long the bleaching comet sat in there overnight, it remained stained.

ew

At the same time we did this we decided to put in a reverse osmosis system. I had one at my parents and I've always thought they were the "gold standard" of water purification. Then later we were talking to a neighbor who told us that our city has the best water in several local counties.... whoops... well, can't hurt! The system was $200 on amazon and it's installed now so it's staying.

new sink from Lowes

It took Doug a couple hours to install it. I think a couple frustrating hours actually. He had issues with the sink strainers leaking and the instructions on the part said only apply a bit of silicone and the guys at Lowes were like "oh no, you have to load it on". So he had a few trips back and forth, but eventually the leaks stopped.

Ta-da! The new sink is a little deeper and quite nice. We don't have an 'after' of the under the sink area. But the reverse osmosis system takes up almost the entire right hand side with just a little room for the container of trash bags. Surprisingly we still have enough room on the other side for everything else. There was a roaster pan that went out to the shed, but other than that, everything fits. And since I've used that pan once since getting it at my 2010 wedding, I figured it didn't matter too much being stored in the shed. I do miss that little ridge around the old sink for holding the sponge, but oh well.

The other new thing lately is a lovely new coffee table my dad built for us.

In the summer my dad said he had a piece of walnut wood that he was wondering if I wanted him to make anything. He had just finished making a table for my brother, and had a lull in his work, so I think he was getting crafty. I can't remember if it's from a tree he actually cut, I think so.

We had been using the coffee table I got for a previous wedding gift, and it was just laminated wood and getting chipped and peeling and the edges were sharp for a soon-to-be little walker. So I suggested a replacement coffee table. And Dad got right to work!

Pretty soon he had made it into boards, sanded it down, and put the pieces together to see how I liked the order.

I don't have more of his 'progress' pictures, but pretty soon he had it all built, then we chose a stain, and he stained it, varnished, and applied a wax topcoat. And then delivered it.

I love how he followed the natural pattern of the bark to make the rounded edges, it's so unique.

Our last table had this handy feature that the top lifted up, so I definitely wanted this one to do it too. And actually this one brings the top to a more appropriate level for working on the laptop or eating dinner, so that's awesome.

It's so beautiful. My dad is so talented!

landscaping fun

This my friends is what $85 of hydrangeas looks like. Yes, those shriveling up, browning hydrangeas were still full price. That's what happens when you buy at the end of the season and the cheaper places like Lowes are sold out and you have to go to the expensive nursery Bordine's.

I have wanted those gorgeous big white snowball hydrangeas for 3 years now. When mom and I did the landscaping last year I bought 2 "Annabelle" hydrangeas and planted them out front. The first year I didn't get any blooms. This year they bloomed like a queen Anne's lace and just a few petals, I didn't understand. I sent a picture to one of mom's gardening friends and she said it was a "lacecap" hydrangea.

So Bordine's had not one, but 2 plants mis-labeled the year before. I called them to complain and they were going to not do anything since I didn't have my receipt (a year later). Anyway, they finally said I could dig them up and bring them back. But then Doug was too embarressed to do that. So we decided to dig them up and relocate them to the other side of the house and get 2 new ones. So yesterday mom came over and that is what we did.

Before views:

The North side of the house. The big plant is a rhodedendron that gets beautiful pink flowers for 2 weeks a year, otherwise looks like this crazy bush. And those are my precious peony plants on either side of it. That spot isn't great for peonies because it doesn't get full sun.

The front of the house. So there we have the 2 lacecap hydrangeas with a large butterfly bush in the middle.

The backyard view and the fence in front of the kayak rack.

After working all day, with a stop for lunch, we were done.

The after views:

So now I have 2 "little lime" hydrangeas flanking the butterfly bush. They will have light green big blooms that will fade to this kind of dusky pink in the fall. It's not exactly the big white blooms I wanted, but I think they will still be nice. And my hydrangea research showed the little lime was a lot hardier and easier to grow than the Annabelle. They should be about 5 feet tall too so should be a good fit for that space.

Moved the lacecaps to flank the rhododendron, and there's one small empty spot where next year I'll probably get another hosta to balance it out on the right side.

And finally the peonies will enjoy full morning and afternoon sun in front of the kayak rack and hopefully be full of blooms next year.

So, I think I'm done with the landscaping. We used barrier cloth to help block weeds, and I'll have to re-mulch every year, but hopefully the very hard parts and high maintenance parts are done.

Today will be a fun day of trying to cram the cat into her carrier for a trip to the vet. This morning I caught her peeing in the laundry tub and then into August's carseat (twice) EWWWW. So we're getting her checked for a UTI or to see if this is just behavioral. I like this cat, but I absolutely will not spend my days searching for and cleaning up cat pee. So who knows.

the nursery tour

I guess I never did a post on August's nursery, here it is:

here was the room before

I put the pallet wall up myself. Real pallets can be dirty and full of chemicals, so we used wood from my dad from a old pipe organ crate he had made. I cut all the boards in the garage with a saw and used the nail gun to put them up

I went thru with "stainable" caulk and patched hundreds of little nail holes. Then we stained it to discover it wasn't stainable at all! It looked awful. It was almost polka dotted. So then Doug went thru and with a pocket knife scraped out all my putty and put in this wax crayon stain that matched the color of the stain we used. It was a huge pain. But looks great now.

I got this lantern online, it had been a kerosene lamp but they altered it to be electric. I wanted navy, but when it came it was a bright teal blue. So then I spray painted it this nice hunter green, turned out great I think!

We painted the walls a soft light brown. We chose an outdoorsy theme so lots of wood and nature. The park posters were from Amazon, and I did some free Bible verse printables. I got all the frames from Wal-mart. There is our little mushroom bank from Austria. The Jesus poster Doug had already, it's really cool, His whole face is made up of Bible verses and some tiny drawing of like a shepherd with his lambs.

The crib was Jenny Lind from amazon, I got the mobile pieces in a garland and strung them into this mobile myself- it plays 'the teddy bears picnic which my Dad always sang to us, and the quilt was handmade by my aunt.

more National park art over the changing station.

Bookcase and rocking chair from Craigslist.

Doug made this curtain rod from an old paddle.

This is how his room looks now, with the rocking chair that I was rocked in as a baby!

I love this sweet little room. I used to go in there before he was born and rock the cat. Look at all his tiny clothes. Look at his books and imagine reading and singing to him. Look at the art and hope he'd be a little boy going on adventures with us. I get so sad every time Doug talks about moving.

Such a cute room and he hasn't spent one night in it yet. We use his room for changing and getting dressed, but so far he sleeps in a little side bed in our room.

My friend Liz's husband made this side-bed for their son and we're borrowing it. It's so great having him close. Doctors recommend babies be with mom and dad until 6 months, supposed to make them "feel more secure", and lessens the chances of SIDS. I love having him close. I'd planned on transitioning him at 10 weeks into his own room before I went back to work, but he's still getting up 1-2x per night, so I haven't. It's pretty easy, I hear him stirring and wiggling, just change his diaper, nurse, and we go right back to sleep. He's never really laid there crying, so that's great.

A mini tour of this crib, haha, a pad to catch diaper leaks, mostly catches spit-ups; a pile of diapers and wipes by the feet, a trash bag hangs at the end for dirties; he's swaddled at night and gets a blanket on top; he's got a little turtle mirror there he can admire himself; little mittens for when he wiggles his hands out and they are cold; and a flashlight we used to use a lot when he was little to peek at him; a white noise machine (we already sleep with a fan, but sometimes if he's fussy he gets the waves too); and recently a piece of cardboard wedged between our beds. A couple times I've woken up to see he's inch-wormed himself into the crack, he definitely can't fall through, I just worried he'd smother himself in my covers.

Anyway, I love having him close. I stink at side-lying nursing so still have to sit up and get the Brest-friend pillow and nurse, but it's super quick and easy. I think if he was in his own room by the time the monitor picked him up he'd be crying too loud and it would be hard to calm back down, I love how quick it is to grab him or sometimes just reach over and pat his head and he'll go back to sleep. I don't think he'll stay till 6 months, but when he can sleep thru the night, out he'll go. Doug says we can re-do the wall at the next house, but it was so much work! We'll see.