Garden clean up

So, during my pregnancy, well for the major majority of it, it was crazy hot outside, so my outside garden fell at the waste sides and eventually become overgrown and an eyesore. After a month of giving it the stink-eye every time I would walk out of my house, or pull into my driveway, I finally got on it and cleaned things up. Lucky for me, the major issues were just overgrown grass, which is usually pretty easy to rip out. Also, the ground was still a little damp from the night before's thunderstorm, so that also made for easy weed pulling.

I didn't think to take pictures of the before yucky garden till I was half way done with the front of it. What can I say? I was finally pumped to get it done and over with.





And when everything was done.





Love my elephants! Yup, they are even in the garden.



This week we got sidewalks put in our block. Every other block in my community had them expect us! So glad we finally have them.



Annnd here is a wide view of my house. Isn't that screened in porch awful? It's getting ripped down in the Spring and let me tell you, I've been waiting for that day to come for years! We'll finally have the money to get that project taken care of, I'm secretly counting down the days till it's gonzo.



So my plans for next Spring is to attach a Pergola to the front of the house, after taking down the porch. I also would like to repaint the house a light gray and paint my front door a fun color. I'm thinking either green (obv!), teal or coral. I have a while to think about it and lots of paint colors to look at until it's time so I'm sure I'll pick something fun. I also think it will be easier to change the front door color every couple of years or whatever than having to paint the house because I get sick of whatever color it happens to be at the time (aka: I'm sick of my house color right now).



I also changed things around in my living room. I'll share all of those shots in my next update. Happy Hump Day!

Thifting & Gardening

First things first, I hit 2,000 hits today! Woo! Thanks to everyone who keeps coming back & to all the new visitors everyday. Means a lot!

Yesterday, Paul & I did our regular Sunday routine. We got up, went to brunch and then thrifting. I usually come up empty but this time was different! I found three dishes/bowls for .80 cents a piece! Did you get that? Eighty cents. I call that a steal! They are super cute, multi color decorative dishes. Here, take a look...

Sorry for the bad lighting & blah quality. I still don't have access to my Nikon. So, these once again were taken with my Nokia.



And here is a up close shot. They're cute right?

Today I went outside and took pictures (with my crappy phone camera) of the front garden so you could see the flowers we have growing in there now. I'm pretty proud of myself, I usually would have killed all of them already. I don't have much of a green thumb. To be completely honestly, I'm not much of an outdoorsy person. I'd much rather decorate the inside of a house and completely ignore the outside but since I'm a home owner, these things have to be done no matter how much I'd rather not do it. Honesty is key right? I'm just keepin' it real, people.

Anyway, here you go! We still need to add little things like mulch and whatnot but it definitely looks better than it did when we first started this project.









And a wide shot of the front yard. Grass is still growing in. By mid-July it will look so green, you won't even remember those dead patches of grass.



And no I still haven't moved those two trees to the right of the garden. See what I mean when I said I'd rather just ignore anything to do with outside? It shows here. hahha. I have no shame! ;)

Hopefully by my next post I'll have a working camera... err battery for said camera. Fingers crossed!

Gonna get Dir-tay!

Phew, it's been awhile since I've updated hasn't it? Sorry about that! Life has been busy. Tracking back to my last post, Paul & I drove to Orlando last Thursday to pick Gracie up from my parents who took her to Disney for a few days. She of course had a blast! Since then we decided we're going to have a Birthday Getaway for her in November at Disney. Breakfast with the Princesses, going to the Princess Salon, getting to pick out a Princess dress in the boutique, the day at Magic Kingdom. Should be lots of fun for all of us! They are even currently building a new wing in Magic Kingdom that will feature Belle's Castle from Beauty & The Beast called Fantasyland and will be done by her birthday, so we're excited to see that too!

Other than that we have been doing things around the house here and there to make it better all the time. This week I finally got off my booty & painted the Ikea shelves in the Dining area that were cut to size to fit my wall, so they had some wood showing on the ends. You can see that here...



Luckly, I've had black paint laying around for over a year so it didn't cost me anything to paint it. Win!



And all painted!



Looks good right? Can't even tell I painted them!!

I also got an amazing surprise gift from my parents this week. Of course it's elephant related!



It's a bamboo plant in a elephant planter! Seriously, how amazing is that? Made my day.

Yesterday we got busy in the front garden & cleaned out all of the weeds, overgrown grass, leaves, bugs (yuck!) & dead plants. It only took us about 3 or so hours to get it more than half way finished. I'm pretty proud of the work we got done. Sunday we're going to finish up out there. I still need to move 2 trees. Yeah. I'm THAT hardcore. ;)

Here are a few before shots...

Can you even see anything? So overgrown!





See that tall tree? That's being moved to the right, in front of that fence. The palm tree next to it will be moved closer to the big tree in the garden. You'll see! I'll share pictures when we get that tackled.



See the wood fence to the right? That's where the tall tree is going.



This is the view from the other side, looking toward the driveway side.



And of course as soon as I started removing the bricks, Max had to jump into the holes and lay down. Silly kitty!





And some afters or progress pictures...





Check out my fellow landscapers! ;)



So the to-do list includes, moving two trees, adding some color to the garden, mulch & maybe some decorative goodies as well. All in due time! Jordan spotted that the new layout of the garden is actually shaped like a B. I was pretty impressed that he noticed that because I didn't! But I was happy when he pointed it out, being that we are the house of B's! ;)

Also, in the next year or so I have plans on changing the front of the house from the screened in porch to something a little like this...



Amazing, right? I figure not only would it be beautiful but it would just be something else to add charm to the house for when we move in the future, being that this house is only our first home, not our permanent place.

I also dream of adding a front porch swing. Perfect for those warm summer nights!

Other than all that I'm also currently in the process of building a business website for someone, preparing for our Vacay to Miami in three weeks & continuing to work on this house, being a mom & just rocking the shit outta life! :P Have you been sprucing up your yards for the Spring & upcoming Summer? It's definitely a lot of work but it's such a great payoff when it's finished!