National Coffee Day

Didn't have to ask us twice if we were going to celebrate.

Happy Monday. Xoxo.

Cutie in a Cozy Coupe

While sissy naps

Gluing tissue paper onto construction paper.

I had to move four large boxes of office stuff - currently stacked up in the dining room - in order to unearth the paper and glue, but it was worth it. She's been happily gluing for almost an hour.

Craftastically yours,

A&A

Landscaping: done for now

Round one of landscaping updates for the front hard: complete.

That Japanese maple was the second one I picked out, purchased, shoved into my car, and schlepped home. The first one, a slightly diffetent variety, looked so much cooler in the nursery than it did sitting in front of our house. Kind of like clothes shopping: cute on the hanger, hideous in the dressing room. :)

In the spring I'll add annuals all along the walk.

Our to do list was:

- tear out all plants in courtyard bed, left of garage, and one rose bush to right of front walk

- remove all river rock

- add dirt to grade and fill in holes

- bury sprinkler lines that had risen to the surface over the years

- lay down weed fabric

- add mulch

- buy plants, plant them!

Oh, and look, we have a bench. It came home with me less than two days ago and has already been assembled and put to good use. It needs something (potted flowers? Outdoor art??) next to it and/or above it, but we'll figure that out. Add it to our to do list in the spring.

(We also have a different color of mulch under the bench. Whoops. Pretend you don't notice.)

Speaking of spring, we will be tackling this stuff then:

Can you say Unruly Rose Bushes? Ugh. And they're off center, too. I love that. #not I do love the blue spruce bush and the boxwoods, though, so those will stay but the roses and day lilies need to be cleaned up a little.

Anyway, landscaping: done for now. Time to sit and enjoy the front yard instead of working on it.

(Although, now that I look at these photos, we need to do a little power washing of that brick. Eek.)

;)

Late afternoon on the porch

Lookin cute.

Orchard

We woke up Saturday to 39 degrees, which - so soon after our hot hot hot temps went away - seemed frigid. But we packed up anyway to check out a local family orchard.

By the time we arrived it was sunny and 55 and beautiful. Fall perfection. First visit to this place, we will definitely be back.

We herded ducks and ate warm apple donuts and watched tractors pulling hayracks and walked through the gift shop and tried out this weekend's available apples and picked a peck of 'em. We even came home with a few caramel treats.

I have videos of actually picking from the trees, but no photos. Will see if I can figure out how to get vids on the blog!

Happy Monday. Xoxoxo.

Her hair

It continues to amaze.

I'm still laughing

Daddy asked if she wanted to help stomp down the fresh dirt. She stomped a few times, then picked up the pace to a solid run. In circles. While pumping her arms. "Can't catch me! Can't caaaatch meeee!" she yelled.

Lol. Funniest/cutest moment ever.

I've got it, Mom

I had gone several days since I last gave her a bottle, and when I brought it close she grabbed it and just went to town.

I love sudden "Oh, by the way, Mom, I can do this now!" developments like that. :)

Xoxo.

Courtyard progress

A few days ago the little courtyard area right up next to the front of the house looked like this;

And now we have this:

There were several reasons we went "clean slate" with this area of the landscaping...the dogwood tree had major fungus problems, the hedge bushes we just didn't care for, and the little shrub rose bushes weren't great for small kiddos, were only half alive, and always looked messy and ugh. ;) So out it all went. The left side of the front of our house looks a little naked!

We also took out the hedge bush to the left of the garage. Both of the hedges were creeping into the driveway, and we swiped them every time we pulled into the garage.

The brick accent below the window is kinda cool, right?

A's gasp when N cut down the main part of the tree was awesome. "Oh. OH! OHHH! Mama! DUH TWEEEEEE! It fewl down." (pause) "Go see it?"

Showing me the berries she plucked off the tree branches.

Besides digging out the plants and stumps, which broke two heavy duty shovels, N has been also breaking his back shoveling up all of the river rock that was used to cover these landscaping beds. When combined with all the rock he has dug out of the back yard, we have enough to...well, we have a LOT. Haven't figured out what we're going to do with it all, but we'll get there eventually.

Meanwhile, I've started plant shopping. We will anchor the courtyard with an ornamental tree of some kind. So far I have a few boxwoods and a couple privets.

Plant staging area ;)

Where the plants are sitting is where that big, always-falling-down-over-the-sidewalk rose bush was. No longer. I'm thinking about putting a bench in this little area. Could be cute??

Next up, adding dirt and smoothing everything out, purchase (or first, decide upon!) the remaining plants, plant!, then mulch. The end of the month is our goal. We'll see. :)

Front door mini makeover

Front door mini makeover, complete!

Here is where we started:

The door and sidelights are original, and probably looked amazing when the house was a lighter color back in the day (we think it was originally cream with choc brown trim). But the house has since been painted grey, which left the front door lacking much accentual pizzaz. The storm door looked okay from afar but close up it was corroding and had stains. It lived a good 30 year life. :) 

Plus, being original, and with a little house settling in 30 years, the drafts were terrible. Even if it looked good, it had to be replaced for energy efficiency purposes. You could see daylight at the bottom of the door, and don't even get me started on the storm door. Raccoons could have fit through those gaps. Okay maybe not, but it was bad. Last winter, sitting on the living room floor with A, I could feel an actual breeze flowing across the room.

Our to do list:

- remove old storm door and glass covers on the sidelights (so weird)

- patch holes in trim, sand

- install new weather stripping

- install new storm door

- add new planter and rug

- sand sand sand heavily poly'd sidelights, prime

- paint sidelights the grey house color, touch up surrounding house paint 

- sand the door, prime

- paint door!

- spray paint the original pineapple door knocker, install new kick plate, hinges, strike plates (all oil rubbed bronze)

- install new door knob/handle set

Oh, and add a mum because by the time you finally finish, it's practically fall. ;)

Color inspiration came from this blue spruce bush (the red flowered rose bush behind it is being removed. Ugh that thing is messy.)

Visually, the door would look more simple and striking if we didn't have a storm, but we're storm door people. I like the door open during the day, we like the fresh air option w the pull down screen, and I like that I can answer the door without having to open the door from a safety standpoint during the day. So, storm door it is.

I just realized that we still have to replace the doorbell. Doh. We took it off to paint, tried to pick up a new one, realized that we bought the wrong kind, then...did nothing. Ha. Gotta get on that.

But for now, it's done! And a few neighbors have already given their thumbs up. :)

Up next outside: this little courtyard area.

Bench? Fountain? Magnolia of some kind? A row of cute annuals along the walk?

Cute girly playing with sticks? :)