Cutting Garden

The veggie and cutting garden seems to off to a great start. The corn is getting tall and a few zinnia's are almost ready to bloom.

I Have Girly-Girl Syndrome

In the past I have never been know to prefer flowery, girly things. I liked sports, the outdoors and camping. My preferences were always more toward the streamed lined with bold royal colors. Lately I find myself drawn to soften things up a bit. I think I have a touch of Girly-Girl Syndrome. Slowly over the past two years my home began to soften a bit. The colors I'm drawn to have become lighter and softer, vintage items I would have scoffed at in the past now get a space of honor. Perhaps it started while painting the little ones room cotton candy pink, perhaps it was the cute little dresses they wore but I know for a fact the day I added a ruffle unto a skirt


I. Was. In. Trouble.

It seems that little ruffle set into motion a chain of events that I can no longer deny(Lord help me) - I like girly things - I like ruffles. I look for ways to uses them in my home and lately I see them everywhere around blogland, which inspires me even more. So until I find a cure, I guess its more, and more, and more ruffles for me!

Here are a few ruffles a have hanging around the house today.

Added a ruffle and some ribbon to the sheets on the girls beds.
Added a ruffle at the bottom of this cute little summer dress for Zoe.

A sweet little pillow for 4th of July with a hint of ruffle on the sides.

I'm even shopping for ruffles these days. I am completely smitten with this shower curtain from
Target. I lay away at night debating if I should go head and buy it or if I should attempt to make one myself. Either way, it has cause a few sleepless nights!

So how about you, do you have girly-girl syndrome? Are you smitten with ruffles?

I'll Take One Of These In My Size, Please!

Zoe's little Polly Pocket dresses looked so cute all lined up it made me realize how pretty they were and had me wishing for something similar for myself. You never now, maybe I'll need one.

Flea Market Finds

While up in Hayward mom and I were lucky enough to be able to check out the Flea Market they hold every Monday all summer long. It was much bigger than we expected taking us a couple of hours to look at everything. Look what I found.

A cute little sign.

An enamel ware pot, 2 lids to add to my collection and a cute little jar with a lid. I'm using the jar to hold salt and it is just so darn cute.
Five adorable vintage Valentine cards.

One enamel ware cake pan and a old mail box.Don't know why this mail box attracted me so much, but I just love it. Hubby thinks I'm crazy but I just know it is going to look amazing hanging on my yellow walls.

Mom's Garden

Without a doubt my mother is an amazing woman and gardening is one of her talents in which she can knock your socks off. Growing up I remember helping her pick veggies and take care of the yard. Three kids to raise and limited garden space kept her confined to foundation planting and container gardening until about 10 years ago when my parents purchased a property a little outside of town. Finally she had room to spread her gardening wings. Mom has sprinkled gardens throughout the property but to me her main garden is bursting with beauty and inspiration. Ready for a tour?

Here's the view upon entering the garden area. The first part of the garden is her hosta garden which is still under construction (more on that in a bit) Beyond the hosta garden, along a brick path, is the main garden. This garden sits next to an amazing towering pine tree(see it on left - um, I mean the other left - - wish I would have remembered to get a picture of the whole trunk, but you get the idea. BIG. Real BIG). The garden is in the shape of one large circle. There are four planting area's inside the circle and one center bed with a bird bath. The paths are a mixture of brick and mulch; the edging material are field stones. On the far side of the garden is a row of lilac's to block the view from the road. On the right side of the garden is a new bed dedicated to purple and white(one of my favorite beds on the property)

Here is a closer view from the entrance on the house side of the property.
Here is the view from the driveway side of the garden. Look at the wonderful arbor dad built for her. I keep telling her is might accidentally fall into my mini-van some day. In the background you can see a new addition in the form of an obelisk that dad finished just a few weeks ago(another item in danger of falling into my van!)
This is the purple and white bed she added last year (oh hey! Look! a good photo of the tree trunk. Big huh!) This is one of my favorite beds. It has filled in so quickly and is an amazing sight when in full bloom.
Mom seems to add a new bed almost every year and this year it will be in the area shown below. Her Hosta garden. You can see the new bed on the right with a few plants and a walkway between it and the existing garden on the left. In the background there is a small hill with two hosta, the plan is to eventually connect this bed with the new bed to make an arching semi-circle bed filled with shade loving hostas and such.
Now for a few of my favorite clever idea's from mom.

Below is a catmint plant that she has staked up with a few bamboo poles and some twine. It really makes the catmint's color pop against all the green surrounding it and gives it a little more substance. If you grow catmint you know how airy or light it seems to get, staking it up like this really shows it off much better. I really need to do this in my garden.

Look at this! A bowling ball in the garden. A simple adornment. Love. It.

Now...Back To Our Scheduled Programing........

Our week of camping flew by so fast!

We all had a lovely time. Lots of laughing, swimming, ATVing and campfires.

Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! I like being able to go away but I LOVE coming home almost more. Here are a few photos from our exciting week.

Tomorrow I will show some amazing photos taken in my mothers garden. Stay tuned; your not going to want to miss a thing.

Let's Get This Summer Started!!!!!!!

The family and I are headed out tomorrow for our first camping trip of the season. We'll be gone for a week which seems to fly by when camping. I'm hoping to keep up with all your blogs but doubt if I will have the time to post anything new myself.

Here's my hubbies ride for the week. Sweet color, Right?

Looking forward to hours of this.

See you in a week or so.

Rearranging the Porch

The girls have finished school for the year and a summertime feel surrounds us. What better way to celebrate then to show off my porch. We have a wonderful deck / screen porch that sadly does not get used as much as it should. I'm hoping to change that with a few accessories to make it more cozy.

Here is the view from the doorway leading out to the porch. This wonderful table set is all ready for snacks and meals. You can see the backyard and the park and pond beyond. I love that it almost feels like were in the country most of the time.
Here is the view looking from the doorway and to the left. I've set up a small sitting area using a table and a couple chairs.
This is the view from the small sitting area, one of my favorites of the whole space.
I placed a chair and my over sized lantern in the other corner. We walk past it to get unto the deck.
Love how the rocks look inside the lantern (thanks for the idea Pottery Barn)
I would love to hang curtains over by the small sitting area to try to keep out some of the summer heat but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it short of putting holes in the metal siding. I've tried adhesive hooks but they fall off after a couple of days. Any ideas!

Rock Collecting

Up until two years ago I could never understand why people collected rocks. I just didn't get it.

UNTIL . . .

I stumbled upon this beauty along side a ATV trail in the middle of the woods.

I was amazed by how smooth it felt and it's ball like shape. I had never noticed one like it before. And so began my search for a perfectly round rock. It has become somewhat of a family affair. Nearly every pit stop or snack break along the trail the search continues; it seems to happen automatically. One moment were all clustered around the 4wheelers, the next someone wonders down the trail, then another, and another. Shoe clad toes start poking the ground. A "hum" can be heard wafting in the breeze. It's a peaceful, calming activity that we seem to enjoy. With the school year ending tomorrow and our planned camping trip next week maybe, just maybe we'll be bringing home a couple more treasures like these. . .

This one is near perfectly round, I love the cracks.

This one is not so round more oval but I love the color.

This one is round but flat(if that makes sense) and perfectly smooth.
Black and white, what a great combo.

So by now your all thinking "she's crazy" but I'm ok with that. I'm a crazy rock collecting girl.

A Simple Chair

With the weather warming up nicely and my spring gardening chores complete I have turned to updating a few things on my porch to enjoy throughout the summer.

A few years back my sweet mother-in-law passed on a wonderful metal table and chair set she was no longer using. The set has begun to rust slightly and I have been wanting to give it a little TLC.

I started with the chairs. Here is the before.

And the After:

I love the way a quick coat of paint and a new cushion cover has such an impact. Today I'm working on a quick pillow of matching fabric for the backrest. I'll show you along with the completed porch update sometime later this week. Bet you can guess my color scheme?

End Table Makeover

It seems has if you all have sent good vibes my way. Hubby has said YES! to painting the kitchen cabinets. Yippeeeee!

I'm so excited, now I just have to figure out a time to do it. I'm thinking I will wait until it's too hot to be outside, like the end of July or August. That should give me plenty of time to prepare myself.

In the meantime I completed a quick end table spruce-up. Sorry I don't have a before picture. The bottom was a dark stained wood, very typical. The top I had painted red a couple years back. Since I still liked the top color well enough I decided to just paint the bottom white. I covered the top with wrapping paper and using my new best friend(spray paint). Within a couple hours I had a completely new looking table. Here she is.

The white was a little TOO white so I rubber on a little stain and also took some sandpaper to the edges to rough it up a bit. Here is a close up of the edges. Also gave the existing drawer pull a quick shot of black paint.

Now I have a dilemma. I love the bottom, but the top is making me stop the think things through again. SO . . . do you think I should . . .

Paint the top white also to better fit the modern country / cottage look I am working towards

OR

Leave the top red, since I love the color and a little splash a color is always good.

I just can't decided. PLEASE HELP, what would you do?

Painting Project: Kitchen Stools

Last week Kimba from A Soft Place To Land show how she updated the stools for her kitchen island. Being a sucker for painted wood and numbers, I fell in love with her idea and decided I needed my own version.

Painting these two grungy stools has been on my to-do list for at least a year. I'm so glad I put it off, with Kimba's inspiration they are going to be fabulous. This is what I started with. Dark stained wood stools. Functional but not at all inspiring. (not sure why they look all crooked in the picture? Oh well they still work)

This is what they look like now. Functional and pretty. I am so pleased with how they turned out I may just have to keep them around a bit longer.

Now I just have to get the ok from dear hubby to paint the base cabinets a wonderful white and this picture would be ten times more wonderful. I'm going to ask hubby tonight - send good vibes my way girls, I may have a fight on my hands.

It's Starting To Look Like A Garden

I have painting projects in the works, but nothing to share yet - maybe tomorrow. Instead I'll show you what's blooming in the backyard garden.

One of my favorites: Johnny Jump Ups

A new addition: Meadow Sage

Tried and True: Madien Pinks and Catmint

A beautiful Climber: Clamitis

Tagged! I'm It!

Looks as if I have been tagged twice while I was out of town!

Once by Daryl at Vermont Cottage and once by Teresa from Cherry Checkers. Since I am to share 6 things you may not know about me I'll share 12 things instead.

Here goes.........

1. I enjoy taking evening walks with my girls. They enjoy it so much and I love to look at homes and find landscaping ideas as we walk along.

2. Campfires are one of my favorite things. I can sit for hours chatting and reflecting.

3. I like to be busy. I like to be lazy. I know it is a contradiction but I enjoy the go. go. go of my daily life. When it all become a little too much I declare it LAZY DAY! I'll spend the day doing only what is fun for me.

4. By mid-summer I become a lazy gardener.

5. I'm a want-to-be neat freak.

6. I dislike watching movies in the theater. I much rather wait until it comes out on DVD.

7. I love pepperoni pizza. Want it every day. But in my effort to lose wait I can only allow it once a week (if I have been good ALL WEEK).

8. Blogging keeps me motivated. I start to freak out if I don't have something to share.

9. Only two rooms in my house ABSOLUTELY have to be clean. My bedroom and the kitchen. The rest of the house I will contently push clutter aside until I can get to it. My hubby thinks I'm crazy but it keeps me sane.

10. My favourite color is Red.

11. I'm very shy and one of the worst at small talk.

12. Pepsi gets my motor running.



Now I'm tagging . . . .



Flowerpatch Farmgirl

Rechelle at Walnuthaven Cottage

Penny at Comforts of home

Kara @ Creations byKara

Noon to Two

Michelle at Creatively Dreaming

Aprilfoolwed at From Mommy to Mom

Ahhhhhhh, I'm Home

I am so glad to be back at home, seems like I've been gone a week. We packed a lot in and had so much fun checking up with family.

Play time at the ocean (the girls first time!)

Adult time with the family.Short post today, I have a mountain of laundry to attend to, come tomorrow I'll be back to my regular posting.