Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day marks the beginning of camping season for my family. 

With much anticipation, we pile into the camper and hit the road. 

Our destination is always the same,  Uncle Ruben's cabin.  It's a lovely place to unwind and relax.  Grandparents and cousins join us. 

Games, ATVing, campfires and little bit of work (not to much though) fill our days.  The kids run wild and the grownups take naps. 

If it get too warm, we hop on a ATV and take a short trip to the river to cool off.  

Amidst the laughter and catching up, time is always taken to visit a little country graveyard; the resting place to five generations of our family.  It's a simple, beautiful place filled with history and memories. 

Hope your Memorial Day weekend is enjoyable.

I'll be in the woods surrounded by family,

enjoying the moments and making memories.

I'm a neglectful blogger. 

Google reader is stacking up with unread posts and projects are inching along at a snails pace!

My days have been filled with gardening, and not much else.  Seems like every year at this time life takes a back seat to the garden.  I have been able to get to the gym everyday helping I hope in my quest for weight lose - fingers crossed!  But by the time I drag sore, tired body home it's all I can do to get dinner on the table before I collapse.

It will get better.

Springs planting rush is almost complete so I promise I'll have more to share soon.

I'll leave you today with a beautiful photo of my mom's geranium in white.  Hmmmm, I like I need a few of those.  You know what that means - - MORE PLANTING!

Have a great day,

Robin

Mom's Garden

Mom's garden is always beautiful - - always inspiring.  She comes from a long line of green thumbs and I'm proud to say it's rubbed off on me.  Throughout her property she has many garden beds scattered around but my favorite is her circle garden.  It's nestled near a towering pine tree that must be at least a hundred years old - it's big! 

The garden is encircled with stones, it's layout is four circular pie shaped beds with a circle bed in the middle boasting a beautifully rustic birdbath.  The main pathway is paved in bricks, as is the entrance path curving around the giant pine tree.  She's also added an arbor over one entrance, gazing balls, and a rabbit weather vane.

Mom's garden seems to explode in mid to late spring and blooms like crazy until frost.  It's always a treat to wander around the garden admiring the blooms as mine weakly stumbles along until mid-July.  This past weekend I took a few quick photos to share with you.  Mom's garden is constantly inspiring me and maybe it can inspire you also.   

Hope you enjoy. 

(don't mind the garden hose - pesky reality!)

Have a great day,

Robin

Learning To Ride

Little Ms. Z is five now. 

In our home, five means a license to drive -- an ATV that is! 

You couldn't have found a happier little girl - - she's been waiting FOREVER for this day to come. 

See that smile? 

Blinding right?

She rode...and rode...and rode.

Now all you mama's out there - don't worry - she wore a helmet!  It came off for the photo shoot.

We have a little speed demon on our hands.  Can't tell you the number of times I yelled "SLOW DOWN"

S.C.A.R.Y! 

Oh!  There she goes again!

Fun Finds

This was  a good week for fun finds.  Here are my new treasures.

A stool with great legs.

I see it painted white, distressed and a ruffly slipcover.

A sweet little chair and two books.

The cover on this book is beautiful.

The chair looks right at home in this corner. 

Hmmmm, to paint or not to paint! Still undecided.

And finally, a beautiful tablecloth in red and white. 

I can't wait to use it for my Fourth of July decorating - it's perfect.

Hope you all have a happy restful weekend.  See you Monday,

Robin

Planting Time . . . FINALLY

It's finally planting time here in Minnesota and I couldn't be more excited.

I must confess - -

as much as I impatiently await planting time it's not my favorite task. 

In fact, I dread it. 

Don't get me wrong, gardening is a passion of mine.  I enjoy the planning, the watering, the weeding and the picking of flowers but I can't stand the planting.  Weird I know, but I'm OK with that.

Yesterday I picked up a few annuals and perennials to get me started on the dreaded task of planting time.

Perennial Dianthus in Pink Lemonade

Dahlia's

Impatients in three shades of pink.

Annual Saliva in purple.

Pale pink Peony.

Limelight Hydrangea.

Tomorrow, if I can get my "you know what" in gear, I'll be in my garden, planting away.

Doing A Happy Dance . . .

Remember last week when I showed you my bedroom decorated in delightful shades of blue and green?

Ms. Z and I found the perfect accent for the room while at the antique shop. 

Take a look at this beauty.

Hmmmmmm, I'm in L.O.V.E

Reminds me of my childhood. 

My mother had a yellow one and used it every time we went camping or out of town. 

I've been on the look out for one of my own for ages. 

Sadly, of the ones I've come across the colors made me cringe or the price tag was too steep.

My only dilemma now is figuring out the perfect place for her in my room. 

Do I place her on the chair

- or -

On my bedside table?

What do you think?

From The Garden {2}

Although the weather has been cloudy, raining and all together yucky for the past week a few plants in the garden are sending out blooms for me to enjoy. 

The Japanese Lilac is almost blooming.

Chives are sending me deliciously purple buds.

I'm so excited about these, last year I planted them from seed and didn't see a single bloom. 

Things are looking good this year.

And finally, the Johnny Jump Ups are in full bloom. 

These have been a favorite of mine since I was a girl.

Have a great day, and Happy Gardening

Robin

Fun Finds

This past week I found this beauty at a garage sale.

Added a flameless candle and hung it up in my kitchen.  Love it.

Have a great day,

Robin

The Colors Of Spring

I enjoy changing the colors of my accessories for the seasons. 

How about you?

It's my way of embracing the season.   The change of color always breathes fresh life into the room and keeps things interesting.

For spring my accent colors of choice are pale blue and green.  To me, the combination is very spring-like.

This past week I switched things up in my bedroom and I am loving the results. 

Would you like to take a quick peek?

The room is predominately white:  White walls, bedding, dressers.  I've added a touch of black and brushed metals.  Together they form the base of my room.  Given the season, the curtains, framed artwork and accent pillows change.

Here's the view from our itty-bitty tiny bathroom. 

I've hung new curtains with a blue and green floral pattern that I made.  I love this fabric, it's thick enough that the light is diffused a little but still gives a light and airy feeling.

The art work I picked up at Ikea a few years back that has the most amazing lime green.  It's hard to tell in the photos but they are by far my favorite artwork in the house.

The bed itself is covered in a white coverlet with a few green accent pillows.

My area of the room is set up to make me smile and help me get ready for the day.

I added some new frames with favorite photos of my babies, a mirrored cabinet to help me stay organized and a few pretty accessories to make myself feel pampered. 

The mirrored cabinet may seem like a strange thing to have hanging on the wall in a bedroom.  I find it very helpful since our master bath is so tiny with very little storage I use this space instead for doing my hair and putting on my face everyday.  Plus hubby and I were always fighting over the bathroom, this helps solve that issue.  Plus it's up high - - much harder for little ones to get into my stash.

Inside has another mirror and all my "potions" and hair products. I use one drawer of my dresser for makeup and bulkier items like brushes.

Also on my dresser is my new favorite.  Bath and Bodywork's candle in

Eucalyptus Spearmint - It smells divine!

Mr. J's dresser is on the wall at the end of the bed. 

A silver platter coral's all his "stuff",

and quite possible the worlds ugliest alarm clock.

-yuck-

Mr. J has owned this contraption since his pre-teen years, he calls it a heirloom,

I'm thinking more along the lines of a fire hazard!

--moving on to something pretty - - -

My favorite piece of furniture in the room,

a pale blue chair I picked up a few years back.

She's a little wobbly, but that's OK.  Her job is to sit in the corner and look pretty.

She does a good job don't you think!

Mr. J's bedside table has a few of my favorite things also.

This photo I've saved to until last since I have a project in the works to fix the problem. 

We have lived without a headboard for a past couple years,  but I think I have a solution.  Stay tuned . .

Hope you enjoyed my spring colors.

Robin

From The Garden {1}

Good Morning Everyone!

Hope you all had a great Mothers Day!

I'm in an excessively happy mood today which is surprising since the sky is cloudy and it's cleaning day. Might have something to do with the fact that I spent every spare moment working in the garden all weekend - - I'll get back to that in a minute - - lets first focus on cleaning day, I've got a question for you!

In the past I've stretched cleaning chores out throughout the week, finishing a job or two a day. Always put them off until the end of the day. Almost always grumbling my tired self through them.

This week I decided to try something new.
I've assigned Monday as cleaning day - - because lets face it, by Sunday night of a weekend at home the house is TRASHED. No Sweat - - I'll clean Monday!!!!! The remainder of the week will be devoted to working on projects.

I've decluttered, dusted, swept, mopped, vacuumed, cleaned bathroom and done three loads of laundry. Now it's lunch - boy am I hungry! I think this new approach is going to work out great. I feel as if I'm way ahead of the game for the week.

So here's the question - - How do you go about cleaning your home. Do you spread it out or tackle it all at once. Would love to hear your trick and tips!

Shall we head to the garden?

I mentioned I spent as much time in the garden as possible this weekend --it was heavenly!
My project was to move the edging out a couple feet (OK, maybe more than that. Hubby says I should just place the edging three feet back from the sidewalk and be done with it. No grass - just garden - how cool would that be?)

Anyways, I have a brick edging that's about four inches tall all around the backyard garden. I love the clearly defined garden space. The problem however is that I installed the edging with the curves to curvy that it has made mowing difficult. This is where hubby would roll his eyes and give me a "your crazy" look.

But I'm serious - it drove me crazy!

I dismissed the eye rolling and got to work. Starting out by moving the brick and laying them out how I wanted them.

This took a long time. It shouldn't have but those darn bricks were sitting right next to weeds which I just had a pull. So I moved slowing along, pulling weeds and replacing bricks.

(I was a bad blogger and forgot to take photos at each step - - Sorry!  Forgive my review photos)

Next I added landscape fabric. No way was I going to dig up all that grass - - takes too long. Instead I installed fabric and will wait a month or so until the grass is dead before planting anything in the new area.


Finally, mulch -- and lots of it.  I just love fresh mulch.

Here's the mulch with a little of the fabric uncovered - - you get the idea.  I have to admit though, landscape fabric has been a new addition to my gardens in the last couple years.  Previously I would just dig out the grass, amend the soil then spread mulch.  Using the fabric makes things so much faster.  I amend the soil as I plant each new addition to the garden, instead of the whole area at once. 

Finished product is a mower friendly softly curved boarder. Lovely!

 If you look closely you can see the row of solar lights that mark where the bricks were previously. 

Wow! Long post. Guess I'm chatty when I'm happy.

Have a great day,

Robin

Still Waiting...

I haven't forgotten about you all.  Still waiting for my computer problems to be fixed.  Pulling my hair out in frustration, but hopefully hubby will be able to figure it out soon. 

Hope you all are having a great day. 

Can't Upload Photos!!!!!!

Now being able to upload photos since yesterday is driving my CRAZY!

I can't figure it out.

Is anyone else having this problem??????