Project 15: Garden Nook

While I've been working on the flower beds surrounding my kitchen garden I've also been mentally catagorizing the different areas in the garden. This part is a shade garden, this part is the kids play area, this part ....needs something. Then I found this beautiful old worn arbor on Craigslist. When I got it into the garden it was so big and beautiful it made me sooo happy. This was exactly what I needed in the garden. A little magical nook to rest and appreciate all my hard work.

This photo was taken through my craft room window. All I had done here was brush on a little chalk paint to change the grey worn wood into something a little more "cottage". My daughter Lili snuck outside and was playing her leapster. I knew I had a winner, if the kids are already stealing it from me.

I wanted to add a few more touches to really make this a destination that called to me.

Some pillows, some fabric and a few planters. It's coming along. I still have my eye out for a few things ( a chandelier maybe?) but I'm having fun adding some whimsical touches.

This is a project that feeds my soul.

Project 14: Flower Gardens

I've always been a garden dabbler. The only kind of garden I plan is a vegetable garden. Everything else just sort of happens. We moved to this home three years ago. That first summer I concentrated on building my raised bed Potager Garden.

This year though I've been able to concentrate on the flower bed border surrounding the Potager Garden. I had planted a few things, mostly divisions of already established plants in the yard. This year all of those things I planted three years ago took off. 

 Like this Iris garden along the fence and front sidewalk. This has just spurred me into putting more thought into the surrounding garden beds. Plotting and planning. This project is a big one that has taken up a whole month of spring. 

Project 13: Spring Entryway

I've been spending most of my time in the garden lately. Yesterday I spent a little while cleaning and updating our entry way. I had a pretty clean slate to start since I just emptied it for our new dishwasher delivery last week.

Now this is what you see when you walk up to the front door to our home. Some pops of color and a big, loud reminder that I love spring. 

Project 12: Please god, Poppies.

I am a gardener, like my mother and my grandmother before me. If you visited my mother's home you didn't get a tour of the house, but, you did get a tour of the garden. I've been mostly a vegetable gardener until this home. Here's what did it:

A tree peony. My mother never grew peonies. I had never seen one before. I was in love. I've since planted a gazillion herbaceous peonies and officially started a collection. 

THEN I found out that there is a variety of poppies that flowers like a peony. What the what! I'm attempting for the second year in a row to grow them from seed. Most of the information says to just scatter the seeds. That didn't work last year. I'm trying direct seeding, greenhouse seed cells and presprouting this year. Please god, poppies!

Project 11: Playroom Redo

We have a great space for kids play in our home. I've added a climbing wall that looks like a tree, gymnast rings and even a swing inside. As the kids get older a shared space was less and less fun. More fighting over toys than actually playing with toys. After becoming utterly frustrated for the umpteenth time I decided to redo the playroom. One space into three custom play areas. One for each kid. Charlie's space is all about his hot wheels and action figures. Lili's space is dominated by her huge dollhouse that keeps her entertained for hours. Josie's new passion is the drums. They are each in charge of keeping their own space cleaned up and have only one bin for toys. Crossing my fingers that this keeps the chaos to a minimum for a while. 

Project 10: Toto

I did a previous post about the munchkin attire project that I did for my daughter's play. She was Toto in the Wizard of Oz in her elementary school Drama program. I searched for the right material for her Toto costume for a long time. I finally found the answer in a men's robe at the thrift store. Fuzzy enough to be animal fur but no shed to make it easier to sew. She loves it so much she even sleeps in it now that the play is over. I think it helps that it resembles her puppy, Ginger.

Project 9: Greenhouse

I love spring. But more than spring itself I love the chance to start again. Rebirth. As a gardener that means starting seeds. The promise of a garden to come. I've tried starting seeds inside with terrible results. Over and over again I've tried. I'm not attentive enough.


The greenhouse solved that. When  it's dreary and cold the green house is warm and inviting. It's just a cheapy plastic thing that I bought at the end of the season on clearance. But right now it's my refuge. A space to think, plan and create.