Sunday, March 27, 2011

Garden In Bloom



Thought I’d share some garden photos as everything is starting to bloom!
azaela
fence
lilac
That’s my one lilac bloom so far! I envy those of you who are able to easily grow this shrub. I had a huge old bush at our house in New Jersey. So fragrant and beautiful!
mirror
bloomintrees
riverbirchbed
whitegarden
tulips
Spoonmarker
That pretty spoon marker was gift from my bloggy friend Clarice.
boltedveggie
pinkdogwood
knockoutrose
My Knockout Roses are blooming!
littlegreenhouse
I bought a little $30 greenhouse from Big Lots last month and it’s doing surprisingly well. It comes with two solar lights that you can clip on to any shelf. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it’s very light weight (easy to take apart and move) so I have to add some rocks to keep it from falling over when it get’s windy on my porch.
seedlings
I’ve been able to start quite a few seedlings! Which I never do (I’m more of a direct sow kind of girl). It’s also a good place to hold some veggie starts that I bought that I can’t plant outside yet.

Thanks to all of you that came by to get cinderblocks and rocks. It was fun getting to meet you! I have about 20 cinderblocks left if anyone wants to come and get them.

I’ll probably be having a garage sale in April and I’ll let you all know when I have a date. I’ll be getting rid of lots of decorative accessory type things. I’m also selling quite a bit of my transferware collection. So if any of you have a store/booth and would like to come and have a look at all the transferware just email me and I’ll give you details. I’d like to sell it as a lot and not piece by piece.

I should have photos of my downstairs bathroom makeover in another week or two. I just need to get a shower curtain and a few accessories for it. Haven’t found a shower curtain that I like so far. Everything else is done and it looks good!

Hope you all have had a good weekend! It’s been a stormy one here!


Thursday, March 3, 2011

Spring is Here & An Update

Primroses
Hi everyone! I’ve gotten quite a few emails asking if I was alright. Yes, I’m fine – we’re all fine here. Just busy with life in general and still trying to get this property in shape. I’m a little behind in my projects but my husband is taking some time off this month and my daughter has spring break, so I’ll be getting some help with the things that need to be finished up.
Coffeetable
(Those are Primroses above for those of you that aren’t familiar with them.)  I’ve been ruthlessly decluttering! You wouldn’t believe the amount of books I just donated to my library. I gave them my whole collection of frugal/simple living books. I think I had every book ever written about frugality and simple living! The only one I kept was the Complete Tightwad Gazette. My library hardly has any books on either subjects so I thought those books would be put to good use there. Also donated tons of magazines.

Let see….I’ve been working outside since it’s been so gorgeous here lately!
arbor
I added some lattice that I had laying around to my arbor on one side and on top and moved one of two grapes here. Just have to find a place for the other grape and add lattice to the other side. The grapes are from last summer when I had this garden area in addition to the one you see above.
After
I took it apart when we decided to sell but I never moved the grapes I had planted along the fence. So they’ve been sitting in the middle of the yard all winter LOL!

I also weeded and put down some new mulch in this bed.
Forsythiabed 
Yes, spring is here is Georgia! I’m sure we’ll get another below freezing night before it’s safe to really plant – we always do.
springflowers
Unfortunately, this nearby bed still needs to be done. Plus last spring I started planting liriope around the edge and never finished because it got so horribly hot I couldn’t stand to be outside (except later in the day but that’s when those horrible little biting bugs are flying around)! So I have to also finish that. Sigh…….
Weedme
Tried to sell these cinderblocks on Craigslist.
cinderblocks
They were from this lovely pond we used to have.(chipmunks made a whole in the liner and it leaked so we dismantled it).
habitat8
I had a guy who said he wanted them then he never showed. So if anyone in the Atlanta area wants them email me. I’m going to Freecycle them as I’ve got to get them out of my yard.
Bamboo
I have tons (and I mean tons) of various rocks etc. from the pond dismantle.
japanesemaple
In an effort to use some of them, I made this little planting circle.  I used a Japanese Maple that we had growing in a pot. Before we list I’ll fill that bed with some flowers and mulch. It was a good way to use up some of those  stones and also use the outlet that’s there(it was for the pond pump). I didn’t want to have to dig up the electric line and I couldn’t just have an outlet sticking up out of the ground for no purpose. We already had uplights etc so we have the tree lit at night and it’s really pretty. I did put down some grass seed but I think it all washed away in the storm we had this week!

I painted the ceiling, wainscoting and primed the walls above the wainscoting in the downstairs bathroom.
bathroomprimed
I started applying the Venetian Plaster that I’m going to use on the upper part of the wall (the walls are in bad shape) but decided that the color I had was too dark for a room with no windows.
Wrongcolor
So I had to wait a week to get to Lowe’s to get a lighter tan (we have three people using two cars).  I’ll start applying it this weekend and then I need to find a mirror and a new light fixture.

My daughter and I did paint her room. It was a real bright BRIGHT blue and now it’s more of a light gray/blue. If her room wasn’t a huge mess from all her art projects that she’s been working on I’d take a picture…but it is :)

I also painted the hallway downstairs (mixed up a nice milk chocolate color with some leftover paints). Anyway, I’ll take pictures when everything is done and just have a blog open house tour. You’ll see the house and gardens as prospective buyers will see them.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something….anyway, mostly I just wanted to let you all know that yes, I’m still here, yes I’m still trying to get my house sale read (want to get “top dollar” ya know LOL), no we haven’t even looked at houses yet but plan to this month and yes, I’m really really REALLY tired and can’t wait to just get on with it!
forsythiabranches
Be back when I can!