Love Your Home: Days 10 thru 14. Spring has Sprung!

Ah, Spring.

Not my favourite time of year. Not for the house anyway.

The weather in March is so capricious--like a teenager, rolling out of bed at noon, barely showing her sunny face.

And all the dog does is drag in mud.

But, the end of winter (though we barely had a winter this year) is a relief--and I can celebrate that.

Melissa Michaels, hosting the Love Your Home Challenge invited us this week to bring a little of Spring into the house (but without the mud).

We start with a centerpiece.

Day 10 – Set A Spring Table: Let’s get our dining area ready for spring! Is your dining table buried in clutter? Clear and clean it. Now for the fun part! Find a vase, tray, bowl, glass cloche or a cake plate to use as the foundation for a spring centerpiece. Then shop around your house or go shopping for a few spring items to add to your centerpiece like ceramic eggs, birds or bunnies on moss, or a simple bouquet of tulips or daffodils.

Well, the table certainly needed some clearing and cleaning. And it took me several days. Couldn't find any tulips or daffs, oddly enough. I thought about buying some birds, or bunnies, or a cake plate,... but I've been decluttering and I am just not in the mood for seasonal tchotchkes. So, I settled for a bouquet of my favourite flowers available from the grocery store.

I love it--but it doesn't exactly shout "Hey, Spring!" 

for Day 11, we were encouraged to bring the outside in.

Day 11 – Go Organic: Plant some seeds for an indoor kitchen garden, or find organic elements outside to bring natural beauty to the inside. Sticks or flowering branches in a vase, pretty rocks, or even fruits and vegetables arranged in a bowl can bring organic life to your home.

Yay. I dug out the pussy willow branches--and bought a few more to add height to the arrangement. I also bought a narcissus.

That was so much fun.

Day 12 – Note to Self: What are some meaningful quotes, verses or words you could post around your home to encourage and inspire yourself or  your family? Print your favorites off from Pinterest or create your own version. Tuck printed quotes in drawers, lunch boxes and on bathroom mirrors.

Okaaaaaay. So, I am not an "inspirational quote" kind of girl--at least not the kind who will tuck them into drawers (clutter), lunch boxes (kind of overly sentimental) or bathroom mirrors (definitely, too Anthony Robbins-ish). But I will put a good piece of word art into a frame.

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood. Did you know Margaret Atwood lives on Pelee Island? I'd smell like dirt, often, if I lived there.

I couldn't find anything I liked and that would fit. So, I made my own. I like it, though the overall impact is less than I'd like.

Day 13 – Dress It Up: Tonight make dinner time feel like a special event by setting the table in advance! Clear the table of any clutter, set out pretty spring linens and tables settings. Add votive candles and soft music.

Well, I invited my husband to eat with me at the semi-cleared kitchen table. No candles, no music. But it was still special.

Day 14 – Welcome Home: Today let’s give our front door or porch a little spring makeover! Sweep and clean the area around the door, and then add a spring wreath, a pot of flowers or make a spring banner or pendant to welcome you home.

I swept and tidied and I bought a new mat. I loved doing this--nothing like scraping the old pumpkin off the step to put you in the mood for Spring!

my son just got home from school. That's his wet boot print on the step.

I have more planned for the entry. I'll post as soon as it's ready.

I am having a blast doing these little assignments. I may not do one every day--and it may take several days to do one, and I'm not doing them "perfectly" but it's still a lovely way to engage with the house.

I'm curious--are you doing anything to welcome Spring?

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A Retrospective. 1. The Front and Back Yards, 2007-2014

In some ways: so much changed!
In others, not so much.

Makeovers inside the house tend to be decorative in nature, low budget and somewhat easily changed.

Changes made outside, though, tend to take much longer (sometimes several years) and are somewhat more permanent. They also tend to be done by my husband!

However, there are a lot of pictures--and it may take a while to get through the whole post. I advise a good beverage.

Weekend Project: Flower pots.

Spring!

I didn't get a whole lot done this weekend. Our hot water tank started leaking Thursday night and had to be replaced--fortunately we found someone to come on Friday and install a new one. The old one was 19 years old.

So we're rebuilding our emergency fund.
I didn't feel comfortable putting on my painting clothes and finishing any projects on Friday. Saturday was busy with Girl Guides during the day and Scouts in the evening, but I did manage one small project on Sunday:

taken last night, in the evening sun

The tall grassy thing is Dracenea, the yellow flowers are pansies, and the trailing plant should be lobelia. I also put in a few white Alyssum plants just because I like them.

taken today, in the noon time shade

I did two: one for either side of the steps:

Pleasant enough.
(Those are extra pansies on the steps. I think I'll return them.)

The View From Here

the dining room window (taken yesterday)

and here:

the living room window (also taken yesterday)

is dismal.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you will know that I have been wrestling with landscaping my yard since the summer of 2008.

The way things were.

I planted a Mock Orange and a Hydrangea near the house this year: I think both have died.

I found this fabulous web-site by a visionary landscape designer/garden planner which I know Anne will love. The blog is called Vanishing Threshold and its author is Tara Dillard.

She believes in creating views to be seen from the house, establishing a diverse habitat in the lawn to maximize pollination, using shot pea gravel and not using foundation plants. (Which is perfect for me--have I mentioned my Hydrangea and the Mock Orange? How about the Dogwood I planted the year before last which is barely hanging on?)

She posted this image of a garden and it instantly captivated me.

from The New York Times. photographer: Randy Harris.

No surprise, I've been up to the wee hours of the morning planning my front yard.



This centre box would be planted with hellebores, ferns and hostas. (One of Tara's Trinities.)

Can you imagine it?

I can. And it is the first time I have had something captivate my imagination so completely I can see it almost right down to the last detail. Almost.

Remember Spring? I want to hit the ground running next year.

Pro: I may already have the materials I need for the centre planter box. We have old railroad ties waiting by the side of the house.

Pro: I get to rip up that sidewalk.

Pro: It's not a big planting area. I just may be able to take care of the small number of plants this requires.

Pro: I love the idea of a partial "tapestry" hedge. Moving my shrubs out to the front would not only give me a gorgeous view of them from my front windows but it might save their lives. Have I mentioned the Dogwood, Hydrangea and Mock Orange?

Pro: This plan allows me to expand. If I want to plant sedums or rudebekias or pupera or phlox or grass even another Thuja in the corners I can.

Pro: I fell in love with gates, recently.

Pro: It will hide the foundation--without planting up against it.

Con: I may get really annoyed with having to skirt around the centre "plant island."

Con: I need a focal point. I don't want to spend a ton of money, yet I want something tall and architectural.

Con: Boxwood doesn't do well here.

Con: I really don't know what to do about that flagpole.

Con: This plan may be altogether too formal for my modest little house.

From the street sidewalk, opposite the front door, taken today. Just look at that wonky sidewalk--I mean, what else is there to look at? (sigh).

Housekeeping Update

Now that the 31 Days of Housekeeping are over, I've pretty much stopped dead in my tracks. Well, OK, that's an exaggeration. I've done a little something almost everyday--but not the full blown routine every single day--which is what it takes to keep this place from overwhelming and paralyzing me (which leads to more mess, more overwhelm and more paralysis).

So, today, I vowed, I would do absolutely every little thing on the list and get caught up. Of course, getting caught up means doing more than what's on my little list; chiefly, more loads of dishes and more loads of laundry.

So, I weighed myself (distressing: the numbers really are trending upward.) Made my bed. Oops, forgot to swish and swipe the upstairs bath!

But I did manage the downstairs bath and did about three loads of laundry or so. I picked up most of the main floor. (The desk is still a mess.) Where I fell down, of course, is in doing the dishes.

Not to worry, though, I'll have them done before I hit "publish post." Honest.

What's left?
The fun stuff: the One Essential Task.

I thought it might be cleaning up the soffit now that the stenciling is done.


But no.

Then, the part for fixing the bathroom faucet was delivered. That came much more quickly than I'd expected. I thought I might get that done.


But no.

I suddenly remembered that I had purchased 2 bags of tulip bulbs yesterday-- 1/2 off. (Less than 24 hours in my possession and already I'd forgotten!) There had been another customer beside me when I'd been considering them and I'd asked her "What do you think, is it too late to plant them?"

"Not if you can dig a hole," she said.

I've always intended to have tulips encircle our flag pole. (We inherited it with the house.)


So, I marked out an encircling horseshoe with twigs and spray paint and felt very clever.

The ground was frozen.

Solid.

Daedalus (my husband, not his real name.) came and stood on the shovel. (I did too.)

But no.

So, I quickly changed my plans and decided to plant them in the boxes in the back yard. We amended two of them this year, so in order to leave the other two boxes free for working in next Spring that's where I decided to plant them.


Actually, I only got as far as planting one box (4'x 4') with one bag (28 tulips). The soil wasn't frozen solid--it was just frozen in big chunks. So, I did a lot of whacking with the shovel. Gardening at my house is not for wimps.


I also attached these house numbers to the boxes so we can keep track of them. (#1 & #3 were amended this year, an odd year, and #2 and 4 will be amended in even years. Of course, we came up with this genius plan after we'd already gone ahead and double dug the planting boxes: thus the weird order to the numbers.)

Now I've another reason to look forward to spring--and winter isn't even here yet.

Container Gardning Part 2

It all started with a trip to Home Despot to check out their sale on bathroom tile.

Honest it did.

They had racks and racks and racks of garden plants--just in! And I found an enthusiastic woman who was thrilled to help me assemble an assortment for my shady front yard. Here's what I got:



4 dracenea --for height.
2 fuchsia --bright pink with purple insides. My daughter wanted them.
2 osteospermum --the daisy-like things with dark purple centres. I love them.
2 potato vines-- just because.
2 calibrachoa --small, bright green with small purple flowers to hang down the sides of the pot.

But before I planted them into my pots, I needed to know where to position the pots.

Let's see. Here?

rather underwhelming, don't you think?

I wanted the UP. I needed height, so I tracked down these old zinc washtubs I bought eons ago.

just misses being symmetrical. hate that.

Hmm, what about here?



I liked it.

Actually, looking at it again, now, I love it! It hides the mess we made of the walk way when we tore it up a couple of years ago and the down spouts are less visible, too.

But I wasn't sure it didn't look sort of silly. So, I left things like that until hubby cam home. He laughed.

So, I went for the simple, the honest, the true: planters at the foot of the stairs.

I bought some potting soil. Thrifty Decor Chick told me to "look for the cheap" potting soil--so I did. It took a while, actually, but I found some stuff at $2.99 for a big bag. The next cheapest potting soil was $7.99 Quite the difference!

As I was putting together the planter, I followed another bit of Thrifty Decor Chicks bits of advice: turn pots the plants came in upside down inside the pot to take up some of that space! It also makes the pots themselves lighter and thus easier to move.


So, I planted away in 40 to 60 km/hour winds last night. (Ok, mostly 40.)

This was my planting "station" set-up.

This morning, I had this:

zero impact. taken at about 8:30am this morning.

and this:



Did I miss something? They just look like plants stuck in a pot to me.

Are there too many plants?
Have I put them in the wrong spots?
Do I need different pots?
Or is this just the way things look at the beginning?

I know you can help me.

Please?UPDATE: Really, the problem isn't my pots, is it? It's the fact that there are no plants in the front, there. I have been researching my options for shrubs in this shady spot. I've decided that mock orange--or philadelphus lewisii 'Blizzard" is a shrub that will work--and a local nursery has one! I'm so excited. Hopefully, I can purchase that tonight and get it into the ground tomorrow. I'd also like to try actaea racemosa or Bugbane on the west side of those steps.

Hybrid Cure Week 3: Progress Report

A good week.

I am quite relieved to have done what I have done. Funny how I never notice until it's all cleared away, just how tense my body is when the surfaces around me are cluttered.


To have done what I have done this week is almost as relaxing as having gone on vacation. More, actually, because I don't have to unpack (and deal with the mess that makes!)


So, in pictorial review, I present to you (some of) what I did this week:


Removed the shovels and snowflakes from the window, swept the steps, wiped down the mailbox, outdoor light, and screen door.


As per Leena's suggestion painted the inside of the front door the same colour as the trim. I love it. Thanks Leena! (No, I didn't paint anything green, the tape is still on the door.)

I'm so pleased with this, I'm showing it off, again:


Hung a new mirror. Put out an old plate. Put some palm fronds in a vase.

Opposite it is an old telephone alcove.

I put this donkey here for Holy Week. He may just be staying.

In honour of scb's love of pink, I made the dresser around the corner coordinate with the cabinet in the front hall.

I found a new home for the wood drawers and put back my daughter's basket. I love this duck I found at Homesense a few weeks ago.

I decluttered the top two drawers in this dresser and the coat closet opposite.


The stairs got vacuumed and washed but the risers didn't get painted.

I did wash the floor in the front hallway area. I'm quite pleased about that.


Then, I put on this "Floor Refresher" by Bona and it put a soft sheen on the poor floor.

I was trapped in the living room for an hour while it dried. I watched commentaries for Season 4 of Mad Men.

The back door area hasn't seen any progress since I ripped out the linoleum and painted the door at the beginning of the week.

And that is that. I'm on a roll, now, and don't want to stop. Good thing we have Living Room week coming up!

An Uninvited Guest

I hope he doesn't stay too long.


I need some plants here with winter interest, I think.

(I just realised this morning that with Daylight savings time, now, the way it is? We have to live through November mornings twice a year. It's cruel and unusual punishment, that's what it is. This was taken at 8:20am.)

Happy October!

Cathy Zielske wants to know

if fall leaves are crunching underfoot, or the heat and humidity are keeping those leaves firmly on the branches.

Hmmm. I'm beginning to think there won't be many leaves left on the trees at all soon. I took this picture this morning at about 8:30am. I love the colours of Fall.

We went camping with my son's Scout Troop last weekend at a lake about two hours away. This was our tent site:


The dark greens and intense golds are typical in this part of the country. Red and orange are quite rare, which makes me treasure the Mountain Ash beside the house more than ever.

But, I don't like the fact that Fall heralds even colder temperatures to come. I'm wrapped up in a blanket while I type this, already.

But it is pretty. The tree, at noon, today.

You can tell how far North we are by looking at those shadows! At noon! (Daylight savings Time. Isn't it about time for that to be over already?!)

Never Before Seen...

....on my dining room floor. Light, that is. Natural light. From the sun.

First, a photo from earlier this month.



The next is from this morning, after the husband has pruned off most of the branches. Yes, that is a weird "top" to the tree--as in--there wasn't any! It had been cut off years and years ago.



He took a break and then pruned a few more. We attached a rope near the top.



I can't believe I didn't get a shot of the 1/2 hacked, chopped trunk. Can you believe he went at it with a kindling axe? The blade is no more than 4" wide. But I was scared 1/2 to death from the moment he hit the heartwood--too scared to think of the camera.

We tugged at the rope a few times, then he chopped, I tugged, he chopped, tug, chop, tug, chop, until finally, it was time to call the boy to help us. A few knots in the rope gave us a good grip. There was a CRACK and....



And so, at last, one very tired husband enjoyed the westerning sun on the stoop for the very first time.



One heck uva good day's work.