Spring Bulbs

Since I documented for the blog planting bulbs this fall, I figured I should document how they all came up in the spring!  Some areas produced a pretty good showing, others did not.  I am assuming that is since I planted them kind of late. I also forgot to put bulb food in the hole when I was digging.  I won't forget that next time!

1) I had put crocus in the geranium on the corner of the house.  It was certainly exciting to see them as one of the first plants that breaks the ground come spring.  But only a few of them actually flowered, so it was not a high impact bulb planting by any means.

 

 

 

 

2) The mix of large and small daffodils in the grasses by the eating patio looked great! They came in nicely, looked great for early spring entertaining and lasted a nice long time for me to keep cutting them and bringing them inside.  I especially loved the smaller Jack Snipe variety. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3)  I did even bother getting a picture of the area in the front yard, since the showing was poor.  These were the ones that got planted too late. : (  Boo! I wanted a high impact band of color for all the neighbors to see on the corner, but no luck.  Maybe next year?  I want to eventually redo those bed anyway sometime in the future.

4) My tulips! oh my tulips! On a whim, I grabbed 2 small bags of fun tulips and just put them in the perennial border, even though I wasn't planning on adding any bulbs in that area yet.  But I am glad I did some they were awesome!!! The don't bloom for nearly as long as the daffodils, but for that one week, they were a sight! Between flowers for my house and for Mother's Day I pretty much cut them all, but I figured they were enjoyed more that way, since we weren't outside too much when they were in bloom.  I thought the parrot tulips were orange, not pink, but either way, love love love them!

Depending on how much the post flower foliage bothers me this year, I will plant more next year.  I think I need ones that look like this somewhere next year!

Mother's Day Flowers

I had gone to the food store the morning of Mother's day and the flowers that were left were slim pickings, plus this food store doesn't have great flowers to begin with.  So what should I do??? Oh yes, cut flowers from my yard!

 

I had planted 2 varieties of tulips in the fall, and my neighbor has a row of lilac along the property line....and together they created lovely Mother's Day arrangements! : )

 

Please enjoy!

 

Front Door Ideas

Anyone who has been to our house, knows our cute white cape cod has blue shutters...baby boy nursery blue...I am not a fan...so hopefully at some point this year, we can change them. 

 

We are either going to do gray or black, still narrowing that option down.

 

I LOVE the classic combo of a white house with black shutters BUT the cape next door is white with black shutters AND the cape across the street is white with black shutters! Blerg!  Do you do what you want or do what everyone else doesn't have (aka gray)?????

 

As for the door, the color possibilities are endless! Black? Gray? Red? or a fun color! Colin will probably veto many of the "fun colors" I throw out there BUT I got some paint swatches last weekend in the blue and green range which I will run by him at some point. : )

 

I am thinking a spring or sage green, OR a turquoise or robins egg blue in the muted/gray tone range.

 

Here are some pinterest pictures that I have been peaking at for inspiration.  Right now this project isn't on the top of the list, but once it gets bumped up, I'll show you actual pictures of the house and my paint swatch options. : )

 

One of the reasons I jumped the gun on the paint swatches is since I have been eyeing up this trellis for the eating area patio, which I would paint the same (or a similar color) to the doors.  It might need to be a similar color since I want to grow clematis on it, and it needs to be shade that looks nice against the green of the leaves.  Unless that is too much "girly" color for Colin, in which case the trellis could be painted gray or black. See, the ideas in my head are endless, too bad time and money are not endless! ha!

 

This picture captures the color I am thinking the best; A muted gray tone of a green or blue. (PS I got planters to similar to these for the patio this year! woo hoo!)

 

source

 

source

 

I am not sure I am brave enough for the spring green, but boy does this picture look nice:

 

source

 

 I don't want to do a green this bright, but I love this picture, so I had to include it in the post anyway:

 

source

 

This picture I also love.  I have loved it since I first saw it in my Better Homes and Gardens two winters ago.  I even love this purple hue to the shutters, although I think we are going pre-fab shutters not painting them, so we need to stick to the basic gray or black.

 

source

 

 All these planters make me excited for summer annuals!

 

source

 

Here are a few more with the color range I am leaning to:

 

 

source, source-pinterest, source

Too Much Wine

Years ago, my friend Erika gave me this cute little book of watercolor sketches.  She had pointed out it might be fun to remove pages to frame. 

 

 

 

I agreed, but years have gone by and I have never framed anything....until now... I thumbed through the book to my favorite page and hit up Target to find a frame.

 

 

 

 

 

This one is my favorite. A little guy drinking wine from a straw and taking a little nap after drinking too much wine! ha! My kind of little guy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I figured it made good dining room art. : )

 

 

Antique Hunt Weekend

About a month ago, Colin and I took a Friday off and went away for the weekend! : )  Yay!  Friday morning we headed out on our trip.  We checked into a cute B&B. An actual B&B where you stay in someone's house and they make you breakfast!  The house was so nice, with a big foyer and wide plank wood floors. Swoon!  I didn't take any photos but I stole a few from the website.

souce- B&B Website

 

Before we hit the town, we warmed up with some hot beverages and zipped up our rain coats! Sadly the weather didn't get the memo that we had gone away and it was supposed to be lovely out for us!

We spent the day popping in and out of lots antique shops.  It was super fun.  We didn't find any treasures to bring home Friday but we had a nice time spending the day together. : )

Colin loved this giant wood door with the front of a car mounted on it.  Perhaps for our next larger house with a man cave basement! ha!

For lunch we hit up a Mexican place and drank a few too many blood orange margaritas! Opps!

We hit a few more shops while we walked off our burritos and booze, then went back to the B&B to relax.  Since we were only staying for one night we splurged on the largest room.  It was so nice and bright and roomy and lovely.  And the bed was so cozy! (Normally I hate sleeping in any bed other than my own.)

 

 

 

 

Colin is pretty lucky this piece below to the right had a sold sticker on it.  Otherwise I might have had to try and figure out how to bring it home!

I had my eye on work benches since I was still trying to figure out the best furniture piece to use as my outdoor buffet/bar.  They had a lot of fun options if I had it under a covered porch, but not outside.  I didn't want to buy anything that would get ruined.

I wish I had brought my camera down for breakfast Saturday morning since we came down to a lovely table set with nice china and silverware, white place mats, coffee, tea, fruit, yogurt and granola. You can see a similar set up in the B&B images above. Colin asked if I could have the set up ready for him every Saturday morning! ha!

 

We were undecided on what to do our second day, but we decided lounging around our lovely room and hitting up a few more antique stores would be good, so we did just that!  Next time we head up this way, I want to check out some historical sites and wineries, but I figured that was best saved for better weather. (plus we kind of had sour stomachs from drinking too many margaritas for a wine tasting!)

I had read about an antique barn that wasn't too far away and then we found a few places along the way to stop at too.  These pictures are from a junk store on the way to that barn. 

 

Whoa Junk!

 

The barn had SO MUCH STUFF!  Sadly all my pictures came out terrible, so the one below is the only one I posted. I spyed a bench/coffee table I did not need, nor have a place for, but it was calling my name...it said..."Megan, buy me, buy me and paint me".
 

I caved and bought it!  I think it is time to give that Anne Slone Chalk Paint a whirl! : )  All the blog ladies have these fun homes with funky colorful antique pieces and I think the key is just getting stuff when you find it, and not waiting to you need something.  (Obviously within reason haha) 

I also got two insulator caps, since they are cheap and turquoise!

 

 

Sorry the above picture screams "flash" but it was a rough place to snap photos.  I will give you more pics once I actually have time and energy to clean it up and find a home for it. : )

 

Ok, here are a few more pictures from our first day.  I really really wanted 1 (or 10) of these bronze asparagus.  BUT I wasn't sure what I would do with them, so I stayed strong and didn't get any.

 

 

 

 

 

We need some folding/stacking chairs for extra seating for parties.  I figured at some point I would just order some padded folding chairs.  BUT look at these lovely bright colored chippy paint options!  This was also a hard item to walk away from.  Sadly they were just a bit too expensive to buy 4 to just have them in the basement in between parties.  I did however take his business card, you know, in case I change my mind! : )

 

 

 

We had such a nice time.  We got home Saturday late afternoon, so we got away AND we still had time to relax at home, clean, food shop etc.  We had a great time and we are definitely going to do this again! : )

Spring

I have been enjoying the fruits of my labor : )