Weekend Wrap-Up

Well...it's Monday again. Why does this day always come so fast? Maybe it's because we seem to always have great, fun, busy but productive weekend? Yep, that seems like a good reason so I'm just gonna go with it. Anyways, how was your weekend?

If you have been reading my blog or even looked at it recently, then I bet you could guess what we did this weekend...

LANDSCAPING...again!

Friday night we had our every two weeks dinner and grocery shopping date. We ate at The American Table in Warsaw and then shopped at Aldi's, Big R, Lowe's, Kohl's and Wal-Mart. We were busy and had agenda!

Saturday we were up fairly early and hit the road running. We went back to Wal-mart to pick up bikes that we had been eyeing AND I got a couple more perennials to plant. I think I have a sickness, really. Recently it has become near impossible for me to walk through or even near a garden center without purchasing some plant! After this quick shopping trip (and a lunch date) we loaded the bikes in the back of the CRV and headed home with landscaping on our brain!

Our big project and goal this weekend was the add a flower bed by our front walk (which you will see later in this post) but we also had topsoil and mulch to add to existing beds. Oh, and we bought a new plant hanger thingy so I could hang my newest hanging basket too. Here are some random photos:

This little bed by our mailbox has taken off, it's so pretty!

The newest hanging basket, which is by our back walkway now.

Our newest perennials-I LOVE the coneflowers! Oh, and in the middle of this bed was a big holly bush that we were able to remove on Saturday. It was ugly, so we are glad it is gone. We plan to add something there...just not sure what yet!

See those green plants that look kind of like sea creatures or chi pets? I got those at Lowe's on clearance for $1 AND they are perennials. SO excited about that!

And the front bed...I didn't take a before picture, but just imagine it with grass. Digging up all that grass was a job!

The front bed looking down the walk from our front porch..

And looking at it from the side.

I love what flowers add to our house. This whole landscaping thing started out as an idea to add some curb appeal, but now I am really enjoying it. I can't wait to plant more this coming weekend!

After hours of landscaping we headed to El Mez for dinner...we had planned on grilling but since it was raining we obviously had to go out to eat...right? Ha, that's our excuse anyways! After dinner we went for a very first bike ride on the new wheels. Louie did not go with us because he did not like being in the bike basket:

I'm hoping that we can train him to enjoy it, but who knows if that will happen. We did put him in the basket on Sunday for a little bit too to try and get him used to it. In the meantime, we will be leaving him at home while we ride!

On Sunday we went to church and then grilled lunch at home and ate outside. The weather was so nice on Sunday! After a lazy afternoon and a nap or two we headed out for another bike ride! We snapped some pictures:

North Manchester covered bridge...

See how blue the sky was?!

Riding down our street...

...and using a park bench to take a self timer picture!

All in all, it was a GREAT weekend. I love the landscaping we added and the fact that we can do bike riding around our town now. I will say that my legs are a little sore today though...probably a combination of shoveling, weed pulling and bike riding. And honestly? I kind of like it...being sore isn't always bad!

Oh, 25 days until FLORIDA!

Happy Monday!

Let's take a walk...

...through our garden!! :)

I am so proud of the improvements we have made to the exterior of our home this Spring. You may be tired of hearing about it or seeing pictures...and if that's the case, you should skip this post! Anyways, I LOVE flowers. What girl doesn't? Almost every night Stephen gets home from work before me and he usually has the flowers watered when I get home...and almost every night I tell him that I need to go outside to "look at the flowers" and he laughs. Its a usual evening thing in our house recently. I just like to look at the pretty blooms!

Well, one evening this week I took TONS of pictures so you could all enjoy looking at them with me. Let's get started:

This is the view when looking out of our dining room bay window. We added the hummingbird feeder last weekend and I have yet to see any hummingbirds. Do we need to do anything else other than add food to the feeder?

Our little basil plant in the kitchen...I don't really like basil, but I do like the way the plant looks!

Front steps and mailbox...steps are wet from watering the flowers.

Picked up this beautiful perennial last weekend at Lowe's for 50% off, its called banana cream and is a pale yellow in person. So pretty!

Love these lillies which are also a perennial!

Dramatic purple pansies on our patio table out back...

Pretty petunias hanging by our mud room windows. This plant has taken off since purchasing it, I love it when that happens!

Sweet Pea's that are kind of taking over an area of our side/back yard. I like these, but I think they will be going soon...anyone have any tips/ideas on controlling them rather than digging them up and throwing them away?

I LOVE these lemon drop perennial flowers...got these at Lowe's for 50% too!

Beautiful!

Coming soon-a cone flower!

Tomatoes are growing and turning red every day!

More hanging petunias that have taken off since purchasing. Ignore the light on the post, it's broken...actually, the whole this is broken because there is no wire running to it. Problem is that I like it in the yard...and it's in a very sunny area. Would it be possible to remove the electric light and place a solar one there instead? I really need to research re-doing this!

And last but not least, Louie! Because really, what's a post without a picture of this cute pup?

A boring one I tell ya! :)

Happy Friday, y'all! Have a great weekend!

What's New?

The purpose of this post is really just to update family from Florida with whats new around our house recently. Hopefully this will give everyone a little peek as to what we have been working on and accomplishing inside and outside the house!

Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite new things, an antique map of the county we live in. I was inspired by a co-workers decor at her house and decided to order my own map off of EBay. It was pretty cheap, so that was nice too! We got the frame at Garden Ridge and I matted it myself with some "antique looking" scrapbook paper that I had laying around! Isn't it pretty?

This is our new little hose area. Previously this area was overgrown with sweet peas and when we used the hose a mess was created...water dripped and while it watered the plant, it also created a lot of mud. This solution was easy and pretty affordable too. I like how clean the area looks now! We have planted grass seed around the blocks too...if you look closely you can see the grass peeking through the dirt. Side note: Mom my said that I was a mini-Randy (my Dad) because she and my brother would never think about doing something like this or much less get excited about it, but my Dad would. I guess I take after him!

The above shelves were a Christmas gift from my Dad and we finally have them hung! He built them for us, but didn't paint them because I wasn't sure what color I wanted or stain...so we did that. The only reason it took us so long to get them painted and up was because of winter...you can't spray paint in the winter. Anyways, I really like the shelves and hope to get some more picture frames to add soon. I also painted all the frames to match. I'm not sure which photo I like better...they were taken on different settings and at different times of the day. Funny how different they look!

And last but not least, our new living room ceiling fan! We had a fan in this room, but it was old and did not have a light on it, which we wanted/needed. We went to Lowe's to purchase a light kit and ended up with a beautiful new fan for only a little bit more money...gotta love sales! After borrowing a ladder from our neighbor since our ceilings are 10ft, and a couple of hours-it was up and so pretty! We both love it!

Well, that's a small handful of the new things around our household! Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Monday!! :)

Well, we had another great weekend! We were quite busy, but that always seems to be the case. Thankfully we had lovely weather, which was nice since we worked outside a lot! I even got some color on my face and shoulders-win!

Friday:

1. We had a yummy dinner post grocery shopping at Wasabi, a little whole in the wall Japanese Steakhouse. Whole in the wall places are either really good...or really bad (that's been my experience). Lucky for us, this one is good!

2. Enjoyed my fresh Essie Mani!

3. Nothing makes your realize you are a homeowner and adult like shopping for grass seed AND then getting excited about it. Apparently we are one of those couples!

4. Louie getting ready for bed Friday night. He sleeps in the oddest positions!

 

Saturday:

1. We worked outside, digging up, replanting and planting lots of flowers including these marigolds!

2. Sweet Louie! He enjoyed being outside with us and the ice cubes we put in his water!

3. Planting, Planting, Planting...

4. I spy Louie, can you find him? Hint: he was seeking shade!

5. Stephen worked on this retaining wall ring around our flag pole on Friday, we planted some flowers there on Saturday. It looks SO much better!

6. Our patio plants are doing nicely, including our tomatoes!

7. The before shot of the back flower bed...

8. And the after shot! A great improvement, yes?

9. Front flower bed after planting more marigolds. I love it!

10. Cleaned up from yard work and a little sun kissed...date night!

11. & 12. Dinner at Casa Italian Restaurant=delicious!!!!

13. Fro-Yo after a Target shopping spree? Yes, Please! Perfect way to end a date night!

14. Me :)

Sunday:

1. Before Church. Top: The Webster Miami for Target, Jeans: Old Navy, Shoes: Nude Pumps Target :)

2. Headed to church...

3. Louie was not happy we were headed to church!

4. Our flag is up on our flag pole! Woo!

5. Ending the weekend at Emma's softball game taking tons of pictures and then stuffing our bellies with Mexican. Perfect!

How was your weekend?