This Unfamiliar Road

It was definitely time for some more landscaping, and what better way to spend gorgeous spring days than digging in the dirt?! OK, I'll admit-I'm not really a fan of gardening, but Ben and I recently spent two FULL days completing a major overhaul of our front flower beds. I am very pleased with the way they turned out, and I'm looking forward to being able to add seasonal color every few months now that the base features are in.


In the right flower bed, we relocated 3 Indian Hawthorne bushes and a Gardenia; Planted a Snow Fountain Weeping Cherry tree, a group of Daylillies, and a Monkey Grass border.


In the left bed, we relocated 3 Azalea bushes; Planted another group of Daylillies, Petunias, and even more monkey grass. That's 120 monkey grass plants, y'all. But they do make such a pretty border!



Nothing like teaching kiddos how to care for something and watch it grow :)
Happy Spring!

This is what our beds looked like when we first moved in!

Leave it to Pinterest to get my mind going with ideas for Peyton's birthday party!


After seeing this picture, I knew I wanted to recreate it! I asked the advice of a crafty coworker on how to go about completing this project, and was surprised at how EASY it was! Honestly, I am not the craftiest person. I have good intentions, but I usually can't carry out my ideas...either from lack of patience or talent!

I loved this project: Simple, CHEAP, and made a big impact :)


~Fold your accordion-folded paper in half


~Fan it out, then attach the ends using staples

~This made a semi-circle, so repeat the process for the other half, then attach the two!

We love having overnight guests here! I always strive to be a great hostess: meal planning, fresh towels & sheets, and spare toiletry items. Typically, I stash the 'little extras' in the drawer in the guest bathroom, but I am loving the idea of a guest basket!

My Aunt is coming in town this weekend and I am excited to practice my guest basket assembly on her :)
She is the most low-maintenance person ever so this should be easy!

Here are some things I plan to include:

This project has been a long time coming, and I am so thankful to the husband for taking time out of his weekend to redo our coat closet!

Prior to the makeover, we had a builder-grade wire rack that offered no space for bags and wasn't very user friendly (really, who wants to come home after a long day and use a hanger to put away your jacket?!)
After, we have a super functional closet that's nice to look at too!

 Ben started by removing that rack and patching up the walls.


We used some leftover paint from our townhouse and it really freshened up the area! Ben cut and painted baseboards for trim.



Now we have a very functional coat closet that offers hanging space for both jackets and bags! It will adapt to our need for backpacks and lunch boxes in the future, too!

I love love love it!

 

I am SO excited to reveal our nursery mural. Remember that blank space between the crib and the dresser?

As Ben was preparing for his last days at the country club, he began bringing home boxes of stuff from his desk, as well as goodbye/thank you cards from members and coworkers. It struck me how long 5 years really is...and what can happen in that time.

In a unique workplace like a private country club, Ben had the opportunity to form relationships with the staff as well as the members. Many of these folks came to our wedding!! I knew I couldn't let these mementos end up sitting in a box in our basement.

Although a shadow box is far from the most creative project, I still think this old standby is a great way to display special items! I put this together in about 10 minutes.

I just love that Ben has more time to do things around the house...the 40 hour work week certainly beats his old 60+ week!

I had to work this weekend, but Ben promised to "finish the nursery" while I was gone. I had to laugh at this, because we had not even started working on it. Let's just say he made a LOT of progress this weekend!

At first, I was really leaning towards the green, but our fabric has a lot of green in it, and I plan to accent with green, so I thought it would be a bit too much. We went with the khaki color on the right: Behr Pecan Sandie


Ben also had to patch part of the ceiling, and therefore had to paint it! I love the contrast of the bright white ceiling (rather than builder beige) with the wall paint
On Sunday, he spent the day assembling furniture. We opted to buy our pieces separately rather than as a room package for a variety of reasons:
-I wanted to have fun in this room, and thought that "matching" furniture would become boring-I decided to find coordinating pieces
-I did not want to buy a changing table, or "baby" dresser or some other item that Junebug will outgrow in the first year
-BUDGET!


For our crib, I found the DaVinci Jayden 4 in 1 (Espresso) to suit our needs perfectly. It converts from a crib to a toddler bed, then to a full size bed. We're not sure, yet, if we plan on keeping this a crib for future kids or if it will stay with Junebug...but overall a smart investment I think!
                               
                         Ben's best bud, Keenan-testing it out for us!