Spring to Summer in One Week

Well, I can't believe a week has gone by since I last wrote.  I hate when that happens!  In that week we've gone straight from a few days of Spring right into the hot and humid days of a Northeast summer!  I'm not complaining!  I'm just sayin'!  This is the weather I love.  It's been about 75 degrees first thing in the morning, which makes it so nice to sit out on the deck early in the morning drinking my first cup of coffee.

This is where I sit. My color scheme on my deck, obviously, is red, yellow and black 

This is my view

 I can also tell summer is here because my "rockin pneumonia and boogy woogy flu" has now made way for allergies, complete with sneezing, itchy eyes, stuffy nose and headache.  Oh well - just taking different pills!

Last Memorial weekend was just beautiful!  Hubby (unwillingly) helped me work outside for the weekend to get the yard and gardens in order.  And when I say help, that's what I mean.  He'll do what I ask, but with a little growl! He would never think of what needs done on his own.   Why does he think this is unnecessary work?  Being the organized person I am, I knew with our schedule that we had to get as much done last weekend as we could.  Every weekend up until the 4th of July is booked.  Then the weekend of the 4th we're having a party.  Planning ahead and scheduling is the only way to do all this.  I would prefer to not be quite so busy myself, but that's just the way our life is right now.

I still have quite a bit to do, but I feel much better with this good start.  More flowers will be added, weeds will continually be pulled, and a few more old leaves and sticks need to be picked up.
My little garden in front of and under my deck is coming along.

This garden is mostly white, pink, and some purple.  The green bench back against the wall is going to be painted white.  The purple cat nip is now blooming, along with the chives and some lavender.  My pink roses  and the other pink flowers haven't bloomed yet.  I'm no master gardener and there is a lot of trial and error, but I keep at it every year.  We have such a huge deer population so I need to plant deer resistant perennials. Then just when you think you've only planted what the deer don't like, they come along and eat it!  I have to keep all (or most) annuals up on the top deck or hanging high enough so deer can't get to it.
These "angel wing begonias" I just found at the farm market.  I've never seen them before.

The impatient I just got today.

Then I found this cute little wall hanging at JoAnn's at 50% off today.

My perennial garden beside my shed always looks a little wild.  But I kind of like it like that.  Deer can really flock to this place in the middle of the night, so it's very difficult to grow.

Not too much is blooming here yet.  The purple ajuga ground cover has bloomed and is now about ready to be cut down.  The purple irises are just now blooming.

 I have butterfly bushes that are coming up but won't bloom for a while.  Out growing season comes late and doesn't last long.  The chiminea we had for years on our deck, but after so many years it started to disintegrate, so Hubby stuck it in the garden.  I kind of like it there.  I'll stick some flowers in it later.

My seating area by the lake still needs cleaned up, but I at least got the furniture cleaned off from winter grime.  Fresh coats of pink and blue paint have been applied where needed.  Pink and blue is my color scheme for this area.

I had this old bird cage that was getting very rusty, so I decided to just paint it pink, too.

I love this sitting area in the evening with a glass of wine and when the kids are here we'll roast marchmallows and make smores.  They'll be here Saturday night, so that's exactly what's on the schedule as long as it doesn't rain!

Linking to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday 
and Alison's Fridays Unfolded

Spring Has Sprung - Finally!

I think Spring is finally here.  There's been an awful lot of rain, but everything is now green and I've managed to finally get a few flowers on the deck and porch.

I'm getting so many pretty birds coming to my feeders.

Couple of days before flowers went in

I was finally able to get outside some more to work in the yard and gardens.  I think if I can get a couple of more good outside work days I'll have it done, as far as clean up.  

Tomorrow is the annual decoration day at the cemetery for Mom and me.  We'll get out early to buy flowers and go out to the cemetery to decorate my grandparents and aunts grave sites.  Then we go out to lunch.  This has become an annual event for us that we try to look at as a nice day.

This last week has also been filled with end of the school year activities for our pre-school and kindergarten grandsons.  We made it down for Landen's end of year dance recital on Sunday evening.  We weren't able to take pictures in the auditorium because they want you to buy DVD's of the show.  Landen was so cute being the only boy in his dance group.  

Here we are with the kids after the show.

Last night we headed back down the 1-1/2 hour drive to see Logan's gymnastics show.  This is Logan's 2nd year in gymnastics and he did a great job.  With Logan's slight autism, gymnastics seems to be so good for him.  He likes the focused activity with lots of action.  We could see his improvement.

The teacher instructing him before he starts.

Proudly accepting his gold medal at the end. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  I was trying to zoom in and the lighting wasn't very good.  Not to mention the photographer (me) not always doing a good job.

Oh, and look at this.  This ugly fish washed up in our back yard from the lake.  We've never seen anything like this or this big in the lake before.  We were told it's a Northern Pike.

It was as big as the neighbors' 4 year old grandson!

Yuk!  And boy did it stink.  It sort of worries me a little because my kids swim in the lake all summer.  Oooh, Gross!!

I hope the weather is nice this weekend as I'm hoping for a nice, quiet, Memorial Weekend.

Linking to:  Cindy's Show and Tell Friday
       and Alison's Fridays Unfolded

Changes

"The only thing constant in life is change".  I don't know who that's a quote from, but it's true.  And it's also true that the older you get, the harder it is to want to or accept change.  That's true for me in some ways, such as my routines, habits, and schedules.  When it comes to decorating, remodeling, or re-arranging furniture, I'm all for it. I just did a major clean of my bedroom and decided to move this antique rocking chair from my living room to this corner of my bedroom.

This rocking chair was sitting in front of my doors going out onto my back deck.  Those doors don't get used in the winter.  Now in anticipation of Spring and Summer that door is used all day long, so the chair needed to be moved.  I believe this chair was my great grandmother's and has been re-glued and re-finished and re-upholstered by a couple different members of the family.  It's finally ended up with me and I love it!
And notice where the necklace hangar is on the wall next to the rocker?  I want to get some sort of small shelving unit for the wall to house my growing collection of little boxes.

Sometimes they are called Limoges boxes, although they are not true Limoges from France.  My mother has given me most of these.  These are now sitting on my dresser but are starting to take up too much room.  Aren't they cute?

And here's another update on the powder room remodel. I love this change!  Hubby finally got the chandelier up yesterday.  I stood by as the go-fer and the sounding board for his frustration, but he did it and I love it.

Everything is coming together so nicely in my little bathroom!  We're now just waiting for the sink countertop to come in and then we can finish.  I'm hoping next weekend it will be done.

This past Saturday my DIL gave my son (her husband) a surprise party for his 30th. For some reason, this seems like a major change in my life!  I don't know why it affects me, but it's a milestone for him and me.  I just can't believe I'm the mother of a 30 year old!  Anyway, he was surprised.  His wife did a great job.  His boys wanted him to have a super hero cake and they helped him blow out his candles.

I finally finished knitting the black hoody sweater that he requested from me two years ago!  I have to be honest, it was not my most favorite knitting project.  Black is very hard to work with because it's so hard to see.  It turned out just OK as far as I'm concerned, but he seemed to like it.

(It looks crooked in this picture because he has the top and bottom buttons unbuttoned)

Yesterday, the weather was so nice here, about 78 degrees! Believe me, this is a huge change around here.  Monday is normally my house cleaning day, but I just had to get outside a little bit to add a few flowers.  It's still too early here for real flowers, but I put out fake ones in the upstairs window boxes and on the bench in front of my bedroom window.

I still have a lot of work to do outside.  You can see all the old fall leaves left over on the mulch.  Everything just still looks very brown and dirty.  No leaves are out on the trees yet, but I did notice the buds starting to come out on my rhododendron bushes.

These will be a beautiful purple landscape in the front of the house in another few weeks.
By the way, this warm weather lasted one day.  Yesterday was freezing and rainy and today it's 43 degrees!  Back to inside work.

The most recent change I made yesterday.  I had grown my hair out a little bit but it was really starting to bug me.  The bangs were long and constantly falling in my face and I'm "blessed" to have thick, coarse hair and it tends to get very heavy and flat on top.

This is the "before".  It looks OK in this picture but it didn't look like this most of the time.  I even had the color lightened up a little yesterday.

Here's the "after".  It feels so good!  I woke up this morning and it still looks exactly like this.  Awww! No more smoothing and moisturizing products and flat irons to straighten.  I just didn't want to take the time for that every day.  Oh, I'm also wearing another new necklace I made.

Change can be a good thing!


I'm linking for the first time today to A Beach Cottage - Good Life Wednesday
Also to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday
And Alison's Friday's Unfolded

Windows With a View

It's the beginning of March.  In many areas you're seeing signs of Spring. Maybe some buds on the branches of the trees, some daffodils blooming, and warmer days.  Around here, not so much.   It's still very chilly here.  I have noticed that the sun is out a little more, but besides that it still looks like winter.
Hubby and I were driving the three miles to my parents' house on Sunday for dinner and this was the scenery from our car window.
This is the entrance coming in the front gate of our little community where we live.

It was snowing, and the roads were getting slippery.  It's pretty, though, isn't it?  This is a little pond that is sometimes used for ice skating.

This is the road coming up from the front gate.  Again, from the car window on March 6.

Pulling up to Mom and Dad's house in the woods.  Reminds you of "Over the River and Through the Woods".  It's very charming at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but by March we're a little tired of it.  I'm ready for a different, warmer pretty!

Today, the sun is out, but it's currently 39 degrees.  Slight improvement from the weekend.  The babies (dogs) were going crazy barking at the front window.  I finally figured out why.  This is what they were looking at across the street.

Deer are a very common thing here.  The dogs go crazy every time, but the deer aren't fazed.  They are so plentiful and tame that we can practically walk right up to them and they don't move.  Again, a fun and pretty site, but they are such a nuisance.  They're looking for food.  And when those flowers, plants and bushes start blooming, these deer will be all over them.

I'm so lucky to have the views that I have.  I'm just ready for it to look a little different.  Spring will eventually show up!

Landscaping, Gardening and Outside Decorating

The weather continues to be beautiful in Western Pennsylvania.  Except for a few pop up snow flurries and very cool at night, the sun has been shining on us much earlier this season than in years past.  I'm taking full advantage of this and working outside as much as I can.  It's not only great exercise but I love the results.  I love to look out the window and see flowers on the deck or drive up to the house and have everything look neat and manicured.  I know, a little OCD, I admit.  But it makes me feel good. 
If you read my post from about a week or so ago, you know that I kind of goofed up on how much mulch to order.  Well, my neighbor offered to take his pick up truck and go to the stone and mulch yard and picked me up another scoop or so of the red mulch.  Free delivery this time.  I have the best neighbors.  Both neighbors on either side of me are retired and they work outside all day long.  The truth is, they are more OCD than me.  So I think they are willing to help me out with things because they don't want  the house next to their perfectly manicured yards to look like crap.  Whatever the reason makes no difference to me.  I appreciate their work and their help.
So here's the finished result of the mulch debacle.

And notice the beautiful rhododendrun in full bloom.

Everything's blooming and the grass is so green.

I shoveled and raked 'til I had blisters, a sore shoulder and my back hurt so bad I could hardly stand up, but it was worth it.

Now that the front of the house is done, I'm working my way down back.  Starting with the back deck.  I started it a few weeks ago with my red grill, cushions and painting the chairs.
(See April 9 post).  Now I've added a red fountain that I saw at K-Mart.

It looks like a cracked Tuscan like barrel.

Added the red geraniums on the wall and above the door. These are fake.  From Jo-Ann's.  Sometimes the fake stuff just works better.  It always looks good and requires no watering and trimming and they don't die.

Got the hummingbird feeder from Wal-Mart.  Planted yellow dalias and red dianthus in the window boxes.  They show up prettier in person and they should fill in.  These are real.  From Lowe's

Filled these porch boxes with yellow dalias and red gerber daisies.  Mom found me this darling rooster pillow at Lowe's.  The perfect colors and maintains my rooster theme.

I had this garden stool and thought it went pretty well with my red, gold and green color scheme.  But if you can notice, the flowers were an orange and not really red.  This bothered me so much, even though everyone told me it was close enough.  I just couldn't get past it.  So I got out my red paint and a little paintbrush and painted each orange flower red.

Isn't that better?  Believe me, in person it's much more noticeable.  Really, it is.  I'm happy with it now.

Then finally, here's the latest addition I just worked on today after a Big Lots trip.  The plaque on the wall, the plant stand and the watering can all from Big Lots.  I had the pots and filled them with red gerber daisies (real) and the rooster had been in my kitchen.

Now I'll be moving on to my sitting area and little garden under the deck and the garden beside the shed.

More to come -----

Summer Landscaping and Snow

I was making great progress on getting my yard, deck and gardens cleaned up early this year since the weather has been so warm and beautiful.  It was obviously too good to last because today is freezing and I even see a few snow flurries out my window!  My rhododendron bushes in front of the house just started to bloom and now I'm afraid they may freeze.

See the pink buds on there?  Some have even opened up.  Now also notice the start of new red mulch around the bushes.  There's a story about this red mulch that my husband won't shut up about.  I was accomplishing so much outside and I needed red mulch like right now.  This was yesterday.  My Bob was busy working so I thought, well, I'll just call the landscape/stone yard myself and have it delivered.  I consider myself a pretty intelligent person and I also consider myself a little bit of a perfectionist, but two things that I am really poor at is judging distances and measurements.  So when the lady asked me how much I needed I asked her to quote me amounts.   So she said three scoopfuls would cover approximately 130 square feet.  I thought that sounded like a lot.  I said, "good, how much to deliver?"  and she said, "$65.00".  The other place I called quoted me $70.00 so I told her that sounded OK and to please deliver that afternoon.  Well, when the big dump truck pulled up and dumped this little bit of mulch in my designated area I couldn't believe that's all there was.  I was hoping none of the neighbors were watching because it looked so pitiful to see this little bit of mulch plop out of this big dump truck.  Bob was not happy when he saw that was all I got.  I DIDN'T KNOW!!

I'm determined now to make it do as best I can because I don't want to admit that I goofed up on this.  If I can get the mulch just right around the front of all the bushes it will look good.  Then this area here where the mulch is lying I may do someting else.  Rocks or planters maybe.  I'll figure it out.  Live and learn, again!  As soon as I started moving and spreading the mulch yesterday it started to rain.  That's why now the blue tarp. 

I also got my little purple painted bench and watering can and flower box out.

I painted it purple to go with the grape and Tuscan theme of my house.  As you can seen, this area needs mulched. 

Today I got the fake plastic flowers in the window boxes upstairs. 

I don't use real ones because I don't want to have to open the windows and take the screens out every time I need to water them.  Since they're up high you really can't tell the difference.

Last week I worked on the back deck.  I've been wanting to get new red cushions and a red grill.  My mother suggested this because she saw them in K-Mart and she was right.  I finally got it and I love it.

I also spray painted all five of these chairs.  The set is five years old and is very good and sturdy, but it was getting rusty.  I found silver hammered metal spray paint by Rustoleum and it worked great.  They look brand new.  The new color scheme for my deck is this red, with green and some gold. 

I was in JoAnn's and they had these on clearance.

The wallhanger is hanging outside on the wall behind the table.  It was $5.  Then the tray was marked down to $1.50 because there is a little ding in it.  I didn't even notice.  As you can see, they also match the table runner on my inside kitchen table.  I was so excited about these little finds.

That's it so far.  It's obviously too early here for flowers and plants to go out.  I did good for only being the first week of April.  I usually don't get this far until the end of May.  I guess for good reason.  There's even more snow coming down right now.  We went from summer back to winter within 24 hours.