{Props!)

Cowboy Trucker Mustache Take 2. This time she was very drowsy (from her allergy medication - she has spring allergies!) and therefore much more cooperative. Happy Holiday Weekend!

Citrus Lane Box #4

My monthly box arrived from Citrus Lane. It’s always so much fun to find the box on the porch! Overall I think this was a really great box, on par with the boxes from February and March.

First there was a green toys race car. I love the green toys brand and this blue car was actually on my list of things I wanted to get Oliver for his birthday next month. So obviously I love it - and Oliver does too. What little boy doesn’t love cars and trucks? We also got this cool book Up Up Up that goes along to a song, provided on a CD that we can listen to or watch on the computer. Oliver loves music, books and singing so this is just fantastic. The only downside is that the book isn’t a board book and Oliver is still in his ripping/tearing/shredding/eating paper phase, so I have to be careful on how we read it together. And he doesn’t watch much TV or laptop videos, so we’ll save that part for when he’s older (he just isn’t interested - we’re not anti-TV).

Also in the box were two different sets of full-sized organic snack packs from Ella’s Kitchen, a brand we really like, so I’m glad to have some extra treats for Ollie in the pantry. And for me they included this really cool organic lotion stick. It melts and absorbs into the skin and smells amazing. Perfect for my purse. I love cool new products like this!

This month I’m really happy with the contents. I’m glad that they included 5 fun things that arrived in good condition (unlike last month). The car, interactive story/song book, and lotion stick all have the “wow factor” I look for in every box. It’s always a fun surprise every month and it’s especially great when I love what I find inside!

If you like what you see and want to join with your very own $10 off coupon, just click on the link: https://www.citruslane.com/invitedby/citrus.lane.471652

See February’s Box | March’s Box | April’s Box

**I am not in any way affiliated with Citrus Lane, they did not ask for my endorsement and my opinion is completely my own. I'm just sharing the box because I found it to be fun!

Just in Time for Warm Weather

I’m finally done with Oliver’s third baby blanket. One I’ve been working on since last August... Finished just in time for summer! Hopefully he can use it once in awhile on chilly spring nights?

It’s larger than the first two (babbling brook blanket, rugby stripe blanket), more of a toddler/child sized afghan, about 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. I can comfortably use it on my lap. I’d actually like to make him a fourth blanket to round things out (they are so useful!), but I have a lot of other projects demanding my attention at the moment!

Washed Out

It rained all weekend and it’s supposed to rain all week. I barely got a little weeding done between showers. The remaining outdoor projects we wanted to complete are on hold. We’re hosting a baby shower here this upcoming weekend (exciting! fun!), so my attention has turned towards the prep work like cooking, cleaning, buying supplies, grocery shopping, decorating, etc. Even though it’s a lot of work, entertaining is fun!

We actually got most of the things on our backyard spring to-do list done already - we’re in pretty good shape. Then the front porch is welcoming. The garden is planted. Mike managed to finish re-staining our peeling patio furniture last week before the rainy weather hit (hooray!), but I need a clear day to take accurate pictures. The new finish is matte and dark like the deck, but it looks glossy and even darker when wet. So those are coming - it just might be next week while we wait for the sun to return.

This is really a post about not having a real post today. The picture above is of a vintage glass insulator for old telephone lines. It has nothing to do with anything except that it's pretty and in our living room.

Cabin Fever

Rainy days are boring for EVERYBODY. But she hates to get wet.

Updated Front Yard Picture

I kept putting it off, but now that the rail flower pots are planted (in a gradient!) and the azealas are starting to bloom, I finally went outside and took an updated picture of the front of our house. The view still isn't ideal, but I decided share anyways. (It would be nicer if the fringe tree leaves were fully out, the dead grass was back, if the astilbe were blooming and if my neighbor was done with their construction project so the blue tarp was gone...)

I'm really pleased with our front porch updates. Hello much more welcoming house!  I love the nice new dark color on the front door, the fresh paint on the stairs and rails, the beautiful new light fixture. Of course looking at it also makes me want to do more... Like wouldn't the front door look even better with a full glass panel storm door? And adding a second light, like a sconce next to the door, would be very welcoming... When are we going to get to those shutters? Oooh and what about window boxes?! Haha it never ends!

Garden: Planted!

The raised bed garden and my pots are finally planted. It's never pretty in the beginning, but that's okay. We waited an extra week due to the chilly late spring, but apparently we didn’t wait long enough - there was a frost warning on Monday night! So we had to cover up the more delicate things in the raised garden beds and bring all the pots under the deck.

In the corner by the gate we have the flower bed. After 2 years, my dahlia bulb count has shriveled from 12 to 2. So they both get plenty of room now. I’ll probably buy a few more next year. I planted several rows of 3 different kinds of zinnias and then a mix of snapdragons from seed and a 4 pack of snapdragons from the nursery that were an impulse buy. (I really shouldn’t have but I was having a weak moment!)

On the same side we have the pea/bean/lettuce/herb/etc. bed. On the tower you can see the pea vines growing steadily on half, on the other side I planted bean seeds to start growing. There are two rows of swiss chard growing steadily, and next to that I tried again on my lettuce that didn’t take earlier this year and carrot seeds. I transplanted oregano, thyme and the rosemary from last year’s bed (since we practice crop rotation). I purchased basil from the nursery because I have trouble growing it from seed. This year I’m trying something new - garlic! I received a few spring-starter garlic bulbs (normally you plant them in the fall), we’ll see how it goes.

The tomato bed is very different this year. Firstly, unlike last year where we crammed a ton of varieties into the space, this year there are only 7 tomato plants. Secondly, all of these plants are from the nursery, not seed. Tragedy struck my little tomato seedlings. I don’t want to get into it (it’s too soon!) or place blame, but let’s just say it was from poor planning and poor location choice on my part not to foresee what can happen when living with a new little person. The silver lining to this however is that our favorite local nursery now has several of my favorite heirlooms. So we have a sweet 100s cherry, a yellow pear, a lemon boy, a purple cherokee, an early girl and a rutgers tomato that’s a NJ-heirloom I thought would be fun to try. The marigolds are also from the nursery (as usual).

I took pictures of the vines bed before I put the trellises in, but you can still get the idea. I planted 4 cucumbers from seed (the only thing that survived) and then 3 more sets of direct-sow cucumber seeds. All the cucumbers will be trained up a trellis. The middle of the bed is yellow summer squash and zucchini seeds, and on the other side are musk melon seeds that will be trained up a trellis again like last year.

In the patio pots we have a cayenne pepper, a jalapeno pepper and a poblano pepper growing from the nursery. They did well last year so I'm hoping it goes well again this year. We also did a few flowers in some pots and in beds by the house. Along the fence in the new garden area next to the blackberry I put in a sunset dahlia. And in the garden bed between the patio and driveway I planted portulaca which is supposed to be excellent ground cover in hot, sunny, dry spaces like this.

Garage Door & Front

Over the weekend I painted the garage door. It was starting to look really shabby - dingy with cracked and peeling paint.

I scraped and sanded it, then put on 2 coats of flat white exterior. It looked a million times better. I also got out the can of “faded yellow” paint that was left for us by the previous homeowner for the garage and painted the front peeling cinderblock next to the door. Now the view of the garage from the house is so much nicer!

Here you can see a clear sample of the color difference between the old door and the fresh white paint. The tie on the handle (for shorter people!) is the old color... it’s so dingy compared to the new. (The white specks on the driveway are bits of old dried paint I scraped off, not drips.)

For the rest of the peeling garage, I’m in a pickle. I don’t think there’s enough paint to do it. I thought that maybe I could just cover the peeling patches, but the paint in the can is actually a shade darker than what’s on the garage. I think the existing paint was bleached lighter by all the direct sun over the past few years. The eaves also could use another coat. Since I am not a big fan of the yellow... if we run out, do I buy another gallon of a color I don’t love? Or should we consider painting the garage a different color? Is it even okay to paint the garage a color that doesn’t match the house?

{Props!}

Outdoor Floors

Over the weekend we had a big push to clean up and refresh our outdoor floors. As part of our front porch mini-makeover, we oiled the mahogany wood porch floor to bring back the shine. I also did a fresh coat of white paint on the porch posts where things were showing some wear after 2.5 years. Even the steps got a second coat or gray paint for extra durability.

Out back it was time to give the deck floor and steps a little TLC too. With all the direct sun, foot traffic, furniture and plant pots, it takes a beating. We bought a whole new gallon of our deck stain in dark brown (actually called wood chip) because we also plan on using it for our patio furniture next. After a good cleaning, I put a fresh coat of stain on the deck floor and the tops of the rails. Now it looks much better and is ready for another season.

River Birches, Blueberries, Garden

It’s been a late spring in this part of the world. Our trees are still leafing, my forsythia just finished blooming and the daffodils are just starting to wane in our yard. We still have patchy frost warnings at night, everything seems to be delayed by at least 2 weeks. However I LOVE this cool weather. It’s been sunny and gorgeous and perfect for outdoor projects - including planting my river birch trees and blueberry bushes that finally arrived (from my lovely grandparents)! On Saturday I put 30 bare root trees into 10 mud holes. (See the overall yard layout here.)

It’s hard to see in the photos because the trees are tiny. I mulched over each one. Properly mulching trees is important - create a fort, not a volcano. You want the mulch thick in an outer “wall” to hold back the encroaching grass, thinning out towards the tree base to almost nothing - not thick around the base of the tree (like a volcano) which leads to pest infestations. Since I pre-dug all the holes, I need to reseed the grass where the dirt piles were. (Also please ignore the ridiculous dandelion infestation that exploded this week in the back of the backyard, it's overwhelming.)

Over in the perennial garden, I planted 3 new blueberry bushes. These are significantly larger than any of the teeny tiny twigs I’ve planted before, so hopefully these do better. This time I did things right from the start, I added a lot of peat to the whole area - blueberries like acidic soil.

In the raised bed garden, it’s still way too cold to plant summer crops. For some unknown reason my spinach and lettuce never took off, so I tried a different packet of lettuce seeds in the ground. We’ll see how these do. My swiss chard and peas are coming along nicely however. I also tried something new and unexpected - garlic. Normally garlic is planted in the fall, but I was given some spring-sow garlic starter bulbs to try out. Very cool! In the other bed the oregano, thyme and rosemary are all coming back - I’ll have to transplant them soon to keep up with crop rotation.

Far Hills Sale

On Friday we went to one of my favorite semi-annual events, the Far Hills Rummage sale. It was a shorter trip than usual, we ended up focusing on one thing only - stuff for Oliver. We showed up early and got in the very long line for the toy tent first. Oliver was in need of some toddler toys and summer goodies. By some miracle we were in the first group to be let in, so we had our pick of a lot of great stuff. We took advantage and burned through most of the cash I brought (but well worth it!).

We snagged a wagon, a 3-in-1 tricycle, a little tikes work bench (that came with a bag of tools and a hard hat), a ball popper, a bubble blowing toy lawn mower, 2 huge containers of bubble soap, a foam puzzle floor mat, a popper walking toy and an adorable wooden barn.

So far the indoor toys have been a huge hit! (He's a little young for the mower and tricycle, and we haven't tried the wagon yet.)

I took my last few remaining dollars over to the baby clothing tent, where I snagged some great Baby Gap and Carter’s stuff for winter - 3 Pairs of pants and 3 sets of pajamas. For this summer I snagged a Carter’s rash guard and 2 hats (iplay!). The clothes were all in perfect condition and $2 each, and the hats for 2 for $1. Not bad at all!!!

Past posts: Tips and Tricks | October 2012 | October 2011 | May 2011 | October 2010