Mini Patio Project

I was browsing through blogs last week, and came across a really creative idea for a flowerless pot on For The Love Of A House (this blog is really great--her house is so nice!).

This lady used one of those hand blown glass balls that you can put around your garden, but she put it in a flower pot with spanish moss.

Right after I saw this, I made a trip to the one and only TJMaxx and what did I find? Yes, I found the perfect hand blown glass for my pots!

Now, my mom might hate this project because she's not a fan of anything fake....but the spanish moss isn't technically fake, it's just dried...so I broke her rules and tried this project anyway. (Sorry Mom!)

I decided to try this in the pots on the front patio because most of the flowers in them had mysteriously died (seriously, I watered them when I was supposed to and everything...it is truly a mystery). Don't worry, the two flowers that survived have been safely moved to the flowerpots in the backyard so nothing was wasted. I was also really tired of having to sweep all of the dirt and mulch off the patio and away from the welcome mat every time I watered, so I figured this would be an easy solution since it doesn't require water.

So, here is what I had before:

And here's what it looks like now:

So far, I'm liking it. I also think this will be good for the winter when everything is dead. Except then I'll have to change out the color of the moss to a more nuetral color, but it will look much better than nothing at all! I also figure that if I get tired of this I can just as easily plant more flowers in these since the gardening soil is still underneath the moss.

More changes on the front patio to come!

Garden Update (Numero Dos)

Everything is still pretty baby-sized in our garden, but I do have a few pictures of our pots that are doing beautifully.

And just to show the general amount of growth that has occured in our baby garden, here is a March and April picture of one of our hostas.

I'm loving our garden so far!

Aaaaand here's just a little dose of Louis since he never seems to get enough attention (spoiled).

P.S. We have several big projects planned in the Roberts' household in the near future, including our dining room, master bedroom, front porch and back patio, but sadly, we will have to hold off until I can get through the event craziness at work and Bryan gets out of school. Cross your fingers that I make it through with my sanity still in tact!

Garden Update

Well, I just spent the last hour and a half goofing around on the internet (Facebook, you will be the death of me), and then realized that I originally got on here to write a new blog post. So, here I am.

There hasn't been too much progress in our yard in the last 3 weeks. The plants have grown a lot in my eyes, but it's not noticeable enough for you all to be wowed. So, I'm just going to do a little sneak peak of one of the hostas I took a photo of right after it was planted and compare it to what it is now.

See? It's much bigger! So just imagine that amount of growth pretty much all around the yard. More updates to come.

It's Friday. Happy Friday! Friday's are my favorite because it is the one time of the week that I feel completely energized and at peace knowing that a whole weekend lies ahead to do whatever my little heart desires. You know what I'm talking about. Best. Feeling. Ever. We're having a garage sale tomorrow, and I plan on getting some sort of house project done as well! I might read a book too. (Suggestions??) I'm also wearing a braid in my hair today. Just thought you should know, because braids make me feel really cool and like I'm 10 years old all at the same time. Also a good feeling.

I also just wanted to put this thought out there: I think you should go read Enjoying the Small Things sometime today. I absolutely love reading her posts. She really does focus on the the little things that make life so special, and I am feeling especially encouraged by that lately, so I thought I'd share. And she is a GREAT writer. Oh, and while I'm on the subject of things that encourage me, you should also go sign up to get daily devotionals emailed to you from Lifetime.org. I have really come to love reading these everyday when things get crazy at work. They are usually just what I need to hear, and the sweet lady that wrote them is so....real. Like to the point where I think "She really gets it". You can see the entire devotional archive HERE.

Well, that's it for today. Have fun, relax, and be careful this weekend!

Our Backyard And Some More

Happy Weekend!!

This week really flew by for both of us....don't you just love it when that happens? Bryan and I are about to head out for date night (we're seeing Limitless, so excited!), but I had to do a quick blog post before we left. Bryan has instructed me that I have 10 minutes to write this, so I'll make it quick.

We finally finished mulching the backyard....well, we're still short one bag of mulch, so I guess we didn't technically finish, but I wanted to post pictures so it's finished for now.

Here is the back corner of the yard when we started out (and a very candid moment of Bryan):

And here it is now. I love the little baby plants and I go outside everyday to look at them! Excuse all the willow branch twigs, I didn't feel like picking them up so this is what you get. I can't wait to document their growth!

Here is the front corner of the yard before:

And here it is now (still being mulched). Exuse the mulch bags in this picture. I suppose I could have waited for it to be done and cleaned up, but I'm just not a very patient person.

We actually still need to add several more plants to both beds....3 Hostas, 3 Snowball flower/bush things, and some more grasses. I know it's not very impressive or showstopping right now, but trust me, in a few months everything will be big and pretty! I plan to give you a garden update every 2 weeks or so.

You may also be wondering "Why the heck did they need HUGE beds in the yard, couldn't they have made them smaller?" Well, no, we couldn't have. Those willow trees make it almost impossible to grow grass back there, so our solution was lots and lots of flowers instead! Now we just need to make grass grow where it's sunny. As you can see, that's still mostly dirt and weeds as well. Unfortunately we have to wait until May to over seed....but the sprinklers are in and we will be good to go once the seed is on the ground.

I can't wait to see everything in the backyard transform to what I know it can be. I hope you are excited too!

And since I'm on a photo editing kick this week (I just learned how to use Photoshop actions), I'll leave you will a few more unedited/edited pictures.

Love them! I hope they don't look too edited. That's one of my pet peeves, so I tried not to do too much....

I have a really pretty picture of Bryan too (he's actually really mad at me in the picture, but he looks serious and very "model" like haha), but I was specifically told not to put it on the blog because he didn't want to be made fun of :).

And on a very random note, I wanted to say "hi and thank you" to all of the new followers I've gotten recently! I don't know any of you personally, but you seem so nice and I'm very flattered that you think my little blog is worth reading :). I always get SO excited when I see that I have a new follower, so thanks!

Have fun this weekend!

The Front Yard and Sneak Peeks

Hello! I am a plantaholic.

We are finally done (well, almost done) with the entirely too long process of redoing our yard. After all of the chaos on Friday, we spent all day Saturday re-mulching and planting new flowers in the front yard, as well as the never-ending process of tilling the backyard beds, putting in an electric fence (sorry Louie), and attempting to put in our own version of a sprinkler system so that we don't have to water the beds ourselves. We also bought 1,130 pounds of sandstone to make paths throughout the beds in the backyard. And I laid them in the beds. ALL 1,130 pounds of them. Which probably explains why I'm in pain right now. We are all so sore and we all worked way too hard!

The fruits of my labor:

My mom and I finally made it out to the nursery Saturday night at about 5pm (which was so fun!) but didn't get a chance to plant much of anything in the backyard until it was already pretty dark...and so the work continued for most of Sunday as well.

On Sunday, we planted, watered, killed weeds, planted some more, and complained about how sore we all were. Then my parents had to leave, which I was very sad about!! They were so helpful and we definitely could have never done this all without them. My mom has been such an amazing help and I am so lucky that she is so great with flowers!!

So...here is our yard:

Just kidding!!!!!! Haha, but that is one of the gardens that my mom designed. And they're all full grown plants. The ones in our garden are still little babies, but I am very excited because I think that all of the plants in the picture above are in our garden as well! So it will look like that...eventually.

Here is a real picture of part of the bed in our front yard:

See? They are very small, but I love them and can't wait for them to grow! The biggest ones are called Nantina, and they will get a lot bigger and will have big red leaves on them. The middle row are all Red Rocks, which are pretty, hot pink-reddish flowers, and the front row is full of Verbena--those are violet flowers that apparantly do amazing in West Texas.

Next are the pots on the front porch and in front of the garage. These have Ginger, Impatiens, Petunias, and a couple of others that i can't remember the names of! These will also be huge by the end of the summer.

This is the bed in the very front of our yard where our Redbud tree lives. Up there we have 3 types of flowers that are are great for West Texas weather--Lantana, Verbena, and Knockout Roses. I'm also hoping that the Periwinkles we planted last year will come back up because they were so pretty and they did so well!

You can barely see the Golden Coneflowers in this picture, but they are surrounding the knockout rose in the middle. The full-sized version is actually in the "fake" picture I showed you above. They are huge, yellow, and some of my favorites! We had all of the Knockouts last summer, so they're still dormant from all the cold weather.

There are several other flowers in the frontyard bed, but they are so little that I didn't take pictures....but I will once they start growing!

Since we haven't put the mulch down in the backyard, I decided not to show it to you yet, but I will give you a sneak peak of some of the plants I'm really excited about!

First is the Winter Creeper. There are several of these in the backyard, and I LOVE the colors on them. They will be about 2 feet high when they're full grown. You can also see a knockout rose in the background, we have lots of those too!

This poor little Hydrangea was in our frontyard last year, but it got WAY too much sun so we moved it to one of our shade beds in the back. Hydrangeas are without a doubt my favorite flower! Anyone who's ever seen a full-grown hydrangea plant knows that get huge as well (I guess you get that point by now, everything will get a lot bigger!).

I am obsessed with Hostas...I have no clue why. I just think that are so pretty and full so I was very happy that we planted 15 of these things in the back yard!

Pretty Shasta Daisies....their lacking the daisies right now, but it won't be long before they show up!

More Lantana....can't wait for these to grow!

I'm also obsessed with Lavender. First of all it smells amazing, even these little baby Lavenders smell SO good. But I also really like that they can get to like 4 feet tall and have a very wild look about them. They're actually pictured in the "fake" garden above as well--the big purple ones!

Here are some others that are full grown in my parent's front yard back in Colorado:

I hope our gardens grow to look as great as theirs! Happy Monday!

Between Naps on the Porch

The Yard: Part One

Hellllllooooo...

After a VERY tiring day for every person involved, I am happy (and relieved) to say that we finished making and lining the flowerbeds in the back yard!

The day started at about 1pm and looked a lot like this:

Lots and LOTS of dirt...and not much else. We made the lines for the beds...

 And headed off to the nursery to get some soil. (And we might have gotten distracted by the pretty flowers)

Mom made a new best friend....

And me, dad, and Bryan unloaded 3,000 pounds of soil. Yes. Three THOUSAND. It was every bit as awful as it sounds, but we got it done!

Then we watered and tilled everything, like 5 times.

And stopped for a lemonade break (which was very much needed by about 6pm)

Mom bonded with her new "toy" as she called it--the tiller. Like seriously, she LOVED tilling.

And I spread all 3,000 pounds of soil around the newly lined beds! (signal the Hallelujah Chorus)

Thank goodness that part is over!

We finished the bed on the other side of the yard too, but it was too dark to take pictures by that time so you'll just have to wait!

After a very long, dirty, sweaty, and pretty hot day we made a quick trip to Lujan's to eat a late dinner and now I am so exhausted I can barely type. Hopefully next time I post there will be some pretty flowers in these beds!

Spring Break

Happy St. Patricks Day! I hope you wear some green!
We made it back from Colorado yesterday afternoon and Bryan had just enough time to install our new TV before heading off to baseball practice.

Before the switch:

And after! It looks like I need to rearrange the wall decor now...

Oh and in case you're wondering, the old TV is going in our bedroom. Looks like we won't have to fight over who gets control of the TV now!

Today is the first day of yard work....I'm kind of dreading the whole sweating/hard work part, but can't wait to see it all finished!

You can see more of the designs my mom made for our yard HERE.

The current plan is to get all the basics installed along with a few plants and then add more overtime. So it definitely won't look like the pictures above right away, but it sure will look a lot better than it does now!