LANDSCAPED AT LAST!

Last weekend, my hubby and I enjoyed our first whole weekend off together in over a year! Inspired by the gorgeous Spring weather, we decided to use the time to finish landscaping around the front of the house. With a generous birthday gift from my mother-in-law, we were able to buy mulch, flowering perennials, and even a Viburnum tree at our local plant nursery, Ed's Landscaping. (We support local, small businesses whenever possible and this garden center is truly excellent!)

Just for perspective, below are some before and after photos. 

When I moved in with the Mister in 2006, this is what the landscaping looked like (actually the raised beds were a big mound of dirt with no plants in sight). Eager to paint on a blank canvas, I immediately spread and tilled the soil and began to fill it in with perennial splashes of color.  

Within the next couple of years, we re-painted the entire stucco facade white, screened in the front porch and painted the exterior trim around the sunroom, my beloved jewelry-making studio.

Yes, we still have work to do on this old house. More trim to paint, windows to replace, walls to repair. And each year there will be weeds to pull and plants to water and prune, but WOW! the rewards of our labor have been amazing. Caring for a garden and renovating an old home is a continuous work in progress.

But I must admit that after almost 7 years of being together, I am pretty pleased with our progress. (:

Covered in Cat

It has been liberating to replace the robust hum of the boiler with the sounds of Spring peepers and chirping birds. Needing neither heat nor A/C, we are in that glorious place between seasons when the air is so mild that we open windows and invite it to play. Most afternoons, the cats come and go as they please with an open-door policy to the screened-in porch. 

But this time of year, the nights are still cold, dropping sometimes to 38 degrees. Inside these stucco walls with no insulation, the first story of the farmhouse is cave-like, maintaining a 55 - 65 degree constant. Before the afternoon sun can heat up the house, the mornings here are chilly, leaving me wonder if perhaps we packed away the down comforter too soon.

But never fear... like me, the kitty-kids do not like to be chilly. So I've found myself a new kind of down comforter. With Sprout wrapped around my head, Potter nestled against my right side and Albus on my left (they always snuggle in this formation, by the way), I wake up covered in cat almost every morning. 

The post-winter world is waking up with greens that push through the soil, yawning with outstretched tendrils, shaking off sleep.

 And I wake up 

covered in a 

furry, 

purr-y 

pile of cat.

Better Off Red

Between jewelry commissions and massage therapy appointments, I don’t often have much time to spare, but this summer I decided to do fewer art festivals so that I’d have more time to work on the old farmhouse.

Recently, I painted our tool shed doors a lovely shade of burgundy red. Red is one of my favorite colors and the barn-door style called for this classic color. Because it hadn’t been painted for at least 20 years, I started out with a generous coat of thick, tinted primer, which happened to be the color of pepto-bismol!

What do you think?

I managed to finish painting on the sicky-pink primer by late afternoon… just in time for my husband to pull into the driveway and discover what I had done.  From inside the house, I could hear him laughing out loud at the ostentatious color of his tool shed doors. Not such a manly entrance to his man-cave now. No-sir-eee.

In the end, in spite of several rounds of belly laughter, we both agreed that the doors were definitely better off red. So a few days later…

Ta-Da!

and

Viola!

I love our red shed doors.

WEDDING BLISS for a Mister and a Miss

On May 15, 2010,

two hearts that were one,

became one on paper, too. ♥

With 125 guests in attendance, our prayers were answered for a sunny day on the lake.

The Mister made his entrance as a single man via boat.

He marched his handsome butt up from the dock to the platform where we were to be married in front of the lake. The platform was built by his own two hands. He is a talented carpenter, that husband of mine!

My niece and nephew did an amazing job as flower girl and ring-bearer.

My Dad escorted me toward the arms of my husband-to-be.

We were supported with love from so many family members and friends.

Towards the end of the ceremony, just as we were saying our vows, a family of geese decided to swim by with their two off-spring and give us their blessings, as well.

As the afternoon sun peaked overhead, we celebrated our nuptials and danced to Gypsy Roots Swing  (a band that the Mister and I listened to on several of our first dates).

We dined on a smorgasboard of food and drink – mostly vegetarian.  Everything was so delicious! Especially the cupcake I licked off my face…

 I guess I had that one coming, though.

As the Mister and I made our get-away, we were showered (really, I mean pummeled) with hundreds of sunflower seeds. 

Then we stepped into the boat a married couple  and drifted off together on the lake.

Happily.

Ever.

After.

***All photos were taken by the very talented, Dreama Camphuysen.***