Wrapping up the Week

May 13, 2016
Colors


Happy Friday lovelies!  It was a busy-ish week and I am looking forward to some catch up this weekend.   Tuesday The Blog Guild held a happy hour meet up hosted by the darling Golden and Pine shop.   We nibbled on these gorgeous treats by Heirloom Bakery.  Seriously the cutest store!  




I have my eye on one of these.  I mean really.... it's pink ombre and a lucky horseshoe! 




I spend Wednesday playing catch up in the evening with editing and writing.

 My Peony bush in my backyard is finally opening.  Is this not the most gorgeous ever?  I am going to cut a few and bring them inside to enjoy.  



I am itching for a new pair of sandals and I think these may be the ones.

 Have a great weekend!



My Mother's Garden

September 03, 2013
Colors


My mother has always had a green thumb.  I swear she could take the deadest plant and not only give it life, but it will thrive like never before.  I remember growing up we had a huge garden full of vegetables, and there was always plenty.  My mom had flower gardens tucked in corners of the yard, and a rose garden smack dab in the center of the side yard.  It was gorgeous.  My father had a greenhouse built for her right next to the rose garden and you would always find her tending to her plants, flowers, and almost always a new clipping of something she brought home she was rooting.  


My parent moved from my childhood home a little over ten years ago.  They no longer needed so many bedrooms, stairs, or acres. We had 5 acres!  It was sad to have them leave the only home I every knew, and I really didn't quite know if I could connect to a new house.  They had a new pond built with a wonderful waterfall again, and dad had a smaller greenhouse built next to the house for her, and flowers, plants, and a few vegetables once again adorn my parents yard. 

I really can't believe I questioned this.  My mother once again has made a wonderful yard, and home.  Her koi pond, greenhouse, and little menageries around her yard invite you to enjoy the peacefulness.  I love her yard, and want to share some of it with you! 



See the net covering the pond?  That is to keep the red hawk that sits on the trellis beside the pond from a swoop and snatch of her beautiful koi! 
These days her greenhouse is full of orchids.  Every color, size, shape, and variety! 







Happy Tuesday friends! 


Weekend recap

July 11, 2013
Celebration
When home is where you travel to, the places you visit along the way, and the sites you see are sometimes all too familiar.  Your favorite burger joint, Ice Cream, and lets not forget my favorite bakery, or your old stomping grounds around your old neighborhood or high school.  And then there are the new things that weren't there last time you visited.  Like a Starbucks right down the street from my parents home, or a cute little boutique that you wished was open on the holiday weekend!  Whatever it is the feeling of home never escapes.  I struggled to travel home when I first moved away.  There was a reason I moved from there, and to travel back so soon in my mind seemed to mucky up my need to feel grounded. To create that feel of home in my new surroundings.  


I have been gone from Oklahoma for 8 years this past 4th weekend, and It is finally good to visit home.  Sure things have changes, and places I use to love are gone, and new places for me to explore are around every corner.  I love seeing my sisters and brother, and always my nieces.  I don't share too much too deep or personal here, and I want to keep it that way, but I feel that withholding what is going on behind the scenes is not fair to you and will hopefully help you understand when my post aren't as regular, and why I took Mondays off!  My mom is fighting cancer, and winning I might add.  Hi Mom, your doing great!! She has two more treatments.  Life has changed as we knew it, and you pick up the pieces and you grow when things like this happen. Embrace every day and love a little deeper!  

As you know I have one teenager left in the home, and that my friends is the true test to my parenting skills.  I know what doesn't kill me will make me stronger..... well I should be pretty darn strong right now!  Prayers are welcome!!  So I will be taking more trips back to Oklahoma, this summer, and really embracing every day a little different.  Yesterday is my history, today is my life, and tomorrow is my future, I have shared these words with my boys this week on several occasions, I only hope they are getting it! 



Sorry to be so gabby here, lets get to the pretty pictures now! I loved decorating our little table for our gathering this 4th, and we had a great time!  I really did go all patriotic! 






My candy fire crackers! 



My birthday is coming up really fast, and my sis in law treated me to an early present!  


Loved how the limited edition mason jars I picked up from Target turned out with my star straws!  Say that three time fast!!  My handy dandy dad drilled homes in the lids for the straws!  



No trip home is complete without a trip to Braums!  The BF, who is from New York, was finally turned onto this little nugget of love in a cone and we made it a nightly ritual to get one!  I was good and only got a frozen yogurt!



Let me tell you a little story behind these next pictures.  If you follow me on instagram than you got a sneak peak of this adventure early Saturday morning.  My sister, Mom, and sis in law have always gone berry picking.  Every year as long as I can remember.  There are berry picking farms just a little outside of the city.  I, on the other hand, yes even growing up there, never seemed to be too enthused with the idea of heading to the farm at 6:30 just to pick berrys.  That is until this time.  It was actually my idea.  It sounded like fun.  The experience and being able to say I had done it was somehow feeling good to me.  So a quick drive thru Starbucks and off we went.  

There were rows upon rows of berries just waiting to be picked.  Raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.  I was a picking fool.  I started with blackberries, and when I had enough to make a cobbler or two, we moved over to the blueberry rows!



Look at those gorgeous blueberries! 


This friendly young man works at the farm and bagged up my pickings. 


Here I am hard at work! 



And the fruits of our labor!  Yumm!! 

It is a bit messy on the fingers, but oh so worth it!  Have you ever picked your own berries? 



Summer Schedule

June 11, 2013
Cocktails
Happy Tuesday!  It officially feels like summer.  The weather is expected to reach the 90's finally, everything is so lush and green, with all my flowers blooming from so much rain!  It's beautiful outside!  With that said, I am moving to summer mode on the blog!  What does that mean?  Well, with me spending so much time outside the entire weekend, and it is daylight until almost 9pm, I am hardly making it in to sit at my computer for a Monday post on Sunday evening!  So for the summer months I am taking Monday's off!  I only wish I could do this at the office too!!  

So, now on to my past weekend. The BF and I ran errands Saturday morning and stopped by Whole Foods for a few items.  Random as it seemed at the time, he asked the meat counter person if they had sushi.  Yes!  I was like, what? Sushi? In Whole Foods?  After a long presentation, and a very convincing explanation as to what exactly constitutes this as "sushi grade" meat, we purchased a portion and proceeded to pick up wasabi powder.   I have to be honest, I was a little scared to be eating raw fish in my kitchen.  The mind Jedi trick of for some reason it is perfectly safe in a restaurant!!  

A little Kiran Ichiban beer for him, a little Saki for me and we were set!  It was delicious, refreshing, and we will definitely be doing that again!  I did make him eat the first piece, ya know, sorta like a taste tester in case it was bad!!


The rest of the weekend was just as tasty!  We enjoyed fresh fruit salads, grilled out every day, my new favorite grilled vegetable asparagus! and a fresh pedicure!  Whats not to love about summer weekends!! I love summertime!  What did you do this weekend?  If  you have any favorite grilled vegetables to share I would love to hear what they are! Here is to a great week!!

My Terrarium

May 02, 2013
Decor
There is a story behind this whole project.  Lets begin with the broken jars shall we? I hunted for several days for the "right jars".  I had a specific look in mind and I was having trouble getting around it!  I finally happened upon "the right jars" and was happy!    I finished gathering the supplies for this little project and headed home. The rest, as they say, is history, or at least written about here!

So on to this little DIY!  It really was quite simple and perfect to do with younger kids. 
  

Supplies needed:
  • Potting mix
  • Activated carbon, (Charcoal)
  • Drainage pebbles
  • A glass container with lid
  • Small slower growing plants 
The first layer you want to build in your terrarium is the pebble base for drainage.  Adding approximately a 1 to 3 ratio of charcoal to your pebbles will prevent your terrarium from smelling stagnant if there is any water standing in the bottom for any period of time.  You want this layer to be approximately 1 to 1.5 inches deep, depending on how large your glass jar is.
Next add a layer of your good potting soil. This layer needs to be 4 inches or so.  You will have to judge the amount based on your container size, but you want a good base for the roots to spread out. 
See the little black specks in the pebbles?  That is my activated carbon, or charcoal.
Next, you want to carefully pot your plants in the soil.  I added a nice fern that I pruned back slightly to easily accomodate my jar.  As it grows, I will prune it back to keep in full, but small. I also have an african violet in my jar.  Just be sure if you place a violet in your jar, you keep the dead flowers pinched off. Once everything was planted, I watered it nicely and closed it up!  You could even add a few larger stones for decorations, or a few fun items like a glass mushroom, a fairly, or gnome!  A little boy could even add a few toy soldiers to his! 
 I originally purchased  a bunch of succulents to plant in my jars, but they are really better for a open top container, as they do not require as much moisture, so I planted them in other pots and added more pebbles and love them!
I would love to hear if any of you have made a terrarium, and what you planted in your jars! 

My Weekend

April 15, 2013
Colors
Happy Monday!  Despite my back not fealing much better, I had a great weekend and I am really looking forward to a great week!  Friday night, the BF and I had a quiet night out for dinner just the two of us.  It was nice just to spend time alone and catch up after the busy week.  

Saturday the weather was B. E. A. UTIFUL!!!! There were lawns being mowed, yards sprayed, and kids on their bikes up and down the street.  What a nice sight after what appears to be the never ending winter of 2012!  I surveyed my own flower beds to see what a job laid in front of me!  Lucky for me, my youngest got a summer job at a hardware store with a great garden section, not to mention a discount! He has even decided he wants to take over the planting and mulching for me....  hmmm, this may be a great idea! Well, at least a few of the beds.


I love geraniums in my flower beds every year, and lipstick pink is generally my favorite.  I have never seen this color, or even the lacy leaf before and thought it might make a great addition to the hot pinks!  It is sort of a salmon/pink but really deep in color.  I can't wait to get dirt on my hands from the flower beds! 

I have a DIY project I am working on, and the selection of succulents were perfect to help me out!  Look for this project to show up next week if all goes well!! 



So I told you about my Friday night date, but if you saw on instagram, my Saturday night date was a bit more, shall we say, active?  non stop?  Adorable!!!


This love of Mimi's heart had a sleep over without his momma or daddy, and wore me out!  I forgot just how much a 7 month old moves, especially one who is starting to crawl and pull up! We had a fun time on the floor with me as his jungle gym!! 

It looks as if we may be in for the start of spring showers this week.  Rain is in the forecast every day and night this week.  I will take it!  What did you do this weekend? 

How my Garden Grows

June 04, 2012
gardening
I have had my chiminea for years.  I received it as a gift and loved it. Unfortunately it has sat in my garage for the past few years hardly used.  Thanks mostly in part to the fire pit rage.  Our neighbor has a fire pit in his back yard that our little neighborhood group of friends gather round on weekends, and now we have one in our backyard as well. 
I am a little bit sentimental when it comes to gifts from my boys.  My oldest was proud the day he gave the chiminea to me for mothers day so I cannot part with it.  This is a picture of a chiminea, not mine but it looks identical to mine. 

And here is mine.  I did find a clever use for it.  Pretty cute huh?


On to the back yard
  When you build a house the landscaping is an upgrade usually any thing past a few trees and bushes in the front.  So my back yard was in desperate need of some flowers.  I always wonder if the guy from the TV show who finds people in the Home Depot store is ever there when I am.  What I would give to have him approach me and ask if he can come home and make over my yard.  A girl can dream!

I planted a little red bud tree a few years ago in the back yard but felt it needed some sort of flowers to go around it.  I had a tree ring and a few arbervities in the corner of the yard but this is more in the center of the yard.  So we set out to build a burm.  It took us all afternoon to complete it but I love how it turned out!  Yes we used an extension cord to lay out the design.  It is refered to as my Florida burm and I want to be right about where the plug is on the beach!  Naples area!



Finished product

We planted all perenials so it will come back every year!  Hopefully if I can keep the bunnies from eating anything! They are crazy in our neighborhood this year. 

Photos by Lisa

 

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