Mother’s Day in April

We celebrated Mother’s Day with our moms this weekend.  The last time my mom came up for a Mother's Day weekend full of yardwork was 2009.  Guess it took her a few years to recover…

Anyway, she came up Thursday evening.  I took Friday off and we hit Home Depot, Walmart, and Jersey Mike’s – our traditional lunch spot during weekends like this – that morning to get our flowers.  We spent the afternoon pulling weeds, digging holes, and filling them with flowers.  We didn’t finish, but we still had until around 2:00, when the McMom was due to arrive, on Saturday to wrap things up.

So here’s where I should be showing you pictures of scotch broom and speedwell, ferns and phlox, petunias and impatiens.  But I don’t have any.  Blogger fail.  That’s why I don’t make the big bucks with this little nighttime project of mine.

Anyway, the reason we celebrated about a month early is that we, along with Bri and Nate and Kevin and Jenny, treated our moms to a concert, but it was a surprise.  All they knew was they needed to be up here Saturday night and they were going somewhere. 

So who did they see?

Martina McBride!  At the DPAC, which is just an awesome venue and I’m sure Martina rocked the house.  Oh yeah, we had to take the moms’ word that the concert was good because it was a moms-only outing.  We fed them Mellow Mushroom, gave them their tickets, handed them the GPS, and waved them on their way.

The moms hung around afterward thinking they would catch a glimpse of Martina as she headed to her bus so she could get home.  Guess what?  They did more than just SEE Martina.

They made a Martina Sandwich and got photographic proof of it.  How awesome is that?!

I was ready for them when they got home just before midnight.

Yep, looks like they’re still riding high from their date night.

It was a lot of fun to surprise them with the concert.  Our moms do such a great job of taking care of us and our siblings and their families that we all really wanted to have the moms go do something fun just for themselves.

Thank you Mom and McMom for all you do.  We appreciate you guys more than you know.

Happy (early) Mother’s Day!

{By the way, Happy Birthday to Shannon!}

May Flowers

I have a joke for you.

What do April showers bring?
May flowers.

And what do May flowers bring?
Pilgrims!

:)

Mother's Day was, what, almost two weeks ago? Hey, at least I'm posting this in the same month that it happened.

The McHusband and I spent an obscene amount of money at The Home Depot getting lawn stuff, gutter guards, and flowers. After stopping at Jersey Mike's for lunch (Anyone else love that place as much as we do? We look for any excuse to go into Fuquay around lunchtime on the weekends because it's pretty much understood that there'll be a stop at JM's.), we got started on our tasks for the afternoon. I'd just started prepping the mailbox area when the McHusband called me to help him with the gutter guards. This involved not one but TWO tall ladders and both of us being up on the roof of the porch.

I don't really do heights so it wasn't my favorite part of the day, but I put on a brave face for the camera.
















At least I got to work on my tan while I was up there.
















Once I was done with my reluctant rooftop apprenticeship, I headed back to the mailbox. I planted three poppy plants, three garden sages, and then three evening primrose plants in the back.
















Guess what I've since learned? Evening primrose is a nighttime/low light bloomer. The informational thingie stuck in the pot didn't say a WORD about that, only that it bloomed in the season that I needed it to and liked lots of sun. Yeah, that's because it's storing all the energy for later. Sure, maybe "evening" should've been a clue, but that's like saying knockout roses are dangerous if you get too close.

I really love the poppies. The colors are so vibrant and the flowers themselves are a good size.





















My phlox is coming back strong in the middle area as is whatever the sorta creeping pink flower is.
































I added some two-toned daisies to the area. I believe they're perennials so fingers crossed that they come back bigger and better next year.
















I kept the urns by the front porch pretty simple - just four plants and only two of them are flowers. Hopefully it'll be a really pretty combo in about a month.





















That's dracena in the back then, from left to right, a yellow flower (the tag just says "Butterfly), a begonia, and then coleus.





















I stuck the tags in the ground next to the urn so I could easily refer back to them.





















Finally, I had three more "standard" daisies that I added to the area in front of the bushes on the right side of the porch. They're a little random, but I'm hoping mulch plus the returning vinca will help them feel at home. You can see my irises going strong under the dogwood tree. Those things came back super-strong this year!
















A close-up of an iris. I love how frilly the petals are.
















Hopefully I'll be good about taking some follow-up pictures and be back to report on my successful gardening. At the very least, I think we're adding mulch this weekend so that'll be the icing on the cake. We WILL get that Yard of the Month stake!

Happy Fall, Ya'll!

Fall 2010 has been spectacular. Well, except for one frigid morning a couple weeks ago. But even that day shaped up nicely. We've had very mild temperatures overall and hardly any rain. If it weren't for the sun setting at 5:15, you'd never know we were thisclose to winter.

I don't typically decorate for the seasons. For instance, I don't have a spring/summer mantel with light and airy things that I switch out for darker things once there's a chill in the air. But for some reason, I wanted to fall-ify the buffet in the dining room. I shopped around the house and came up some fabric, a wooden tray, a pumpkin, brown cloth napkins, and some cream-colored candles to mix in with the usual stuff. I'm no Sherry or Layla but I do okay.





















The McMom gave me the tray and I was figuring I'd spray-paint it and use it...well, I'm not sure where I was planning on using it. In the meantime, though, it works perfectly in my fallscape.
































I love this little bird.





















The dining room isn't the only space that got the fall treatment. I picked up some mums and planted some pansies in the urns by the front steps.




































I hope to plant the mums this weekend so that they'll come back next year. Keep your fingers crossed for me.





















I wish pansies were summer flowers. Their colors are so vibrant.











I had some help at the end of my front porch photoshoot.



























Tucker is happy it's fall. He doesn't do too well in the heat (And by "heat," I mean anything warmer than about 70 non-humid degrees).

Flower Power

Since we traveled to see the moms (and Pioneer Woman) for Mother's Day this year, my mom didn't come up for the weekend to toil away in the yard only to be paid in wine spritzers and pizza so I was on my own for flowers this year. Luckily, my favorite go-to flower, vinca, is sprouting up like mad in all the places that we planted it last year, and that meant I really only had to worry about my planters - two hanging ones on the porch railing and two urns at the bottom of the steps.


I planted petunias, asparagus fern, dracaena (the spiky thing in back), and that trailing flower with the little white flowers in each urn. All of them love the sun so hopefully this spot will be just right for them.




In the hanging planters, I used more asparagus fern and the trailing white flower, plus a yellow flower, and that gorgeous purply-blue flower is lobelia. I think it's more of a shade-lover so we'll see how it does. The railings get morning sun but they're in the shade for the hottest part of the day so my fingers are crossed.


(Gotta love the camera's macro function.)


I have two little white tables and four rocking chairs on the front porch so I wanted to dress the tables up a bit with some color. I chose bright pink impatiens, which also like the shade. The tables get even less sun than the railings so I think I'm okay there.


I'd seen some zinnias at Walmart and when I saw them again at Home Depot, I just had to have them. They're annuals so if I love them and they do well in their new home, I'll have to buy them again next year.


These bunches each have a white, light pink, dark pink, and beautiful burnt orange flower in them.




We need to add some fresh mulch to all the beds in the front, but already the yard is shaping up nicely for the summer.

Valentine Weekend 2010

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. I feel like my Valentine's Day actually lasted most of the weekend. The McHusband gave me flowers on Friday, we had dinner and a show on Saturday, then we had gifts, cards, and dinner at home today.

My flowers:













The lavender spider mums are hiding in the back.













I actually didn't get the flowers cut and in a vase until Saturday afternoon. I was watching TV shortly after I took my pictures and I heard a noise and saw the vase on its side with the water pouring out all over the table, chair, and floor. Oh, and a certain black cat was not-so-surreptitiously leaving the scene.


























The flowers now reside on top of the hutch in the dining room. Non-conventional, yes, but very practical.

That night, we went to dinner at Gravy, which is, contrary to what the name may imply, an Italian restaurant. A while back, the McHusband got us and Rick and Sabrina tickets to a live performance by Bill Maher. If you get HBO, you could've watched the same show we did last night. Guess it would've been nice of me to blog this in advance so you could've planned ahead, huh?













I had to take a picture of what Sabrina ordered at Gravy. She got the Fettucine Nero, which came with black linguine noodles.













I can't say it looked all that appetizing, but I tried it and it was good. Book, cover, you know how it goes.

Our tickets said the show started at 9:00. We didn't realize how late it had gotten at the restaurant, but we finally left there at 8:45. We were in a hurry when we were exiting the parking deck via the stairs and I slipped on a step and went down pretty hard. I didn't get hurt, not really, but I do have a couple bruises to show for it.











I also skinned my thumb knuckle.













You'd think maybe there was ice to blame for my slip, or maybe even the three rum and diet Cokes I had with dinner (I made it to my goal night following my self-imposed sobriety and definitely celebrated), but you'd be wrong. No, the culprit in this case? See Exhibit A below.

















It was the boots. I think last night was the third, maybe the fourth, time I've ever worn them. Sadly, I am not on a Carrie Bradshaw level when it comes to moving quickly in high heels.

Today was pretty lowkey. We did cards and gifts - Best Buy gift card for him, a candle and Dexter Season 2 (cuz nothin' says "I love you" like a serial killer DVD) for me - then the McHusband worked on his car shelf, and I ran some errands in Cary.

What car shelf, you're wondering? Actually, it's more of a tower.

















The good news is that in transferring the cars from the old shelf to the new one, the McHusband actually dusted all the cars. This will be a very memorable Valentine's Day indeed.

Well, I'm off to cuddle with my hubby on the couch until it's time for bed. He has to work tomorrow while I have the day off (President's Day). And since I was a slacker today, "day off" means "do all the household chores I should've done today."

...and after

It's time for some "after" yard photos.

The island in the middle of the front yard before:


And right after all our hard work:


And now:


That's vinca on the left, then some phlox, snapdragons, and some other stuff with light pink flowers, which is more of a springtime bloomer, on the right.

I don't really have a good "before" picture of the mailbox, but here's what it looked like when it was a blank slate.


Here it is "during" with its just-planted flowers:


And here it is now:


The grass we put in to the left by the driveway is struggling. When you install sod in May and it gets really hot and it doesn't rain much, you have to make sure you water the sod A LOT.

Lesson learned.

Here's the cherry tree before a good trim and some flowers:


And here it is afterward:


The view down the sidewalk before:


And now:


The front porch before:


And now:


I gotta get the McHusband out there with his trimmer to tame those bushes, but even with the straggly branches, I think everything looks pretty good.


The whole front yard before:


And now:


The kitty at the front door says, "Thanks for stopping by!"