Flower arrangements

It goes without saying that one of the best parts of spring is the beautiful flowers - and bringing them inside to make fresh arrangements.





It's even better when you can cut them from your own yard!

Springtime yard improvement

This past week we have spent a good amount of time trying to transform our yard. The work commenced last Thursday, when a small team of professionally outfitted men arrived at 9 am to take down our huge conical shrubs on either side of our house. The shrubs were as tall as our 2-story house, yet the guys were done and cleaned up by 11 am!

I felt guilty at first -- it's weird taking down plants that have been established somewhere for probably 40+ years -- and our house looks pretty bare now, but I think in the long run, it's the right decision. Those bushes were really overpowering, and the thought of hiring people to come trim them every year wasn't too appealing to us.



I'm also really excited about free wood for our fireplace. It's amazing how resourceful (a.k.a. cheap) I've become since owning a house. I think I finally know the value of a dollar!

We got hit with the landscaping bug though. (This seems to happen every spring.) My mom was down here so she helped us decide which plants needed to go, and what we could potentially replace them with. My mom has been gardening for years and years, and her expertise is much needed, and appreciated.



We took out this huge ugly juniper shrub that really had nothing going for it. Now we have to figure out what to put in its place.



We are excited to see that "Fabio" came back - and multiplied? Do tulips multiply?? I can't remember why his name is Fabio, but he was a gift from Brian's mom during tulip season last year. He's very handsome.

One more tree is scheduled for removal this week (thank you, stepdad). So, now it's time to be thrifty and figure out how to fill all of our yard's holes with new and beautiful foliage - I can't wait for this part!

A few highlights

I had to take a mini hiatus from The Blog. During my weeks, I've been busy trying to build the jewelry empire, and on the weekends we've been consumed with homeownership. Here are some highlights from the past few weeks. (Let me warn you, this might be the longest post ever.)

A few weeks ago I had a trunk show at hands down my new favorite home decor store, Revival Home & Garden. It was fun, and I met the lovely designer of Sabrina Love handbags. Brian, Katie, and Lindsay & David showed up to support - thank you!



And, I totally have a crush on this store:






Next highlight. Angela, the lovely designer of Flora & Fawn, has helped me navigate the jewelry scene a bit over the past month, and I hooked up with a company that can manufacture my line. It's too early to announce anything official, but things are moving well in this arena and I'm super excited. My head is spinning but since this is how I generally operate, it's all good. Here is me enjoying celebratory margaritas with my favorite biz ladies, Cori & Aviva of The Adventure School.







Moving on! Over the past few days, we made major leaps and bounds in terms of the shape of our yard. Our yard is totally insane. It's gigantic, for one -- there's a lot of space. And two, the people who lived here before us lived here for 32 years, and the woman was a gardner. And by gardner I mean she filled the entire yard with every color of flowering plant possible. So slowly but surely, we are (appropriately) ripping certain plants out, trimming back, and just generally just trying to dejungle-ize.

Yesterday I ripped a bunch of plants out of our backyard. There are so many pointless old lady plants back there. So that was good. And today Brian and Steve tackled the front of our house. We have lots of gigantic evergreen bushes out front. I don't know, walking up to our house, I kind of feel like an old republican, with so many gigantic sculptured evergreen bushes. Here is our progress. (And by our, I mean their.)











It looks a little bare now, but here is where we're going. This is a picture of a house in Magnolia that we looked at during our home buying process. It was suuuper wonky inside but the yard was so thoughtful.



Just give us a few years (and a couple thousand dollars?).

Last but not least, our weekend commenced with a fun evening with our lovely neighbors, Tim and Kathryn. Tim owns a delicious smoothie catering business called Pulp, and Kathryn is a wonderful photographer. (High fives for dual self employment.) I think our search for a dog breed might be over after meeting their dog, Bella.

We have been researching and discussing certain breeds, including the Shiloh Shepherd, but I've sort of been holding out. The Shiloh Shepherd is a cross between a German Shepherd and a Malumute, and they are insanely smart and mega people pleasers (read: easy to train) but their crazy amounts of shedable hair freaks me out to a paralyzing degree. I am the one who does most of the vacumming and laundry, and apparently I don't do enough of it because our house is often times resembles one giant hairball. As much as I loved the idea of this perfect canine companion, I kind of can't imagine adding a shepherd to the mix. Anyway back to Bella! She is a Redbone Coonhound -- a breed that has minimal shedding, and no dander, making them as hypoallergenic as any big dog can be - PLUS, she is my ideal dog in terms of aesthetics (this isn't her but it's her type):



Long floppy ears, beautiful red coat, rather svelte. In terms of their build/lines, Redbone coonhounds somewhat resemble Weimaraners, which I love (but apparenly weimaraners can be smelly, and somewhat difficult to train). We're not in a hurry but we're super jazzed!

Welcome to my new gardening blog

I feel like I'm always posting about plants but it's my new obsession so, get used to it.

I did so much yard work on Sunday that my body was actually sore yesterday. This doesn't mean much, however, because I am one of the laziest people I know.

The yard is looking great though. Brian edged the hell outa our lawn, it was pretty intense! And I got some pretty ground cover plants at Swanson's Nursery the weekend before last but since apparently we now live in Antarctica, I haven't had a chance to plant them until Sunday.

Here's the golden thyme, planted in the rock garden:



I actually kind of hate these white flower bush things. And the purple pansy things, ew, old lady station. But, I planted some succulents and the the tiny grass plant here on this corner:



And here, ladies & gentlemen, we have my favorite plant in our yard. I do not know what it is but it's gorgeous right now:



Also, we went to the tulip festival the weekend before last. The tulip fields were not in bloom yet (even though they usually are) because believe it or not, they're too wimpy to brave snow and ice storms. But the tulip garden featured a some blooms, and I took a few photos.

These are brave daffodils, not tulips:





Awe, Kodak moment!



And finally, two things you don't see everyday -- alpacas and wild turkeys:





And finally finally, Brian's mom bought us her favorite version of tulips, "Fabio," while we were at the tulip festival. We planted him upon our return back to Seattle. I had to take a picture of poor Fabio suffering in the snow storm last Friday night. There is something so terribly wrong with this picture:

Pretty trees

It's such a crappy day outside. Totally gray and rainy...yet again. Even though I'm not in the mood to blog -- my coffee hasn't kicked in yet -- I'm thinking that my photos might cheer me up a bit.

On the weekends, Brian and I like to walk up to Golden Gardens park. Not to see the Puget Sound ocean, like most people -- but to watch the dogs at the dog park. On our recent weekend walks up there, I realized that our neighborhood has become intensely pink. There's one particular street -- actually I think it's our street, but up a little bit -- that is lined with pink cherry trees. They are all in bloom now (well I am sure the awful weather this week did some damage) and it's really really breathtaking.






Brian took this one, it's the best:



Even the dog park has a pink tree:







Awwww:

Learning the ropes of gardening

Spring is officially here. There are a few plants in our yard making a colorful appearance. It's really fun because I've never seen our house in the spring or summer, so everything is a big surprise.

So, gardeners out there... I'd like to learn the name of the plants in my yard. Please help.

What kind of plant are these? The blooms look bigger in this photo than they really are in person. They are really tiny, almost lavenderish.



Daffodils, right?



The first bloom on this tree appeared this past week. The entire tree is FILLED with buds so I'm super excited to see how this completely changes the look of our house. (The tree is right in front of our house.)





Also, this weekend we debuted the lawn mower! (I watched and pissed Brian off by snapping photos of the momentous occasion.)



More photos to come as the yard fully embraces spring.

A Ballard walk

This weekend was so gorgeous. We took a walk down to the Ship Canal, and I took my camera along. I don't pretend to be a great photographer but I will share some of the better ones, anyway. I love Ballard!


Cherry trees!






65th Street:




37th Ave NW:




I like the way they modernized this 1950's brick home with the rock and pig wire railing:




Road that leads down to the Ballard Locks. This a bridge for the train:




I'm pretty sure this is the little beach house on the canal, where my uncle John and aunt Sharon are moving in June (guess where I'll be hanging out!?):






This is where the ship canal enters into the Puget Sound:






Below is my neighbor's crazy tree. I'm dying to know what kind it is. It was gigantic, and really really weird looking.





Ok, that's it for now. Sorry there hasn't been another continuation of the Spring Jewelry Trends post like I promised. They are still coming but instead of researching jewelry, I've finally been back to making it!